Hundreds of households in the historic New Mexico city of Las Vegas were told to evacuate on Monday as fierce winds and drought pushed the largest active wildfire in the United States closer to town. The blaze has scorched more than 121,000 acres (49,000 hectares), or more than half the area of New York City, tearing through centuries-old settlements and vacation homes in forested mountains 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Santa Fe. A satellite image shows a natural color closer view of fire lines of Hermits Peak wildfire, east of Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S., May 1, 2022. Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS The fire is the most destructive of a dozen blazes in the Southwest that scientists say are more widespread and arriving earlier this year due to c...
Read MoreTag: climate change
'Arcadia Earth' is an immersive environmental art exhibit in New York City that uses augmented reality to spread awareness about the impact of climate change, said the museum's founder, Valentino Vettori. A view of an exhibit at Arcadia Earth, the first immersive environmental art exhibit to use Microsoft HoloLens's augmented reality headset to spread awareness about the impacts of climate change, in New York City, U.S., April 28, 2022. Roselle Chen/REUTERS As visitors wander throughout the rooms filled with immersive installations, such as one made of 44,000 plastic bags - the amount used in New York state every minute before the plastic bag ban - they wear an AR headset that brings the installations to life, teaching environmental facts. "The intention is to inspire people to c...
Read MoreThe world lost an area of forest the size of the U.S. state of Wyoming last year, as wildfires in Russia set all-time records and Brazilian deforestation of the Amazon remains high, a global forest monitoring project report said on Thursday. Global Forest Watch, which is backed by the non-profit World Resources Institute (WRI) and draws on forest data collected by the University of Maryland, said in a report that roughly 253,000 square kilometers (97,683 square miles) of forest were lost in 2021. The Calf Canyon fire burns in mountains south of Mora, New Mexico, U.S. April 25, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Hay Forests provide a buffer against climate change because of the vast amounts of carbon dioxide that they absorb and their rapid destruction is putting global climate targets at risk,...
Read MoreFor 50 years, visitors to Alaska's Denali National Park were ferried by shuttle buses along a 92-mile road to take in sweeping vistas, watch rambling bears, moose and caribou and gaze at the snowy flanks of North America's tallest peak. Not this year. This summer and next year, the park's sole road will remain closed at its halfway point, victim to a warming climate that has triggered the collapse of a mountain slope. The site, called Pretty Rocks, is at a high point on the unpaved road. Since last August, it has been considered unsafe for public travel. The landslide there used to be gradual and measured in inches per year, but it has accelerated dramatically, hastened by thawing of the underlying layers of once-perpetually frozen soil known as permafrost. FILE PHOTO: Geologi...
Read MoreScientists have successfully bred a threatened species of coral as part of a project that hopes to restore damaged reefs off the coast of Florida that are under threat by a relatively new disease, a coral rescue organization has said. Reefs in Florida and the Caribbean are facing growing threat of destruction by the Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease that strips coral of its color and ultimately its life altogether. Baby rough cactus coral (Mycetophyllia ferox) is seen in a tank at the Florida Coral Rescue Center in this undated handout photo released by Seaworld. Seaworld/Handout via REUTERS The Florida Coral Rescue Center has in recent weeks bred hundreds of new coral of a species called rough cactus coral at a 2,000-square-foot (185.80-square-meter) facility that houses a total o...
Read MoreUCI researchers reconsider carbon storage with improved climate models, satellite data In a paper published in Nature Communications, a team led by scientists from the University of California, Irvine, using climate models and satellite data, reveal for the first time how protecting tropical forests can yield climate benefits that enhance carbon storage in nearby areas. Many climate scientists use computer simulations to mimic the planet’s climate as it exists today and how it may exist in the future as humanity keeps emitting greenhouse gases. Such models rely on accurate measurements all the moving parts of the climate system, from how much sunlight hits and warms the climate, to the response of forest biomass to changes in temperature, rainfall and atmospheric carbon dioxide leve...
Read MoreUN IPCC releases last of its three part series report on Climate Change Drastic cuts to fossil fuel use. Growing forests and eating less meat. These are just some of the actions needed in this decade to contain global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures, a major report by the U.N. climate science agency said Monday. Despite climate change warnings issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 1990, global emissions have continued to rise in the last decade, reaching their highest point in history. The result: global emissions are on track to blow past the 1.5 degrees C warming limit envisioned in the 2015 Paris Agreement and reach some 3.2 degrees C by century's end. FILE PHOTO: People hold a balloon during a demonstration by ...
Read MoreWarmer summers and meltwater lakes are damaging the fringes A first-of-its-kind study looking at surface meltwater lakes around the East Antarctic Ice Sheet across a seven-year period has found that the area and volume of these lakes is highly variable year-to-year, and offers new insights into the potential impact of recent climatic change on the ‘Frozen Continent’. The research, led by Durham University (UK), used over 2000 satellite images from around the edge of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet to determine the size and volume of lakes on the ice surface, also known as supraglacial lakes, across seven consecutive years between 2014 and 2020. Meltwater lake near Shackleton Ice Shelf, East Antarctica. Photo: David Small, Durham University The study, which involved Newcastle and ...
Read MoreGlobal warming is turning wildlife habits upside down The early bird is getting even earlier. With climate change spurring earlier springs across much of North America, many birds are laying their eggs earlier in the year, according to a new study – adding to mounting evidence that global warming is turning wildlife habits upside down. Of 72 bird species examined around Chicago, roughly a third lay their eggs about 25 days earlier than they did a century ago, researchers report in the paper published on Friday in the Journal of Animal Ecology. FILE PHOTO: A flock of blackbirds search for trees to perch on in the town on Hopkinsville, Kentucky. REUTERS/Harrison McClary Those affected include the mourning dove, American kestrel and Cooper's hawk. The scientists so far have...
Read MoreTropical forests cool the world by more than 1 degree Celsius, increase rainfall, and shield people and crops from deadly heat, researchers said, showing the climate benefits of trees go beyond sucking planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the air. In a new study released on Thursday, they outlined different ways the Earth, its climate and its inhabitants rely on forests. As every tenth of a degree of warming fuels threats from extreme weather and rising seas, lead author Deborah Lawrence said it is key to “acknowledge that tropical forests have a very important role in maintaining temperatures at a safe level”. Cutting down forests puts at risk the Paris climate accord’s goal of capping the rise in global average temperatures at “well below” 2C and ideally 1.5C above pre-indu...
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