Survey on Baltic Issues (BALTEX, BACC)

On the occasion of a small Polish-German workshop I asked the participants a number of questions, which were answered anonymously by 13 participants. Some responses are given below. Of course, there is nothing representative with these reponses, but maybe an interesting snapshot.

Interview on the state of the Baltic Sea

Three of the most renown german climate scientists (Graßl, Rahmstorf, von Storch) gave their appraisal on the state of the Baltic Sea and its vulnerability towards climate change in an interesting radio interview (only in German). In short: We know climate change is already happening but we need to know more about possible impacts, as projections for ecosystems are quite uncertain, in particular for marine ecosystems. The BACC Report was not mentioned directly but it was clear that the BACC effort contributes tremenously to the knowledge basis. Read or listen here...

New book on “Global change and Baltic Coastal Zones”

Recently, a new book was published which has a high relevance to climate change in the Baltic Sea region. The book “Global change and Baltic Coastal Zones” (Eds: Gerald Schernewski, Jacobus Hofstede and Thomas Neumann) is based on a summer school which was held in Warnemünde, Germany in 2010. The book has relevance to BACC, and some authors are also BACC authors. Link to Springer website here.

A conference on “Adapting to Climate Change - Case Studies from the Baltic Sea Region” in Hamburg, Germany, 31 May 2011

The city of Hamburg was the host of a conference on climate change adaptation in the Baltic Sea region, jointly organized by BALTEX and BSSSC, the Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation (a political network for decentralised authorities (subregions) in the Baltic Sea Region). There are currently similar conferences and meetings, but this one was special in that it brought together local and regional practitioners and scientists from the entire Baltic Sea region. Planning staff from Copenhagen, Gothenburg, and Stockholm, as well as various representatives from research projects and regional administrations shared experiences and views on regional adaptation strategies. A “Hamburg Declaration” was issued in connection with the conference, which could form the basis for sustainable adaptation strategies. The declaration and the presentations can be be downloaded here.

2nd BACC II Lead Author Team meeting approves updated structure for the BACC II book

The 2^nd BACC II Lead Author Team meeting took place on 28 and 29 March 2011. Almost all BACC II Lead Authors gathered in Hamburg, Germany; even a colleague presently in “Down Under” was able to participate in the meeting via Skype.

The aim of this meeting was the finalization of the BACC II book chapter structure and the clarification of open issues from the first Lead Author Team meeting in Gothenburg. Since then, Lead Authors had the opportunity to draft chapter outlines and to approach contributing authors. Based on this, a clearer picture of the respective chapter contents evolved, and the overall book structure could be discussed with a better background. The outcome of the meeting was a significantly improved chapter structure, which was approved as final structure following a vivid discussion (with minor adjustments still possible during the writing and editing process). Open issues like approximate chapter lengths were also settled. Now the writing process has commenced.

For details, see www.baltex-research.eu/BACC2

The BACC book is now available as pdf download!

Print copies can still be ordered from Springer at low discount rates!

Although the first two print editions of the BACC book have been sold out, Springer now offers to print the book on demand at half price, i.e. € 104.30 instead of € 208.60 (click here). You still get a 33% discount from that price if you order a “token” on the Springer web site (see here for instructions).

While a print copy is still the real thing, the BACC book is now also available as free pdf download, either as the complete book, or chapter-wise. Click here…

Again, if you detect any errors, please report them here to the BACC Blog (see here)!

Communicating Climate Science in BACC

Americans have it harder when communicating climate science to the public. While in Europe we have to cope with a certain level of scientific illiteracy, Americans are also confronted with media phalanx which has no or very limited interest in covering scientific issues, and, secondly, they are confronted with an aggressive campaign of climate change sceptics (and, for that matter, also “evolution sceptics”) with a political agenda which are extremely well trained in communication. Most scientists lack this training.

This is the bottom line of a workshop on “Communicating Climate Science” at the AGU Fall meeting in San Francisco. What does that have to do with BACC? The BACC book was written by scientists for scientists, but also by scientists for stakeholders and decision makers, with the “science or knowledge broker” claim. But did the message really come across for the latter target group? We do not know, but it can be questioned. HELCOM re-wrote part of the BACC material for their own publication, but it is unclear whether this version was better understandable by policy makers, let alone the general public. Maybe we have to get better at that in BACC II. Here is an interesting eye-opener for climate scientists who just cannot understand that anybody in the world does not know what, e.g. “aerosols” really are…

An up-to date compilation of publications on sea level change in the Baltic Sea

The BALTEX publication online database now contains an up-to date compilation of currently available publications on Baltic Sea level change, assembled by Birgit Hünicke (here, keyword “sea level”). She is also the convener of a session on this subject at the 8th Baltic Sea Science Congress to be held in St. Petersburg, Russia, 22-26 August 2011 (link).