5 July 2016, Washington Post, This new Antarctica study is bad news for climate change doubters. or a number of years now, climate change skeptics have argued that there’s a key part of the Earth’s climate system that upends our expectations about global warming, and that is showing trends that actually cut in the opposite direction. This supposed contrary indicator is the sea ice that rings the Antarctic continent, and that reached a new all-time record extent of 7.78 million square miles in September 2014 (see above). As that record suggests, this vast field of ice has been expanding in recent years, rather than shrinking. That means it’s doing the opposite of what is happening in the Arctic, where sea ice is declining rapidly — and also that it’s doing the opposite of what we might expect in a warming world. [Climate change skeptics may be about to lose one of their favorite arguments] Scientists don’t fully understand why Antarctic sea ice is growing — suggested explanations have posited more glacial melt dumping cold fresh water into the surrounding seas, or the way the Antarctic ozone hole has changed the circulation of winds around the continent. In a new study in Nature Geoscience, though, researchers with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., along with colleagues from the University of Washington in Seattle and Australia, suggest that the phenomenon is simply the result of natural variability of the climate system — driven, in this case, by changes in the tropical Pacific Ocean that reverberate globally. Read more here
Monthly Archives: July 2016
3 July 2016, Climate News Network, Fences snare wildlife fleeing warming climate. As border fences proliferate across Europe and elsewhere, humans face mounting risks – and so does wildlife fleeing the impacts of climate change. The world is becoming sadly familiar with the sight of thousands of desperate refugees – escaping bombing and violence in countries like Syria – being pressed against border fences erected to separate countries in Europe and further afield. Less recognised is the effect these thousands of kilometres of newly-installed border fencing is often having on wildlife. But climate change does not recognise borders, and nor do the birds or animals migrating across their territories. A study by the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research estimates that between 25,000 and 30,000 kilometres of fences and walls now run along the borders of various countries in Europe and Central Asia. Much of this is of very recent construction and has led to what the researchers describe as “a dramatic reduction in the permeability of borders for wildlife, as well as people.” Driven further Changes in climate, including rising temperatures and an increase in flash flooding and droughts, mean that wild creatures in many regions are forced to roam ever-larger ranges to find food and water. The study says the fences are a significant threat: “The long-term consequences are a low viability of wildlife populations, and a reduction in their ability to respond to climate change.” Read More here
1 July 2016, Independent. ‘Global climate emergency’ over jet stream crossing equator dismissed by scientists. ‘There isn’t a wall at the equator separating the two hemispheres, and air is free to flow from one side to the other’. Two bloggers have made a stunning claim that has spread like wildfire on the Internet: They say the Northern Hemisphere jet stream, the high-altitude river of winds that separates cold air from warm air, has done something new and outrageous. They say it has crossed the equator, joining the jet stream in the Southern Hemisphere. One said this signifies that the jet stream is ‘wrecked‘, the other said it means we have a “global climate emergency”. But these shrill claims have no validity — air flow between the hemispheres occurs routinely. The claims are unsupported and unscientific, and they demonstrate the danger of wild assertions made by non-experts reaching and misleading the masses. Read More here