Browsed by
Category: Climate Change

Florida ocean temperatures at ‘downright shocking’ levels

Florida ocean temperatures at ‘downright shocking’ levels

The Washington Post reports: Not only is Florida sizzling in record-crushing heat, but the ocean waters that surround it are scorching, as well. The unprecedented ocean warmth around the state — connected to historically warm oceans worldwide — is further intensifying its heat wave and stressing coral reefs, with conditions that could end up strengthening hurricanes. Much of Florida is seeing its warmest year on record, with temperatures running 3 to 5 degrees above normal. While some locations have been…

Read More Read More

In Phoenix, heat becomes a brutal test of endurance

In Phoenix, heat becomes a brutal test of endurance

The New York Times reports: A relentless heat wave is broiling the Southwest, with some 50 million people across the United States now facing dangerous temperatures. Forecasters say that the current streak of consecutive 110-degree days may end up being the longest Phoenix has ever seen, potentially breaking an 18-day record set in 1974. Arizona’s woes have been amplified this summer by the delay of monsoons that sweep up from the Gulf of Mexico and help quench tinder-dry deserts and…

Read More Read More

The forgotten sovereigns of the Colorado River

The forgotten sovereigns of the Colorado River

Rowan Moore Gerety writes: If it weren’t for the Colorado River, Albuquerque wouldn’t exist — at least, not as a city of half a million. Which is interesting, because the city itself is nowhere near the river: The Colorado and its tributaries flow on the opposite side of the Continental Divide from New Mexico’s largest city. The thing that joins the city to its water — the thing that allows Albuquerque to exist, it’s no exaggeration to say — is…

Read More Read More

Let them swim

Let them swim

Paul Hockenos writes: The mesmerizing scene along the banks of Munich’s lime-green Isar River on a recent summer afternoon made me, an out-of-towner, quiver with envy. Clusters of students, off-duty office workers, families and nude sunbathers were sprawled out on blankets with bottled beer and light meals. Every so often, a swimmer or tuber passed by, carried by the swift current. In 2000, before the climate crisis accelerated, turning summers into slogs punctuated by a slew of heat records, the…

Read More Read More

Climate change hits Antarctica hard, sparking concerns about irreversible tipping points

Climate change hits Antarctica hard, sparking concerns about irreversible tipping points

Tereza Pultarova writes: Antarctica may be in serious trouble. Satellite images show that the amount of sea ice floating around the pristine polar continent remains far below long-term averages despite the south polar region moving into its peak winter period. Researchers at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) observed with trepidation in late 2022 and early 2023 as satellite images revealed that sea ice attached to the coast of Antarctica had been disappearing month after month at a pace never seen…

Read More Read More

Heat is the human rights issue of the 21st century

Heat is the human rights issue of the 21st century

Vann R. Newkirk II writes: Consider the cantaloupe. It’s a decent melon. If you, like me, are the sort who constantly mixes them up, cantaloupes are the orange ones, and honeydews are green. If you, like me, are old enough to remember vacations, you might have had them along with their cousin, watermelon, at a hotel’s breakfast buffet. Those spreads are not as bad as you remember, especially when it’s hot out; add a couple of cold bagels and a…

Read More Read More

The U.S. and China must work together to combat climate change, says Yellen

The U.S. and China must work together to combat climate change, says Yellen

Reuters reports: The United States and China, as the world’s two largest economies, must work together to combat the “existential threat” of climate change, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Chinese government officials and climate experts on Saturday. During a visit to Beijing, Yellen said previous cooperation on climate change between the U.S. and China had made possible global breakthroughs such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, adding that both governments wanted to support emerging markets and developing countries as they…

Read More Read More

Earth is at its hottest in thousands of years. Here’s how we know

Earth is at its hottest in thousands of years. Here’s how we know

The Washington Post reports: Observations from both satellites and the Earth’s surface are indisputable — the planet has warmed rapidly over the past 44 years. As far back as 1850, data from weather stations all over the globe make clear the Earth’s average temperature has been rising. In recent days, as the Earth has reached its highest average temperatures in recorded history, scientists have made a bolder claim: It may well be warmer than any time in the last 125,000…

Read More Read More

The world just broke a stunning slew of heat records. Why right now?

The world just broke a stunning slew of heat records. Why right now?

Bob Henson writes: Mid-2023 seems destined to go down as a pivotal period in climate change history — a time when planet Earth seemed to go from a simmer to a full rolling boil in a matter of weeks. What’s jumping out isn’t a single heat wave, but a one-after-another series of global and regional heat records astounding in both scope and persistence. The world just had the hottest June on record, with unprecedented sea surface temperatures and record-low Antarctic…

Read More Read More

Why a sudden surge of broken heat records is scaring scientists

Why a sudden surge of broken heat records is scaring scientists

The Washington Post reports: A remarkable spate of historic heat is hitting the planet, raising alarm over looming extreme weather dangers — and an increasing likelihood that this year will be Earth’s warmest on record. New precedents have been set in recent weeks and months, surprising some scientists with their swift evolution: historically warm oceans, with North Atlantic temperatures already nearing their typical annual peak; unparalleled low sea ice levels around Antarctica, where global warming impacts had, until now, been…

Read More Read More

Meltwater is hydro-fracking Greenland’s ice sheet through millions of hairline cracks – destabilizing its internal structure

Meltwater is hydro-fracking Greenland’s ice sheet through millions of hairline cracks – destabilizing its internal structure

Richard Bates and Alun Hubbard kayak a meltwater stream on Greenland’s Petermann Glacier, towing an ice radar that reveals it’s riddled with fractures. Nick Cobbing. Alun Hubbard, University of Tromsø I’m striding along the steep bank of a raging white-water torrent, and even though the canyon is only about the width of a highway, the river’s flow is greater than that of London’s Thames. The deafening roar and rumble of the cascading water is incredible – a humbling reminder of…

Read More Read More

June extremes suggest parts of the climate system are reaching tipping points

June extremes suggest parts of the climate system are reaching tipping points

Inside Climate News reports: June 2023 may be remembered as the start of a big change in the climate system, with many key global indicators flashing red warning lights amid signs that some systems are tipping toward a new state from which they may not recover. Earth’s critical reflective polar ice caps are at their lowest extent on record in the satellite era, with the sea ice around Antarctica at a record-low extent by far, spurring worried scientists to share…

Read More Read More

Here’s why the wildfires burning in Canada aren’t being put out

Here’s why the wildfires burning in Canada aren’t being put out

CNN reports: Another wave of wildfire smoke has drifted into the US, dimming blue summer skies and igniting troubling concerns regarding the increasing frequency of fires, and what they have to do with climate change. More than 100 million people are under air quality alerts from Wisconsin to Vermont and down to North Carolina as smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to waft south, though conditions are expected to improve slowly into the holiday weekend. Air quality on both sides of the border has…

Read More Read More

White House cautiously opens the door to study geoengineering to slow global warming

White House cautiously opens the door to study geoengineering to slow global warming

Politico reports: The White House offered measured support for the idea of studying how to block sunlight from hitting Earth’s surface as a way to limit global warming, in a congressionally mandated report that could help bring efforts once confined to science fiction into the realm of legitimate debate. The controversial concept known as solar radiation modification is a potentially effective response to fighting climate change, but one that could have unknown side effects stemming from altering the chemical makeup…

Read More Read More

Lula faces powerful opposition as he seeks to protect the Amazon and recognize Indigenous rights

Lula faces powerful opposition as he seeks to protect the Amazon and recognize Indigenous rights

Farai Shawn Matiashe writes: Surrounded by thousands of supporters, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (known simply as “Lula”) was sworn into office on Jan. 1, 2023, at a colorful inauguration ceremony held at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. It was not Lula’s first time assuming the highest office of Latin America’s largest country. He was first sworn in two decades ago and served two terms as Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010. The 67-year-old is a…

Read More Read More

Current heatwave across southern states made five times more likely by climate crisis

Current heatwave across southern states made five times more likely by climate crisis

The Guardian reports: The record heatwave roiling parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mexico was made at least five times more likely due to human-caused climate change, scientists have found, marking the latest in a series of recent extreme “heat dome” events that have scorched various parts of the world. A stubborn ridge of high pressure has settled over Mexico and a broad swath of the southern US over the past three weeks, pushing the heat index, a combination of temperature…

Read More Read More