Category: Climate Change

What’s Green, Soggy and Fights Climate Change?

10/11/2020

NY Times

You might be surprised: Protecting peat bogs could help the world avert the worst effects of global warming, a new study has found. Protecting intact peatlands and restoring degraded ones are crucial steps if the world is to counter climate change, European researchers said Friday.

In a study, they said peat bogs, wetlands that contain large amounts of carbon in the form of decaying vegetation that has built up over centuries, could help the world achieve climate goals like the limit of 2 degrees Celsius of postindustrial warming that is part of the 2015 Paris agreement.

How salmon can transform a landscape

11/29/2019

BBC News

Protecting salmon in coastal Canada could have benefits that extend beyond the water they swim in and can have profound impacts on the surrounding landscape.

Skeins of wispy clouds obscure the tops of distant forested mountains, reflected in calm waters. On this midsummer morning at least, the Pacific is living up to its name on this stretch of Canada’s west coast. Backpacks and thermoses in hand, four researchers tread down a wooden strutted ramp to board a boat named the Keta. Scientist Allison Dennert starts the boat, steering away from the dock into the broad channel, glancing at the map on the video console. A brief stop at the Bella Bella dock, to pick up research technician Sarah Humchitt, completes our crew of five.

Washington state to regulate federal dams on Columbia, Snake to cool hot water, aid salmon

1/31/2019

Seattle Times

Dams and climate change are the leading cause of high temperatures in the Columbia and Snake rivers that are killing salmon, according to an EPA draft analysis. Now the state wants to get involved.

Summer temperatures in portions of the Columbia and Snake rivers are up by 1.5 degrees Celsius since 1960 because of the combined effects of climate change and dams, according to a new draft analysis by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The Arctic Ocean Is Becoming More Like the Atlantic Ocean

4/7/2017

Scientific American ~

The changes are already visible in the region, which has had largely ice-free summers since 2011.

The Arctic is undergoing an astonishingly rapid transition as climate change overwhelms the region.

New research sheds light on the latest example of the changes afoot, showing that parts of the Arctic Ocean are becoming more like the Atlantic. Warm waters are streaming into the ocean north of Scandinavia and Russia, altering ocean productivity and chemistry. That’s making sea ice recede and kickstarting a feedback loop that could make summer ice a thing of the past.

Obama blocks new oil, gas drilling in Arctic Ocean

11/18/2016

The Seattle Times ~

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is blocking new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean, handing a victory to environmentalists who say industrial activity in the icy waters will harm whales, walruses and other wildlife and exacerbate global warming.

Arctic Ocean shipping routes 'to open for months'

9/6/2016

BBC News ~

Shipping routes across the Arctic are going to open up significantly this century even with a best-case reduction in CO2 emissions, a new study suggests.

University of Reading, UK, researchers have investigated how the decline in sea-ice, driven by warmer temperatures, will make the region more accessible.

They find that by 2050, opportunities to transit the Arctic will double for non ice-strengthened vessels.

Even for the fast-melting Arctic, 2016 is in ‘uncharted territory’

5/16/2016

The Washington Post ~

One of the oldest and best-established ideas about global warming is that it will hit the Arctic the hardest. The concept, which goes back to papers published decades ago, is called “Arctic amplification,” and the basic idea is that there’s a key feedback in this system that makes everything worse.

It basically works like this: Warmer air melts more of the sea ice cover that sits atop the Arctic ocean, especially during summer, which is, of course, ice melt season. That means the ocean is able to absorb more solar radiation than before, when it was covered with ice that reflected this sunlight away. That means there’s more heat retained in the system — and so on, and so on.

Climate change news: Arctic sea ice growth stunted again

3/29/2016

CNN-

Earth's Arctic ocean freezer is making fewer ice cubes, and that could be a problem throughout the Northern Hemisphere, researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center are warning.

The center, part of the University of Colorado at Boulder, reported Monday that the spread of Arctic sea ice set a new record low for the second straight year, stopping last week at 5.607 million square miles.

Arctic thaw opens shipping waterways, risks to environment

2/25/2016

Reuters -
The Arctic is thawing even faster than lawmakers can formulate new rules to prevent the environmental threat of heavy fuel oil pollution from ships plying an increasingly popular trade route.
Average Arctic temperatures are rising twice as fast as elsewhere in the world and the polar ice cap's permanent cover is shrinking at a rate of around 10 percent per decade. By the end of this century, summers in the Arctic could be free of ice.

Current Events

What’s Green, Soggy and Fights Climate Change?

How salmon can transform a landscape

Washington state to regulate federal dams on Columbia, Snake to cool hot water, aid salmon

The Arctic Ocean Is Becoming More Like the Atlantic Ocean

Obama blocks new oil, gas drilling in Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean shipping routes 'to open for months'

Even for the fast-melting Arctic, 2016 is in ‘uncharted territory’

Climate change news: Arctic sea ice growth stunted again

Arctic thaw opens shipping waterways, risks to environment

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