Category Archives: Climate Change

Climate Change, Climate Change News, News

Jeff Bezos Pledges $10 Billion To Fight Climate Change, Planet’s ‘Biggest Threat’


Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care

Excerpts;

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says the funds will go toward the creation of the Bezos Earth Fund.

“This global initiative will fund scientists, activists, NGOs — any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world,” he writes in an Instagram post. “I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet…”

Read Full Article; NPR (02-17-2020)

Top US firms including Walmart and Ford oppose Trump on climate change; Guardian UK (12-01-2017)

As Trump Retreats, States Are Joining Forces on Climate Action; Yale E360 (10-09-2017)

California lawmakers vote on bill to go emissions-free by 2045; CBS News (08-28-2018)

The fight against climate change: four cities leading the way in the Trump era; Guardian UK (06-12-2017)

The US President Doesn’t Care to Understand Global Warming; The Atlantic (12-29-2017)
It’s a shame—ours and his…

A running list of how Trump is changing the environment; National Geographic (07-19-2018)

Climate Change, Climate Change News, News

Antarctica Warmer Than Tel Aviv


The Antarctic. Photo courtesy of: © Denis Delestrac

Excerpts;

Temperature in the northern Antarctic peninsula hit an all-time high of 18.3 degrees Celsius (64.9 degrees Fahrenheit) on February 6, says an Argentine research station there. In February, the daytime temperature in Tel Aviv averages 64.5 degrees…

Read Full Article; Haaretz (02-17-2020)

Antarctic temperature rises above 20C for first time on record; Guardian UK (02-13-2020)
Scientists describe 20.75C logged at Seymour Island as ‘incredible and abnormal’.

Temperature in Antarctica soars to near 70 degrees, appearing to top record; The Washington Post (02-13-2020)
The temperature beats a milestone set days earlier by nearly 5 degrees…

Antarctica logs highest temperature on record of 18.3C; BBC News (02-07-2020)
A record high temperature of 18.3C (64.9F) has been logged on the continent of Antarctica. The temperature was recorded in the Antarctic Peninsula, on the continent’s north-west tip – one of the fastest-warming regions on earth…

Climate Change, Climate Change News, News, Sea Level Rise, Sea Level Rise News

Climate change is coming for the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.


The Tidal Basin, Washington, DC. Photo source: Wikimedia

Excerpts;

The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., overlooks the Tidal Basin, a man-made body of water surrounded by cherry trees. But at high tide, people are forced off parts of the path. Twice a day, the Tidal Basin floods and water spills onto the walkway.

One problem is that the land is sinking. But as the climate warms, sea levels are also rising. And the flooding gets even worse during extreme storms, which are growing more common…

Read Full Article; Yale Connections Climate (02-17-2020)

Climate Change, Climate Change News, News

Air Pollution from Fossil Fuels Costs $8 Billion Per Day, New Research Finds


Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care

Excerpts;

The economic and health costs of air pollution from burning fossil fuels totaled $2.9 trillion in 2018.

The study, the first of its kind to quantify the global impacts of air pollution caused by burning fossil fuels, focused on the health impacts of three specific types of pollutants.

The report also highlights several key solutions to reduce air pollution, improve public health, and mitigate climate change…

Read Full Article; Yale E360 (02-12-2020)

Carbon emissions up as Trump agenda rolls back climate change work; Guardian UK (01-08-2019)
Last year’s 3.4% jump in emissions is the largest since 2010 recession and second largest gain in more than two decades…

Government report reveals staggering economic and health toll of climate change; CBS News (11-23-2018)
Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, according to a long-awaited report released by the federal government…

Poll: Millennials care about climate change; Axios (02-26-2018)
The nonprofit Alliance for Market Solutions released new polling on millennial attitudes about the reality of human-induced climate change and efforts to combat it. Millennials are broadly convinced human-induced climate change is real and deserves action…

Humans causing climate to change 170 times faster than natural forces, Guardian UK (02-12-2017)
For the first time, researchers have developed a mathematical equation to describe the impact of human activity on the earth, finding people are causing the climate to change 170 times faster than natural forces…

Scale of human impact on planet has changed course of Earth’s history, scientists suggest; Science Daily (10-02-2017)
The significant scale of human impact on our planet has changed the course of Earth history, an international team of scientists led by the University of Leicester has suggested…

Climate Change, Ecosystem Destruction, Inform

The danger of creating a designer planet


Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care

Excerpts;

It is natural in the face of an impending emergency to look for something—anything—that will avert the crisis. So it is understandable that in the absence of a meaningful action plan emerging from last December’s UN climate meeting in Madrid people are grasping at almost any idea that might offer a solution to climate change. But pursuing an idea without a firm understanding of the inner workings of our planet is folly at best and just plain dangerous at worst, even if it is done with the best of intentions…

Read Full Article; WHOI (02-15-2020)

Climate Change, Climate Change News, Ecosystem Destruction

Why Australia’s 2019-2020 bushfire season was not normal

fire
Photo source: ©© Zootedrop

Excerpts;

Data from satellite sources assembled by the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) World Environment Situation Room confirms that the wildfires in Australia in the last two months of 2019 and the first six weeks of 2020 were far from normal.

2019 was the second hottest year on record since 1880, and Australia recorded its warmest temperatures ever in December 2019.

“Rising temperatures continue to melt records. The past decade was the hottest on record. Scientists tell us that ocean temperatures are now rising at the equivalent of five Hiroshima bombs a second.
One million species are in near-term danger of extinction. Our planet is burning,” says United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

“The trend is very clear: 37 of the last 40 years were the warmest recorded since 1880, and the six warmest years recorded were the last six years,” says Pascal Peduzzi, Director of UNEP’s Global Resource Information Database in Geneva. “For those who think Australia is always burning, the following graphs clearly show that these fires were exceptional…”

Read Full Article; UNEP (02-14-2020)

Climate Change, Climate Change News, Erosion, Inform, Sea Level Rise

Coastal erosion: The homes lost to the sea; Video

houses-coastal-erosion-uk1
Severe coastal erosion and falling houses, Happisburgh, England. Photo source: ©© Martin

Excerpts;

As sea level rise, a senior figure in the Environment Agency says he wants the country to start “difficult conversations” about which areas should be protected and which should not…

Read Full Article and Watch Video, BBC News (02-13-2020)

Sinking England, A National Geographic Video (11-25-2011)
All may seem calm on the beautiful stretches of british coastline, but there is a battle being fought on the beaches of Britain. It is a fight for survival against the mighty forces of the North Sea. Erosion of this coastline have been going on for thousands of years, but things have gotten much worst. The country is gradually tilting into the ocean.

East Riding Coastal Erosion, In Pictures; Guardian UK (06-25-2014)

One in ten historic coastal landfill sites in England are at risk of erosion; Science Daily (11-16-2017)
Coastal erosion may release waste from ten per cent of England’s historic coastal landfills in the next forty years, according to research from Queen Mary University of London and the Environment Agency…

Floods and erosion are ruining Britain’s most significant sites; Guardian UK (02-07-2017)
Climate change is already wrecking some of Britain’s most significant sites, from Wordsworth’s gardens in Cumbria to the white cliffs on England’s south coast, according to a new report…

Popular Coastal Attraction Suffered 7 years’ Worth of Erosion in 2 Months, UK; BBC News (03-02-2014)

Growing Climate Change Threat to Britain’s Historic Coastline, The Telegraph UK (06-12-2015)

This Sinking Isle: The Homeowners Battling Coastal Erosion, Guardian UK (04-17-2015)
As sea levels rise, thousands of people on the coast of Britain have been forced to move inland…

Coastal Erosion: A series of Special Reports, Guardian UK (08-17-2015)

Coastal Warning: An Unwelcome Messenger on the Risks of Rising Seas; By Orrin H. Pilkey, Yale E360 (12-06-2018)

Surrendering to rising seas; Scientific American (08-2018)
Coastal communities struggling to adapt to climate change are beginning to do what was once unthinkable: retreat…

The only answer to rising seas is to retreat; By Orrin H. Pilkey & Keith C. Pilkey; The News & Observer (10-18-2017)
Except for the timing, there is no controversy among scientists regarding sea level rise. Defending the coast and holding the shoreline in place ultimately will be futile. With a three-foot or a six-foot sea level rise, we will retreat, probably beginning within the next 50 years…

Climate Change, Climate Change News, News, Sea Level Rise, Sea Level Rise News

Antarctic temperature rises above 20C for first time on record


Concave Iceberg Gerlache Strait, Antarctica. “This melting iceberg probably calved from a glacier, as evidenced by bands of dark color which are sediment the glacier picked up while moving down the steep slopes of the Antarctic Peninsula. An iceberg containing sediment will absorb heat because of less reflectivity and thus will melt faster. Global warming increases the rate of glacier calving and the overall degradation of ice sheets, and also contributes to an acceleration in the rate of sea level rise.” Captions and Photo courtesy of: © Norma J. Longo

Excerpts;

The Antarctic has registered a temperature of more than 20C (68F) for the first time on record, prompting fears of climate instability in the world’s greatest repository of ice.

Scientists describe 20.75C logged at Seymour Island as ‘incredible and abnormal’…

Read Full Article; Guardian UK (02-13-2020)

Temperature in Antarctica soars to near 70 degrees, appearing to top record; The Washington Post (02-13-2020)
The temperature beats a milestone set days earlier by nearly 5 degrees…

Antarctica logs highest temperature on record of 18.3C; BBC News (02-07-2020)
A record high temperature of 18.3C (64.9F) has been logged on the continent of Antarctica. The temperature was recorded in the Antarctic Peninsula, on the continent’s north-west tip – one of the fastest-warming regions on earth…