How Oceans Rise and Die on a Warming Planet

In a Park Hyatt hotel ballroom in midtown Manhattan, on Wednesday, Greta Thunberg, the sixteen-year-old climate activist, stood before world leaders and delivered a goosebump-inducing speech. The occasion was the release of “The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate,” a major scientific report by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which concluded that human activities have made the oceans increasingly inhospitable to marine life and have caused glacial melt and sea-level rise to happen at an even faster rate than scientists had previously projected. The effects—already well underway, with some locked in over the next century—pose an immediate threat to the survival of certain island nations and high-alpine communities, as well as hundreds of millions of other coastal inhabitants and many of the world’s fisheries. “The reason we have taken to the streets is because of science,” Thunberg said, after thanking the U.N. scientists who authored the report. “This is about an existential crisis for the biosphere and for humanity.” On the projection screen behind her was a seal stranded on a tiny iceberg in a big blue ocean. “Our main enemy now is physics. We can still fix this, it is still possible, but not if we continue like now.” She concluded, “We must listen to the scientists.”

Flooding in Houston, Texas, after Hurricane Harvey. A new report from the
 I.P.C.C. is the first to comprehensively tie together ocean acidification,
 glacial collapse, and sea-level rise.

The report, which is based on nearly seven thousand peer-reviewed studies, was prepared and written by a hundred and four scientists from thirty-six countries. It was the latest addition in a dire trilogy of I.P.C.C. special reports, which previously included studies on the extreme risks of even 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming and on the impacts of climate change on land. (Additionally, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, a U.N.-backed body, released a report in May on the accelerating rate of widespread extinction across species.) Wednesday’s report took a similarly comprehensive approach to studying climate change’s impact on ice formations, sea level, and the planet’s oceans.

Read the story from The New Yorker by Carolyn Cornman -  “How Oceans Rise and Die on a Warming Planet.”

Sydney heatwave expected to shatter weather record set before federation

Sydney is on track for its hottest summer, a record that has stood since before federation.

Coogee Beach in Sydney, which is forecast to reach 38C on
Tuesday, with the city’s west tipped to hit 40C in the afternoon.

If Sydneysiders are subjected to one more day above 35C, the ninth this summer, it will equal the record set in 1896. The city has already set a new record for hot nights, with the mercury staying above 24C four times, two more than the summer of 2010.

Sydney is forecast to reach 38C on Tuesday, while the city’s west is expected to hit 40C in the afternoon.

Read the Australian Associated Press story on The Guardian - “Sydney is on track for its hottest summer, a record that has stood since before federation.

If Sydneysiders are subjected to one more day above 35C, the ninth this summer, it will equal the record set in 1896. The city has already set a new record for hot nights, with the mercury staying above 24C four times, two more than the summer of 2010.

Sydney is forecast to reach 38C on Tuesday, while the city’s west is expected to hit 40C in the afternoon.

Read the Australian Associated Press story on The Guardian - “Sydney heatwave expected to shatter weather record set before federation.”