topic: Temperatures

topic: Temperatures

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From polling stations to weather stations, the heat is on in India (commentary)
- Parts of India are facing a heatwave, for which the heat in the state of Kerala is a curtain raiser. Kerala experienced its first recorded heatwave amid the ongoing election campaign.
- Heatwaves, droughts and floods do not distinguish along political lines. If the destruction is across board, the mitigating action also has to be across political lines, writes Mongabay-India’s Managing Editor, S. Gopikrishna Warrier, in this commentary.
- Climate change poses economic, social and political challenges, influencing election discourse and policy agendas.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Warming climate threatens to worsen air quality in already polluted Kathmandu
- In the period between winter and spring each year, Kathmandu faces severe air pollution that affects thousands of residents with health problems like burning eyes, respiratory discomfort, and even death.
- Local sources like vehicle emissions and construction dust, compounded by Kathmandu’s geography, are the main drivers of the pollution, and rising global temperatures threaten to worsen the situation.
- Changes in weather patterns, including reduced rainfall and prolonged dry periods are among the changes that could make air pollution an even more severe problem than it already is.
- Wildfires, both natural and human-induced, contribute significantly to air pollution in Kathmandu, especially during the transition period between weather systems, which could become longer due to rising temperatures.

Global coral bleaching now underway looks set to be largest on record
- Scientists say that coral reefs are currently undergoing a global bleaching event, with more than 54% of the world’s coral reef areas in the territorial waters of over 50 countries experiencing heat stress. According to one scientist, the percentage of areas dealing with bleaching-level heat stress “has been increasing by roughly 1% per week.”
- To assess the current bleaching event, scientists drew on satellite-derived sea surface temperature data and in-water measurements.
- Experts say the current El Niño, a phase in the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern, in combination with rising global sea temperatures, is responsible for the extensive coral bleaching.
- Mongabay interviewed scientists most familiar with coral reef bleaching data, and experts attending the 9th Our Ocean Conference in Athens, taking place from April 15-17.

Climate change could drive mammal extinction in Brazil’s Caatinga, study warns
- According to a new study, 91.6% of terrestrial mammal communities in the Caatinga will lose species by 2060, with 87% of them being deprived of their habitats if the temperature in the region increases by at least 2°C.
- Small mammals will suffer the strongest impact, and some species may disappear from the biome, such as the giant anteater and the giant armadillo.
- In addition to more drought and rising temperatures, deforestation caused by wind farms also threatens some species, such as the jaguar.
- In a previous study, the same researchers had warned that 99% of plant communities in the Caatinga will lose species by 2060.

Rising temperatures threaten the tiny animals responsible for groundwater quality
- A new study compared temperatures inside 12 caves around the world with their respective surfaces, showing that average annual temperatures in underground systems tend to mirror those of the surface, but with far less variation.
- The researchers also found that while some caves follow outdoor temperatures with little or no delay, others have temperatures that are very asynchronous with the surface, being at their warmest when the world outside is at its coldest, and vice versa.
- Scientists also detected the existence of daily thermal cycles in the deepest sections of some caves, suggesting that such cycles might mark the circadian rhythms of cave-adapted organisms.
- The results indicate that underground fauna — with many species ill-adapted to handle large temperature variations — might be at threat due to climate change, and that their extinction might risk the water quality of aquifers worldwide.

‘Corals dying’ as yet more bleaching hits heat-stressed Great Barrier Reef
- Both aerial and in-water surveys have shown that the southern section of the Great Barrier Reef is undergoing extensive coral bleaching.
- Surveys have also shown “limited bleaching” in the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef.
- However, scientists and reef managers plan to conduct more air and in-water surveys to further assess the coral bleaching across all parts of the Great Barrier Reef.
- Scientists suspect but have not yet confirmed that a seventh mass bleaching event since 1998 is currently underway; the last mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef happened in 2022.

Climate refugees? As the sea warms, corals thrive in Japan’s cool waters
- As tropical and subtropical coral reefs succumb to bleaching due to climate change in many parts of the world, the idea that they could take refuge in cooler, temperate seas has offered cause for hope.
- For a while, this is exactly what researchers thought was happening in Japan, where corals are replacing seaweed as the dominant benthos in many places, shaking up both ecosystems and coastal economies.
- But the latest research has tempered those hopes, showing that it’s mainly Japan’s genetically distinct temperate corals that have been expanding their range and edging out seaweed.
- The long-term implications of this shift are unclear, but researchers say it could take tens of thousands of years for these new high-latitude coral communities to evolve the structures, niches and symbioses necessary to support biodiversity on par with the world’s current tropical reefs.

Record North Atlantic heat sees phytoplankton decline, fish shift to Arctic
- Scientists warn that record-high sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean this year are having consequences for sea life.
- As marine heat waves there have worsened over the years, populations of phytoplankton, the base of the oceanic food chain, have declined in the Eastern North Atlantic.
- With experts predicting more heat anomalies to come, North Atlantic fish species are moving northward into the Arctic Ocean in search of cooler waters, creating competition risks with Arctic endemic species and possibly destabilizing the entire marine food web in the region.
- Lengthening and intensifying marine heat waves around the globe are becoming a major concern for scientists, who warn that the world will see even greater disruptions to ocean food chains and vital fisheries, unless fossil fuel burning is curtailed.

An ‘aquatic moonshot’ in Vietnam aims to fight livestock methane with seaweed
- Scientists from the R&D company Greener Grazing aim to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by growing and marketing a red seaweed (Asparagopsis taxiformis) as an additive for livestock feed.
- Worldwide, some 3 billion cattle and sheep produce roughly 231 billion pounds of methane annually; researchers estimate some 100 million tons of A. taxiformis would be needed to eliminate 98% of those emissions, a figure that’s roughly three times current global production of all seaweeds.
- Greener Grazing is experimenting with growing A. taxiformis in central Vietnam’s Van Phong Bay, but there are challenges.
- Skeptics also say the benefits of seaweed are limited in both the amount of methane that can be reduced as well as the capacity for scaling production to meet the size of the problem.

Climate change detectable in daily rainfall patterns, deep-learning model finds
- Researchers have developed a deep-learning AI model that predicts how global warming is affecting daily precipitation patterns around the world.
- Using the model, scientists found that every year since 2015 daily rainfall deviated from natural variability at least 50% of the time as a result of rising temperatures.
- Research has long focused on climate change’s long-term impacts such as annual temperature increase or precipitation rates.
- However, studies in recent years have observed how rising temperatures are altering daily weather patterns as well.

How hot are the desert tortoises getting? iButtons help find the answer
- Researchers are using a button-shaped device to gather data about desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) and their habitats in the Mojave Desert in Southern California.
- Using iButtons, the researchers are trying to understand how hot the tortoises get, and the temperatures that they prefer in the burrows where they spend most of their time.
- Identifying the critically endangered species’ temperature preferences is an urgent task: the tortoise faces threats to its survival from various quarters such as rising temperatures, habitat loss, and attacks by predators.
- With this research, scientists say they hope to find habitats that are safer and where the thermal conditions are suitable for the long-term survival of the tortoises.

Hope, but no free pass, as Pacific corals show tolerance to warming oceans
- New research suggests that coral reefs in the Pacific islands of Palau are becoming increasingly tolerant to thermal stress brought on by climate change.
- The study found that Palau’s coral reefs appeared to suffer less bleaching over three successive marine heat waves in 1998, 2010 and 2017.
- While the findings provide some hope for coral reefs, one expert says the study has some limitations in providing a clear picture of how corals respond to different heat events.
- Scientists also say that reducing carbon emissions is essential to safeguard coral reefs — and to secure the planet’s future.

Beach heat: Study shows increasing temperature extremes on Brazil’s coast
- By analyzing temperature patterns at five points along the Brazilian coast over the last 40 years, scientists confirmed the impacts of global warming on the country: hotter summers, more heat waves and greater thermal amplitude throughout the day.
- On the coast of Espírito Santo state, the frequency of daily occurrences of extreme temperatures and heat waves increased by 188% during the period studied; Rio Grande do Sul saw an increase of 100% and São Paulo, 84%.
- Such climate extremes impact the health of people, plants and animals directly and indirectly, including changes in viral cycles.

Death of rare male gharial in Nepal highlights conservation crisis
- A male gharial, a critically endangered crocodilian, was found dead in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park, entangled in a fishing net and hook.
- Male gharials are vital for the survival of the species, which has a skewed sex ratio and faces threats from fishing, habitat loss, and poaching.
- Park officials are trying to boost the male population by incubating eggs at a certain temperature, but critics question the effectiveness and sustainability of this approach.

New hope in the Mediterranean: Scientists find deep corals withstand heat waves
- Over the past decade, the Mediterranean Sea has experienced frequent, destructive marine heat waves that have impacted a diversity of marine life, including red gorgonians (Paramuricea clavata).
- In 2022, researchers launched “Noah’s Ark of the Deep,” an expedition to study the gorgonians in the western Mediterranean Basin. In April, the second mission of the expedition explored gorgonians below 50 meters (164 feet).
- While the gorgonians in shallow waters suffered as temperatures rose, corals in deeper waters appeared untouched by the impacts of thermal stress.
- Researchers are currently trying to understand if these deeper gorgonians can help repopulate shallow populations if climate conditions allow them to regenerate.

The climate is already changing in the Matopiba, Brazil’s new agricultural frontier
- Collecting data from the last 40 years, researchers have observed increased temperatures and more severe droughts in the Matopiba region, which encompasses parts of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia states.
- A transition zone between the Cerrado and the eastern Amazon, the Matopiba is the largest area of contact between forest and savanna in the tropics; in the last two decades it has become one of the main fronts for the expansion of grain cultivation in Brazil.
- According to the researchers, the increased frequency of hot and dry days in the region results from an interaction between global climate change and the advance of deforestation.
- In the near future, environmental changes can harm agribusiness itself, putting Brazilian food security at risk.

‘Alarming’ heat wave threatens Bangladesh’s people and their food supply
- Temperatures across Bangladesh have hit record highs as the country swelters in the heat wave currently sweeping across much of Asia.
- Dhaka recorded its highest temperature in six decades this month, at 40.6°C (105.1°F), with meteorologists warning that heat waves like this are becoming more common.
- The heat also threatens the country’s all-important rice crop, with the government advising farmers to ensure sufficient irrigation to prevent heat shock to their plants.
- With the heat now easing, a new fear has emerged: Cooler temperatures signal the start of the monsoon, which, in the northeast region of Bangladesh often means floods that can also destroy rice crops.

Southern atmospheric rivers drive irreversible melting of Arctic sea ice: Study
- Arctic sea ice extent has reached its winter maximum extent for 2023 at 14.62 million sq. km., the fifth lowest on record. Combined with this year’s unprecedentedly small Antarctic sea ice summer minimum extent, global sea ice coverage reached a record low in January.
- Arctic sea ice is not only receding, but also seriously thinning. New research has found that a huge melt in 2007 and associated ocean warming kicked off a “regime shift” to thinner, younger, more mobile and transient ice that may be “irreversible.”
- A big reason why Arctic sea ice is declining even in the frigid polar winter is that atmospheric rivers, which carry warmth and rainfall like the deluges seen in California recently, are surging up from the south and penetrating the Arctic more often.

Sagarmatha microbes may survive harsh conditions for decades
- Researchers have found microbes on Mount Everest that can survive harsh winds and conditions at some of the world’s highest elevations.
- The research comes at a time when scientists say melting glaciers and permafrost could reawaken viruses and bacteria as the climate warms.
- However, the microbes found on Mount Everest, which were possibly transported by humans through their coughing and sneezing, are unlikely to grow and reproduce, said University of Colorado Boulder scientist Steve Schmidt, a co-author of a new study on the team’s findings.

Amazon deforestation linked to reduced Tibetan snows, Antarctic ice loss: Study
- Earth’s climate is controlled by a complex network of interactions between the atmosphere, oceans, lands, ice and biosphere. Many elements in this system are now being pushed toward tipping points, beyond which changes become self-sustaining, with the whole Earth system potentially shifting to a new steady state.
- A recent study analyzed 40 years of air temperature measurements at more than 65,000 locations to investigate how changes in one region rippled through the climate system to affect temperatures in other parts of the globe. Computer models then simulated how these links may be affected by future climate change.
- Researchers identified a strong correlation between high temperatures in the Amazon Rainforest and on the Tibetan Plateau. They found a similar relationship between temperatures in the Amazon and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
- Deforestation in the Amazon likely influences the Tibetan Plateau via a convoluted 20,000-kilometer (12,400-mile) pathway driven by atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. The study suggests that a healthy, functioning Amazon is crucial not only for the regional climate in Brazil, but for the whole Earth system.

Carbon uptake in tropical forests withers in drier future: Study
- A new study incorporating satellite data on organic material, or biomass, in tropical forests with experimental data about the effects of temperature and precipitation suggests that forests may lose substantial amounts of carbon by the end of the 21st century.
- Even with low continued carbon emissions, tropical forests, especially those in the southern Amazon, could lose between 6.8 and 12% of their aboveground carbon. With higher emissions, they could lose 13.3 to 20.1% of their carbon stores.
- The results highlight the need to reduce global temperatures rapidly to maintain the healthy forests best able to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
- The team reported their findings Feb. 6 in the journal Nature Climate Change.

‘Not a good sign’: Study shows Greenland temperatures at 1,000-year high
- New research shows that north-central Greenland experienced the highest temperatures between 2001 and 2011 over a 1,000-year period.
- Scientists came to this conclusion after reconstructing climate conditions over the last millennium by analyzing ice cores from the Greenland ice sheet.
- This study can provide a foundation for future studies on ice melt and sea level rise, the authors say.

Forest modeling misses the water for the carbon: Q&A with Antonio Nobre & Anastassia Makarieva
- An expanded understanding of forests’ role in moisture transport and heat regulation raises the stakes on the health of the Amazon Rainforest and the need to stop cutting trees.
- The biotic pump theory, conceived by scientists Anastassia Makarieva and the late Victor Gorshkov, suggests that forests’ impact on hydrology and cooling exceeds the role of carbon embodied in trees.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Makarieva and Brazilian scientist Antonio Nobre explain how the theory makes the case for a more urgent approach by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to protect the Amazon.

An El Niño is forecast for 2023. How much coral will bleach this time?
- Forecasts suggest that an El Niño climate pattern could begin later this year, raising sea temperatures at a time when global temperatures are already higher than ever due to human-driven climate change.
- If an El Niño develops and it becomes a moderate to severe event, it could raise global temperatures by more than 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels, the threshold set by the Paris Agreement.
- An El Niño would generate many impacts on both terrestrial and marine ecosystems, including the potential for droughts, fires, increased precipitation, coral bleaching, invasions of predatory marine species like crown-of-thorns starfish, disruptions to marine food chains, and kelp forest die-offs.

Temperature extremes, plus ecological marginalization, raise species risk: Studies
- In a business-as-usual carbon emissions scenario — humanity’s current trajectory — two in five land vertebrates could be exposed to temperatures equal to, or exceeding, the hottest temperatures of the past decades across at least half of their range by 2099. If warming could be kept well below 2°C (3.6°F), that number drops to 6%, according to a new study.
- More than one in eight mammal species have already lost part of their former geographical range. In many cases, this means those species no longer have access to some (or sometimes any) of their core habitat, making it much more difficult to survive in a warming world.
- When animal populations continue to decline in an area even after it has been protected, one possible explanation may be that the conserved habitat is marginal compared to that found in the species’ historical range.
- In the light of recent pledges to protect 30% of the planet’s surface, it is important to prioritize the right areas. The focus should be on conserving core habitat — which is often highly productive and already intensively used by humans — while respecting the rights and needs of Indigenous people, many of whom have also been pushed to the margins.

With climate change, Nepal’s leopards get a bigger range — and more problems
- Climate change will make higher-elevation areas of Nepal suitable habitat for leopards, a new study shows.
- This is expected to push the big cats into increased conflict with humans and more competition with snow leopards.
- Most of the current and new habitat will fall outside protected areas, and the leopards’ preferred prey may not be available there, which could prompt the predators to hunt livestock.
- But the finding could also be an opportunity to conserve leopards in their potential new habitat, by educating communities there, ensuring availability of wild prey, and drawing up wildlife management plans.

Extreme heat takes a toll on tropical countries’ economies
- Extreme heat costs tropical countries more than 5% of their annual per capita GDP, new research shows, while more prosperous mid-latitude countries lose only about a 1% of GDP due to heat waves, which can even bolster economic growth in some instances.
- Poorer tropical countries suffer the worst effects of heat waves despite being least culpable and least economically capable of adapting.
- The effects of extreme heat and drought can hit hard in local communities, such as among Kenyan families who rely on cattle they can no longer feed.

Climate change is hammering insects — in the tropics and everywhere else: Scientists
- A new review paper finds that climate change is pounding insects in a wide variety of ways all over the world.
- Because insects are so sensitive to temperature change, climate change is impacting them directly, including potentially decreasing their ability to breed.
- But climate change is also causing insects to change their behavior as it shifts seasonal beginnings and ends, risking that insects will act out of sync with the rest of the environment on which they depend. Climate change-intensified drought, extreme precipitation, lengthening heat waves, and fires are also harming insects.
- The best way to protect insects? Combat climate change and safeguard micro-habitats.

In temperate Nepal, climate change paves way for tropical dengue fever
- Nepal is experiencing its worst outbreak of dengue fever in recorded history, which health experts attribute in part to a changing climate.
- Wetter monsoons and warmer temperatures have made for ideal breeding conditions for the mosquitoes that carry the virus.
- Poor water and waste management are also factors, allowing for water to stagnate for long periods and giving the mosquitoes a place to lay their larvae.
- Experts say it will take a combination of personal responsibility — to eradicate mosquito-breeding grounds — and government leadership — to coordinate the public health response — if dengue is to be eradicated in Nepal.

Arctic sea ice loss to increase strong El Niño events linked to extreme weather: Study
- The frequency of strong El Niño events could increase by 35% by the end of the century as Arctic sea ice begins to melt out completely in the summer, according to a recent modeling study. El Niños — buildups of especially warm water in the eastern Pacific off of Peru — often trigger ‘devastating’ droughts, floods and cyclones around the globe.
- The findings provide more evidence that Arctic warming is affecting weather in other parts of the world — not only in the mid-latitudes, but as far away as the tropics.
- Other recent studies have found that sea ice loss is causing rapid acidification of the Arctic Ocean and more extreme precipitation and flooding in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago located between mainland Norway and the North Pole.

2022: Another consequential year for the melting Arctic
- Arctic sea ice extent shrank to its summertime minimum this week — tied with 2017 and 2018 for the 10th lowest ever recorded. However, the last 16 consecutive years have seen the least ice extent since the satellite record began. Polar sea ice extent, thickness and volume all continue trending steeply downward.
- Arctic air temperatures were high this summer, with parts of the region seeing unprecedented heating. Greenland saw air temperatures up to 36° F. above normal in September. Canada’s Northwest Territories saw record highs, hitting the 90s in July. Sea temperatures also remained very high in many parts of the Arctic Ocean.
- Scientists continue to be concerned as climate change warms the far North nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet, sparking concern over how polar warming may be impacting the atmospheric jet stream, intensifying disastrous extreme weather events worldwide, including heat waves, droughts and storms.
- While a mostly ice-free Arctic could occur as early as 2040, scientists emphasize that it needn’t happen. If humanity chooses to act now to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, downward sea ice extent and volume trends could potentially be reversed.

Conflict over resources in Kenya hits deadly highs with firearms in play
- Increased droughts, floods and invasive species are fueling violent conflicts between pastoralists over livestock in Kenya’s central Baringo county, the intensity of which is exacerbated by the proliferation of illegal firearms in the region.
- Firearms trafficked from civil conflicts in the Horn of Africa have made their way into the hands of pastoralists who now see it as the only way to defend themselves and their cattle during raids and conflicts over grazing land.
- In 2021, there were 16 deaths from 19 livestock raids; in the first four months of 2022, there have been 39 fatalities from 24 violent clashes, half of them due to livestock raids.
- Violent conflicts in Baringo are linked to insecurity in neighboring counties, and drought along with politics only heighten the precarious situation.

Cradle of transformation: The Mediterranean and climate change
- The Mediterranean region is warming 20% faster than the world as a whole, raising concerns about the impacts that climate change and other environmental upheaval will have on ecosystems, agriculture and the region’s 542 million people.
- Heat waves, drought, extreme weather and sea-level rise are among the impacts that the region can expect to see continue through the end of the century, and failing to stop emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could make these issues worse.
- Charting a course that both mitigates climate change and bolsters adaption to its effects is further complicated by the Mediterranean’s mix of countries, cultures and socioeconomics, leading to wide gaps in vulnerability in the region.

Climate pledges could limit warming to 2C. What’s needed is action, study says
- A new study has suggested that global temperatures can be limited to 2°C (3.6°F) above pre-industrial levels if countries fully meet all of their climate pledges on time.
- However, the researchers say that rapid action is needed within the decade to meet the targets necessary to fulfill this goal.
- This analysis comes shortly after the publication of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest report, which says that greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025 and nations need to reach net-zero emissions by the 2050s.

The Great Barrier Reef is bleaching — once again — and over a larger area
- The Great Barrier Reef is currently experiencing its sixth mass bleaching event, and the fourth event of this kind to happen in the past six years.
- Based on aerial surveys that were concluded this week, bleaching has affected all parts of the Great Barrier Reef, with the most severe bleaching occurring between Cooktown, Queensland, and the Whitsunday Islands.
- Sea surface temperatures around the Great Barrier Reef have been higher than normal, despite the region going through a La Niña climate pattern, which usually brings cooler, stormier weather.
- Climate change remains the biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef and other reefs around the world, experts say.

Marine cold spells, a potential buffer against warming seas, are fading away
- A new study has found that marine cold spells have decreased in number and intensity since the 1980s due to climate change.
- Marine cold spells can have both negative and positive impacts on the environment; they can wreak havoc on ecosystems like coral reefs, but they can also buffer the impacts of heat stress during marine heat waves.
- While marine cold spells are decreasing, marine heat waves are increasing — but the relationship between these two kinds of events still isn’t clear, the study says.

Multiyear ice thinner than thought as Arctic sea ice reaches winter max: Studies
- Arctic sea ice has reached its yearly maximum extent at 14.88 million sq. km., the 10th lowest on record. The up-and-down story of sea ice extent in the past year highlights how unpredictable it can be from season to season, even as the overall decline continues.
- A study employing new satellite data found that Arctic multiyear sea ice — ice that survives the summer melt — is thinning even faster than previously thought and has lost a third of its volume in just two decades.
- This comes as Antarctic sea ice extent hit a record summer low, raising questions whether it is beginning a long-term decline, although experts are wary of drawing conclusions yet.
- While summer Arctic sea ice is predicted to mostly disappear by 2050, a new study suggests we could likely preserve it through 2100 by aggressively cutting methane emissions by 2030, along with reaching net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050.

‘Everything is on fire’: Flames rip through Iberá National Park in Argentina
- Fires in the central Corrientes province of northeast Argentina have burned through nearly 60% of Iberá National Park, home to protected marshlands, grasslands and forests that hosts an array of species.
- Many of the fires originated from nearby cattle ranches, and spread across significant portions of the park due to a prolonged drought.
- Conservationists are working to relocate a number of reintroduced species, including giant river otters and macaws, to places of safety.
- While experts say they expect a substantial loss to biodiversity, they add that the park should mount a rapid recovery thanks to all the rewilding work already done.

Efforts to dim Sun and cool Earth must be blocked, say scientists
- Scientists are calling on political institutions to place limits on solar geoengineering research so that it cannot be deployed unilaterally by countries, companies or individuals.
- Long-term planetary-level geoengineering interventions of this kind are unprecedented and extremely dangerous, say the academics behind the letter, and should not therefore be experimented with outdoors, receive patents, public funds or international support.
- Solar geoengineering’s leading proposal — injecting billions of aerosol particles into the Earth’s stratosphere — could have severe, unintended and unforeseen consequences. Modelling suggests that it may cause drying in the Amazon rainforest
- In addition, if solar geoengineering were deployed, it would need to be maintained for decades. Sudden discontinuance would result in Earth facing what scientists call termination shock, with a sudden temperature rise due to existing atmospheric carbon emissions which would have been masked by cooling stratospheric aerosols.

As climate change melts Antarctic ice, gentoo penguins venture further south
- Researchers have discovered a new colony of gentoo penguins in Antarctica previously unknown to science.
- The colony was found on Andersson Island on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula, which is the furthest south the species has ever been found in that region.
- Scientists say climate change played a key role in the penguins’ presence on the island, as warming temperatures and record ice melt make new locations habitable for the species.
- Scientists and conservationists are making renewed calls to establish a network for marine protected areas in Antarctica to help safeguard the region as the climate rapidly changes.

In hot water: Ocean warming hits another record high on climate change
- A new study has found that, for the sixth year in a row, the world’s oceans have been hotter than they’ve ever been in recent history due to human-induced climate change.
- The research team found that last year, the upper 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) in all oceans absorbed 14 zettajoules more of human-made energy than the previous year, equal to about 145 times the world’s electricity generation in 2020.
- A warming ocean creates a multitude of issues, driving extreme weather events, accelerating sea level rise, disrupting marine biodiversity, threatening global food security, and melting polar ice shelves.
- Experts say the best way to reduce ocean climate impacts is to lower carbon emissions and meet the Paris Agreement goal of not allowing global warming to surpass 1.5°C (2.7°F) over preindustrial levels.

Climate change agricultural impacts to heighten inequality: Study
- Major changes in crop productivity will be felt globally in the next 10 years according to new computer simulations. Climate impacts on crops could emerge a decade sooner than previously expected in major breadbasket regions in North America, Europe and Asia according to the new forecasts.
- Researchers combined five new climate models with 12 crop models, creating the largest, most accurate set of yield simulations to date. Corn could see yield declines of up to 24% by 2100, while wheat may see a boost to productivity. In some sub-tropical regions, climate impacts on crops are already being felt.
- High- and low-emissions scenarios project similar trends for the next 10 years, suggesting these agricultural impacts are locked-in. But actions taken now to mitigate climate change and alter the long-term climate trajectory could limit corn yield losses to just 6% by 2100.
- Climate adaptation measures such as sowing crops earlier or switching to heat- tolerant cultivars are relatively cheap and simple to implement, while other actions, such as installing new irrigation systems, require financial investment, planning, and time.

Researchers express alarm as Arctic multiyear sea ice hits record low
- Low sea ice concentration can create a misleading picture of sea ice health in the Arctic. Though extent is only at its 10th lowest since satellite records began in 1979, the waters north of Alaska this September are full of diffuse ice.
- Of great concern to scientists, the Arctic has lost 95% of its thick multiyear sea ice since 1985. Older, thicker ice acts as a buffer against future Blue Ocean Events, expected as early as 2035. A BOE would mark a year when most Arctic ice melts out in summer.
- It no longer takes a freak-weather year to reach near record-lows for extent or volume. 2020 saw a second-place finish in the record book, behind 2012.

New study says changes in clouds will add to global warming, not curb it
- Best estimates for global temperature increases due to a doubling of atmospheric CO2 since the start of the industrial era are between +1.5C and +4.5C. A major reason for this huge range of uncertainty is how clouds will perform in a warmed world, with some modelers saying clouds will help cool the planet, while the majority say clouds will further warm it.
- Clouds add immense uncertainty to climate models because they contain so many variables (including altitude, size, turbulence, amount of ice crystals, quantity and particle chemistry), and also because they don’t fit neatly inside the global grid cell system that modelers use to estimate warming.
- A new study used a machine learning model to bypass previous cloud modeling problems. The researchers concluded that a doubling of atmospheric CO2 will most likely lead to a 3.2C (5.76F) global temperature increase, almost exactly in the middle of the range estimated by the majority of current U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change models.
- Researchers within and outside the study agree more data and research is needed to confirm or alter these results.

Lessons from Brazil’s São Paulo droughts (commentary)
- São Paulo is increasingly facing severe droughts, as is the case in 2021. In 2014 the city came close to having its reservoirs run dry. Brazil’s agriculture and hydropower also depend on reliable rains.
- Anthropogenic climate change is increasing the fluctuations in ocean surface water temperatures, and the frequency is increasing of the combination of warm water in the Atlantic and cold water in the Pacific off the coasts of South America, a combination that leads to droughts in São Paulo.
- The trends in ocean temperatures are expected to worsen these droughts, but what could make them truly catastrophic is the prospect of this variation being combined with the impact of deforestation depriving São Paulo of the water that is recycled by the Amazon forest and transported to southeastern Brazil by the “flying rivers.” The lessons are clear: control global warming and stop deforestation.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Cerrado desertification: Savanna could collapse within 30 years, says study
- Deforestation is amplifying climate change effects in the Brazilian Cerrado savanna biome, making it much hotter and drier. Researchers observed monthly increases of 2.24°C (4.03°F) in average maximum temperatures between 1961 and 2019. If this trend persists, temperature could be 6°C (10.8°F) higher in 2050 than in 1961.
- Cerrado air moisture is decreasing partly due to the removal of trees, which bring water up from as much as 15 meters (nearly 50 feet) underground to carry on photosynthesis during the dry season. Replacement of native vegetation by crops also reduces the absorption of sunlight by wild plants and leads to an increase in temperature.
- Even dew, the only source of water for smaller plants and many insects during the dry season, is being reduced due to deforestation and deepening drought. The demise of pollinators that rely on dew may prompt a cascading effect adversely impacting the biome’s biodiversity, which could collapse in the next 30 years.
- The Cerrado is often called Brazil’s “water tank,” as it is the source of eight of 12 Brazilian river basins. Its looming biome collapse and deepening drought mean less water for rural and urban populations and for agriculture. Low flows in rivers will also affect hydropower, likely causing energy shortages.

As Arctic warms, scientists wrestle with its climate ‘tipping point’
- A leaked version of the newest science report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns of looming, potentially catastrophic tipping points for Arctic sea ice melt, tundra thaw, savannification of the Amazon rainforest, and other planetary environmental thresholds beyond which recovery may be impossible.
- But what are tipping points, and how does one pinpoint what causes them, or when they will occur? When studying a vast region, like the Arctic, answering these questions becomes dauntingly difficult, as complex positive feedback loops (amplifying climate warming impacts) and negative feedback loops (retarding them) collide with each other.
- In the Arctic, one working definition of a climatic tipping point is when nearly all sea ice disappears in summer, causing a Blue Ocean Event. But attempts to model when a Blue Ocean Event will occur have run up against chaotic and complex feedback loop interactions.
- Among these are behaviors of ocean currents, winds, waves, clouds, snow cover, sea ice shape, permafrost melt, subarctic wildfires, aerosols and more, with many interactions still poorly understood. Some scientists say too much focus is going to tipping points, and research should be going to the “radical uncertainty” of escalating extreme local events.

As Arctic melt sets early July record, hard times lie ahead for ice: Studies
- Arctic sea ice fell to its lowest extent on record for this time of year on July 5, even though the spring had so far been relatively cool and stormy — conditions that, in the past, would have protected the ice.
- Three new studies help explain why. One found that increasing air temperatures and intrusion of warm water from the North Atlantic into the Barents and Kara Seas — a climate change-driven process known as Atlantification — are overpowering the ice’s ability to regrow in winter.
- Another study found that sea ice in coastal areas may be thinning at up to twice the pace previously thought. In three coastal seas — Laptev, Kara, and Chukchi — the rate of coastal ice decline increased by 70%, 98%, and 110% respectively when compared to earlier models.
- A third study found accelerated sea ice loss in the Wandel Sea, pointing to a possible assault by global warming on the Arctic’s Last Ice Area — a last bastion of multi-year sea ice which stretches from Greenland along the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Combined, this research shows Arctic ice may be in worse trouble than thought.

As Arctic sea ice hits annual maximum, concern grows over polar ice loss: Studies
- Arctic sea ice reaches its annual maximum extent in March. But while ice extent is high this year, scientists are far more concerned by the drastic loss of sea ice volume, which continues its steady decline.
- A new study has documented drastic ice loss in both the north and south polar regions; scientists found that the single biggest reduction came from Arctic sea ice — the Earth lost 7.6 trillion metric tons of it in the last three decades.
- Another new study shows that the last bastion of old, thick multiyear ice in the Arctic, north of Greenland and Ellesmere Island, is diminishing as the stability of the Nares ice arches declines — blockages which work like a cork in a bottle to stop multiyear ice from flowing out into the Atlantic.
- Meanwhile, researchers warn about the urgent need for new Arctic monitoring satellites. Currently there is just one in operation, the DMSP-F18 satellite, and it has already been in orbit more than a decade. Its failure could leave researchers blind and disrupt an Arctic ice database continuous back to 1978.

Critical temperature threshold spells shorter lives for tropical trees
- Rising temperatures as a result of climate change are making tropical forests hotter, which translates into shorter life spans for tropical tree species, a new study shows.
- Tropical forests host about 50% of Earth’s biodiversity and 50% of its forest carbon stocks; their capacity to capture and store carbon depends on their health and longevity.
- The authors of the study warn that the shorter life span raises concerns about the future potential of forests to offset CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning.
- They also warn that temperatures will keep rising in the near future — “even if we were to take drastic emissions reductions measures.”

Brave New Arctic: Sea ice has yet to form off of Siberia, worrying scientists
- After a summer that saw record Siberian fires and polar temperatures topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit, along with near record low sea ice extent in September, the Arctic Ocean’s refreeze has slowed to a crawl.
- The Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea are, at this point, failing to re-freeze as rapidly as in the past. Scientists see all of these worrying events, along with many other indicators including fast melting permafrost, as harbingers of a northern polar region that may be entering a new climate regime.
- Models predict the Arctic will be ice-free in summer by 2040 or 2050, with unforeseen negative impacts not only in the Far North, but on people, economies and ecosystems around the globe. One major concern: scientists worry how changes in the Arctic might alter temperate weather systems, impacting global food security.
- “We’re conducting this blind experiment, and we don’t yet know the real implications,” one sea ice researcher tells Mongabay. “How do you sell climate change to be as much of an emergency as COVID-19? Except that it will kill a lot more people.”

Arctic Sea ice melts to second-place finish at annual minimum
- At the annual September Arctic sea ice minimum this year, the ice extent was reduced to just 3.74 million square kilometers, a low that surpassed every year since 1979 except 2012, which saw a minimum of 3.41 million square kilometers.
- While 2012 was an anomaly (a year in which an immense August cyclone shattered the weakened ice), 2020 came very close to that record, but without any such storm, though the region did see intense July and August heat.
- A new study finds, once again, that what starts in the Arctic doesn’t stay there. Researchers say that Asia is seeing lengthier bouts of extreme storms, droughts, heat and cold as weather systems stall there, possibly due to a weakening Northern Hemisphere jet stream — an effect thought to be due to Arctic warming.
- In other new research, scientists say a layer of warm Atlantic water entering the Arctic, which had always stayed down deep in the past, is starting to rise toward, and mix with, colder surface waters. That mixing could be fatal to the Arctic sea ice in the future — with unknown, but potentially dire impacts on global climate stability.

Climate change could put tropical plant germination at risk: Study
- Under a worst-case climate change scenario, more than 20% of plant species in the tropics may experience temperatures too high for their seeds to germinate by 2070, according to an analysis of seed germination data compiled by the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.
- Under that same worst-case scenario, over half of tropical species may see reduced rates of germination by 2070 as well, the study reports, while many temperate species at high latitudes will move closer to their optimum temperature and may experience increased germination success as a result.
- The analysis shows that 26% of tropical species and 10% of temperate species are already experiencing temperatures above their optimum. Some plants are found living at sites where temperatures are already above their maximum, suggesting that their lineage in that location may be effectively extinct.
- Plants that find themselves outside of optimum or tolerable temperature ranges may be able to migrate to higher latitudes or altitudes, and existing diversity can offer a reservoir of genetic variation for species to adapt, but physiological limits and long generation times may mean even diverse species struggle.

Siberian heat drives Arctic ice extent to record low for early July
- On June 17, 2020, a Siberian town registered a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest ever recorded above the Arctic Circle. High temps across the region are driving impacts of great concern to scientists, firefighters, and those who maintain vulnerable Arctic infrastructure, including pipelines, roads, and buildings.
- The Siberian heat flowed over the adjacent Arctic Ocean where it triggered record early sea ice melt in the Laptev Sea, and record low Arctic sea ice extent for this time of year. While 2020 is well positioned to set a new low extent record over 2012, variations in summer weather could change that.
- The heat has also triggered wildfires in Siberia, releasing 59 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in June and drying out the region’s tundra. Some blazes are known as “zombie fires” possibly having smoldered underground all winter between 2019 and 2020.
- Also at risk from the rapid rise in warmth is civil and militaryinfrastructure, built atop thawing permafrost. As Siberia heated up this year, a fuel tank at a Russian power plant collapsed, leaking 21,000 tons of diesel into the Ambarnaya and Dadylkan rivers, a major Arctic disaster. Worse could come as the world continues warming.

Escalating firestorms could turn Amazon from carbon sink to source: Study
- A new study finds that the Brazilian Amazon could be moving from being a carbon storehouse to a carbon source — putting the regional and global climate at great risk. Intensifying wildfires could contribute to that shift happening by mid-century.
- Researchers used models to show that an increasingly hot, dry Amazon climate, coupled with deforestation, could trigger wildfires burning up to 16% of the rainforest in Brazil’s Southern Amazon by 2050, releasing up to 17 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.
- The team’s models indicated that Amazon fires will likely continue intensifying before 2030, due to more frequent heat and drought conditions caused by global warming, and as rampant deforestation due to agribusiness expansion dries out the understory and creates more flammable forest edges.
- Of great concern, the study also found that over time, fires won’t just impact edge areas, but intact forest, deep inside indigenous reserves and other conserved areas. Reduced sources of fire ignition and fire suppression could decrease the likelihood of burning, especially if accompanied by a decrease in global carbon emissions.

2019 was second-hottest year on record, 2010s hottest decade
- Global average temperatures on land and at sea in December 2019 were the second-highest recorded in the month of December since record-keeping began in 1880. That capped off a year that will also go down as the second-hottest on record, according to data released by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) today.
- The average temperature across Earth’s land and ocean surfaces in 2019 was 1.71°Fahrenheit or 0.95°Celsius above the 20th-century average, NOAA reports, just 0.07°F or 0.04°C below the hottest year on record, 2016.
- A separate analysis by NASA scientists confirmed 2019 as the second-warmest year on record. Earth’s average global surface temperature is now more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit, or slightly more than 1 degree Celsius, higher than it was in the late 19th century, NASA reported.

‘The tipping point is here, it is now,’ top Amazon scientists warn
- In the past, climate modelling has indicated an approaching Amazon tipping point when global climate change, combined with increasing deforestation, could result in a rapid Amazon shift from rainforest to degraded savanna and shrubland, releasing massive amounts of carbon to the atmosphere when the world can least afford it.
- Now, scientists Carlos Nobre and Thomas Lovejoy report that researchers are seeing evidence in both the atmosphere and on the ground that this tipping point has been reached and will worsen if no action is taken immediately to reverse the situation.
- They reference a NASA satellite study revealing an increasingly dry Amazon over time, which space agency scientists say is one of “the first indications of positive climate feedback mechanisms.” A 2018 study found that Amazon tree species adapted to wet climates were dying at record rates while dry-adapted trees thrived.
- It is urgent, the scientists say, that Brazil move away from unsustainable agribusiness monocultures of cattle, soy, and sugarcane, while launching a major reforestation project on already degraded lands in the southern and eastern Amazon, actions that could help Brazil keep its Paris Climate Agreement commitment.

For the Philippines, a warming world means stronger typhoons, fewer fish
- Global warming is expected to increase the frequency of El Niño and La Niña weather events in the Pacific, resulting in more powerful typhoons hitting the Philippines, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
- The report’s authors warn that even under a low-carbon-emission scenario, such extreme weather events are inevitable.
- The Philippines also has to contend with warming ocean waters that threaten to kill its coral reefs and drive its once-plentiful fish stocks to cooler regions of the Pacific.
- The IPCC authors say more research is needed to better understand how ocean warming will impact the Philippines and the wider region.

The unrecognized cost of Indonesia’s fires (commentary)
- As Indonesia’s forests go up in smoke, the world may be losing a lot more than we currently understand, argues Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler in this commentary that was originally published in Singapore’s Straits Times on September 30, 2019.
- In one instance, deforestation in Borneo nearly eradicated a potential anti-HIV drug before it was discovered. The near-miss with the drug, Calanolide A, provides one vivid illustration of what is at risk of being lost as Indonesia’s forests are cleared and burned.
- Other local and regional impacts from continued large-scale destruction of Indonesia’s forests may include hotter temperatures, more prolonged droughts, and increased incidence of fires.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth
- UN secretary general António Guterres announced that July 2019 was the hottest month on record in a press conference yesterday.
- In his remarks to the press, Guterres noted that the record-breaking July temperatures follow the hottest June ever recorded, adding: “This is even more significant because the previous hottest month, July 2016, occurred during one of the strongest El Niño’s ever. That is not the case this year. All of this means we are on track for the period from 2015 to 2019 to be the five hottest years on record.”
- The impacts of global climate change are being felt around the globe, perhaps nowhere more dramatically than in the Arctic, where high temperatures have caused sea ice levels to collapse. June 2019 saw near-record lows in Arctic sea ice extent.

June 2019 was the hottest on record: NOAA
- June 2019 was the hottest June recorded in the 140 years since the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began collecting global temperature data, the agency announced yesterday.
- On land, June’s global average surface temperature was 2.41 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average of 55.9°F, the highest June land temperature on record, beating the previous record set in 2015. At sea, average surface temperatures were 1.46 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century monthly average of 61.5 degrees Fahrenheit, tying June 2016 as the highest global average ocean temperature on record for June.
- 2019 also saw the second-smallest Arctic sea ice extent for the month of June in the 41-year record, according to an analysis of NOAA and NASA data by the National Snow and Ice Data Center. For the fourth consecutive June, Antarctic sea ice extent was also lower than average, reaching a mark 425,000 square miles, or 8.5 percent, below the 1981-2010 average.

Study examines how the Atlantic surfclam is successfully adapting to climate change
- Global climate change poses a severe threat to marine life, but scientists have found at least one species that appears to be successfully adapting to warmer ocean waters.
- A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that, even without factoring in the impacts of fishing, global animal biomass in Earth’s oceans is expected to decrease by as much as 17 percent by 2100 under a “high emissions” scenario that leads to 3-4 degrees Celsius of warming.
- However, a new study published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, shows that, as ocean temperatures rise, Atlantic surfclams, a large saltwater clam found mostly in the western Atlantic Ocean, are capably shifting their range into waters that would have previously been inhospitable to their survival.

As climate chaos escalates in Indian Country, feds abandon tribes
- South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Oglalla Sioux Indian Reservation is one of the most impoverished places in the U.S. But in 2018 and 2019, the reservation was struck by two horrific storms — with economic harm to their homes and livelihoods that the community’s low income residents have found it extraordinarily difficult to absorb.
- High Plains weather has been getting more variable, erratic and destructive: in 2011 came severe drought and wildfires, followed in 2012 by severe flooding. Sometimes these oscillations take the form of high-powered storms, with a rash of tornadoes in 2016, a destructive ice storm in 2018, and a bomb cyclone in 2019.
- According to the National Climate Assessment issued at the end of 2018, “Climate change is expected to exacerbate these [extreme weather] challenges.” But starting with Bill Clinton and continuing under Donald Trump, the federal government has severely slashed federal aid to Indian reservations and their low income residents.
- As a result, Pine Ridge is increasingly forced to rely on its own resources and on creative solutions, including crowdfunded local and national volunteer teams who have risen to the challenge and helped the communities repair storm damage. But as extreme weather intensifies on the High Plains, surviving there will get tougher.

As Cambodia swelters, climate-change suspicion falls on deforestation
- Cambodia has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world, with key drivers including demand for timber products, land-use conversion, and urbanization.
- Extreme temperatures have led to public criticism linking deforestation to unusually hot weather.
- The Cambodian government has denied this connection, but emerging science provides compelling links between the two issues.

2018 was the fourth hottest year on record
- According to independent analyses of the latest global temperature data by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record for planet Earth.
- The average global temperature in 2018 was 1.42 degrees Fahrenheit or 0.79 degrees Celsius above the 20th-century average, NOAA scientists determined. The average sea surface temperature was 1.19 degrees Fahrenheit (0.66 degrees Celsius) above average, while the land surface temperature was 2.02 degrees Fahrenheit (1.12 degrees Celsius) above average — both the fourth highest marks on record.
- The strongest warming trends have been observed in the Arctic region and its continued loss of sea ice. At the same time, declines in the ice sheets of Greenland and the Antarctic are contributing to sea level rise, while increasing temperatures are leading to longer fire seasons and more severe extreme weather events.

Nearly four decades of cycling race video reveals climate change’s effects
- A team of ecologists has used video from key locations along the route of the annual Tour of Flanders cycling race to understand how plants are responding to regional rises in temperature.
- After watching more than 200 hours of footage from 36 years of the race, the team found that trees began producing flowers and sprouting leaves earlier in the season.
- By 2016, trees were 67 percent more likely to have produced leaves by the time of the race than in the 1980s. By comparison, few if any trees had leaves before 1990.
- The researchers believe that analyses of video from other cycling races and similar annual events could yield new insights into the ecological changes that temperature changes instigate.

Audio: Sylvia Earle on why we must act now to save the oceans
- On today’s episode, renowned marine biologist Sylvia Earle joins us for an in-depth conversation about marine conservation.
- Legendary oceanographer, marine biologist, and environmentalist Sylvia Earle, sometimes known as “Her Deepness” or “The Sturgeon General,” is a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and former chief scientist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A documentary film about her work called Mission Blue won a 2015 News & Documentary Emmy.
- She joins us today to discuss how effective marine protected areas are at conserving the oceans and their inhabitants, her Hope Spots program that is identifying some of the most valuable marine environments on the planet, and the latest advances in marine conservation that she is most hopeful about.

Deforestation leads to big hikes in local temperature, study finds
- Researchers have discovered a correlation between deforestation and local temperature changes in many temperate mid-latitude locations around the world.
- These increases were particularly high in North America. The study found that deforestation in heavily cleared regions of the central U.S. contributed as much as 1 degree Celsius to local maximum temperatures.
- Overall, the study indicates that deforestation contributes around one-third to average hottest-day temperature increases in places that lost at least 15 percent of their forest cover.

NASA: Global surface temperatures in 2017 second-hottest on record despite no El Niño
- According to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, global average temperatures in 2017 were 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (or 0.90 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1951 to 1980 average, which makes 2017 temperatures second only to 2016.
- In their own analysis, scientists at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) determined that 2017 was the third-warmest year on record, behind 2016 and 2015.
- Despite the small discrepancy in rankings, which is due to the different methods each team employed for analyzing temperature data, both agencies’ analyses find that the five warmest years on record have all occurred since 2010 and that Earth’s long-term warming trend continued through 2017.

A saiga time bomb? Bad news for Central Asia’s beleaguered antelope
- In May 2015, more than 200,000 saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) suddenly died in Kazakhstan, reducing the global population of the critically endangered species by two-thirds.
- Research indicates the saigas were likely killed by hemorrhagic septicemia caused by a type of bacteria called Pasteurella multocida. But P. multocida generally exists harmlessly in healthy saigas and other animals, so the question remained: Why did so many saigas become infected so suddenly and severely by a normally benign type of bacteria?
- A new analysis may have solved part of this mystery, linking the spread of P. multocida to unusually high humidity levels and temperatures.
- The results indicate that saigas may be particularly sensitive to climate change, which stands to increase both temperature and humidity in Kazakhstan.

2017 was third-hottest year on record in U.S. and costliest in terms of extreme weather and climate disasters
- According to data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association yesterday, 2017 was the third-hottest year on record in the United States.
- Based on a preliminary analysis of the data, NOAA scientists determined that the average annual temperature for the 48 contiguous U.S. states was 54.6 degrees Fahrenheit last year, about 2.6 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the 20th century average.
- The country also experienced 16 weather and climate disasters that inflicted damages of $1 billion or more, which collectively cost a total of approximately $306 billion in losses – a new annual record for the U.S., NOAA reported.

Sumatran region heats up as forests disappear
- Average temperatures in the Indonesian province of Jambi have risen amid clearing of vast swaths of forest, a new study show.
- Areas that have been clear-cut, mostly for oil palm plantations, can be up to 10 degrees Celsius hotter than forested areas.
- The warming could make water more scarce and wildfires more common in the province.

At 2017 minimum, scientists ask: Is Arctic entering the Thin Ice Age?
- The decline of Arctic ice didn’t set a record this year, with sea ice extent coming in eighth after record-setting 2012. On September 13, at the summer minimum, sea ice covered 4.64 million square kilometers; that’s 1.25 million square kilometers more than 2012.
- However, that fact was overshadowed by another: experts say what matters most in the Arctic is the total volume of ice — a combination of thickness and extent. 2017 saw summer volumes among the lowest ever recorded.
- The Arctic set still another record that concerns scientists: no other 12-month period (September 2016 to August 2017) has had such persistently low sea ice extent.
- The Arctic ice is therefore showing no signs of recovery, scientists say, and its decline is likely continuing to impact the Earth’s weather in unpredictable and destabilizing ways.

July was hottest month ever recorded and 15th consecutive record-breaking month
- July 2016 was the 15th record-breaking month in a row, going all the way back to May 2015, NOAA data shows.
- NASA, which uses different measures than NOAA to track global temperatures, has July as just the 10th consecutive hottest month, going back to October 2015 — which also happened to be the first month in NASA’s dataset that was more than 1˚C warmer than the 1950 to 1980 global average.
- But July, no matter how you measure it, didn’t just keep the streak alive. Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, reported that it was “absolutely the hottest month since the instrumental records began.”

‘Intolerable’ heat waves likely to hit Persian Gulf by 2100
- Researchers modeled future changes in temperature and humidity in the Persian Gulf under two scenarios: one in which greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise unabated, and the other in which emissions are controlled.
- Study found that under the first scenario, heat and humidity in many parts of the Middle East could exceed the “wet-bulb temperature” threshold of 35 degrees Celsius (or about 95 degrees Fahrenheit) once every 10 to 20 years.
- At these severe temperatures, the human body will not able to cool down, resulting in hyperthermia, researchers say.

You know climate change threatens the planet — but your bank account?
- Hurricane Patricia is expected to reach the Mexican state of Jalisco Friday evening as a dangerous Category 5 hurricane capable of causing catastrophic destruction.
- A number of states and several business groups prepare to sue the EPA over climate change rules.
- Scientists say summer of 2015 saw the hottest temperatures in more than 4,000 years.

Live slow, decline fast: ‘speed of life’ may explain tuna population declines

It is well understood that large-bodied species of mammals, fish, and birds are especially susceptible to steep population declines and even extinction due to environmental pressures and overhunting. But new research shows that time-related traits, such as growth rate and longevity, might be even more important, at least for fish. A team led by researchers […]
Satellite data shows how deforestation is impacting our weather and our food

Inside Central American rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Thanks to the world’s voracious appetite for crops like coffee, palm oil, rice, rubber, soy and tea, large-scale agriculture is one of the main drivers of deforestation around the globe. The conversion of forests to cropland can drive local temperatures up or down by as much […]
Record heat in Antarctica

8-DAY LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE ANOMALY for March 6-13, 2015. Courtesy of NASA. The temperature at a base in Antarctica hit a record high last week, reports Weather Underground. On March 24, 2015 Argentina’s Esperanza Base reported a temperature of 63.5°F (17.5°C), which may be the warmest temperature ever recorded on the continent. The previous high […]
Even with no El Nino, 2014 was the warmest year on record

Massive coal mine in Australia for the Loy Yang Power Station. Coal is the world’s most carbon intensive fuel source and scientists say much of it must be left unexploited to avoid catastrophic, global impacts. Yet, governments, such as Australia, continue to whole-heartedly support the coal industry. Photo by: Marcus Wong Wongm. It was no […]
Will 2014 be the warmest year on record?

Male, the capital of the Maldives. One of the world’s lowest lying island nations, the Maldives is on the front line of rising seas caused by global warming. Photo by: Shahee Ilyas/Creative Commons 3.0. With the news that September was the warmest on record globally, 2014 takes one step closer to being the warmest year […]
Super warm oceans make May the hottest on record

Last month was the warmest May on record, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). While global land surface temperatures were the fourth warmest, it was the ocean surface where things really heated up. Sea surface temperatures were 0.59 Celsius (1.06 Fahrenheit) above the 20th Century average for May, tying […]
Tree-huggers: koalas cuddle up to keep cool

Animals that live in hot climates have various behavioral adaptations to help keep them cool. Kangaroos lick their wrists; rats lick their testicles. New-world vultures urinate on themselves. Humans and horses sweat. These behaviors all take advantage of the ability of evaporation to lower temperature by transferring heat energy from an animal’s body to the […]
April 2014: 350th month in a row with temperatures above average

This April was notable for being the 350th month in a row where temperatures exceeded the 20th Century average. This means, monthly global temperatures have not fallen below average for even a single month since February 1985. In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that April 2014 was tied with 2010 for […]
April ties for warmest on record

Globally, this April was a scorcher, tying with 2010 for the warmest April on record, according to new data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) last week. This makes 2014, to date, the sixth warmest year on record going back to 1880 when comparing the first four months. However, if an El […]
Extreme cold and drought in U.S. linked to climate change

The U.S. Midwest and Northeast experienced one of the coldest, snowiest winters on record this past season. This might seem contrary to warming trends forecast by climate scientists, but a new analysis released this week in Science points out that climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions may actually have contributed to the well-below average […]
Earth has fourth warmest March on record as forecasters see possible El Nino rising

Last March was the fourth warmest on record, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Overall, temperatures were 0.71 degrees Celsius (1.28 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average during March. Looking at the first three months of 2014, this year is the seventh warmest on record to date. “This […]
Despite frigid cold in U.S., January was the fourth warmest on record worldwide

Worldwide, this January was the fourth warmest since record-keeping began, according to new data released by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). While parts of the world, most notably eastern North America and northern Russia, experienced temperatures well-below average, overall the month was a scorcher. In fact, another dataset, from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space […]
Alaska roasting: new NASA map shows the Final Frontier in grip of January heatwave

Temperatures in Alaska from January 23-30, 2014 as compared to same period average from 2001-2010. Image by: NASA. Alaska got California weather at the end of January, as displayed by a new map based on data by NASA’s Terra satellite’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The U.S. state experiences one of its warmest winter periods […]
2013 was the seventh hottest year yet

Global warming continues apace as 2013 was the seventh warmest year in the past 133 years, according to a new analysis from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). In total, the global temperature in 2013 averaged 14.6 degrees Celsius (58.3 degrees Fahrenheit), or 0.6 degrees Celsius (1.1 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than the 20th Century […]
Underestimating global warming: gaps in Arctic temperature data lead scientists and public astray

Thickly packed sea ice in the Arctic from a photo taken in 1949. One day thick, stable sea ice in the Arctic will likely be a thing of the past as the Arctic is warming around eight times faster than the rest of world according to a new analysis. Photo by: Rear Admiral Harley D. […]
Down Under scorching: Australia experiences warmest year on record

Australia had its warmest year on record, with annual temperatures 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.16 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1961-1990 average, according to a new analysis from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BOM). This is 0.5 degrees Celsius higher than the previous warmest year on record—2005—for Australia. Global warming due to burning fossil fuels is increasing temperatures […]
World suffers warmest November on record

Last month was the warmest November on record, according to new analysis from the NOAA. Temperatures were 0.78 degrees Celsius (1.40 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average November in the 20th Century. Global temperatures are on the rise due to climate change caused primarily by burning fossil fuels, but also by deforestation and land-use change. While […]
‘Yet another wakeup call’: global warming is here, it’s manmade, and we’re not doing enough to stop it

Human actions are responsible for warming the Earth, reconfirms the landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released today, the first mammoth report on the physical science of climate change issued in seven years. Scientists now say they are 95-100 percent certain that human actions—such as burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests—are behind […]
Natural cooling cycle in Pacific may have slowed global warming…for now

Cooling waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean appear to be a major factor in dampening global warming in recent years, scientists said on Wednesday. Their work is a big step forward in helping to solve the greatest puzzle of current climate change research – why global average surface temperatures, while still on an upward trend, […]
Featured video: temperature rises across North America by 2100
A new short video predicts temperature changes across North America depending on the future of greenhouse gas emissions. Produced by NASA, the first series shows average temperatures changes (relative to 1970-1999) based on carbon dioxide levels hitting 550 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere by 2100. The second, even more dramatic series, shows changes […]
NASA image shows nearly ice-free Alaska as temps top 96 degrees

After a colder-than-average spring, Alaska is suffering a sudden and record-breaking heatwave. Temperatures on Monday, June 17th hit a stunning 96 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) in Talkeetna, Alaska, just below the state’s highest temperature ever record of 98 degrees Fahrenheit in 1969. On the same day, NASA’s Terra Satellite’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) […]
Rainforests will survive extreme global warming, argues study

Rainforests in South America have endured three previous extreme global warming events in the past, suggesting they will survive a projected 2-6 degree rise in temperatures over the coming century, reports a study published in the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science. The research, published by Carlos Jaramillo and Andrés Cárdenas of the Smithsonian […]
Earth likely to warm between 2 and 6 degrees Celsius this century

A new study by Australian scientists projects that the world will likely warm between 2 and 6 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels by 2100. The study published in Nature Climate Change finds that exceeding the 2-degree threshold is very likely under business-as-usual emissions scenarios even as scientists have long warned […]
Scientists have reached an overwhelming consensus on human-caused climate change

Despite outsized media and political attention to climate change deniers, climate scientists long ago reached a consensus that not only is climate change occurring, but it’s largely due to human actions. A new study in Environmental Research Letters further strengthens this consensus: looking at 4,000 peer-reviewed papers researchers found that 97 percent of them supported […]
Climate change to halve habitat for over 10,000 common species

Even as concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in human history last week, a new study in Nature Climate Change warns that thousands of the world’s common species will suffer grave habitat loss under climate change. “While there has been much research on the […]
Featured video: How climate change is messing with the jetstream
Weather patterns around the globe are getting weirder and weirder: heat waves and record snow storms in Spring, blasts of Arctic air followed by sudden summer, record deluges and then drought. Climate change due to fossil fuels emissions has risen the global temperature by 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in the last century, impacting […]
Sugarcane production impacting local climate in Brazil

Intensification of Brazil’s sugarcane industry in response to rising demand for sugar-based ethanol could have impacts on the regional climate reports a new study by researchers from Arizona State University, Stanford University and the Carnegie Institution for Science. Following the conversion of cerrado grasslands into sugarcane in Brazil, a recent study in Geophysical Research Letters […]
Despite unseasonable cold in EU and U.S., March was tenth warmest on record

While the month of March saw colder-than-average temperatures across a wide-swath of the northern hemisphere—including the U.S., southern Canada, Europe, and northern Asia—globally, it was the tenth warmest March on record in the last 134 years, putting it in the top 7 percent. Temperatures last month were 0.58 degrees Celsius (1.04 degrees Fahrenheit) above the […]
Last 30 years were the warmest in the last 1,400 years

From 1971 to 2000, the world’s land areas were the warmest they have been in at least 1,400 years, according to a new study in Nature Geoscience. The massive new study, involving 80 researchers from around the world with the Past Global Changes (PAGES) group, is the first to look at continental temperature changes over […]
Human activity driving unprecedented temperature shift

Average global temperatures are now higher than any point during the past 4,000 years despite being in the midst of what should be a cooling interval, reports a new study published in the journal Science. The research — based on ice cores and other data from 73 sites sites around the world — constructs a […]
Climate change already pummeling U.S. according to government report

State-by-state temperature records for 2012. Last year was the warmest on record for the continental U.S. going back to the late 19th Century. Courtesy of NOAA. Climate change is on the march across the U.S. according to a new draft report written by U.S. government scientists with input from 240 experts. It documents increasing and […]
2012 was America’s warmest year on record

2012 was the warmest year on record for the contiguous U.S. according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In a report posted on its web site, NOAA said the average temperature for 2012 was 55.3°F, or 3.2°F above the 20th century average and 1.0°F above 1998, the previous warmest year on record. The […]
99.999% chance 2012 will be hottest year on record for continental U.S

Climate Central says there is a “99.99999999 percent chance that 2012 will be the hottest year ever recorded in the continental U.S.” 2012 will almost certainly be the hottest year on record across the 48 contiguous United States, says a new analysis [PDF] published by Climate Central. The report puts the probability of 2012 being […]
September tied for world’s warmest on record

September 2012 temperatures as compared to 1981-2010 baseline. Graph courtesy of NOAA. Click to enlarge. September 2012 tied with 2005 for the warmest on record around the globe, according to new data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The average land and ocean temperature was 16.27 degrees Celsius (61.31 degrees Fahrenheit) for […]
Fourth warmest July yet around the world

July 2012 temperatures as compared to 1981-2010 baseline. Graph courtesy of NOAA. Click to enlarge. Last month was the fourth warmest July in the record books going back to 1880 worldwide, according to new data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It was notably warmer in the Northern Hemisphere than in the […]
Climate change may be worsening impacts of killer frog disease

Climate change, which is spawning more extreme temperatures variations worldwide, may be worsening the effects of a devastating fungal disease on the world’s amphibians, according to new research published in Nature Climate Change. Researchers found that frogs infected with the disease, known as chytridiomycosis, perished more rapidly when temperatures swung wildly. However scientists told the […]
Drought drives corn prices to record high

Drought in America’s Midwest drive corn prices to record highs on Thursday. Corn prices are up 62 percent since mid-June to due droughts and heatwaves affecting major corn-producing areas. The price of a bushel of corn now stands at $8.28. High temperatures and low rainfall last month spurred the Department of Agriculture to forecast a […]
July 2012: hottest month in U.S. history

Year-to-date temperature, by month, for 2012 (red), compared to the other 117 years on record for the contiguous U.S., with the five ultimately warmest years (orange) and five ultimately coolest years (blue) noted. Graph courtesy of the NOAA. Click to enlarge. Last month was not only the hottest July in U.S. weather history, but the […]
Extreme heatwaves 50 to 100 times more likely due to climate change

Hitting France especially hard, the Europe 2003 heatwave left tens of thousands of people dead. A new statistical analysis argues that climate change was the cause of this and other extreme summer heat events. Image by: NASA. A recent rise in deadly, debilitating, and expensive heatwaves was caused by climate change, argues a new statistical […]
Prominent climate skeptic reverses course, says global warming worse than IPCC forecast

Berkeley Earth Project temperature graph going back to 1750, shows how volcanic eruptions lower temperatures in the short-term. Image courtesy of Berkeley Earth Project. After starting his own project to study global warming, a once-prominent climate change skeptic and physicist says he now accepts the reality of anthropogenic climate change. “Last year, following an intensive […]
Featured video: climate change bringing on the extremes
Focusing on extreme weather events in the U.S. this summer, a new compilation video highlights the connection between climate change and increasing and worsening extremes, such as heatwaves, droughts, and floods. Includes interviews with several climatologists and other experts. While scientists say it is difficult to directly link a single weather event to climate change, […]
Drought, heat, fires push more Americans to accept reality of climate change

Borneo’s forests face dire future from global warming

Dim outlook for Borneo’s rainforests? Already wracked by extensive deforestation and forest degradation, the future looks grim for Borneo’s tropical rainforests, reports a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences. Combining historical records with field observations and global climate models Tomo’omi Kumagai and Amilcare Porporato of Duke University find that an sharp increase […]
Northern Hemisphere experiences warmest June on record

Sea ice extent in June since 1979. Graph courtesy of NOAA. The Northern hemisphere suffered its warmest June on record across land and sea, while globally it was the fourth warmest June yet, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Worldwide, temperatures were 0.63 degrees Celsius (1.13 degrees Fahrenheit) above […]
Deja vu: U.S. undergoes hottest 12 months on record…again and again

Fire scar from Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado. Photo by: NASA. According to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s National Climatic Data Center, the last twelve months have been the warmest on record for the contiguous United States. This record, set between July 2011 through June 2012, beat the last consecutive […]
Climate change increased the probability of Texas drought, African famine, and other extreme weather

Map shows the level of drought and dryness across the US in July 2011. Map courtesy US Department of Agriculture. Click to enlarge. Climate change is here and its increasing the chances for crazy weather, according to scientists. A prestigious group of climatologists have released a landmark report that makes the dramatic point that climate […]
Scientist: ‘no doubt’ that climate change is playing a role in U.S. fires

The map depicts the relative concentration of aerosols from wildlife smoke in the skies above the continental U.S. on June 26, 2012. Image by: NASA. A noted climate scientist says there is “no doubt” that climate change is “playing a role” in this year’s series of record fires in the western U.S. A massive wildfire […]
Second warmest May yet worldwide

May 2012 temperatures as compared to 1971-2000 base. Graph courtesy of NOAA. Last month was the second warmest May since record-keeping of global temperatures began 132 years ago. Globally, temperatures were 0.66 degrees Celsius (1.19 Fahrenheit) above the 20th Century Average and were only topped by May 2010, according to preliminary findings by the National […]
Warmer forests expel carbon from soils creating “vicious cycle”

Temperate forest in Gooseberry Falls State Park, Minnesota. Photo by: Tiffany Roufs. As the world warms, temperate forests could become a source of carbon dioxide emission rather than a sink according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Scientists found that two forest sites in the U.S. (Wisconsin […]
U.S. undergoes warmest spring on record

New Mexico’s biggest fire ever as seen on May 29th from NASA’s Aqua satellite. Photo by: NASA. Spring in the U.S. was the warmest on record, beating the past record-year (1910), by a stunning two degrees Fahrenheit, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The data also shows that the […]
As Colorado and New Mexico burn, scientists say prepare for more

The High Park Fire in Colorado started on June 9th from a lightening strike and quickly expanded. This image is from June 10th, taken by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. Image courtesy of NASA. A massive wildlife in Colorado still burns after it has killed one person and damaged or destroyed […]
As La Nina ends, world experiences 5th warmest April

Temperature anomalies in April 2012 with a base period of 1971-2000. La Nina conditions, which generally bring colder temperatures to many parts of the world, ended last month resulting in the fifth warmest April since record-keeping began, and the hottest April yet in the terrestrial Northern Hemisphere, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration […]
U.S. undergoes warmest 12 months yet

NASA map shows temperature anomalies from March 13-19, 2012 as compared to the same eight day period during the past 12 years. The map is based on data captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on the Terra satellite. Click to enlarge. Americans would not be remiss in asking, “is it getting hot […]
U.S. suffers warmest March, breaking over 15,000 record temperatures

NASA map shows temperature anomalies from March 13-19, 2012 as compared to the same eight day period during the past 12 years. The map is based on data captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on the Terra satellite. Click to enlarge. March was the warmest ever recorded in the U.S. with record-keeping […]
Oceans heating up for over 100 years

Line plot of global mean land-ocean temperature index, 1880 to present, with the base period 1951-1980. The black line is the annual mean and the red line is the five-year running mean. The green bars show uncertainty estimates. Graph by NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Click to enlarge. In 1872 the HMS Challenger pulled […]
“Strong evidence” linking extreme heatwaves, floods, and droughts to climate change

NASA map shows temperature anomalies from March 13-19, 2012 as compared to the same eight day period during the past 12 years based on data captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite. Click to enlarge. As North America recovers from what noted meteorologist Jeff Masters has called “the most […]
NASA image: records shattered across U.S. as summer arrives before spring

NASA map shows temperature anomalies from March 13-19, 2012 as compared to the same eight day period during the past 12 years based on data captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on the Terra satellite. Click to enlarge. Central U.S. and parts of Canada have seen over a thousand record temperatures shattered […]
2010, not 1998, warmest year on record

An updated temperature analysis by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit has confirmed that 2010, not 1998, was the warmest year since record keeping began in the late 19th Century. The new analysis adds in temperature data from 400 stations across northern Canada, Russia, and the Arctic, which is […]
New meteorological theory argues that the world’s forests are rainmakers

The Amazon rainforest meets cleared area for cattle pasture. A radical meteorology theory argues that loss of forest, both in temperate and tropical regions, will lead to less precipitation over land. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. New, radical theories in science often take time to be accepted, especially those that directly challenge longstanding ideas, contemporary […]
Wall Street Journal under attack for climate op-ed
The Wall Street Journal is under scrutiny for publishing an op-ed attacking climate science last Friday, while turning down another op-ed explaining climate change and signed by 255 researchers with the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, which was eventually published in the journal Science. The op-ed last Friday first garnered attention because it was signed […]
Featured video: NASA releases shocking 30 second film on climate
NASA has created a new animation showing regional temperature changes on a map of the Earth from 1880-2011. On the map, blues represent temperatures lower than baseline averages, while reds indicate temperatures higher than the average. As the 131 years pass, the map turns from bluish-white to increasingly yellow and red. Caused by the burning […]
NASA: 2011 ninth warmest year yet

Despite being a strong La Niña year, which tends to be cooler than the average year, 2011 was the ninth warmest year on record and the warmest La Niña yet, according to a global temperature analysis by NASA. To date, nine of the world’s ten warmest years have occurred since 2000 according to data going […]
Seals, birds, and alpine plants suffer under climate change

The number of species identified by scientists as vulnerable to climate change continues to rise along with the Earth’s temperature. Recent studies have found that a warmer world is leading to premature deaths of harp seal pups (Pagophilus groenlandicus) in the Arctic, a decline of some duck species in Canada, shrinking alpine meadows in Europe, […]
Top 10 Environmental Stories of 2011

Victories won by activists around the world tops our list of the big environmental stories of the year. In this photo: a young woman is placed in handcuffs and arrested for civil disobedience against the Keystone XL Pipeline in the U.S. In all, 1,252 people were arrested in the two week long action. Photo by: […]
Is the Russian Forest Code a warning for Brazil?

Recent deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Brazil, which last week moved to reform its Forest Code, may find lessons in Russia’s revision of its forest law in 2007, say a pair of Russian scientists. The Brazilian Senate last week passed a bill that would relax some of forest provisions imposed […]
Current emission pledges will raise temperature 3.5 degrees Celsius

New research announced at the 17th UN Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa finds that under current pledges for reducing emissions the global temperature will rise by 3.5 degrees Celsius (6.3 degrees Fahrenheit) from historic levels, reports the AFP. This is nearly double world nations’ pledge to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees […]
At least 74 percent of current warming caused by us

A new methodology to tease out how much current climate change is linked to human activities has added to the consensus that behind global warming is us. The study, published in Nature Geoscience found that humans have caused at least three-quarters (74 percent) of current warming, while also determining that warming has actually been slowed […]
Another record breaker: 2011 warmest La Niña year ever

The Turkana tribe of northern Kenya in East Africa are buffeted by constant drought and food insecurity, which recent research says may be worsening due to climate change. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. As officials meet at the 17th UN Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa, the world continues to heat up. The UN World […]
Climate change already worsening weird, deadly, and expensive weather

Unprecedented flooding in Thailand, torrential rains pummeling El Salvador, long-term and beyond-extreme drought in Texas, killer snowstorm in the eastern US—and that’s just the last month or so. Extreme weather worldwide appears to be both increasing in frequency and intensity, and a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) connects the dots […]
Killer Russian heatwave product of climate change

Image of Russia and nearby areas from August 4th, 2010 by NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. Especially intense fires are outlined in red. Smoke from peat and forest fires lead to dangerous levels of pollution throughout Moscow and surrounding areas. Photo by: NASA. Click to enlarge. Last year’s Russian heatwave and drought resulted in vast […]
Sober up: world running out of time to keep planet from over-heating

If governments are to keep the pledge they made in Copenhagen to limit global warming within the ‘safe range’ of two degrees Celsius, they are running out of time, according to two sobering papers from Nature. One of the studies finds that if the world is to have a 66 percent chance of staying below […]
Independent climate study comes to same conclusion as world’s climatologists
An ‘independent’ climate study known as the Berkeley Earth Project has re-confirmed decades of research on climate change. Undertaken largely by physicists, the study, which approached temperature data in a new way, confirms the long-standing science behind a warming world, while negating a number of criticisms put forward by climate skeptics. “Our biggest surprise was […]
World nations see six all-time record high temperatures, no lows so far in 2011

Eight months into the year, six nations have seen record high temperatures, including Kuwait, Iraq, Armenia, Iran, and Republic of the Congo, reports Jeff Master’s Wunderblog. To date no record lows have been recorded in any country in the world so far. This is similar, though not quite as extreme, to last year when twenty […]
Chart: US suffers record drought

Map shows the level of drought and dryness across the US. Map courtesy US Department of Agriculture. Click to enlarge. An exceptional drought is still scorching major parts of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. A new report from the National Drought Mitigation Center finds that over July, nearly 12 percent of the US saw […]
Adaptation, justice and morality in a warming world

The Turkana people of northern Kenya are currently being hard hit by hunger and drought, which some experts say could have links to climate change. Observers have long warned that the world’s poor and marginalized will suffer the most from climate impacts even though they are the least responsible. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. If […]
NASA image: hotter lows and hotter highs in the US

New images show just how much US temperatures in July and January have changed recently as the nation feels the impact of global climate change. Dubbed the ‘new normals’ of US climate, the maps focus on July maximums – typically the hottest month of the year – and January minimums – typically the coldest month. […]
Burning up: warmer world means the rise of megafires

Megafires are likely both worsened by and contributing to global climate change, according to a new United Nations report. In the tropics, deforestation is playing a major role in creating giant, unprecedented fires. “These extraordinary conflagrations [or ‘megafires’] are unprecedented in the modern era for their deep and long-lasting social, economic, and environmental impacts,” reads […]
Are US floods, fires linked to climate change?

The short answer to the question of whether or not on-going floods in the US Midwest and fires in Texas are linked to a warming Earth is: maybe. The long answer, however, is that while it is difficult—some argue impossible—for scientists to link a single extreme weather event to climate change, climate models have long […]
With pressure to drill, what should be saved in the Arctic?

Map showing the 13 most vulnerable areas in the Arctic marine environment. Photo: IUCN/NRDC. Click image to enlarge. Two major threats face the Arctic: the first is global climate change, which is warming the Arctic twice as fast the global average; the second is industrial expansion into untouched areas. The oil industry is exploring new […]
Warmer temperatures may be exterminating pika populations one-by-one

An American pika (Ochotona princeps) in Colorado. Photo in Public Domain. The last decade has not been a good one for the American pika (Ochotona princeps) according to a new study in Global Change Biology. Over the past ten years extinction rates have increased by nearly five times for pika populations in the Great Basin […]
Arctic sea ice maximum ties for lowest on record
Providing more data on how climate change is impacting the Arctic, the maximum extent of sea ice this year was tied with 2006 for the lowest on record. Maximum sea ice simply means the territory the sea ice covers at its greatest point before the seasonal melt begins. According to the National Snow and Ice […]
As US Republicans officially dismiss climate change, scientists charge them with ‘willful ignorance’

US Republican congress members officially rejected the widespread scientific consensus that the world is warming and the cause is primarily greenhouse gas emissions. As Republicans in the US House and Commerce Committee voted to stop the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, they were also forced to vote on three Democratic […]
Birnam Wood in the 21st Century: northern forest invading Arctic tundra as world warms

In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth the forest of Birnam Wood fulfills a seemingly impossible prophecy by moving to surround the murderous king (the marching trees are helped, of course, by an army of axe-wielding camouflaged Scots). The Arctic tundra may soon feel much like the doomed Macbeth with an army of trees (and invading species) closing […]
Another low record for Arctic ice in January
The extent of ice cover in the Arctic for January was the lowest on record, following another record-low in December for that month, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Ice covered on average 5.23 million square miles (13.55 million square kilometers) in January 2011, which is almost half a million square […]
Greenland melt is the worst yet
Melting of the Greenland ice sheet was the most extreme yet in 2010, beating the previous melt record from 2007. This continues a long-term trend whereby melting in Greenland has increased on average 17,000 square kilometers every year since 1979. “This past melt season was exceptional, with melting in some areas stretching up to 50 […]
NASA images reveal consistent climate warming among different temperature records

Four different global temperature records show the Earth is warming. Graph courtesy of NASA. Click to enlarge. New images released by NASA illustrate how four different global temperature records show remarkably consistent warming around the world. Currently, global temperatures are analyzed by four major organizations: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), NOAA National Climatic […]
2010 ties for the warmest year on record

2010 tied 2005 as the warmest year on record, according to separate analyses by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Global surface temperatures in 2010 were 1.34°F (0.74°C) warmer than the average global surface temperature from 1951 to 1980 and 1.12°F (0.62°C) above the 20th century average. “If the warming trend continues, as […]
NASA releases global warming map

NASA has released a new analysis of temperature change. The map shows temperature anomalies for 2000-2009 and 1970-1979 relative to a 1951-1980 baseline. To conduct the analysis, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) uses “publicly available data from 6,300 meteorological stations around the world; ship-based and satellite observations of sea surface temperature; and Antarctic […]
‘These are the facts’: 2010 to be among top three hottest years
Despite La Nina arriving at the end of the year—which bring cooler than average conditions—and bitter cold showing up recently in the Northern Hemisphere due to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), 2010 was smoldering enough worldwide that it will very likely be among the top three hottest years since record-keeping began 160 years ago, reports […]
Climate change linked to 21,000 deaths in nine months
Extreme weather events linked to climate change has caused the deaths of 21,000 people worldwide in the first nine months of 2010, according to Oxfam. This is already twice the casualties of 2009. In a new report More than ever: climate talks that work for those that need them most, the organization outlines the casualties […]
Record number of nations hit all time temperature highs
To date, nineteen nations have hit or matched record high temperatures this year, according to Jeff Master’s Wunder Blog, making 2010 the only year to have so many national records. In contrast, no nation this year has hit a record cold temperature. Over the past decade, which was the warmest on record, 75 nations have […]
Do wind farms drive local warming?

Using decades-old data researchers have proven a long-suspected effect of wind turbines: under certain conditions large-scale wind farms can change local weather. Temperatures recorded from a wind farm in San Gorgonio, California in 1989 shows that turbines cooled local temperatures during the day, but warmed them at night. However, researchers in the paper published in […]
Obama science adviser wields evidence to undercut climate change denier

US President Barack Obama’s science adviser, John Holdren, took on climate change deniers in a comprehensive, data-heavy speech last month at the Kavli Science Forum in Oslo, Norway. Proclaiming that “the earth is getting hotter”, Holden went on to enumerate on the causes of climate change (human impacts) and its overall effect (not good), discussing […]
Colossal coral bleaching kills up to 95 percent of corals in the Philippines

It is one of the most worrisome observations: fast massive death of coral reefs. A severe wide-scale bleaching occurred in the Philippines leaving 95 percent of the corals dead. The bleaching happened as the result of the 2009-2010 El Niño, with the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia waters experiencing significant thermal increase especially since the […]
NASA image captures one of the warmest Julys on record

The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) has found that the global average temperature of July 2010 was nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.55 degrees Celsius) higher than average temperatures from July 1951-1980. In fact, this July was tied for the warmest on record with July 2005 and 1998. Temperatures soared dramatically in Eastern Europe […]
New NASA images reveal devastating impact of Russian fires

A new series of images released by NASA show the extent of smoke hovering over Moscow and Central European Russia, while another image measures the amount of carbon monoxide in the area, a gas which can produce a number of health problems. Russia is in the midst of a full-scale disaster as hundreds of forest […]
Summer from hell: seventeen nations hit all-time heat records
Asian continent sees warmest temperature ever recorded. The summer isn’t over yet, but already seventeen nations have matched or beaten their all-time heat records. According to Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog, Belarus, the Ukraine, Cyprus, Russia, Finland, Qatar, the Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Niger, Chad, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, Colombia, Myanmar, Ascension Island, and the Solomon Islands have all […]
Officials point to Russian drought and Asian deluge as consistent with climate change

Government officials are pointing to the drought and wildfires in Russia, and the floods across Central and East Asia as consistent with climate change predictions. While climatologists say that a single weather event cannot be linked directly to a warming planet, patterns of worsening storms, severer droughts, and disasters brought on by extreme weather are […]
Record highs, forest fires, and ash-fog engulf Moscow

Moscow and parts of Russia have been hit by record high temperatures and forest fires. Ashen fog from peat forests burning near Moscow has prompted officials to warn elderly and those with heart or bronchial problems to stay inside. Workers should be allowed a siesta to rest in the afternoon, as well, said the Russia’s […]
Es Kutub Utara Capai Catatan Terendah untuk Juni
Di bulan Juni, rata-rata es laut yang ada di Kutub Utara tercatat terendah untuk bulan tersebut, menurut National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Diukur oleh satelit, pergerakan musiman es Kutub Utara telah dilacak sejak 1979 dengan penurunan dramatis yang diamati selama 30 tahun ini. Penurunan ini dikaitkan oleh para ahli dengan perubahan iklim. Di […]
June was the 304th month in a row above average temperatures
Data released from the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Climatic Data Center shows that June 2010 was a record breaker. It was the warmest month of June globally since record-taking began in 1880 and it is the 304th month in a row that has been above the 20th Century average. […]
Arctic ice hits lowest record for June
In June the average sea ice extent in the Arctic was the lowest on record for that month, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Measured by satellites, the seasonal movements of Arctic ice have been tracked since 1979 with a dramatic decline observed over the last 30 years. This decline is […]
2010 the second hottest year on record through May

The first five months of 2010 have been the second warmest on record, according to data released by the University of Alabama Huntsville. Scientists at the university’s Earth System Science Center report that the global composite temperature for January 1 through May 31 was 0.59 degrees Celsius (1.06 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20-year average, trailing […]
Pencitraan satelit NASA tunjukkan rekaman rendahnya salju di Amerika Serikat

Menurut National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, tutupan salju mengalami kemunduran ke tingkat terendah yang pernah terekam di Amerika Utara pada akhir April ini. Tutupan salju tersebut 2,2 juta kilometer persegi di bawah rata-rata. Dengan rekaman keberadaan salju yang dimulai tahun 1967, ini adalah yang terendah dalam 43 tahun dan dengan anomali negatif terbesar selama 521 […]
NASA satellite image reveals record low snow for the United States

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, snow cover retreated to the lowest extent ever recorded in North America by the end of this April. Snow cover was 2.2 million square kilometers below average. With records of snow extent beginning in 1967, this is the lowest in 43 years and the largest negative anomaly […]
Warmest April on record

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the past April was the warmest globally since record taking began in the late 19th Century. Combining both land and ocean temperatures, the NOAA recorded that April 2010 was 0.76 degrees Celsius (1.37 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th Century average. Particularly warm areas on land included […]
Healthy coral reefs produce clouds and precipitation

Climate change threatens coral reefs and precipitation along coasts. Twenty years of research has led Dr. Graham Jones of Australia’s Southern Cross University to discover a startling connection between coral reefs and coastal precipitation. According to Jones, a substance produced by thriving coral reefs seed clouds leading to precipitation in a long-standing natural process that […]
Galapagos fur seals exploit warmer waters to establish colony off Peru
As suggested by their name, the Galapagos fur seals were once endemic to the Galapagos island chain off the coast of Ecuador. But in a warming world species are on the move, and the Galapagos fur seal is no exception. According to a recent story in Reuters the Galapagos fur seals have established what appears […]
James Inhofe is not a climatologist: a journalist’s perspective

As a child when I came down with pneumonia my parents did not rush me to see a policeman, a cattle rancher, or a local businessman. Instead they took me to see a medical doctor—someone who had studied that science for at least twelve years—and I was quickly given injections and put on antibiotics. Thanks […]
“No change whatsoever” in scientists’ conviction that climate change is occurring

Despite some politicians and TV personalities claiming that climate change is dead, a panel of influential US and European scientists held a press conference at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to set the record straight on the state of the science and the recent media frenzy against climate […]
NASA: 2009 second warmest year on record

According to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), last year was tied for the second warmest year on record after 2005, the warmest year on record. If just looking at the southern hemisphere, however, 2009 proved the warmest yet recorded since record-taking began in 1880. Overall 2009 tied a total of five other years—four […]
Current decade is the warmest on record

As 192 countries meet in Copenhagen to wrangle out a complex and at times sticky agreement to combat climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released new evidence that the world is undergoing warming. According to the WMO the current decade is likely the warmest on record. “The decade of the 2000s (2000–2009) was […]
Sea levels set to rise as Arctic warming replaces millennia long natural cooling cycle

According to a new study published in Science the Arctic should be cooling, and in fact has been cooling for millennia. But beginning in 1900 Arctic summer temperatures began rising until the mid-1990s when the cooling trend was completely overcome. Researchers fear that this sudden up-tick in temperatures could lead to rising sea levels threatening […]
Record global ocean temperature in July
The world’s ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for July, breaking the previous record set in 1998, reports NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. At 62.56°F (16.99°C), ocean temperatures were 1.06°F (0.59°C) above the 20th century average. The combined average global land and ocean surface temperature for July 2009 (61.43°F – 16.37°C) ranked as […]
NOAA offers “dramatic evidence” of Arctic warming

NOAA offers “dramatic evidence” of Arctic warming NOAA offers “dramatic evidence” of Arctic warming mongabay.com October 16, 2008
Earth already committed to 2.4-degree C rise from climate change

Earth already committed to 2.4-dgree C rise from climate change Earth already committed to 2.4-dgree C rise from climate change Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com September 15, 2008 Air pollution masking full impact of global warming As of 2005 the Earth was already committed to rise of global mean temperatures by 2.4°C (4.3°F), concludes a new study […]
Greenhouse gases made 2006 2nd-warmest year on record for U.S.

Greenhouse gases made 2006 2nd-warmest year on record for U.S. Greenhouse gases made 2006 2nd-warmest year on record for U.S. mongabay.com August 28, 2007 Greenhouse gases likely accounted for over half of the widespread warmth across the continental United States in 2006, report scientists writing in the September 5th issue of the journal Geophysical Research […]

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