Scientists have just detected a major change to the Earth’s oceans linked to a warming climate

Big waves generated by the Nazare
canyon just off the coast of Nazare,
central Portugal, in the Eastern
 Atlantic Ocean. 

A large research synthesis, published in one of the world’s most influential scientific journals, has detected a decline in the amount of dissolved oxygen in oceans around the world — a long-predicted result of climate change that could have severe consequences for marine organisms if it continues.

The paper, published Wednesday in the journal Nature by oceanographer Sunke Schmidtko and two colleagues from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, found a decline of more than 2 percent in ocean oxygen content worldwide between 1960 and 2010. 

The loss, however, showed up in some ocean basins more than others. The largest overall volume of oxygen was lost in the largest ocean — the Pacific — but as a percentage, the decline was sharpest in the Arctic Ocean, a region facing Earth’s most stark climate change.

Read The Washington Post story - “Scientists have just detected a major change to the Earth’s oceans linked to a warming climate.”

I’m a scientist who has gotten death threats. I fear what may happen under Trump

Michael E. Mann is a professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. He co-authored, with Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles, “The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy.”

Donald Trump’s pick of Scott Pruitt for
Environmental Protection Agency
administrator is just one of many ominous signs.

My Penn State colleagues looked with horror at the police tape across my office door.

I had been opening mail at my desk that afternoon in August 2010 when a dusting of white powder fell from the folds of a letter. I dropped the letter, held my breath and slipped out the door as swiftly as I could, shutting it behind me. First I went to the bathroom to scrub my hands. Then I called the police.

It turned out to be cornstarch, not anthrax. And it was just one in a long series of threats I’ve received since the late 1990s, when my research illustrated the unprecedented nature of global warming, producing an upward-trending temperature curve whose shape has been likened to a hockey stick.

Read the opinion piece by Michael E. Mann in The Washington Post - “I’m a scientist who has gotten death threats. I fear what may happen under Trump.”

Seas aren’t just rising, scientists say — it’s worse than that. They’re speeding up

North Miami buildings are
seen near the ocean.

On a warming Earth, seas inevitably rise, as ice on land melts and makes its way to the ocean. And not only that — the ocean itself swells, because warm water expands. We already know this is happening — according to NASA, seas are currently rising at a rate of 3.5 millimeters per year, which converts to about 1.4 inches per decade.

However, scientists have long expected that the story should be even worse than this. Predictions suggest that seas should not only rise, but that the rise should accelerate, meaning that the annual rate of rise should itself increase over time. That’s because the great ice sheets, Greenland and Antarctica, should lose more and more mass, and the heat in the ocean should also increase.

The problem, or even mystery, is that scientists haven’t seen an unambiguous acceleration of sea level rise in a data record that’s considered the best for observing the problem — the one that began with the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite, which launched in late 1992 and carried an instrument, called a radar altimeter, that gives a very precise measurement of sea level around the globe. (It has since been succeeded by other satellites providing similar measurements.)

Read The Washington Post story - “Seas aren’t just rising, scientists say — it’s worse than that. They’re speeding up.”

Biomass lobbyists create website to 'correct the record'

Lobbyists for the biomass industry have created a new website, Biomass101.org, with the seemingly laudable goal of “Correcting the record and getting the facts out on carbon-neutral biomass energy.”

Mary Booth of the Partnership for Policy Integrity (PFPI) says there’s one major problem with that, however: burning biomass — wood or wood pellets and other plant matter — for energy is anything but carbon neutral.

So Booth and PFPI have launched their own website, Biomess101.org, to get the real facts out about the “facts” the biomass lobbyists are pushing.

At first, Booth told DeSmog, she and her colleagues were content to ignore Biomass101.org, which frequently publishes blog posts that purport to expose flaws in reporting by media outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and NPR. “They’d call people out, and call us out, and we didn’t respond, or draw attention to it,” she said.

Read the DeSmog Blog story - “Fact-Checking The Biomass Lobby’s New Website.”

Ed Hawkins puts a new spin how we think about climate change

Ed Hawkins spends his days doing, you know, climate science. A professor at the University of Reading in the UK, he has published widely on the overturning circulation in the north Atlantic Ocean, as well as trends for sea ice in the Arctic and how to predict future temperatures, among other topics. And he contributed to the most recent mega-report of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which everybody cites for pretty much everything in this area.

He’s now famous, though, for something quite different. This:

Read The Washington Post story - “This scientist just changed how we think about climate changewith one GIF.”

Geoengineering - once you start, you can't stop

Many believe the world's climate
 change issues is this simple.

Many of the world's nations show few signs of cutting their greenhouse gas emissions anytime soon. That's why, in recent years, more and more climate scientists have been pondering the concept of "geoengineering" as a way to slow the pace of global warming.

One popular idea involves spraying reflective particles into the atmosphere to deflect a small portion of Earth's sunlight. Harvard scientist David Keith discussed the pros and cons of the idea at length in a recent interview.

Pros: It's cheap, easy, and could likely avert some of the worst impacts of global warming, like sea-level rise. Cons: It could have lots of unpredictable side effects, like mucking up global rainfall patterns. It's difficult to coordinate. And geoengineering does nothing to address other severe climate impacts, like ocean acidification.

Read The Washington Post story by Brad Plumer - “One problem with geoengineering: Once you start, you can’t really stop.”

Mysterious crater signs of 'ticking climate bomb'

When a helicopter pilot spotted the first crater in summer 2014, everyone was baffled.

The 100-foot-wide hole appeared on the Yamal Peninsula seemingly out of nowhere, during a tense season of Russian military action in Ukraine and international sanctions.

And then more appeared. Lacking a better explanation, aliens and underground missiles were floated as possible theories, according The Washington Post.

But the truth is that the holes might come from a threat not even Mulder and Scully are equipped to handle: climate change.

Read the Business Insider story - “Giant holes found in Siberia could be signs of a ticking climate 'time bomb'.”

'It's real, it is happening right now' - Oscar winner's commitment to climate change

"Climate change is real. It is happening
right now." - Oscar winner
Leonardo DiCaprio seizes the moment.

On Sunday night while accepting a long-anticipated Oscar for best actor, for his role in “The Revenant,” Leonardo DiCaprio seized the moment to highlight the plight of the planet.

“Making “The Revenant” was about man’s relationship to the natural world,” DiCaprio said. “A world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow.”

“Climate change is real. It is happening right now,” DiCaprio continued. “It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.” (You can watch the full speech here.)

Read The Washington Post’s story - “Leonardo DiCaprio’s Oscars speech was about climate change,which could be worse than we thought.”

It's the poor who pay the price for our inattention to climate change

This picture taken early in
September, 2013,  shows an
 aerial view of the
island of Male, the capital
 of the Maldives, illustrating
how little 'freeboard' the
city had left.

With his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si,” Pope Frances went further than perhaps anyone has before to reframe the entire debate around climate change by focusing on the world’s poor and the duty to protect them from environmental harms that they did not cause themselves.

Now, new research in the journal Scientific Reports has underscored the pope’s message by showing that when it comes to climate change, it is indeed the countries with the most to lose that tend to contribute to the problem least — and also the other way round. The countries that contribute most to the problem — such as China and the United States, the current top two emitters — tend to show less relative vulnerability to the impact compared with nations that have quite low levels of emissions, the research finds.

Read Chris Mooney’s article in The Washington Post - “Why climate change is really, really unfair.”

Future generations will not have the luxury of being able 'look away'

"The Honor Code" by
Kwame Anthony Appiah.

Climate change is a practical issue, but it is inherently a moral matter; one that will damn us all.

Philosophy professor at Princeton University, Kwame Anthony Appiah, penned a piece in The Washington Post some six years ago about how we look away when confronted with what is a deep moral issue.

He addressed all those familiar issues; slavery, industrial meat farming, lynch mobs, incarceration, torture, homosexuality; and our disregard for the environment and wondered what our children would say.

“Our descendants, who will inherit this devastated Earth, are unlikely to have the luxury of such recklessness. Chances are, they won't be able to avert their eyes, even if they want to,” he wrote.

Read the opinion piece in The Washington Post by Kwame Anthony Appiah - “What will future generations condemn us for?”

Brazilian mosquito-borne virus attributed to climate change

Brazilian health authorities are sounding the alarm about a mosquito-borne virus that they believe may be the cause of thousands of infants being born with damaged brains.

The pathogen, known as Zika and first discovered in forest monkeys in Africa over 70 years ago, is the new West Nile -- a virus that causes mild symptoms in most but can lead to serious neurological complications or even death in others.

‘…..complicated effects of climate change’

Brazil's health ministry said on Nov. 28 that it had found the Zika virus in a baby with microcephaly — a rare condition in which infants are born with shrunken skulls — during an autopsy after the child died. The virus was also found in the amniotic fluid of two mothers whose babies had the condition.

Read The Washington Post story - “Brazil declares emergency after 2,400 babies are born with brain damage, possibly due to mosquito-borne virus.”

 

 

Bracing scientific assessment points the finger as humans

A group of 24 geoscientists on Thursday released a bracing assessment, suggesting that humans have altered the Earth so extensively that the consequences will be detectable in current and future geological records. They therefore suggest that we should consider the Earth to have moved into a new geologic epoch, the “Anthropocene,” sometime circa 1945-1964.

The current era (at least under present definitions), known as the Holocene, began about 11,700 years ago, and was marked by warming and large sea level rise coming out of a major cool period, the Younger Dryas. However, the researchers suggest, changes ranging from growing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to infusions of plastics into marine sediments suggest that we’ve now left the Holocene decisively behind — and that the proof is already being laid down in polar ice cores, deep ocean sediments, and future rocks themselves.

Read The Washington Post story - “Scientists say humans have now brought on an entirely new geologic epoch.”

Obama denies Keystone XL pipeline and claims climate 'leadership' for US

P

resident Obama announced Friday that his administration will not issue a permit for construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, arguing that approval would undermine the U.S. effort to curb greenhouse gases.

“America’s now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change,” Obama said. “And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that’s the biggest risk we face — not acting.”

Denying TransCanada Corp. a permit for the 1,179-mile pipeline between Hardisty, Alberta, and Steele City, Neb., ends a seven-year fight over a project that became a symbol in the political battle over climate change.

Read The Washington Post story - “Obama rejects Keystone XL project, citing U.S. climate leadership.”

Central and eastern Europe in grip of record-breaking heat wave

C

entral and eastern Europe are in the grips of a record-breaking heat wave, that may persist for at least another week to ten days.

A number of locations in Germany set all-time highs last Friday and more records are likely to fall over the coming days, particularly in eastern Europe.

The heat wave commenced late last week. On Friday, Weather Underground meteorologist Bob Henson reported Berlin was among more than 100 towns and cities in Germany that tied or broke all-time record highs. Berlin hit 102 degrees (38.9 Celsius) breaking its previous hottest temperature of 101.5 degrees (38.6 Celsius).

Read The Washington Post story - “Central and eastern Europe simmering in historic heat wave”.

Finding out what drives public beliefs about climate change

A

 major concern for climate activists is figuring out what drives the public’s beliefs about climate change.

This information can help scientists better engage with the public and help activists understand what factors are likely to make people take climate change seriously as a threat.

Until now, most research into public attitudes on climate change have focused on Western nations, like the United States, Europe and Australia, leaving scientists with little knowledge of how much awareness there is about climate change in other parts of the world and how people feel about it.

But a new study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, provides a more inclusive look at the issue, giving scientists greater insight into what factors are most likely to make people care about climate change — if they know it’s happening at all.

Read The Washington Post story - “40 percent of adults on Earth have never heard of climate change”.

Having kids is terrible for the environment, so I’m not having any - Erica Gies

H

aving children is natural human behaviour and so to actively avoid procreation and so remain childless is some that is frowned upon by many and independent journalist Eric Gies writes here about her decision.

Erica Gies - childless by choice for
 the good of the environment.

“Do you have children?”

“It’s a question I’ve gotten repeatedly in my travels, as cultures everywhere celebrate children and women’s ability to produce them. I don’t, nor do I plan to for reasons both personal and environmental. But not wanting to spark an awkward exchange, I’d usually demur with, “Not yet.”

“I found it difficult to be up front about my choice because citing overpopulation and its environmental implications as a reason not to procreate has been a conversational third rail. After all, most cultures have traditions founded on some version of the Bible’s “go forth and multiply.”

Read her Washington Post story - “Having kids is terrible for the environment, so I’m not having any”.

Trees are good for our health and that of the earth

T

rees are good for the health of the earth’s climate system, at least in terms of making is suitable for humans and beyond that, they are simply good for human health.

Human behaviour has enriched the level of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere, seriously disrupting the global climate system, but it is trees that play a key role in absorbing the gas to return a balance to the earth making it suitable for all life, including humans.

But there is more as The Washington Post reports in its story - “Want to improve your health? Go live near some trees”.

“In a new paper published Thursday, a team of researchers present a compelling case for why urban neighbourhoods filled with trees are better for your physical health. The research appeared in the open access journal Scientific Reports.

“The large study builds on a body of prior research showing the cognitive and psychological benefits of nature scenery — but also goes farther in actually beginning to quantify just how much an addition of trees in a neighbourhood enhances health outcomes.

“The researchers, led by psychologist Omid Kardan of the University of Chicago, were able to do so because they were working with a vast dataset of public, urban trees kept by the city of Toronto — some 530,000 of them, categorized by species, location, and tree diameter — supplemented by satellite measurements of non-public green space (for instance, trees in a person’s back yard).”

Claims and counter-claims keep news gatherers busy

C

laims and counter-claims about climate change continue to keep newsgatherers in the U.S. busy.

Evidence about climate change is unrelenting and yet some groups and individuals, influential and otherwise, persist with argument that the science is not yet settled.

One of those disturbingly influential and well-funded groups, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), who has long questioned climate change is now arguing that is has been wrongly accused of climate denial.

This appears to be little more that another decision delaying gambit that will simply ignite further debate and even more procrastination.

The Washington Post reports - “This conservative group is tired of being accused of climate denial— and is fighting back” – that ALEC is defending its position.

Our 'pool of worries' doesn't take in ocean circulation

W

orld-scale events, such as climate change, fall well outside the “pool of worries” of most people.

Most find that the relatively complex task of surviving another day in our market driven world – paying the mortgage, the school fees, rates, fuel, buying food and a mass of other things – leaves little room for thinking about seemingly irrelevant things such as the circulation of the world’s oceans.

That change in our oceans brought on by the climate change/global warming dilemma, however, demands our attention.

A story in the Washington Post - “Global warming is now slowing down the circulation of the oceans —with potentially dire consequences” – brings new and discussion about of another potential mega-scale perturbation.

Detroit, climate change and bankruptcy are all connected

Detroit’s bankruptcy and climate appear, a first glance, unrelated, but the two are inextricably intertwined.

The Detroit drama is well worth watching.

We have a ring-side seat to watch as America’s fourth largest city in the 1950s becomes dishevelled and wrestles with disarray.

The demise of Detroit is strikingly sad and we should all pay attention as it appears a forerunner of the dilemmas cities of the world will face as their climates become increasingly unpredictable, people leave in search of more stable climates, and those who remain struggle to flourish and find contentment in a city whose infrastructure is fraying.

Detroit, known colloquially at “Motor City”, suffered, of course, because of the 2008-9 Global Financial Crisis, but its fate seemed sealed long before that with car buyers almost unconsciously admitting to oil scarcity and climate change and so not eager to drive vehicles such as those rolling off the Detroit production lines.

The American motor manufacturers had realized their folly, too late as it turned out, that their customers no longer wanted to worsen world oil scarcity (really they just wanted more economical vehicles that we cheaper to operate) and they were eager to enhance their status in that they were concerned about the environment (they wanted to be seen as “green”) – they really simply wanted for save money and in their search for that and better quality, turned to the Asian and European manufacturers.

In the midst of all this turmoil, there appears to be some almost unrecognised need, or is it desire, to turn away from the brashness and consumptive western-way of life.

Whether recognized and understood or not, there is a growing sense among people that humanity’s survival depends upon a simpler way of living – the absolute opposite of what was the essence of a booming Detroit midway through last century.

That misunderstood and unconsciously sought for simpler life stands as probably the one real chance mitigate the real driver of climate change – our consumptive, combative and competitive behaviours.

The Detroit of today, as fragile as it is, appears to be in the early stages of an adaptation all communities face as the reality of climate change begin to truly bite; an adaptation which is about building community resilience, enriching neighbourhoods, understanding its “food-shed”, and understand that survival is inextricably linked to “loving where you live” – meaning that everything important on a day-to-day basis is within a 10-minute walk.

The Washington Post story headed: ”Detroit goes bankrupt, largest municipal filing in U.S. history” explains what is happening in Detroit.