TY  - JOUR
A1  - Veh, Georg
A1  - Korup, Oliver
A1  - von Specht, Sebastian
A1  - Rößner, Sigrid
A1  - Walz, Ariane
T1  - Unchanged frequency of moraine-dammed glacial lake outburst floods in the Himalaya
JF  - Nature climate change
N2  - Shrinking glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Karakoram-Himalaya-Nyainqentanglha (HKKHN) region have formed several thousand moraine-dammed glacial lakes(1-3), some of these having grown rapidly in past decades(3,4). This growth may promote more frequent and potentially destructive glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs)(5-7). Testing this hypothesis, however, is confounded by incomplete databases of the few reliable, though selective, case studies. Here we present a consistent Himalayan GLOF inventory derived automatically from all available Landsat imagery since the late 1980s. We more than double the known GLOF count and identify the southern Himalayas as a hotspot region, compared to the more rarely affected Hindu Kush-Karakoram ranges. Nevertheless, the average annual frequency of 1.3 GLOFs has no credible posterior trend despite reported increases in glacial lake areas in most of the HKKHN3,8, so that GLOF activity per unit lake area has decreased since the late 1980s. We conclude that learning more about the frequency and magnitude of outburst triggers, rather than focusing solely on rapidly growing glacial lakes, might improve the appraisal of GLOF hazards.
KW  - Climate change
KW  - Cryospheric science
KW  - Environmental impact
KW  - Geomorphology
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0437-5
SN  - 1758-678X
SN  - 1758-6798
VL  - 9
IS  - 5
SP  - 379
EP  - 383
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lawrence, Mark G.
A1  - Schäfer, Stefan
A1  - Muri, Helene
A1  - Scott, Vivian
A1  - Oschlies, Andreas
A1  - Vaughan, Naomi E.
A1  - Boucher, Olivier
A1  - Schmidt, Hauke
A1  - Haywood, Jim
A1  - Scheffran, Jürgen
T1  - Evaluating climate geoengineering proposals in the context of the Paris Agreement temperature goals
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - Current mitigation efforts and existing future commitments are inadequate to accomplish the Paris Agreement temperature goals. In light of this, research and debate are intensifying on the possibilities of additionally employing proposed climate geoengineering technologies, either through atmospheric carbon dioxide removal or farther-reaching interventions altering the Earth’s radiative energy budget. Although research indicates that several techniques may eventually have the physical potential to contribute to limiting climate change, all are in early stages of development, involve substantial uncertainties and risks, and raise ethical and governance dilemmas. Based on present knowledge, climate geoengineering techniques cannot be relied on to significantly contribute to meeting the Paris Agreement temperature goals.
KW  - Atmospheric chemistry
KW  - Atmospheric dynamics
KW  - Atmospheric science
KW  - Climate change
KW  - Environmental impact
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05938-3
SN  - 2041-1723
VL  - 9
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  -