Trump introduces EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler during an event to announce changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Jan. 9, 2020 in Washington, DC. The changes would make it easier for federal agencies to approve infrastructure projects without considering climate change. Drew Angerer / Getty Images
A report scheduled for release later Tuesday by Congress' non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that the Trump administration undervalues the costs of the climate crisis in order to push deregulation and rollbacks of environmental protections, according to The New York Times.
<p>In one example, the administration estimated the cost of global heating for future generations seven times lower than previous federal estimates. By drastically lowering that number, which is known as the "social cost of the carbon," the administration could manipulate its cost-benefit analyses for deregulating carbon emissions, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/climate/trump-climate-change-carbon-cost.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>Every ton of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere imposes a cost on the economy, since it increases the likelihood from damage to infrastructure from <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise">sea level rise</a>, heat waves or storms. Or, it imposes a health care cost as increased pollution harms public health. However, calculating the cost of those effects is both politically contentious and economically challenging, according to The New York Times.</p>
<p>Under estimates from the Obama administration, the social cost of carbon would be approximately $82 per ton of carbon by the year 2050, according to the forthcoming report. The Trump administration, upon entering office in 2017, quickly undid those numbers and changed the math of how the social cost of carbon was calculated. Under their revised system, the damages by 2050 are estimated to cost around $11 per ton of carbon.</p><p>One of the ways the math changed was keeping in line with Trump's narrow worldview. The report found that the administration brought the cost of carbon down by only looking at the effects on the U.S. rather than the global cost.</p><p>Another way it brought down the cost of carbon was by using something called the discount rate, which, according to The New York Times, assumes society should not pay much now to prevent harm from climate change to future generations.</p>
<p>"As a result, the current federal estimates, based on domestic climate damages, are about seven times lower than the prior federal estimates that were based on global damages," the report found.</p><p>The economic costs were supposed to be revised by the National Academy of Sciences, but the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/scientists-epa-panel-air-pollution-2640669910.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" target="_self">White House disbanded the working group</a> and has no intention of restarting them or revising the economic calculation, as The New York Times reported.</p><p>That refusal to update their calculations means future incarnations of the federal government "may not be well positioned to ensure agencies' future regulatory analyses are using the best available <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/">science</a>," according to the GAO report.</p>
<p>Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island and one of eight senators who requested the review, said, "Climate change is a massive threat to our economy. That threat will only grow in years to come, even if we take the action necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change," as The New York Times reported.</p><p>Michael Greenstone, an economist at the University of Chicago, said the Trump administration's calculations were not done in good faith.</p><p>"It was entirely a political act. I don't think anyone pretended that those moves were justified," he said.</p><p>Others see similarities between the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus and its approach to the climate crisis: deny its reality and then leave the country unprepared for its effects.</p><p>"This really parallels the mismanagement of coronavirus," said Michael K. Dorsey, a limited partner with IberSun, a renewable energy company, and a climate expert, to The New York Times. "There's this belief that by doing this you will have some effect of helping the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> industry. The only thing it does, unfortunately, is undermine the ability of the government to make prudent decisions about moving critical resources to communities that are experiencing the unfolding climate crisis."</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Under Trump, EPA Workers Seek Bill of Rights to Allow Them to ... ›
- Trump Adds 'Tasteless Insult to Injury' by Pushing Fossil Fuel ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Climate Explained: What the World Was Like the Last Time Carbon Dioxide Levels Were at 400ppm
12 July
Climate
Marco Bottigelli / Moment / Getty Images
By James Shulmeister
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.
If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz
What was the climate and sea level like at times in Earth’s history when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was at 400ppm?
<p>The last time global carbon dioxide levels were consistently at or above 400 parts per million (ppm) was around <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14145" target="_blank">four million years ago</a> during a geological period known as the <a href="http://www.geologypage.com/2014/05/pliocene-epoch.html" target="_blank">Pliocene Era</a> (between 5.3 million and 2.6 million years ago). The world was about 3℃ warmer and sea levels were higher than today.</p><p>We know how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere contained in the past by studying ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica. As compacted snow gradually changes to ice, it traps air in bubbles that contain <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/annals-of-glaciology/article/enclosure-of-air-during-metamorphosis-of-dry-firn-to-ice/09D9C60A8DA412D16645E6E6ABC1892F" target="_blank">samples of the atmosphere at the time</a>. We can sample ice cores to reconstruct past concentrations of carbon dioxide, but this record only takes us back about a million years.</p><p>Beyond a million years, we don't have any direct measurements of the composition of ancient atmospheres, but we can use several methods to estimate past levels of carbon dioxide. One method uses the relationship between plant pores, known as stomata, that regulate gas exchange in and out of the plant. The density of these stomata is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/095968369200200109" target="_blank">related to atmospheric carbon dioxide</a>, and fossil plants are a good indicator of concentrations in the past.</p><p>Another technique is to examine sediment cores from the ocean floor. The sediments build up year after year as the bodies and shells of dead plankton and other organisms rain down on the seafloor. We can use isotopes (chemically identical atoms that differ only in atomic weight) of boron taken from the shells of the dead plankton to reconstruct changes in the acidity of seawater. From this we can work out the level of carbon dioxide in the ocean.</p><p>The data from four-million-year-old sediments suggest that <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2010PA002055" target="_blank">carbon dioxide was at 400ppm back then</a>.</p>Sea Levels and Changes in Antarctica
<p>During colder periods in Earth's history, ice caps and glaciers grow and sea levels drop. In the recent geological past, during the most recent ice age about 20,000 years ago, sea levels were at least <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/292/5517/679.abstract" target="_blank">120 meters lower</a> than they are today.</p><p><span></span>Sea-level changes are calculated from changes in isotopes of oxygen in the shells of marine organisms. For the Pliocene Era, <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2004PA001071" target="_blank">research</a> shows the sea-level change between cooler and warmer periods was around 30-40 meters and sea level was higher than today. Also during the Pliocene, we know the West Antarctic Ice Sheet was <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature07867" target="_blank">significantly smaller</a> and global average temperatures were about 3℃ warmer than today. Summer temperatures in high northern latitudes were up to 14℃ warmer.</p><p>This may seem like a lot but modern observations show strong <a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/jcli/article/23/14/3888/32547" target="_blank">polar amplification</a> of warming: a 1℃ increase at the equator may raise temperatures at the poles by 6-7℃. It is one of the reasons why Arctic sea ice is disappearing.</p>Impacts in New Zealand and Australia
<p>In the Australian region, there was no Great Barrier Reef, but there may have been <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/BF02537376.pdf" target="_blank">smaller reefs along the northeast coast of Australia</a>. For New Zealand, the partial melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is probably the most critical point.</p><p>One of the key features of New Zealand's current climate is that Antarctica is cut off from global circulation during the winter because of the big <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3402/tellusa.v54i5.12161" target="_blank">temperature contrast</a> between Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. When it comes back into circulation in springtime, New Zealand gets strong storms. Stormier winters and significantly warmer summers were likely in the mid-Pliocene because of a weaker polar vortex and a warmer Antarctica.</p><p>It will take more than a few years or decades of carbon dioxide concentrations at 400ppm to trigger a significant shrinking of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. But recent studies show that <a href="http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/521027/" target="_blank">West Antarctica is already melting</a>.</p><p>Sea-level rise from a partial melting of West Antarctica could easily exceed a meter or more by 2100. In fact, if the whole of the West Antarctic melted it could <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.695.7239&rep=rep1&type=pdf" target="_blank">raise sea levels by about 3.5 meters</a>. Even smaller increases raise the risk of <a href="https://www.pce.parliament.nz/publications/preparing-new-zealand-for-rising-seas-certainty-and-uncertainty" target="_blank">flooding in low-lying cities</a> including Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.</p>From Your Site Articles
- Scientists Sound the Alarm: CO2 Levels Race Past Point of No Return ›
- Global Carbon Levels Surpass 400 ppm for First Time Ever for Entire ... ›
- Carbon Dioxide Levels Set to Pass 400 ppm and Remain Above ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
An aerial view of Miami, Florida. Ann Baekken / CC BY 2.0
By Tara Lohan
With its white-sand beaches and glittery high-rises, Miami is still a vacation hotspot. But lapping at those shores is another reality. The city is also a "possible future Atlantis, and a metonymic stand-in for how the rest of the developed world might fail — or succeed — in the climate-changed future," wrote Miami journalist Mario Alejandro Ariza in his forthcoming book, Disposable City: Miami's Future on the Shores of Climate Catastrophe.
<p>This may not be news to some. The city's plight has been the subject of <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/miami-how-rising-sea-levels-endanger-south-florida-200956/" target="_blank">investigative reporting</a> and even viral news stories after an <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/11/supermoon-tide-miami-sea-level-octopus-garage/#:~:text=The%20recent%20supermoon%20created%20difficult,along%20the%20South%20Florida%20coast." target="_blank">octopus showed up in a parking garage</a> following an especially high tide.</p>
<p>But Ariza takes a much deeper, more personal dive into the slowly unfolding disaster. Along the way he finds that the central question is whether South Florida — home to 6.5 million people — can <em>equitably</em> withstand what's coming. To do so it will need to reckon with its past sins. "Miami is a damn beautiful city, and it rests on a sodden foundation of merciless racial and environmental exploitation," he wrote.</p><p>The first step is figuring out how much sea-level rise there may be and when it's coming — but even that isn't easy, and there's no one definitive number. The regional climate change compact predicts two to six feet of sea-level rise by the end of the century; a NASA scientist has said eight to 10 feet.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQwNjkxNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMzg4Mzk1NH0.7OV9mAqMYmMFtuXovCirxAic2DnEvGjzKu03NdxZMMY/img.jpg?width=980" id="c0b56" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f92297ec36700237885d6b9112edfd96" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>One thing is certain, though: 20 percent of Miami-Dade County sits less than two feet above the sea. And by some estimates, the water could get that high in just 40 years.</p><p>The time to determine what future Miami may have is now.</p><p>After detailing that grim if uncertain reality, Ariza takes a detailed journey through South Florida's vulnerabilities, what actions the region is taking, and those it isn't. The first-person narrative follows Ariza through smelly, flooded city streets; a rigorous paddle to assess the risks to local infrastructure by kayak; and a day traipsing through thick swamps with two veterans to capture invasive Burmese pythons slithering amok.</p><p>This drives home a few points: South Florida's environmental problems aren't limited to sea-level rise — although the rising water could make much of it worse.</p><p>The draining of swamps, altering of water courses and brazen development have taken a mighty ecological toll. The Everglades are dying, and restoration efforts are painfully slow. The Miami River is choked by nutrient pollution — from leaking septic systems and fertilizer runoff — that's killing seagrasses, a keystone species of shallow marine ecosystems, and an important buffer against storms.</p><p>Environmental collapse is just part of the problem, though. There's also economic distress.</p>
<p>"If you expect to survive into the middle of the 21st century, you might just get to watch Miami die," Ariza wrote. "But not before the changing climate stretches the city's already yawning gap between rich and poor past its breaking point."</p><p>Miami-Dade is a majority-minority county with half its residents foreign-born. It also has an enormous wealth gap, with 6 in 10 residents spending more than one-third of their income on housing. And most of those who are struggling to make ends meet are black and Hispanic service-sector workers, Ariza explains.</p><p>It's precisely those communities with the fewest resources that will be hardest hit by stronger storms, hotter temperatures and rising tides. These inequities "are as dangerous as the city's low-lying topography and porous geology," he wrote.</p><p>Already a kind of climate gentrification is underway.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQwNjkxOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMTM2NjQ2N30.prNLB71aP9lmgef6N0nfm4tb6CV-SuwU26pAc0w3FXE/img.jpg?width=980" id="50ce2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="84b419fd9ff9294df51b00f3551c89cc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/miami-climate-ariza/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em><em></em></p><a href="https://therevelator.org/" target="_blank"></a>Flooding in Miami's Brickell neighborhood in 2017. Phillip Pessar / CC BY 2.0
<p>Ariza explains how decades of racist policies and real-estate practices have pushed communities of color away from the beach and the newly emerging suburbs. They ended up sandwiched in between, in an area of high ground that now looks enticing to developers.</p><p>This new pressure is increasing gentrification in communities already barely surviving. It's liable to get worse, too, Ariza explains. Between $15-$23 billion worth of property may be underwater in 30 years. The market has yet to broadly reflect that, but developers are building on borrowed time, even as the lower-income communities are already feeling the pinch.</p><p>"Everything we know about climate change indicates that it pulls at society's loose ends," said Ariza. These cracks in vulnerability could become chasms if the right policies aren't enacted as the city works to mitigate and adapt.</p><p>By the end of <em>Disposable City, </em>it's likely readers won't be wildly optimistic about Miami's chances. But they will be armed with a deeper view of what's at stake and the complexities of trying to solve an environmental and social challenge of this magnitude. Even if the city itself does everything right, it still needs the state of Florida to embrace climate reality and the rest of the world to meet science-based targets for greenhouse gas reductions. Efforts are underway, including a <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article243276326.html" target="_blank">newly released draft plan</a> from the Army Corps of Engineers to spend $4.6 billion on sea walls and other projects to protect businesses and homes from storm surges. But much more will be needed.</p><p>In Miami these next decades will be fight or flight. Or a combination of both. And he muses on what that would look like. And feel like. Ariza himself is an immigrant, having come to Miami from the Dominican Republic as a kid. He already carries the grief of having left a homeland — a feeling that half the city's population also knows intimately.</p><p>"Now we have to face the fact that climate change may well force us to scatter again," he wrote.</p><p>The end of the book turns from this hard reality to a future vision as Ariza shifts to a fictional envisioning. No spoilers, but it's safe to say Miami in 2100 will be a changed place. And that's at least one thing we know for sure about this warming world — it is a changing one.</p><p>Ariza's deep dive into Miami is an intricate look at <em>his</em> vulnerable city, but it's likely to get readers thinking about their own. What will your hometown look like in 80 years? What do you want it to look like? What will you do to make that hope a reality?</p>From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Residents plant mangroves on the coast of West Aceh District in Indonesia on Feb. 21, 2020. Mangroves play a crucial role in stabilizing the coastline, providing protection from storms, waves and tidal erosion. Dekyon Eon / Opn Images / Barcroft Media via Getty Images
Mangroves play a vital role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere. Mangrove forests are tremendous assets in the fight to stem the climate crisis. They store more carbon than a rainforest of the same size.
<p>However, they are under threat from <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a>. A <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aba2656" target="_blank">new study</a> found that if emissions continue unabated, mangroves will not be able to keep up and could disappear in 30 years, as <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/4/21280580/sea-level-rise-mangroves-climate-change-2050" target="_blank">The Verge</a> reported.</p><p>The new study published in the journal <em><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aba2656" target="_blank">Science</a></em> found that mangroves will start to die out if sea levels rise just six millimeters per year. However, mangroves are more likely to survive when sea level rise is less than 5 millimeters (about 0.2 inches) per year, which is projected for low-emissions scenarios this century, according to a Rutgers University <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200604152109.htm" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p>
<p>"Under high-emissions scenarios, rates of sea-level rise on many tropical coastlines will exceed 7 millimeters per year, the rate at which we concluded there's a 6.2 percent probability mangroves can sustain growth," said co-author Erica Ashe, a post-doctoral scientist in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University, in the <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200604152109.htm" target="_blank">statement</a>. "The loss of these mangrove ecosystems could result in increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and fewer vital buffers against storm surges in the long run."</p><p>Around the world, there are 80 different species of mangrove trees. All of them grow in warm, shallow, coastal waters around the tropics. They spread their roots in sediment that is under the water, while their upper trunks, branches and leaves are above the water. The forests usually flood twice a day during high tide, according to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/mangrove-forests-expected-sea-level-rise-2050-greenhouse-gas-emissions-1508466" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>.</p><p>They play a crucial role in stabilizing the coastline, providing protection from storms, waves, and tidal erosion. Their root systems provide a habitat for fish and other animals, according to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/mangrove-forests-expected-sea-level-rise-2050-greenhouse-gas-emissions-1508466" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>. Mangrove forests work their magic by pulling freshwater from salty seawater to serve as a nursery for fish, crustaceans and shellfish. But if their roots are completely submerged for too long, the mangroves will drown.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/4/21280580/sea-level-rise-mangroves-climate-change-2050" target="_blank">The Verge</a> noted, mangrove forests are a boon to people and the planet, which is why scientists in Florida have sought to use mangroves as a defense for coastal communities from the ravages of the climate crisis. However, for mangroves to help us, we will first need to help them.</p><p>"We have an opportunity here to take action and to keep the rates of sea level rise below these critical thresholds, which is part of the reason that this is an important study," says Ashe, as <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/4/21280580/sea-level-rise-mangroves-climate-change-2050" target="_blank">The Verge</a> reported.</p><p>To figure out just how much sea level rise was too much for the mangroves, Ashe and her colleagues, led by Neil Saintilan from Macquarie University in Australia, examined sediment core samples from 78 locations around the world. Those samples shed light on how mangroves responded to past changes in the rate of sea level rise, which went from more than 10 millimeters (0.39 inches) per year nearly 10,000 years ago to almost stable around 4,000 years later, as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/mangrove-forests-expected-sea-level-rise-2050-greenhouse-gas-emissions-1508466" target="_blank">Newsweek</a> reported. They discovered that mangrove ecosystems only developed when rates of sea level rise dropped below about 7 millimeters a year.</p>
<p>"There was good news and bad news. The good news was that mangroves were clearly capable of surviving much higher rates of sea-level rise than we have around the world at present," Saintilan told <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/mangrove-forests-expected-sea-level-rise-2050-greenhouse-gas-emissions-1508466" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>. "There were many examples where mangroves were able to keep pace with sea-level rise of 5 millimeters per year; the current rate is just over 3 millimeters per year."</p><p>"However, there was little evidence that mangroves could keep pace with sea-level rise of over 7 millimeters per year, and this threshold was lower for mangroves on coral reef settings, which failed to keep pace with sea-level rise above 5 millimeters per year. If the rate of sea-level rise doubles, mangroves are in serious trouble," he added.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Protecting Mangroves Can Prevent Billions of Dollars in Global ... ›
- Could the 'Mangrove Effect' Save Coasts From Sea Level Rise ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
According to researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Louisiana experiences one of the highest rates of sea level rise on the planet, as evidenced by this home on stilts on August 24, 2019 in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Drew Angerer / Getty Images
By Alistair Walsh
Global sea levels will probably rise by even more than currently predicted, scientists warned on Friday.
<p><br/></p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/sea-levels-could-rise-13-meters-by-2100-scientists-warn/a-53367946?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2645952057#/" target="_self"></a></p>
<p>Even if nations are able to achieve their Paris-Agreement commitment to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the oceans will still rise by about 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) by the end of the century and as much as 2 meters by 2300, a new study found.</p><p>If nations fail to act, and current emissions lead to warming of 4.5 degrees, then sea levels are predicted to rise between 0.6 and 1.3 meters by 2100 and between 1.7 and 5.6 meters by 2300.</p><p>The predictions are based on a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-020-0121-5" target="_blank">survey of 106 of the world's leading sea level researchers</a>, carried out by scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and co-authored by researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the Nature Partner Journal Climate and Atmospheric Science.</p>
Mitigation Is 'In Our Hands'
<p>"What we do now within a few decades will determine sea-level rise for many centuries, the new analysis shows more clearly than ever before," PIK's Stefan Rahmstorf said. "But this is also good news: when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, we have it in our own hands how much we increase the risks for millions of people on the world's coasts, from Hamburg to Shanghai and from Mumbai to New York.</p><p>The predictions are higher than those currently published by the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/what-is-the-ipcc-and-what-does-it-do/a-50552119" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)</a>, which has already increased its predictions.</p><p>In September 2019, the UN climate science panel found that <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/ipcc-15-c-degree-report-points-to-high-stakes-of-climate-inaction/a-45791882" target="_blank">unmitigated climate change would lead to a sea level rise</a> of between 0.61 meters and 1.1 meters by 2100. At the time it said the forecast could be conservative due to the speed at which Antarctic ice could melt.</p><p>Friday's report said the increased forecast came from better data and improved understanding of climate processes.</p>Data for Decision Makers
<p>"The complexity of the sea-level rise projections and the sheer volume of relevant scientific publications makes it difficult for policy makers to gain an overview of the state of research," NTU's Benjamin Horton said in a statement.</p><p>"For such an overview, it is therefore useful to ask leading experts what kind of sea-level rise they expect — this gives a broader picture of future scenarios and provides policymakers with the information they need to decide on the necessary measures."</p>From Your Site Articles
- Greenland Ice Sheet Melt Creates Huge Waterfalls, Increasing ... ›
- Sea Level Rise Has Already Cost 8 East Coast States More Than ... ›
- Worst Case Sea Level Rise by Century's End Could Be Doubled ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
An oil pipeline stretches across the landscape outside Prudhoe Bay in North Slope Borough, Alaska on May 25, 2019. This photo was featured prominently in The Washington Post's Pulitzer prize-winning series 2°C: Beyond the Limit. Bonnie Jo Mount / The Washington Post via Getty Images
Environment and climate stories made strong showings in this year's Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists, which were announced Monday.
<p>The Washington Post won the top prize for explanatory reporting for its "2°C: Beyond the Limit" series, which used temperature data from across the globe to examine places where warming has already exceeded the 2 degrees C threshold.</p><p>Other climate-related stories were also named as finalists across several different categories, including The New York Times's work on the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump</a> administration's war on <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/" target="_self">science</a>; the Los Angeles Times's explanatory reporting on how Californians are adapting to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a>; the Wall Street Journal's series on PG&E's failures in the lead up to, and aftermath of, the deadly Camp Fire; a Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial on a copper mine's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/water" target="_self">water</a> pollution; and a feature piece in the Boston Globe on how climate change is threatening Cape Cod. </p>
<div id="ff838" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2ae625522c335405ef0f6d1239107b1b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1257465792163176448" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Truly humbling to be a part of these @washingtonpost teams: 2°C: Beyond the Limit won the Pulitzer for explanatory… https://t.co/IMgUCELOrv</div> — Courtney Kan (@Courtney Kan)<a href="https://twitter.com/ChasingCrumbs/statuses/1257465792163176448">1588638182.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="8b36e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f2557f62931500603b0b3dedd56df6af"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1257410524716900356" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">'Grats to @bradplumer & @CoralMDavenport for Pulitzer public service finalist piece on Trump war on science https://t.co/gaX0w4iq07</div> — Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) (@Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ))<a href="https://twitter.com/sejorg/statuses/1257410524716900356">1588625005.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="0a1c5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f72cca42c40788ffd44d406e3d15c629"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1257517376804990976" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">From the team that brought you the story on California’s rising seas - a 2020 Pulitzer finalist - comes a guide to… https://t.co/Ylmrkq0k0E</div> — Los Angeles Times (@Los Angeles Times)<a href="https://twitter.com/latimes/statuses/1257517376804990976">1588650480.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="8e1b6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0964edc9cbf057b3914c1fb396a6c2a3"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1210798810596724737" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Three CEOs. Two bankruptcies. The worst wildfire in California history. This is the story of PG&E. https://t.co/Q9HBW3WF35</div> — The Wall Street Journal (@The Wall Street Journal)<a href="https://twitter.com/WSJ/statuses/1210798810596724737">1577511906.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="5a76e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b1c1fac3bf408189916be209a60042b5"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1257389970219819009" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Congratulations to Star Tribune Opinion's @jburcum for being named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for editorial writing… https://t.co/iaKGJ3TgP2</div> — Scott Gillespie (@Scott Gillespie)<a href="https://twitter.com/stribgillespie/statuses/1257389970219819009">1588620104.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="f94a4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5294851c40d59bb9e1427f37469c550b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1186772831985643522" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Full house tonight at the "At The Edge Of A Warming World" event co-sponsored by our #ConnectedCoastlines partners… https://t.co/M5EluQl8I4</div> — Pulitzer Center (@Pulitzer Center)<a href="https://twitter.com/pulitzercenter/statuses/1186772831985643522">1571783666.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong><br/></p><p>Links to Pulitzer pieces: <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/rosanna-xia-swetha-kannan-and-terry-castleman-los-angeles-times?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87424542&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8w7qY5Hxgt5Tx4QjZLf91CpaEUEcwEifNEqCyP_THmbEPUhIAS-QftlolmuLalmvqKSJQV&utm_content=87424542&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/new-york-times-2?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87424542&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8TwmmS-9hkVDjkPhkWxG-6ZgxP-yTcdi_5KZBO5zf478ePfSiaNwN_RHSD6p538CnKoHff&utm_content=87424542&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/rosanna-xia-swetha-kannan-and-terry-castleman-los-angeles-times?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87424542&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--XKZY0FC9ImiJtdSStMs0s4VUtOOPjsC068IC4wMBioj_zgQM3tXd_yhN2q5ty0zDbmjYP&utm_content=87424542&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Los Angeles Times</a>, <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/staff-wall-street-journal-0?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87424542&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--T4d4T1nBDc_gi5YqXvPbtAK_uyamPzjtQN1lL2IvyORUvyTiAiaP8UA-OjR5jIbfcp0Qm&utm_content=87424542&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a>, <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/jill-burcum-star-tribune-minneapolis-minn?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87424542&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8jH09M0ICvW8wvvOorVk6t_MWR0OQG3UFkW2Dow5vdsWY234Ri-7X0DrIEUSqj52I457yw&utm_content=87424542&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Star Tribune</a>, <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/nestor-ramos-boston-globe?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87424542&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9ntXQqKWUar9frzlh_x4sSIheWj5eHCgKwVVTS_5ZMeudJX6mL5SlcmVoQ4KOa5oqVPUMf&utm_content=87424542&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Boston Globe</a></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Solutions Journalism Covers More Than Just the Bad News ... ›
- Has Climate News Coverage Finally Turned a Corner? - EcoWatch ›
- Climate Change Literature That Made Waves in 2019 - EcoWatch ›
- Media Coverage of Climate Change Increased in 2019 - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Antarctica and Greenland Raised Sea Levels More Than Half an Inch in Just 16 Years, New NASA Data Shows
01 May
Climate
Greenland's fast-melting Kangerdlugssup glacier. NASA / Jim Yungel
Greenland and Antarctica have raised global sea levels by more than half an inch in the last 16 years, according to data from the most advanced laser that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has ever launched into space to observe the earth.
<p>While the figures themselves are consistent with other studies, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/30/climate/antarctica-ice-climate-change.html?campaign_id=51&emc=edit_MBE_p_20200501&instance_id=18124&nl=morning-briefing&regi_id=88631294&section=whatElse&segment_id=26351&te=1&user_id=d8eb7cee9d3c5ab39515239b6ec54d19" target="_blank">The New York Times pointed out</a>, the satellite laser allows researchers a much more precise picture of how polar ice is changing over time, which helps determine the role of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> and plan for future <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a>.</p><p>"We've all been waiting for this new dataset," Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory research professor Robin Bell <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/30/848398472/antarctica-and-greenland-are-losing-thousands-of-gigatons-of-ice-thats-a-lot?utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=npr&fbclid=IwAR2t-fTSchEfWMFJe_R91Jy86koAqTfmGlewTvq9eG6z0lzpdM1w8GjogGY" target="_blank">told NPR</a>.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="621570aea3d706b7da49f9c5e8369246"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RhpKYVGzhRY?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<p>The study, <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/04/29/science.aaz5845" target="_blank">published in Science Thursday</a>, combines data from two NASA satellites: the original Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), which took measurements from 2003 to 2009, and ICESat-2, launched in 2018. The two satellites allowed researchers to measure changes in ice mass from 2003 to 2019, and to calculate that Greenland and Antarctica contributed 0.55 inches to sea level rise during that time. That's around a third of the global total, which was also driven by the expansion of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">oceans</a> as they warm, NPR explained.</p><p>"If you watch a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers" target="_self">glacier</a> or ice sheet for a month, or a year, you're not going to learn much about what the climate is doing to it," University of Washington glaciologist and lead study author Ben Smith said in a <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2981/nasa-space-laser-missions-map-16-years-of-ice-sheet-loss/?fbclid=IwAR0vi9r5VM03t_d9hDoceJSHkeEsxDtzOIApDy3x4TniEx4UowY02_j-bSM" target="_blank">NASA press release</a>. "We now have a 16-year span between ICESat and ICESat-2 and can be much more confident that the changes we're seeing in the ice have to do with the long-term changes in the climate."</p>
<p>The data also revealed that Greenland's ice sheet lost an average of 200 gigatons of ice per year and Antarctica's lost an average of 118. That's more than 5,000 gigatons total, NPR reported. To put that in perspective, one gigaton is enough to fill 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.</p><p>But the satellite data also helped show how the ice was being lost. In Antarctica, the East actually gained mass, probably because of increased precipitation, The New York Times reported. But this was offset by losses in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula. In West Antarctica, 30 percent of that loss was due to floating ice, which either calves icebergs or melts from below due to warm ocean water. While this ice cannot contribute directly to sea level rise because it is already floating, its loss destabilizes the so-called "grounded ice" that can.</p><p>"It's like an apple tart and the ice shelves are like the wall of pastry around the edges of the tart," Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego glaciologist and study coauthor Helen Fricker explained to NPR. "And if those walls are too thin or they're not baked well enough, then the filling will ooze out."</p><p>In Greenland, two thirds of the ice loss was due to surface melting, something that rarely occurs in Antarctica, The New York Times said. Greenland also lost a lot of mass from its coastal glaciers, according to NASA. Its Kangerdulgssuaq and Jakobshavn glaciers have shrunken by 14 to 20 feet per year.</p>
<p>NASA explained why its satellites were able to provide such a detailed portrait:</p><blockquote>ICESat-2's instrument is a laser altimeter, which sends 10,000 pulses of light a second down to Earth's surface, and times how long it takes to return to the satellite – to within a billionth of a second. The instrument's pulse rate allows for a dense map of measurement over the ice sheet; its high precision allows scientists to determine how much an ice sheet changes over a year to within an inch.<br><br>The researchers took tracks of earlier ICESat measurements and overlaid the tracks of ICESat-2 measurements from 2019, and took data from the tens of millions of sites where the two data sets intersected. That gave them the elevation change, but to get to how much ice has been lost, the researchers developed a new model to convert volume change to mass change. The model calculated densities across the ice sheets to allow the total mass loss to be calculated.</blockquote><p>This level of detail is essential for helping coastal residents and governments plan for sea level rise, which is expected to reach two to six feet by 2100, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/30/climate-change-antarctica-greenland-ice-melt-raised-sea-levels-by-half-inch-in-last-16-years.html" target="_blank">according to CNBC</a>.</p><p>"Our goal is to be able to tell every coastal community what they can plan on [in] the coming decades," Bell told NPR. "To be able to do that, we both need to measure how the ice is changing but also understand better why it's changing."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzE4MDk2Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNDc4Mzk0N30.Rbb3ARMCnLYOO3MZLifQKukrhl_Nmz5QK7c3548ah-Y/img.jpg?width=980" id="ab265" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d44020dfec235f741cdfed52bc1a1fe7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Antarctica before and after its hottest day on record Feb. 6. NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and GEOS-5 data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC.
From Your Site Articles
- Greenland Lost 600 Billion Tons of Ice Last Summer, Raising Sea ... ›
- Scientist Suggests After Finding Warm Waters Below Greenland ›
- Trump Wants to Eliminate NASA's Climate Research Programs ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Small iceberg in ice fjord with mountainous background, Southern Greenland. Education Images / Universal Images Group / Getty Images
Greenland's kilometers-long ice sheet underwent near-record imbalance last year, scientists have reported on Wednesday.
The ice sheet suffered a net loss of 600 billion tons, which was enough to raise the global watermark 1.5 millimeters, accounting for approximately 40% of total sea-level rise in 2019.
The alarming development was reported in "The Cryosphere," a peer-reviewed journal published by the European Geosciences Union.
<p>Researchers noted that the massive melt was not due only to warm temperatures but also to unusual high-pressure weather systems, which suggested that scientists may be <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/tipping-points-some-corners-of-the-globe-have-a-key-impact-on-climate-change/a-16196401" target="_blank">underestimating the threats the ice faces</a>.</p><p>The unusual high-pressure weather systems are linked to climate change and they have blocked the formation of clouds, causing unfiltered sunlight to melt the surface of the ice sheet. </p><p>Fewer clouds also meant less snow, which researchers found to be some 100 billion tons below the 1980-1999 average. </p>
<p>"These atmospheric conditions are becoming more and more frequent over the past few decades," said lead author Marco Tedesco, a scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.</p><p>"This is very likely due to the 'waviness' in the jet stream," a powerful, high-altitude ribbon of wind moving from west to east over the polar region, he said. </p><p>"We're destroying ice in decades that was built over thousands of years," Tedesco warned. </p><p>Greenland's ice sheet is the second largest in the world and it is located high in the Arctic region, where average temperatures have risen 2 degrees Celsius since the mid-19th century, twice the global average. </p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/record-shrinking-of-greenlands-ice-sheet-raises-sea-levels/a-53155868?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2645742998#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
- Greenland Temps Soar 40 Degrees Above Normal, Record Melting ... ›
- Greenland Lost 600 Billion Tons of Ice Last Summer, Raising Sea ... ›
- Greenland's Ice Sheet Is Melting at Rate That Surpasses Scientists ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Trending
Antarctica's Denman Glacier. NASA
Antarctica's Denman Canyon is the deepest gorge on the Earth's surface, and, if the ice inside it melted, it could raise sea levels by almost five feet.
<p>Now, research published in <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2019GL086291" target="_blank">Geophysical Research Letters</a> Monday looked at how close that might be to happening and found that the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers" target="_self">glacier</a> had retreated five kilometers (approximately three miles) in the last 22 years, according to a <a href="https://news.uci.edu/2020/03/23/east-antarcticas-denman-glacier-has-retreated-almost-3-miles-over-last-22-years/" target="_blank">University of California Irvine (UCI) press release</a>.</p><p>"If warm water continues to induce high rates of ice melt near the glacier grounding zone, the potential exists for Denman Glacier to undergo a rapid and irreversible retreat, with major consequences for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a>," the researchers concluded.</p><p>The study, carried out by scientists at UCI and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is the most detailed of the glacier to date. It found that it has lost 268 billion tons of ice between 1979 and 2017. It also noticed that the glacier's grounding line ― the point where the ice begins to flow into the ocean ― had retreated asymmetrically, falling back mostly on the Western side.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52007637" target="_blank">BBC News</a> explained why:</p><blockquote>The reason, the scientists can now determine, is a buried ridge under the eastern flank which is pinning and protecting that side of the glacier. In contrast, the western flank features a narrow but sizeable trough that would allow warm ocean water to erode the grounding line and push it backwards.<br><br>This potentially is an Achilles heel. The further inland the glacier reaches, the deeper its bed - which is a geometry that has been demonstrated to favour more and more melting. If a lot of warm ocean water can find its way to the front of Denman, the opportunity is there to melt out its ice in a significant way.</blockquote><p>NASA's Dr. Virginia Brancato told BBC News it was impossible to say how fast that ice would melt and that the narrowness of the channel that housed the glacier might also slow down its retreat.</p>
<p>"At present, it is critical to collect more data, and closely and more frequently monitor the future evolution of the glacier," she told BBC News.</p><p>The findings also reflect growing concern among researchers about East Antarctica, where the glacier is located. The region is considered more stable than fast-melting West Antarctica, but that is changing.</p><p>"East Antarctica has long been thought to be less threatened, but as glaciers such as Denman have come under closer scrutiny by the cryosphere science community, we are now beginning to see evidence of potential marine ice sheet instability in this region," study co-author and UCI scientist Eric Rignot said in the university release. "The ice in West Antarctica has been melting faster in recent years, but the sheer size of Denman Glacier means that its potential impact on long-term sea level rise is just as significant."</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Man Swims Under East Antarctic Glacier to Highlight Impacts of the ... ›
- Antarctic Glacial Melt May Be Irreversible Causing Sea Rise ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Greenland Lost 600 Billion Tons of Ice Last Summer, Raising Sea Levels, NASA Study Finds
19 March
Science
Umiamako Glacier enters the ocean in the west of Greenland. E.RIGNOT / NASA
Greenland experienced an unusually warm summer in 2019, which caused the world's largest island to lose 600 billion tons of ice and raised sea levels by 0.2 of an inch, according to a NASA study released yesterday. That amount of ice loss more than doubled Greenland's 2002-2019 annual average.
<p>The data comes from the joint <a href="https://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grace-fo/" target="_blank">U.S.-German space mission known as Grace-FO</a>, a pair of satellites that circle the globe and sense the variations in mass that correspond to Earth's gravity field, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51954988" target="_blank">according to the BBC</a>. The satellites are particularly adept at sensing tiny changes in the Earth's gravitational field caused by ice gain or loss. They have proven themselves useful in detecting groundwater storage around the globe, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/03/18/greenland-lost-near-record-600-billion-tons-ice-last-summer-raising-sea-levels/" target="_blank">according to the Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>The study also looked at Antarctica, noting that it continues to lose its ice mass, particularly in the Amundsen Sea Embayment and the Antarctic Peninsula on the western part of the continent, according to <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7618" target="_blank">NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a>. </p>
<p>"We knew this past summer had been particularly warm in Greenland, melting every corner of the ice sheet," lead author Isabella Velicogna, senior project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a professor at University of California, Irvine, said in a <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7618" target="_blank">statement</a>. "But the numbers really are enormous."</p>
<p>The study was published in the journal <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2020GL087291" target="_blank">Geophysical Research Letters</a>. It tracked ice loss in Greenland dating back to 2002, using information from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) satellites, which went out of commission in 2017, and the new Grace-FO satellites, which launched in 2018. The FO stands for Follow On, as The Washington Post reported.</p>
<p>The satellites revealed that from 2002 to 2019, Greenland lost 4,550 billion tons of ice, for an average of 261 billion tons every year, according to The Washington Post. 2012 and 2019 were the two largest melt years in that time frame, the BBC reported.</p>
<p>Velicogna told The Washington Post what made 2019 so different in Greenland was that there was a lot of melting from the glaciers in the north and northeastern glaciers, which is unusual. </p>
<p>"And, so, basically, we have melting all around the ice sheet," she said. </p>
<p>In the coastal town of Ilulissat, not far from where the mighty Jakobshavn Glacier enters the ocean, temperatures reached into the high 20s Celsius this summer. The warm temperatures even reached the ice sheet's interior, which approached above freezing levels, the BBC reported. </p>
<p>"It's significant that we're now seeing melt and mass loss extending to Greenland's northern glaciers. All of Greenland contributed to the big summer melt of last year," Velicogna said, according to the BBC.</p>
<p>Robin Bell, an expert on ice sheet dynamics at Columbia University, to The Washington Post that the satellite data will help researchers improve the accuracy of their future sea-level rise estimates. </p><p>"This is a beautiful update of how we can really see how the ice sheets are changing…from the annual inhale and exhale as snow accumulates in the winter in Greenland and melts in the summer," she said.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- New Satellite Maps Show World's Major Ice Caps Melting at ... ›
- Greenland's Ice Sheet Is Melting at Rate That Surpasses Scientists ... ›
- Scientist Suggests After Finding Warm Waters Below Greenland ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Orlando Wetlands Park in central Florida. Bkamprath / iStock/ Getty Images Plus
By Kimberly M.S. Cartier
Mangrove forests, marshes and seagrass beds protect inland areas from storm surges and strong winds. Over long periods, coastal wetlands like these build up sediment that mitigates sea level rise and local land subsidence.
<p>A new analysis of property damage from Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastal storms has shown that counties with larger wetlands suffered lower property damage costs than did counties with smaller wetlands.</p><p>"Starting in 1996, the U.S. government started to produce damage estimates for each tropical cyclone in a consistent manner," explained coauthor <a href="https://econweb.ucsd.edu/~rcarson/" target="_blank">Richard Carson</a>, an economist at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in La Jolla. Before that, the data were collected only for hurricanes, which hindered <a href="http://www.robertcostanza.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2008_J_Costanza_HurricaneProtection.pdf" target="_blank">past attempts</a> to put a price on the marginal value, or price per unit, of wetlands, he said.</p><p>With the complete data set, the researchers examined all 88 tropical cyclones and hurricanes that affected the U.S. starting in 1996. That time period includes Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.</p>
<h3>A Protective and Economic Boon</h3><p>In addition to property damage data for tropical cyclones of all strengths, "our data set has considerably more spatial resolution," Carson said, "which is a result of large amounts of information on storm tracks, property location, and wetland location all being digitized for use in a geographical information system basis."</p><p>First author <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/fanglin-sun-b34640123/" target="_blank">Fanglin Sun</a>, formerly at UCSD and now an economist at Amazon.com, added that "areas subject to flood risk in a county are more accurately estimated, based on local elevation data and detailed information on individual storm trajectories" and wind speeds throughout affected areas.</p><p>The finer level of detail for the storm data let the researchers finally begin connecting wetland coverage and storm damage on a county-by-county basis, Carson said. "A storm track moving a couple of kilometers one direction or the other allows the amount of wetland protection to vary within the same county."</p><p>In terms of property damage, Sun and Carson found that a square kilometer of wetlands saved an average of $1.8 million per year. Over the next 30 years, an average unit of wetlands could save $36 million in storm damage.</p><p>Some wetlands were valued at less than $800 per year per square kilometer and some at nearly $100 million. That marginal value depended on many factors, including a county's property values, existing wetland coverage, coastline shape, elevation, building codes, and chance of actually experiencing damaging winds. And each of those variables fluctuated over the 20 years the team studied.</p><p>Overall, the highest-valued wetlands were in urban counties with large populations and the lowest-valued were in rural areas with small populations. However, wetlands provided a greater relative savings against weaker cyclones and in counties with <a href="https://eos.org/articles/equity-concerns-raised-in-federal-flood-property-buyouts" target="_blank">less stringent building codes </a>— areas that might not expect or plan for a tropical storm.</p><p>The team found no significant difference in the marginal value of saltwater versus freshwater wetlands or mangroves versus marshes. "Forested wetlands tend to be better at reducing wind speed and marshes tend to be better at absorbing water," Carson said, "so the specific nature of the storm when it hits an area is likely to matter. [But] our results suggest that, on average, there is no difference."</p><p>The team <a href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1915169117" target="_blank">published</a> these results in <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</em> on March 3.</p>
<h3>Wetlands at Risk</h3><p>Most areas that have experienced storm-related property damage in the past 20 years have also lost wetland coverage, the researchers found. They calculated that Floridians would have been spared $480 million in property damage from Hurricane Irma alone had the <a href="https://eos.org/articles/hurricanes-hit-puerto-ricos-mangroves-harder-than-floridas" target="_blank">state's wetland</a> coverage not shrunk by 2.8% in the decade prior.</p><p>Moreover, recent changes to the <a href="https://eos.org/opinions/new-clean-water-act-rule-leaves-u-s-waters-vulnerable" target="_blank">Clean Water Act</a> have made the remaining coastal wetlands more vulnerable.</p><p>"The federal government, with respect to the U.S. Clean Water Act, took the position that the previous wetland studies were not reliable enough for use in assessing the benefits and cost of protecting wetlands," Carson said.</p><p>"The value coastal wetlands provide for storm protection is substantial and should be taken into account as policy makers debate the Clean Water Act," Sun said. "It's also worth noting," she added, "that storm protection for property is just one of many <a href="https://eos.org/research-spotlights/coastal-wetlands-effectively-sequester-blue-carbon" target="_blank">ecological services</a> that wetlands provide. We hope our study will spur future research quantifying these other services as well."</p><p>With tropical storms and hurricanes expected to happen more often because of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a>, the team wrote, wetlands will be more economically valuable than ever.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/economic-value-wetlands/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Saving the World's Largest Tropical Wetland - EcoWatch ›
- Protecting the World's Wetlands: 5 Essential Reads - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less