Scientists Warn of Emergency on Global Scale
In a “State of the Planet” declaration issued after a four-day conference, leading scientists said Earth was now facing unprecedented challenges, from water stress, pollution and species loss to spiralling demands for food.
Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, IPCC
Climate change is amplifying risks from drought, floods, storms and rising seas, threatening all countries, and nations should prepare, an international panel of climate scientists warned in a report issued Wednesday. The report pointed in particular at coastal megacities.
A decade of weather extremes
The ostensibly large number of recent extreme weather events has triggered intensive discussions, both in- and outside the scientific community, on whether they are related to global warming.
Amount of Coldest Antarctic Water Near Ocean Floor Decreasing for Decades
Oceanographers find that, the coldest deep ocean water, Antarctic Bottom Water, has been disappearing at an average rate of about eight million metric tons per second over the past few decades, equivalent to about fifty times the average flow of the Mississippi River. The world’s deep ocean currents play a critical role in transporting heat and carbon around the planet, thus regulating our climate.
Global Sea Level Likely to Rise as Much as 70 Feet in Future Generations
Even if humankind manages to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit)–as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends–future generations will likely have to deal with a completely different world.
Climate Change Damage to Oceans to Cost $2 Trillion
Greenhouse gases are likely to result in annual costs of nearly $2 trillion in damage to the oceans by 2100, according to a new Swedish study, by the Stockholm Environment Institute.
Scientists Look Far to the North to Explain Young Whale in San Francisco Bay
Recent sightings of a gray whale and her infant calf swimming near Alcatraz and Sausalito in San Francisco Bay illuminated a likely repercussion of melting polar ice, scientists said.
Asia and Pacific: climate disasters displace 42 million
Climate-related disasters have displaced more than 42 million people in Asia over the past two years. The environment is becoming a significant driver of migration in Asia and the Pacific as the population grows in vulnerable areas, such as low-lying coastal zones and eroding river bank.
Salt-loving Plants Could Help Ease Food Crisis
Plant scientists said they had bred a strain of wheat that thrives in saline soils, boosting the quest to feed Earth’s growing population at a time of water stress and climate change. The first beneficiaries of this could be Japanese farmers whose fields were submerged by last year’s tsunami…