Increasing risk of great floods in a changing climate

Radiative effects of anthropogenic changes in atmospheric composition are expected to cause climate changes, in particular an intensification of the global water cycle with a consequent increase in flood risk. But the detection of anthropogenically forced changes in flooding is difficult because of the substantial natural variability; the dependence of streamflow trends on flow regime further complicates the issue. Here we investigate the changes in risk of great floods--that is, floods with discharges exceeding 100-year levels from basins larger than 200,000 km(2)--using both streamflow measurements and numerical simulations of the anthropogenic climate change associated with greenhouse gases and direct radiative effects of sulphate aerosols. We find that the frequency of great floods increased substantially during the twentieth century. The recent emergence of a statistically significant positive trend in risk of great floods is consistent with results from the climate model, and the model suggests that the trend will continue.     

Non-CO2 greenhouse gases and climate change

Earth's climate is warming as a result of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO(2)) from fossil fuel combustion. Anthropogenic emissions of non-CO(2) greenhouse gases, such as methane, nitrous oxide and ozone-depleting substances (largely from sources other than fossil fuels), also contribute significantly to warming. Some non-CO(2) greenhouse gases have much shorter lifetimes than CO(2), so reducing their emissions offers an additional opportunity to lessen future climate change. Although it is clear that sustainably reducing the warming influence of greenhouse gases will be possible only with substantial cuts in emissions of CO(2), reducing non-CO(2) greenhouse gas emissions would be a relatively quick way of contributing to this goal.     

中美两国应对气候变化政策与公众气候素养之比较研究

极端天气给人类的生产生活和经济发展带来了极为严重的影响,气候变化成为国际社会共同关注的问题。科学研究认为温室气体排放是造成气候变暖的主要原因。中美两国作为温室气体排放大国,减排国策对本国及国际社会都具有重要影响。而公众作为应对气候变化政策的参与者,一方面他们的认知会受到政府出台政策的影响,另一方面他们对气候变化问题的认知程度也会直接影响着政策的执行效果。通过比较中美两国应对气候变化政策的异同,分析两国民众对气候变化问题的认知状况,可以为制定气候变化政策提供更为合理的建议。     

No upward trends in the occurrence of extreme floods in central Europe

Extreme river floods have been a substantial natural hazard in Europe over the past centuries, and radiative effects of recent anthropogenic changes in atmospheric composition are expected to cause climate changes, especially enhancement of the hydrological cycle, leading to an increased flood risk. For the past few decades, however, observations from Europe do not show a clear increase in flood occurrence rate. Here we present longer-term records of winter and summer floods in two of the largest rivers in central Europe, the Elbe and Oder rivers. For the past 80 to 150 yr, we find a decrease in winter flood occurrence in both rivers, while summer floods show no trend, consistent with trends in extreme precipitation occurrence. The reduction in winter flood occurrence can partly be attributed to fewer events of strong freezing-following such events, breaking river ice at the end of the winter may function as a water barrier and enhance floods severely. Additionally, we detect significant long-term changes in flood occurrence rates in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, and conclude that reductions in river length, construction of reservoirs and deforestation have had minor effects on flood frequency.     

Mitigation of greenhouse gases released from mining activities: A review

Climate changes that occur as a result of global warming caused by increasing amounts of greenhouse gases(GHGs)released into the atmosphere are an alarming issue.Controlling greenhouse gas emissions is critically important for the current and future status of mining activities.The mining industry is one of the significant contributors of greenhouse gases.In essence,anthropogenic greenhouse gases are emitted directly during the actual mining and indirectly released by the energy-intensive activities associated with mining equipment,ore transport,and the processing industry.Therefore,we reviewed both direct and indirect GHG emissions to analyze how mining contributes to climate change.In addition,we showed how climate change impacts mineral production.This assessment was performed using a GHG inventory model for the gases released from mines undergoing different product life cycles.We also elucidate the key issues and various research outcomes to demonstrate how the mining industry and policymakers can mitigate GHG emission from the mining sector.The review concludes with an overview of GHG release reduction and mitigation strategies.     

Mitigation of greenhouse gases released from mining activities: A review

Climate changes that occur as a result of global warming caused by increasing amounts of greenhouse gases(GHGs) released into the atmosphere are an alarming issue.Controlling greenhouse gas emissions is critically important for the current and future status of mining activities.The mining industry is one of the significant contributors of greenhouse gases.In essence, anthropogenic greenhouse gases are emitted directly during the actual mining and indirectly released by the energy-intensive activities associated with mining equipment, ore transport,and the processing industry.Therefore, we reviewed both direct and indirect GHG emissions to analyze how mining contributes to climate change.In addition, we showed how climate change impacts mineral production.This assessment was performed using a GHG inventory model for the gases released from mines undergoing different product life cycles.We also elucidate the key issues and various research outcomes to demonstrate how the mining industry and policymakers can mitigate GHG emission from the mining sector.The review concludes with an overview of GHG release reduction and mitigation strategies.     

New proofs of the recent climate warming over the Tibetan Plateau as a result of the increasing greenhouse gases emissions

The Tibetan Plateau (TP, 75-105oE, 27.5-37.5oN) is the highest and largest highland in the world with a variety of climate and ecosystems. The TP exerts pro- found influences not only on the local climate and en- vironment but also on the global atmospher…     

More extreme swings of the South Pacific convergence zone due to greenhouse warming

The South Pacific convergence zone (SPCZ) is the Southern Hemisphere's most expansive and persistent rain band, extending from the equatorial western Pacific Ocean southeastward towards French Polynesia. Owing to its strong rainfall gradient, a small displacement in the position of the SPCZ causes drastic changes to hydroclimatic conditions and the frequency of extreme weather events--such as droughts, floods and tropical cyclones--experienced by vulnerable island countries in the region. The SPCZ position varies from its climatological mean location with the El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), moving a few degrees northward during moderate El Ni?o events and southward during La Ni?a events. During strong El Ni?o events, however, the SPCZ undergoes an extreme swing--by up to ten degrees of latitude toward the Equator--and collapses to a more zonally oriented structure with commensurately severe weather impacts. Understanding changes in the characteristics of the SPCZ in a changing climate is therefore of broad scientific and socioeconomic interest. Here we present climate modelling evidence for a near doubling in the occurrences of zonal SPCZ events between the periods 1891-1990 and 1991-2090 in response to greenhouse warming, even in the absence of a consensus on how ENSO will change. We estimate the increase in zonal SPCZ events from an aggregation of the climate models in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phases 3 and 5 (CMIP3 and CMIP5) multi-model database that are able to simulate such events. The change is caused by a projected enhanced equatorial warming in the Pacific and may lead to more frequent occurrences of extreme events across the Pacific island nations most affected by zonal SPCZ events.     

Strong present-day aerosol cooling implies a hot future

Atmospheric aerosols counteract the warming effects of anthropogenic greenhouse gases by an uncertain, but potentially large, amount. This in turn leads to large uncertainties in the sensitivity of climate to human perturbations, and therefore also in carbon cycle feedbacks and projections of climate change. In the future, aerosol cooling is expected to decline relative to greenhouse gas forcing, because of the aerosols' much shorter lifetime and the pursuit of a cleaner atmosphere. Strong aerosol cooling in the past and present would then imply that future global warming may proceed at or even above the upper extreme of the range projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.     

Increased Arctic cloud longwave emissivity associated with pollution from mid-latitudes

There is consensus among climate models that Arctic climate is particularly sensitive to anthropogenic greenhouse gases and that, over the next century, Arctic surface temperatures are projected to rise at a rate about twice the global mean. The response of Arctic surface temperatures to greenhouse gas thermal emission is modified by Northern Hemisphere synoptic meteorology and local radiative processes. Aerosols may play a contributing factor through changes to cloud radiative properties. Here we evaluate a previously suggested contribution of anthropogenic aerosols to cloud emission and surface temperatures in the Arctic. Using four years of ground-based aerosol and radiation measurements obtained near Barrow, Alaska, we show that, where thin water clouds and pollution are coincident, there is an increase in cloud longwave emissivity resulting from elevated haze levels. This results in an estimated surface warming under cloudy skies of between 3.3 and 5.2 W m(-2) or 1 and 1.6 degrees C. Arctic climate is closely tied to cloud longwave emission, but feedback mechanisms in the system are complex and the actual climate response to the described sensitivity remains to be evaluated.     

A climatologically significant aerosol longwave indirect effect in the Arctic

The warming of Arctic climate and decreases in sea ice thickness and extent observed over recent decades are believed to result from increased direct greenhouse gas forcing, changes in atmospheric dynamics having anthropogenic origin, and important positive reinforcements including ice-albedo and cloud-radiation feedbacks. The importance of cloud-radiation interactions is being investigated through advanced instrumentation deployed in the high Arctic since 1997 (refs 7, 8). These studies have established that clouds, via the dominance of longwave radiation, exert a net warming on the Arctic climate system throughout most of the year, except briefly during the summer. The Arctic region also experiences significant periodic influxes of anthropogenic aerosols, which originate from the industrial regions in lower latitudes. Here we use multisensor radiometric data to show that enhanced aerosol concentrations alter the microphysical properties of Arctic clouds, in a process known as the 'first indirect' effect. Under frequently occurring cloud types we find that this leads to an increase of an average 3.4 watts per square metre in the surface longwave fluxes. This is comparable to a warming effect from established greenhouse gases and implies that the observed longwave enhancement is climatologically significant.     

黄河下游花园口至艾山河段滩区洪水漫滩风险度评估研究

利用Delft3D模型, 模拟黄河下游滩区洪水漫滩过程, 获取漫滩范围和洪水淹没水深等洪水致灾参数。基于地形和防洪条件, 划分洪水漫滩淹没单元, 参考联合国灾害风险评价指标体系, 结合对各淹没单元的危险度和易损度评估, 得到不同洪水量级下各淹没单元的洪水漫滩风险度空间分布。结果表明, 占滩区总面积近 50%的淹没单元的洪水漫滩风险等级随洪水量级的增加而稳步增加, 为“水险同期”类淹没单元; 39.7%的淹没单元在十年一遇洪水情景下呈现极高风险度状态, 即“小水大险”状态; 11.67%的淹没单元稳定地处于相对较低的风险度等级, 漫滩风险不受洪水量级影响, 为“稳定低险”类。因此, 对于黄河下游滩区洪水漫滩风险, 应当重点防范主要集中分布在高村至艾山河段的“小水大险”类淹没单元, 同时应以十年一遇, 甚至五年一遇的洪水情景作为洪水防范工程措施布设的参考依据。     

CO2驱采油技术研究与应用现状

 CO₂温室气体使全球气候变暖,温度幅度已经超出了其本身自然变动的范围,对人类的生存和社会经济的发展构成了严重威胁。CO₂的地质处置最有效的方式就是注入油气田,不但封存了CO₂,而且还可提高油气田的采收率,国外注CO₂驱提高原油采收率技术已在低渗透油藏中得到了广泛应用。针对中国低渗透油藏自然产能低、地层能量不足、地层压力下降快等引起采收率低的现状,在分析CO₂混相和非混相驱提高采收率机制的基础上,系统整理和归纳了CO₂驱油技术中混相驱和非混相驱两种作用方式的研究现状。通过国内外低渗透油藏注CO₂驱提高采收率应用情况分析指出,CO₂作为一种有效的驱油剂,CO₂驱能得到明显的增油降水和提高采收率的效果,总结了目前需要解决的主要问题,提出应积极开展注CO₂驱油技术的研究和现场试验的建议,并对CO₂驱油技术的发展前景进行了展望。     

Attributing physical and biological impacts to anthropogenic climate change

Significant changes in physical and biological systems are occurring on all continents and in most oceans, with a concentration of available data in Europe and North America. Most of these changes are in the direction expected with warming temperature. Here we show that these changes in natural systems since at least 1970 are occurring in regions of observed temperature increases, and that these temperature increases at continental scales cannot be explained by natural climate variations alone. Given the conclusions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report that most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very likely to be due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations, and furthermore that it is likely that there has been significant anthropogenic warming over the past 50 years averaged over each continent except Antarctica, we conclude that anthropogenic climate change is having a significant impact on physical and biological systems globally and in some continents.     

2022年气候变化与治理热点回眸

回顾了2022年全球气候变化与治理领域取得的系列令人瞩目的成果。介绍了2022年全球温度持续升高、温室气体浓度创新高、海冰范围缩小及海平面上升等气候变化科学共识；“三重”拉尼娜重现、南亚高温洪水、欧洲及中国高温干旱等极端天气气候事件；全球碳减排承诺、多灾种预警系统、IPCC第六次评估报告（AR6）、第27届联合国气候变化大会（COP27）、生物多样性大会（COP15）等全球气候变化治理与认知方面的最新进展。     

Increased terrestrial methane cycling at the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum

The Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), a period of intense, global warming about 55 million years ago, has been attributed to a rapid rise in greenhouse gas levels, with dissociation of methane hydrates being the most commonly invoked explanation. It has been suggested previously that high-latitude methane emissions from terrestrial environments could have enhanced the warming effect, but direct evidence for an increased methane flux from wetlands is lacking. The Cobham Lignite, a recently characterized expanded lacustrine/mire deposit in England, spans the onset of the PETM and therefore provides an opportunity to examine the biogeochemical response of wetland-type ecosystems at that time. Here we report the occurrence of hopanoids, biomarkers derived from bacteria, in the mire sediments from Cobham. We measure a decrease in the carbon isotope values of the hopanoids at the onset of the PETM interval, which suggests an increase in the methanotroph population. We propose that this reflects an increase in methane production potentially driven by changes to a warmer and wetter climate. Our data suggest that the release of methane from the terrestrial biosphere increased and possibly acted as a positive feedback mechanism to global warming.     

Methane bubbling from Siberian thaw lakes as a positive feedback to climate warming

Large uncertainties in the budget of atmospheric methane, an important greenhouse gas, limit the accuracy of climate change projections. Thaw lakes in North Siberia are known to emit methane, but the magnitude of these emissions remains uncertain because most methane is released through ebullition (bubbling), which is spatially and temporally variable. Here we report a new method of measuring ebullition and use it to quantify methane emissions from two thaw lakes in North Siberia. We show that ebullition accounts for 95 per cent of methane emissions from these lakes, and that methane flux from thaw lakes in our study region may be five times higher than previously estimated. Extrapolation of these fluxes indicates that thaw lakes in North Siberia emit 3.8 teragrams of methane per year, which increases present estimates of methane emissions from northern wetlands (< 6-40 teragrams per year; refs 1, 2, 4-6) by between 10 and 63 per cent. We find that thawing permafrost along lake margins accounts for most of the methane released from the lakes, and estimate that an expansion of thaw lakes between 1974 and 2000, which was concurrent with regional warming, increased methane emissions in our study region by 58 per cent. Furthermore, the Pleistocene age (35,260-42,900 years) of methane emitted from hotspots along thawing lake margins indicates that this positive feedback to climate warming has led to the release of old carbon stocks previously stored in permafrost.     

1961~2005年南宁灾害性天气气候事件的变化

利用1961～2005年南宁市最高、最低和平均温度资料,分析近50a来南宁市的气温变化特征,通过气候变暖前后灾害性天气气候事件的对比,分析南宁市灾害性天气气候事件的变化规律。结果表明,1961～2005年南宁市年平均气温增温趋势明显,温度变率为0．3C／10a,各季节平均气温均呈上升趋势,秋季增温最明显,冬季次之,夏季位居第三,春季增温最小。年平均最高气温呈较弱的增暖,变率为0．13C／10a,而年平均最低气温的增暖趋势比年平均最高气温明显,为0．36C／10a。年平均日校差的变化则呈递减的趋势,变率为-0．23C／10a。在全球气候增暖和城市化快速发展的过程中,南宁市的灾害性天气气候事件发生了明显的变化：极端强降水有增加趋势,高温天气明显增多,持续高温天气加剧,雷暴和大风日数明显减少,春季低温阴雨天气减少。南宁市灾害性天气气候事件变化的原因可能与全球气候变暖有关,城市化可能是造成南宁市灾害性天气气候事件变化的主要原因。     

汛期洪水的二变量联合分布与应用

为在气候变化下更好地描述流域汛期洪水的概率变化特性,达到防洪和洪水资源化的统筹安排,考虑水文事件的相依性和多元化,采用Copula函数理论,结合第Ⅰ型Gumbel分布,研究淮河蚌埠站以上流域1915年到2008年的汛期洪水。研究结果表明:汛期洪量和洪峰的理论联合概率与实测资料联合频率拟合很好;同时探索了洪水联合分析的实际应用:一方面根据联合分布提出"等效水文情景"的概念,以更好地体现水文事件的不确定性和水文变量组合的概率等效性;另一方面论证联合重现期可作为单变量重现期的区间估计,为二元分析的洪水量级划分和洪水的联合风险分析以及工程设计提供一条新思路。     

Origins and estimates of uncertainty in predictions of twenty-first century temperature rise

Predictions of temperature rise over the twenty-first century are necessarily uncertain, both because the sensitivity of the climate system to changing atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations, as well as the rate of ocean heat uptake, is poorly quantified and because future influences on climate-of anthropogenic as well as natural origin-are difficult to predict. Past observations have been used to help constrain the range of uncertainties in future warming rates, but under the assumption of a particular scenario of future emissions. Here we investigate the relative importance of the uncertainty in climate response to a particular emissions scenario versus the uncertainty caused by the differences between future emissions scenarios for our estimates of future change. We present probabilistic forecasts of global-mean temperatures for four representative scenarios for future emissions, obtained with a comprehensive climate model. We find that, in the absence of policies to mitigate climate change, global-mean temperature rise is insensitive to the differences in the emissions scenarios over the next four decades. We also show that in the future, as the signal of climate change emerges further, the predictions will become better constrained.