A great tit family and nest. Bak GiSeok / 500px / Getty Images
By Marlene Cimons
Most Europeans know the great tit as an adorable, likeable yellow-and-black songbird that shows up to their feeders in the winter. But there may be one thing they don't know. That cute, fluffy bird can be a relentless killer.
The great tit's aggression can emerge in gruesome ways when it feels threatened by the pied flycatcher, a bird that spends most of the year in Africa, but migrates to Europe in the spring to breed. When flycatchers arrive at their European breeding grounds, they head for great tit territory, knowing that great tits—being year-round European residents—know the best nesting sites.
<p>"They want to breed at a high-quality site, so taking over a great tit nest is an ideal shortcut to a high-quality breeding site," said biologist Jelmer Samplonius, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh who studied their interactions for his doctoral thesis at the University of Groningen. "However, this can go horribly wrong, because if the great tit is home, or comes home while the pied flycatcher tries to take over, the pied flycatcher will pay dearly—with its life in some cases."</p><p>Usually, flycatchers breed a couple of weeks after great tits, but lately, nasty clashes between these natural enemies are accelerating, because of an overlap in their breeding periods due to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTEwNDIxMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMzM3OTg0NH0.aS0UUC2C1_YBOQZH5Q-EjhrqXwm-7BS6K572fN7iKWY/img.jpg?width=980" id="59ce7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="30ce4b27a4752dc7ba93e52567e73fb2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Jelmer Samplonius holds a pied flycatcher. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/189686.php" target="_blank">Rob Buiter</a> / Current Biology</small></p><p>Pied flycatchers produce offspring when there is an abundance of caterpillars, their preferred food. Caterpillars are most bountiful when the first leaves appear on trees, and trees are leafing sooner because climate change is causing spring to <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/with-shorter-winters-plants-bloom-early-and-die-young-a281b8b0fe0e" target="_blank">arrive earlier</a>. This, in turn, has led flycatchers to migrate sooner, arriving while the great tits are hanging around. At the same time, climate change has produced milder winters, allowing more tits to survive until spring. The greater number of tits is giving rise to more potential murders, as "more great tits means more competition for the flycatchers," Samplonius said.<br></p><p style="">Scientists saw "huge differences" in the number of victims over the years. In some years, nearly 10 percent of the flycatcher males died in great tit nests, while, in other years, there were none. "We found that, in areas and years with high tit densities, after warmer winters there were more flycatcher victims," he said.</p><p style="">Across the board, climate change has been <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/birds-are-changing-their-tune-f83efddd6c56" target="_blank">causing shifts</a> in the migratory patterns of many species, threatening their ability to feed and nurture their offspring. Rising temperatures are also <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/climate-change-is-shrinking-sparrows-e73946359c3" target="_blank">limiting</a> the growth and development of young birds, with some species shrinking in size. Samplonius's <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822%2818%2931593-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982218315938%3Fshowall%3Dtrue" target="_blank">study</a>, published recently in the journal Current Biology, suggests it also is causing more competition for resources—and a higher body count.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTEwNDIxNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDg4MjY5OX0.dSV7ZvYXT4-KJ1qCLan7UQmZDFt-gRYtS26LAAhRlsU/img.jpg?width=980" id="f7111" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="351195c7300ea10e987823b762b15e72" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A pied flycatcher</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/43272765@N04/31942316284" target="_blank">gailhampshire</a> / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank">CC BY 2.0</a></small></p><p>While checking the great tit nest boxes used in his field studies, Samplonius found numerous dead flycatchers, suggesting they were trying to take over the territory. Although flycatchers—built for long distance travel—are more agile flyers, "when a flycatcher enters a box with a great tit inside, it doesn't stand a chance, as great tits are heavier [and] have very strong claws," he said.<br></p><p style="">The interaction can be quite ugly, as the tits also occasionally inflict grisly head wounds and then eat their victims' brains. But like flycatchers, they'd rather eat caterpillars. "We consider the brain-eating more a by-product of the aggressive interactions," Samplonius said. "In general, great tits are insectivorous."</p><p style="">During the breeding season specifically, most of their food consists of caterpillars, although they are only available for a short period during spring. When insects become scarce, great tits switch to beech nuts. "However, this does not mean great tits do not eat other, bigger <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/animals/">animals</a>," Samplonius said. "They are known to hunt bats occasionally, and also smaller birds in winter. However, we still consider this to be relatively rare behavior."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTEwNDIyMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjg1MjE1NH0.wTdLCOES1SlzpjpYvGyCQvyCAdITD4KdKzJLCeRXBnI/img.jpg?width=980" id="22ba3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9a7da415771b959801bfb789f8e4888f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A great tit preys on a pied flycatcher. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Maurice van Laar / Current Biology</small></p><p>Notably, scientists found that conflicts with great tits had no effect on the overall flycatcher population. "We noted that the males killed were usually those who arrived late in the season," he said. "These late birds quite often don't find a female to breed with, so that may explain why this behavior has no impact on the population."<br></p><p>Michael McGrann, a bird researcher who chairs William Jessup University's institute for <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity">biodiversity</a>—who was not involved in the study—said the findings didn't surprise him. Scientists, he said, have been worried that changing weather patterns "will cause residents and long-distance migrants to differ in how they shift their geographic ranges, and in how they adjust the seasonal timing of the onset of breeding behaviors," resulting in potential conflicts between species.</p><p>Wildlife ecologist Brett Furnas, senior environmental scientist in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> investigations laboratory, who was also not involved in the study, agreed. The study is "a great example of how the impacts of climate change will be complex and sometimes difficult to predict, because not all species will be affected the same way or at the same rate," he said. "It demonstrates how species are changing their behavior and interactions with each other in response to a changing climate. A better understanding of how some species benefit and others suffer can help us plan effective <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> efforts."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTEwNDIyNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjAxOTg4Mn0.Qj6G9ouFskDU7eBUQEk90SWgNLDcz6awF-T2PJnoGDI/img.jpg?width=980" id="b6da3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ea4e4db93e907ff64f295797f6c06eb2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A great tit</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_tit_side-on.jpg" target="_blank">Francis C. Franklin</a> / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/" target="_blank">CC-BY-SA-3.0</a></small></p><p>Simon Griffith, an avian scientist in Macquarie University's department of biologist sciences in Sydney, who also not involved in the study, lamented the death of migrating flycatchers. "It's both amazing and sad to think that these tiny flycatchers have migrated all the way [from] Africa back to Europe, ready to breed, to then succumb to the challenge of a great tit that has spent the winter in Europe, enduring the cold conditions there," he said.<br></p><p>Samplonius pointed out that the tit and the flycatcher likely are susceptible to the same instincts that drive other forces in nature, including people. "We know that in humans, climate change is considered a catalyst of conflict," he said. "Our study shows this may also be the case in birds."</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="59baf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="U1YYZR1576662274"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="988514671551430656" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">40% of the world's 11,000 bird species are in decline: "One in Eight Bird Species Threatened With Extinction, Study… https://t.co/CpVepHzDET</div> — Enviro. Media Assoc. (@Enviro. Media Assoc.)<a href="https://twitter.com/green4EMA/statuses/988514671551430656">1524515238.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/climate-change-leading-to-real-life-angry-birds-c8a33a4bbdd3" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em><br></p>
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Judita Juknele / EyeEm / Getty Images
By Marlene Cimons
German physician Alfred Buchwald had no clue that the chronic skin inflammation he described in 1883 was the first recorded case of a serious tick-carrying disease, one that would take hold in a small Connecticut town almost a century later and go on to afflict people across the U.S.
<p>Today we know a lot more than Buchwald did about <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/" target="_blank">Lyme disease</a>—that it is caused by a bacterium, <em>Borrelia burgdorferi</em>, and it is transmitted to humans by blacklegged ticks, and that it can cause untold misery for those infected. U.S. scientists first recognized the disease in the 1970s in <a href="http://lymediseaseguide.net/lyme-disease-history" target="_blank">Old Lyme</a>, Connecticut—hence the name. The condition starts with fever, headache, fatigue and a characteristic bullseye rash. Untreated, it can spread to the joints, the heart and nervous system producing long-lasting, debilitating symptoms. Early use of antibiotics is crucial.</p><p>About <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/humancases.html" target="_blank">300,000 Americans</a> are diagnosed annually with Lyme, with cases concentrated in the Northeast and upper Midwest, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The incidence of the disease has <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-lyme-disease" target="_blank">doubled</a> in the U.S. since 1991, according to the EPA. And it's about to get much worse, thanks to climate change.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgyMzI2My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NDQ2NTI4Nn0.j5IqpxU5ra2udB7_W0Tsh4pr9OsFfX6JzQmnv6EZ3h4/img.jpg?width=980" id="de60d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c3250996148020b4f64a952526f1e62c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A blacklegged tick. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Pixabay</small></p>
<p>"Warmer temperatures are making cold places suitable habitats for ticks, so new places are having Lyme disease cases, and endemic areas are having more cases than the average," said <a href="https://www.heinz.cmu.edu/faculty-research/profiles/severnini-edsonr" target="_blank">Edson Severnini</a>, assistant professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College, and co-author of a new <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/cjidmm/2018/5719081/" target="_blank">study</a> that predicts the incidence Lyme disease will rise around 21 percent by mid-century.<br></p><p>Climate change already has amplified the range of invasive insects that devour crops, <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/when-flood-waters-subside-termite-troubles-can-rise-1dc9b4afdb14" target="_blank">destroy homes</a> and <a href="https://climatenexus.org/climate-issues/health/climate-change-and-vector-borne-diseases/" target="_blank">spread disease</a>. "Tick-borne diseases are an important public health concern and the incidence of these infections is increasing in the Unites States and worldwide," said Igor Dumic, the study's lead author and a researcher at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science who has treated numerous Lyme patients. "Lyme disease is a classic example of the link between environmental factors and the occurrence and spread of disease."</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgyMzI2MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjU2MjU4NX0.9s9UIXk4oThhDydA8fj1J0uqwQga3NFlk7o9XF81NjE/img.jpg?width=980" id="36ddf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2199ed31ecb5ee431778c72200837d50" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Ticks typically reside in wooded areas. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Pixabay</small></p>
<p>Ticks spend most of their lives in environments where temperature and humidity directly affect their survival. For this reason, the EPA uses Lyme disease as an <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-lyme-disease" target="_blank">indicator</a> of climate change. Higher temperatures spur ticks to venture farther in search of hosts, such as deer, which are more plentiful after warmer winters. "The Lyme disease vector tick needs deer to complete its life cycle, so this means that more ticks will be completing their life cycle, and consequently the tick population will increase," Severnini said. "Also, as temperature rises, people may engage in more outdoor activities, increasing exposure to ticks."<br></p><p>The research, which appears in the Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology, examined the relationship between weather conditions and Lyme disease in 15 U.S. states. These states, located primarily in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, which make up 95 percent of all U.S. reported cases. The scientists used epidemiological data from the CDC and at meteorological data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgyMzI1OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTQxNTg0OX0.UqfQGRRkhFQ0mU9q7WDZV9_KyPViMQp7eX_-FNe1ht8/img.jpg?width=980" id="279a0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a24b423ec4f334bb04fec4af894ac568" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Warmer winters mean more deer, which host ticks. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Pixabay</small></p>
<p>Assuming the temperature will increase by 2 degrees Celsius by mid-century—the forecast of the <a href="https://science2017.globalchange.gov/" target="_blank">U.S. National Climate Assessment</a>—the U.S. will see 8.6 more cases of Lyme disease per 100,000 people annually. That is bad news, but governments can take steps to keep the disease in check, Severnini said.<br></p><p>"We need to educate people about how to look for ticks after going to wooded areas where ticks are abundant," he said. "Secondly, people and clinicians should be aware that just because ticks are not present is certain areas it doesn't mean that people aren't traveling to areas where ticks are present. For example, a resident of Arizona, where Lyme disease is rare, can acquire it while camping in Wisconsin and get symptoms upon returning to [his or her] home state of Arizona."</p><p>It's not just education, Severnini said. "We can also invest in the development of a Lyme vaccine, use insecticide and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acaricide" target="_blank">acaricidal</a> to decrease the tick population," he added. "Finally, we can prevent severe global warming."</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/climate-change-is-producing-a-surge-in-lyme-disease-851d979db9a6" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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By Marlene Cimons
Much of the deep sea has never been explored close-up by humans. Some submarines have plumbed its depths, but reaching the ocean bottom is a complicated and expensive journey, challenging because the seabed lies under more than three miles of water, which exerts huge amounts of pressure. "We know more about space than about the bottom of the oceans in our own planet, even though more than two-thirds of the surface of the Earth is covered by marine sediments," said Olivier Sulpis, a researcher and doctoral student at McGill University's department of earth and planetary sciences.
<p>Thus, "we hear less about the effects of human activity at the seafloor than on corals, for instance, simply because <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral_bleach.html" target="_blank">coral bleaching</a> sounds more appealing than mud dissolving at the bottom of the sea," he added. "When you think that before Google maps arrived, it took humans several centuries to map the continents, it's easy to understand why exploring the deep sea is so hard."</p><p>Nevertheless, he and his colleagues found a way to study it without actually going there. They recreated its environment in the lab, building little boxes filled with sediments overlain by sea water, keeping them in the dark. They duplicated sea water temperature and chemistry, as well as the composition of the sediment. By mimicking seabed conditions, "we don't need to go to the bottom of the sea to do measurements, and we save some time and energy." Sulpis said.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgxNTYwOC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNTMzNDU4M30.AzWd9w5FT9zkl43DiTV2fjAye18nKw6AYbchGiy9zpg/img.png?width=980" id="73e21" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="300fa1aff36cb01d8f76e0f7dbd28699" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Sulpis and his team studied ocean floor sediment from the middle of the North Atlantic. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Olivier Sulpis</small></p>
<p>What they found was worrisome. It has already been established that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/">climate change</a>—specifically atmospheric carbon dioxide emitted by fossil fuel burning—has been <a href="http://www.climatesignals.org/climate-signals/ocean-acidification-increase" target="_blank">acidifying</a> the oceans, <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/gardening-the-seas-to-save-the-worlds-corals-fa49379691e0" target="_blank">damaging</a> fragile coral reefs and <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/fish-are-losing-their-sense-of-smell-519e7d1fab5a" target="_blank">disturbing</a> vulnerable marine ecosystems. But the McGill scientists discovered that carbon dioxide also has begun to drift to the ocean bottom, dissolving the very materials that help put the brakes on acidification.<br></p><p>"Humans have become a geological force, and there is not a single part of the surface of our planet where we cannot find a trace of human activity," Sulpis said. "Paleoclimate scientists and Earth sciences students have heard and described many times past abrupt climate change and ocean acidification episodes, millions of years ago, that caused mass extinctions all around the world. These events were caused by meteoritic impacts, global wildfires, volcanic eruptions, etc. Today, it seems that we are at the dawn of one of these catastrophic events, and we don't need to look far to find the cause of it. Each one of us is the cause of it."</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgxNTU5OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODMyMjk2Mn0.T5ZfFtcypw6bpRJ6kKMtL0hX8RmdEuDQkl-_v6akHLE/img.jpg?width=980" id="78b64" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9fcb583cf73bcaf2d83e9e30f81b8b3a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A diver surveys coral bleaching.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stopadani/33764627036" target="_blank">The Ocean Agency</a></small></p>
<p>Normally, the seafloor is chalky white, largely made up of calcite formed from the skeletons and shells of planktonic organisms and corals. Calcite neutralizes carbon dioxide acidity, keeping seawater from becoming too acidic. But these days, at least in certain hotspots such as the North Atlantic and the southern oceans, the ocean's chalky bed is turning murky brown, the result of human activities that are causing carbon dioxide levels in the water to become too high and the water too acidic, according to new <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/10/23/1804250115" target="_blank">research</a> published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science<em>s</em>. Eventually, the researchers predicted, the calcite won't be able to keep pace with acidification, dissolving before it can do its job.<br></p><p>"The calcite at the bottom of the ocean is like a big anti-acid pill," Sulpis said. "It dissolves when there is too much CO2 and this neutralizes excess CO2 in the process. If the seafloor runs out of calcite, the ocean loses its anti-acid pill, and we could go towards a scary state of runaway ocean acidification."</p><p>The researchers measured how fast sediments dissolved when placed in boxes covered by seawater. "We did this for a few years, and eventually we realized that we understand this dissolution reaction well enough to describe it using simple mathematical equations," Sulpis explained. "If we know the chemical conditions and the sediment properties down there, we can compute the dissolution rate of calcite in these sediments. "</p><p>They used state-of-the-art ocean models, computing calcite dissolution rates across the seafloor. The experiments produced insights as to what controls calcite dissolution in marine sediments. By comparing pre-industrial and modern seafloor dissolution rates, they could determine how much of the total dissolution was caused by humans.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgxNTU3OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNzE2MjAxOH0.H3bHaqWQ6BA0lNCjuf-oPv-u2NaL0cpsk1NmfPOvkdk/img.jpg?width=980" id="91fff" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0aba0763c59b417660f33ac5ace763ed" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Seafloor of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis_Massif" target="_blank">Atlantis Massif</a> in the Atlantic Ocean. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."> <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Expl2236_-_Flickr_-_NOAA_Photo_Library.jpg" target="_blank">NOAA</a></small></p>
<p>Scientists know that calcite has historically helped de-acidify the ocean. "What is surprising and concerning, however, is that it is already happening now," Sulpis said. "Scientists thought it would take much longer before we start seeing some calcite dissolution at the seafloor that is caused by our CO2. We know how our climate works. We know how our oceans works, but what we are incapable of predicting is our society and how we will adapt our behavior to this changing world."<br></p><p>The findings have far-reaching implications. "Just as climate change isn't just about polar bears, ocean acidification isn't just about coral reefs," said David Trossman, now a research associate at the University of Texas-Austin and co-author of the study. "Our study shows that the effects of human activities have become evident all the way down to the seafloor in many regions, and the resulting increased acidification in these regions may impact our ability to understand Earth's climate history."</p><p>In future work, the researchers plan to study how dissolution likely will progress in the coming centuries. Since much of the carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels still remains on the ocean surface, it could take decades, possibly even centuries, for CO2 to drop down to the bottom of the ocean, the scientists said. So all isn't lost—at least not yet, he said.</p><p>"Luckily for us, there is a lot of calcite out there, and only so much fossil fuel we can burn," Sulpis said. "That doesn't mean we have the green light to pollute more—it simply means that the oceans will be there to clean our mess, should it take thousands of years…" Hopefully, he added, "by then we will likely have stopped burning some fossil fuel, either because we ran out or—a smarter option—because we would have developed alternative, renewable energies."</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/the-seafloor-is-disappearing-c95d52586100" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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Video: Freedom to Breathe Tour Bus Visits Communities Across the Country Working on Climate Solutions
07 November 2018
Climate
Nexus Media News / YouTube / screenshot
By Owen Agnew
Wildfires, sea level rise, air pollution, asthma—you don't have to go far to find communities living with climate change impacts. But there are also climate solutions everywhere you look. This summer, the Freedom to Breathe Tour visited communities across the country that are working to reduce carbon emissions and make their communities healthier and more resilient.
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<p>At Chispas Farm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, climate change figures into every planting decision. "The whole goal and why we grow so many crops, is this idea of resilience and diversity," farm manager Casey Holland said. "We grow over 120 different varieties of vegetables, mainly because, with a changing climate, some will do better than others."<br></p><p>Crop diversity is an important way farmers can adapt to climate variability, but many older crop varieties are being lost. In the U.S., <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2011/07/food-ark/" target="_blank">90 percent of the fruit and vegetable varieties</a> grown by farmers a century ago are no longer available. Seed banks can help keep older, traditional varieties readily available to farmers and communities. At Tesuque Pueblo outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where people have been <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/farming">farming</a> for more than 900 years, the pueblo's seed bank stores traditional varieties of corn, beans, squash, melons and other vegetables. Gailey Morgan, foreman at Tesuque Pueblo Farm, said the goal of the seed bank is to make locally sourced seeds available to the community. "We're here in the high desert, and we feel like our seeds are adapted to our environment here," Morgan said.</p><p>From locally-sourced seeds in New Mexico, the Freedom to Breathe Tour traveled to Nevada, where community members, politicians and businesses are working together to make <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar">solar</a> power available to everyone. Last year assemblyman Chris Brooks helped pass a state law bringing back net metering, which makes roof-top solar viable. "We're providing a democratization of energy production," Brooks said, "and that is so important to so many segments of society. Everyone should be able to participate in both making their own energy, creating high-paying good-quality jobs, but also being part of the solution as we fight climate change, instead of being part of the problem."</p><p>Residential solar company Sunrun is helping to make solar affordable in Nevada and elsewhere. They offer discounted electricity rates to low-income customers in Nevada, and in California, they've committed to installing 100MW of solar on affordable housing around the state in the next ten years.</p><p>The growth of solar and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind">wind</a> energy across the country means that the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions is no longer power generation—<a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions" target="_blank">it's transportation</a>. In California, where transportation accounts for <a href="https://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/inventory/data/data.htm" target="_blank">41 percent</a> of emissions, the state is investing heavily in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicles">EVs</a> and EV charging infrastructure, and plans to move to all electric buses by 2040. That includes school buses. With the help of state funds, school districts across the state are investing in electric school buses. For John Clements, a former district transportation director and a self-described electric bus evangelist, every bus is a mark of progress. "In my own school district, one in six students carried an inhaler to school. That's an example of what we're trying to change here," Clements said.</p><p>The move to electric school buses is just beginning—the leading manufacturer, Lion Electric, has <a href="https://insideevs.com/lion-logs-largest-electric-school-bus-order-in-north-america/" target="_blank">about 150 electric school buses</a> on the road across the country, and there are <a href="http://www.americanschoolbuscouncil.org/issues/environmental-benefits" target="_blank">almost 500,000</a> school buses nationwide. But many states are planning to devote some of their share of the $3 billion Volkswagen settlement money towards replacing diesel school buses, which means the number of zero-emission school buses will continue to rise.</p>
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<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/seed-by-seed-and-bus-by-bus-video-b509d6e2952e" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em><br></p>
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GLACIER: A Climate Change Ballet. Rob Cannon
By Jeremy Deaton
Eighteenth century French choreographer Jean-Georges Noverre once wrote, "A fine picture is but the image of nature; a finished ballet is nature herself." Noverre was arguing for the immediacy of dance. Twenty-first century American choreographer Diana Movius took his words literally.
<p>In <em>GLACIER: A Climate Change Ballet, </em>Movius depicts the slow melt of the Arctic with stirring dance and vivid multimedia accompaniment. In the spirit of Noverre, who revolutionized ballet through his focus on emotional honesty, Movius captures the pain and heartache lurking at the ends of the Earth.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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</p><p>"What does climate change feel like? It's mostly considered an analytical issue, something where you have to think far in the future," she said in an interview during the show's <a href="https://www.brava.org/all-events/glacier" target="_blank">September run</a> in San Francisco. "Is there a way that performance can make climate change into an immediate issue that you actually feel in your heart instead of know in your mind?"<br></p><p>A climate policy analyst by day and choreographer by night, Movius is well-suited to craft a ballet about the melting Arctic. Dancers clad in white mimic glaciers and ice floes as they crack, splinter and vanish into the sea. They leap and twirl to the music of Max Richter, David Lang and Andrew Thomas, while images of the melting Arctic, stitched together by artist Robin Bell, flash against the backdrop. <em>GLACIER </em>is now playing at <a href="http://www.danceloft14.org/dance-loft-events/2018/11/2/glacier-amp-rite-of-spring-crash-of-fall" target="_blank">Dance Loft on 14</a>, the Washington, DC dance studio Movius founded.</p><p>"The great thing about working with these dancers is they can really take an idea and make it their own, and they can tap into their own life experience and their own emotions," Movius said. She told members of her troupe, <a href="https://moveiuscontemporaryballet.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">MOVEIUS</a>, to imagine losing a loved one as they danced.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc5NDQ2MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0OTEzMzg3NH0.yBTikFR-NHaW5Jr5EbK_X2enIBQSEASS-NkoIraF4vs/img.jpg?width=980" id="03cf6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="77f81494ec524e7610a8035523a0a388" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">GLACIER: A Climate Change Ballet. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Rob Cannon</small></p><p>Movius premiered <em>GLACIER</em> in 2015. "I was looking for a way to translate climate change into dance," she said. "After watching several specials on the melting of polar ice caps and the different ways that ice responds to warming, I realized that you can actually translate the type of movement that ice makes in response to a warming world into dance.<br></p><p>"If you want to dance like a glacier, you have a lot of options," she said. "You could move really slowly. You could slowly disappear and try to fool the audience into thinking that you were some place, and now you're not. You could move really fast like meltwater. You could crack. You could float. There are lots of ways to translate that into movement."</p><p>Movius nearly falls into the same trap as other artists. Too many cast the steady rise in temperature as a threat to nature rather than an urgent danger for humans, one that will spark resource wars, mass migrations and political unrest. Or, worse yet, artists focus on the political controversy around climate change instead of its looming perils. Works featured at the recent <a href="https://www.globalclimateactionsummit.org/" target="_blank">Global Climate Action Summit</a> in San Francisco, for example, included a giant polar bear and a neon sign that read "Climate change is real."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc5NDQ1MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTQwNzIyOH0.t_qsnpPKmL4yeTcPreMkG5x9Erd5eBu1kcBCwuDFFlo/img.jpg?width=980" id="f19d9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cf3e4769edb4b0953e49fd1d39bc75f3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Artwork commissioned for the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, September, 2018. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Nexus Media</small></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc5NDQ1Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMTQzNTg3NX0.Sap_uxBotSYm7qmsiVazHrZELY_wSEzZlZBMANaJJDQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="aca0a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ad900093706ab2c4223051a8b071e4da" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Artwork commissioned for the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, September, 2018. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Nexus Media</small></p><p>Movius narrowly avoids these pitfalls. Yes, this is a story about nature—there is an extended scene featuring a polar bear—but <em>GLACIER</em> does more than deploy a few well-worn tropes about climate change. Dancers convey a sense of angst and agony as the world melts away.<br></p><p>"An audience member can come into the performance and leave having actually felt climate change," Movius said. "I think that's a sense of poignancy, of sadness, of watching something beautiful disappear."</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/how-to-dance-like-a-glacier-video-74c550107ed3" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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Pexels
By Marlene Cimons
The advantages of wind power are well-known. Wind is clean, plentiful and renewable. Installing turbines in large numbers could help wean our carbon-intensive civilization from its addiction to fossil fuels. New research suggests that one day there could be another major benefit: massive installations of wind turbines could lessen the deluge when powerful hurricanes bring devastating amounts of rain onto land. During such recent storms as Harvey and Florence—which brought historic levels of rainfall—this could have meant less flooding and destruction, and fewer deaths.
<p>"Offshore wind farms definitely could be a potential tool to weaken hurricanes and reduce their damage," said Cristina Archer, a professor in the University of Delaware's <a href="http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/" target="_blank">College of Earth, Ocean and Environment</a>, who conducted a recent <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aad245" target="_blank">study</a> published in the journal Environmental Research Letters<em> </em>describing the impact of offshore turbines on hurricane rainfall. "And they pay for themselves, ultimately, which is why I am excited about this."</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc5MDQ4OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNTA2ODY1Nn0.jz1TyCEeBvIyvlv04Ym1IVC1k66QVtI_D_LKdWQbq64/img.jpg?width=980" id="fad8a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3793a91f5a20347105565233bf4e27b5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Flooding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jill_carlson/36885910546" target="_blank">Jill Carlson</a></small></p>
<p>Climate change has been driving larger and more intense hurricanes in recent years. Evaporating sea water fuels hurricanes, whose strength depends on how rapidly water can evaporate from the ocean. When sea water evaporates, it transfers heat from the ocean to the atmosphere, which converts it into wind energy, creating stronger and stronger winds. As the temperature of the water goes up, so does the rate of evaporation—and so does the wind. The warmer the ocean, the faster the evaporation. And climate change is heating up the oceans at an ominous pace.<br></p><p>In earlier <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2120" target="_blank">research</a>, Archer demonstrated that offshore wind farms absorb kinetic energy from hurricanes, reducing the effects of wind and storm surge. Her latest study suggests that turbines might also decrease rainfall for onshore locations downstream from a wind farm—when deployed in very large numbers. "The motivation for this new study was basically Harvey itself," Archer said. "It dumped an incredible amount of rain, and it was the rain that actually caused the flooding in the Houston area."</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc5MDQ3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMjU1MTk3OH0.4qAkAVPcs680hnqwziWjjREEcDo_ofqzkQ8PQKqYxlA/img.jpg?width=980" id="529d5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="049dfa6ebf4599c2c5c415b4efee6c98" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Wind turbine in the clouds. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Pexels</small></p>
<p>To picture what happens when a hurricane meets a wind turbine—and how turbines can diminish rainfall—it's important to understand the two significant factors that influence precipitation, convergence and divergence. Strong hurricane winds slow down when they hit wind turbines, and move upward because they have no other place to go. This brings more moisture into the atmosphere, boosting rainfall. That is convergence.<br></p><p>Divergence is the opposite; it causes downward motion, attracting drier air that is moving downward, which suppresses precipitation.</p><p>"Think about convergence like when there's traffic on a freeway, and everybody is going fast and then—all of a sudden—there's an accident and everyone slows down," Archer explained. "You get a convergence of cars that backs up… That's the convergence upstream of the offshore wind farms. Divergence is similar to what happens when cars finally get past the accident and everybody speeds up."</p><p>Convergence and divergence occur naturally in many situations. "For example, wherever we have a low-pressure center—associated with storms in the mid latitudes—typically the surface winds converge towards it," Archer said. "Vice versa, wherever we have a high-pressure center, like during clear and warm weather, winds at the surface diverge out of it. When you have a change in land use, like from ocean to land, or from forest to pasture, this causes a change in the winds — deceleration from ocean to land, or acceleration from forest to grass -and thus you have convergence and divergence, respectively."</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc5MDQ3Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjE5NzQ2N30.WzCtnWzk2sHsDZO_NG_5b-d0qjX1GbSvDa3JN8yhcbA/img.jpg?width=980" id="177d1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3619f496fc4d059a5a5b4f08903a0e4e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Block Island wind farm — the only offshore wind farm in the U.S. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_Island_Wind_Farm#/media/File:P6290638m.jpg" target="_blank">Ionna22</a></small></p>
<p>Over a wind farm, the wind speed slows "because that's what turbines do," she said. "They extract kinetic energy from the wind, therefore the wind behind them, downstream of each turbine, is weaker than it was upstream. Put more and more turbines together in a large farm and you can imagine that you would start causing convergence ahead of the farm, before the winds hit the first turbines, and divergence past it, after the farm, where the winds accelerate again."<br></p><p>Therefore, in order to have precipitation, there must be upward motion to bring moisture-rich air near the surface into the atmosphere, where it condenses and causes rain. "To get upward motion near the surface, you need to have convergence," she said. Then, "to kill precipitation, you need downward motion, which is what happens when you have divergence at the surface. Obviously you also need a moisture-rich environment to start with. If you have convergence in the desert, no matter how strong, there will not be precipitation because it is too dry."</p><p>That's why the scientists studied the impact of offshore wind farms, rather than land-based ones, as hurricanes form over water and dissipate quickly once they reach land. "There is plenty of moisture [offshore], thus it was more likely that we would see an effect," she said. "We looked at hurricanes because they last long enough that the patterns of convergence/divergence can form and persist. If you think about it, a hurricane lasts for days and causes strong, steady winds from pretty much the same direction—from the ocean to the land."</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc5MDQ3MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NTUzMTcwN30.wKmMy8CQkeR5WGPDjEp7LfSuJ_ayrBMbwVRSOucgcMU/img.jpg?width=980" id="d0e0c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="80c9240d61252684fa4c2079b782a347" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Turbines off the shore of Block Island. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/departmentofenergy/32665999325" target="_blank">U.S. Dept. of Energy</a></small></p>
<p>One current drawback is that turbines often are now turned off during high winds. Archer said their computer simulations took the "cut-off" wind speed into consideration, which currently is 76 miles per hour for the Enercon 126, a German offshore wind turbine model. However, <a href="https://www.siemensgamesa.com/en-int/newsroom/2018/09/siemens-gamesa-tailors-sg-80-167-dd-for-asia-pacific-markets" target="_blank">manufacturers now are developing new turbines</a> that will withstand even stronger winds, such as those in hurricanes and typhoons, and these are expected to be on the market in 2020, she added.<br></p><p>The scientists used numerical computer simulations that covered the coast of Texas and Louisiana, examining what might have occurred in the presence of offshore wind farms during Harvey. They looked at a wide range of numbers of turbines, over different sized areas, and in a variety of layouts.</p><p>"By the time the air reaches the land, it's been squeezed out of a lot of moisture," Archer said. "We got a 30 percent reduction of the precipitation with the Harvey simulations. That means, potentially, if you have arrays of offshore turbines in an area where there are hurricanes, you will likely see a reduction in precipitation inland…"</p><p>The study used hypothetical turbines ranging from a control case of zero turbines to a maximum of 74,619, a number currently unrealistic for the U.S., she said. Unlike Europe—where there are more than 100 offshore wind turbines—the U.S. only has five, all part of the nation's first and only <a href="http://dwwind.com/project/block-island-wind-farm/" target="_blank">offshore wind farm</a> located on Block Island, off the coast of Rhode Island.</p><p>The largest configuration had 74,000 and the smallest 22,000, she said. "So these are high numbers by all means," she said. "By comparison, there are about 300,000 turbines in the world today."</p><p>Although she believes the more turbines the better, the scientists found the found positive effects even using fewer turbines or placing turbines over a smaller area. "For example, you do not need to have [turbines covering a large area]," she said. You can get pretty much the same benefit with [a smaller layout] placed 'smartly' for Houston."</p><p>With 33,363 turbines over a medium sized area, they saw a reduction of 15 percent in the Houston metropolitan area. With 28,197 turbines over the small [area], they saw a reduction of 10 percent, she said. "We get greater reductions in other locations, but we focused on the totals for Houston metropolitan."</p><p>At this time, she said the researchers can't project the optimal number of turbines needed, although "the more [offshore] wind farms you have, the more impact they will have on a hurricane," she said. "By the time a hurricane actually makes landfall, these arrays of turbines have been operating for days and days, extracting energy and moisture out of the storm. As a result, the storm will be weaker. Literally."</p><p>She pointed out that communities can build sea walls or artificial barrier islands to protect against storm surge. But these won't protect against rain. "The costs are high and they only serve one purpose," she said. "An alternative is to build offshore wind farms, which [ultimately] pay for themselves, generate clean and renewable energy, and—cherry on top—protect against hurricanes, including rain and storm surge."</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/putting-speed-bumps-in-hurricane-alley-57e2c079cce" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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Pexels
By Phil Newell
This month, a major UN report on climate change declared that humanity has just a few short years to make the drastic changes needed to stave off an environmental catastrophe. While news outlets reacted with shock and alarm, those who regularly write, research or advocate on climate change were more resigned. For them, the report—which synthesized existing research—merely aggravated the psychic wound formed by continually reckoning with the end of the world.
<p>Responding to the report, climate writer Eric Holthaus encouraged readers to talk about their feelings with friends, though he said that he has "no idea whether or not this is the right advice for everyone." Environmental reporter Zoë Schlanger expressed similar ambivalence, <a href="https://qz.com/1423202/a-philosopher-invented-a-word-for-the-psychic-pain-of-climate-change/" target="_blank">writing</a> that "in 2018, life can feel in need of a dirge for the whole world, with scarcely the language to write it."</p><p>Perhaps as the the climate changes, so must our vocabulary. We need new words to grapple with these new challenges. What does it feel like when your home leaves you? When the seasons shift and rains dry up or turn to deluge? How do you capture the sense of this new abnormal? And how do you cope?</p><p>In 2005, Philosopher Glenn Albrecht <a href="http://www.academia.edu/21377260/Solastalgia_A_New_Concept_in_Health_and_Identity" target="_blank">coined the term</a> "solastalgia" to describe the feeling of losing one's home. The term combines "solace" (comfort in the face of stress), "desolation," and the Greek root of <em>"</em>algia," which indicates illness. Solastalgia is, in Albrecht's words, "the pain experienced when… the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault (physical desolation)…the erosion of the sense of belonging (identity) to a particular place and a feeling of distress (psychological desolation) about its transformation."</p><p>Albrecht summed it up by writing, "In short, solastalgia is a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at 'home.'" He went on to explain that the term is applicable to people who have lost their ancestral homes. From them, we may find some guidance for coping.</p><p>In a <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/10/06/my-great-grandfather-the-bundist/" target="_blank">recent essay</a> for<em> The New York Review of Books, </em>Molly Crabapple wrote about the Bund, a "humane, socialist, secular and defiantly Jewish" political party that "celebrated Jews as a nation" but was "irreconcilably opposed to the establishment of Israel as a separate Jewish homeland in Palestine." Instead, they believed that "the diaspora was home," and embraced a concept known as <em>do'ikayt</em> or "hereness."</p><p>Crabapple asked what <em>do'ikayt</em> means "in our age of mass migration" and answered that it is a way "to find the self in exile." This idea can perhaps provide a sense of solidarity to those suffering from solastalgia—they are all exiles together. For people who work on climate change, hereness may offer a sense that they fight not only to preserve a vanishing past, but to protect an emerging future, that despite national boundaries or political disagreements, a larger purpose sustains them.</p><p>The fight to protect our collective homeland will be hard, with our wins and losses echoing for thousands of years. There will be changes, and we'll need to adapt, but our home on Earth will always be worth the effort. This struggle will be etched into the geologic record, but there is hope still, for the final score is not yet written in stone.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/a-new-language-for-grappling-with-climate-change-7c37131306e0" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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The Ross Ice Shelf at the Bay of Whales. Michael Van Woert, NOAA
By Marlene Cimons
Researchers monitoring vibrations from Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf were flabbergasted not long ago to hear something unexpected—the ice was "singing" to them. "We were stunned by a rich variety of time-varying tones that make up this newly described sort of signal," said Rick Aster, professor of geosciences at Colorado State University, one of the scientists involved in the study.
<p>Researchers set out to study low-frequency vibrations that arose from <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/earthquakes">earthquakes</a> and ocean waves. They were surprised to hear the ice sheet "singing" after examining the higher frequencies. The sound, which resembled a low moan, turned out to be a valuable tool. "The tones in these signals shift when the surface of the ice shelf is disturbed by changes in surface dunes or near-surface melt," Aster said.</p>
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<p>Changes in the ice shelf's seismic hum could alert scientists when "melt ponds" or cracks appear in the ice, indicating that the ice may become vulnerable to breaking off—a mounting concern as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a> fuels extensive melting. Ice shelves all over Antarctica are becoming thinner, and some have collapsed or retreated due to rising ocean and air temperatures. In the past, these shelves have sometimes collapsed suddenly, without notice.<br></p><p>Climate scientists are concerned about ice shelves on the edge of Antarctica because they hold back large inland <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers">glaciers</a>, "like a cork in a bottle," Aster said. Those glaciers then melt into the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans">ocean</a>, raising sea levels. Scientists watched that happen after the <a href="https://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/WorldOfChange/larsenb.php" target="_blank">Larsen B ice shelf</a> collapsed in 2002—glaciers behind the ice sheet began to thin. All told, Antarctica is home to roughly <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/antarctic_ice_sheet.htm" target="_blank">7 million cubic miles</a> of ice which, if it melted, would <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise">raise sea levels</a> around 200 feet.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc0NTY0My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMDI0MTAwNH0.xDIEMmItYQUYwqyKR8ttr7vb1or4GN_cuB1pJxD2K0U/img.png?width=980" id="7798d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1193e62893e30b0a0d10906eccffe224" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">When ice shelves disintegrate, glaciers move out to sea. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glacier-ice_shelf_interactions.svg" target="_blank">Ted Scambos & Michon Scott, National Snow and Ice Data Center</a></small></p>
<p>Melting ice doesn't just add water to the sea. It also changes how that water is distributed. That's because the Antarctic ice sheet exerts a gravitational pull over surrounding waters. "The ice sheet is so massive that it attracts a bulge of ocean close to the continent," Aster said. "When the icecap melts, this bulge relaxes and sea level goes up on the other side of the planet." This produces more coastal flooding in the northern hemisphere.<br></p><p>Researchers studied the Ross Ice Shelf, a Texas-sized plate of ice that floats atop the Southern Ocean. The Ross Ice Shelf—Antarctica's largest ice shelf—is covered in thick blankets of snow, often several meters deep, that are topped with massive snow dunes, like sand dunes in a desert. This snow layer insulates the underlying ice from heating when temperatures rise.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc0NTY0Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMDk3NzE1N30.wjxspw3346fHYZ-2WAEiy5WCKEdb_GNqc_rtzT3C-0U/img.jpg?width=980" id="6dbea" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="211b82ec4ceed8810502123ec2da33d1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Rick Aster, professor of geosciences at Colorado State University</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Rick Aster</small></p>
<p>The newly discovered noises are the result of winds blowing across snow dunes on the Rise Ice Shelf. This causes the ice surface to vibrate, producing near-constant seismic "tones" that researchers can use to monitor melting and other changes from afar. The <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2018GL079665" target="_blank">study</a> appears in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.<br></p><p>Scientists currently use a variety of methods to monitor an ice shelf—analyzing <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/186123main_SnowPitProcedures.pdf" target="_blank">snow pits</a>, for example, or gathering satellite data. According to Aster, "we may eventually be able to model critical elements of its structure using seismology alone," meaning scientists could track the melt of the ice sheet by listening to its song, using other tools to confirm what they found.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc0NTY0Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyODE5ODg5MH0.PEY7BHLc45RJHIJls-drulanLgNRMHEngpfAWBwTPr0/img.jpg?width=980" id="e0350" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5826d88d3ff894cd2175e3d94a87d11e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The Ross Ice Shelf. Source</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Josh Landis</small></p>
<p>"We can also see the rearrangement of drifted snow, that is, dunes at the surface, or instances where new snow is deposited or blown away," he added. "This tool provides site-specific information about the ice shelf that can be monitored continuously, which is something you can't do digging snow pits."<br></p><p>The researchers buried 34 extremely sensitive seismic sensors under the snow across the ice shelf for two years, from late 2014 to early 2017, which allowed them to monitor its vibrations, structure and movements. They discovered that the shelf nearly continuously sings at frequencies of five or more cycles per second, stimulated by winds that blow across its dune‐like landscape.</p>
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Researchers studying the Ross Ice Shelf</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Rick Aster</small></p>
<p>They also found changes in frequency whenever storms whipped up the snow dunes, or when the air got warmer or colder. "It's kind of like you're blowing a flute, constantly, on the ice shelf," said Julien Chaput, a geophysicist and mathematician at Colorado State University and lead author of the study. "Either you change the velocity of the snow by heating or cooling it, or you change where you blow on the flute, by adding or destroying dunes. And that's essentially the two forcing effects we can observe."<br></p><p>As the ice shelf changes its tune, "we can track extremely sensitive details about it," Chaput added. "Basically, what we have on our hands is a tool to monitor the environment and its impact on the ice shelf."</p>
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</p><div id="93428" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="IZPX0C1576662371"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="981602161716027392" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Antarctica Lost a London-Sized Area of Underwater Ice in Only 6 Years https://t.co/WSN8jMovLO @AntarcticaNews… https://t.co/tIUnQLKnFY</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/981602161716027392">1522867167.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/scientists-study-ice-shelf-by-listening-to-its-song-b011c20d88fa" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em></p>
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By Jeremy Deaton
Miami ranks among the most valuable real estate markets in the country. Palatial homes astride warm, teal waters sell for millions. But it's not Miami's ocean-front neighborhoods where property values are rising fastest. Housing costs are climbing more rapidly in neighborhoods that lie a little higher up along a ridge that runs parallel to the shore.
<p>These neighborhoods are best protected against climate change.</p><p>"That's the ridge where we put the railroad. And that's the ridge where we sent the black and brown people to live. And all of a sudden — because we've got people on the Atlantic low-line getting tidal flooding and people near the Everglades low-line getting flooding — guess where everybody wants to live? On the ridge. So guess who's being displaced? The brown and black people," said Caroline Lewis, executive director of the <a href="https://www.cleoinstitute.org/" target="_blank">CLEO Institute</a>, at a town hall on climate change and gentrification in Miami on Monday.</p>
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<p>The forum was part of the <a href="https://www.freedomtobreathe.org/" target="_blank">Freedom to Breathe Tour</a>, a cross-country bus tour that aims to shine a light on issues of climate, environment and social justice, including sea-level rise. "More people are taking notice," said Natalia Arias, director of programs at the CLEO Institute, in an interview. "Tons of people experience sunny-day flooding." When the moon drifts close to the Earth, tides grow, producing extra-large swells known as "<a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/king-tides-cause-flooding-florida-fall-2017" target="_blank">king tides</a>." Rising seas have made king tides more severe, leaving parts of Miami flooded on days without a drop of rain. This, in turn, is reshaping the real estate market.<br></p>
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</p><div id="94215" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="F1P4HD1576663364"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="915941385345347585" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">View map for #KingTide areas. Driving through floodwater NOT advisable. It may be deeper than appears & unseen debr… https://t.co/2rd2qEhgP8</div> — City of Miami (@City of Miami)<a href="https://twitter.com/CityofMiami/statuses/915941385345347585">1507212418.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p>Rising seas are depressing the value of waterfront property while inflating the cost of living further inland, in working-class communities of color like Little Haiti and Liberty City. Residents say that developers are targeting homeowners who are struggling financially, offering them buyouts or help relocating. Those are the lucky ones. Renters are more vulnerable to the whims of the market, and many are struggling as landlords ratchet up the cost of housing.<br></p><p>"We're experiencing an affordable housing crisis," Arias said. "People are being displaced from neighborhoods where they settled years or decades ago — where they go to school, where they go to work, where they have neighbors and family members nearby."</p>
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Advocates and experts gather to discuss climate change and gentrification in Miami, Aug. 27. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">CLEO Institute</small></p>
<p>Valencia Gunder, founder of <a href="http://mthsmile.com/" target="_blank">Make the Homeless Smile</a>, described the changing face of Miami at the town hall. "You're starting to see Bentleys parked in Little Haiti," she said. "We're starting to see people running down the street with their poodles." Gunder recalled shopping for a home in Liberty City in 2010, visiting a "dilapidated" property with an $80,000 price tag. She said she recently returned to that home to find its value had shot up — to $425,000.<br></p><p>The gentrification of Liberty City, one of the city's <a href="http://www.miamigov.com/Planning/Maps/medhhincbgtemp.pdf" target="_blank">poorest</a> communities, is somewhat ironic, given its history. The heart of the neighborhood is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Square_%28Miami%29" target="_blank">public housing project</a> that was constructed in the 1930s to shelter black families who had been <a href="https://www.housingissues.org/content/hist-libertycity.pdf" target="_blank">forced from their homes</a> in downtown Miami. Walk east from the housing project and you will find the remains of an <a href="https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/The-Untold-History-of-Liberty-Citys-Segregation-Walls-481781631.html" target="_blank">8-foot wall</a> built to keep black residents hidden from their white neighbors. White families are now <a href="http://www.miamigov.com/communitydevelopment/Docs/Reports/NeedsAssessment12714DRAFT.pdf#page=22" target="_blank">colonizing</a> the far side of the wall — in part, it seems, to escape rising seas.</p><p>Researchers have a name for this phenomenon — climate gentrification. A <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/07/the-reality-of-climate-gentrification/564152/" target="_blank">recent study</a> found that Miami is already seeing its effects. As the sea closes in on the city, low-lying homes are losing value, while those at higher elevations are growing more expensive. The effect is more pronounced closer to the coast, where the risk of flooding is greatest.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODM5Nzk4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyODM1NDgzMn0.TlYkQP_FZfy1T8rOR9foBXsLivUge3K2tn3_mi2jpZs/img.jpg?width=980" id="4291b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="68b8604c77676e77928d4716f3168084" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Miami-Dade properties at lower elevations are accruing value more slowly than those at higher elevations. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."> <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aabb32/pdf" target="_blank">Environmental Research Letters</a></small></p>
<p>The study identified three forces that drive climate gentrification. First, investors develop areas that are more protected from floods, expecting that, as seas rise, wealthy families will flee to higher ground. Second, the city invests in sea walls and other protections, driving up the cost of living in better-guarded neighborhoods. Third, coastal floods inflate the cost of insurance and repairs, forcing working-class families to sell their homes. All of it comes down to climate change.<br></p><p>Every day, cars, trucks, factories and power plants are pouring heat-trapping carbon pollution into the sky. The mercury is creeping up. Ice is melting, and seas are rising. Even under the more optimistic projections, Miami can expect to see floods three feet above the current sea level by mid-century, according to an <a href="https://riskfinder.climatecentral.org/state/florida.us?comparisonType=county&forecastName=Single-year&forecastType=NOAA2017_int_p50&level=3&unit=ft#threat-forecast" target="_blank">analysis</a> by Climate Central. That's enough to inundate the priciest parts of Miami, but too little to flood poorer areas, like Liberty City.</p>
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<p><em>Miami, Florida. Areas that would be inundated by three feet of flooding are shaded in light blue (left). The population of Miami by ethnicity (right). Flood-prone areas are wealthier and whiter than more elevated areas further inland. Source: <a href="https://ss2.climatecentral.org/#10/25.5584/-80.4959?show=satellite&projections=0-K14_RCP85-SLR&level=3&unit=feet&pois=hide" target="_blank">Climate Central</a></em></p><p><a href="https://ss2.climatecentral.org/#10/25.5584/-80.4959?show=satellite&projections=0-K14_RCP85-SLR&level=3&unit=feet&pois=hide" target="_blank"></a>Advocates are urging officials to stabilize rents, build more affordable housing, and raise the minimum wage so that workers can keep pace with the cost of living. Many are also calling on officials to invest in wind and solar, and to prepare for coastal floods by erecting sea walls and other protections. They say such measures will generate well-paid jobs in construction and installation, a potential lifeline for communities burdened by low incomes and soaring rents.</p><p>Advocates believe this should be a political winner, as rising rents are driving away workers that businesses depend on. "We're talking about people who work in restaurants and in housekeeping roles in hotels, or are bussing tables in restaurants," Arias said. "You see residents that have an hour or two-hour commute to work." In some cases, workers are leaving Miami entirely.</p><p>"You have people that have two or three jobs, so there's no way that they could pick up a fourth job to be able to meet their increasing rent." Arias said. "At some point, I just don't see how they are going to be able to live here."</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/climate-change-is-creating-an-affordable-housing-crisis-in-miami-38fd5b101c5e" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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By Marlene Cimons
An individual tree has roots and, of course, it doesn't move. But trees, as a species, do move over time. They migrate in response to environmental challenges, especially climate change. Surprisingly, they don't all go to the Poles, where it is cooler. As it turns out, more of them head west, where it is getting wetter.
<p>Sure, some species, such as evergreens, are heading to the Poles to escape the heat. But others, like certain oaks and maple, are going west in search of rain. For the most part, "tree migrations are moisture related," said Songlin Fei, associate professor at Purdue's University's department of forestry and natural resources, who has studied this phenomenon in recent years. "Precipitation has a stronger near-term impact on species shift than temperature."</p><p>Both trends are a consequence of climate change, which is producing more heat and heavier rainfall, fueling deforestation. This is worrisome, as forests soak up carbon from the atmosphere, and <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/rising-temperatures-are-causing-soil-to-dump-more-carbon-dioxide-into-the-air-9f2b9b28a638" target="_blank">recent evidence</a> suggests that soil is exhaling carbon dioxide faster than trees can take in. The migration of trees may help preserve individual species, but also threatens to destabilize forest ecosystems.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODMwNjc0My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMDQyODg4Mn0.sqxkNMRwH-OtCWBjoYJgnfyj1Ry1V-x_gHjrz6DtsKI/img.jpg?width=980" id="4a2df" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="59425ff60a97f8ea87148f92dd300393" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">An oak tree. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Pixabay</small></p>
<p>Fei analyzed the movement of 86 tree species from across the Eastern United States between 1980 and 2015 using using field data from obtained from the U.S. Forest Service. He found that 73 percent of tree species shifted to the west, while 62 percent moved poleward.<br></p><p>"The majority of the species move westward are broadleaf species that can better handle flood and drought, and have a large seed mass, which improves the seedling's ability to survive," he said. "One example of westward shift species is Scarlet Oak. Miss Scarlett 'gone with the wind,' but Scarlet Oak is 'gone with the rain.'"</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODMwNjcyOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTcxNzk5OH0.xxaEdIbUQoOx5jhmZFEFjDxf2h0rbqkGdmDEZfrfxc4/img.jpg?width=980" id="aa5e2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c169e52795d72945a9c0254fd6dc86e6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A Scarlet Oak.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/treegrow/31193582651" target="_blank">Katja Schulz</a></small></p>
<p>Researchers compared the distribution of trees in 1980 and 2015, calculating the distance and direction of the trees' movement. During the more than three decades covered by the study, the mean annual temperature in the eastern United States, where they collected the data, rose around 0.3 degrees F on average, Fei said. The northern areas of that region saw among the largest temperature increases, he added. Precipitation patterns in the regions also changed during those years, as increasing heat spurred in widespread droughts, another reason for trees to gravitate toward the rain, he said.<br></p><p>The scientists' initial findings appeared in a <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/5/e1603055" target="_blank">study</a> published in the journal <em>Science Advances</em> last year. Fei and his team currently are working to update the earlier results, hoping to publish their new findings soon. The researchers have concluded that changes in rainfall and temperature have put "the resilience and sustainability of various forest ecosystems across eastern United States in question," Fei said.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODMwNjcxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODMwMzUyMH0.LvtliKOUA_epYEi41R4-5qppamDIbnaTMTFBTRH5l-o/img.jpg?width=980" id="24b9c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="990c3f735f47ebbbc3ded678acb4b47d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Changes in temperature and precipitation between the recent past (1951–1980) and the study period (1981–2014) across the eastern United States.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Science Advances</small></p>
<p>To be clear, the study focused only on the eastern half the country, meaning tree species didn't move to, for example, California, Oregon or Washington. In fact, the transition was gradual. "Species, on average, moved about 10 miles per decade, or about one county during the study period," Fei said.<br></p><p>The trees have picked up on the trends driven by climate change, moving from regions getting less rainfall than in the past to those that are getting more. Even though the Southeast still gets more rainfall than the Midwest, it's been receiving less in recent years than its historical average, Fei said. At the same time, rainfall has been increasing in the Midwest. "Reduction of moisture in the Southeast and increase of moisture in the Midwest is one of the major reasons caused the shift of species," he said.</p><p>Fei said it helped that the team could use real-world data for its analysis, and that they did not need to rely on traditional computer modeling. "It is not future predictions," he said. "Empirical data reveals the impact of climate change is happening on the ground now. It's in action."</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/trees-are-migrating-west-to-escape-climate-change-fde54dfbcaf7" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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By Marlene Cimons
There have been numerous wake-up calls about the effects of climate change on marine life. As ocean waters heat up, they are bleaching corals. Growing levels of carbon dioxide are acidifying seawater, which is degrading the shells and skeletons of sea organisms. The rising temperatures are prompting fish to migrate to colder waters, even causing them to shrink.
<p>Now <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a> is starting to affect their sense of smell, a phenomenon that will worsen in the coming years if global warming continues unabated, according to new <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0224-8" target="_blank">research</a>. A sense of smell is indispensable to fish. They use it to find food, detect imminent danger and elude predators, to find safe environments and spawning areas, even to recognize one another.</p><p>To lose it could threaten their very survival. If this happens, it also would mean big trouble for the fishing industry, tourism and, most importantly, global nutrition, since many of the world's people—including its poorest—depend on fish for food.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODI0NTk3OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMDY2MDE1M30.v1O8EUOp38x3VVjtYytGPnqwYTJj-NQxcOAE2tkV-SY/img.png?width=980" id="220e1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7f29cb4862c2f6dad4ce58d291bc719c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Fishermen in Vietnam.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Pexels</small></p><p>"Future levels of carbon dioxide can have large negative effects on the sense of smell of fish, which can affect fish population numbers and entire ecosystems," said Cosima Porteus, a researcher at the University of Exeter and author of the study, which appears in the journal <em>Nature Climate Change</em>.</p><p>"This can be prevented, but we must reduce carbon emissions now before it's too late."</p><p>Carbon dioxide combines with seawater to produce carbonic acid, which makes the water more acidic. Since the Industrial Revolution, oceanic CO2 has risen by 43 percent and is projected to be two and a half times current levels by the end of this century, according to the scientists.</p><p>Experts believe that about <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/oceans/critical-issues-ocean-acidification/" target="_blank">half of anthropogenic carbon dioxide</a>—that is, emissions produced by human activities, such as the burning of fossils fuels—has over time ended up in the oceans, lowering the pH of seawater, and making it more acidic.</p><p>Porteus—collaborating with scientists from the <a href="http://www.embrc.eu/partners/centre-marine-sciences-ccmar" target="_blank">Centre of Marine Sciences</a> in Faro, Portugal and the <a href="https://www.cefas.co.uk/" target="_blank">Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science</a> in the UK—compared the behavior of juvenile sea bass at carbon dioxide levels typical of today's ocean conditions with those predicted for the end of the century.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODI0NjIwNy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNTA4NzcyM30.kZZ77J014eHZ4ZwxzMWQxxQjyc-lnezuKihUzal2yWA/img.png?width=980" id="c0f4b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2cb0c2b8d38d225c77148bee5ff0f7fb" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The sea bass used in the study.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Cosima Porteus / Nature Climate Change</small></p><p>They found that sea bass exposed to the more acidic conditions swam less and were less likely to react when encountering the smell of a predator, offered to them in the form of very dilute monkfish bile. Also, they were more likely to "freeze," a sign of anxiety, she said.</p><p>"I found the longer they were in high CO2, the worse they fared," she said. The scientists also measured the ability of the fish to detect certain odors in different levels of acidity by recording their nervous system activity. </p><p>"I recorded the olfactory—smell—nerve response by measuring the electrical activity of the nerve to these different odorants in the water that flowed over the nose of the fish in both normal and high CO2 seawater," Porteus said.</p><p>"The odorants tested were those that would be involved in finding food—amino acids—and in recognizing fish of the same or other species, including bile acids, bile, intestinal fluid, etc., at different concentrations, and at levels they would encounter in the wild," she added.</p><p>The researchers found that seawater acidified with levels of carbon dioxide that are expected by the end of the century—if global warming continues—reduced the sense of smell of sea bass by half, compared with today's levels.</p><p>"Their ability to detect and respond to some odors associated with food and threatening situations was more strongly affected than for other odors," Porteus said. "We think this is explained by acidified water affecting how odorant molecules bind to olfactory receptors in the fish's nose, reducing how well they can distinguish these important stimuli."</p><p>They did not compare the impact of today's ocean acidity levels with those of pre-industrial times, although they plan further research to do so. "It is possible that sea bass are already being affected by a rise in oceanic pH," she said.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODI0NjIxOC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzQ5MDg0N30.KxISO9IU0A0xn3bC4sUhvpyEnmxuOkOoJ7xZMtr6A5I/img.png?width=980" id="d678e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fed249e605aa26886c7fd4a6aa271672" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Fresh catch at the fish market.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Pixabay</small></p><p>The researchers also studied the impact of high levels of CO2 and acidity on genes expressed in the nose and brain of sea bass and found them altered—but not in a good way. Rather than adjust, things deteriorated, Porteus said.</p><p>"The gene expression experiment was conducted to see if these fish were able to compensate for their loss of sense of smell over a short period of time, not generations," she explained. "Animals have some ability to respond to a stressful condition by making more proteins or different proteins that work better under different conditions."</p><p>Researchers can determine this by looking at what genes change or are different between animals exposed to different conditions, normal and high CO2, for example, according to Porteus.</p><p>"One way to smell something better is to have more receptors detecting these smells in order to increase the chance that particular smell will be detected, and therefore increase the expression of these receptors," she said. "Another way is [for them] to make a slightly different receptor that works better under lower pH. However, we did not find any evidence this was the case."</p><p>Instead, they found the fish were making fewer such receptors, making it more difficult for them to detect smells, she said.</p><p>"There was a decrease in 'active' genes, indicating that these cells were less excitable, therefore responding even less to smells in the environment," she said. "This means that these fish had a reduced sense of smell and instead of compensating for this problem, the changes in their cells were making the problem worse. This matched our observations of their behavior."</p><p>The team chose to study European sea bass because they are an economically important species, both for food consumption and for sport fishing, Porteus said.</p><p>Nevertheless, "we think the ability to smell odors is similar in most, if not all, fish species, so what we have found for sea bass will almost certainly apply to all fish species, and maybe invertebrates too, such as crabs, lobsters etc.," she said. "So all the commercially important species are likely to be affected in a similar way, such as salmon, cod, plaice, turbot, haddock etc."</p><p>This is important because 20 percent of the protein consumed by 3 billion people comes from seafood, and about 50 percent of this comes from fish caught from the wild, according to Porteus. "Therefore, increases in carbon dioxide in the ocean have the potential to affect all fish species, including those that many people rely on for food and livelihood," she said.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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By Nexus Media, with Katrin Meissner and Alan C. Mix
A recently released study brought sobering news about the future effects of climate change, predicting they could be twice as bad as current models have projected under a "business-as-usual" scenario—and then some. Even if the world hits its 2 degree Celsius target, the paper—which appeared in the journal Nature Geoscience—warned that sea levels could rise six meters or more, large areas of the polar ice caps could collapse, the Sahara Desert could become green, and tropical forest borders could produce fire-dominated savanna.
<p><em>To obtain their findings, the researchers studied three well-documented historical warm periods: the Holocene thermal maximum, some 5,000–9,000 years ago, the last interglacial, 129,000–116,000 years ago, which were both caused by predictable changes in the Earth's orbit; and the mid-Pliocene warm period, 3.3–3 million years ago, when atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide were similar to what they are today. Two of the study's co-authors, Katrin Meissner, director of the University of New South Wales Climate Change Research Centre, and Alan C. Mix, distinguished professor of earth, ocean, and atmospheric sciences at Oregon State University, recently spoke with Nexus Media about the study, which was conducted by an international team of researchers from 17 countries. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.</em></p><h4>What led you to conclude that existing models underestimate the seriousness of climate change, and why look to the past to make projections about the future?</h4><div><span></span></div><div><p><strong>Alan C. Mix: </strong>There were lots of groups working on pieces of what warm climates look like. We realized someone had to put all these puzzle pieces together. Some motivation came from silly comments reported in the press like, 'there is no global warming,' or 'it isn't caused by CO2,' or 'it's caused by CO2, but not by humans,' or 'we live through hot summers so what's the big deal?' None of that stuff, of course, is true but the press reports it. So we wanted to use real data, not models, to see what the impacts have been in past warming events. In most cases, humans—at least not as many, or with modern high-infrastructure civilizations and national borders and political problems—didn't exist then, so we don't know if they would have survived. But other plants and animals did, and we can see how ecosystems were affected. And we can ask whether models do a good job simulating those real-world conditions, or if they overestimate (or underestimate) changes. We need to know that stuff—what the impacts are, and whether the models are any good—so governments of the world can set rational policies.</p><p><strong>Katrin Meissner: </strong>We tried to find episodes in the past that were 1.5–2C warmer than preindustrial levels and/or slightly warmer, but still within the target of the Paris Agreement. These episodes happened a long time ago, especially the ones with similar CO2 concentrations to today. To piece together the climate at this time, we use climate archives, for example sediment cores, ice cores, corals, pollen records, etc. These archives don't have a very high temporal resolution, so we cannot reconstruct changes at the scale of decades or, in some cases, even hundreds of years. All we can do is to get a holistic picture of how a climate might look like in equilibrium: a climate that has been warm for hundreds or thousands of years.</p><p>The key word here is "equilibrium," we are talking hundreds to thousands of years from now—not tomorrow. The recent CO2 changes are happening so fast that the climate system is still getting used to these changes, it is still adapting. To get into "equilibrium" will take a long time, hundreds to thousands of years.</p><h4>What kind of "predictable" changes in the Earth's orbit caused the warming in the first two periods?</h4><div><p><strong>KM:</strong> Orbital cycles and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milutin_Milankovi%C4%87" target="_blank">Milankovitch</a>.</p><p>The shape of the Earth's orbit around the sun and the inclination of the Earth's axis in relation to its plane of orbit are constantly changing. The orbital shape can be more or less elliptical. There have been times in the past when Earth has received overall more—or less—solar radiation, depending on the shape of its orbit around the sun. These overall changes are very small though and not likely to impact climate significantly. More likely to impact climate are regional and seasonal changes in incoming solar radiation. These changes are defined by the inclination—or tilt—of the Earth and its wobble around its axis. For example, if the tilt is strong we would get warm summers and cold winters in both hemispheres. If on top of that the Northern Hemisphere is strongly tilted towards the sun at a point of time when Earth is at its closest position to the sun, we would get even warmer Northern Hemisphere summers. While the tilt won't change the overall energy received from the sun, it can change the seasonality and the regional distribution of energy.</p><p>Let's imagine that we slowly transition to a regime where Northern Hemisphere summers become warmer. That would lead to stronger snow and ice melt during the summer months at high latitudes. When snow and ice starts to melt, a white surface gradually changes to whatever is below, that is, rocks, soil, ocean, mostly darker colors than ice or snow. This triggers a feedback. White surfaces reflect incoming solar radiation—that's why you burn so easily when you are skiing—while black surfaces absorb more of this radiation. That's why it is a bad idea to cross an asphalt road barefoot in the summer, at least in Australia. Therefore, less incoming radiation will now be reflected and more radiation will be absorbed, which leads to further warming and further melting, which will lead to darker surfaces and so on. This is one of the feedbacks that act within the climate system.</p>
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<p><strong><span style="background-color: initial;">ACM</span>:</strong> It is now generally known that the basic ice age cycles are associated with the so-called "Milankovitch" orbital wobbles, which arise because of the various gravitational pulls of all the planets in the solar system on each other. These cycles are rhythmic and predictable, and occur slowly. Basically the Earth wobbles slowly on its axis, like a child's spinning top on the kitchen floor. The net result is changes in the shape of the orbit—from circular to elliptical—a "stretched" circle—and in the tilt of the polar axis relative to the plane of the orbit, and in the timing of the Earth-Sun distance relative to the seasons as the earth circles the sun. All of this creates changes in the way the earth collects sunlight, and that influenced climate. But it is still a bit unclear whether [the] climate changes directly in response to this change in seasonal heating, or indirectly, for example, as a result of natural CO2 changes triggered by the orbital changes. For this reason, we usually don't say that the orbital changes <em>force</em> the ice ages, but instead that they <em>pace </em>the ice ages. The analogy is to a heart pacemaker, which sets the heart beat's rhythm in cardiac patients but doesn't actually force the heart to beat. Either way, this known creation of ice ages from very subtle external inputs shows that [the] global climate is quite sensitive to change when pushed even a little bit. And we're talking about big changes in the past, like covering Canada and northern Europe with mile-thick ice and then turning around and melting nearly all of it, making sea level go up and down by more than 120 meters. That kind of sensitivity to change is a matter of concern regarding human CO2 emissions and the greenhouse effect. We know this changes the way the atmosphere collects heat, and based on our knowledge of the past, we know that the climate is sensitive to change, so it follows that our release of CO2 into the atmosphere will—indeed must—change the climate. The question is not whether this will happen, but how much? And how fast?<br></p><h4>In the third period, what prompted such high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide?</h4><p><strong>KM:</strong> I think the correct question here is: what prompted such low levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the past 2 million years.</p><p>The typical CO2 concentrations that Earth has experienced in the past 2 million years are almost an "anomaly" compared to the long term record. During these past 2 million years, Earth has switched between glacials—periods of time when large ice sheets were present in the Northern Hemisphere—and interglacials—periods of time without these ice sheets. We are currently in an interglacial.</p><p>The fact that greenhouse gas concentrations have been as high or higher in the past is unfortunately not a good reason to feel reassured about modern day climate change. One big difference is the rate of change. CO2 concentrations are changing much more rapidly than any documented change in the past. For example, 20,000 years ago, during the last glacial, cities like Chicago, Toronto and Montreal were under an ice sheet that was over 3 km thick. These huge ice sheets are gone now, mainly because of an increase of 100 parts per million in atmospheric CO2 over about 8,000 years. Recently, humans have added another 120 parts per million of CO2 to our atmosphere. What our oceans managed to do in 8,000 years, with large consequences to the environment, such as the melting of huge ice sheets, we did in less than 100 years.</p><p>It is an open question whether and how ecosystems will be able to adapt to such fast changes in temperature, precipitation and acidification. Life on Earth has been adapting to lower CO2 concentrations over the past 2 to 3 million years. The youngest period of time when CO2 levels were at today's levels happened over 3 million years ago; that was when our ancestors were Australopithecus and still had to evolve to the genus Homo. The fauna and flora was very different from today's.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODIwODk1MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MDc4OTM3NH0.b2eTIGi-onJwXOYjYWav7H5IXMqsoh0Y9OILeKiR-AQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="c7b05" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4067e266f9ef42691c33467fc23356e7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Recreation of Pliocene era in northern Spain. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ice_age_fauna_of_northern_Spain_-_Mauricio_Ant%C3%B3n.jpg" target="_blank">Mauricio Antón</a></small></p>
<p><strong><span style="background-color: initial;">ACM</span>: </strong>It is reasonably well known that in the Pliocene time interval, roughly 2–5 million years ago, CO2 was a bit higher than today. The exact cause isn't known, but it came from some geologic reservoirs where CO2 is locked up today. These reservoirs are things like organic matter in soil and in sediments under the ocean. It isn't a lot of carbon in every square meter, or square foot, but there is a huge area, so it adds up. Carbon is also stored today in permafrost, and in the deep ocean. The fact that the Pliocene was both a bit warmer than today and had a bit more CO2 in the atmosphere is important, because it shows that warmth, however it is triggered, can become self-sustaining by letting some of that locked-up carbon out into the atmosphere. In other words, the climate system isn't "self-correcting." It doesn't automatically return to a state that looks like the one humans enjoyed as they built their modern civilizations. We used to think that. A few decades ago, there was a popular idea called "Gaia," the Earth Goddess, which basically thought that the living Earth was self-correcting to stay within a narrow environmental range suitable for life. For the most part, those ideas have been abandoned. We now know the Earth has experienced some pretty large climate swings, and they likely involve release and uptake of CO2. So maybe life helps to stabilize climate on a very large scale, a Gaian idea, but on the scale that matters to us here and now, we know the system is sensitive to change because it has changed. So if Gaia is a Goddess, she certainly is fickle.<br></p><h4>Couldn't citing those previous warm periods give deniers the opportunity to argue that because climate has fluctuated in the past—which we survived—we will survive this too?</h4><p><strong>KM: </strong>Did we survive something similar? I am not sure. As far as ice cores go back, there is no episode with such rapid rates of increase in greenhouse gases. Before ice core records, the temporal resolution becomes more challenging, but even fast warming events seem to have happened on much slower timescales than what is happening today. <br> <br><strong>ACM: </strong>It's wrong to say that because climate has changed in the past, either we aren't causing climate change, or it is no big deal and we will survive. Quite the contrary. The evidence of past change shows that climate can change pretty wildly, given even a little push. And we are pushing it pretty hard. Sure, humanity survived some past climate change, but at least during the "Holocene" time when agriculture developed and civilizations flourished, climate has been relatively stable. And the smallish changes that occurred had a pretty major impact of biblical proportion… famines, floods, mass migration, heat waves, killing frosts. So maybe we survived. But it wasn't fun. And some civilizations collapsed. I don't think we want that.</p><p>We are changing climate much more, and much faster, and on a much larger scale, than anything humanity experienced in its early history. I'm discounting the Neanderthals who lived in southern Europe during the ice ages—I don't want to be a cave man and I don't think we want to go there. Although we have modern technology that can help us, we also have nearly eight billion people on the planet, and we are already seeing daily crises with refugees. So if climate change makes a region of the planet uninhabitable, those people can't just pick up and go somewhere else. There is no place to go on an overpopulated planet. What will we do when we see hordes of climate refugees fleeing rising sea levels flooding their cities, or crop failure from heat stress, or insufficient water? Who is responsible? Who will take them? The issue of surviving climate changes in the past is a red herring that says nothing about today.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODIwODk0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzI0ODg3NH0.GdXLuvTrccJHJ0amfUPAMMALCkfgu409S5fLVoKnT-o/img.jpg?width=980" id="33ecf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bb689fbb037bc10d0c61109ff3bd3382" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Flooding in Port Arthur, Texas following Hurricane Harvey, August 31, 2017.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Support_during_Hurricane_Harvey_%28TX%29_%2850%29.jpg" target="_blank">SC National Guard</a></small></p>
<h4>So, you're saying if we keep emitting, it's going to be far worse than in the past, or than current models of the future suggest?</h4><p><strong>KM: </strong>Yes, it will be worse. It is very risky to keep emitting because of the rate and magnitude of change. As far as we know today, there has been no similar event in terms of rate of change in climate history. What we refer to as "fast" changes in the geological record happened on much slower time scales than what we see today. It is an open question if and how ecosystems will adapt to such fast changes.</p><p>If we realize in the near future that these changes are not acceptable, we won't be able to quickly stop or reverse the changes. Many components of the climate system adapt slowly. The ocean, for example, has a very high heat capacity. It takes a long time for the ocean to warm up, but it then also takes a very long time for it to cool down again. The climate system is still in the process of adapting to the changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases. Even if we decide to stop all emissions, the climate will continue to adapt to the changes we already caused. <br> <br><strong>ACM:</strong> We are forcing changes much faster and on a scale that is much larger than any natural climate changes experienced by humanity. Just look at a graph of CO2 change through time, say over the past half-million years from ice core data, and it bops up and down like a teenage head listening to the pop music charts. Then compare that to the ongoing CO2 rise caused by people, and it is off-the-charts extreme, headed straight up and off the page in a blink. Climate takes some time to adjust, and it will eventually catch up to the huge changes in CO2 we are causing. Scientists call that the climate "commitment," meaning that we have already committed to future climate change by the CO2 we've already put into the atmosphere. So again, it is way faster and way bigger than anything humans have experienced in the history of civilization.</p><p>The more CO2 we put in the atmosphere, the hotter it will get. But the system is a bit non-linear, meaning that the change in temperature may respond at different rates or amounts to additional increments of CO2. It may cross a "tipping point," where things get pretty crazy. You can think about this as if you are walking along on level ground near the Grand Canyon, doing just fine, and then casually take one more step and fall off a cliff. So the first steps moved you forward and didn't do all that much, but the next step caused a disaster. In that example, it would be irreversible. And not fun. Climate is like that. There is concern that we will keep plodding along, releasing a bit more CO2 each year, until—wham—we cross the tipping point and realize all the earth's ice sheets are going away and we can't get them back, and sea level is going to keep rising for thousands of years. Although we can't stop climate change entirely, we need to choose whether we will slow down and eventually stop emitting CO2, or just keep going until we cross a point of no return.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/from-ice-ages-to-interglacial-periods-the-climate-has-always-changed-3592bc06f5a8" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em><em></em></p></div><div><span></span></div></div>
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Doha, Qatar. Pixabay
By Aimee Sison
After four weeks of fanfare, the 2018 World Cup has come to a close. France's victory in Sunday's final marked the end of a summer filled with thrilling victories, surprise defeats, national pride (and disappointment), penalty kick-induced panic and many other emotions associated with soccer.
<p>Fans, unfortunately, will have to wait longer than usual to experience it all over again. That's because the next FIFA World Cup in 2022 will be held in winter, not summer, due to the sweltering climate of the next host country, Qatar.</p><p>Located on the Persian Gulf, Qatar sees an average <a href="http://traveltips.usatoday.com/average-temperature-rain-fall-qatar-13455.html" target="_blank">high temperature</a> of 108 degrees F in the summer, and temperatures close to <a href="https://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/qatar/summer-in-qatar-is-hottest-on-record-1.676671" target="_blank">123 degrees F</a> have been recorded in the capital Doha. For a sport that requires players to run continually for 90 minutes, this poses a huge health hazard. And even without the physical strain of playing soccer at the highest level, extreme heat threatens significant <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/how-heat-affects-your-health-f098d42548a7" target="_blank">health problems</a>, including dehydration, exhaustion and stroke.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODE5MzM0MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDI3ODQ0M30.SoxzwYBT6M00QFJvlgOdZ4Qwfek-XnRozgYKXwuE8oA/img.jpg?width=980" id="4cb41" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="37fe581718851d3799f52fb41183b823" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Qatar lies on the Persian Gulf, one of the warmest regions on Earth. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Google Maps</small></p>
<p>Past sporting events demonstrate the danger of extreme heat. The 2014 Australian Open continued play through temperatures of 108 degrees F, which caused the Canada's Frank Dancevic to <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2014/01/14/tennis-player-sees-snoopy-on-court-and-then-collapses-at-australian-open-4262584/?ito=cbshare" target="_blank">grow faint</a> and hallucinate, seeing the cartoon character Snoopy. Dancevic later said that it was "inhumane" to make competitors play tennis in that heat.<br></p><p>Due to the dangers associated with extreme heat, FIFA's executive committee decided to move the 2022 World Cup from its typical June to July timeframe to late November and December, when high temperatures reach above 80 degrees F. This forces soccer fans to wait an additional six months to see their team on the world stage, but it will be significantly safer for players who take part in the tournament.</p><p>A winter tournament is particularly important given the effect of climate change. Qatar is likely to be warmer in 2022 than it is today, and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/S10584-016-1665-6" target="_blank">research</a> has shown that in the Middle East, unlike the rest of the world, temperatures are rising faster in the summer than in the winter. Each year, the region sees a new heat record broken. On June 26, Quriyat, Oman set a stunning record for <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/hottest-low-temperature-quriyat-oman-wxc/index.html" target="_blank">highest low temperature</a>. That day, the mercury did not fall below 108.7 degrees F. If global warming continues at its current pace, scientists project that, by 2100, the Arabian peninsula and surrounding areas could be <a href="http://eltahir.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Paper.pdf" target="_blank">too hot and humid</a> for humans to survive outdoors.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODE5MzMzMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1ODM3MDAzNX0.e7B8ln3cireJ4V7UvQaefHKMjxMPI9BvQCHWftkG57Y/img.jpg?width=980" id="7ad6a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="587fae5ef4765b9e5ce18620f3635371" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://www.sc.qa/en/" target="_blank">Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy</a></small></p>
<p>Qatar organizers are fully aware of the heat concerns, not just for the players but for millions of expected visiting fans as well. In May 2017, the country finished construction of Khalifa International Stadium, its first World Cup <a href="http://www.goal.com/en/news/2022-world-cup-cooling-technology-all-you-need-to-know/feh3ywch67c4100bnh8w83jjt" target="_blank">stadium</a> and the world's largest air-conditioned <a href="http://www.espn.com/soccer/blog-fifa/story/3128228/air-conditioned-venue-for-2022-world-cup-in-qatar-complete" target="_blank">open-air arena</a>. The advanced cooling technology will keep the field and stands around 79 degrees F.<br></p><p>While prioritizing the health of players and fans, organizers have neglected to safeguard construction workers, who are building stadiums, hotels and other infrastructure ahead of 2022. Following <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33019838" target="_blank">reports</a> of hundreds of migrant laborers in Qatar dying as result of working long hours in extreme heat, including many working on World Cup buildings, critics called on organizers to instate <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/27/qatar-take-urgent-action-protect-construction-workers" target="_blank">better labor protections</a>. Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/27/qatar-take-urgent-action-protect-construction-workers" target="_blank">said</a> that "as Qatar scales up its FIFA World Cup construction projects, authorities need to scale up transparency about worker deaths that could be heat related, and take urgent steps to end risks to workers from heat."</p><p>Organizers' apparent disregard for hot, humid working conditions fits a pattern of systematic abuse and exploitation, according to <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE2235482016ENGLISH.PDF" target="_blank">Amnesty International</a>. "My life here is like a prison," a worker from Nepal told the organization. "The work is difficult, we worked for many hours in the hot sun."</p><p>Unfortunately, the sweltering temperatures making life difficult in Qatar today will only get worse in the years ahead. Climate change is making the world <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">hotter</a> by the day, with consequences for athletes, fans and, in particular, workers, who have to contend with extreme heat.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/will-climate-change-make-the-next-world-cup-too-hot-to-handle-3fc4c24a5486" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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