Climate Change and Global Warming News for 27 Aug 2017

NASA - Images of Change

This gallery features before-and-after images of locations on planet Earth, showing change over time periods ranging from centuries to days. Some of these effects are related to climate change, some are not. Some document the effects of urbanization, or the ravage of natural hazards such as fires and floods. All show our planet in a state of flux.

Full story at https://go.nasa.gov/2xkYtKJ

Source: https://climate.nasa.gov

Tweet This Story

---

Climate change, sewage and fertilisers could trigger mass extinction of life in oceans, scientists warn

The ocean is slowly being suffocated with levels of oxygen falling at a similar rate to 94 million years ago when there was a mass extinction of marine life, scientists have warned.

While that event was caused naturally, humans are responsible for several different factors driving the increase in “dead zones” in our seas.

One is that sewage and fertilisers running off farmers fields are causing massive blooms of algae that die and then decompose in a process that consumes oxygen. This kills most marine life or forces mobile animals such as fish to flee.

One of the world’s biggest “biological deserts” is in the northern Gulf of Mexico, centred on the mouth of the Mississippi River. The Baltic Sea is also severely affected.

Full story at http://ind.pn/2i7vR46

Source: Independent

Tweet This Story

---

Climate change a risk to survival of long-lived Norway spruce

The Swiss, who are more aware of climate change than the average Briton because of their disappearing glaciers and snow cover, are also worried about their trees, particularly the Norway spruce.

The Norway spruce is the mainstay of the Swiss forestry industry but is in danger of dying out this century because of warmer temperatures.

This spruce is common in Britain, best known perhaps as the classic Christmas tree, but also as a favoured habitat for the red squirrel. What the Swiss have discovered is that an increase in temperature and summer droughts expected this century is likely to kill off most of this spruce in their country.

Another important tree to the Swiss, the European beech, is also vulnerable to extra warmth and heat. Trees can adapt to climate change but in both these species there is about a 100-year time lapse between generations, so with rapid climate change there is not enough time for adaptations.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2vAoyDC

Source: The Guardian

Tweet This Story

---

Here’s how climate change is already affecting the US

We often talk about climate change as a far-off problem that will affect our children and grandchildren, but climate change is already affecting Americans right now, according to a US government report published on Tuesday by The New York Times. In fact, the US is already experiencing rising temperatures, more flooding in coastal zones, and an increase in the number of extreme weather events like heat waves and heavy rain.

The report was drafted by scientists in 13 federal agencies such as NASA and NOAA as part of the National Climate Assessment, which is mandated by Congress every four years. The results are based on thousands of scientific studies documenting incidents of climate change from around the world, and are at odds with what members of the Trump administration have often said about climate change.

“Many lines of evidence demonstrate that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are primarily responsible for the observed climate changes in the industrial era, especially over the last six decades,” the report says. If we don’t heavily reduce these emissions, average global temperatures could increase by 9 degrees Fahrenheit or more by the end of the century, the report says. That would be catastrophic: most scientists see a temperature increase of just 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit as the threshold beyond which climate change is irreversible and apocalyptic.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2i9pjlL

Source: The Verge

Tweet This Story

---

World on course for one of warmest years on record even without a natural El Nino boost

Last month was the warmest July in the 137 years since records began, Nasa has revealed.

The average global temperature was 0.83C higher than the average for July between 1951 and 1980, Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York found.

This was a statistical tie with the same last year, which was found to be 0.82C warmer than the average.

“All previous months of July were more than a tenth of a degree cooler,” Nasa said in a statement.

Full story at http://ind.pn/2vzPbbT

Source: Independent

Tweet This Story

---

Climate change will likely wreck their livelihoods – but they still don't buy the science

In 50 years, the region near where I grew up, Cameron Parish in south-west Louisiana, will likely be no more. Or rather, it will exist, but it may be underwater, according to the newly published calculations of the Louisianagovernment. Coastal land loss is on the upswing, and with each hurricane that sweeps over the region, the timeline is picking up speed.

As a result, Cameron, the principal town in this 6,800-person parish (as counties are called in Louisiana), could be the first town in the US to be fully submerged by rising sea levels and flooding. So it’s here one would expect to feel the greatest sense of alarm over climate change and its consequences.

Instead, Cameron has earned a different kind of fame: it’s the county that, percentage-wise, voted more in favor of Trump than any other county in the US in last year’s election. Nearly 90% of the population did.

Why would some of the people most vulnerable to climate change vote for a politician skeptical of climate change’s existence? Why would people in Cameron Parish support policies that could ruin them?

Full story at http://bit.ly/2vzvssB

Source: The Guardian

Tweet This Story

---

Advertisement: