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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2020 20:05:34 GMT
metaphor, but it was completely frozen, you really need to watch fox more.
Now you need to add carbon units.
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Post by swamprat on Feb 15, 2020 17:49:09 GMT
Antarctica just saw its all-time hottest day ever By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer | Feb. 14, 2020
Temperatures in Antarctica reportedly reached 69.35 degrees Fahrenheit last week, just days after setting another record high of 64.9 F.
An iceberg bobs in the water of the Antarctic Peninsula. (Image: © Shutterstock)
Antarctica just experienced its single hottest day ever recorded, hitting a high of 69.35 degrees Fahrenheit (20.75 degrees Celsius) on Feb. 9, a team of Argentine researchers reported.
This is the first time the temperature on the continent has exceeded 20 degrees C (68 F), the researchers told news site AFP.com, but not the first time the continent has seen a new record-breaking high this month. On Feb. 6, a research station on the Antarctic Peninsula (the continent's northwest tip, closest to South America) reported a high of 64.9 F (18.3 C) — surpassing the previous record of 63.5 F (17.5 C), set in March 2015.
The new 69-degree high was recorded at Argentina's Marambio research base, located on Seymour Island, part of an island chain off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The peninsula is one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth, according to the World Meteorological Organization — an agency of the United Nations (UN) — with average temperatures rising 5.4 F (3 C) over the last 50 years.
At the same time, annual ice loss from the Antarctic ice sheet increased more than sixfold. As the surrounding ocean warms, huge chunks of ice break off and enter the sea, slowly diminishing the continent's icy coastline. If a glacier retreats faster than new ice can form to replace it, that glacier could collapse, potentially spilling billions of tons of ice into the water and contributing to sea level rise. According to NASA, Antarctica's two fastest-shrinking glaciers — the Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier — contain enough vulnerable ice between them to raise sea levels by 4 feet (1.2 meters).
The new record-breaking temperature also fits with global warming trends over the past decade. According to the U.N., 2010 to 2019 was the single hottest decade on record, with 2019 ranking as the second-hottest year ever (the hottest was 2016).
The warming trend is already continuing into the new year: January 2020 was rated the hottest January in the 141-year climate record.
www.livescience.com/antarctica-record-high-temperature.html
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Post by HAL on Feb 15, 2020 17:52:55 GMT
Gort,
I need facts, not Fox News.
If everything was frozen this seems to go against the planet having being formed from accretions and having a molten core.
Also this must have happened before ANY life form existed on the planet. Even fish can't survive in ice.
So, your data source; if you please.
HAL
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2020 18:18:16 GMT
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Post by HAL on Feb 15, 2020 23:32:44 GMT
.. the average temperature was a frigid -20°C, equivalent to modern-day Antarctica. Most life was wiped out, and the creatures that did survive huddled in small pockets of open water, where hot springs continued to bubble up...
So, not a frozen ball of ice after all. and there are many places on the planet where the temperature is regularly way below -20C for long periods.
HAL
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2020 0:18:07 GMT
OK Hal you win
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Post by swamprat on Feb 16, 2020 0:44:24 GMT
Sigh.....
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2020 17:11:24 GMT
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Post by Ak9 on Feb 16, 2020 17:33:09 GMT
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Post by HAL on Feb 16, 2020 20:11:17 GMT
Hey Gort, Don't give up so easily, A few facts shouldn't bother you; Your a Republican,
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Post by swamprat on Feb 19, 2020 16:48:39 GMT
Jeff Bezos putting $10 billion toward climate-change fight By Mike Wall | February 19, 2020
The Bezos Earth Fund will start issuing grants this summer.
A NASA camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite caught this view of Africa and the entire sunlit side of Earth on July 9, 2015. (Image: © NASA)
The fight against climate change is getting a big infusion of cash.
The world's richest person, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, announced on Monday (Feb. 17) that he's starting an organization devoted to that pressing cause — and he's putting in $10 billion of his own money to get it off the ground.
The new Bezos Earth Fund "will fund scientists, activists, NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] — any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world," the billionaire wrote in an Instagram post Monday, which described climate change as "the biggest threat to our planet."
"Today, I am thrilled to announce I am launching the Bezos Earth Fund. I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet," Bezos added. "I'm committing $10 billion to start and will begin issuing grants this summer. Earth is the one thing we all have in common — let's protect it, together."
Bezos has cited environmental concerns as a big motivator for the ambitions of his spaceflight company, Blue Origin, which aims to get millions of people living and working in space. Achieving this goal will take considerable pressure off our beleaguered Earth, Bezos has stressed.
"Blue Origin believes that in order to preserve Earth, our home, for our grandchildren’s grandchildren, we must go to space to tap its unlimited resources and energy," the company's website reads. "Like the Industrial Revolution gave way to trade, economic abundance, new communities and high-speed transportation — our road to space opens the door to the infinite and yet unimaginable future generations might enjoy."
But some people are calling for Bezos — who is worth about $130 billion — to do even more for our planet, as NPR noted.
"We applaud Jeff Bezos' philanthropy, but one hand cannot give what the other is taking away," Amazon Employees For Climate Justice said in a statement Monday, which was released via Twitter.
"The people of Earth need to know: When is Amazon going to stop helping oil & gas companies ravage Earth with still more oil and gas wells?" the statement added. "When is Amazon going to stop funding climate-denying think tanks like the Competitive Enterprise Institute and climate-delaying policy? When will Amazon take responsibility for the lungs of children near its warehouses by moving from diesel to all-electric trucking?"
www.space.com/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-climate-change-fight.html
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Post by swamprat on Feb 20, 2020 16:51:58 GMT
Like I said, DO THE MATH! Study: Fossil fuels’ harm is greater It says human-caused emissions undercounted
Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
February 20, 2020
The amount of methane that comes from burning fossil fuels is much higher than previously thought – as much as 40% higher, a new study suggests.
And the amount from natural sources is far lower.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with more than 80 times the climatewarming impact of carbon dioxide over a 20-year span. It is also the main ingredient in natural gas and is the secondlargest contributor to global warming, after carbon dioxide.
Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas and oil.
Emissions of methane into Earth’s atmosphere have increased by about 150% over the past three centuries, but it has been difficult for researchers to determine exactly where these emissions originate.
In the study, researchers measured methane levels in ancient air samples from the Greenland ice sheet and found that scientists have been “vastly underestimating” the amount of methane humans are emitting into the atmosphere today via fossil fuels.
There are two types of methane: biological and fossil. Biological methane can be released naturally from sources such as wetlands or human-caused sources such as landfills, rice fields and livestock. Fossil methane, which is the focus of the study, can be emitted through natural geologic seeps or as a result of humans extracting and using fossil fuels.
Reducing fossil fuel use is crucial to reducing climate change, researchers say.
“Placing stricter methane emission regulations on the fossil-fuel industry will have the potential to reduce future global warming to a larger extent than previously thought,” said study lead author Benjamin Hmiel, a researcher at the University of Rochester.
“I don’t want to get too hopeless on this because my data does have a positive implication: Most of the methane emissions are anthropogenic (humancaused), so we have more control,” Hmiel said. “If we can reduce our (methane) emissions, it’s going to have more of an impact.”
That’s in contrast to carbon dioxide, which can persist in Earth’s atmosphere for up to a century: “If we stopped emitting all carbon dioxide today, high carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would still persist for a long time,” Hmiel said.
He added, however, that “methane is important to study because if we make changes to our current methane emissions, it’s going to reflect more quickly.”
The study was published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature.
tallahasseedemocrat-fl.newsmemory.com/
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Post by swamprat on Feb 26, 2020 15:23:01 GMT
Spooky 'blood snow' invades Antarctic island By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer 3 hours ago
The blood-red algae behind the phenomenon could kick off a runaway feedback loop of warming, researchers warned.
Streaks of red algae coat the Antarctic ice in "blood snow." (Image: © Andriy Zotov)
It's summer in Antarctica, which means record-high temperatures, jarring glacial melt and — in a very metal symbol of our changing climate — a bit of blood-red snow spattered across the Antarctic Peninsula.
Over the past several weeks, the ice around Ukraine's Vernadsky Research Base (located on Galindez Island, off the coast of Antarctica's northernmost peninsula) has been coated in what researchers are calling "raspberry snow." A Facebook post by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine shows the scene in full detail: streaks of red and pink slashing across the edges of glaciers and puddling on the frosty plains.
Blood-red algae blanket the snow near Antarctica's Vernadsky Research Base. (Image credit: Andriy Zotov)
That blood (or "jam" as the researchers whimsically call it) is actually a type of red-pigmented alga called Chlamydomonas Chlamydomonas nivalis, which hides in snowfields and mountains worldwide. The algae thrive in freezing water and spend winters lying dormant in snow and ice; when summer comes and the snow melts, the algae bloom, spreading red, flower-like spores.
This phenomenon, which Aristotle noticed way back in the third century B.C., is known as "watermelon snow," "blood snow" and a host of other less poetic names.
The phenomenon's red color comes from carotenoids (the same pigments that make pumpkins and carrots orange) in the algae's chloroplasts. In addition to their crimson hue, these pigments also absorb heat and protect the algae from ultraviolet light, allowing the organisms to bask in the summer sun's nutrients without risk of genetic mutations.
That's good for the algae but not great for the ice. According to the Ukrainian researchers, it’s easy for these blooms to kick off a runaway feedback loop of warming and melting.
"Snow blossoms contribute to climate change," the team wrote in the Facebook post. "Because of the red-crimson color, the snow reflects less sunlight and melts faster. As a consequence, it produces more and more bright algae."
The more heat the algae absorbs, the faster the surrounding ice melts. The more ice that melts, the faster the algae can spread. That, in turn, leads to more warming, more melting, and more algal blooming.
A similar feedback process is driving more extreme algal blooms in oceans all over the world, resulting in surreal scenes like an invasion of sea foam in Spain and blue, bioluminescent "tears" clinging to China's coasts. While watermelon snow has existed for millions of years, algal blooms thrive in warm weather, meaning we can probably expect to see more events like this as the climate changes.
www.livescience.com/antarctica-bleeds-watermelon-snow.html
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Post by swamprat on Mar 14, 2020 14:09:26 GMT
Ice loss in Antarctica and Greenland increased sixfold in the last 30 years By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer | March 13, 2020
The rapid ice loss puts the world right on track for the 'worst case' climate scenario.
A massive iceberg floats on its side in Greenland. (Image: © Shutterstock)
Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice six times faster than in the 1990s, a pair of studies in the journal Nature show.
According to the international team of climatologists behind the research, the unprecedented rate of melt has already contributed 0.7 inches (1.78 centimeters) to global sea level rise in the last three decades, putting the planet on track for the worst-case climate warming scenario laid out in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) latest report. The dreaded scenario, which predicts a total sea level rise of 23.6 inches (60 cm) by the year 2100, would put hundreds of millions of people living in coastal communities at risk of losing their homes — or their lives — to flooding.
"Every centimeter of sea level rise leads to coastal flooding and coastal erosion, disrupting people's lives around the planet," study author Andrew Shepherd, a professor of Earth Observation at the University of Leeds in England, said in a statement. "If Antarctica and Greenland continue to track the worst-case climate warming scenario, they will cause an extra 6.7 inches (17 cm) of sea level rise by the end of the century."
"This would mean 400 million people are at risk of annual coastal flooding by 2100," Shepherd added.
For the new studies, a team of 89 scientists assessed ice loss data from 11 satellites that have been monitoring Antarctica and Greenland since the early 1990s. The data created a detailed picture of how much mass each region's glaciers have lost over the last 30 years, and showed how quickly the remaining ice is flowing into the sea.
The team found that Greenland and Antarctica have lost a combined 7 trillion tons of ice (6.4 trillion metric tons) from 1992 to 2017. Almost all of the lost ice in Antarctica and about half of the lost ice in Greenland is due to warming ocean waters melting the edges of glaciers, causing each region's ice sheets to flow more quickly toward the sea. The rest of Greenland's ice loss is due to warming air temperatures, which melt the ice sheets at their surfaces, the researchers said.
The rate of ice loss in each ice sheet also increased substantially over that period, rising from a combined 89 billion tons (81 billion metric tons) per year in the 1990s to 523 billion tons (475 billion metric tons) per year in the 2010s.
This sixfold increase in the rate of ice loss means that the melting polar ice sheets are responsible for a third of all sea level rise, the researchers said. (Thermal expansion, which causes water to take up more space as it warms, is responsible for much of the remaining sea level rise.)
The accelerated ice loss puts the planet well on the way toward the IPCC's worst-case scenario.
www.livescience.com/antarctica-greenland-ice-shelf-loss.html
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Post by swamprat on Apr 18, 2020 23:59:47 GMT
Climate Change Is Stoking What May Be a Long-Term Megadrought in Western U.S. Bob Henson
Published: April 16, 2020
Warming temperatures from human-produced climate change have exacerbated an otherwise moderate drought in the western United States and northwestern Mexico, leading to the worst two decades of drying in more than 400 years, argues a paper published in the journal Science on Thursday.
The researchers found that the drying from 2000 to 2018 was on par with the driest 19-year periods found in tree-ring records over the last 1,200 years.
What’s more, they add, this region could already be in the type of megadrought that can last for decades.
“We now have enough observations of current drought and tree-ring records of past drought to say that we’re on the same trajectory as the worst prehistoric droughts,” said lead author Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, in an LDEO news release. The team behind the study includes scientists from NOAA, NASA and four universities.
Areas of southwestern North America affected by drought in the early 2000s; darker colors are more intense. Yellow box shows the study area.
Tree-ring data shows that megadroughts occurred across the study region (Southwestern North America, or SWNA, including most of the western U.S. and far northwestern Mexico) in the late 800s, mid-1100s, 1200s and late 1500s.
The study area includes California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, eastern New Mexico, eastern Colorado and most of Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming.
Soil moisture – which hinges on rainfall and snowfall, as well as weather conditions – was found to be lower in 2000-2018 than in any 19-year span during those megadroughts, except for a period in the late 1500s that was slightly lower. Without climate change, the soil moisture in 2000-2018 would have ranked as the 11th-lowest in 1,200 years – still serious, but not on the same level.
Soil moisture over the last 1,200 years in southwestern North America, as reconstructed from tree-ring records (red) and weather observations (blue). Shown are the running averages for overlapping 19-year periods. The pink and green shading shows the driest and wettest periods, respectively.
“Anthropogenic [human-caused] warming was critical for placing drought on a trajectory consistent with the most severe droughts,” the authors wrote. They add that “anthropogenic global warming and its drying influence in SWNA are likely still in their infancy.”
Megadroughts of the past have been linked to La Niña-type patterns of cooling in the tropical Pacific, as well as warming in the Atlantic. “The tree-ring record serves as an ominous reminder that natural climate variability can drive SWNA megadroughts that are as severe and longer than the 21st-century drought thus far,” said the researchers.
Expectations for the future may be warped by the moist conditions that prevailed across southwestern North America in the 1900s, the wettest century of any in the study’s 1,200-year database.
“The 20th century gave us an overly optimistic view of how much water is potentially available,” said coauthor Benjamin Cook (LDEO/NASA). “It goes to show that studies like this are not just about ancient history. They’re about problems that are already here.”
According to Jeff Lukas, a research scientist at Western Water Assessment (University of Colorado Boulder), "This study tells us that the West needs to prepare for a warmer and drier future that is likely to be punctuated by droughts that are almost unimaginable by 20th-century standards – the standards to which our infrastructure and other critical systems were built.”
Although the western U.S. – like most of the nation – was much wetter than average in 2019, it is now heading into the late spring and summer with widespread below-average snowpack and water storage yet again. As of April 6, Lake Powell was at 48% of full capacity and is predicted to end the current water year this autumn at 54% of capacity.
Lake Mead, which provides water and power to Las Vegas and surrounding areas, was at 44% of capacity. That is the highest it’s been in six years; the water level had its lowest five-year average on record from 2015 to 2019.
A view from March 30, 2015, of a section of Lake Powell near Big Water, Utah, that had previously been underwater. The Colorado River Basin supplies water to 40 million people in seven Western states.
Calculating the Push from Climate Change Toward Possible Megadrought
Comparing the period 2000-2018 to simulations from 31 climate models, the team found that high temperatures and low humidity related to climate change accounted for nearly half of the 2000-2018 soil drying. Natural variations in weather and climate – the type expected to produce drought – were responsible for the other half of the drying.
The study’s climate models estimated that long-term global warming pushed temperatures in the 2000-2018 period about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.1 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than they otherwise would have been.
Even though there was a modest drop in precipitation during 2000-2018, climate change wasn't responsible for that, the study found. Instead, it was the heating and drying of the atmosphere – closely linked to climate change – that made the drought impacts so much worse.
The model average for 2000-2018 showed that the annual evaporation demand, or the amount of moisture the atmosphere was “trying” to remove from the landscape, was boosted by climate change by a large amount: 59 millimeters (2.32 inches). In contrast, the effect of climate change on precipitation itself was a comparatively minor boost of 6 millimeters (0.24 inches) to the low values that prevailed.
Although drought is often simplified as a lack of rainfall, much of the impact occurs when high temperatures and low humidity parch the landscape, pulling moisture from trees and other vegetation. Such drying can set the stage for catastrophic wildfires, crop failures and other consequences.
The period from 2000-2018 included some intensely dry years, as well as several wet ones. Throughout the period, the impact on ecosystems and hydrology from “hot droughts” became more and more evident. In California, record heat exacerbated an intense drought from 2011 to 2015. When wetter years returned to California in the late 2010s, they boosted the growth of vegetation that served as fuel for wildfire during subsequent periods of record heat and drought.
In 2017 and 2018, California experienced massive wildfires, including the Camp Fire in November 2018 – the deadliest and most destructive in state history.
A resident watches as the Cave Fire burns a hillside near homes in Santa Barbara, California, early on Nov. 26, 2019.
Daniel Swain, a scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has researched the “hot drought” phenomenon in California. “I think this is interesting work and is indeed consistent with quite a bit of recent research,” Swain said of the new study in an email.
“It's becoming increasingly clear that large declines in precipitation are not needed to produce more severe droughts due to climate change – the warming temperatures themselves can achieve that effect on their own,” Swain added. “This means drought may intensify in a warming world even in places where overall precipitation changes little.”
According to lead author Williams, “Because the background is getting warmer, the dice are increasingly loaded toward longer and more severe droughts. We may get lucky, and natural variability will bring more precipitation for a while. But going forward, we’ll need more and more good luck to break out of drought, and less and less bad luck to go back into drought.”
Williams said it is conceivable the region could stay arid for centuries. “That’s not my prediction right now, but it’s possible,” he said.
www.wunderground.com/article/news/climate/news/2020-04-16-climate-change-stoking-long-term-megadrought-western-us?cm_ven=hp-slot-1
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