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2013

Media in English 2013

Early El Nino warning could aid farmers

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and a co-author of the report with experts in Russia, Israel, Germany and the United States, said: "Six months' warning is too short. If you are a farmer in India, or in Zimbabwe or Brazil you have bought your seeds or even planted them. If you have a 12- or even 18-month early warning, you have a full agricultural cycle". Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, 02.07.2013.

North India a climate impact hotspot: Study

Franziska Piontek from the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research and lead author of the study said: “We see climate impact hotspots with geographical overlaps of two or three impacts on all continents, but only in certain regions”. The findings appeared today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Source: The Telegraph India, 02.07.2013.

Longer-term El Nino warnings to help farmers adapt

Scientists have found a way to forecast El Nino weather events in the Pacific a year in advance, long enough to let farmers plant crops less vulnerable to global shifts in rainfall, a study showed on Monday. "Better forecasting will mean farmers can adapt," Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and a co-author of the report with experts in Russia, Israel, Germany and the United States, told Reuters. Source: Reuters UK, 01.07.2013.

Global warming will make Indian monsoon worse and unpredictable, says study

Scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said, "ups-and-downs of Indian monsoon rainfall is likely to increase under warming." The study says increased variability translates into potentially severe impacts on people who cannot afford additional loss, said lead author Anders Levermann. Source: The Times of India, 24.06.2013.

Monsoon could become even more unpredictable, say researchers

Daily variability of the monsoon might increase, according to computer simulations run by Anders Levermann and other scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Indian monsoon is a complex system which is likely to change under future global warming, scientists at the institute said. Source: The Hindu Business Line, 21.06.2013.

Warming Threatens African Food, Asian Water Within Lifetime

The World Bank report, prepared by researchers Climate Analytics in Berlin and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, is the latest attempt by World Bank President Jim Yong Kim to make the institution a bigger participant in the fight against global warming. The bank will “increasingly look at all its business through a ‘climate lens’,” it said today in a statement. Source: Washington Post, 19.06.2013.

World Bank warns global warming woes closing in

An update of the World Bank's November "Turn Down the Heat" climate report, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said there was evidence in the past seven months that previous projections for greenhouse gas emissions had been too low. Source: AFP, 19.06.2013.

At the same funnel

The study of Vladimir Petukhov from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research on the phenomenon of interference huge waves in the atmosphere could provide us with clues about the current record floods in Europe. Source: Expert, 10.06.2013.

Climate and land use: Europe's floods raise questions

Stefan Rahmstorf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research explains how the current floods in Central Europe can be connected with the recently discovered phenomenon of trapped giant waves in the atmosphere. Source: The Nation, 06.06.2013.

Over half the world's population could rely on food imports by 2050 – study

Marianela Fader from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, and colleagues, calculated the growing capacity of every country in the world, and compared it with food requirements, both now and projected forward to 2050. Their model employed climate data, soil type and land-use patterns for each country, in order to simulate yields for a variety of types of crop. Source: Guardian, 07.05.2013.

Faint Young Sun

Georg Feulner of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research and other climate scientists acknowledge that the faint young sun paradox probably doesn’t have one simple solution. Nevertheless he states: “I’m rather confident that we can have a much clearer picture of what can solve the faint young sun problem in the next few years.” Source: Sciencenews, 04.05.2013.

Renewable power: Germany’s energy gamble

Brigitte Knopf, head of German and European energy strategies at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, comments on problems connected with Germanys "Energiewende"-Project. She states: “Subsidies have helped to get the renewable thing started, but sooner or later renewable energy must become economically self-sustaining." Source: Nature, 10.04.2013.

Is global warming causing harsher winters?

Dim Coumou of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) comments on the phenomenon why millions of people in northern Europe are still battling snow and ice, wondering why they are being punished with bitter cold when -- officially -- spring has arrived and Earth is in the grip of global warming. Source: AFP, 28.03.2013.

Scientists link frozen spring to dramatic Arctic sea ice loss

Vladimir Petoukhov, professor of Earth system analysis at the Potsdam Institute in Germany, backs with his recent research about weather extremes provoked by trapping of giant waves in the atmosphere statements from climate scientists that have linked the massive snowstorms and bitter spring weather now being experienced across Britain and large parts of Europe and North America to the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice. Source: The Guardian, 25.03.2013.

Domino effect tips climate over edge

When it comes to the consequences of climate change, few are more dramatic than tipping points – a small push unleashes a big change, which may be unstoppable. PIK´s Anders Levermann comments on a recent study that analyses data from the last 23 years and that suggests we passed the first tipping points in 2007, when Arctic sea ice flipped into a new, less stable state. Source: NewScientist, 02.03.2013.

Global warming and airflow changes 'caused US and EU heatwaves'

Vladimir Petoukhov, lead author of the study of meandering air systems that encircle the planet at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, explains how Global warming and airflow changes lead to extreme weather events that have killed thousands of people and driven up food prices in the past decade. His comments are part of the statement of the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Source: The Guardian, 26.02. 2013.