salination – Desdemona Despair

Aerial view of two large ships traveling on a drought-stricken Mississippi River. Photo: Philip Gould / Getty

October 31, 2023

The Mississippi River is losing its fight with the ocean – “This is not a one-off or once-in-100-years thing”

By Nancy Walecki 11 October 2023 (The Atlantic) – The mouth of the Mississippi River is the arena for a kind of wrestling match. In one corner of the ring is the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico, and in the other, the river’s fresh water. The two shove against each other, and usually, […]

A ghost forest develops atop the Catlett Islands along the north shore of Virginia’s York River. Photo: M. Kirwan / VIMS

July 23, 2023

Ghost forests: coastal forests dying off as sea-level rise accelerates

By Ginger Zee, Daniel Manzo, and Kelly Livingston 6 July 2023 (ABC News) – As people around the world contend this week with the hottest temperatures ever recorded on Earth, more visual evidence of climate change is emerging with the spread of ghost forests. The globe is naturally warming and seas naturally rise, but greenhouse […]

A boat sails in front of a wave caused by the advance of sea water on the river during the dry season in the Bailique Archipelago, district of Macapa, state of Amapa, northern Brazil, Monday, 12 September 2022. During a full moon, the sea invades the river with such strength that, in some places, it turns into a single giant wave of up to 4 meters (13 feet), a phenomenon known as pororoca. Photo: Eraldo Peres / AP Photo

December 23, 2022

Climate migration: Açai growers flee salty Amazon water – “The village is approaching its end”

By Fabiano Maisonnave and Eraldo Peres 10 November 2022 MACAPA, Brazil (AP) – Where the mother of all rivers meets the Atlantic Ocean in coastal Brazil, it’s not a single channel, instead it braids around 230 kilometers (142 miles) of islands including the Bailique Archipelago. A native of the mouth of the Amazon, Elielson Elinho, […]

Satellite view of the Chibayish marshes in Iraq before and after drying from extended drought. Photo: Planet Labs

December 20, 2022

Politics, climate conspire as Tigris and Euphrates dwindle – “Life has ended here”

By Samya Kullab 18 November 2022 DAWWAYAH, Iraq and ILISU DAM, Turkey (AP) – Next year, the water will come. The pipes have been laid to Ata Yigit’s sprawling farm in Turkey’s southeast connecting it to a dam on the Euphrates River. A dream, soon to become a reality, he says. He’s already grown a […]

Hoof prints left by Camargue bulls mark a section of pasture encrusted with salt on the Raynaud ranch in Camargue, southern France, 23 September 2022. As soil salt levels rise due to drought and reduced river flow from the Rhone River, the land traditionally used by bull breeders like the Raynaud family is becoming more and more difficult to maintain as a suitable pace to raise animals. Photo: Daniel Cole / AP Photo

December 10, 2022

In southern France, drought, rising seas threaten traditions – “The sea level rises on our coast and takes more and more of our land”

By Daniel Cole 30 October 2022 SAINTES-MARIE DE LA MER, France (AP) – In a makeshift arena in the French coastal village Aigues-Mortes, young men in dazzling collared shirts come face-to-face with a raging bull. Surrounded by the city’s medieval walls, the men dodge and duck the animal’s charges while spectators let out collective gasps. […]

Satellite view of Lake Tuz in Turkey acquired on 23 October 2021. Lake Tuz is Turkey's second-largest lake and home to several bird species. During the summer of 2021, the lake completely dried up causing the death of thousands of flamingos and other bird species that inhabit the lake. Experts attribute the extreme drought in eastern Turkey to climate change. Photo: European Union / Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery

November 6, 2021

Haunting satellite imagery shows Turkey’s second-largest lake has dried up

By Molly Taft 2 November 2021 (Gizmodo) – A new satellite image of Turkey’s Lake Tuz is gorgeous—and, if you know more about what it’s portraying, worrying. The stunning capture from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite shows Turkey’s second-largest lake has completely dried up this year, exposing a haunting expanse of salt. While Lake Tuz, one of the world’s largest saltwater lakes, […]

Deer photographed by a remote camera on 11 August 2020 in a forest destroyed by climate change in North Carolina. Sea level rise and saltwater intrusion are killing trees en masse, causing ghost forests. Photo: Emily Ury

April 11, 2021

Sea level rise is killing trees along the Atlantic coast, creating “ghost forests” that are visible from space

By Emily Ury 6 April 2021 (The Conversation) – Trekking out to my research sites near North Carolina’s Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, I slog through knee-deep water on a section of trail that is completely submerged. Permanent flooding has become commonplace on this low-lying peninsula, nestled behind North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The trees growing in […]

Graphs from the “Climate Change and Land 2019” report by the IPCC, showing changes relative to 1961 of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, world agricultural production, food demand, and desertification and land degradation. Graphic: IPCC

August 12, 2019

World food security increasingly at risk due to “unprecedented” climate change impact, new UN report warns

8 August 2019 (UN News) – More than 500 million people today live in areas affected by erosion linked to climate change, the UN warned on Thursday, before urging all countries to commit to sustainable land use to help limit greenhouse gas emissions before it is too late. Speaking at the launch of a Special […]