Atlantic puffins courting at Maine Coastal Island National Wildlife Refuge in 2009. USFWS / Flickr
When Europeans first arrived in North America, Atlantic puffins were common on islands in the Gulf of Maine. But hunters killed many of the birds for food or for feathers to adorn ladies' hats. By the 1800s, the population in Maine had plummeted.
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<p>"Puffins were almost completely lost," says Don Lyons of the Audubon Seabird Institute.</p><p>He says that about 50 years ago, conservationists started bringing puffin chicks from Canada and hand-raising them on the Maine islands.</p><p>When those birds reached adulthood, they came back to the islands where they were raised and began nesting themselves.</p><p>Now the puffin colony in Maine has recovered to more than 1,000 nesting pairs. But global warming threatens to undo some of that progress.</p>
<p>"The Gulf of Maine is actually now one of the most rapidly warming water bodies on the planet," Lyons says.</p><p>That's driving many fish to cooler waters, so the puffins are forced to fly farther or dive deeper to catch enough food.</p><p>"The most intense warm years during the last decade have made it very difficult for puffins to raise chicks because of the additional work involved in finding food for them," Lyons says.</p><p>So reducing global warming can help Maine's beloved puffins survive.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/08/global-warming-threatens-atlantic-puffin-recovery-in-maine/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Rescue workers dig through the rubble following a gas explosion in Baltimore, Maryland on Aug. 10, 2020. J. Countess / Getty Images
A "major" natural gas explosion killed two people and seriously injured at least seven in Baltimore, Maryland Monday morning.
<p>The blast destroyed three row homes in the northwestern Baltimore neighborhood of Reisterstown Station and ripped open a fourth, <a href="https://apnews.com/42cb919592a81a4b02f6e2ea30831eb2" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>. One woman and one man were killed, city fire officials said, according to <a href="https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2020/08/10/explosion-rocks-northwest-baltimore-latest/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=93012117&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8SOy65--Y5_AArJL7murOy3jmRBh-Q-W5S3SxpfpJTK0kMdLbvd1Oq3U-nYf006ihKggpGyAifqyhyENxmsCgoQIppTQ&utm_content=93012117&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">WJZ</a>. Rescue crews and dogs worked to pull others from the rubble.</p><p>"I've never seen anything like that and I've lived in Baltimore City all my life," neighbor Dean Jones <a href="https://www.wbaltv.com/article/baltimore-house-explosion-reisterstown-road/33562013?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=93012117&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8z--i_9dSwni-grj097_Src02t3tz53mGKgyEzO142jpKbAtvWlDzTh6KHO0IZxWF2xSu8pNsp1azQCS6dguzZcp8-qg&utm_content=93012117&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">told WBAL</a>. "It's almost like somebody just took a bomb out the side and dropped it on the three houses. It's completely leveled."</p>
<div id="28f6d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4d600ac330cedba0f01ce5304d60a1f2"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1292866070488010752" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Here some images of today's fatal explosion in northwest Baltimore, 4200 block of Labyrinth Rd. We are assisting… https://t.co/0S8IkGkIbh</div> — Baltimore County Fire Department (@Baltimore County Fire Department)<a href="https://twitter.com/BaltCoFire/statuses/1292866070488010752">1597078266.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The blast occurred just before 10 a.m. Monday. Fire Department spokeswoman Blair Adams told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/us/baltimore-explosion.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=93012117&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--w4G9Xtz4r3sbWY1KTYvfOO6W85UFHIN6Kedso1o2cEDMyLF9gF1zIwmuXMBJ4IY4t4s9hwiOTTGXQXQmARo9LYex1jQ&utm_content=93012117&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> it was a "major gas explosion." She said Monday afternoon that rescue crews would continue to work overnight digging through the rubble if needed.</p>
<div id="1b8f2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1b7fe487c8710b4fad2097c1873631e5"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1293176505363726337" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">As FFs combed through the night, the body of an adult male was located just before 1am. #BCFD @BaltimoreOEM remain… https://t.co/g6lj1DMKq9</div> — Baltimore Fire (@Baltimore Fire)<a href="https://twitter.com/BaltimoreFire/statuses/1293176505363726337">1597152279.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The cause of the explosion is currently unknown. Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), the country's oldest gas company, said it was investigating the incident, according to The New York Times.</p><p>The company said in a <a href="https://www.bge.com/News/Pages/Press%20Releases/labyrinth-road-updates.aspx" target="_blank">statement</a> Monday that there were no gas readings or gas leaks found in the buildings or on the road where the explosion took place. There were also no reports of gas smells from the area before the incident. However, people on the ground told WJZ they smelled gas after the blast.</p><p>"BGE is committed to fully understanding the cause of this incident and will inspect all BGE equipment once rescue efforts are complete," the company wrote in the statement.</p>
<div id="ac373" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7844994ac85eabf19c23548792abe69d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1292831837665009665" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Aerial images of the reported explosion in Baltimore.
https://t.co/GK0dpY9pMR https://t.co/vOR5gIQCT7</div> — ABC 7 News - WJLA (@ABC 7 News - WJLA)<a href="https://twitter.com/ABC7News/statuses/1292831837665009665">1597070104.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>BGE is currently working to replace thousands of miles of aging gas <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines" target="_self">pipelines</a>, according to a Baltimore Sun story reported by The New York Times. The number of leaks in the city has increased by 75 percent from 2009 to 2016, but the replacement process could take two decades.</p><p>"Founded in 1816, BGE is the oldest gas distribution company in the nation. Like many older gas systems, a larger portion of its gas main and services infrastructure consists of cast iron and bare steel – materials that are obsolete and susceptible to failure with age," the Maryland Public Service Commission wrote when it approved the renovations in 2018, as The Associated Press reported.</p><p>The gas infrastructure in the area where the explosion hit was installed in the early 1960s, BGE said. But when the area was last inspected in June and July of 2019, no leaks were detected.</p><p>Climate campaigner and 350.org founder Bill McKibben wrote that the explosion was another argument for retiring gas heating altogether.</p><p>"Now that we have cheap, effective air source heat pumps, it's time for public policy to help everyone finance them, beginning with the poorest Americans. It is utterly unnecessary to have a tube of flammable gas running into your house," he tweeted.</p>
<div id="397f7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a8ad8a1c091fde87d1c799b912a02f43"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1292881488472616960" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Now that we have cheap, effective air source heat pumps, it's time for public policy to help everyone finance them,… https://t.co/ciJI3zeGHg</div> — Bill McKibben (@Bill McKibben)<a href="https://twitter.com/billmckibben/statuses/1292881488472616960">1597081942.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Monday's tragedy comes a little less than a year after <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/gas-explosion-shopping-center-maryland-2640038158.html" target="_self">another gas explosion</a> destroyed part of an office complex in Columbia, Maryland. Luckily, no one was injured in that blast, according to The Associated Press.</p>
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The recalled list includes red, yellow, white and sweet yellow onions, which may be tainted with salmonella. Pxhere
Nearly 900 people across the U.S. and Canada have been sickened by salmonella linked to onions distributed by Thomson International, the The New York Times reported.
<p>The outbreak reached 43 states and 7 provinces in Canada by the end of Sunday, forcing major retailers, including Trader Joe's, Giant Eagle and Publix, to remove onions from their shelves. The outbreak is likely to continue spreading as onions were shipped to all 50 states from the Bakersfield, California-based food distributor, according to <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/bad-onions-cause-salmonella-outbreak-in-us-and-canada-sickening-900/" target="_blank">Ars Technica</a>.</p><p>It is possible that an increasing number of cases will be reported over the next few weeks due to the lag between when a person gets sick and gets tested, then having an agency report the illness, Martin Wiedmann, a food safety professor at Cornell University, told The New York Times.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/newport-07-20/map.html" target="_blank">CDC map</a> of the outbreak identifies 640 cases across the country, with Utah, Oregon and California showing the largest number of cases. The recalled list includes red, yellow, white and sweet yellow onions.</p>
<p>The major chains that carried the onions also include Walmart, Kroger, Fred Meyer, Food Lion and H-E-B. According to a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/newport-07-20/index.html" target="_blank">statement</a> Friday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the onions were sold under the following brand names: Thomson Premium, TLC Thomson International, Tender Loving Care, El Competitor, Hartley's Best, Onions 52, Majestic, Imperial Fresh, Kroger, Utah Onions and Food Lion.</p><p>The CDC asked people to proceed with extreme caution. "If you used onions to make any other food and don't know where the onions were from, don't eat the food. Throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one got sick," the CDC said. It added, "Wash and sanitize any surfaces that may have come in contact with onions or their packaging, such as countertops, storage bins, refrigerator drawers, knives, and cutting boards."<br></p><p>The CDC also urged customers to ask restaurants about the source of their onions before ordering at a restaurant or any food shop. In Oregon, five people were sickened after eating at Si Casa Flores restaurant in Grants Pass, according to ABC News affiliate <a href="https://www.kdrv.com/content/news/Josephine-County-salmonella-cases-traced-to-national-outbreak-from-red-onions-572068911.html" target="_blank">KDRV</a>.</p>
<p>"We have been working closely with the managers and staff at Si Casa Flores to ensure the continued safety of its customers," said Mike Weber, the County Public Health director. "This restaurant has done everything right in this unfortunate situation, and customers should feel safe dining there. I recently enjoyed a meal there myself."</p><p>"People who believe they've gotten diarrhea from consuming red onions might want to contact a health care provider," Emilio DeBess, an epidemiologist at the Oregon Public Health Division Acute and Communicable Disease Prevention Section, told KDRV. "However, most people with salmonellosis will recover without antibiotics."</p><p>U.S. infections started in late June, the CDC said. All ages have been affected, with a median age of 39. Women account for fifty-four percent of those sickened. No deaths have been reported in the U.S. or Canada.</p>
<p>The Public Health Agency of Canada announced <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/public-health-notices/2020/outbreak-salmonella-infections-under-investigation.html" target="_blank" title="">239 cases</a> with 29 hospitalizations as of Friday, The New York Times reported.</p><p>According to the CDC, salmonella is a bacteria that can cause salmonellosis, and most human infections are caused by eating food contaminated with it. Salmonellosis can lead to diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. These symptoms usually appear within three days after becoming infected and usually resolve within four to seven days.</p><p>In some cases, the infection may spread to the bloodstream and other parts of the body. These cases are associated with more severe diarrhea, which can lead to hospitalization. Severe cases can be deadly if not treated promptly with antibiotics.</p>
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Methane flares at a fracking site near a home in Colorado on Oct. 25, 2014. WildEarth Guardians / Flickr
In the coming days, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to use its power to roll back yet another Obama-era environmental protection meant to curb air pollution and slow the climate crisis.
<p>This new rollback concerns <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/methane" target="_self">methane</a>, a potent greenhouse gas destructive to the earth's atmosphere. The EPA is expected to make the announcement on Friday that it is ending a stricture put in place by the previous administration that curbed the amount of methane that could be released in oil and gas exploration, as <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/epa-to-rescind-methane-regulations-for-oil-and-gas-11597051802" target="_blank">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported.</p><p>Since the rule is not official yet, anonymous officials at the agency told The Wall Street Journal that the rollback will scrap the new rules that required oil and gas producers to have systems, checks and processes in place to identify and address methane leaks on their rigs.</p>
<p>The rollbacks do not end there. The Wall Street Journal also reported that the EPA will also end its oversight of ozone pollutants and emissions from <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines" target="_self">pipelines</a> and storage sites. Additionally, the agency will reduce its requirement for monitoring and reporting certain pollutants.</p><p>The EPA's decision to end its oversight and slacken regulation may result in an additional 5 million metric tons of methane pollution released into the atmosphere each year.</p><p>Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that can be 25 times more impactful than carbon dioxide in equal quantities, as <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/511298-epa-to-issue-methane-rollback-this-week-report" target="_blank">The Hill</a> reported. In 2018, it accounted for nearly 10 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity, mostly from the oil and gas industry, although commercial agriculture and the cattle industry are also large contributors to methane emissions.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.edf.org/media/trump-epa-reportedly-moving-forward-eliminate-key-federal-methane-protections" target="_blank">Environmental Defense Fund</a> (EDF) noted, the action would also mean no future action could regulate methane production from oil and gas facilities built before 2015. Their analysis shows that 9.3 million people live within half a mile of one of the older wells that the administration is seeking to leave forever unregulated by the EPA.</p><p>"Our federal methane safeguards have been in place since 2016, protecting Americans from unhealthy and climate-damaging pollution. The <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration's decision to reverse course is deeply and fundamentally flawed," said EDF lead attorney Peter Zalzal, in a <a href="https://www.edf.org/media/trump-epa-reportedly-moving-forward-eliminate-key-federal-methane-protections" target="_blank">statement</a>. "Eliminating these safeguards would ignore the overwhelming body of scientific evidence documenting the urgent need to reduce methane pollution. And it is also starkly at odds with the broad and diverse set of stakeholders — including some major oil and gas producing companies — that support retaining and strengthening methane safeguards."</p>
<p>The administration is using the decline in demand for oil and gas as a justification for easing the pollution rules. It argues that the rule is needed to free the oil and gas industry from what it calls crippling regulations during an economic slowdown due to the novel coronavirus. However, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/climate/trump-methane-climate-change.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> notes, the weakening of the rule has been in the works for more than a year.</p><p>As The New York Times noted, several of the world's major fossil fuel companies actually support the methane rules and do not want to see them relaxed. In a 2019 public comment on a draft of the rule, Joe Ellis, a vice president at BP, urged the EPA "to continue to regulate methane emissions from new sources and to adopt a rule for existing sources. EPA regulation of methane across the value chain is the right thing to do for the environment, will support consistent regulation across the U.S. and can be cost-effectively achieved with new technology."</p><p>Furthermore, Exxon urged the EPA in 2018 to maintain core elements of the Obama administration's policy. And Gretchen Watkins, the U.S. chairwoman for Shell, which has urged the Trump administration to regulate methane emissions, said, "The negative impacts of methane have been widely acknowledged for years, so it's frustrating and disappointing to see the administration go in a different direction," as The New York Times reported.</p>
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Researchers on the ICESCAPE mission, funded by NASA, examine melt ponds and their surrounding ice in 2011 to see how changing conditions in the Arctic affect the biological and chemical makeup of the ocean. NASA / Flickr
By Alex Kirby
The temperature of the Arctic matters to the entire world: it helps to keep the global climate fairly cool. Scientists now say that by 2035 there could be an end to Arctic sea ice.
<p>The northern polar ocean's sea ice is a crucial element in the Earth system: because it is highly reflective, it sends solar radiation back out into space. Once it's melted, there's no longer any protection for the darker water and rock beneath, and nothing to prevent them absorbing the incoming heat.</p><p>High temperatures in the Arctic during the last <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/abrupt-climate-change/Glacial-Interglacial%20Cycles" target="_blank">interglacial – the warm period around 127,000 years ago</a> – have puzzled scientists for decades.</p><p>Now the <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/climate-change/organisations-and-reports/met-office-hadley-centre/index" target="_blank">UK Met Office's Hadley Centre</a> climate model has enabled an international research team to compare Arctic sea ice conditions during the last interglacial with the present day. Their findings are important for improving predictions of future sea ice change.</p>
<p>What is striking about the latest research is the date it suggests for a possible total melt − 2035. Many studies <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/arctic-ocean-ice-free-mid-century/" target="_blank">have thought a mid-century crisis likely</a>, with another even <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-11-arctic-ocean-ice-free-year.html" target="_blank">carefully specifying 2044 as the year to watch</a>. So a breathing space of only 15 years may surprise some experts.</p><p>During spring and early summer shallow pools of water form on the surface of the Arctic sea ice. These "melt ponds" help to determine how much sunlight is absorbed by the ice and how much is reflected back into space. The new Hadley Centre model is the UK's most advanced physical representation of the Earth's climate and a critical tool for climate research, and it incorporates sea ice and melt ponds.</p><p>The researchers report their findings in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0865-2" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change</a>. Using the model to look at Arctic sea ice during the last interglacial, they concluded that the impact of intense springtime sunshine created many melt ponds, which played a crucial role in sea ice melt. A simulation of the future using the same model indicates that the Arctic may become sea ice-free by 2035.</p>
<p>The joint lead author of the team is <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/profile/marino/" target="_blank">Dr Maria Vittoria Guarino, an earth system modeller at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge</a>. She says: "High temperatures in the Arctic have puzzled scientists for decades. Unravelling this mystery was technically and scientifically challenging. For the first time, we can begin to see how the Arctic became sea ice-free during the last interglacial.</p><p>"The advances made in climate modeling mean that we can create a more accurate simulation of the Earth's past climate which, in turn, gives us greater confidence in model predictions for the future."</p><p><a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/profile/lsim/" target="_blank">Dr. Louise Sime, the group head of the palaeoclimate group and joint lead author at BAS</a>, says, "We know the Arctic is undergoing significant changes as our planet warms. By understanding what happened during Earth's last warm period we are in a better position to understand what will happen in the future.</p>
Melt Ponds Crucial
<p>"The prospect of loss of sea ice by 2035 should really be focusing all our minds on achieving a low-carbon world as soon as humanly feasible."</p><p><a href="http://www.reading.ac.uk/search/search-staff-details.aspx?id=10813" target="_blank">Dr. David Schroeder from the University of Reading</a>, UK, who co-led the implementation of the melt pond scheme in the climate model, says, "This shows just how important sea ice processes like melt ponds are in the Arctic, and why it is crucial that they are incorporated into climate models."</p><p>The extent of the areas <a href="https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/characteristics/formation.html" target="_blank">sea ice</a> covers varies between summer and winter. If more solar energy is absorbed at the surface, and temperatures rise further, a cycle of warming and melting occurs during summer months.</p><p>When the ice forms, the ocean water beneath becomes saltier and denser than the surrounding ocean. Saltier water sinks and moves along the ocean bottom towards the equator, while warm water from mid-depths to the surface travels from the equator towards the poles.</p><p>Scientists refer to this process as the ocean's global "conveyor-belt." Changes to the volume of sea ice can disrupt normal ocean circulation, with consequences for global climate. </p>From Your Site Articles
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Russia Approves World's First Coronavirus Vaccine After Less Than Two Months of Testing
18h
Health + Wellness
President Vladimir Putin is seen enjoying the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images
Russia's Health Ministry has given regulatory approval for the world's first COVID-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
<p>"This morning, for the first time in the world, a vaccine against the new coronavirus was registered" in Russia, Putin said during a televised video conference call with government ministers.</p><p>Putin added that the vaccine, developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute, has proven efficient during tests and promises to offer <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/there-may-never-be-covid-19-silver-bullet-who-warns/a-54421328" target="_blank">"sustainable immunity" against the coronavirus.</a></p><p>"I would like to repeat that it has passed all the necessary tests," Putin said. "The most important thing is to ensure full safety of using the vaccine and its efficiency."</p>
Putin's Daughter Among Vaccinated
<p>The Russian leader also said that one of his daughters has already been inoculated and is feeling well.</p><p>"One of my daughters got vaccinated, so in this sense, she took part in the testing," Putin said.</p><p>After the first vaccine shot, his daughter experienced a slight fever, 38 degrees Celsius (100.4°F). Her temperature came down to just slightly above normal the next day. </p><p>"After the second shot, she had a slight fever again, and then everything was fine. She is feeling well and has a high antibody count," Putin said. </p><p>He didn't specify which of his two daughters, Maria or Katerina, received the vaccine.</p><p>Russian health authorities have said that medical workers, teachers and other risk groups will be the first to receive shots of the vaccine.</p>Years of Work Reduced to Weeks
<p>Russia is the first country to register a COVID-19 vaccine. As <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-coronavirus-vaccine-may-only-be-available-in-mid-2021/a-54362065" target="_blank">countries worldwide race to produce the first vaccine</a>, health experts warn that speed and national pride could compromise safety.</p><p>Scientists in Russia and abroad have questioned Moscow's decision to register the vaccine before Phase 3 trials that normally last for months and involve thousands of people, but Putin emphasized that the vaccine underwent the necessary trials and that vaccination will be voluntary.</p><p>Russian officials have said that large-scale production of the vaccine will begin in September, and mass vaccination may start as early as October.</p><p>Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, meanwhile, has <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/philippines-duterte-volunteers-to-be-putins-russian-coronavirus-vaccine-guinea-pig/a-54523030" target="_blank">lauded Russia's efforts in developing the vaccine</a> and said that the Philippines is ready to work with Moscow on vaccine trials, supply and production. Duterte volunteered to "be the first they can experiment on."</p><p>"I will tell President Putin that I have huge trust in your studies in combating COVID and I believe that the vaccine that you have produced is really good for humanity," Duterte said, adding that he thinks Russia's vaccine will be ready for the Philippines by December.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Powerful Midwest Derecho Slams Trees and Buildings, Knocks Out Power to More Than a Million
19h
Climate
A John Deere agricultural tractor sits under a collapsed building following a derecho storm on Aug. 10, 2020 near Franklin Grove, Illinois. Daniel Acker / Getty Images
A powerful series of thunderstorms roared across the Midwest on Monday, downing trees, damaging structures and knocking out power to more than a million people.
<p>The storms, which produced winds of more than 100 miles per hour, formed a phenomenon known as a derecho, a long-lasting, far-spreading windstorm caused by a series of thunderstorms, <a href="https://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/derechofaq.htm#:~:text=How%20might%20climate%20change%20affect,comprise%20derecho%2Dproducing%20convective%20systems." target="_blank">according to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC)</a>.</p><p>"This is our version of a hurricane," Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini told <a href="https://apnews.com/e7bfc5351814eb111f90f540d605514a" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p>While derechos usually occur one to two times a year, they do not usually blow as hard as Monday's storm, National Weather Service (NWS) scientist Patrick Marsh told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/us/derecho-storm-chicago-weather.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. He compared it to the "Super Derecho" of 2009. Gensini, meanwhile, said it would emerge as one of the strongest in recent history and one of the most <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather" target="_self">extreme weather</a> events of 2020.</p><p>The storm system began in southeast South Dakota and eastern Nebraska Monday morning before blasting through Iowa, northern and central Illinois, southern Wisconsin, southwest Michigan, Indiana and northwest Ohio, <a href="https://weather.com/storms/severe/news/2020-08-10-derecho-forecast-midwest-severe-thunderstorms-chicago" target="_blank">The Weather Channel reported</a>.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vbWVkaWEucmJsLm1zL2ltYWdlP3U9JTJGbWVkaWElMkZFZklSbWU2V3NBQXd6b2suanBnJTNBbWVkaXVtJmhvPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGcGJzLnR3aW1nLmNvbSZzPTM5Jmg9ZjczZTUzMGQ2ODhmZGZmN2YzN2M2ZGI4ZGFlNWJiNDk0MTFmYTFmY2I1NzAxMzMzMTRiYjA0MmIxYWFlNTFjYyZzaXplPTk4MHgmYz0zMDkyMjg5MTA4IiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMzIyMTYyMH0.Enf6XFlpzTRPAVGlA0sPrN1PBi5KoNRV8WTNkVN1Uu0/img.jpg" id="165e4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c5c8469bc2a301c8c79649b2d5beeceb" />Twitter
<p>Winds of up to 100 miles per hour ripped through Marshall County, Iowa, leading to several injuries and extensive property damage, the county's homeland security coordinator Kim Elder told The Associated Press.</p><p>Elder said the storm blew over trees and cars, downed power lines, ripped the roofs off of buildings and started fires. All told, a third of customers in Iowa were without power, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/10/weather/derecho-forecast-chicago-severe-storms/index.html" target="_blank">according to CNN</a>.</p><p>"Everybody in town is without power except those with a generator," Marshalltown, Iowa Mayor Joel Greer told The New York Times. Greer declared a state of emergency for the city, which he said was still recovering from a 2018 tornado. "It hit us at a time when we were just getting back on our feet," Greer said.</p>
<div id="755f8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="34ba091ea22ed744e1615045caabe1f9"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1292893389558620160" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Check out images of storm damage sent by viewers across central Iowa. https://t.co/nr4KD4ZbVS #iawx #SevereWX https://t.co/y4rm2uEbBJ</div> — WHO 13 News (@WHO 13 News)<a href="https://twitter.com/WHO13news/statuses/1292893389558620160">1597084779.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The storms entered the Chicago area around 3:30 p.m. according to <a href="https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/more-than-10k-comed-customers-without-power-as-a-result-of-dangerous-winds/2320118/" target="_blank">NBC 5 Chicago</a>. They downed trees and knocked out power to more than 500,000 ComEd customers.</p><p>"Much of northern Illinois has pockets of damage with downed trees, debris, and powerlines blocking roadways," NWS Chicago <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSChicago/status/1292938558274248705" target="_blank">tweeted</a>.</p><p>A wind gust of 92 miles per hour was reported near Dixon, Illinois, about 100 miles west of Chicago, The Associated Press reported.</p>
<div id="eb795" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d0b37a0b02e97bcde0744ec21a9da3a3"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1292928957583687680" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Hold on #chcago here she co.e 80mpg winds @nbcchicago @fox32news https://t.co/vsGhDG0N1t</div> — Michael Kinsch (@Michael Kinsch)<a href="https://twitter.com/MKinsch/statuses/1292928957583687680">1597093259.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Monday's derecho was formed by unstable, wet air that had remained over the Midwest for several days, The Associated Press explained.</p><p>"They are basically self-sustaining amoebas of thunderstorms," Gensini said. "Once they get going like they did across Iowa, it's really hard to stop these suckers."</p><p>It is unclear what impact the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> will have on derechos, as the SPC explained:</p><blockquote>A warmer planet at first glance would appear to be more conducive to the development of the intense thunderstorms that comprise derecho-producing convective systems. But thunderstorm updrafts require the presence of strong <em>vertical</em> temperature gradients; any warming occurring at the surface likely also would occur aloft. Thus, the net change in instability due to thermal changes likely would be minimal. And, although a warmer environment implies greater atmospheric moisture content and conditional instability (instability related to the release of latent heat during condensation), all other factors remaining equal, the increased moisture likely also would yield more widespread low-level cloud cover. Such cloudiness would negatively impact storm initiation and derecho development. What is more certain is that the band of enhanced upper-level flow that encircles the planet --- the <em>jet stream</em> --- would contract poleward in a warmer world. Because derechos tend to form on the equatorward side of the jet stream along the northern fringes of warm high pressure ("fair weather") systems, it is reasonable to conclude that the corridors of maximum derecho frequency would shift poleward with global warming.</blockquote><p>Derechos, however, interact with other extreme weather conditions related to a warming planet. Marsh warned that the power outages could have a negative impact on vulnerable people in the region dealing with high heat. He said the power outages also compounded the problems caused by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic.</p><p>"[I]t becomes dire pretty quickly," he told The Associated Press.</p>
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A scenic view of West Papua. Reza Fakhrudin / Pexels
By Arkilaus Kladit
My name is Arkilaus Kladit. I'm from the Knasaimos-Tehit tribe in South Sorong Regency, West Papua Province, Indonesia. For decades my tribe has been fighting to protect our forests from outsiders who want to log it or clear it for palm oil. For my people, the forest is our mother and our best friend. Everything we need to survive comes from the forest: food, medicines, building materials, and there are many sacred sites in the forest.
<p>We have been taught for generations about how to maintain a good relationship with the forest. If it is cut down, it will be the same as cutting down our lives. This has been critical for us during this Covid pandemic because, with the shortage of rice, we have been relying on our traditional staple food, sago, that comes from the forest. And we have gone further by harvesting it to provide food for the surrounding area.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU0ODg4OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMjc0MjUzMX0.ryirsbiRERuALoNk4rGlvrhXBacs0wi90ZXnMa8jKuo/img.jpg?width=980" id="6aa7c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="065f0a6f305cacc8928f8ee694cefa25" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Map of the Knasaimos traditional lands.
<p>The first threat to our forest was in 1988-89 when I was young. The government wanted to make a transmigration scheme settlement in our area but our elders rejected it because we were worried a lot of new people would harm the forest. Then in the early 2000s companies came wanting to log the valuable trees in our forest. After some years of struggle, we saw them off in 2005 but only after they did some damage to our forest.</p><p>The most recent threat is from oil palm. We heard news reports in 2012 there was an oil palm company going into a neighboring village. The news was quite alarming. Our tribe was sad. We had heard about thousands of hectares being cleared for oil palm plantations in Merauke and Sorong Districts. We thought that if oil palm is planted in a neighboring village, it is certain that the forests around our villages, Sira and Manggroholo, could also be under threat. But we stood firm on protecting our forest for our children and grandchildren. Our people consistently oppose oil palm, because we realize that our economic, customary and cultural lives depend heavily on the forest.</p><p>After our earlier fight with the illegal loggers, we decided in 2006 that we wanted to gain recognition for our customary forests. What has interested me most was getting the rights of the people to manage their forest. We worked with our Non-Government Organization friends, including Bentara and Greenpeace, to do participatory mapping of our own village lands and mark the boundary of all 81,446 hectares of our tribal lands. It is our custom to pass down from generation to generation where the boundaries of our forests are. Everything is collective, or is inherited collectively through the clans; it comes from our ancestors.</p>
<p>In 2008 we made a declaration to reject logging and palm oil. We invited the Regent and local Parliament to tell them that our area is small, if these forests are cut down, where do we go then? Where will we find wood to build our house? Where will we go to make our gardens? Where do we go to get medicines? If forests in these two villages are cut down, where will we move to?</p><p>So then we began the process of getting the recognition for our customary forests so that it will not be continually disturbed by logging licenses or permits for oil palm plantations. In 2014, after a long struggle, we had success with Village Forest permits for 3,545 hectares of customary forests of the two villages Mangroholo and Sira. We celebrated securing permits from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry as part of the government's social forestry program. We now have the legal rights to face the threat of illegal deforestation, oil palm planting that damages the environment.</p><p><span></span>A good example of how different it is now with the Village Forest permit. One day when we were patrolling in our forest we found merbau or ironwood trees (<em>Intsia bijuga</em>) had been illegally cut. Merbau is one of the main trees targeted by the illegal loggers. We caught the people doing this and issued them with a customary fine of Rp40 million ($2,700).</p><p>As well, since we obtained the status of Village Forest and we manage the forest ourselves, we are more organized in using Non Timber Forest Products (NTFP) such as damar (tree resin), agarwood, and sago, from a big palm that grows in our swamp forests. But our people have always made use of forests sustainably by taking forest products as needed. Especially with sago we have done a lot of work to turn it into a small enterprise that makes a good income for the village so we can pay things like school fees. We have had training, received new processing machines to speed up production, and help with local marketing to sell what we make. We have been providing food for the local region during Covid as the local government was buying our sago and giving it to the people. We are proud to make some money from our protected forest using our customary management without harming it. The forest is still here tall and strong.</p>
<p>But we still have a long way to go. We are now fighting for the recognition of the whole Knasaimos tribal area of 81,446 hectares as Customary Forest. We were very happy in 2018 when the Governor of West Papua Dominggus Mandacan made his <a href="https://www.idhsustainabletrade.com/uploaded/2018/12/MANOKWARI-DECLARATION-2018.pdf" target="_blank">commitment</a> to make 70% of West Papua Province protected areas. For us it means the Governor is fighting alongside us.</p><p>For the future we hope that the regent of our District, Mr. Samsudin, will soon issue a regional regulation that recognizes Knasaimos rights and forest, and that the Ministry of Environment and Forestry will support our application for a Customary Forest permit through the government Social Forestry Scheme so we can be on the frontline in supporting the government to protect Papua's forests.</p><p>I hope that every village in the Knasaimos customary area can experience the customary forest program to protect the future of our mother, the forest, and the rights to life of communities in Papua. Getting rights to forests in one's own area is the key to protecting the forest and community-based forest management. That is our aspiration, and this will make me very happy.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/i-am-fighting-for-my-tribes-forest-it-gives-us-food-culture-and-life-commentary/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Everyone overthinks their lives or options every once in a while. Some people, however, can't stop the wheels and halt their train of thoughts. Peter Griffith / Getty Images
By Farah Aqel
Overthinkers are people who are buried in their own obsessive thoughts. Imagine being in a large maze where each turn leads into an even deeper and knottier tangle of catastrophic, distressing events — that is what it feels like to them when they think about the issues that confront them.
<p>Everyone overthinks their lives or options every once in a while. Some people, however, can't stop the wheels and halt their train of thoughts.</p><p>This inner monologue has two components: ruminating and worrying.</p>
Ruminating
<p>According to the late Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, a professor of psychology at Yale University, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5796420/" target="_blank">ruminating</a> involves replaying a problem over and over in your mind. We ruminate by obsessing over our thoughts and thinking repetitively about various aspects of a past situation.</p><p>It usually involves regret, self-loathing and self-blaming. Rumination is associated with the development of depression, anxiety and eating disorders. </p><p>People prone to such patterns of thought may, for example, overanalyze every single detail of a relationship that breaks up. They often blame themselves for what has happened and are overcome with regret, with typical thoughts being: </p><p>- I should have been more patient and more supportive. </p><p>- I have lost the most perfect partner ever. </p><p>- No one will love me again.</p>Worrying
<p>Worrying is wanting to predict the future. It involves negative thoughts about things that might and might not happen.</p><p>- They'll not like me in the interview; they'll not give me the job. </p><p>- I haven't heard back from other employers. How long will I be unemployed?</p><p>These thoughts are energy-draining and distressing. They could happen to anyone under stress. But when you reach the point where your thoughts and worrying are preventing you from doing what you want to do — from living your life to the fullest — then you should take action.</p>Catch Yourself Overthinking
<p>Reuben Berger, a psychotherapist at the university hospital in the western German city of Bonn, recommends several practical steps that you could employ in your daily routine when you catch yourself worrying or ruminating.</p><p>One effective remedy, says Berger, is the <a href="https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/uf9938" target="_blank">thought-stopping technique.</a></p><p>"When the negative thoughts come or ruminations start, you say to yourself: 'Stop!,'" he says, adding that it is more effective when you actually say the word out loud.</p><p>He even recommends having a rubber band around your wrist to ping against yourself while saying the word. Adding a visual component by imagining a stop sign also makes the technique more powerful, he says.</p><p>The main idea here is conditioning yourself to stop the loop of worrying (making future predictions) or rumination (obsessing over past events).</p><p>Berger says the technique could take up to two weeks to take effect and that it needs to be practiced every day. "Consistency is very important," he says. </p>Thoughts Are Just Thoughts
<p>Another way of dealing with negative thoughts often used in modern therapy is realizing that thoughts aren't facts, says Berger.</p><p>He says it is important when we think something to ask: Is that real? Did that really happen? What is the worst thing that could happen?</p><p>Flight anxiety is one example where untrue thoughts are accepted as facts. Although air travel is the safest way to get around, people suffering from fear of flying accept their thoughts and fears as reality, then act upon them by refusing to fly.</p>Mindfulness
<p>Berger also recommends the use of mindfulness techniques, in which attention is paid to experiences in the moment without judging them, as a way of reducing worrying.</p><p>"Mindfulness helps you to distance yourself from your thoughts and to be more present in the moment," he says.</p><p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3432145/#R2" target="_blank">Several studies</a> have shown that mindfulness has a positive impact on reducing stress-related behaviors such as rumination and worrying, as focusing on the moment makes anxiety about other problems impossible.</p><p>Mindfulness can be practiced during routine activities by paying attention to your body and your surroundings. For instance, when you leave for work in the morning, you can focus on sensing the breeze, listen attentively to birds, feel the gravel under your feet and monitor your breath. </p>Trick Your Brain Into Happiness
<p>People plagued by obsessive thoughts do not always choose healthy ways like mindfulness to distract from them, however.</p><p> Dr. Edward Selby, a psychologist at Florida state university, has shown in a study that people try to avoid rumination by engaging in a range of uncontrolled behaviors, such as binge eating and substance abuse.</p><p>But he says that a much better way to overcome such distress is by distraction and shifting attention away from problems that are obsessing us.</p><p>There are many activities that can be used to distract from rumination, he says, and people should choose the one that works best for them. Here are some examples:</p><p>- Listen to music</p><p>- Read a book</p><p>- Take a hot shower</p><p>- Dance or exercise </p><p>- Talk to a friend (not about the problem)</p><p>- Watch a movie</p><p>- Mindfulness meditation</p>Changing the Perception of Events
<p>The way people perceive a situation largely influences their emotions and behavior. It is not the situation itself that determines how they feel, but rather the way they interpret it.</p><p>Reframing negative thoughts can lead to positive emotions and, subsequently, healthier behaviors — including a reduction in damaging overthinking and worrying.</p><p>Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is currently a gold standard in psychotherapy. CBT aims to change the way people think and act. It largely involves challenging unhelpful beliefs or attitudes such as overgeneralization — thinking "I always fail at public speaking" when you have had one bad experience in front of an audience, for example — or "catastrophization," i.e., imagining the worst possible outcome to a situation. </p><p>A psychotherapist can teach people how to implement such thought-changing techniques into their lives. Techniques vary depending on their issues and goals.</p>Solutions Are at Hand
<p>Try to find ways of avoiding worrying, rumination and overthinking that make you feel most comfortable.</p><p>Incorporating any routine in your life when you're stressed isn't an easy task, but you can do it! If you feel overwhelmed, you can always seek professional help. </p><p><em>If you are suffering from serious emotional strain or suicidal thoughts, do not hesitate to seek professional help. You can find information on where to find such help, no matter where you live in the world, <a href="https://www.befrienders.org/" target="_blank">at this website.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A newly developed catalyst would transform carbon dioxide from power plants and other sources into ethanol. DWalker44 / E+ / Getty Images
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have discovered a cheap, efficient way to convert carbon dioxide into liquid fuel, potentially reducing the amount of new carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere.
<p>The method, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-020-0666-x" target="_blank">Nature Energy in late July</a>, uses a copper-based catalyst to transform carbon dioxide into ethanol, which is used in almost all U.S. gasoline.</p><p>"The process resulting from our catalyst would contribute to the circular carbon economy, which entails the reuse of carbon dioxide," study coauthor and Argonne senior chemist Di-Jia Liu explained in a <a href="https://www.anl.gov/article/turning-carbon-dioxide-into-liquid-fuel" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p>
<p>Catalysts are an important tool in industrial processes used to speed up chemical reactions, Argonne National Laboratory explained. In conventional energy, they are used to convert heavy <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil" target="_self">oil</a> into jet fuel and gasoline. The new catalyst would be put to less carbon-intensive purposes by converting the carbon dioxide emitted by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuel" target="_self">fossil-fuel</a> plants or alcohol fermentation into ethanol that could be either recycled as fuel or used to make chemicals, drugs or cosmetics. Liquid fuel can also be used to store the output from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">renewable energy</a> for future use, the paper explained.</p>
<p>In a 2019 <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/11/13/20839531/climate-change-industry-co2-carbon-capture-utilization-storage-ccu" target="_blank">deep-dive for Vox</a> on different potential uses of carbon dioxide, David Roberts pointed out that it is always better from a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> standpoint to electrify energy use directly rather than using that power to convert carbon dioxide into fuel. However, carbon-based fuels could be an important tool for reducing the emissions of sectors that are hard to decarbonize otherwise, like industry. They do not remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but they do reduce the amount of planet-warming emissions relative to what they would have been if conventional fuels were burned.</p><p>"Carbon-neutral liquid fuels for sectors that are difficult to decarbonize are both a large market and a key piece of the decarbonization puzzle," Roberts wrote.</p>
<p>But turning carbon dioxide into a different molecule is typically both energy intensive and expensive because carbon dioxide is so stable, according to the Argonne National Laboratory: The new catalyst, however, is highly efficient.</p><p>The lab explained how it works:</p><blockquote>The team's catalyst consists of atomically dispersed copper on a carbon-powder support. By an electrochemical reaction, this catalyst breaks down CO2 and water molecules and selectively reassembles the broken molecules into ethanol under an external electric field. The electrocatalytic selectivity, or "Faradaic efficiency," of the process is over 90 percent, much higher than any other reported process. What is more, the catalyst operates stably over extended operation at low voltage.</blockquote><p>Because the process can work at low pressures and temperatures, it can be paired with renewable energy technologies. This is because it will be able to stop and restart easily in response to a changing power supply.</p><p>"We could couple the electrochemical process of CO2-to-ethanol conversion using our catalyst to the electric grid and take advantage of the low-cost electricity available from renewable sources like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar-energy" target="_self">solar</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind" target="_self">wind</a> during off-peak hours," Liu said.</p>
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Canada's Last Intact Ice Shelf the Size of Manhattan Collapses Due to Global Warming
10 August
Oceans
Eureka Sound on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic taken by NASA's Operation IceBridge in 2014. NASA / Michael Studinger / Flickr / CC by 2.0
A 4,000-year-old ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has collapsed into the sea, leaving Canada without any fully intact ice shelves, Reuters reported. The Milne Ice Shelf lost more than 40 percent of its area in just two days at the end of July, said researchers who monitored its collapse.
<p>Unlike glaciers, ice shelves are part of the ocean.</p><p>The Milne Ice Shelf on Ellesmere Island in Canada's Nunavut territory fell into the Arctic Sea and started to drift before breaking into two large chunks. The Copernicus Sentinel satellite captured the entire event, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/08/weather/canada-ice-shelf-collapse-milne-manhattan/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>Time-lapse photos on <a href="https://twitter.com/ECCC_CIS/status/1290740808170307584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1290740808170307584%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2020%2F08%2F08%2Fweather%2Fcanada-ice-shelf-collapse-milne-manhattan%2Findex.html" target="_blank">Twitter</a> show the satellite animation between July 30 and August 4, as the ice shelf lost approximately 43 percent of its area. When the fallen pieces split in two, the larger one formed an iceberg roughly the size of Manhattan, according to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/canada-last-fully-intact-ice-shelf-suddenly-collapsed-2020-8" target="_blank">Business Insider</a>. </p>
<div id="3f778" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="26a7b2ea20a9cef68bf0d6e1c029fe5d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1290740808170307584" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Satellite animation, from July 30 to August 4, shows the collapse of the last fully intact #iceshelf in #Canada. Th… https://t.co/n35ctDfmRh</div> — ECCC Canadian Ice Service (@ECCC Canadian Ice Service)<a href="https://twitter.com/ECCC_CIS/statuses/1290740808170307584">1596571564.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p><br>The massive break was first noticed by ice analyst Adrienne White of the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/ice-forecasts-observations/latest-conditions.html" target="_blank">Canadian Ice Service</a>, the <a href="https://apnews.com/8077f82701c655ddebc6aafbb3dd453e" target="_blank">AP</a> reported.</p><p>"This is a huge, huge block of ice," White told the AP. "If one of these is moving toward an oil rig, there's nothing you can really do aside from move your oil rig."</p><p>The break resulted from polar amplification, which causes the Arctic to warm faster than the rest of the world, Business Insider reported. For example, today's polar ice caps are melting six times faster than in the 1990s.</p><p>"Above normal air temperatures, offshore winds and open water in front of the ice shelf are all part of the recipe for ice shelf break up," the Canadian Ice Service said on <a href="https://twitter.com/ECCC_CIS/status/1290045576692658176" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, according to Reuters.</p>
<div id="48af7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a601f615c13348682918cf9a52f9593b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1290045576692658176" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A huge section of the Milne #IceShelf has collapsed into the #Arctic Ocean producing a ~79 km2 ice island. Above no… https://t.co/RLLl5NjFy9</div> — ECCC Canadian Ice Service (@ECCC Canadian Ice Service)<a href="https://twitter.com/ECCC_CIS/statuses/1290045576692658176">1596405808.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"Entire cities are that size. These are big pieces of ice," said Luke Copland, a glaciologist at the University of Ottawa and part of the research team studying the Milne Ice Shelf. He told Reuters that this summer the Canadian Arctic experienced temperatures about 5 degrees Celsius warmer than the 30-year average.</p><p>"Without a doubt, it's climate change," Copland told the AP, adding that the ice shelf is melting from both hotter air above and warmer water below. "The Milne was very special. It's an amazingly pretty location."</p><p>According to Business Insider, a research camp was lost when the shelf broke apart, as was the Northern Hemisphere's last known epishelf — a freshwater lake contained by an ice shelf.</p><p>"It is lucky that we were not on the ice shelf when this happened, our camp area and instruments were all destroyed in this event," Derek Mueller, a professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University, said in a <a href="https://wirl.carleton.ca/milne-ice-shelf-calving-event/" target="_blank">blog post</a>, CNN reported. His team's trip had been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p>Now that a large chunk of the ice shelf has collapsed into the ocean, there is the potential for additional cracking and movement, the Water and Ice Research Laboratory (WIRL) said in a<a href="https://wirl.carleton.ca/research/ice/ice-shelves/calving-2020/" target="_blank"> press release</a>. The ice shelf is still unstable and further ice breaks are possible in the coming days and weeks, WIRL warned.</p><p>Ice shelves can help limit rising sea levels since they act like a dam, CNN reported. </p>
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