The heat goes on: Record global temperature for 13th consecutive month

16 June 2016 (NOAA) – The State of the Climate is a collection of monthly summaries recapping climate-related occurrences on both a global and national scale. Global highlights: May 2016 The May temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.57°F above the 20th century average of 58.6°F. This was the highest for May in […]

The Great Barrier Reef: A catastrophe laid bare – ‘It was one of the most disgusting sights I’ve ever seen’

By Michael Slezak6 June 2016 (Guardian) – It was the smell that really got to diver Richard Vevers. The smell of death on the reef. “I can’t even tell you how bad I smelt after the dive – the smell of millions of rotting animals.” Vevers is a former advertising executive and is now the […]

South Pole is the last place on Earth to pass a global warming milestone: Atmospheric CO2 passed 400 ppm for the first time in 4 million years

15 June 2016 (NOAA) – The Earth passed another unfortunate milestone 23 May 2016 when carbon dioxide (CO2) surpassed 400 parts per million (ppm) at the South Pole for the first time in 4 million years. The South Pole has shown the same, relentless upward trend in CO2 as the rest of world, but its […]

Permafrost thawing below shallow Arctic lakes – ‘With further thawing of sub-lake permafrost, the ground will subside, increasing the lake depth and accelerating further permafrost thawing’

WASHINGTON, DC, 16 June 2016 (AGU) – New research shows permafrost below shallow Arctic lakes is thawing as a result of changing winter climate. Warmer winters combined with an increase in snowfall during the last 30 years have limited the growth of seasonal lake ice. In response, lakebed temperatures of Arctic lakes less than 1 […]

Antarctic coastline images reveal four decades of ice loss to ocean – ‘Now we know this has been occurring pervasively along the coastline for almost half a century’

WASHINGTON, DC, 1 June 2016 (AGU) – Part of Antarctica has been losing ice to the ocean for far longer than had been expected, satellite pictures reveal. A study of images along 2000 kilometers (1,240 miles) of West Antarctica’s coastline has shown the loss of about 1000 square kilometers (about 390 square miles) of ice […]

The coming train wreck for older workers

By Richard Eisenberg16 June 2016 (MarketWatch) – Uh-oh. American workers aged 50 or older think there’s nearly a 1 in 2 chance they’ll still be working at 70 but many employees who expect to work longer are exactly the ones who’ll likely be least able to do so. That’s the upshot of the new, frightening […]

The world is about to install 700 million air conditioners – “Demand for cooling, particularly in hot climates, is going to be an incredible driver of electricity requirements”

By Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis 31 May 2016 (Washington Post) – As summer temperatures finally settle in, many in the United States take it for granted that they can dial down the thermostat: Americans use 5 percent of all of their electricity cooling homes and buildings. In many other countries, however — including countries […]

If global warming empties India – ‘The rapid evacuation of the tropics would cause migrants to concentrate in tropical margins and the subtropics, where population densities would increase by 300 percent or more’

By Gayathri Vaidyanathan9 June 2016 (ClimateWire) – In an armchair experiment where humans are thought of as no wiser than animals, scientists have found that climate change could empty some nations by 2100. A warming of 2 degrees Celsius would cause 34 percent of the world’s population to migrate more than 300 miles, to places […]

Alaska just had its warmest spring on record – ‘The temperature difference is huge’

By Suzanna Caldwell9 June 2016 (ADN) – Here’s something Alaskans already know: It’s been really warm this year. But how warm? Record-breaking warm. According to the National Center for Environmental Information, the spring average temperature for the entire state was 32 degrees this year. The normal average for the state is a brisk 24 degrees. […]

Africa has a tomato problem: Miner grubs are wiping out crops and have ‘the potential to effectively eliminate tomato from the agricultural cycle’

By Matthew Hill and Mustapha Muhammad9 June 2016 (Bloomberg News) – Yusuf Ibrahim, a tomato farmer in Kano, Nigeria, has lost almost 90 percent of his crop this year to Tuta absoluta. That prices for the fruit are 15 times higher than before the outbreak of the pest is little consolation; he can’t afford to […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial