News

• 13th International Conference on Climate Change: Impact and Responses
  On April 8th through 9th 2021 at Vancouver, Canada, The Climate Change: Impacts and Responses Research Network will be holding a blended conference on the science and policy of climate change.


• David Attenborough's comments on UN report
  Sir David said: "Over the course of my life I've encountered some of the world's most remarkable species of animals. Only now do I realise just how lucky I've been. Many of these wonders seem set to disappear forever.


• UN report on climate change
  Linked is the 33-page summary of the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C, issued Oct. 7, 2018, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change


• Bezos is donating $10 billion into climate science
  Jeff Bezox, CEO of Amazon, intends to give $10 billion to scientists, non-governmental organizations and activists working on climate change.


• Australia's shocking bushfire season
  As Australia’s unprecedented bushfire season continues to unfold, competing arguments have been made about the principal causes of the human and environmental tragedy – particularly around the role of climate change.


• A risky expedition to study the ‘doomsday glacier
  The Thwaites Glacier is the largest, most menacing source of rising sea levels all over the world, and it is melting at an alarming rate. For years, scientists have warily watched it from afar, but in November, a team set out on a perilous journey to investigate what is happening below.


• Toll of Climate Change on Workers
  Harvard economist says rise in number of very hot days will cut productivity and hike health risks, especially for many in blue-collar jobs


• 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference
  United Nations met in Spain in December of 2019 to discuss the science and negotiate the policies of climate change. The United Nations are in agreement with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) and World Meteorological Organization's statements concerning global warming. In particular, they agree that there has been a 1.5 degree rise in temperatures from pre-industrial levels and related predictions on desertification, food security, land degradation, among others.


• Sir David Attenborough warns of climate 'crisis moment'
  "The moment of crisis has come" in efforts to tackle climate change, Sir David Attenborough has warned. According to the renowned naturalist and broadcaster, "we have been putting things off for year after year". "As I speak, south east Australia is on fire. Why? Because the temperatures of the Earth are increasing," he said.


• The Doomsday Glacier
  Glaciologists Deconto and Pollard propose mechanism by which western Antartica may collapse precipitously due to warming trends and cause a significantly higher rise in sea levels than conventional models predict.


• WMO confirms 2019 as second hottest year on record
  The year 2019 was the second warmest year on record after 2016, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s consolidated analysis of leading international datasets including those of NOAA and NASA. Average temperatures for the five-year (2015-2019) and ten-year (2010-2019) periods were the highest on record. Since the 1980s each decade has been warmer than the previous one. This trend is expected to continue because of record levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.


• NASA, NOAA Analyses Reveal 2019 Second Warmest Year on Record
  According to independent analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Earth's average global surface temperature in 2019 was the second warmest since modern record-keeping began in 1880. Globally, 2019's average temperature was second only to that of 2016 and continued the planet's long-term warming trend: the past five years have been the warmest of the last 140 years. This past year was 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (0.98 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York..


• 2019 was 2nd hottest year on record for Earth say NOAA, NASA
  The world’s five warmest years have all occurred since 2015 with nine of the 10 warmest years occurring since 2005, according to scientists from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). It was also the 43rd consecutive year with global land and ocean temperatures, at least nominally, above average. The average temperature across the globe in 2019 was 1.71 degrees F (0.95 of a degree C) above the 20th-century average and just 0.07 of a degree F (0.04 of a degree C) cooler than the 2016 record.


• Record-Setting Ocean Warmth Continued in 2019
  Storing over 90% of the excess heat resulting from recent warming trends, the oceans are an important indicator of global temperature trends. Presenting new data and calculations of 2019 ocean heat content, this paper from the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences reports that 2019 was the hottest recorded year of the world's oceans.


• SIAM News, 12/02/19: Linking Extreme Weather to Climate Change
  As the world's climate changes, the warming atmosphere and oceans produce heavier rainfalls and more hurricanes, snowstorms, and other instances of extreme weather. Climate models predict the change in frequency of these events as a result of human-driven global warming. However, scientists and non-scientists alike are interested in whether climate change is responsible for specific weather events - such as Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico in 2017.


• Call for Papers, 12th International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses
  The conference will be held April 16th to 17th 2020 at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice in Mestre, Venice, Italy.


• World Weather Attribution, 07/02/19: Human contribution to record-breaking June 2019 heatwave in France
  A heatwave struck large parts of Europe during the last week of June 2019, breaking several historical records at single locations in France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Spain.


• Daily Kos, 06/24/19: In the Himalayas, glacier melting has doubled since 2000, says new study
  Glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at twice the rate they used to, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances.


• UN Report, 05/6/19: Nature's Dangerous Decline 'Unprecedented'; Species Extinction Rates 'Accelerating.'
  Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history - and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world now likely, warns a landmark new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the summary of which was approved at the 7th session of the IPBES Plenary, meeting last week (29 April - 4 May) in Paris.


• Washington Post Book Review, 04/26/19 - FALTER: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? by Bill McKibben.
  From the review: " It's a direct, attention-grabbing sprint through what we've done to the planet and ourselves, why we haven't stopped it and what we can do about it. Determined to keep the words 'climate change' from fading into our 'mental furniture,' he has gathered the most vivid statistics, distilled history to its juiciest turns, and made the case as urgently and clearly as can be: The whole breadth of our existence - the 'human game' - is in jeopardy.'"


• The Real News, 04/29/19 - Study: As Climate Crisis Has Worsened, So Has Global Economic Inequality
  In a new study out by Stanford researchers reviewing half a century of data, researchers found that as rich countries get richer, they also have more temperate climates and face less of the brunt of climate impacts.


• The Washington Post Magazine, 04/24/19 - 24 Magazine Covers About Climate Change
  


• The Atlantic, 04/23/19 - Greenland Is Falling Apart
  Since 1972, the giant island's ice sheet has lost 11 quadrillion pounds of water.


• PBS, 04/10/19 - Antarctica is losing ice at an accelerating rate. How much will sea levels rise?
  The frozen continent of Antarctica contains the vast majority of all freshwater on Earth. Now that ice is melting at an accelerating rate, in part because of climate change. What does this transformation mean for coastal communities across the globe? William Brangham reports from Antarctica on the troubling trend of ice loss and how glaciers can serve as a climate record from the past.


• Wasington Post, 02/6/19 - Today's Earth looks a lot like it did 115,000 years ago. All we're missing is massive sea level rise.
  New research suggests the planet is already paralleling the most recent major warm period in its past. Now the only question is how fast Antarctica could collapse.


• NOAA, 02/06/19 - 2018 was 4th hottest year on record for the globe
  The U.S. experienced 14 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters


• NASA, 02/06/19 - 2018 Fourth Warmest Year in Continued Warming Trend, According to NASA, NOAA
  


• The Real News Network, 01/31/19 - Global Warming and Extreme Cold: How One Leads to the Other
  


• NOAA, 01/29/19 - Response to climate change denial

  Winter storms don't prove that global warming isn't happening. https://t.co/LDqfq4JH9n pic.twitter.com/ndmLD637Cb

  — NOAA Climate.gov (@NOAAClimate) January 29, 2019

• The Daily Kos, 12/10/18 - Thirty Mile High Wave Encircling Earth to Break over North Pole on Christmas Day
  An extraordinary atmospheric planetary wave, over thirty miles high, covering earth's entire northern hemisphere, will break over the north pole on Christmas day. This wave, which will transfer tremendous amounts of heat to the upper stratosphere, is likely to split the polar vortex in two. This will likely drive cold air out of the Arctic towards the central and eastern U.S. in January and February.


• Washington Post, 11/23/2018 - Major Trump administration climate report says damage is "intensifying across the country"
  Scientists are more certain than ever that climate change is already affecting the United States, and that it is going to be very expensive.


• Washington Post, 11/21/2018 - The New Arctic Frontier
  As the ice melts, U.S. prepares for possible threats from Russia and China


• Special Climate Report: 1.5 C Is Possible But Requires Unprecedented and Urgent Action
  Limiting global warming to 1.5 C would require rapid, far-eaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society, the IPCC said in a new assessment.


• CNN, 10/8/18 - Climate change: IPCC report warns rapid changes needed to stem catastrophic global warming
  Planet has only until 2030 to stem catastrophic climate change, experts warn.


• The Conversation, 08/17 - How hot weather - and climate change - affect airline flights
  When is it too hot to fly?


• CNN, 10/8/18 - Climate change: IPCC report warns rapid changes needed to stem catastrophic global warming
  Planet has only until 2030 to stem catastrophic climate change, experts warn.


• The Real News Network, 09/2/18 - New Climate Study Warns of Dangerous "Hothouse Earth" Scenario
  Climate scientist Will Steffen explains that continued warming of the atmosphere could trigger a cascade of tipping points.


• Harvard Magazine, 08/18 - The "Global Chemical Experiment"
  Harvard's Elsie Sunderland maps invisible ocean pollutants.


• Colloquy Magazine, Summer '18 - Melting Away
  Tracking the flow of the once mighty ice floes.


• Educational Video: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards in the United States
  Provided by LawShelf, a project of the National Paralegal College.


• Call for Papers, Eleventh International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses
  The conference will be held April 16th to 17th 2019 at the Pryzbyla Center, The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., USA.


• Washington Post, 08/26/18 - Climate change is supercharging a hot and dangerous summer
  Scientists point to the effects of global warming amid extreme weather in the Northern Hemisphere.


• Ocean Acidification Could Amplify Climate Disruption
  Ocean acidification can compromise marine ecosystems and was a key component in previous mass extinction events.


• Global Temperature Projections Could Double as the World Burns
  With a scorching start to July and wildfires raging, a new study warns about long-range high temperature projections.


• Antarctica Is Melting Three Times as Fast as a Decade Ago
  The continent's rate of ice loss is speeding up, which is contributing even more to rising sea levels.


• Warm ocean waters bring an unwelcome resident to the Outer Banks: Bull sharks
  There's a baby boom in the warming waters of North Carolina's Outer Banks, in the rivers and bays that branch out from the Pamlico Sound. They are tiny. They are cute. They are bull sharks.


• Heat waves over the ocean have ballooned and are wreaking havoc on marine life
  Heat waves over the world's oceans are becoming longer and more frequent, damaging coral reefs and creating chaos for aquatic species. A study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications found a 54 percent increase in the number of days in which heat waves have cooked the oceans since 1925.


• Nature Communications - an open access journal that publishes high-quality research from all areas of the natural sciences.
  Nature Communications is an open access, multidisciplinary journal dedicated to publishing high-quality research in all areas of the biological, physical, chemical and Earth sciences. Papers published by the journal aim to represent important advances of significance to specialists within each field.


• Website of Dr. Kevin E. Trenberth - Distinguished Senior Scientist in the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research
  


• Eleventh International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts and Responses
  Exploring scientific, policy and strategic perspectives on the impacts of, and responses to, climate change.


• Why have we done so little to tackle climate change?
  William T. Vollmann's new book, "No Immediate Danger," tussles with the comprehension-defying nature of climate change. It is a 600-page amalgam of scientific history, cultural criticism, mathematical experiments, risk-benefit analyses of energy production and consumption, and diaristic meanderings through radiation-festooned landscapes after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. The effect is bewildering.


• Between Earth and Sky: Climate Change on the Last Frontier
  Alaska has been the source of myth and legend in the imagination of Americans for centuries, and what was once the last frontier of American expansion, has become the first frontier in climate change. Between Earth and Sky examines climate change through the lens of impacts to native Alaskans, receding glaciers, and arctic soil.


• The Arctic is full of toxic mercury, and climate change is going to release it
  We already knew that thawing Arctic permafrost would release powerful greenhouse gases. On Monday, scientists revealed it could also release massive amounts of mercury - a potent neurotoxin and serious threat to human health.


• Permafrost Stores a Globally Significant Amount of Mercury
  Changing climate in northern regions is causing permafrost to thaw with major implications for the global mercury (Hg) cycle.


• 2017 Was the Hottest Year Yet In the World's Ocean
  Warming ocean waters can have harmful impacts on habitats like coral reefs and sea ice, to name a few.


• Global Warming Will Increase Risks of Desertification
  A new study shows that a global temperature increase of more than 1.5 degrees celsius will mean that dry air will increase significantly, which can intensify desertification and crop failures. Conversation with Prof. Manoj Joshi, one of the study's authors.


• Climate change is turning 99 percent of these baby sea turtles female
  Green sea turtles do not develop into males or females due to sex chromosomes, like humans and most other mammals do. Instead, the temperature outside a turtle egg influences the sex of the growing embryo. And this unusual biological quirk, scientists say, endangers their future in a warmer world.


• Environmental Warming and Feminization of One of the Largest Sea Turtle Populations in the World
  Climate change affects species and ecosystems around the globe. The impacts of rising temperature are particularly pertinent in species with temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), where the sex of an individual is determined by incubation temperature during embryonic development. In sea turtles, the proportion of female hatchlings increases with the incubation temperature.


• Some like it hot: Scientists figure out why female turtles are born at higher temperatures
  


• Climate Change and Crops
  North Americans get most of their protein from animal-sourced foods, but most of the world relies on a handful of staple crops like wheat, rice, and corn. Climate change may alter the nutritional value of those crops, creating significant health risks, particularly in places where protein deficiency is already a problem (about 660 million people worldwide are affected).


• Global warming boosted Hurricane Harvey's rainfall by at least 15 percent, studies find
  


• Scientists say these 3 weather events of 2016 would have been impossible without climate change
  


• The most accurate climate change models predict the most alarming consequences, study finds
  The climate change simulations that best capture current planetary conditions are also the ones that predict the most dire levels of human-driven warming, according to a recent statistical study released in the journal Nature.


• Vanishing Arctic ice could drive future California droughts
  California's recent 5-year drought was brutal: Houseboats sat on lakebeds, groundwater supplies dwindled, and thousands of fish literally baked to death. Scientists consider it the worst such event the Golden State has seen in 1000 years. Now, a new study identifies an unexpected suspect, thousands of kilometers to the north: an iceless Arctic Ocean.


• These are the melting glaciers that might someday drown your city, according to NASA
  New York City has plenty to worry about from sea level rise. But according to a new study by NASA researchers, it should worry specifically about two major glacier systems in Greenland's northeast and northwest - but not so much about other parts of the vast northern ice sheet.


• These close-up images from NASA show one of the largest icebergs to ever split off from Antarctica
  NASA scientists have captured close-up images of a behemoth iceberg that in July detached from one of the largest floating ice shelves in Antarctica.


• Climate Change and Crops
  North Americans get most of their protein from animal-sourced foods, but most of the world relies on a handful of staple crops like wheat, rice, and corn. Climate change may alter the nutritional value of those crops, creating significant health risks, particularly in places where protein deficiency is already a problem (about 660 million people worldwide are affected). By 2050, a new study projects, 148 million more people, equivalent to 1.6 percent of the world’s projected population,