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2022 Temperature Report | Earth Wise

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The average surface temperature for the Earth in 2022 tied with 2015 as the fifth warmest on record.  The warming trend for the planet continued with global temperatures 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the average baseline for 1951-1980 that NASA uses for its studies. Compared with the late 19th century average used in setting climate goals, global temperatures are up about 1.1 degrees Celsius, or 2 degrees Fahrenheit.

Overall, the past nine years have been the warmest since modern recordkeeping began in 1880.   The rising temperatures have moved in concert with rising levels of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere from human activity.  Many factors can affect the average temperature in any given year including El Nino and La Nina conditions in the Pacific.  But the longer-term trend is quite clear.  Global temperatures continue to rise.

Greenhouse gas emissions have reached all-time high levels despite increasing efforts to reduce them.  There was a real drop in levels in 2020 due to reduced activity during COVID-19 lockdowns, but they rebounded soon thereafter. 

The Arctic region continues to experience the strongest warming trends, as much as four times the global average.  Arctic warming has a major impact on weather at lower latitudes as it changes the behavior of the jet stream as well as affecting ocean currents and water temperatures.

As global temperatures continue to rise, rainfall and tropical storms have become more intense, droughts have become more severe, and ocean storm surges have had increasing impact.  From torrential monsoons in Asia to megadroughts in the U.S. Southwest, extreme weather has become the new normal.

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NASA Says 2022 Fifth Warmest Year on Record, Warming Trend Continues

Photo, posted June 20, 2020, courtesy of Daxis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Triple La Niña | Earth Wise

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La Niña is an oceanic phenomenon consisting of cooler than normal sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropic Pacific.  It is essentially the opposite of the better-known El Niño.   These sea-surface phenomena affect weather across the globe.  As one oceanographer put it:  when the Pacific speaks, the whole world listens.

There is currently a La Niña underway, and it is the third consecutive northern hemisphere winter that has had one.  This so-called triple-dip event is rather rare.  The only other times they have been recorded over the past 70 years were in 1954-56, 1973-76, and 1998-2001.

La Niñas appear when strong easterly trade winds increase the upwelling of cooler water from the depths of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean near the equator.  This causes large-scale cooling of the ocean surface.  The cooler ocean surface modifies the moisture content of the atmosphere across the Pacific and can cause shifts in the path of jet streams that intensifies rainfall in some places and causes droughts in others.

These weather effects tend to include floods in northern Australia, Indonesia, and southeast Asia and, in contrast, drought in the American southwest.  In North America, cooler and stormier conditions often occur across the Pacific Northwest while the weather becomes warmer across the southern US and northern Mexico.

In the spring, the tropic Pacific essentially resets itself and starts building toward whatever condition will happen in the following winter, be it another La Niña or possibly an El Niño.   For the time being, forecasters expect the current La Niña to persist through February.

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La Niña Times Three

Photo, posted March 10, 2007, courtesy of Gail via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Coping With Climate Change | Earth Wise

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Extreme weather events including prolonged drought and heavy rainfall are becoming more common and more severe as global temperatures rise.  As the climate continues to change in the coming decades, how will animals respond? 

Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have examined how different mammals react to climate change. They analyzed data on population fluctuations from 157 mammal species around the world.  They compared these fluctuations with weather and climate data from the same time period.  The research team had 10 or more years of data for each species studied. 

The researchers found that mammals that live for a long time and/or produce less offspring –  like llamas, elephants, bears, and bison – are more climate resilient than small mammals with short lives — like mice, possums, lemmings, and rare marsupials. 

For example, large, long-lived mammals can invest their energy into one offspring, or simply wait for better times if conditions become challenging.  On the other hand, small, short-lived mammals like rodents have more extreme population changes in the short term. In the event of a prolonged drought, large portions of their food base may rapidly disappear, and they are left to starve because they have limited fat reserves.

However, the research team notes that the ability of a species to withstand climate change must not be the only factor when assessing a species’ vulnerability.  In fact, in many cases, habitat destruction, poaching, pollution, and invasive species pose a larger threat to animal species than climate change. 

While the study only examined 157 species, the findings enable researchers to also predict how animals they know less about will react to climate change.

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Which animals can best withstand climate change?

Photo, posted July 8, 2018, courtesy of Ray via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Building Resilient Food Systems | Earth Wise

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According to the United Nations and The World Bank, global hunger levels in 2021 surpassed the previous record set in 2020.  The organizations also found that acute food insecurity – defined as when a person’s inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger – could continue to worsen this year in many countries around the world. 

According to a new study led by researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, increased demand for water will be the biggest threat to food security during the next 20 years, followed closely by heat waves, droughts, income inequality, and political instability.  

The report, which was recently published in the journal One Earth, calls for increased collaboration to build a more resilient global food supply.  The impacts of conflict and climate change are already measured and studied around the world.  While these pressing threats are not new, the researchers found that better collaboration between these areas of research could fortify and strengthen global food security. 

In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers surveyed 69 experts in various fields related to food security.  They found that many effects of climate change – such as unpredictable weather changes – could have the greatest negative impacts on food security.  The researchers also found that threats to food security from income inequality, global price shocks, and political instability and migration are highly likely during the next two decades.  More than half of the world’s food insecure populations also live in conflict-prone regions.

According to the research team, food security has never been a problem of production.  It’s a problem of distribution, access, and poverty, and can be exacerbated by conflict.   

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Amid climate change and conflict, more resilient food systems a must, report shows

Photo, posted July 19, 2009, courtesy of Danumurthi Mahendra via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Carbon Dioxide Levels Higher Again | Earth Wise

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that carbon dioxide levels measured in May at the Mauna Loa Observatory reached a value of 421 parts per million.  This is 50% greater than pre-industrial levels and is in a range not seen on earth for millions of years.

Before the Industrial Revolution, CO2 levels fairly steadily measured around 280 parts per million, pretty much for all 6,000 years of human civilization.  Since the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, humans have generated an estimated 1.5 trillion tons of CO2 pollution, much of which will continue to warm the atmosphere for thousands of years.

The present levels of carbon dioxide are comparable to those of an era known as the Pliocene Climatic Optimum, which took place over 4 million years ago. 

The bulk of the human-generated carbon dioxide comes from burning fossil fuels for transportation and electrical generation, from cement and steel manufacturing, and from the depletion of natural carbon sinks caused by deforestation, agriculture, and other human impacts on the natural environment.

Humans are altering the climate in ways that are dramatically affecting the economy, infrastructure, and ecosystems across the planet.  By trapping heat that would otherwise escape into space, greenhouse gases are causing the atmosphere to warm steadily, leading to increasingly erratic weather episodes ranging from extreme heat, droughts, and wildfires, to heavier precipitation, flooding, and tropical storm activity.

The relentless increase of carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa is a sober reminder that we need to take serious steps to try to mitigate the effects of climate change.

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Carbon dioxide now more than 50% higher than pre-industrial levels

Photo, posted December 20, 2016, courtesy of Kevin Casey Fleming via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Saving Money By Predicting The Wind | Earth Wise

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Managing an electrical grid that utilizes significant amounts of intermittent generation sources – solar and wind power – brings with it some unique challenges.  There are abundant wind resources in this country and more and utilities are taking advantage of these resources.   But there are times when there is more wind, times when there is less wind, and times when there is no wind at all.   Utilities need accurate wind forecasts to determine when they need to generate or purchase energy from alternative sources.

Poor wind forecasts can cost utilities a lot of money.  If there is overprediction – that is, when there is less wind than predicted – utilities have to purchase energy off the spot market at higher prices.  If there is underprediction – more wind than predicted – utilities may needlessly burn fossil fuels and waste money that way. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration produces wind forecasts using its High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) weather model, which provides hourly updated forecasts for every part of the United States looking forward up to 48 hours.  The model generates predictions of wind speed and direction at multiple levels of the atmosphere, information that utilities can use to predict the output of their wind turbines.

A new study by economists and scientists from Colorado State University and NOAA estimated the financial impact of the HRRR model on wind farm production.  The research team calculated that increasingly accurate weather forecasts over the last decade have saved consumers over $150 million a year.   Estimates are that if the newest model was in use in previous years, the savings would have been over $300 million a year.

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NOAA wind forecasts result in $150 million in energy savings every year

Photo, posted May 2, 2022, courtesy of California Energy Commission via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Weaning Off Fossil Fuels | Earth Wise            

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We recently talked about California producing 97% of its electricity from renewables on one sunny afternoon in April.  On May 8th, the state produced enough renewable electricity to meet 103% of consumer demand.  These sorts of records are likely to be increasingly commonplace in the spring when the weather is still fairly mild.

But even while renewables were producing more electricity than California needed, natural gas power plants in the state were still running.

Turning off the gas power plants is not possible.  The reason is that as the sun sets and solar farms stop producing power, California has to quickly replace the power with electricity from other sources.  Natural gas plants are massive industrial facilities that cannot be turned on and off rapidly.  Some take as many as 4 to 8 hours to switch on.  Operators back them down as far as they can go, but even when there is plenty of solar power during the day, natural gas plants are still running.

The state is rapidly building huge battery storage projects as an alternative to gas plants, but so far, they are still only a small fraction of what is needed.   Wind power is another part of the solution along with hydropower.  California imports some power from other states as well and, in fact, also exports power when there is excess.  But keeping the energy system balanced and stable is an ongoing challenge.

California is building huge amounts of solar, huge amounts of wind, and huge amounts of energy storage, which should get the state to at least 90% of the way to a clean grid.  It’s the last 5-10% that is much harder to accomplish before natural gas is no longer part of the energy system.

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California just ran on 100% renewable energy, but fossil fuels aren’t fading away yet

Photo, posted January 10, 2014, courtesy of F.G. via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Cloud Seeding And The Western Drought | Earth Wise

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The massive megadrought affecting the American West is now considered to be the driest two-decade period in the past 1,200 years.  The lengthy drought has led to increased wildfires, reduced agricultural productivity, and reduced electricity generation by hydropower plants.  The historically low water levels in the largest two reservoirs in the U.S. – Lake Mead and Lake Powell – has triggered reductions in water allocations to Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico.

Several western states have expanded cloud seeding programs in an attempt to increase precipitation.  During the past two years, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and California have all stepped up their cloud seeding efforts.  Outside of the US, the United Arab Emirates and China both have implemented massive cloud seeding programs.

A study by researchers at the University of Colorado and the National Center for Atmospheric Research looked at the ability of cloud seeding to increase snowfall.  The study unambiguously demonstrated that cloud seeding can increase snowfall.  Just how effective it is in terms of how much additional snow seeding produces is less clear.

Given the dire need for water and the fact that cloud seeding is not especially expensive, governments and other users are not hesitating to make use of it.

Unfortunately, the study shed no light on the efficacy of warm weather seeding to produce rain.  There is in fact little evidence that seeding clouds to produce rain accomplishes very much.  Once again, the prevailing view is that it is worth trying.  There do not appear to be environmental downsides to seeding.

The hope is that cloud seeding may at least restore clouds to the state they had been in before industrial pollution and other human activities affected them.

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Can Cloud Seeding Help Quench the Thirst of the U.S. West?

Photo, posted November 21, 2013, courtesy of Sharon Tate Soberon via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Is It Really Getting Warmer? | Earth Wise

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The primary indicator of global climate change is the Global Mean Surface Temperature of the Earth and the world’s nations are trying to keep its increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius over the pre-industrial level.   That rise in temperature is called the Global Surface Temperature Anomaly and it actually reached an all-time high in 2016 at 1.02 degrees before going back down.

At this point, you might be saying, “hold on there…  it hasn’t gotten larger over the past 5 years?”  What’s going on?

The global climate is pretty complicated and there are many things that influence it.  One of the most significant factors is the El Niño Southern Oscillation or, more familiarly, the El Niño.  The El Niño is a periodic and irregular variation in the sea surface temperature of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean driven by persistent westerly winds.  When an El Niño is happening, currents move to the west coast of South America and warm the tropics and subtropics.  This causes a spike in the global mean temperature.  There was a strong El Niño in 2016.

On the other hand, when easterly winds dominate to form a La Niña, cool water comes up from the depths of the Pacific and cools the atmosphere.  In 2017 and 2018, there was a fairly strong La Niña, lowering the global mean temperature.  2020 had no El Niño or La Niña, and the global temperature went back up to its previous peak.  Last year, there was again a La Niña and the temperature dipped again.

The global mean surface temperature has been rising in the industrial era, but it also fluctuates with the complicated dynamics of the Pacific Ocean.

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Why Isn’t It Getting Warmer?

Photo, posted February 12, 2016, courtesy of Amit Patel via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

January Climate Report Card | Earth Wise

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January was the sixth-warmest January in the 143 years of global climate record keeping.  The global land and ocean surface temperature was 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average.

Meanwhile, the United States had its coolest January since 2014, although the month still ranked nearly a degree above the long-term average across the nation.  This January was also the driest January in eight years and was one of the top- 15 driest Januarys on record.  That being said, there was the so-called Bomb Cyclone late in the month that dumped 1-2 feet of snow and brought blizzard conditions along the eastern seaboard and set a one-day snowfall record in Boston.

Global conditions and regional and local conditions can be very different.  In the big picture, January was the 46th consecutive January and the 445th consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th century average.

And while the US had a fairly cool January, South America saw its second-warmest January on record, Asia had its fourth warmest, and Oceania had its seventh warmest.

Apart from temperatures, Antarctic sea ice coverage was the second smallest January extent in 44 years.  Arctic ice was 208,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average, although it was the largest since 2009.

Even as the global climate warms, local and regional climate conditions will continue to have unique and variable characteristics over the course of time.  Every time there’s a bout of cold weather, it isn’t time to stop being concerned about climate change.

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January 2022 was Earth’s 6th warmest on record

Photo, posted January 6, 2013, courtesy of Christopher Michel via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Hot Year With Record GHG Levels | Earth Wise

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Last year was a year that saw rising temperatures and rising levels of greenhouse gases.  2021 was the fifth-hottest year on record.  The average global temperature was nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius or 2.1 Fahrenheit degrees higher than the preindustrial average.  The past seven years were the hottest ever by a significant margin.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 414 parts per million, compared with preindustrial levels of 280 parts per million.  Concentrations of methane reached 1876 parts per billion, the highest levels ever recorded. 

Apart from these global measurements, local and regional weather saw the effects of the heating planet.  Extreme temperatures were common with the hottest summer in Europe, heatwaves in the Mediterranean, and unprecedented high temperatures in North America.

The West Coast of the US, northeast Canada, Greenland, and parts of north Africa and the Middle East all experienced the highest above-average temperatures.  However, some places, including Australia, Antarctica, Siberia, and much of the Pacific Ocean often saw below-average temperatures, even though the same places occasionally experienced record high temperatures.

The Covid-19 pandemic and its economic disruptions continued to lead to some reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but in the US, emissions from energy use and industry nonetheless grew 6.2% in 2021 after falling more than 10% in 2020.

Carbon dioxide and methane concentrations are continuing to increase each year and don’t appear to be slowing down.  As long as this situation persists, global temperatures will continue to rise, and extreme and erratic weather will be more and more commonplace.

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2021 Rated One of the Hottest Years Ever as CO2 Levels Hit Record High

Photo, posted November 11, 2011, courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

An Arctic Bus | Earth Wise

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People have built vehicles for all sorts of extreme environments.  There are deep-sea exploration vessels and there have been lunar and Mars rovers.  But one thing that hasn’t existed so far are buses to transport groups of people around in extreme conditions in the Arctic.  Engineers at two Russian Universities are developing a passenger bus for riding in the Far North.   The project is being funded by the Russian Federation Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the URAL Automobile Manufacturing Plant.

The requirements for the vehicle are daunting.  The bus must be operable at extreme temperatures – 60 below zero Fahrenheit and lower – and have no difficulties even in challenging off-road conditions.

Current Arctic crew buses are not capable of getting through snow blockages and the all-terrain tracked vehicles that can get through them do not have sufficient passenger capacity. In addition to being able to go through snowbanks, the bus should be able to float on water for an hour.

Apart from its ability to withstand harsh Arctic conditions, the bus will also have a quarters module.  This means that it will have an autonomous life-support system for passengers in case of emergency.  The quarters module will be designed to sustain up to 20 people for up to 24 hours.  The module might also be used to hold medical equipment, thereby enabling practitioners to reach remote settlements and treat patients. 

The first tests of prototypes for the bus will be conducted in the near future.  The project aims to have the new Arctic Bus design complete and ready for manufacture by the end of 2023 and it will go into production in 2024.

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“Arctic Bus” Being Readied to Be Tested in the Far North

Photo, posted April 21, 2017, courtesy of Markus Trienke via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Upgrading The U.S. Power Grid | Earth Wise

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The Department of Energy has launched the Building a Better Grid Initiative to accelerate the development of new power transmission lines.  The initiative aims to upgrade the nation’s grid, connect more Americans to clean electricity, and reliably move clean electricity to where it is needed most. The initiative is a part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill that was signed into law in November.

Under the initiative, DOE will identify critical national transmission needs and support the buildout of long-distance, high-voltage transmission facilities as well as support transmission planning, financing mechanisms, transmission-related research and development, and efforts on energy justice.

DOE will deploy more than $20 billion in federal financing that includes more than $10 billion in grants to states, Tribes, and utilities to enhance grid resilience and prevent power outages.  It will also coordinate with other agencies to streamline permitting for transmission infrastructure. 

Seventy percent of the US grid’s transmission lines and power transformers are over 25 years old.  There is also insufficient transmission capacity, especially for transmission that facilitates transfer of power across regions.  The current grid is vulnerable to harsh weather and needs improved reliability.

Providing more transmission capacity in areas where it doesn’t exist today is essential for the integration of more large-scale renewable generation sources into the grid.  The national goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035 is not just about decarbonizing the generation sources.  A substantial upgrade to the transmission infrastructure is necessary and the Building a Better Grid Initiative is a major step in the right direction.

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The big upgrade to the US power grid is kicking off

Photo, posted February 2, 2020, courtesy of Tony Webster via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climate-Related Disasters | Earth Wise

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In early December, a series of tornadoes struck multiple states, killing nearly 100 people and producing widespread damage in whole communities.  These storms were at least the 19th weather or climate disaster that caused more than $1 billion in damage during 2021.  The year suffered from droughts, wildfires, severe cold snaps, hurricanes, and other severe weather incidents.

The Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania has been studying how communities can prepare for and bounce back from such disasters.

A key issue is that the location and timing of disasters continues to shift.  Homeowners along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts know that they need to prepare for and deal with hurricanes.  People who live in places like Oklahoma and Kansas are aware that tornadoes are a frequent threat.  But in recent years, strong storms are happening in areas where historically they haven’t.

Places need to start implementing changes to their infrastructure now in order to have an impact on risk reduction.

Presidential disaster declarations are just one part of recovery from disasters.  Other issues to grapple with are the role of government support and how it isn’t just the financial costs of disaster recovery but all the impact on human and other resources that are often not covered by governmental funds.  There is also the issue that low- and moderate-income households are disproportionately harmed and locked out of financial resources for recovery.

The Wharton study points out that innovative approaches will be needed to effectively prepare communities and individuals for disasters to come. 

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Preparing, and paying for, climate change-induced disasters

Photo, posted December 12, 2021, courtesy of State Farm via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Alaskan Icemageddon | Earth Wise

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December saw some wild weather in Alaska.  A combination of record high temperatures and torrential rainstorms resulted in the coining of the term “Icemageddon” to describe what was going on with the weather.

Kodiak Island in southern Alaska saw a high temperature of 67 degrees on December 26, which was warmer than it was in Southern California that same day.  This set an all-time record for the warmest December day in Alaska.  Such a high temperature is amazing considering how little sunlight Alaska gets at this time of year.  And with warmer air comes wetter air, as the atmosphere is capable of holding more water vapor as temperatures increase.

As a result, that same day saw the interior of the state get an inch of rain in just a few hours, something that hadn’t happened for decades.  But then, when temperatures plummeted again, all that rainwater froze.

Huge sheets of ice blocked roads and choked traffic in Fairbanks, Alaska’s second largest city.  Indeed, it was the state’s transportation department that came up with the term icemageddon to describe the situation.

The extreme warmth in December is related to the same weather pattern that brought cold, wintry weather to the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.  Those weather conditions resulted in hundreds of cancelled flights in Seattle, where temperatures dropped into the 20s, and in massive amounts of snowfall in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California.  A strong area of high pressure anchored in the Northern Pacific resulted in a clockwise flow around it drawing warmer, more tropical air from the Pacific up to Alaska.

Climate change continues to push the envelope on what sort of weather is possible all over the world.

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Alaska faces ‘Icemageddon’ as temperatures swing wildly

Photo, posted April 30, 2015, courtesy of Naql via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Fire And Ice | Earth Wise

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In recent years, there have been countless stories about the effects of the changing climate.  Many of those stories have been about the dwindling sea ice in the Arctic and many others have been about the worsening wildfires in the western United States.   According to a recent study published by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, those two things are very much related.

As sea ice in the Arctic melts from July to October, sunlight warms the surrounding land and sea surfaces.  The resulting differences in air pressure create and strengthens a vortex in the atmosphere above the heated area which spins counterclockwise like a cyclone.

The powerful vortex pushes the polar jet stream out of its typical pattern and diverts moist air away from the western United States.  With the jet stream moved off its usual course, a second vortex, this time spinning clockwise, forms under the ridge of the polar jet stream above the Western U.S.  This second vortex brings with it clear skies and dry conditions:  fire-favorable weather.

Arctic sea ice has continually declined at least since the late 1970s.  It is predicted that there will be periods of entirely iceless Arctic waters before the 2050s.  In turn, conditions in the already fire-ravaged West are likely to be further exacerbated.  More than three million acres have burned across California alone during the 2021 wildfire season.

Climate conditions in one part of the world can, over time, influence climate outcomes thousands of miles away.  The research at Pacific Northwest Laboratory reveals how regional land and sea surface warming caused by Arctic ice melting can trigger hotter and drier conditions in the West later in the year.

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Fire and Ice: The Puzzling Link Between Western Wildfires and Arctic Sea Ice

Photo, posted July 28, 2018, courtesy of Bob Dass via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Global Flood Risk From Melting Ice | Earth Wise

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Approximately 10% of the land area on Earth is covered by ice.  This includes glaciers, ice caps, and the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland.  Nearly 70% of all fresh water on earth is locked away in ice.  If all this land ice were to melt, global sea levels would rise by more than 200 feet. 

According to new research led by researchers at the University of Leeds in the U.K., global warming is causing extreme ice melting events in Greenland to become more frequent and more intense over the past 40 years, leading to an increased risk of flooding worldwide.   

According to the findings, which were recently published in the journal Nature Communications, approximately 3.85 trillion tons of ice has melted from the surface of Greenland and into the ocean during the past decade alone.  That’s enough melted ice to cover all of New York City with nearly 15,000 feet of water. 

Rising sea levels threaten the lives and livelihoods of those living in coastal communities around the world.  Beyond the obvious risk of flooding in low-lying areas, rising seas also disrupt marine ecosystems that many coastal communities rely on for food and work.       

Rising sea levels can also alter patterns of ocean and atmospheric circulation, which in turn affect weather conditions around the planet.

Estimates from models suggest that melting ice from Greenland will contribute between 1 inch and 9 inches to global sea level rise by 2100. 

These findings are just another reminder of how we need to act urgently to mitigate climate change if we want to prevent the worst-case scenarios from becoming reality. 

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Increased frequency of extreme ice melting in Greenland raises global flood risk

Photo, posted April 21, 2017, courtesy of Markus Trienke via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

How Quickly Can The Planet Recover? | Earth Wise

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Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.  Historically, these shifts were natural.  But since the Industrial Revolution, scientists have found that the main driver of climate change has been human activities, primarily by adding significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels. 

Today, climate change is destabilizing Earth’s temperature equilibrium and is having a widespread impact on humans, animals, and the environment.  Some of the consequences of anthropogenic climate change include warmer air and ocean temperatures, shrinking glaciers, increasing spread of pests and pathogens, declining biodiversity, and more intense and frequent extreme weather events. 

But how quickly can the climate recover from the warming caused by an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? 

Researchers from Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz in Germany looked into this question by investigating the significant rise in global temperatures that took place 56 million years ago.  Likely triggered by a volcanic eruption,  the increase of between 5 and 8 degrees Celsius was the fastest natural period of global warming that has impacted the climate. 

Because higher temperatures cause rocks to weather faster, the research team decided to analyze the weathering processes that occurred during the warming event 56 million years ago.  Their findings, which were recently published in the Journal Science Advances, indicate that the climate took between 20,000 and 50,000 years to stabilize following the rise in global temperatures.

Climate change is not some distant problem.  It is happening now and it poses a serious threat to all forms of life.  We need to address the problem with more urgency. 

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How quickly does the climate recover?

Photo, posted August 27, 2017, courtesy of Lt. Zachary West (100th MPAD) / Texas Military Department via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Bomb Cyclones | Earth Wise

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It seems like we are hearing about new weather phenomena pretty frequently these days.  One name that has popped up lately is “bomb cyclones.”  Bomb cyclones, it turns out, are storms that undergo “bombogenesis.”  What that means is a low-pressure area (in other words, a storm) that undergoes rapid strengthening and can be described as a weather bomb, or popularly, a bomb cyclone.

These things usually take place over remote tropical ocean areas but a really intense one struck the Pacific Northwest on October 24th.  The storm off the coast of Washington, with a barometric pressure reading equivalent to a category 4 hurricane, was the second extreme low-pressure storm in the North Pacific in a single week.  Both storms involved pressure drops of more than 24 millibars in 24 hours, making them bomb cyclones.

These storms brought high winds and extreme precipitation that doused wildfires and provided some relief to the extreme drought in Central and Northern California.  Along with these positive effects, however, the storms also caused power outages, flooding, landslides, and mud and debris that washed out roads.

The October 24-25 event brought 16.55 inches of rain to Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California in a 48-hour period.  Sacramento got 5.44 inches of rain, breaking a 140-year-old record.  And the city had just broken another extreme weather record for the longest dry spell in history.

The storms directed streams of moisture from north of Hawaii toward the West Coast in long, narrow bands of moisture known as atmospheric rivers.  We are learning about all sorts of unfamiliar weather phenomena as extreme weather events become increasingly common.

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Extratropical Cyclones Drench West Coast

Photo, posted January 4, 2018, courtesy of NOAA/CIRA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Coastal Northeast Is A Hotspot | Earth Wise

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Global warming is, obviously, a world-wide phenomenon.  When the concept of a 2 degrees Celsius temperature rise is discussed, it refers to the average global temperature and the effects that would have on such things as sea level rise and weather patterns.  But the effects of the changing climate are not homogeneous.  Very different things can happen and are happening in different places.

One such place is the coastal northeastern United States, which is a global warming hotspot.  The region is heating faster than most regions of North America and, indeed, 2 degrees of summer warming has already happened in the Northeast.

New research led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has determined that this heating is linked to significant alterations in the ocean and atmospheric conditions over the North Atlantic.

Several studies have found that the Atlantic Meridional Circulation is slowing down.  The AMOC conveys warm, salty water from the tropics north towards Greenland, where it cools and sinks.  The cooled water than flows back south as deep-water currents.  As the warming climate melts glaciers in Greenland, the circulation slows down, less cooled water arrives in the south, and there is more heating of the ocean off the Northeastern coast.

At the same time, the North Atlantic Oscillation, a weather phenomenon that governs the strength and position of the winds that blow from the U.S. over the Atlantic, has tended to settle into a pattern that enhances the influence of ocean air on the eastern seaboard climate.  Warmer ocean air being blown over the region has led to rising temperatures in Boston, New York, and Providence, Rhode Island.

As the average temperature of the world rises, some places will warm more quickly and others more slowly.

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The Coastal Northeastern U.S. Is A Global Warming Hotspot

Photo, posted August 8, 2010, courtesy of Doug Kerr via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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