European Geosciences Union
Division on Climate: Past, Present & Future
President: Didier Roche (cl@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Irka Hajdas
(hajdas@phys.ethz.ch)
The Division on Climate: Past, Present & Future is one of the larger divisions of the European Geosciences Union. It pools from many disciplines and consequently has many co-organized and co-listed sessions with other divisions at the general assembly. The division is very interdisciplinary and covers climate variations on all time scales. CL includes the study of any kind of climate archive from rocks to ocean cores, speleothems, ice cores, chronicles, to instrumental records to name a few. Besides observations, climate modeling on all time scales from the deep past to the future are areas covered by the division. Any aspect of the climate system falls into the realm of the division e.g. atmosphere, ocean, biosphere, cryosphere, and geology. Themes focus on the climate on Earth but may also expand other planets or the sun.
The 2020 Hans Oeschger Medal is awarded to Kim M. Cobb for pioneering acquisition and interpretation of high-resolution observations from corals and cave deposits in Earth’s equatorial regions and their implications for climate change.
The 2020 Milutin Milankovic Medal is awarded to Valérie Masson-Delmotte for outstanding contributions to research on long-term climate change, namely palaeotemperature records from ice cores, and for her leadership in international efforts to translate science to society.
The 2020 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to François Massonnet for his significant contribution to polar climate prediction, projection and reanalyses, including original integration of model and data evidence.
The 2019 Hans Oeschger Medal is awarded to Edward J. Brook for producing greenhouse-gas records from polar ice cores in unprecedented resolution that permitted the precise north-south synchronisation of climate signals and the identification of past variations in great detail.
The 2019 Milutin Milankovic Medal is awarded to Jacques Laskar for fundamental contributions to the investigation of orbital climate forcing, and for the development of long-term, reliable astronomical solutions important for the whole palaeoclimate community.
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Aline Mega Highly variable surface-water conditions off southern Portugal during mid-Pleistocene Marine Isotope Stages 20 to 26 (790 – 970 ky)
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Bernat Jiménez-Esteve Nonlinearity in the Northern Hemisphere atmospheric response to a linear ENSO forcing
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Iulia-Madalina Streanga A calibration study of Sr/Ca ratios and δ18O to sea surface temperature and salinity in the West Pacific Warm Pool
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Livia Manser Neogene evolution of paleoenvironments in the North American Great Plains from a stable isotope study
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Nicholas Leach Current level and rate of warming determine emissions budgets under ambitious mitigation
The 2019 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to Amanda C. Maycock for significant and original contributions to the understanding of the influence of stratospheric processes on climate at temporal scales from seasons to centuries.
Loess is an aeolian (wind-driven) silty sediment covering over 10% of the Earth’s land surface; it occurs predominantly in the mid-latitudes. On a global scale, loess is among the most widespread unconsolidated sediments, and of crucial importance for agricultural regions where loess deposits are known to form fertile soils because of its ability to store water and retain nutrients. Loess is comprised predominantly of quartz particles in the coarse silt (diameter 20–63 μm) fraction, but some deposits known as desert …
The InterArctic project (Fig. 1) focuses on vulnerability, resilience and adaptation of northern societies facing global change. The current rapid warming of Arctic and Subarctic climates has already produced many changes in the social, economic and cultural behaviour of the populations inhabiting these regions and more changes are expected to come. In this context, looking at the past provides the opportunity to document the complex relationships between climate, ecology and human societies, which may provide a deeper understanding into ways …
Johann Sebastian Bach’s last work – Contrapunctus XIV – is an unfinished musical composition. For many years, scholars considered that this piece was left unfinished because of Bach’s deteriorating health in his final years and eventual death. However, researchers recently found evidence that Bach might have left this piece intentionally unfinished, as he thought that there was still room for improvement. Furthermore, he intended to stimulate efforts by future composers and musicologist to complete it [1]. Despite being left unfinished, …
A fairly recent blog post here reiterated the compelling comparison between the current COVID-19 crisis and the ongoing climate emergency, focusing on extreme events such as hurricanes, heatwaves and severe rainfall-related flooding, all of which are likely to get worse as the climate warms (Langendijk & Osman 2020). This comparison has been made by us Climate Scientists since the COVID-19 crisis began; both the virus and the disastrous impacts of anthropogenic climate change were (and indeed are) predictable but little …
As part of EGU’s Mineral Month, the September 2020 newsletter commemorates Friedrich Mohs, a German geologist who invented the Mohs Hardness Scale, thereby changing the way people study minerals to this very day. This issue also announces the upcoming EGU-European Parliament Intergroup virtual science-policy event, which will bring together geoscientists, policymakers, and industry representatives on 30 September to discuss how Earth, planetary, and space science researchers can support the European Green Deal.
Other upcoming events include the next EGU webinar on European Research Council grants, to be held on 19 October, and the annual EGU plenary meeting, which will be held virtually on 22 October.
The Loupe also features the latest EGU blogs, science policy news, and a call for new members of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group. Be sure to apply by 21 October!