Zombie ice from the massive Greenland ice sheet will eventually raise global sea level by at least 10 inches (27 centimeters) on its own, according to a study released Monday. Zombie or doomed ice is ice that is still attached to thicker areas of ice, but is no longer getting fed by those larger glaciers. That’s because the parent glaciers are getting less replenishing snow. Meanwhile the doomed ice is melting from climate change, said study co-author William Colgan, a glaciologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. “It’s dead ice. It’s just going to melt and disappear from the ice sheet,” Colgan said in an interview. “This ice has been consigned to the ocean, regardless of what climate (emissions) scenario we take now.” FILE PHOTO: A boat navigates at night next ...
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What’s considered officially “dangerous heat” in coming decades will likely hit much of the world at least three times more often as climate change worsens, according to a new study. In much of Earth’s wealthy mid-latitudes, spiking temperatures and humidity that feel like 103 degrees (39.4 degrees Celsius) or higher -- now an occasional summer shock — statistically should happen 20 to 50 times a year by mid-century, said a study Monday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. By 2100, that brutal heat index may linger for most of the summer for places like the U.S. Southeast, the study’s author said. FILE PHOTO: People rest in the shade of a tree on a hot summer afternoon in Lucknow in the central Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, April 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kuma...
Read MoreObservation emerges from the analysis of annual growth rings from Yamal’s subfossil trees The north of Western Siberia is recording the warmest summers of the last 7,000 years. While for several millennia the temperature of the region was following a general cooling, in the 19th century there has been an abrupt change with rapidly rising temperature that has reached its highest value in the recent decades. These findings were published in Nature Communications. Over 40 years, dendrochronologists have collected more than 5,000 samples of subfossil trees in Yamal. Photo credit: Vladimir Kukarskih Thanks to multiple field expeditions aimed at collecting subfossil wood performed over the last 40 years, dendrochronologists of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of t...
Read MoreChampagne grape pickers have had to start the harvest earlier this year, as climate change forces the makers of the French sparkling wine to rethink how they make the coveted bubbly. High temperatures and the worst drought on record have caused massive wildfires and led to restrictions on water usage across France. But they also boosted grape maturity. Champagne grape pickers work at the Clos des Goisses vineyard owned by Champagne Philipponnat during the traditional Champagne harvest in Mareuil-sur-Ay, France, August 24, 2022. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol An August harvest, rather than in early September last year, used to be a once in a lifetime experience in Champagne in the past, said Charles Philipponnat, president of the family-owned Philipponnat Champagne winery that produces ...
Read MoreTemperatures in the Middle East have risen far faster than the world’s average in the past three decades. Precipitation has been decreasing, and experts predict droughts will come with greater frequency and severity. The Middle East is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impact of climate change — and already the effects are being seen. In Iraq, intensified sandstorms have repeatedly smothered cities this year, shutting down commerce and sending thousands to hospitals. Rising soil salinity in Egypt’s Nile Delta is eating away at crucial farmland. In Afghanistan, drought has helped fuel the migration of young people from their villages, searching for jobs. In recent weeks, temperatures in some parts of the region have topped 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). ...
Read MoreSouthern Europe battles wildfires as heatwave spreads north A heatwave sweeping southern Europe that has caused hundreds of deaths and huge wildfires showed some signs of abating on Monday but continued to move north, including towards Britain where authorities issued an extreme weather warning. Much of Europe is baking in a heatwave that scientists say is consistent with climate change and has pushed temperatures into the mid-40s Celsius (over 110 Fahrenheit) in some regions, with wildfires raging across tinder-dry countryside in Portugal, Spain and France. This photo provided by the fire brigade of the Gironde region (SDIS 33) shows firefighters fighting wildfire near Landiras, southwestern France, Sunday July 17, 2022 . (SDIS 33 via AP) Temperatures in some parts of souther...
Read MoreAnalysis of observed temperatures finds two jumps over the past 50 years that were missed by most climate models A new analysis of observed temperatures shows the Arctic is heating up more than four times faster than the rate of global warming. The trend has stepped upward steeply twice in the last 50 years, a finding missed by all but four of 39 climate models. “Thirty years is considered the minimum to represent climate change,” said Petr Chylek, a physicist and climate researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory and lead author of the study in Geophysical Research Letters. “We decreased the time interval to 21 years. At that smaller time scale and, contrary to previous investigations that found the Arctic amplification index increases in a smooth way, we observed two distinct st...
Read MoreDrone search resumes on Italian glacier after avalanche Glaciers in Europe's Alps are becoming more unstable and dangerous as rising temperatures linked to climate change are reawakening what were long seen as dormant, almost fossilised sheets of ice. Italy has been baking in an early summer heatwave and attention had been focused on the impact of drought on crops on the fertile Po Valley. Punta Rocca summit is seen after parts of the Marmolada glacier collapsed in the Italian Alps amid record temperatures, killing at least six people and injuring several, at Marmolada ridge, Italy, July 4, 2022. REUTERS/Borut Zivulovic Further north in the Dolomites, tragedy struck on Sunday when a glacier collapsed on the Marmolada, which at more than 3,300 metres is the highest peak in the ...
Read MoreExtreme weather events – from scorching heatwaves to unusually heavy downpours – have caused widespread upheaval across the globe this year, with thousands of people killed and millions more displaced. In the last three months, monsoon rains unleashed disastrous flooding in Bangladesh, and brutal heatwaves seared parts of South Asia and Europe. Meanwhile, prolonged drought has left millions on the brink of famine in East Africa. Much of this, scientists say, is what's expected from climate change. Trees burn as flames and smoke engulf the top of a hill in a forest fire in Artazu, northern Spain in the early hours of Sunday, June 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Miguel Oses) On Tuesday, a team of climate scientists published a study in the journal Environmental Research: Climate. The resear...
Read MoreThe world's oceans grew to their warmest and most acidic levels on record last year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday, as United Nations officials warned that war in Ukraine threatened global climate commitments. Oceans saw the most striking extremes as the WMO detailed a range of turmoil wrought by climate change in its annual "State of the Global Climate" report. It said melting ice sheets had helped push sea levels to new heights in 2021. FILE PHOTO: Dead fish appear on the beaches of La Manga del Mar Menor, Murcia, Spain, August 21, 2021. REUTERS/Eva Manez "Our climate is changing before our eyes. The heat trapped by human-induced greenhouse gases will warm the planet for many generations to come," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas in a st...
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