Dwindling Arctic Sea Ice May Affect Tropical Weather Patterns.

The rapid decline of Arctic sea ice during the last couple of decades has spurred climate scientists to study how that meltdown influences the rest of the planet, and a new study suggests that the effects may extend deep into the tropics.

Researchers have found a pattern between sea ice melting
and El Niño in the Central Pacific Ocean, linked by winds.

The study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, detected a pattern that links sea ice decline since the late 1990s with more frequent warm cycles in the Central Pacific Ocean. The surges of ocean heating in that region can disrupt the climate, affecting drought, flood and hurricane patterns around the world. 

Winds are the link between the melting ice and the tropics. The researchers posit that the Arctic Ocean has warmed up so much in the last 20 years that warm, late-summer sea surface air forms powerful convective towers, rising to the stratosphere. When the air falls back toward the equatorial Pacific, it intensifies prevailing east-to-west trade winds that push warm water toward Asia and Oceana, giving birth to a Central Pacific El Niño, a geographically specific variation of  the well-documented Pacific warming and cooling cycle that is a key driver of the global climate.

The study found a secondary effect. The atmospheric roller coaster rebounds back north, and may weaken a weather pattern near Alaska that steers Pacific storms toward the West Coast.  

Read the Inside Climate News story by Bob Berwyn - “Dwindling Arctic Sea Ice May Affect Tropical Weather Patterns.”

One of UK's last coal power stations to close due to rising costs

One of the UK’s last seven coal power stations will close this year after half a century of generating electricity, as the polluting fuel continues its rapid decline in the energy mix.

 Cottam power station is due to close, with the loss of more than 150 jobs. 

EDF Energy said more than 150 jobs were likely to be cut due to the closure of the Cottam plant in north Nottinghamshire on 30 September.

The power station was no longer economically viable, the company said. Cottam has been hit by the costs of working to European environmental standards and the failure to secure a contract for payments supply backup power after September.

The UK government has pledged to end coal power generation in the UK by 2025 to meet its climate change commitments.

Read the story from The Guardian by Adam Vaughan - “One of UK's last coal power stations to close due to rising costs.”

UK runs without coal power for three days in a row

The UK has been powered without coal for three days in a row, setting a new record and underlining the polluting fuel’s rapid decline.

 Drax power station in North Yorkshire said it
expected to go without coal on Tuesday.

Coal has historically been at the cornerstone of the UK’s electricity mix, but last year saw the first 24-hour period that the country ran without the fuel since the 19th century.

New records were broken last week when zero power came from coal for nearly 55 consecutive hours.

Read Adam Vaughan’s story from The Guardian - “UK runs without coal power for three days in a row.”

Antarctica is already feeling the heat of climate change

Antarctica is already feeling the heat of climate change, with rapid melting and retreat of glaciers over recent decades.

Ice mass loss from Antarctica and Greenland contributes about 20% to the current rate of global sea level rise. This ice loss is projected to increase over the coming century.

A recent article on The Conversation raised the concept of “climate tipping points”: thresholds in the climate system that, once breached, lead to substantial and irreversible change.

Such a climate tipping point may occur as a result of the increasingly rapid decline of the Antarctic ice sheets, leading to a rapid rise in sea levels. But what is this threshold? And when will we reach it?

Read the story on The Conversation - “Tipping point: how we predict when Antarctica’s melting ice sheets will flood the seas.”