Tiempo Climate Newswatch
Interview with Jim Salinger
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Action point
José Alberto Garibaldi describes his priority for action on global warming. You can play the low bandwidth or the high bandwidth version
Featured sites
The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network works to improve management and conservation of coral reefs by providing manuals, equipment, databases, training, problem solving, and helps with finding funds for reef monitoring.
The Cities for Climate Protection Campaign assists cities to adopt policies and implement quantifiable measures to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and enhance urban livebility and sustainability.
zerocarbonbritain details how Britain can eliminate emissions from fossil fuels in 20 years and break dependence on imported energy.
Plan B, from the Earth Policy Institute, details how to rescue a planet under stress by cutting carbon emissions 80 per cent by 2020.
And finally,
Lorraine Berry was commissioned by the Environmental Change Network to produce a web-based creative work, as Seasons Change, drawing on data and knowledge concerning climate change.
About Newswatch
Tiempo Climate Newswatch is a weekly on-line magazine with news, features and comment on global warming, climate change, sea-level rise and development issues. It is edited by Mick Kelly and Sarah Granich and maintained by Mick Kelly and Mike Salmon. The cartoons are created by Lawrence Moore.
The news stories carried by Newswatch are updated weekly. Comment, features, interviews and other sections of the magazine are updated on a weekly to monthly basis.
Newswatch automatically scans a number of news sites once an hour, searching for a set of keyphrases. The raw news feed can be accessed in standard or PDA format.
Part of the Tiempo Climate Cyberlibrary, Tiempo Climate Newswatch is hosted by the Climatic Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia.
The Tiempo Climate Cyberlibrary is a co-production of the Stockholm Environment Institute and the International Institute for Environment and Development, sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
While every effort is made to ensure that information on this site, and on other sites that are referenced here, is accurate, no liability for loss or damage resulting from use of this information can be accepted.
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Jim Salinger discusses the development of the global temperature record, a key stage in the acceptance of climate change as a serious threat. |
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Find out about Jim Salinger's global warming priority (low or high bandwidth streaming video) |
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Background |
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During the 1950s and 1960s, cooling over the landmasses of the Northern Hemisphere led a number of eminent climate scientists to doubt the greenhouse theory. Considering the warmth of the 1940s extremely unusual, they reckoned the cooling trend was likely to continue. |
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We now know that the mid-20th century cooling was restricted in geographical extent and short-lived. |
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But it was only the work of scientists such as Jim Salinger, painstakingly collecting and correcting local temperature records, that enabled the development of a truly global record of the state of our climate. |
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This, in turn, led to the realization that the world was again warming rapidly and thence to political action to curb the climate problem. |
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Newswatch asked Jim to discuss the early stages of this work. We return to the 1970s with predictions of global cooling regularly appearing in the media... |
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To listen to the streaming audio or video files, you will need RealPlayer or Real Alternative, both free downloads |
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What prompted you to start collecting climate data for New Zealand? |
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But just how much could you say about wider trends over the Southern Hemisphere from the New Zealand record? |
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Why should there have been a difference between the trends in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere? |
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How did the international cooperation that led to the development of the global temperature record come about? |
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Are you still involved in climate monitoring? |
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Biography |
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Jim Salinger is a senior climate scientist with the National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand. He is responsible for the preparation of climate updates, as well as leading various research projects on New Zealand climate change. |
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A leading climate change expert, he has been involved in researching and monitoring past and current climate trends, as a university climate researcher, and later in the former New Zealand Meteorological Service. |
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Contact information |
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Jim Salinger, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd, PO Box 109695, Auckland, New Zealand. Fax: +64-9-3752051. Email: j.salinger@niwa.co.nz. Web: www.niwa.co.nz. |
Bright Ideas
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The Zero S is a high performance electric motorcycle with half the weight of a normal bike
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The GeoBulb LED light bulb uses 7.5 watts of power to provide as much light as a 60-watt incandescent light bulb and has a lifespan of ten years
Mumbai-based company Crompton Greaves has partnered with Lemnis Lighting to promote LED lighting products in India
Schools in Joondalup, Australia, can participate in dune rejuvenation and protection through the Adopt a Coastline programme
Princess Elisabeth Station, Antarctica, is the world's first zero-emission polar research station
The Canadian city of Kelowna is equipping parks, paths and other public spaces with solar-powered LED lights
The City of Oslo uses waste to generate energy for a district heating system, part of a hierarchical waste management strategy
BioEnergy Solutions provides the infrastructure necessary to create renewable natural gas from animal waste, then shares revenues and carbon credits with the farmer
Tiempo Climate Newswatch
Updated: June 28th 2009