Climate Change Articles
Sea Ice At Lowest Level In 800 Years Near Greenland
New research, which reconstructs the extent of ice in the sea between Greenland and Svalbard from the 13th century to the present indicates that there has never been so little sea ice as there is now. The research results from the Niels Bohr Institute, among others, are published in the scientific journal, Climate Dynamics. There are of course neither satellite images nor instrumental records of the climate all the way back to the 13th century, but nature has its own 'archive' of the climate in both ice cores and the annual growth rings of trees and we humans have made records of a great many things over the years - such as observations in the log books of ships and in harbour records. Piece all of the information together and you get a picture of how much sea ice there has been throughout time.
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Study finds "mass biodiversity collapse" at 900 ppm CO2
In 2007, the IPCC warned that "as global average temperature increase exceeds about 3.5oC [relative to 1980 to 1999], model projections suggest significant extinctions (40-70% of species assessed) around the globe." On our current emissions path, we will warm far more than that this century, which suggests we risk the high end of species loss.
A new study in Science study (subs. req'd) confirms this risk. It examines "the pace of diversity loss leading to the Triassic-Jurassic boundary (TJB)." It finds "the sudden diversity drop coincided with a mere ~100 to ~350 ppmv rise in CO2 concentration," and "CO2-induced global warming was likely an important contributory factor to plant species turnover at the TJB."
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Loss Of Coastal Seagrass Habitat Accelerating Globally
An international team of scientists warns that accelerating losses of seagrasses across the globe threaten the immediate health and long-term sustainability of coastal ecosystems. The team has compiled and analyzed the first comprehensive global assessment of seagrass observations and found that 58 percent of world's seagrass meadows are currently declining.
The assessment, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows an acceleration of annual seagrass loss from less than 1 percent per year before 1940 to 7 percent per year since 1990. Based on more than 215 studies and 1,800 observations dating back to 1879, the assessment shows that seagrasses are disappearing at rates similar to coral reefs and tropical rainforests.
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Rising Acidity Levels Could Trigger Shellfish Revenue Declines, Job Losses
ScienceDaily (July 1, 2009) - Changes in ocean chemistry - a consequence of increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from human industrial activity - could cause U.S. shellfish revenues to drop significantly in the next 50 years, according to a new study by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
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New Crops Needed For New Climate
ScienceDaily (June 30, 2009) - Global food security in a changing climate depends on the nutritional value and yield of staple food crops. Researchers at Monash University in Victoria, Australia have found an increase in toxic compounds, a decrease in protein content and a decreased yield in plants grown under high CO2 and drought conditions.
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Study Advises Chinese Government To Change Fuel In Millions Of Households
ScienceDaily (June 30, 2009) - Scientists in China are recommending that the Chinese government consider phasing out the direct burning of traditional chunks of coal in millions of households. It suggests that the government substitute coal briquettes and improved stoves for cooking and heating to help reduce the country's high air pollution levels.
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Super-size Deposits Of Frozen Carbon In Arctic Could Worsen Climate Change
ScienceDaily (June 30, 2009) - The vast amount of carbon stored in the arctic and boreal regions of the world is more than double that previously estimated, according to a study published this week.
The amount of carbon in frozen soils, sediments and river deltas (permafrost) raises new concerns over the role of the northern regions as future sources of greenhouse gases.
"We now estimate the deposits contain over 1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon, about twice as much carbon as contained in the atmosphere", said Dr. Charles Tarnocai, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, and lead author.
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Many Antarctic Species Ill Prepared To Cope With Warmer Ocean
ScienceDaily (June 30, 2009) - A group of researchers from the British Antarctic Survey have collected individuals from a wide range of species commonly found in Antarctic waters and subjected them to increasing levels of water temperature to learn how each species is prepared to cope with the conditions that they are likely to experience in the future.
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Why Counting Carbon is a Key to Climate Change
Behavioral economists will tell you that the simple act of placing an electricity consumption meter in plain view can substantially cut a home's energy use. The same goes for real-time miles-per-gallon meters in cars, which change the way we drive.
These findings tell us something about behavior:
When the price of costly activities isn't hidden from us, we're more likely to pursue those activities prudently.
For too long the free market's accounting system has disguised the cost of one of our most destructive activities: emitting pollution that is making the Earth warmer. It has done this by making the market price of emitting those pollutants zero: These costs have simply not figured into what we pay to power our factories, heat our homes and drive our cars.
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Giant Glaciers Can Shrink Rapidly
Huge glaciers like those in Greenland and Antarctica can shrink or retreat rapidly, a new study of a prehistoric glacier suggests.
An ancient glacier in the Canadian Arctic rapidly retreated in just a few hundred years, according to new findings by paleoclimatologists at the University at Buffalo. The results are detailed today in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The study provides one of the few explicit confirmations that this phenomenon occurs, the scientists said.
Should the same conditions recur today, which the researchers said in a statement "is very possible," they would result in sharply rising global sea levels, which would threaten coastal populations.
"A lot of glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland are characteristic of the one we studied in the Canadian Arctic," said Jason Briner, assistant professor of geology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences and lead author on the paper. "Based on our findings, they, too, could retreat in a geologic instant."
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U.S. Winds Are Dying Down, Study Suggests
We all know the political winds surrounding what to do about global warming are fickle. But nobody planned for the newfound apparent fickleness in Mother Nature.
Wind across the United States seems to be weakening, a new study suggests. The idea is contrary to what computer models predict should happen as the planet warms, and more research is needed to determine what's cooking.
But "it's a very large effect," said study co-author Eugene Takle, a professor of atmospheric science at Iowa State University, according to AP.
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CO2 Levels Highest in Two Million Years
Maggie Koerth-Baker for National Geographic News
What happens when carbon dioxide levels skyrocket? Most climate scientists think they know the answer: global warming.
But to determine just how high temperatures may climb and how climate patterns may shift, researchers may need to pinpoint, for comparison, a time in our planet's past when a similar carbon dioxide jump happened.
Doing that may have just gotten a lot tougher-a new study says atmospheric carbon dioxide levels haven't been this high in more than two million years.
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Caribbean reefs 'flattened' in just 40 years
In just 40 years, the Caribbean's spectacular branched corals have been flattened. Research reveals that the corals have been replaced by shorter rival species – and points to climate change as at least partly to blame.
Most of the reefs have lost all the intricate, tree-like corals that until the 1970s provided sanctuary for unique reef fish and other creatures, as well as protecting coastlines by sapping the energy of waves.
Coral diversity is important for both the many species that swell on reefs and for coastal protection, says Jennifer Gill of the University of East Anglia and a member of the research team.
She and her colleagues analysed data over the past 40 years from 500 surveys of 200 Caribbean reefs. They say that the flattening process took place in two main phases. Firstly, in the late 1970s, a condition called white-band disease swept through the reefs, killing 90 per cent of the most spectacular tree-like elkhorn and staghorn corals.
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New Report Shows Climate Change is Already Affecting American Communities
A new federal study released by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy finds that climate changes are underway in the United States and are projected to grow. It also states that global warming is indisputable and primarily due to human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.
The report was produced by the Global Change Research Program, a consortium of experts from 13 U.S. governmental science agencies, major universities and research institutes.
It breaks down the impacts of climate change into different regions and economic sectors such as energy, water, agriculture, and health.
The report concludes that the effects of global warming will lead to increased flooding, more intense heat waves, rising sea levels, rapidly retreating glaciers, thawing permafrost, earlier snowmelt, alterations in river flows, increase in wildfires, and insect infestations. In addition, threats to human health include heat stress, waterborne illness, poor air quality, extreme weather events, and diseases transmitted by insects and rodents.
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Researchers predict rise in sea level
A sea level rise study by researchers at Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi predict the Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico could rise more than 4 feet in the next 100 years.
Almost 80 percent of Galveston County households could be displaced by 2109 if water levels in the Gulf of Mexico and Galveston Bay rise as quickly as they have during the past 100 years.
Gauges at the Port of Galveston's Pier 21 show the water is 2.3 feet higher today than it was in 1909.
If that trend continues, the rising water would chase thousands of homeowners away from the coast and cause billions of dollars in damage to the area's water, sewer and utility systems, according to a study of sea level rise released earlier this month by three researchers from the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi.
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Rising sea could swallow Mombasa in 20 years
Mombasa is known all over the world as a city of sun-kissed beaches and luxurious hotels packed with tourists having the time of their lives.
But in just 20 years, this world-renowned tourist haven may become an island of misery in which vast stretches of land are submerged in sea.
Salinity will make the water unfit for human consumption, it is feared, and local agriculture will collapse due to excess salts in the soil.
That is the grim projection of scientists who are now warning that authorities must take urgent steps to save the coastal city from collapsing under the weight of the effects of global warming.
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