Summary: In the winter, we dare to ask: why did global warming pause? New science shows it didn't. Official records grossly underestimated real heating here on Earth. You'll hear that science unfold. What else has been low-balled? The US EPA estimates of dangerous methane emissions in America. Our guest explains just-released science showing humans are emitting 1 and a half times more than the government told you. We'll wrap up the show with the climate-related death of another dream: the economy of the southern states. Why is the "stormbelt" withering? I'm Alex Smith. Get ready for Ecoshock. Download/listen to this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB) IT'S HOTTER THAN YOU THINK Scientists have been pondering why all our carbon was not showing up as higher temperatures. While extreme weather seems on the increase, climate change deniers are talking about a long pause in warming. Two scientists have finally figured out where the heat is. In the one hour Radio Ecoshock show I interview Robert Way, a doctoral student at the University of Ottawa. Along with University of York UK computational scientist Kevin Cowtan, Robert just published a startling study in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. They've got scientists talking, and media calling from all over the world, after finding planet Earth is warming more than twice the accepted figures. Here's the scoop. Big institutions like NASA, the Hadley Centre in the UK, and others in Europe calculate Earth's temperature, to see how much warming has taken place. As you might guess there are large areas where there are no weather stations to make those measurements. That includes places like Africa, but especially in the Arctic. Up until now, global warming estimates just left those spots out. But using a combination of techniques including satellite measurement, Way and Cowtan found a huge amount of warming was left out. In fact, instead of warming just 0.05 degrees Centigrade over the last decade, earth has warmed more than twice that, at 0.12 degrees C. It's a ground-breaking paper. Resources for this interview: Here is the University of Ottawa press release Here is the Real Climate posting and discussion Here is the way UK's The Independent newspaper handled it The website for this paper is here. The youtube videos are under "media" but here is a good one Download/listen to this Radio Ecoshock interview with Robert Way (20 min) in CD Quality or Lo-Fi MORE METHANE IN THE U.S. A new university study shows emissions of the dangerous greenhouse gas methane are much higher than the American government reports. Have artificially low figures protected the American cattle industry, and fossil fuel producers? Joining us is Scot M. Miller. He's from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard. Scot is the lead author of a paper just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science titled "Anthropogenic emissions of methane in the United States." Scientist Scot M Miller There has been growing concern about methane leaking out of the melting Arctic. So it's alarming to find government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency have been underestimating real methane emissions in the lower 48 states. Download/listen to this Radio Ecoshock interview with Scot Miller (20 min) in CD Quality or Lo-Fi USA Today coverage of this story. STORMBELT: THE DECLINE OF THE SOUTHERN U.S. Remember prosperity in the new American South? Factories opening, people moving down into the real estate boom. Fortunes may still be made there, but for most people, the system shows signs of eroding away. Robert Leslie is part of a team of artists, writers, and photographers who explored the underbelly of that dream. The result is called "Stormbelt." It's a journey across the southern states. Robert's work has been published in Vanity, the New York Times and the French version of Vogue magazine. Photojournalist Robert Leslie Co-authors include Edward Burty
