A meteorologist monitors weather in NOAA's Center for Weather and Climate Prediction on July 2, 2013 in Riverdale, Maryland. Mark Wilson / Getty Images
The Trump White House is now set to appoint two climate deniers to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in one month.
<p>First, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/david-legates-noaa-2647660690.html" target="_self">David Legates</a>, a University of Delaware professor who has questioned the scientific consensus that human activity drives the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> and has argued carbon dioxide emissions are actually beneficial, was named deputy assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation. Now, the Trump administration is in the process of appointing meteorologist Ryan Maue to serve as the agency's chief scientist, two NOAA officials confirmed to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/21/noaa-chief-scientist-maue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Washington Post Monday</a>. Maue, who runs the site <a href="http://weathermodels.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">weathermodels.com</a>, does accept that the burning of greenhouse gases is impacting the global climate. However, he has spoken out against worst-case-scenario climate predictions and criticized activists for using <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather" target="_self">extreme weather</a> events to argue for reducing the burning of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a>.</p>
<p>"For the second time this month, a person who misrepresents, distorts, and disagrees with climate science is being placed in a science position at NOAA," professor <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/katharine-hayhoe-climate-change-2550366098.html" target="_self">Katharine Hayhoe</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/KHayhoe/status/1308235952381362178" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted</a> in response to the news.</p><p>Maue previously served as an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that questioned mainstream climate science, The Washington Post pointed out. He co-wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal challenging the climate predictions of NASA scientist James Hansen, which have been supported by peer-reviewed studies. Most recently, he has lashed out against California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his supporters for linking the climate crisis to the state's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wildfires-california-washington-oregon-photos-2647585008.html" target="_self">record-breaking wildfire season</a>.</p><p>"Seems the Democrats have coordinated their efforts to use the devastating California fires as an opportunity to score political points in the upcoming election by blaming them solely on climate change (and Trump)," he wrote in a deleted tweet recovered by The Washington Post.</p>
<p>However, a number of studies have shown that changes to the climate are making the state's fires more frequent and more intense.</p><p>As chief scientist, Maue would influence NOAA's research agenda for oceanic and atmospheric science, as well as its scientific integrity policy. He still has to pass ethics and security reviews, but would not require Senate confirmation.</p><p>Other scientists questioned whether Maue had the credentials for the role.</p><p>"Normally, when people are chosen for high-profile positions relating to climate change, I've heard of them. I have no idea who this person is, other than I've seen him saying things about climate that are wrong on social media and in op-eds. I suspect that he has the one and only necessary qualification for the job: a willingness to advance the agenda of climate deniers," Texas A&M climate scientist Andrew Dessler <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewDessler/status/1308241184234631168" target="_blank">tweeted</a> in reaction to Maue's likely appointment. "To me, this emphasizes how thin the climate deniers' bench is. I'm sure they'd prefer to have someone with actual credentials take the job, but this shows that credentialized experts who dispute mainstream climate science simply don't exist."</p>
<p>Maue told <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/climate-science-critic-be-chief-scientist-key-us-climate-research-agency" target="_blank">E&E News</a> he believes in "lukewarming."</p><p>"Lukewarming is not climate denial," Maue said. "Most of us on this side of the issue believe in lower climate sensitivity. We don't believe there's going to be 5° of warming; we figure it's at the lower end of 1.5°."</p><p>However, most scientists think the world could hit 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels within the next two decades and then continue to heat up.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Trump Insider Embeds Climate Denial Into Agency Reports ... ›
- Climate Denier Is Named to Leadership Role at NOAA - EcoWatch ›
- Earth Just Had Its Hottest September Ever Recorded, NOAA Says - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Pexels
By Douglas Broom
"Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people," said former U.S. president, Franklin Roosevelt.
<p>Covering <a href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/" target="_blank">almost a third of the Earth's surface</a>, forests are home to <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/habitats/forest-habitat#:~:text=Forests%20are%20home%20to%2080,%2C%20animals%2C%20fungi%20and%20bacteria." target="_blank">eight in 10 animal and plant species</a>. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says the world's forests include over 60,000 species of tree, all of which absorb CO2 as they grow.</p>
<p>But all is not well in Earth's woodlands. Only <a href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/" target="_blank">half of all forests are still intact and only a third are primary forest </a>– naturally occurring woodland composed of native species where human activities have not disturbed the natural ecology.</p><p>Over 20,000 tree species are at risk and over 1,400 of them are on the critical list, according to the FAO. Estimates suggest 420 million hectares of forest have been lost since 1990 and although the rate of loss has slowed, 10 million hectares were lost between 2015 and this year.</p><p>So the FAO is <a href="https://twitter.com/FAO/status/1286164178819047424?s=20" target="_blank">using Twitter</a> to remind the world of these five hidden benefits of forests.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU2MDM3Ni9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NjI4NjI2M30.iT-XMYV52oZPXZ_0Z2R1XGRdtPHToar1Im4vID3k-1g/img.png?width=980" id="cedaf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="28dcdfb8445c616888d229ee657f0901" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
So the FAO is using Twitter to remind the world of these five hidden benefits of forests.
<p><strong>1. Forests Nurture the Soil</strong></p><p>As well as stabilizing soils and preventing erosion – which <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/soil-erosion-and-degradation" target="_blank">quickly occurs where trees are felled </a>– <a href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/" target="_blank">forests are home to soil microbes</a>, which together with insects, birds and mammals, play a crucial role in enriching and maintaining soil quality.</p><p><strong>2. Forests Absorb Carbon</strong></p><p>Forests act as 'carbon sinks', trapping and storing CO2. NASA estimates that <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/jpl/nasa-finds-good-news-on-forests-and-carbon-dioxide" target="_blank">tropical forests absorb 1.4 billion tonnes of CO2 every year</a>, while a study in 2017 estimated that forests would <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/114/44/11645" target="_blank">absorb a third of the atmospheric carbon </a>needed to keep global warming below 2C by 2030.</p><p><strong>3. Forests Provide Food for Millions</strong></p><p>More than <a href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/" target="_blank">86 million people depend on forests for their livelihoods</a>. Globally, 1 billion people rely on wild foods including meat, insects, plants, mushrooms and fish. As well as <a href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/" target="_blank">providing edible plants</a> and <a href="http://www.fao.org/forestry/food-security/en/" target="_blank">protecting water sources</a>, forests also provide shelter for animals kept by forest dwellers.</p><p><strong>4. Forests Are Natural Aqueducts</strong></p><p>Forests provide "relatively pure water", not just for indigenous peoples, but also for <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a1598e/a1598e10.htm" target="_blank">some of the world's largest cities</a>, according to the FAO. One-third of the world's metropolises get all or part of their drinking water from forest-protected areas, including Bogotá, Jakarta, Karachi, Madrid, Mumbai and Singapore.</p><p><strong>5. Forests Host 80% of Earth's Biodiversity</strong></p><p>Forests are home to <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/habitats/forest-habitat#:~:text=Forests%20are%20home%20to%2080,%2C%20animals%2C%20fungi%20and%20bacteria." target="_blank">80% of the world's animals, plants, fungi and bacteria.</a> They include <a href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/" target="_blank">almost two-thirds of all plants,</a> three-quarters of all birds, 80% of amphibians and 68% of mammals. The most biologically diverse and complex forests are tropical rainforests, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, because rainfall is abundant and temperatures are consistently high.</p><p><strong>One Trillion Trees</strong></p><p>The World Economic Forum has launched <a href="https://www.1t.org/" target="_blank">an initiative to conserve, restore and grow 1 trillion trees</a> to help curb climate change. Research has shown the importance of nature-based solutions, such as conservation, restoration and reforestation, in tackling climate change and biodiversity loss. But, these must take place alongside other measures, particularly decarbonizing industry.</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/08/five-hidden-benefits-forests-climate-change/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></p>
Read More
Show Less
Aerial picture showing fires burning in Brazil's Amazon rainforest on August 23, 2019. Carl de Souza / AFP / Getty Images
The number of forest fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest increased 28% in July in comparison to last year, the country's National Institute for Space Research reported Saturday.
<p>Brazil holds around 60% of the Amazon basin region and environmentalists say this area is vital to containing the impact of climate change.</p><p>The state agency recorded 6,803 fires in the Amazon last month, compared to 5,318 in the same month of 2019.</p><p>Environmentalists were alarmed by the figure, particularly because August traditionally marks the beginning of the fire season in the region. Many now fear that a repeat of the large surge in fires that devastated the area last August could occur this year again.</p>
<p>"More than 1,000 fires in a single day is a 15-year record and shows the government's strategy of media-spectacle operations is not working on the ground," Greenpeace spokesman Romulo Batista said in a statement.</p><p>The fires have been largely set to clear land illegally for farming, ranching and mining. Activists accuse Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro of encouraging the deforestation, as he has been in favor of opening up the rainforest to agriculture and industry.</p><p>The first six months of 2020 were already the worst on record for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, with 3,069 square kilometers (1,185 square miles) cleared, according to INPE data, an area larger than the nation of Luxembourg.</p>
Government Measures Not Enough
<p>On July 16, the Brazilian government banned burning in the Pantanal wetlands and the Amazon forest for four months.</p><p>President Bolsonaro also issued an order in May for the military to coordinate environmental actions in the Amazon.</p><p>But experts say the fire numbers indicate the government's response has not been effective. The deforestation index also remained high this year until July, compared to the last couple of years, according to Carlos Nobre, a researcher at the Advanced Studies Institute in the State University of Sao Paulo.</p><p>"We can conclude, with data until the end of July, that the effectiveness of government actions to reduce fires and deforestation is low," he said.</p><p>Experts also say that this year's dry season will be even more prone to fires than last year. U.S. space agency NASA warned last month that warmer ocean surface temperatures in the North Atlantic have creating the conditions for a more extreme drought in the Amazon.</p><p>"Human-set fires used for agriculture and land clearing more prone to growing out of control and spreading," NASA warned. "Conditions are ripe."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-amazon-rainforest-fires-surge-in-july/a-54405259?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2646869688#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
- At Least 500 Jaguars Lost Their Lives or Habitat in Amazon Fires ›
- Amazon Rainforest Reaches Point of No Return - EcoWatch ›
- Record Number of Fires Burning in Amazon Rainforest - EcoWatch ›
- Amazon's Widespread Fire Damage Is 'Invisible to Our Eyes' - EcoWatch ›
- Fires Surge in Brazil's Amazon a Month After Bolsonaro Declared Fire Ban - EcoWatch ›
- Fires Surge in Brazil's Amazon a Month After Bolsonaro Declared Fire Ban - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Support Ecowatch
Beer is carbonated using CO2, which creates its signature fizz and foam. Simón Delacre / Pixabay
New technology could produce a better, cheaper beer that's also good for the planet.
<p>Every year, brewers use and buy truckloads of carbon dioxide (CO2) to meet their needs. The greenhouse gas is critical in brewing to give beer its signature fizz. It is also used to transfer beer from tank to bottle/can and to purge tanks, reported <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2020/07/07/craft-brewers-cut-down-carbon-dioxide-pollution-during-covid-19/" target="_blank">Marketplace</a>.</p><p>Inefficiently, despite producing "literally tons" of the gas during fermentation, small brewers end up venting it as waste and buying CO2 from across the country to meet their needs, reported <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/21/business/breweries-produce-capture-co2/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>Technology to recapture CO2 and put it back into the beer production process exists, but is usually too difficult or too expensive for small breweries to purchase, CNN said.</p>
<p>Now, a new plug-and-play carbon recapture system sized for craft breweries' smaller needs and wallets promises to close the loop, curbing a lot of greenhouse gas emissions and providing an additional revenue stream for reclaimed carbon dioxide.</p><p>"CiCi," short for "<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/carbon-capture" target="_self">carbon capture</a>," is a fridge-sized machine available from Texas startup <a href="https://earthlylabs.com/" target="_blank">Earthly Labs</a>. Using carbon capture science originally designed by NASA for use on Mars, CiCi collects, purifies and liquefies CO2 — and then puts it back into the beer production process, according to <a href="https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2016/cg_3.html" target="_blank">NASA Spinoff</a> and <a href="https://cen.acs.org/food/fermentation/Carbon-capture-craft-beer-liquor/98/i19" target="_blank">C&EN</a>.</p><p>Using CiCi, brewers can reduce monthly CO2 expenses by 50 to 100 percent and CO2 emissions by 50 percent, reported <a href="https://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/equipment-systems/earthly-labs-launches-co2-recovery-system-sized-for-craft-breweries/" target="_blank">Craft Brewing Business</a>. Brewers are also protected against CO2 supply shortages and price spikes that have become a problem during the coronavirus pandemic, reported <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2020/07/07/craft-brewers-cut-down-carbon-dioxide-pollution-during-covid-19/" target="_blank">Marketplace</a>. In this way, small breweries can save thousands of dollars annually, reported <a href="https://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/equipment-systems/earthly-labs-launches-co2-recovery-system-sized-for-craft-breweries/" target="_blank">Craft Brewing Business</a>.</p>
<p>"It was kind of always the holy grail of craft brewing... to be able to figure out how to reclaim the CO2 that we're producing and be able to put it back into our beer," said Adam DeBower, one of the co-founders of Austin Beerworks, <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2020/07/07/craft-brewers-cut-down-carbon-dioxide-pollution-during-covid-19/" target="_blank">Marketplace</a> reported.</p><p>DeBower recently paid about $100,000 for a CiCi and installation. Amy George, Earthly Labs' founder and CEO, told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/21/business/breweries-produce-capture-co2/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> that most brewers see a two- to three-year return on investment in normal circumstances, but that rising CO2 prices and shortages would accelerate that payback.</p><p>In addition to repurposing a greenhouse gas that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere to carbonate beer, CiCi allows small breweries to sell excess gas to others.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/03/25/brewing-beer-makes-co2-the-state-wants-craft-breweries-to-capture-the-greenhouse-gas-and-make-some-money-from-it-too/" target="_blank">CPR</a>, a four-month pilot program overseen by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment connected <a href="https://denverbeerco.com/" target="_blank">Denver Beer Co.</a>, a CiCi-user, with <a href="https://www.thecliniccolorado.com/" target="_blank">The Clinic</a>, a medical and recreational cannabis company. The goal was to create a carbon exchange program wherein Denver Beer would use CiCi to recapture its CO2 and produce its beer. Excess CO2 would then be piped into The Clinic's grow rooms, reported <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/07/01/guess-what-the-co2-that-beer-burps-out-is-great-at-growing-pot/" target="_blank">CPR</a>.</p><p>"Breweries produce way more CO2 than what they would actually reuse within their own operations," the department's Kaitlin Urso told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/21/business/breweries-produce-capture-co2/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>. "This is a new way for them to think about it as a commodity."</p><p>Marijuana needs CO2 to grow because it increases crop yields and shortens the growing cycle, reported <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2020/02/03/austin-startup-connecting-beer-cannabis-to.html" target="_blank">Austin Business Journal</a>. The Clinic previously bought gas tanks from power plants that shipped them across the state.</p>
<p>"So the really good thing about this project is that Denver Beer Company is only eight miles away," The Clinic's Director of Operations Brian Cusworth told <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/03/25/brewing-beer-makes-co2-the-state-wants-craft-breweries-to-capture-the-greenhouse-gas-and-make-some-money-from-it-too/" target="_blank">CPR</a>. "So the transportation footprint has been reduced dramatically as well."</p><p>So far, the program has been a win-win, with Denver Beer recapturing the equivalent of 93 trees worth of CO2 from hitting the atmosphere, and The Clinic completing its 16-week harvest at a 15 percent reduced cost, reported <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/21/business/breweries-produce-capture-co2/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>. In a nod to the program, The Clinic's product line grown with Denver Beer's recycled carbon is called "93 Hoppy Trees," reported <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/07/01/guess-what-the-co2-that-beer-burps-out-is-great-at-growing-pot/" target="_blank">CPR</a>.</p><p>"It really was a perfect pairing, especially for Colorado. We've got a lot of breweries. We got a lot of cannabis operations," Urso told <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/03/25/brewing-beer-makes-co2-the-state-wants-craft-breweries-to-capture-the-greenhouse-gas-and-make-some-money-from-it-too/" target="_blank">CPR</a>.</p>
<p>Beer, wine and cannabis companies from all over have reached out to Urso to see how they can implement the same technologies and create similar business partnerships, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/21/business/breweries-produce-capture-co2/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. Urso hopes to apply the model to many different industries that use CO2, such as laboratories, restaurants and other medical applications, <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/07/01/guess-what-the-co2-that-beer-burps-out-is-great-at-growing-pot/" target="_blank">CPR</a> reported.</p><p>"We believe that many of us working together in small ecosystems to do what we can — right now — is the successful formula to fighting climate change," Earthly Lab's George told <a href="https://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/equipment-systems/earthly-labs-launches-co2-recovery-system-sized-for-craft-breweries/" target="_blank">Craft Brewing Business</a>. "It is not someone else's problem to solve. It is ours." </p><p>As the technology rolls out to more small breweries and industries, the environmental benefit and resultant financial perks could really be something to cheer.</p>
<p><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
- Carbon Capture Breakthrough in India Converts CO2 Into Baking ... ›
- Carbon Capture: 'Only Realistic and Affordable Way to Dramatically ... ›
- 8 Ways to Sequester Carbon to Avoid Climate Catastrophe - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Trending
Saturn's moon, Enceladus, is one of three moons that appear to contain subsurface oceans underneath an icy shell. Marc Van Norden / NASA / Flickr / CC by 2.0
By Zulfikar Abbany
"We don't have a definition of life," says Kevin Peter Hand, one early California morning when we speak via video. "We don't actually know what life is."
<p>He says that in between sips of coffee, as though it were perfectly obvious.</p><p>But scientists must really get bored — even annoyed — by journalists repeatedly asking how their fundamental research in space can be applied in the <em>real world</em>. It is a question worth asking, however. Especially when they tell you that they are looking for a "second origin of life." You just have to ask why.</p><p>Fortunately, Hand, who heads NASA's Ocean Worlds Lab, is charming and gentle as he explains his fascination with what he calls "alien oceans" both on Earth and on distant water worlds, like Jupiter's moon, Europa, Saturn's moon, Enceladus, or Triton, a "bizarre" object that rotates in the opposite direction from its host planet, Neptune.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUzNTU2Ni9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDk1NzcyMX0.iIJrx-5xjFFb_3D22H6P3AN4v3MvX87hBZa-sJzIIKI/img.png?width=980" id="7198f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="946767de5696a09fc34090e5ade96142" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>"We have numerous hypotheses for how life originated on Earth," says Hand. "For instance, it may have originated in the hydrothermal vents of our ocean, or in warm tide pools on the continents of an ancient Earth, or perhaps it originated from spark discharge from lightning in the atmosphere and precipitating organic compounds glued together to form life… But nothing has so far crawled out of the lab."</p>
Alien Oceans Here and There
<p>Europa, Enceladus, and Triton are just three of over 200 moons in our solar system. But they are special moons. They seem to have live, liquid water environments below the surface — also known as subsurface oceans — under an icy shell.</p><p>"These are global liquid oceans covered with ice," says Hand. "And if we go to Europa or Enceladus, these worlds where hydrothermal vents could exist, but where no continents exist, and there's no atmosphere, and if we found life, that would almost certainly point to an origin of life in hydrothermal vents."</p><p>And that may then tell us more about life on Earth. </p><p>Hydrothermal vents are found at extreme depths of around 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles) in vast trenches below the surface of Earth's own ocean.</p><p>Not so long ago, those trenches were believed to be too dark for any life to exist. But through oceanographic research and commercial prospectors trawling for rare minerals like manganese nodules, we now know that hydrothermal vents are teeming with microbial life. So, the same may be true on a distant moon.</p><p>"That's not to say we'd be able to cross off the potential for the origin of life in tide pools on ancient Earth, but if we found life in hydrothermal vents on these moons, we would at least have another data point," says Hand.</p>Biology Beyond Earth
<p>Biology — or organic life as we know it — is perhaps the final piece in a jigsaw puzzle for space scientists.</p><p>Thanks to Galileo, says Hand, we know that the laws of physics work beyond Earth. So, too, with the principles of chemistry and geology.</p><p>"But we don't know whether this phenomenon called life has happened a second, independent time from life here on Earth. And that's why the question of a second origin of life is so compelling," says Hand.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUzNTYxNy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjgxNTIyMX0.g81Fz-l3O-_c03B3ah_duedhacdE9CaiMfHcTRiX1L4/img.png?width=980" id="b00a6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="720a25ec63df8ccb03462e1f5752f8f3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>And it's vital that that second origin of life is discovered — if at all — on planets, moons and other celestial bodies deep in the solar system, bodies that are too far away for any Earthly life to have reached or "contaminated" what may, or may not, be there.</p><p>"It would be hard for an Earth rock to get out there with Earth microbes and seed those oceans with DNA-based life," says Hand. "So, if we find life on these worlds, they will represent a separate, independent origin of life and, as such, that will tell us about the diversity of life, not just in our solar system, but in the universe as a whole."</p>
The Europa Clipper
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="367f258c4634fbd67ad3ce7ef3a73b5f"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GqTaDCt_F1Y?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Hand's focus for now is Jupiter's moon, Europa. One of his current projects is the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/" target="_blank">Europa Clipper</a> mission, which will perform about 45 so-called "flybys" of the moon. </p><p>Its launch date has yet to be decided. But the plan is for the Europa Clipper to take hi-resolution images of the moon's surface on a scale of between 50 centimeters per pixel and tens of meters per pixel.</p><p>It will look for organics, like salt.</p><p>It will have an ice penetrating radar onboard, and spectrometers that could "taste" any plumes erupting out of Europa.</p><p>"It will fly through the plumes and capture some of that material so we can analyze it directly. That will be phenomenal, but it won't get us down to the surface," says Hand. So, they are working on another mission that would land on Europa, too.</p>Trident for Triton
<p>Meanwhile, NASA's <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-four-possible-missions-to-study-the-secrets-of-the-solar-system" target="_blank">Discovery Program</a> has two further outer solar system moon missions under consideration. One of those missions is called Trident. And if it's selected to move forward, the mission will investigate Neptune's moon, Triton.</p><p>Trident would launch in 2026 for a 12-year journey to Triton. The last spacecraft to study Triton was Voyager 2, which launched in 1977. It got to within 40,000 km of Triton, whereas Trident would get as close as 500 km on two flybys.</p><p>"Voyager gave us pictures that let us see geysers and plumes on Triton and that was 30 years ago — 50 years before Trident," says Yohai Kaspi, a professor of atmospheric dynamics and planetary science at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. "But with today's technology and imaging, we can do much better."</p><p>Kaspi and his colleagues are contributing a special clock to the project, with which they hope to measure the density and temperature of Triton's atmosphere.</p><p>The clock is called an Ultra-Stable Oscillator (USO).</p><p>It's a basically quartz clock, like a quartz wristwatch, but it's kept it at a very stable temperature to protect it from all the temperature variations in space.</p><p>"You hold it in a little oven, literally a tiny oven, with a stable temperature of one milliKelvin," says Kaspi, "and that gives us an accurate time frequency."</p><p>The spacecraft will have a radio link to Earth for the purpose of Kaspi's experiment and for general use, such as navigation. It will be a constant signal.</p><p>But the speed at which that signal travels back to Earth will change as the spacecraft enters and moves through Triton's atmosphere. The atmosphere is almost a filter through which the signal will have to pass. Measuring and comparing the difference in time it takes the signal to travel to Earth will allow scientists to measure thickness of Triton's atmosphere and build a profile of the moon's atmospheric temperature.</p>How Do Moon Oceans and Their Atmospheres Interact?
<p>Kaspi says Triton's atmosphere makes it unique. "Enceladus is too small to have an atmosphere and Europa barely has an atmosphere," he says. "Triton's atmosphere is not as dense as the one on Earth but it's enough of an atmosphere to transport material around. And in addition to that, it's likely that Triton was not even formed in our solar system. So, it's a real opportunity."</p><p>If the mission goes ahead, it may also be an opportunity to understand more about the interaction between subsurface oceans, or the "interior" of such moons, and their atmospheres. Because atmospheres are just as important for maintaining life and water is for originating life.</p><p>"We see these plumes coming from the interior, and they are then transported by the atmosphere. We see these active geysers and then these streaks on the planet, and they're all in the same direction," Kaspi says. "So, you would assume that there is a wind going from one side to the other. Voyager observed that. But that is about as much as we know."</p><p>What we don't know, says Kaspi, is how much of Triton's atmosphere originated from the interior, or whether the subterranean ocean can communicate or interact much with the outside.</p><p>The instruments on Trident are designed to find out how the whole system works together. They may even get us a little closer to that elusive definition of life itself.</p><p>"I hope that maybe 400 years from now our descendants will be able to point to innovations and discoveries that we made and go, 'Wow, can you believe they argued about the importance of searching for life beyond Earth and its application?'" says NASA's Kevin Hand.</p><p>"And perhaps they will be able to laugh about that in the same way that we look at Galileo and say: 'Of course, Galileo's work was pivotal in changing the way we think about the universe' — and everything that cascades from that, right down to the computer conversation that we're having now."</p><p>Message received.</p>From Your Site Articles
- GOP to NASA: Forget Climate Science, Focus on Space - EcoWatch ›
- Trump Signs Executive Order to Mine the Moon for Minerals ... ›
- 'Shockingly Stupid': Trump to Eliminate NASA Climate Research ... ›
- Water May Have Originated on Earth, Study Finds ›
- Scientists Detect Possible Sign of Life on Venus - EcoWatch ›
Read More
Show Less
Google is now adding satellite data into its mapping facility to show the precise locations of wildfires in close-to real-time. Google Maps
By Sean Fleming
You probably can't outrun a forest fire. They can travel at speeds of up to 22 kilometers per hour (up to 14 miles) and are dangerously unpredictable.
The fires currently tearing through parts of northern California include the second and third largest in the state's recorded history, have seen 200,000 people asked to leave their homes and killed at least six people.
<p>Staying one step ahead of a wildfire really can mean the difference between life and death. Not just for those caught up in one, but for the people <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53840437" target="_blank">attempting to bring such fires under control</a>.</p><p>Google is now adding satellite data into its mapping facility to show the precise locations of wildfires in close-to real-time.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU4MDA0OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzOTc4MDM3NX0.ktghbflpm2A3HkiT8C_ccllfMheboHCR9hkDG-zRAUQ/img.png?width=980" id="07d43" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b4bedf933c2ce269dc717f6f8504370e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Fire boundaries are clearly marked and refreshed hourly. Google
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU4MDA5NC9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMjY2NDAxMn0.kQMU9gb7OuizYOpGPSnnfK2N9VZUYErY2NJrsq5KWbc/img.gif?width=980" id="786f8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bd96fdf6ff7a8d07a04b0e16c352edad" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Wildfire timelapse. Google Maps
Early Warnings
<p>The data also feeds into the company's maps and navigation tools, meaning anyone in the vicinity of a fire, and using Google Maps, can be alerted to the danger. Satellite data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is fed into Google Earth, and is refreshed hourly. This gives both infrared and standard optical views of the location and spread of fires.</p><p>Forest <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/GlobalFire/fire_2.php" target="_blank">fires are part of the natural cycle of the woodland ecosystem</a>, actually helping to maintain biodiversity. Not only does fire kickstart the germination process of many seeds, it also "initiates critical natural processes by breaking down organic matter into soil nutrients," Nasa's Earth Observatory explains.</p><p>Climate change is partly responsible for wildfire spread, or is at the very least becoming a contributory factor. Reduced rainfall in northern California has left forests and surrounding areas drier than normal, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. This helps create <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/" target="_blank">the ideal circumstances for fires to get out of control</a>, regardless of how they started.</p><p>Large parts of the U.S. face higher than normal fire risk this year, including California, putting lives and property in jeopardy. The cost of fighting such fires is also on the increase, almost doubling in California across the first two decades of the century.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU4MDE5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MDk3MDEzNn0.dmyBqmC2Y9sKkDuHH9QveuIvmZaocvFLnVihH4M8jAU/img.jpg?width=980" id="48e1f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9d159465843f3b60ab5f039761a416e2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Counting the cost of California's wildfires. Statista
<p>Google ran a test of its fire detection feature during the 2019 California wildfires, collecting feedback from emergency services on its effectiveness.</p><p>"We collaborated with organizations, like the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) and Boulder's Office of Emergency Management, to gather expert recommendations on wildfire preparedness and response," Matias writes.</p><p>"Their feedback throughout our 2019 pilot helped identify what information is most useful during emergency situations."</p>
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fworldeconomicforum%2Fvideos%2F756495591819041%2F&show_text=0&width=476" width="476" height="476" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/08/google-maps-forest-wildfires-data/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Losses From California Wildfires Top $1 Billion, Expected to Rise ... ›
- Trump Wanted to Withhold Wildfire Aid to California Over Political ... ›
- California's Iconic Redwoods Threatened by Wildfires - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Water trickles down a hillside among moss next to the entrance to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault during a summer heat wave as mountains behind stand devoid of snow on Svalbard archipelago on July 29 in Longyearbyen, Norway. Sean Gallup / Getty Images
By Johnny Wood
What better place to build a Doomsday Vault than the remote, snow-covered islands of Norway's Arctic Svalbard? Sitting around 1,000 kilometers from the North Pole, the facility is buried in permafrost to protect the precious seed samples housed there. But a freak heatwave is causing the region's ice to melt.
<p>Following several days of near record-breaking hot weather in July, <a href="https://twitter.com/Meteorologene/status/1287060076365262849" target="_blank">Svalbard temperatures topped out at 21.7℃</a>, the country's meteorological institute reported. This is the <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/svalbard-home-of-the-doomsday-vault-just-recorded-its-highest-ever-temperature" target="_blank">hottest ever recorded here, exceeding the previous record of 21.3℃ set </a>over 40 years earlier and a stark contrast to the region's <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261996139_Introduction_in_TOPOCLIMATIC_DIVERSITY_IN_THE_FORLANDSUNDET_REGION_NW_SPITSBERGEN_IN_GLOBAL_WARMING_CONDITIONS_Edited_by_Przybylak_et_al_2012" target="_blank">average of between 5-7℃ for this time of year</a>.<br/></p>
Deep Trouble?
<p>The <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-it-s-like-inside-the-doomsday-vault-that-stores-every-known-crop-on-the-planet" target="_blank">Svalbard Global Seed Vault</a> – also known as the Doomsday Vault – is a gigantic bunker, sitting deep inside a mountain surrounded by snowy wastelands. The facility stores close to <a href="https://www.seedvault.no/about/the-facility/" target="_blank">900,000 seed samples</a> from around the world and acts as a sort of back-up plan for agriculture, should disaster render parts of the planet unlivable or the world suffer a catastrophe, such as nuclear war or extreme climate change.</p><p>It's been described as an "<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2235116-svalbard-doomsday-vault-gets-first-big-seed-deposit-since-upgrade/" target="_blank">insurance policy for food security</a>."</p><p>Inside the vault, <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-it-s-like-inside-the-doomsday-vault-that-stores-every-known-crop-on-the-planet" target="_blank">temperatures are kept below minus 18℃</a>, cold enough to keep the seed samples safe for at least 200 years, even without backup power. But climate change is causing problems for the vault.</p><p>In 2016, which was the <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2841/2018-fourth-warmest-year-in-continued-warming-trend-according-to-nasa-noaa/" target="_blank">warmest year on record according to NASA</a>, soaring temperatures caused <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/20/doomsday-arctic-seed-vault-breached-permafrost-melts/" target="_blank">meltwater to breach the vault's entrance tunnel</a>. While no seeds were damaged, the <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/svalbard-home-of-the-doomsday-vault-just-recorded-its-highest-ever-temperature" target="_blank">floodwater left an expensive repair bill</a> and tarnished the vault's reputation as impregnable to natural or manmade disasters.<span></span><br></p>The Heat Is On
<p>Warming in the islands has been underway for some time. Figures for 2017 show average temperatures are between 3-5℃ hotter than in 1971, according to the <a href="https://www.miljodirektoratet.no/globalassets/publikasjoner/M1242/M1242.pdf" target="_blank">Climate in Svalbard 2100</a> report, with the largest increases affecting the inner fjords.</p><p><span></span>Between 2071 and 2100, average temperatures throughout the archipelago will increase by between 7-10℃, the report predicts, shortening the snow season and causing loss of near-surface permafrost.</p><p><span></span>What's happening in Svalbard is symptomatic of wider changes impacting the Arctic expanse, which is <a href="https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2018/12/12/NOAA-Arctic-warming-at-twice-the-rate-of-the-rest-of-the-planet/5141544580754/" target="_blank">warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet</a>. Parts of the <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019GL082187" target="_blank">Canadian Arctic are thawing 70 years earlier than predicted</a>, scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks found, a sign that climate change could be happening faster than first thought.</p><p>As warmer-than-average summers destabilize permafrost, much of which has lain frozen for millennia, methane and other gases trapped in the ice could be released at scale, accelerating climate change. In turn, warmer temperatures would lead to further permafrost loss.<br><br>Melting ice, on land and at sea, <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/11-arctic-species-affected-climate-change" target="_blank">destroys animal habitats for species like polar bears and Arctic foxes</a>, which use their snowy white coats as camouflage either to hunt for food or avoid predators.</p><p>Climate scientist Dr Boris K Biskaborn of the Alfred Wegener Institute polar and marine research centre found Arctic continuous permafrost ground temperatures increased by 0.39℃ between 2008 and 2016. A similar trend was found in Antarctica, with increases of 0.29℃ over the same period.</p><p><span></span>Warming ground temperatures are an indication of the extent of climate change. Biskaborn predicts melting permafrost could lead to increased Arctic air temperatures of up to 0.27℃ by 2100.</p><p><span></span>Svalbard's seed bank exists to protect the world's most valuable natural resources from catastrophe. If we want to avoid making multiple withdrawals, tackling the underlying causes of climate change is a priority.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/svalbard-seed-vault-arctic-climate-change/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>. </em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
- t Trust the Permafrost Anymore': Doomsday Vault at Risk in Norway ›
- California Sees Record Heat, Rolling Blackouts and a 'Firenado' - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Arctic sea ice in the Denmark Strait on the east coast of Greenland. NASA
The records of Greenland's ice melt date back to 1948 and nothing in that record compares to what happened in 2019. The amount of ice lost was more than double what it has been any year since 2013. The net ice loss in 2019 clocked in at more than 530 billion metric tons for 2019. To put that in context, that's as if seven Olympic-sized swimming pools were dumped into the ocean every second of the year, according to The Guardian.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The new study, which used NASA satellite data to measure the size of Greenland's ice, found that in July alone, Greenland lost 223 billion tons of ice. That means for that one month, it lost what it normally loses in an entire year, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/climate/greenland-ice-loss-climate-change.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>The study was published Thursday in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-0010-1,"><em>Communications Earth and Environment</em></a>. It follows a trend of troubling news coming out of Greenland. Another new study published in the same journal found that even if the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> stopped today, Greenland's ice sheet is so diminished it will never recover, as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-2647005347.html">EcoWatch</a> reported earlier this week. That study found the ice is retreating in rapid bursts and may portend an ominous revision of predictions of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise">sea level rise</a>.</p>
<p>This new study also spells trouble for coastal cities as it may force scientists to revise their predictions to match the accelerated pace of ice melt, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-arctic/greenlands-ice-sheet-saw-record-mass-loss-in-2019-study-finds-idUSKBN25G1RM" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported. The island's ice sheet holds enough water to raise sea levels by 20 feet, or six meters, if it were to melt away completely.</p><p>"We are likely on the path of accelerated sea level rise," said Ingo Sasgen, a glaciologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and co-author of the study, to Reuters. "More melting of the ice sheet is not compensated by periods when we have extreme snowfall.</p><p>"What this shows is that the ice sheet is not only out of balance but it's increasingly likely to produce more and more extreme loss years," he added, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/20/weather/greenland-ice-sheet-melt-climate-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>Sasgen noted that 2010 and 2012 were also years with massive amounts of melting and he expects more are in the not-too-distant future.</p>
<p>"The real message is that the ice sheet is strongly out of balance," Sasgen said, as The Guardian reported. "If we look at the record melt years, the top five occurred in the last 10 years, and that is a concern. But we know what to do about it: reduce CO2 emissions."</p><p>Greenland's ice sheet is the second largest in the world, behind Antarctica's. CNN notes that the amount of ice it loses everywhere will start to increase sea level beyond the one millimeter it adds annually, pointing out that planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions are the culprit. And all that warming is creating a dangerous feedback loop.</p><p>"This extreme melt kicks off feedbacks that may accelerate the mass loss. This is what is worrying, the extremes are increasing and we understand too little about how the ice sheet will respond to more extreme climate variability," Sasgen said, as CNN reported.</p>
<p>The amount of melting that's happening means trouble for the hundreds of millions of people that live along coastlines, but there is still time for them to retreat inland. The ice sheet will likely not melt entirely since the rate of melt tends to slow down as the ice retreats from warmer <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans">ocean</a> waters. Furthermore, the centuries it will take to melt completely gives us some time to reverse course on emissions, according to The Guardian.</p><p>"If we reduce CO2, we will reduce Arctic warming and we will therefore also reduce the sea level rise contribution from the Greenland ice sheet," Sasgen said, as The Guardian reported. "So even though it might eventually disappear in large part, it happens much slower, which would be better as it would allow more time for the 600 million people living near coasts to move away."</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Greenland Ice Sheet Melt Creates Huge Waterfalls, Increasing ... ›
- Record Shrinking of Greenland's Ice Sheet Raises Sea Levels ... ›
- 92 Percent of Greenland's Residents Believe Climate Change Is ... ›
- Photo of Greenland Sled Dog Teams Walking on Melted Water Goes ... ›
- Greenland Temps Soar 40 Degrees Above Normal, Record Melting ... ›
- Earth Has Lost Over 30 Trillion Tons of Ice in Under 30 Years, Scientists 'Stunned' by Landmark Study - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Trending
A couple react as they go through their destroyed mobile home following Hurricane Laura in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on August 27, 2020. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / Getty Images
By Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope
In this autumn of horrific fires and deadly floods, it's easy to overlook one bit of promising news on the climate front: Some major U.S. media coverage of the crisis is finally getting better.
<p>We're seeing the evidence this week as Covering Climate Now—a collaboration of four hundred-plus news outlets, with a combined audience of two billion people—publishes and broadcasts a profusion of stories about climate change and the 2020 U.S. elections. Climate change has been largely overlooked in general-election coverage to date, with one exception: September 14, when Donald Trump said of California's record wildfires, inaccurately, that "science doesn't know" whether the earth will keep getting hotter and his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, warned that re-electing a "climate arsonist" to the White House would ensure worse blazes in the future.</p><p>Covering Climate Now's <a href="https://www.coveringclimatenow.org/coverage-week-2020" target="_blank">week of coverage</a>, which runs September 21 through 28, aims to give climate change the attention it deserves. The collaborative, co-founded last year by CJR and <em>The Nation </em>in association with <em>The Guardian</em>, aims to help news organizations increase and improve coverage of the crisis as well as its solutions. Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the looming Supreme Court battle, and the other huge news stories of 2020, "the climate emergency remains the central question facing the world," United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said in <a href="https://www.coveringclimatenow.org/climate-beat/hnmqv7o1aw1lq9l8aj007y2inrssvn" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a September 8 interview with Covering Climate Now</a>. As Justin Worland wrote in a landmark <a href="https://time.com/5864692/climate-change-defining-moment/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">special issue of <em>Time</em> magazine</a> on July 7, the U.S. elections will shape whether we "keep driving off the climate cliff or take the last exit."</p>
<p>NBC News, which joined Covering Climate Now in April, kicked off this current week of joint coverage by launching a new series, Planet 2020. Al Roker, the network's chief climate correspondent and long-time weather forecaster, has been talking about climate change on the <em>Today</em> show for months, describing its links to wildfires and hurricanes without wiggle words or alarmism. Now, Roker and cohost Savannah Sellers, the host of NBC's daily digital news show <em>Stay Tuned</em>, are connecting the dots between extreme weather, climate change, and the 2020 elections where, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXMlFFY9uEI" target="_blank">as Sellers reported</a>, "millennials and Gen-Z will make up 37 percent of eligible voters and concern over climate change is … shaping up to be more important to all voting blocs than ever before." Also this week, our partners at Reuters and Agence France Presse delivered a story to their thousands of newsroom clients around the world that <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/richest-1-emissions-twice-poorest-001208383.html" target="_blank">puts the Paris Agreement goals in a new light</a>, reporting, "The richest one percent of people are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the poorest half of the world's population."</p><p>Good climate coverage by Covering Climate Now partners is begetting good climate coverage among the media as a whole. More of America's leading newspapers are speaking more loudly and plainly about climate change, notably <em>The New York Times</em>, the <em>Washington Post</em>, the <em>Philadelphia Inquirer</em>, the <em>Arizona Republic</em>, and the <em>Los Angeles Times</em>. The latter headlined a September 14 <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/newsletter/2020-09-14/climate-change-wildfires-california-oregon-washington-todays-headlines/" target="_blank">story about the state's wildfires</a> "A Climate Apocalypse Now." Among magazines, Bloomberg has launched a new digital outlet and accompanying print edition, <em>Bloomberg Green</em>, that is a must-read for the far-reaching economic aspects of the climate story.</p>
<p>On television, Covering Climate Now partner PBS NewsHour continues to set the pace for sustained, informed climate coverage. And on August 8, CNN rebroadcast climate correspondent Bill Weir's "<a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2008/08/csr.01.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Road to Change</a>," a documentary that <a href="https://www.cjr.org/covering_climate_now/cnn-road-to-change-climate-crisis.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">we praised in April</a> as perhaps the best piece of climate journalism ever done by a mainstream US news outlet. </p><p>The problem is, these and other examples of first-rate climate coverage remain the exception.</p><p>Despite recent orange skies over the West Coast and fearsome storm surges in the Gulf of Mexico, not to mention the 32 years since NASA scientist James Hansen's U.S. Senate testimony that man-made global warming had begun, the climate crisis remains a marginal afterthought in most U.S. news coverage. Chris Wallace of Fox News has announced that he will not even raise the subject of climate change when moderating the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden next week.</p>
<p>And consider the scandalous absence of climate change from most coverage of the wildfires, Hurricane Laura, the Iowa derecho, and countless other extreme weather events of 2020. Only one of the ninety-three news segments that ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, and MSNBC aired during the week after Laura slammed the Louisiana coast connected the storm to climate change, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/broadcast-and-cable-news-coverage-hurricane-laura-was-shallow-and" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to a study</a> by the watchdog group Media Matters. Of forty-six segments ABC, NBC, and CBS aired on the California wildfires, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">only seven mentioned climate change. </a></p><p>This is media malpractice. It is also, from a business point of view, foolish: the public actually <a href="https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2020/9/17/voters-want-to-see-more-climate-coverage-in-the-media" target="_blank">wants more, not less</a>, climate coverage. According to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/23/us-voters-climate-change-guardian-vice-poll" target="_blank">a poll released today</a> by our partners at <em>The</em> <em>Guardian</em> and VICE Media, 74 percent of likely voters want the moderators to ask climate questions at the upcoming presidential debates.</p><p><span></span>We are heartened by the progress Covering Climate Now has made in helping the media rise to the existential challenge of the climate crisis. Yet even as we celebrate that progress this week, we recognize how far there is to go, and how little time we have to get there. The first presidential debate takes place on September 29, and five weeks later is Election Day. Between now and then, newsrooms should <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-planet-is-on-a-fast-path-to-destruction-the-media-must-cover-this-like-its-the-only-story-that-matters/2018/10/08/f806a7f0-caea-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede_story.html" target="_blank">follow the advice</a> of <em>Washington Post</em> media columnist Margaret Sullivan: "This subject must be kept front and center, with the pressure on and the stakes made abundantly clear at every turn."</p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in <a href="https://www.cjr.org/" target="_blank">Columbia Journalism Review</a><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2647788050#/" target="_self"></a> </em><em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Media Avoid Climate Change in Wildfire and Extreme Weather ... ›
- 'Call It a Crisis': Report Details Failure of Cable and Network Outlets ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Arctic sea ice is photographed in 2011 during NASA's ICESCAPE mission, a shipborne investigation to study how changing conditions in the Arctic affect the ocean's chemistry and ecosystems. Kathryn Hansen / NASA
A recent Science Magazine feature blamed an underwater heat blob for exacerbating sea ice loss as it proclaimed what many Arctic scientists already know: Arctic sea ice is racing toward its demise.
<p>Even without the blob, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/earth-sea-ice-melt-study-2647072206.html" target="_self">ice levels were already catastrophically low</a>.</p><p>"There can be little doubt that the vast majority of Earth's ice loss is a direct consequence of climate warming," UK scientists from Leeds and Edinburgh universities and University College London researching the massive ice loss wrote in their <a href="https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2020-232/" target="_blank">review paper,</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/23/earth-lost-28-trillion-tonnes-ice-30-years-global-warming" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>One study from the University of Copenhagen determined that Arctic sea ice is melting faster than <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate</a> models had predicted because they use a "slow and steady" temperature increase model for the Arctic, but warming is actually happening at a more rapid pace, reported <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/arctic-sea-ice-melting-faster-than-forecast-01597759205" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Barron's</a>. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/arctic-wildfires-climate-crisis-2646355896.html" target="_self">The Arctic is warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the globe</a>, a different study found, and this is speeding sea ice loss.<span></span></p><p>"We have been clearly underestimating the rate of temperature increases in the atmosphere nearest to the sea level, which has ultimately caused sea ice to disappear faster than we had anticipated," University of Copenhagen professor and researcher Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen told <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/arctic-sea-ice-melting-faster-than-forecast-01597759205" target="_blank">Barron's</a>.</p>
<p>The last time the Arctic Ocean saw such unusually high temperatures was during the previous ice age, Barron's reported. Christensen warned that scientists had yet to realize the significance of this steep temperature rise, <a href="https://www.futurity.org/arctic-sea-ice-temperature-climate-change-2424682-2/" target="_blank">Futurity</a> reported.<br></p><p>"We have looked at the climate models analyzed and assessed by the UN Climate Panel. Only those models based on the worst-case scenario, with the highest carbon dioxide emissions, come close to what our temperature measurements show over the past 40 years, from 1979 to today," Christensen told Futurity.</p><p>A third set of researchers also recently determined that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-2647005347.html" target="_self">Greenland's ice sheet has reached the "point of no return,</a>" and that it would continue to shrink even if global warming were to end today, <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/arctic-sea-ice-melting-faster-than-forecast-01597759205" target="_blank">Barron's</a> reported.</p><p>None of this bodes well for the sea ice. September is when the ice usually reaches its annual minimum, and this year's extent is scheduled to be among the lowest on record, <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/growing-underwater-heat-blob-speeds-demise-arctic-sea-ice" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Science Magazine</a> reported. The sum of this evidence has led some <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/arctic-sea-ice-melt-2035-2646947902.html" target="_self">scientists to posture a total loss of Arctic sea ice by 2035</a>.</p>
<p>"It's definitely a when, not an if," Alek Petty, a polar scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, told <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/growing-underwater-heat-blob-speeds-demise-arctic-sea-ice" target="_blank">Science Magazine</a>.<span></span></p><p>Unfortunately, many of these dire predictions do not take into account what's happening below the water's surface, where a heat blob is melting sea ice from below as the warmer climate assails it from above.<br></p><p>The Arctic Ocean enjoys an "unusual temperature inversion" where deeper water is warmer than surface waters, according to Science Magazine. Chilly winter air and buoyant, cold freshwater coming off the Eurasian continent help to keep the ice's surface cold and the underside from melting under the sun, Science Magazine explained.</p><p>The warmer, saltier Atlantic Ocean water congregates in a deep heat blob that was presumed "safely separated" from the sea ice, but a recent study published in the <a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/jcli/article/33/18/8107/353233/Weakening-of-Cold-Halocline-Layer-Exposes-Sea-Ice" target="_blank">Journal of Climate</a> found that the blob is growing, migrating vertically, and melting the ice from below.</p>
<p>The study found that as brighter, reflective sea ice melts, darker water flows in to take its place. That water then absorbs more heat and sinks down to the blob, where it causes the blob to grow and warm even further.</p><p>Measurements indicated that the blob, usually found 150 meters below the sea ice or deeper, has moved up to within 80 meters of the surface. Water turbulence can then cause some of that blob heat to reach the sea ice and melt it, Igor Polyakov, an oceanographer at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, told Science Magazine.</p><p>"This heat has become, regionally, the key forcing for sea ice decay," Polyakov said.</p><p>Scientists now think the blob has enough heat to melt the Arctic's ice three to four times over, and estimate that it could "devour the ice from below" if the blob ever reaches the surface sea ice, Science Magazine reported.</p>
<p>The process is called "<a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020GL088036" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Atlantification,</a>" and has already been observed in the Barents Sea north of Norway, where warm Atlantic waters have risen up to melt sea ice from below, even during cold winter months, according to Science Magazine and a study published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0772-6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change</a>. Scientists expect Atlantification to continue to decimate sea ice throughout the Arctic as the heat blob grows and rises.</p><p>The downstream effect of this massive melt would be felt in ways that are still unknown. Previous studies have linked Arctic ice loss to a number of different global phenomena, such as <a href="https://earthsky.org/earth/arctic-ice-melt-changing-major-ocean-current-beaufort-gyre" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">changing ocean currents</a> and <a href="https://sfist.com/2020/01/27/new-study-finds-direct-link-between-melting-arctic-ice-and-extreme-weather-in-california/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">extreme weather in California</a>.</p>
<p><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
- Why California Droughts Could Increase Due to Arctic Sea Ice Loss ... ›
- Arctic Sea Ice Melting by 2035 Is Possible, Study Finds - EcoWatch ›
- Strongest, Oldest Arctic Sea Ice Breaks Up for First Time on Record ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Trending
A mostly empty 110 freeway toward downtown Los Angeles, California on April 28, 2020. Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The shelter in place orders that brought clean skies to some of the world's most polluted cities and saw greenhouse gas emissions plummet were just a temporary relief that provided an illusory benefit to the long-term consequences of the climate crisis. According to new research, the COVID-19 lockdowns will have a "neglible" impact on global warming, as Newshub in New Zealand reported.
<p>The severe measures that were taken on a global scale to stem the tide of the novel coronavirus pandemic did curb pollution in the atmosphere, but the researchers found the impact will cut global heating by just 0.01 degrees Celsius by 2030, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/07/covid-19-lockdown-will-have-negligible-impact-on-climate-crisis-study" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>"The direct effect of the pandemic-driven [lockdown] will be negligible," said the researchers, whose analysis was led by Piers Forster at the University of Leeds in the UK, as The Guardian reported. "In contrast, with an economic recovery tilted towards green stimulus and reductions in fossil fuel investments, it is possible to avoid future warming of 0.3C by 2050."</p>
<p>The study was published in <em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0883-0" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change</a></em>. To figure out the impact of the lockdowns, the researchers looked at mobility data from Google and Apple in 123 countries that covers 99 percent of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> emissions. The information gives real-time information on travel and work patterns, which allows researchers to use advanced computations to estimate emissions levels, according to The Guardian.</p><p>Professor Keith Shine, at the University of Reading and not part of the study team, told The Guardian: "It is deeply impressive to get such a near-real-time analysis of the climate impact [of the lockdowns]."</p><p>What they found was that emissions from people using transportation was at its lowest in April, with nitrogen oxide levels falling by 30 percent and carbon dioxide levels dropping by 25 percent, according to Newshub.</p>
<p>Professor Dave Reay, chair of carbon management at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the study, told Newshub that the results are not surprising "given the long lifetime of carbon dioxide and the massive pool of fossil carbon already swilling around in our atmosphere."</p><p>The declines show that swift and decisive changes in how people behave have the potential to dramatically impact the environment in the short term. That was evident in the cleaner skies and the suddenly visible animals in Venice's canals and the streets of various cities. In Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, air quality improved so much that NASA satellite imagery showed the average density of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide – a toxic chemical that reduces immunity – dropped significantly below normal levels, as Newshub reported.</p>
<p>Of course, those lockdowns came with a steep economic price as people were put out of work and supply chains and distribution were severely disrupted. In other words, lockdowns of that scale are so damaging that they are impossible to maintain. Furthermore, once the lockdowns lifted, emissions levels started to rise again. That phenomenon means the world needs to transition to a zero-emissions economy by investing in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable energy</a> and burying CO2, according to the researchers, as The Guardian reported.</p><p>"It is now make or break for the 1.5 Celsius target," said Forster, as The Guardian reported. "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to really change the direction of society. We do not have to go back to where we were, because times of crisis are also the time to change."</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Coronavirus Lockdown Linked to Falling Air Pollution Levels in Italy ... ›
- Greenhouse Gas Emissions Set for Record Decline Due to ... ›
- Coronavirus Lockdowns Led to Record 17% Emissions Drop ... ›
- India's Air Pollution Plummets in COVID-19 Lockdown - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
More than 1,000 people were told to evacuate their homes when a wildfire ignited in the foothills west of Denver Monday, Colorado Public Radio reported.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The Elephant Butte Fire sparked in Evergreen, Colorado around 2:30 p.m., <a href="https://kdvr.com/news/local/elephant-butte-fire-in-evergreen-what-we-know/" target="_blank">KDVR reported</a>. As of Tuesday morning, it had spread to 50 acres and was zero percent contained, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office tweeted.</p>
<div id="ee717" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c382c3bf5156f3c108c5b46303ead1d1"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1283030707460354051" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Day 2 Update on the #ElephantButteFire Fire is still at 50 acres in size with zero containment. No evacuation order… https://t.co/1BF7UMdl6f</div> — Jeffco Sheriff (@Jeffco Sheriff)<a href="https://twitter.com/jeffcosheriffco/statuses/1283030707460354051">1594733332.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>One of the families forced to evacuate Monday told <a href="https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/07/13/elephant-butte-fire-lincoln-family/" target="_blank">CBS4</a> the land they fled had been in the family for 100 years.</p><p>"It's completely made out of wood. It's a 104-year-old house. I've lived there all my life," teenager Aidan Lincoln told CBS4. "It's been there since before my dad was born. It means a lot to my family."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Right now we’re at 700 homes evacuated in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ElephantButte?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ElephantButte</a> fire in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Evergreen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Evergreen</a>. I talked with a 17 year old who was in tears believing his family home has gone up.<br>Latest on <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSDenver?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CBSDenver</a> <a href="https://t.co/EAhaVawPN4">pic.twitter.com/EAhaVawPN4</a></p>— Alan Gionet (@AlanGTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlanGTV/status/1282824359397208067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 13, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Lincoln feared the family home had caught fire, but the sheriff's office says no homes have been lost. Fire officials also said no one had been injured as of 6:30 p.m. Monday, <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2020/07/13/evergreen-wildfire-elephant-butte-fire/" target="_blank">The Denver Post reported</a>.</p><p>The fire is burning in the Upper Bear Creek Road and Overlook Trail area, according to Evergreen Fire Rescue. The evacuation area initially covered a five-mile radius and around 250 homes but was later increased to cover around 1,000 homes. The Elk Meadow and Alderfer/Three Sisters parks were also both closed because of the blaze.</p>
<div id="e2b09" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e665c6f540754d83a6eb94ba8f6e04fa"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1282818933762875393" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Elk Meadow and Alderfer/Three Sisters Parks are both CLOSED due to the #elephantbuttefire #jeffco @efr_co https://t.co/nyHki32PjB</div> — Jeffco Sheriff (@Jeffco Sheriff)<a href="https://twitter.com/jeffcosheriffco/statuses/1282818933762875393">1594682842.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>There were more than 100 people fighting the fire Monday and at least three air tankers and several helicopters, Colorado Public Radio reported.</p>
<div id="ab90e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d20a60932bf9aa3d5c9336d1c31edb57"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1282863366071914496" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Though these images were taken about an hour ago, they give you a different perspective of what the… https://t.co/Rcvn7TtlCQ</div> — Jeffco Sheriff (@Jeffco Sheriff)<a href="https://twitter.com/jeffcosheriffco/statuses/1282863366071914496">1594693435.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Monday's weather made battling the flames more difficult. Firefighters on the ground had to pause in their efforts a little before 7 p.m. Monday because of lightning in the area, and wind pushed the fire up into the treetops of one ridge. There was a little rainfall, but it proved disappointing.</p><p>"Unfortunately the rain didn't help as much as we hoped," the sheriff's office wrote on Facebook, as Colorado Public Radio reported.</p><p>Conditions are expected to be more favorable Tuesday because of a cold front, KDVR reported.</p><p>The immediate cause of the fire is under investigation, according to The Denver Post. However, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> has helped to increase the size and frequency of wildfires in the Western U.S. Of the more than 40,000 fires that burned from Colorado to California between 1950 and 2017, 61 percent ignited in the last two decades, according to the <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/blog/2830/six-trends-to-know-about-fire-season-in-the-western-us/" target="_blank">National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)</a>. At the same time, global temperatures have gotten hotter, encouraging ideal fire conditions like high temperatures and dry air.</p><p>"Those fire conditions all fall under weather and climate," NASA Langley Research Center wildfire expert Amber Soja said. "The weather will change as Earth warms, and we're seeing that happen."</p><p>Before the Elephant Butte Fire ignited, Jefferson County had implemented a burn ban because of hot, dry weather, Colorado Public Radio reported.</p>
<p><em>Correction: An earlier version of this article attributed a quote to the sheriff's office on Twitter. The quote was posted on Facebook.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
- 29 Wildfires Blaze Across the West, Fueled by Drought and Wind ... ›
- Large Wildfires Scorch Forests in Drought-Stricken Southwest ... ›
- Colorado Battles Largest Wildfire in State History - EcoWatch ›
- Colorado Wildfire Grows by 6,000 Acres an Hour - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
The Qamutik cargo ship on July 28, 2020 in Canada's Nunavut province, where two ice caps have disappeared completely. Fiona Paton / Flickr
Three years ago, scientists predicted it would happen. Now, new NASA satellite imagery confirms it's true: two ice caps in Canada's Nunavut province have disappeared completely, providing more visual evidence of the rapid warming happening near the poles, as CTV News in Canada reported.
<p>According to <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/a-pair-of-canadian-ice-caps-has-disappeared-completely-1844592208" target="_blank">Gizmodo</a>, scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) <a href="https://nsidc.org/news/newsroom/st-patrick-bay-ice-caps-canada-have-completely-disappeared" target="_blank">said</a> last week that the St. Patrick Bay ice caps in the northeastern Ellesmere Island are nowhere to be seen on satellite imagery. The revelation that the ice caps have disappeared came sooner than scientists had expected.</p><p>"I can't say I was terribly surprised because we knew they were going, but it has happened really fast," Mark Serreze, director of NSIDC in Colorado, told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/05/weather/st-patrick-bay-ice-caps-climate-change-trnd-scn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>. Serreze co-authored a <a href="https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/11/169/2017/" target="_blank">paper</a> in 2017 estimating the ice caps would be gone within five years.</p>
<p>"When I first visited those ice caps, they seemed like such a permanent fixture of the landscape," said Serreze, in a <a href="https://nsidc.org/news/newsroom/st-patrick-bay-ice-caps-canada-have-completely-disappeared" target="_blank">statement</a>. "To watch them die in less than 40 years just blows me away."<br></p><p>The very hot temperatures in the summer of 2015 reduced the longevity of the St. Patrick's Bay ice caps. "You could really see they got hit. But that heat has really just not stopped. It's just getting too warm," Serreze told CNN.</p>
<p>This year has been especially tough on the region. Recent months have been plagued by heatwaves and wildfires across the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic">Arctic</a>, as Gizmodo reported. The extreme heat likely contributed to the melting of the ice caps. Research has found that summers in the region haven't been this warm in 115,000 years.</p><p>According to CNN, the nearby glaciers that sit at a higher elevation have been shrinking significantly as well.</p><p>"I'll make another prediction that they're gone in a decade," Serreze said to CNN.</p><p>Similar to scientists who <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/icelandic-glacier-monument-2639301498.html" target="_self">mourned a lost glacier in Iceland</a> and a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/swiss-alps-pizol-glacier-funeral-2640547054.html" target="_self">funeral in Switzerland</a> held for a glacier, Serreze has felt the impact of losing these two ice caps.</p><p>"We've long known that as climate change takes hold, the effects would be especially pronounced in the Arctic," Serreze explained, as CTV News reported. "But the death of those two little caps that I once knew so well has made climate change very personal. All that's left are some photographs and a lot of memories."</p><p>Serreze first visited the ice caps in 1982 and has been studying them ever since, according to Gizmodo.</p>
<p>The melted ice caps were one half of a group of small ice caps on the Hazen Plateau, which formed during the Little Ice Age several centuries ago, according to the NSIDC.<br></p><p>Serreze told CNN that the small ice caps in the Arctic are clear indicators of the effects of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>"There's something called 'Arctic amplification,' which refers to the observation – not the theory – that the Arctic is warming up at a much faster rate than the rest of the globe, anywhere from two to four times faster," Serreze said.</p><p>Hotter heat waves and cold waves that are not as cold as they were in the past are contributing factors.</p><p>"We are starting to see all these things come together." Serreze told CNN, adding that the disappearance of the St. Patrick's Bay ice caps is "an exclamation point of what's happening in the Arctic."</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Climate Explained: What the World Was Like the Last Time Carbon ... ›
- Polar Bears Could Be Nearly Gone by 2100, Study Finds - EcoWatch ›
- Greenland's Ice Sheet Is Melting at Rate That Surpasses Scientists ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less