El Nino, La Nina, Climate Change and the Horrific Drought in Somalia

As I write this, Somalia is suffering its worst drought in 60 years. The lack of rain—combined with civil unrest and political interference from the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabab group—has produced catastrophic results. Yesterday Nancy Linborg, an official with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), told a Congressional committee that more than 29,000 children under [...]

Typhoon Tests Japan’s Nuclear Resolve

UPDATE: Typhoon Ma-On has been downgraded to a tropical storm. It is expected to move over central Japan today, hitting south of Tokyo before moving out to sea, according to the U.S. Navy. At least one person was reported missing and dozens injured after the storm landed in Japan on Tuesday. The smiling faces of [...]

More Warming, More Rain, More Plague

Most of us learned about “the plague” or “the Black Death” a long time ago – reading Boccaccio and Petrarch, sitting in high school history class, and even from that debate about the nursery rhyme “ring-a-ring of roses.” But scientists have uncovered a link between this historic threat to human health and one that only [...]

UPDATED: New Studies Show That Climate Change Is the Culprit in Extreme Rain

Update [2/17/11 5:05 PM]: A few bloggers and scientists have taken issue with the two Nature studies, arguing that they underplay the uncertainties still at work in the climate system. Judith Curry, an atmospheric scientist at Georgia Tech who tends to be a bit more skeptical of mainstream climate research, wrote that she doubted the [...]