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Record Low Antarctic Sea Ice | Earth Wise

March 2, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Recent satellite observations of the sea ice in the Antarctic found the lowest level of ice cover ever seen in the forty years that these observations have been made. As of February 8th, there were only 849,000 square miles of the Southern Ocean covered with ice. The previous record low was measured last February 24th when the total coverage was 876,000 square miles. Ice melting was likely to continue as the month went on.

This past January had already set a new record for that month’s mean extent of ice coverage at 1.24 million square miles. This rapid decline in sea ice has been going on for the past six years and is very unusual. Average Antarctic ice cover hardly changed at all during the previous thirty-five years.

Antarctic sea ice generally reaches its maximum extent in September or October and its minimum extent in February. At its maximum, the sea ice cover in the Antarctic is generally between 6.9 and 7.7 million square miles. On the other hand, there are some places where the sea ice melts completely during the Southern Hemisphere summer. Sea ice varies much more in the Antarctic than in the Arctic where the ice is much thicker.

Climate warming at the poles is much higher than at lower latitudes. Nonetheless, it is not yet clear whether what we are seeing is the beginning of the end of summer sea ice in the Antarctic, or whether this is just a new phase characterized by low but still stable sea ice cover in the summer.

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Record low sea ice cover in the Antarctic

Photo, posted January 24, 2012, courtesy of Rob Oo via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Carbon Inequality | Earth Wise

November 4, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Everyone contributes to climate change through the generation of greenhouse gas emissions, but individual contributions vary greatly. A study at the Paris School of Economics has determined that just 1 percent of the population is responsible for nearly a quarter of global carbon emissions growth since 1990.

The study estimated emissions from individuals’ consumption and their financial investments, and also from government spending in their country. Individuals are responsible for carbon emissions as a result of their own activities, but they also bear their share of responsibility for the emissions of the firms that they own or invest in.

In 2019, people living in sub-Saharan Africa produced an average of 1.8 tons of CO₂ equivalent per capita. In North America, the average per capita was more than 10 times higher. Meanwhile, the top 10% of North America’s emitters produced more than 75 tons each.

From 1990 to 2019, the bottom 50% of emitters was responsible for just 16% of emissions growth, while the top 1% was responsible for 23%. The top 0.1% saw emissions growth of 80%.

The inequality between rich and poor is driven more by inequality within countries than by inequality between countries. This is particularly true for wealthy countries. For example, over the study period, the top 1% saw their emissions grow by 26% while emissions actually declined 5-15% among low and middle earners even in wealthy nations.

Economic inequality drives a lot of the dynamics taking place within many countries around the world, and this even applies to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

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Global carbon inequality over 1990–2019

Photo, posted December 11, 2017, courtesy of Bernal Saborio via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Trouble For The Outer Banks | Earth Wise

August 9, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Outer Banks are a series of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina that separate the Atlantic Ocean from the mainland. They are a very popular tourist destination featuring open-sea beaches, state parks, shipwreck diving sites, and historic locations such as Roanoke Island, the site of England’s first settlement in the New World. There is also Kitty Hawk, the site of the Wright Brothers’ first flights.

The ribbon of islands is nearly 200 miles long. Some of them are low and narrow and are only a few feet above sea level. Many are especially vulnerable to Nor’easters in the winter and hurricanes in the summer. The collision of warm Gulf Stream waters and the colder Labrador current helps to create dangerous shoals and some of the largest waves on the East Coast.

Over the years, developers have added billions of dollars’ worth of real estate to the Outer Banks. Rising sea levels and increasingly frequent storms threaten the barrier islands of the Outer Banks. Beach-front cottages have tumbled into the ocean for as long as people have built them in the Outer Banks but now they are falling at a greater rate and more and more are in danger.

The Department of Transportation has spent nearly $100 million dollars to keep NC12, the highway connecting the string of islands, open to traffic. Three new bridges built to traverse inlets opened by storms and bypassing rapidly eroding shorelines raised the cost by another half a billion dollars.

There are many other measures such as pumping sand into eroded areas going on in the Outer Banks, but ultimately, all of the measures may not be enough to deal with rising sea levels and more powerful storms.

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Shifting Sands: Carolina’s Outer Banks Face a Precarious Future

Photo, posted August 31, 2011, courtesy of NCDOT Communications via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Cold And Snow From Global Warming

April 4, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Arctic has been experiencing record warm temperatures and record low sea ice levels. During February, there were nine days in a row with temperatures averaging 27 degrees above normal and often above freezing. Over the previous 20 years, there were only two previous readings above freezing in February – once in 2011 and once last year.

Record Low Sea Ice

January 13, 2017 By EarthWise

This time of the year, sea ice in the Arctic is on the rise as winter sets in. A combination of unusually high air temperatures and a warmer than normal ocean led to a record low for Arctic sea ice extent in November. In the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctic sea ice extent also hit a record low for the month.

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