It’s unusually warm in The Last Frontier.
Large swaths of Alaska have seen record or near-record warmth this March said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy. And the trend isn’t quitting. …
Category: Global Warming
Greenland’s fastest-melting glacier has stalled. But that’s bad news.
Like a snake slithering back into its den, Greenland’s lengthy Jakobshavn glacier has retreated over 25 miles since the 19th century. And for the last two decades, this warming river of ice has purged more ice into to sea than any other Greenland glacier.
But since 2016 — and after 20 years of unprecedented melting in Greenland — Jakobshavn’s rapid retreat has slowed down considerably and the glacier has even grown bigger. This might appear to be a rare dose of good news for the Arctic — a place that’s heated up over twice as much as the rest of the planet.
But no.
Instead, a team researchers led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered that Jakobshavn’s stagnated melt is only a temporary blip brought on by cooler ocean currents. Though worryingly, the recent slowing also carries ominous news for the thawing landmass. The research, published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience, reveals that the Jakobshavn glacier — whose ice reaches some 2,600 feet under the sea — is extremely sensitive to changes in ocean temperature. That’s a big problem because the dynamic ocean currents off western Greenland will naturally warm up again — on top of the reality that Earth’s absorbent seas soak up Read more…
More about Global Warming, Glaciers, Climate Change, Oceans, and Greenland
View More Greenland’s fastest-melting glacier has stalled. But that’s bad news.Wow: U.S. gov’t warns there’s a spring flood risk for two-thirds of the Lower 48
In Nebraska and Iowa there’s a brown sea where there should be homes, roads, gas stations, and open country.
Historic floods have deluged vast swaths of the Midwest — even flooding a third of the U.S. Air Force base that houses the nation’s critical U.S. Strategic Command. But the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says the floods aren’t nearly over. The agency’s 2019 Spring Outlook found that nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states are at risk for flooding in the coming months.
“The extensive flooding we’ve seen in the past two weeks will continue through May and become more dire and may be exacerbated in the coming weeks as the water flows downstream,” Ed Clark, director of NOAA’s National Water Center, said in a statement. Read more…
More about Science, Global Warming, Extreme Weather, Climate Change, and Floods
View More Wow: U.S. gov’t warns there’s a spring flood risk for two-thirds of the Lower 48Planning for the uncertain future of work
In a recently published, roughly 75-page report, British non-profit organization The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts (RSA) outlined several scenarios for how the UK labor market will be impacted by frontier technologies such as automation, AI, AVs and more. The analysis titled “The Four Futures of Work” was conducted in collaboration with design […]
View More Planning for the uncertain future of workThe West accepts its drought-ridden future, slashes water use
Out West, the future is dry.
Amid an unprecedented 19-year drought in the expansive Colorado River Basin — which supplies water to 40 million Americans — seven Western states have acknowledged that the 21st century will only grow drier as temperatures continue to rise. And that means less water in the 1,450-mile Colorado River. On Tuesday, water managers from states including California, Utah, and New Mexico announced a drought plan (formally called a Drought Contingency Plan), which cuts their water use for the next seven years — until an even more austere plan must be adopted.
Already, the drought has left water levels at Lake Mead — the nearly 250-square-mile reservoir that’s held back by the formidable Hoover Dam — at their lowest levels in half a century. The water shortage has left telltale, white mineral “bathtub rings” around the basin, well over 100 feet high. Read more…
More about Science, Global Warming, Drought, Climate Change, and Colorado River
View More The West accepts its drought-ridden future, slashes water useHere’s a running list of all the ways climate change has altered Earth in 2019
Earth is now the warmest it’s been in some 120,000 years. Eighteen of the last 19 years have been the warmest on record. And concentrations of carbon dioxide — a potent greenhouse gas — are likely the highest they’ve been in 15 million years.
The consequences of such a globally-disrupted climate are many, and it’s understandably difficult to keep track. To help, here’s a list of climate-relevant news that has transpired in 2019, from historically unprecedented disappearances of ice, to flood-ravaged cities. As more news comes out, the list will be updated. Read more…
1Guess what? U.S. carbon emissions popped back up in a big way
More about Science, Global Warming, Climate Change, Science, and Climate Environment
The ocean keeps gulping up a colossal amount of CO2 from the air, but will it last?
The ocean has proved to be an exceptionally selfless and dependable planetary companion.
With no benefit to itself, Earth’s vast sea has gulped up around 30 percent of the carbon dioxide humans emitted into Earth’s atmosphere over the last cent…
Geoengineering might not be so ludicrous an idea — if we gave Earth the right dose
Solar geoengineering is widely viewed as risky business.
The somewhat sci-fi concept — to use blimps, planes, or other means to load Earth’s atmosphere with particles or droplets that reflect sunlight and cool the planet — has crept into the mainstream conversation as a means of reversing relentless climate change, should our efforts to slash carbon emissions fail or sputter. But geoengineering schemes come with a slew of hazards. A number of studies have cited the ill consequences of messing with Earth’s sun intake, including big falls in crop production, the likelihood of unforeseen adverse side effects, and critically, a weakened water cycle that could trigger drops in precipitation and widespread drought. Read more…
More about Science, Global Warming, Extreme Weather, Climate Change, and Geoengineering
View More Geoengineering might not be so ludicrous an idea — if we gave Earth the right doseThe Bering Strait should be covered in ice, but it’s nearly all gone
During winter, the Bering Strait has historically been blanketed in ice. But this year, the ice has nearly vanished.
“The usually ice-covered Bering Strait is almost completely open water,” Zack Labe, a climate scientist and Ph.D. candidate at the Un…
A powerful atmospheric river pummeled California, and the pictures look unreal
On Wednesday, San Jose Mercury News photojournalist Karl Mondon spotted a man in flooded Guerneville, California rowing through town in a blue dumpster.
A potent atmospheric river — a long band of water vapor that often transports ample amounts of moisture to the western U.S. like “rivers in the sky” — deluged portions of Northern California this week. The Russian River, which winds through the Sonoma County town of Guerneville, reached over 45-feet high and swamped the area, prompting the Sheriff to announce on Twitter that the town had been surrounded by water — with no way in or out.
While California relies heavily on these wintertime atmospheric rivers for its water, scientists expect these storms to grow dramatically wetter as Earth’s climate heats up. Read more…
More about California, Global Warming, Climate Change, Atmospheric River, and Flooding
View More A powerful atmospheric river pummeled California, and the pictures look unreal660 mile iceberg expected to break off Antarctic shelf
The iceberg is a part of Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf. It is twice the size of New York City. Researchers say the split could happen within a matter of days or weeks. It would be the largest iceberg to break off Brunt Ice Shelf since the area’s monit…
View More 660 mile iceberg expected to break off Antarctic shelfClimate change kills off clouds over the ocean in new simulation
We all know climate change is affecting weather systems and ecosystems around the world, but exactly how and in what way is still a topic of intense study. New simulations made possible by higher-powered computers suggest that cloud cover over oceans may die off altogether once a certain level of CO2 has been reached, accelerating warming and contributing to a vicious cycle.
View More Climate change kills off clouds over the ocean in new simulation