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Category: Climate Change

Gulf stream could collapse as early as 2025, study suggests

Gulf stream could collapse as early as 2025, study suggests

The Guardian reports: The Gulf Stream system could collapse as soon as 2025, a new study suggests. The shutting down of the vital ocean currents, called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) by scientists, would bring catastrophic climate impacts. Amoc was already known to be at its weakest in 1,600 years owing to global heating and researchers spotted warning signs of a tipping point in 2021. The new analysis estimates a timescale for the collapse of between 2025 and 2095,…

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Antarctic sea ice in shockingly sharp decline

Antarctic sea ice in shockingly sharp decline

ABC News (Au) reports: This winter has confirmed what scientists had feared — the sea ice around Antarctica is in sharp decline, with experts now concerned it may not recover. Earlier this year, scientists observed an all-time low in the amount of sea ice around the icy continent, following all-time lows in 2016, 2017 and 2022. Usually, the ice has been able to recover in winter, when Antarctica is reliably dark and cold. But this year is different. For the…

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When Greenland was green: Ancient soil from beneath a mile of ice offers warnings for the future

When Greenland was green: Ancient soil from beneath a mile of ice offers warnings for the future

Water and sediment pour off the melting margin of the Greenland ice sheet. Jason Edwards/Photodisc via Getty Images By Paul Bierman, University of Vermont and Tammy Rittenour, Utah State University About 400,000 years ago, large parts of Greenland were ice-free. Scrubby tundra basked in the Sun’s rays on the island’s northwest highlands. Evidence suggests that a forest of spruce trees, buzzing with insects, covered the southern part of Greenland. Global sea level was much higher then, between 20 and 40…

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Tree keepers: Where sustaining the forest is a tribal tradition

Tree keepers: Where sustaining the forest is a tribal tradition

Fred Pearce writes: Mike Lohrengel looks up in awe at trees he has known for 30 years. “This is one of the most beautiful places I know. This forest has it all: the most species, the most diversity. Many trees I know individually. Look at this one behind us. It’s got a split way up there. I’ll never forget that tree till I die.” It is a love affair, for sure. But Lohrengel is no tree-hugger, out to preserve a…

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From scorching heat to deadly storms, Europe has no rest from ‘summer of hell’

From scorching heat to deadly storms, Europe has no rest from ‘summer of hell’

Politico reports: Europe is grappling with extreme weather from soaring temperatures in southern Italy to powerful storms in Croatia and Italy, piling pressure on emergency services and residents, and challenging tourists seeking some summer recuperation. Temperatures have consistently topped 40 degrees Celsius this week across southern and eastern European countries, and for some areas like Sicily there remains no respite. The Italian island was baking in 46 degrees Celsius on Saturday, according to the Met Office, with night temperatures of…

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Climate records tumble, leaving Earth in uncharted territory, say scientists

Climate records tumble, leaving Earth in uncharted territory, say scientists

BBC News reports: A series of climate records on temperature, ocean heat, and Antarctic sea ice have alarmed some scientists who say their speed and timing is unprecedented. Dangerous heatwaves in Europe could break further records, the UN says. It is hard to immediately link these events to climate change because weather – and oceans – are so complex. Studies are under way, but scientists already fear some worst-case scenarios are unfolding. “I’m not aware of a similar period when…

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Tipping points: Climate collapse could happen fast

Tipping points: Climate collapse could happen fast

Lois Parshley writes: Ever since some of the earliest projections of climate change were made back in the 1970s, they have been remarkably accurate at predicting the rate at which global temperatures would rise. For decades, climate change has proceeded at roughly the expected pace, says David Armstrong McKay, a climate scientist at the University of Exeter, in England. Its impacts, however, are accelerating—sometimes far faster than expected. For a while, the consequences weren’t easily seen. They certainly are today….

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‘We are damned fools’: Scientist who sounded climate alarm in 80s warns of worse to come

‘We are damned fools’: Scientist who sounded climate alarm in 80s warns of worse to come

The Guardian reports: The world is shifting towards a superheated climate not seen in the past 1m years, prior to human existence, because “we are damned fools” for not acting upon warnings over the climate crisis, according to James Hansen, the US scientist who alerted the world to the greenhouse effect in the 1980s. Hansen, whose testimony to the US Senate in 1988 is cited as the first high-profile revelation of global heating, warned in a statement with two other…

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A rapid end to burning fossil fuel is possible

A rapid end to burning fossil fuel is possible

Bill McKibben writes: In the list of ill-timed corporate announcements, historians may someday give pride of place to one made by Wael Sawan, the new C.E.O. of Shell, the largest energy company in Europe. In 2021, Shell said that it would reduce oil and gas production by one to two per cent a year up to 2030—a modest gesture in the direction of an energy transition. But Sawan, who assumed command of the company in January, signalled a different direction….

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Big oil quietly walks back on climate pledges as global heat records tumble

Big oil quietly walks back on climate pledges as global heat records tumble

The Guardian reports: It was probably the Earth’s hottest week in history earlier this month, following the warmest June on record, and top scientists agree that the planet will get even hotter unless we phase out fossil fuels. Yet leading energy companies are intent on pushing the world in the opposite direction, expanding fossil fuel production and insisting that there is no alternative. It is evidence that they are motivated not by record warming, but by record profits, experts say….

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Even ‘safe’ places are experiencing climate chaos in America

Even ‘safe’ places are experiencing climate chaos in America

The New York Times reports: The capital of Vermont — the state that often tops those “best states to move to and avoid climate change” lists — was, until Tuesday afternoon, mostly underwater. Swollen by record-breaking rainfall, the Winooski River claimed nearly the entire downtown area of Montpelier late Monday. Swift-water rescue teams helped people escape from the upper floors of apartment buildings not far from the gold-domed State Capitol. Even the governor was forced to hike from his house…

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Floods, fires and deadly heat are the alarm bells of a planet on the brink

Floods, fires and deadly heat are the alarm bells of a planet on the brink

The Washington Post reports: The world is hotter than it’s been in thousands of years, and it’s as if every alarm bell on Earth were ringing. The warnings are echoing through the drenched mountains of Vermont, where two months of rain just fell in only two days. India and Japan were deluged by extreme flooding. They’re blaring from the scorching streets of Texas, Florida, Spain and China, with a severe heat wave also building in Phoenix and the Southwest in…

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The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act is bigger and more far-reaching than you think

The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act is bigger and more far-reaching than you think

Anthropocene reports: Landmark climate legislation passed in the United States in 2022 could nearly halve the U.S. economy’s overall emissions compared to 2005 levels by 2035, according to a new analysis. But on its own, it still won’t be sufficient to meet the country’s pledges under the Paris Agreement. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is possibly the most significant piece of U.S. climate legislation yet. Its provisions include tax credits for clean energy, energy storage, and carbon capture; measures to…

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Vermont floods show limits of America’s efforts to adapt to climate change

Vermont floods show limits of America’s efforts to adapt to climate change

The New York Times reports: This week’s flooding in Vermont, in which heavy rainfall caused destruction even miles from any river, is evidence of an especially dangerous climate threat: Catastrophic flooding can increasingly happen anywhere, with almost no warning. And the United States, experts warn, is nowhere close to ready for that threat. The idea that anywhere it can rain, it can flood, is not new. But rising temperatures make the problem worse: They allow the air to hold more…

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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…

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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…

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