The world’s oceans have suddenly spiked much hotter and well above record levels in the last few weeks, with scientists trying to figure out what it means and whether it forecasts a surge in atmospheric warming. Some researchers think the jump in sea surface temperatures stems from a brewing and possibly strong natural El Nino warming weather condition plus a rebound from three years of a cooling La Nina, all on top of steady global warming that is heating deeper water below. If that’s the case, they said, record-breaking ocean temperatures this month could be the first in many heat records to shatter. From early March to this week, the global average ocean sea surface temperature jumped nearly two-tenths of a degree Celsius (0.36 degree Fahrenheit), according to the University of M...
Read MoreCategory: जलवायु परिवर्तन
Stories, news, features and articles about climate change and global warming
Italy’s largest river is already as low as it was last summer, with the winter snow fields that normally save it from drying up over the warmer months having receded by 75%, according to the Bolzano climate and environment agency. It’s already causing some reliant on the Po to course correct. Boats lie on the dried shipyard on the Po River in Torricella, near Cremona, Italy, Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) “In a few days I will have to cancel all bookings for our Po River cruises because of the shallow water,” said captain Giuliano Landini as he shook his head, his arms stretched wide on the command deck of the Stradivari ship docked under the Boretto bridge and surrounded by long stretches of sand. His 60-meter (196-foot) long vessel used to transport up to 4...
Read More# A report published in Nature Climate Change suggests that trophic rewilding, or restoring and protecting the functional roles of animals in ecosystems, is an overlooked climate solution. # Reintroducing just nine species or groups of species (including African forest elephants, American bison, fish, gray wolves, musk oxen, sea otters, sharks, whales and wildebeest) would help limit global warming to less than the 1.5°C (2.7°F) threshold set by the Paris Agreement, according to the report. # Animals play a significant role in how much carbon plants, soil and sediments can capture, as they redistribute seeds and nutrients and disturb soil through digging, trampling, and nest-building. # The report emphasizes the need for a change in mindset within science and policy to take adva...
Read MoreMonte Cimone, a popular ski resort in Italy's Apennine Mountains, invested 5 million euros in artificial snowmaking before the winter season in an attempt to stave off the impact of global warming. The money was largely wasted. The snow cannon proved useless because the water droplets they fire into the air need freezing weather for them to fall to the ground as snow, and until mid-January the temperature never fell below zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit). "The ski-lifts were closed, the ski instructors and seasonal workers had nothing to do and we lost 40% of our revenue for the whole season," said Luciano Magnani, head of the local consortium of ski tourism operators. "It was the first time in 40 years that we were closed for the Christmas holidays." Skiers ride on an artificial ...
Read MoreStudy reveals 'invisible' glacier loss underwater A new study reveals that the mass loss of lake-terminating glaciers in the greater Himalaya has been significantly underestimated, due to the inability of satellites to see glacier changes occurring underwater, with critical implications for the region's future projections of glacier disappearance and water resources. Published in Nature Geoscience on April 3, the study was conducted by an international team including researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Graz University of Technology (Austria), the University of St. Andrews (UK), and Carnegie Mellon University (USA). FILE PHOTO: People walk past a destroyed dam after a Himalayan glacier broke and crashed into the dam at Raini Chak Lata village in Chamoli distric...
Read MoreA 50-year study of salt marsh ecology from the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass., concludes more than 90% of the world's salt marshes could succumb to sea-level rise by 2100 Cape Cod’s salt marshes are as iconic as they are important. These beautiful, low-lying wetlands are some of the most biologically productive ecosystems on Earth. They play an outsized role in nitrogen cycling, act as carbon sinks, protect coastal development from storm surge, and provide critical habitats and nurseries for many fish, shellfish, and coastal birds. And, according to new research from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), more than 90 percent of the world’s salt marshes are likely to be underwater by the end of the century. The findings come from a 50-year study in Great Sippe...
Read MoreAmerica will probably get more killer tornado- and hail-spawning supercells as the world warms, according to a new study that also warns the lethal storms will edge eastward to strike more frequently in the more populous Southern states, like Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. The supercell storm that devastated Rolling Fork, Mississippi is a single event that can’t be connected to climate change. But it fits that projected and more dangerous pattern, including more nighttime strikes in a southern region with more people, poverty and vulnerable housing than where storms hit last century. And the season will start a month earlier than it used to. FILE PHOTO: Debris is strewn around tornado damaged homes, Sunday, March 26, 2023, in Rolling Fork, Miss. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) The s...
Read MoreSnow falls thick as skiers shed their gear and duck into the Sundeck Restaurant, one of the first certified energy efficient buildings in the U.S. — this one at 11,200 feet (3,413 meters) above sea level atop Aspen Mountain in Colorado. WeatherNation plays on the television, looping footage of last year’s megastorms and flashing a headline: “2022 billion dollar disasters.” Aspen Skiing Company's vice-president of sustainability, Auden Schendler, who watches skiers as they walk in, says it's not enough for resorts to just change their on-site operations to become “green.” They must also advocate for policies that combat climate change. As global warming threatens to put much of the ski industry out of business over the next several decades, resorts are beginning to embrace a role...
Read MoreChurch tower reemerges from parched reservoir in drought-hit Spain
Spain is in the grip of a long-term drought after 36 months of below-average rainfall, with some parts so parched that officials have asked people to cut water use and meteorologists warn of worse to come. Some reservoirs in Catalonia, which surrounds Barcelona, are so low that old constructions like bridges and a church bell tower have resurfaced, people are flying kites on lake beds and navigation apps show someone in the middle of the water when they are standing on dry land. The door of a house is pictured in the village of San Roman de Sau after the re-emerging of it while Sau reservoir has lowest level since 1990 due to extreme drought in Catalonia, near Vic, Spain March 15, 2023. REUTERS/Nacho Doce The weather will be drier and hotter than usual this spring along the north...
Read MoreEurope is emerging from its second-warmest winter on record, European Union scientists said on Wednesday, as climate change continues to intensify. The average temperature in Europe from December to February was 1.4 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average for the Boreal winter season, according to data published by the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The Nigardsbreen glacier in Jostedal, Norway on August 5, 2022. The glacier has lost almost three kilometers in length in the past century due to climate change. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen) That ranks as Europe's joint-second warmest winter on record, exceeded only by the winter of 2019-2020. Europe experienced a severe winter heatwave in late December and early January, when record-high winter temperatures hit count...
Read More
You must be logged in to post a comment.