The effect of melting polar ice could delay the need for a ‘leap second’ by three years Climate change is starting to alter how humans keep time. An analysis published in Nature on 27 March has predicted that melting ice caps are slowing Earth’s rotation to such an extent that the next leap second — the mechanism used since 1972 to reconcile official time from atomic clocks with that based on Earth’s unstable speed of rotation — will be delayed by three years. “Enough ice has melted to move sea level enough that we can actually see the rate of the Earth’s rotation has been affected,” says Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, and author of the study. FILE PHOTO: Glacial ice from the Greenland Ice Sheet flows around mou...
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Australian scientists find coral bleaching in Great Barrier Reef’s far north
Australian researchers have found coral bleaching around six islands in the far northern parts of the Great Barrier Reef, after a government agency said last week a major bleaching event was unfolding across the world's most extensive reef ecosystem. Scientists at the James Cook University said on Friday they found only a few relatively healthy areas, mostly in deeper waters, after surveying sites at the Turtle Group National Park, about 10 km (6.2 miles) offshore the state of Queensland. "It was quite devastating to see just how much bleaching there was, particularly in the shallows ... (but) they were all still at the stage of bleaching where they could still recover as long as the water temperatures decline in time," lead researcher Maya Srinivasan told Reuters. Bleaching ...
Read MoreOne by one, the crate doors swing open and five Arctic foxes bound off into the snowy landscape. In the wilds of southern Norway, the newly freed foxes could struggle to find enough to eat, as the impacts of climate change make the foxes’ traditional rodent prey more scarce. In Hardangervidda National Park, where the foxes have been released, there hasn’t been a good lemming year since 2021, scientists say. That’s why the scientists breeding them in captivity are also maintaining more than 30 feeding stations across the alpine wilderness stocked with dog food kibble – a rare and controversial step in conservation circles. Two white Arctic foxes play after mating, inside their enclosure at the station near Oppdal, Norway, March 21, 2023. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner “If the food is ...
Read MoreThe world likely notched its warmest February on record, as spring-like conditions caused flowers to bloom early from Japan to Mexico, left ski slopes bald of snow in Europe and pushed temperatures to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 C) in Texas. While data has not been finalised, three scientists told Reuters that February is on track to have the highest global average temperature ever recorded for that month, thanks to climate change and the warming in the Eastern Pacific Ocean known as El Nino. FILE PHOTO: Graciela Perez blows a hand fan amid a heat wave with temperatures rising towards 35 degrees Celsius (95F), in Buenos Aires, Argentina February 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mariana Nedelcu If confirmed, that would be the ninth consecutive monthly temperature record to be broken, according to ...
Read MoreSome U.S. residents will be going from wearing Bermuda shorts to snow pants in less than 24 hours, forecasters said on Monday, as a heat wave in the central Plains and South gives way to weather more typical for this time of year. Temperatures on Monday in states like Nebraska and Iowa were in the mid-70s Fahrenheit (low 20s Celsius), some 40 degrees F (22 degrees C) above averages for this time of year, while cities in the South, such as Dallas, Texas, sizzled in the mid-90s F (mid-30s C). A drone view shows ice formations near the Mackinac Bridge, which spans the Straits of Mackinac between Lakes Michigan and Huron in Mackinaw City, Michigan, U.S. February 25, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio This week's heat wave follows other unusual weather across the U.S. this winter - from "atm...
Read MoreEvery spring, the streets of Mexico's capital are painted purple with the flowering of thousands of jacaranda trees. Their spectacular colors not only attract the eyes of residents and tourists, but also birds, bees and butterflies that find food and shelter in them. But this year something changed. Some jacarandas began blooming in early January, when they normally awaken in spring. The early onset bloom has set off alarm bells among residents and scientists in Mexico City, where the trees have become an iconic, photogenic mainstay of city streets. Local scientists have begun investigating how widespread the early-bloom phenomenon is, but they point to climate change as the first culprit. People walk near a jacaranda tree at Plaza Cibeles in Mexico City, Mexico. February 22, ...
Read MorePietro Casartelli always dreamed of becoming a professional athlete, but the alpine skier, 18, says climate change is making his goals harder and much more expensive to achieve. Last year, as his usual high altitude summer ski slopes were melted by record-high temperatures, he had planned to join a training camp in Chile. But the trip was cancelled as too few would-be participants could afford the fees. Warming weather systems and a shorter season are threatening winter sports and testing the resolve of professionals and amateurs alike, across Europe. A view shows a closed ski lift amid a lack of snow on a mild winter day at the Hautacam ski resort in Beaucens, Hautes-Pyrenees, southwestern France, February 20, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe Hautacam, a ski resort in the French P...
Read More# First 12-month period above 1.5C threshold # World just had hottest January on record # Climate change, El Nino push up temperatures # Scientists urge rapid action to cut emissions The world just experienced its warmest January on record, marking the first 12-month period in which temperatures averaged more than 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial times, the European Union's climate change monitoring service said on Thursday. Already 2023 was the planet's hottest year in global records going back to 1850, as human-caused climate change and El Nino, the weather pattern that warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, pushed temperatures higher. Houses burn amid the spread of wildfires in Vina del Mar, Chile February 3, 2024. REUTERS/Rodrigo Garrido "It is a...
Read MoreSecond Pineapple Express storm hits region causing flash floods and mudslides A massive Pineapple Express storm - the second in recent days - stalled over Southern California on Monday, drenching the Los Angeles area with torrential rain, bringing near-hurricane-force wind gusts and raising the threat of flash floods and landslides. Throughout California, some 40 million people were under flood, winter storm and high wind advisories on Monday morning, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. A Pineapple Express weather system, named for its origin near Hawaii and also called an atmospheric river storm, is vast airborne current of dense moisture carried aloft from the Pacific and dumped on land as heavy precipitation. California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday declared a state of ...
Read MoreA popular ski resort in central Italy is lying idle this winter, with businesses and residents blaming climate change for spring-like temperatures that have left entire mountains snowless. Ski-lifts are switched off and snow cannon lie abandoned on the grass of Mount Terminillo, which soars 2,217 metres (7,274 feet) high in the Apennines and is normally a favourite destination of skiers from Rome. A view of a small layer of melting artificial snow at a ski slope as Mount Terminillo located in the Central Apennines is facing a challenging ski season amidst the absence of snow and unseasonably high temperatures in Mount Terminillo, Italy February 1, 2024. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane This year the shops and bars are nearly all closed, with no one coming to rent equipment or buy a h...
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