global warming – Page 12 – आवारा मुसाफिर

Safe havens for coral reefs predicted to decline dramatically as Earth warms

February 2, 2022256 Views

Coral reefs in every region of the world are threatened by climate change, no matter how remote or well protected. A new study predicts that climate change will result in near-total to total loss of existing locations where coral reefs are sheltered from rising ocean temperatures. Adele Dixon of the University of Leeds, U.K., and colleagues present these findings, which are at higher resolution than any previous analysis, in the open-access journal PLOS Climate on February 1, 2022. As climate change progresses, rising ocean temperatures threaten coral reefs around the world. However, in some locations, local ocean dynamics such as upwelling and strong currents were thought to buffer the effects of warming seas, providing protection to reefs. Nonetheless, it was not known if thes...

आस्ट्रेलियाजलवायु परिवर्तन

Australia promises $700 million more to protect Great Barrier Reef

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

January 28, 2022587 Views

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday promised a further A$1 billion ($703 million) to protect the Great Barrier Reef to support thousands of tourism jobs, just months out from a federal election. The reef, one of Australia's best-known natural attractions but under threat from global warming, has been a lightning rod for criticism of the ruling conservative coalition's support for fossil fuels. Morrison, already under pressure over his handling of the country's worst COVID-19 outbreak fuelled by the Omicron variant, said the investment will help protect about 64,000 jobs in Queensland that depend on the reef. The northeastern state will be a major battleground when Morrison goes to the polls by May, seeking a fourth consecutive term for his party. His conservati...

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Climate change will limit choice for Winter Games hosts, says study

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

January 19, 20221249 Views

Of the 21 cities to host the Winter Olympics, only Sapporo, Japan would be able to provide fair and safe conditions to stage them again by the end of the century if greenhouse gases are not dramatically reduced, said a University of Waterloo study released on Tuesday. An international team of researchers, led by the University of Waterloo, reviewed historical climate data from the 1920s along with future climate change trends. They determined that winter playgrounds such as St. Moritz and Lillehammer could become Olympic relics by the mid to late century, with unreliable conditions ruling them out as Games hosts. A worker sets up an installation featuring Bing Dwen Dwen, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Mascot and Shuey Rhon Rhon, the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympic Games Mascot, i...

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2021 fifth warmest year in India since 1901

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

January 14, 2022240 Views

The year 2021 was the fifth warmest year in India since 1901, with the country recording its annual mean air temperature at 0.44 degree Celsius above normal, the India Meteorological Department said on Friday. The country also reported 1,750 deaths due to extreme weather events such as floods, cyclonic storms, heavy rain, landslides, lightning, among others, during the year, it said. "The year 2021 was the fifth warmest year after 2016, 2009, 2017 and 2010 since 1901. The annual mean air temperature for the country was recorded at 0.44 degree Celsius above normal," the MeT department's annual climate statement, 2021 stated. "The warm temperature during winter and post-monsoon season mainly contributed to this," it said In 2016, the annual mean air temperature for the country w...

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EU scientists say 2021 was world’s fifth-hottest year on record

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

January 10, 2022644 Views

Last year was the world's fifth hottest on record, while levels of planet-warming carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere hit new highs in 2021, European Union scientists said. The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a report on Monday that the last seven years were the world's warmest "by a clear margin" in records dating back to 1850 and the average global temperature in 2021 was 1.1-1.2C above 1850-1900 levels. The hottest years on record were 2020 and 2016. Countries committed under the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C, the level scientists say would avoid its worst impacts. That would require emissions to roughly halve by 2030, but so far they have charged higher. As greenhouse gas emissions change the planet's...

अमेरिकाजलवायु परिवर्तन

Baked Alaska – record December warmth and winter rains

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

December 29, 2021907 Views

An unusual winter warm spell in Alaska has brought daytime temperatures soaring past 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5°C) and torrents of rain at a time of year normally associated with bitter cold and fluffy snow. At the island community of Kodiak, the air temperature at a tidal gauge hit 67 F (19.4°C) degrees on Sunday, the highest December reading ever recorded in Alaska, said scientist Rick Thoman of the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy. FILE PHOTO: A house in Cordova, Alaska is covered with snow and icicles in this handout photo released to Reuters January 9, 2012. REUTERS/Erv Petty/Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management/Handout He called it "absurd." The new benchmark high came amid a spate of balmy December extremes, Thoman said, includin...

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In last 15 years, deforestation made outdoors unsafe for millions

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December 19, 20211049 Views

The tropics is becoming hotter due to a combination of warming associated with deforestation and climate change—and that can reduce the ability of outdoor workers to perform their jobs safely. Researchers reporting in the journal One Earth on December 17 estimate how many safe working hours people living in the tropics have lost due to local temperature change associated with loss of trees during the past 15 years. “There is a huge disproportionate decrease in safe work hours associated with heat exposure for people in deforested locations versus people in forestated locations just over the past 15 or 20 years,” says first author Luke Parsons, a climate researcher at Duke University. “There is a small amount of climate change that has happened over the same 15-year period, but the incr...

ग्रीसजलवायु परिवर्तन

Warming temperatures threaten Greece’s prized olive oil

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

December 16, 2021477 Views

Months before the harvest began in November, Greek olive oil farmer Michalis Antonopoulos knew it would not be a good year. First, his trees did not fully blossom because last winter was not cold and wet enough. In the spring, temperatures soared to 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit), damaging the flowers that were to grow into olives. Then the summer brought the worst heat wave in decades, drying up the olives and setting off wildfires that torched hundreds of thousands of trees. Standing in his grove in Kalamata, Greece's best-known olive producing region, among trees that are hundreds of years old, Antonopoulos pointed to the results: half empty branches, with small or shriveled olives, or rotting, attacked by a fruit fly. "We're witnessing phenomena and problems th...

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Coral reefs off east Africa could die out in 50 years

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

December 8, 2021766 Views

A new study found warming temperatures to be the main driver Coral reefs in the western Indian Ocean are at risk of extinction by 2070 due to warming temperatures and overfishing, according to a new study. A roughly 12,000 sq km expanse of coral reefs stretching down the eastern coastline of Africa and around Madagascar is facing ecosystem collapse, threatening a range of species and the livelihoods of over a million people who work in the fishing and tourism industries. These reefs make up around 5% of the planet's total coral reef area. "When an ecosystem collapses, we might still see individual fish or corals but the whole system is no longer effective in supporting either marine biodiversity or communities who are dependent on it," said David Obura, a Kenyan marine ecolog...

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Killer Whales lingering in newly melted Arctic Ocean

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

December 4, 20211336 Views1

Killer whales are intelligent, adaptive predators, often teaming up to take down larger prey. Continuous reduction in sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is opening areas to increased killer whale dwelling and predation, potentially creating an ecological imbalance. During the 181st Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, held from Nov. 29-Dec. 3, Brynn Kimber, from the University of Washington, discussed how killer whales have spent more time than previously recorded in the Arctic, following the decrease in sea ice. Killer whales will often travel to different areas to target varieties of prey. In a study including eight years of passive acoustic data, Kimber and their team monitored killer whale movements using acoustic tools, finding killer whales are spending more time than pr...