Why a quest to find the top 50 climate news stories?
Because WMO is planning to publish a document on the subject of the climate
of the past century
(Climate of the Twentieth Century), as discussed at WMO Congress, June
1995 (see below).
|
TEXT FROM WMO CONGRESS X11 - Meeting held in June 1995
Congress endorsed the proposal....that WMO initiate a co-operative project
to publish a document tentatively entitled "The [[World]] Climate of the
Twentieth Century" which would provide a century perspective on the variability
of the global climate system, on the major climate anomalies and related
impacts, and on progress made in understanding and predicting the system,
particularly in the context of climate change. |
WMO World Climate of the Twentieth Century Project
The purpose of this project is to inform the public on the nature and variability
of the climate system, its vulnerability to human influence, how the climate
has influenced human activity in the 20th Century and how climate is more
and more being viewed as a valuable environmental resource to be managed
in a sustainable manner for the benefit of future generations.
What has happened in WMO so far?
An expert meeting to plan for the publication was held at WMO HQ on 3 June
1996, attended by representatives from around twelve countries. This meeting
reinforced the strong public interest nature of the project:
-
Climate has played a major role in human affairs this century. Yet the
enormous impact of climate on development during the past 100 years, and
its continuing impact on social, political, and economic institutions,
is not generally understood or appreciated. This project will document
and inform and generate interest on: the importance of climate, understanding
of the climate system and climate's wide-ranging impacts this century;
-
The publication should clearly be targeted to the broader public audience
at the level of those who read the National Geographic and New Scientist.
A human interest focus is an important goal for the publication.
-
The meeting prepared a draft outline for a publication for subsequent discussion
and refinement.
Draft outline of contents (June 1996).
Progress report, August 1997 (including provisional
book outline)
Our first quest is.....
To consult widely to compile a list of 50 of the top climate news stories
of the past 100 years. The list should, as far as possible, span the century
and cover a wide range of countries. We want to identify:
-
major climate phases or episodes that had an impact on people's lives,
eg extended droughts or wet periods;
-
major climate news items;
-
the big weather events: those that produced long-lasting effects and abiding
memories (for individual weather events, it would be useful to note those
that were embedded in a climate feature or story, eg the biggest hurricane/typhoon/tropical
cyclone which was associated with .... climate feature (eg El Nino) and
produced .... long-lasting effects with local environments/communities);
-
significant shifts or trends in climate during the century and associated
major environmental changes;
-
most significant developments in climate/climate science during the century
(for instance, the unfolding of the El Nino story, observing the climate).
This web page is the starting point for this quest. We
need your help!!!
Here are some ideas....
We had a first attempt at compiling a global climate
highlights graphic (ten highlights, click here), a list of the top
ten news stories, and garnering diverse suggestions (see below). These
are just a starting point (remember, we are looking for fifty features:
say forty or so climate events and ten or so news stories).
Ten top climate news stories of the 20th century
(first draft)
| 1. Urbanisation and other man-made climates |
| 2. Global warming |
| 3. Monitoring climate |
| 4. Sahel Drought and its impact |
| 5. El Nino and climate prediction |
| 6. Volcanoes and climate |
| 7. Progress in climate science, modelling and prediction |
| 7a.Development of global gridded climate data sets including
the 1946 - 1999 (as it will probably be) NCEP Reanalysis. Emphasise also
temperature (land, ocean) and rainfall data sets and how these depend on
the foresight of the LAST (19th) century. Hopefully how these have been
made available "to all" in the late 1990's through end of 20C technology. |
| 8. International climate programs |
| 9. Climate and land surface changes (including land degradation) |
| 10. Climate and health |
And here is a list of nine events/climate highlights compiled
by Chris Folland from the Hadley Centre:
| 1. Decadal variations in winter blocking/ winter westerlies
over Europe. |
| 2. The October 1987 storm over UK, N. France. |
| 3. The 1975-76 drought over UK/France. |
| 4. The late winter 1952 storm surge in S North Sea. |
| 5. Atlantic hurricanes of the century. |
| 6. Severe winters over Eastern Med/ northern Middle East region
in recent years. |
| 7. The reduction in diurnal range and increase in cloudiness. |
| 8. Recession/collapse of several Antarctic Ice shelves in recent
decades. |
| 9. A story about glacier recession. |
Click here for further detail on the above
9 points.
Some other clues
We also looked at possible ways of organising information. This may also
give you clues on selecting your contribution
to the top 50:
Some options for organising information or selecting major
topics:
Schools ("Our Climate"): one school per climate zone
Communities: Reference Climate Stations
"I Was There": people talk about the big episodes
Microclimates: major cities
Taming Extremes: An historical study of, eg, a flood basin,
a desert margin and a high latitude region
Commissioned Essays: history/development of climate science
Indigenous peoples: climate stories
Climate Rap: refelctions of climate in performing, visual, literary
arts, sports, etc
Balance Sheet: costs and benefits of our climate
A century of ..... ?
Please send us your ideas/suggestions.
Please send your suggestions via e-mail for inclusion in the top 50 to
Mary Voice:
M.Voice@bom.gov.au , who will
compile them and list them on this web site for further consultation.
See also Criteria to use.
See also We look forward to hearing from you -- what
to send
Criteria to use.
The following criteria are listed for assistance in the selection process:
-
a spread across geographic regions will be needed;
-
a spread through the century will be needed;
-
events/phases/episodes should be of major significance to the decade in
which they occurred and to the environment or peoples of the region, or
to have resulted in what is believed to be a change in climate trend;
-
an event should be included if it still lives in folk memory even after
many, many years.
We look forward to hearing from you -- what to send
We look forward to hearing from you! The meeting of experts on June 3 believed
the overall project will be a major contribution to community understanding
and wished to involve many scientists, meteorologists, historians and others.
This is our first effort to do that.
Please send your suggestions via e-mail along with your name, affiliation
and an email address to Mary Voice: M.Voice@bom.gov.au
, along with the following details of your suggestion:
event / date(s) / location / some idea of scale or magnitude / known
impacts / any known documentary sources / brief reason for your choice
/
news item / period covered / reason for importance /
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