Greenland ice is melting 7 percent faster than previously thought – ‘The present destabilization may increase sea level for centuries to come’

By Pam Frost Gorder21 September 2016 COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ohio State University) – The same hotspot in Earth’s mantle that feeds Iceland’s active volcanoes has been playing a trick on the scientists who are trying to measure how much ice is melting on nearby Greenland. According to a new study in the journal Science Advances, the […]

Global warming is ‘significant and direct’ threat to U.S. military – ‘Inaction is not a viable option’

By by Idrees Ali, with additional reporting by Steve Holland; editing by Yara Bayoumy and David Gregorio14 September 2016 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The effects of climate change endanger U.S. military operations and could increase the danger of international conflict, according to three new documents endorsed by retired top U.S. military officers and former national security […]

Flooding of U.S. coast, caused by global warming, has already begun – ‘Ultimately, we give up and we leave. That’s how the story ends.’

By Justin Gillis3 September 2016 NORFOLK, Virginia (The New York Times) – Huge vertical rulers are sprouting beside low spots in the streets here, so people can judge if the tidal floods that increasingly inundate their roads are too deep to drive through. Five hundred miles down the Atlantic Coast, the only road to Tybee […]

Designers propose memorial to shorelines past in Washington, D.C.

By Sara Peach2 September 2016 (Yale Climate Connections) – Sea level rise will have a significant impact on coastal communities as the world warms in the coming decades. But it happens too slowly to easily see. Now, designers Erik Jensen and Rebecca Sunter want to give people a tangible way to mark the change. They’ve […]

Permafrost carbon: Catalyst for deglaciation

By Andrew H. MacDougall22 August 2016 (Nature Geoscience) – Between 17,500 and 14,500 years ago, a period sometimes referred to as the Mystery Interval1, atmospheric CO2 concentrations began their post-glacial rise from about 190 ppm in glacial times to approximately 270 ppm by the beginning of the Holocene. The rise in CO2 during the Mystery […]

Dazzling blue lakes are forming in Antarctica, and scientists are worried

[Jim Hansen’s supralinear sea level rise scenario looks increasingly likely. –Des] By Chris Mooney 17 August 2016 (Washington Post) – In a new study, scientists who study the largest ice mass on Earth — East Antarctica — have found that it is showing a surprising feature reminiscent of the fastest melting one: Greenland. More specifically, […]

Graph of the Day: Melt at the base of the Greenland Ice Sheet

By Maria-José Viñas, adapted by Kathryn Hansen4 August 2016 (NASA) – Though it seems counter-intuitive, Greenland’s thick ice sheet actually insulates the bedrock below from the cold air temperatures at the surface. As a result, the bottom of the ice—slowly warmed by heat coming from Earth’s depths—can be tens of degrees warmer than at the […]

Last woolly mammoths died of thirst – ‘The mammoths were contributing to their own demise’

By Rebecca Morelle2 August 2016 (BBC News) – One of the last known groups of woolly mammoths died out because of a lack of drinking water, scientists believe. The Ice Age beasts were living on a remote island off the coast of Alaska, and scientists have dated their demise to about 5,600 years ago. They […]

Global warming already accelerating sea level rise, study finds – ‘Accelerated sea level rise is real, and it’s ongoing’

By Laura Snider10 August 2016 BOULDER, Colorado (NCAR) – Greenhouse gases are already having an accelerating effect on sea level rise, but the impact has so far been masked by the cataclysmic 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Satellite […]

Global warming and housing: Two percent of all U.S. homes at risk of inundation by 2100

By Krishna Rao2 August 2016 (Zillow) – If sea levels rise as much as climate scientists predict by the year 2100, almost 300 U.S. cities would lose at least half their homes, and 36 U.S. cities would be completely lost. One in eight Florida homes would be underwater, accounting for nearly half of the lost […]

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