Climate Change

"Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest peak by a wide margin for any year since 1979, when the continuous satellite record began . . . The difference this year from the 1981 to 2010 average is an area roughly the size of Alaska. Antarctica has ice both on land, in the form of its massive continental ice sheet, and in the waters around it, in the form of seasonal sea ice. The ice in the water helps protect the land ice from the warming ocean. Less sea ice could mean that the continental ice sheet melts and breaks faster, contributing to faster sea-level rise around the world."

"If you want to mark an unnatural, scary, real-world data point for climate change, it is here in Britain, right now, which saw its hottest day on record Tuesday. Temperatures in six locations reached 40 Celsius or higher, with London Heathrow and St. James Park hitting 40.2 Celsius — or 104.3 Fahrenheit. It’s an extreme-weather episode, a freak peak heat, not seen since modern record keeping began a century and a half ago. And probably not since weather observation got serious here in 1659. And maybe far longer. Hitting 40C, for British climate scientists, is a kind of a unicorn event that had appeared in their models but until recently seemed almost unbelievable and unattainable this soon."

"The Arctic is heating up nearly four times faster than the Earth as a whole, according to new research. The findings are a reminder that the people, plants and animals in polar regions are experiencing rapid, and disastrous, climate change. Scientists previously estimated that the Arctic is heating up about twice as fast as the globe overall. The new study finds that is a significant underestimate of recent warming . . . There are many reasons why the Arctic is heating up more quickly than other parts of the Earth. Changes in the amount of air pollution coming from Europe and natural multi-decade climate variations likely play a role. But human-caused global warming is the underlying reason that the Arctic, and the planet as a whole, are heating up."

"Cities along the coasts of South and Southeast Asia are sinking — even faster than similar cities elsewhere — because of rapid, poorly controlled urbanization, scientists say, heightening risks already posed by rising sea levels . . . Led by Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), a group of international scientists used satellite imagery taken between 2014 and 2020 to analyze sinking land across 48 of the most densely populated coastal cities, with populations of at least 5 million, across the world. They found that the median velocity of land subsidence — the rate at which land is sinking — in each of the 48 coastal cities ranges as much as 16.2 millimeters, or more than 0.6 inches annually."

"Officials have struggled to put into words the scale of the flooding that has destroyed large parts of Pakistan. More than 1,000 people have died, and tens of millions more have been affected by months of incessant rain. The flooding turned catastrophic over the past few weeks as monsoon season rainfall overwhelmed low-lying areas near the Indus River. Water spilled from its banks into the surrounding plains, destroying infrastructure and homes . . . As Pakistan grapples with the loss of housing and farmlands as well as the risk of disease, many fear the country’s humanitarian disaster is only beginning . . . Exceptional rainfall began across Pakistan in June after months of historic heat waves and little precipitation. The ground was dry and loose from record heat, causing landslides across the country. Melting glaciers triggered floods . . . Pakistan has had eight rounds of widespread rain this monsoon season, about double the normal amount. The country has experienced 190 percent more rainfall than average from the beginning of June to the end of August. As the Indus River swelled from the steady precipitation and glaciers melted, low-lying areas were devastated."

"The amount of planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere broke a record in May, continuing its relentless climb . . . . It is now 50 percent higher than the preindustrial average, before humans began the widespread burning of oil, gas and coal in the late 19th century. There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now than at any time in at least 4 million years."

“In a country where there has always been more space than people, where the land and wildlife are cherished like a Picasso, nature is closing in. Fueled by climate change and the world’s refusal to address it, the fires that have burned across Australia are not just destroying lives, or turning forests as large as nations into ashen moonscapes.”

Based on a new study, researchers predict that we could lose up to 50% of plants and animals risk extinction by 2070 due to climate change: "In a way, it's a 'choose your own adventure . . . If we stick to the Paris Agreement to combat climate change, we may lose fewer than two out of every 10 plant and animal species on Earth by 2070. But if humans cause larger temperature increases, we could lose more than a third or even half of all animal and plant species, based on our results."

“Greta Thunberg, said that she will continue to strike until Sweden is aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Since then, her singular action has spread into an international climate movement, organized by young people around the world. This strike followed the last co-ordinated event on March 15, which saw over 1.6 million people across 133 countries turn out at demonstrations according to organizers.”

“The list is an interesting window into how different countries bear the brunt of climate change in different ways. The most costly events in terms of damage were California wildfires ($25 billion), Typhoon Hagibis in Japan ($15 billion) and flooding in the American Midwest ($12.5 billion). Further down the list, Cyclone Idai caused just $2 billion in damage, but ultimately cost 1,300 lives in southern Africa.”

“California’s coastal waters are acidifying twice as fast as the rest of the oceans... And some of California’s most important seafood — including the spiny lobster, the market squid and the Dungeness crab — are becoming increasingly vulnerable. The carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to the planet’s rapidly warming climate are also changing the chemistry of the world’s oceans, which have absorbed roughly 27 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted worldwide.”

“Atmospheric CO2 is rising at accelerating rates—currently climbing at close to 3 ppm each year, and getting faster. Every year, the world sees new levels that were previously unrecorded in modern human history. The last time CO2 concentrations hit 415 ppm was likely close to 3 million years ago... Samples taken from ancient sediments at the bottom of the ocean, fossilized corals, or ancient ice from Greenland or Antarctica can provide researchers with chemical information about the Earth’s climate millions of years in the past... During the last geological era that saw CO2 concentrations over 400 ppm, global temperatures were about 3 C higher... There was very little ice on Greenland, there was no ice on West Antarctica, and the East Antarctic ice sheet was a little bit reduced... sea levels as a result were a lot higher.”

Musk oxen are unexpectedly vulnerable to rapid climate change in the Arctic… In a warming landscape, pregnant female musk oxen may struggle to find enough food for their unborn calves, the researchers found. Their undersized offspring may die young or fail to produce many calves of their own. In places, musk oxen may disappear altogether… Other grazing species, like caribou or Dall sheep, also may be harmed by increasing rain in the Arctic.

“. . . World Bank Group report estimates that the impacts of climate change in three of the world’s most densely populated developing regions — sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America — could result in the displacement and internal migration of more than 140 million people before 2050. That many people on the move could easily lead to massive political and economic strife and significantly stall development in those regions.”