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See some articles I found here...

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The world is now about 1.2C warmer than it was in the 19th Century - and the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by 50%. Unless further action is taken, the planet could still warm by more than 2C by the end of this century. At least 550 species could be lost this century if action is not taken, according to scientists. This article talks about the impact, and gives proof of climate change.

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What is climate change? A really simple guide

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Human activities are causing world temperatures to rise, posing serious threats to people and nature.

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Global warming will happen faster than we think

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Global warming will happen faster than we think

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If the planet warms by 2 °C, the widely temperature limit in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, twice as many people will face water scarcity. That extra warming will also expose more than 1.5 billion people to deadly heat, and hundreds of millions to diseases such as malaria.

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Global warming will happen faster than we think

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Three trends will combine to hasten it, warn Yangyang Xu, Veerabhadran Ramanathan and David G. Victor.

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Human activity is raising GHG levels in the atmosphere, raising global temperatures. This causes ice and glaciers to melt into the ocean and raise water levels which can cause more natural disasters. It also hurts wildlife that thrives in these areas.
https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/why-are-glaciers-and-sea-ice-melting#:~:text=Melting%20glaciers%20add%20to%20rising,storms%20like%20hurricanes%20and%20typhoons.

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Our climate and oceans are heating up because of climate change causing glaciers to melt. This also affects the rise of sea levels. If all of Antarctica's and Greenlands ice were combined and melted all at once, it would raise sea levels by nearly 215 feet (65 meters)

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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Greenland and Antarctica are home to most of the world's glacial ice - including its only two ice sheets - making them areas of particular interest to scientists. Combined, the two regions also contain enough ice, that if it were to melt all at once, would raise sea levels by nearly 215 feet (65 meters) - making the study and understanding of them not just interesting, but crucial to our near-term adaptability and our long term survival in a changing world. Credit: NASA

When an ice cube is exposed to a heat source, like warm water or air, it melts. So, it's no surprise that a warming climate is causing our glaciers and ice sheets to melt. However, predicting just how much the glaciers and ice sheets will melt and how quickly - key components of sea level rise - is not nearly as straightforward.

Glaciers and ice sheets are far more complex structures than ice cubes. They form when snow accumulates and is compressed into ice by new snow over many years. As they grow, they begin to move slowly under the pressure of their own weight, dragging smaller rocks and debris across the land with them. Glacial ice that extends to cover large landmasses, as it does in Antarctica and Greenland, is considered an ice sheet.

Get NASA's Climate Change News: Subscribe to the Newsletter "

The processes that cause glaciers and ice sheets to lose mass are also more complex. An ice cube's surface melts when it's exposed to ambient (warm) air. And while warm air certainly melts the surface of glaciers and ice sheets, they're also significantly affected by other factors including the ocean water that surrounds them, the terrain (both land and ocean) over which they move, and even their own meltwater.

Greenland and Antarctica are home to most of the world's glacial ice, including its only two ice sheets. These thick slabs of ice - some 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) and 15,000 feet (4,500 meters) thick, respectively - contain most of the freshwater stored on Earth, making them of particular interest to scientists. Combined, the two regions also contain enough ice that, if it were to melt all at once, would raise sea levels by nearly 215 feet (65 meters) - making the study and understanding of them not just interesting, but crucial to our near-term adaptability and our long-term survival in a changing world.

Ice Loss in Greenland

A glacier is considered "in balance" when the amount of snow that falls and accumulates at its surface (the accumulation zone) is equal to the amount of ice lost through melting, evaporation, calving and other processes.

But with annual air temperatures in the Arctic increasing faster than anywhere else in the world, that balance is no longer achievable in Greenland. Warmer ocean waters surrounding the island's tidewater glaciers are also problematic.

"It's basically like pointing a hairdryer at an ice cube, while the ice cube is also sitting in a warm pot of water," said Josh Willis, principal investigator of NASA's Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG), a project that is investigating the effects of ocean water temperature on melting ice in the region. "The glaciers are being melted by heat from above and below simultaneously."

Although the warm air and the warm water contribute to melting individually, the interplay between the meltwater from the glacier and the warm ocean water also plays a significant role.

When warm summer air melts the surface of a glacier, the meltwater bores holes down through the ice. It makes its way all the way down to the bottom of the glacier where it runs between the ice and the glacier bed, and eventually shoots out in a plume at the glacier base and into the surrounding ocean. The meltwater plume is lighter than the surrounding ocean water because it doesn't contain salt. So it rises toward the surface, mixing the warm ocean water upward in the process. The warm water then rubs up against the bottom of the glacier, causing even more of the glacier to melt. This often leads to calving - ice cracking and breaking off into large ice chunks (icebergs) - at the front end, or terminus of the glacier. Credit: NASA

When warm summer air melts the surface of a glacier, the meltwater bores holes down through the ice. It makes its way all the way down to the bottom of the glacier where it runs between the ice and the glacier bed, and eventually shoots out in a plume at the glacier base and into the surrounding ocean.

The meltwater plume is lighter than the surrounding ocean water because it doesn't contain salt. So it rises toward the surface, mixing the warm ocean water upward in the process. The warm water then rubs up against the bottom of the glacier, causing even more of the glacier to melt. This often leads to calving - ice cracking and breaking off into large ice chunks (icebergs) - at the front end, or terminus, of the glacier.

The complicated shape of the sea floor surrounding Greenland influences how readily this warm water melt can occur. It provides a barrier in some areas - preventing the deep, warmer water from the Atlantic Ocean from reaching glacier fronts. However, the underwater terrain, much like the terrain above water, includes other features like deep canyons. The canyons cut into the continental shelf, allowing the Atlantic waters in. Glaciers sitting in these waters will melt faster than those where the warm water is blocked by underwater ridges or sills.

Ice Loss in Antarctica

In Antarctica, where similar surface and ocean melting processes occur, the topography and bedrock on which the ice sheet sits significantly influence the ice sheet's stability and its contribution to sea level rise.

Researchers separate Antarctica into two regions based on the relationship between the ice and the bedrock beneath it. East Antarctica, the area east of the Transantarctic Mountains, is extremely high in elevation and has the thickest ice on the planet. The bedrock underneath the ice sheet is also mostly above sea level. These features help to keep the east side relatively stable. West Antarctica, on the other hand, is lower in elevation and most of the ice sheet there is thinner. Unlike the east, the ice sheet in West Antarctica sits on bedrock that is below sea level.

"In West Antarctica, we have these glaciers resting on bedrock that is under water. Like in Greenland, there is a layer of warmer ocean water below the cold surface layer. So this warm water is able to flow onto the continental shelf, and then all the way underneath the ice shelves - the floating ice that extends from glaciers and the ice sheet," said NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Helene Seroussi. "The water melts the ice shelves from below, which can cause them to thin and break off."

The visualization shows how ocean currents flow around and under Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica. As the water makes its way underneath the ice shelf, it erodes the ice shelf from the bottom causing it to become thinner. The visualization was produced using the "Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean" (ECCO) V3 ocean circulation model, the 100 meter "Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica" (REMA) surface elevation and the 450 meter bed topography and ice thickness BedMachine Antarctica V1 datasets. The surface is mapped with scenes from NASA's LandSat 8 satellite. Exaggeration factors of 4 and 15 - above and below sea level respectively - were used for clarity. Credit: NASA / Cindy Starr

That matters because the ice shelves act like corks. They hold back the ice that is flowing from upstream, slowing its approach to the ocean where it raises sea level. When the ice shelves calve, the cork is essentially removed, allowing more inland ice to flow freely into the ocean. Furthermore, this leads to retreat of the grounding zone - the area where the ice separates from the bedrock and begins to float.

"The grounding zone delineates floating ice, which is already accounted for in the sea level budget from grounded ice which is not accounted for in the budget," said ICESat-2 scientist Kelly Brunt of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland. "Floating ice is like an ice cube floating in a glass. It doesn't overflow the glass when it melts. But when non-floating ice is added to the ocean, it's like adding more ice cubes to the glass which will cause the water level to rise."

The bedrock in West Antarctica is also reverse sloping - meaning it is higher at the edges and gradually becomes deeper further inland. So each time the grounding zone retreats inland, thicker ice is exposed to the ocean water and the glacier or ice sheet becomes grounded in deeper water. This allows even more ice to flow from upstream into the ocean.

"It's concerning in West Antarctica because as we push the grounding zones back, the downward, reverse slope means that there's really no backstop, nothing to interrupt this cycle of melting and retreat," said Brunt. "Our maps of the bedrock under the ice sheet are not as comprehensive as they are in Greenland, in part because Antarctica is far less accessible. Because of that, we really don't know if there are any little bumps or peaks down there that might help to slow the retreat."

West Antarctic glaciers like Thwaites and Pine Island are already retreating faster than they were in the past. This is problematic because they provide a main pathway for ice from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to enter the Amundsen Sea and raise sea levels.

Overall, melting and ice loss have accelerated at both poles in recent years. The more we learn about the processes and interactions that cause it, some of which were discussed here, the better we'll be able to accurately and precisely predict sea level rise far into the future.

News Media Contacts

Ian J. O'Neill / Jane J. Lee
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649 / 818-354-0307
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov / jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov

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national aeronautics and space administration

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By Esprit Smith,
NASA's Earth Science News Team

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The Anatomy of Glacial Ice Loss - Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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When an ice cube is exposed to a heat source, like warm water or air, it melts. So, it's no surprise that a warming climate is causing our glaciers and ice sheets to melt. However, predicting just how much the glaciers and ice sheets will melt and how quickly - key components of sea level rise - is not nearly as straightforward.

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Fossil fuel firms plan “carbon bomb” oil and gas projects that will produce greenhouse gases equivalent to a decade of CO2. 

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Fossil fuel firms plan “carbon bomb” oil and gas projects that will produce greenhouse gases equivalent to a decade of CO2. 

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his year will be remembered as a watershed year for the escalating climate crisis. Dozens of countries have been hit by extreme weather so far in 2022. Millions have been driven from their homes by flood, fire or drought, while food and energy shortages are becoming acute in many regions.

Increasingly, extreme weather events are being caused by climate breakdown. The Guardian's global team of environment reporters have covered the events - and their impact - around the world, around the clock. In the past year, we published almost 4,000 articles on the climate crisis, read by more than 65 million people, not to mention podcasts, live events and masterclasses.

This is all part of our ongoing pledge to prioritise the climate emergency, and give it the sustained attention and prominence it needs. This journalism changes minds and policies and keeps the foremost crisis of our times in the public eye.

The 'carbon bombs' set to trigger catastrophic climate breakdownA Guardian investigation discovered that there are scores of vast oil and gas projects planned which, if fully developed, would each unleash more than a billion tonnes of CO ₂ emissions. As a result, the phrase "carbon bomb" has now passed into common parlance, and a coalition of environmental lawyers, investigative journalists and campaigners has now launched to challenge the carbon bomb projects.

"It ranks as one of the landmark climate investigations in years," said Mark Hertsgaard, executive director of Covering Climate Now, a network of more than 500 news outlets.

The climate disaster is here - this is what the future looks like.
A slick interactive that maps out various scenarios of temperatures rises, and what they would imply for rainfall, heatwaves, drought, crop failures and wildfires. "The story was raised repeatedly by delegates at Cop26 as a full, clear illustration of what was at stake as the world continues to heat up," said Oliver Milman, one of the journalists behind the work. The piece was listed as a finalist in the 2022 Online Journalism Awards.

Phoenix is becoming unbearable in the summer. What can be done?
Reporter Nina Lakhani spent five weeks in America's hottest city, Phoenix, investigating just how unliveable it's becoming and what might be done to mitigate scorching temperatures.

Nina said: "The massive interest in this story led to me spending several weeks in Phoenix over the summer to report on the impact of the city's deadly extreme heat on residents, workers and services - bringing the Guardian's resources and outsider's perspective to an unfolding climate disaster disproportionately impacting the city's most vulnerable people, as well as the efforts to tackle it."

Is this our last chance to act on the climate crisis?An epic from environment correspondent Fiona Harvey, who is something of an expert on last chances. Pieces like this concentrate the minds of negotiators at vital global summits. Fiona won the outstanding beat reporting award for coverage of Cop26 at the International Society of Environmental Journalists annual awards. "The Guardian's Fiona Harvey managed to cover Cop26 like no one else in the media," the judges said, adding that her work "is testament to the importance of having dedicated reporters covering the environmental beat".

Capitalism is killing the planet
Instead of fiddling with the small stuff like ditching our plastic coffee cups, we must challenge the pursuit of wealth and level down, not up, George Monbiot argued in an explosive comment piece. Monbiot has been writing passionately about neglected environmental issues for almost 40 years. In July, he was awarded the Orwell Prize for Journalism 2022.

Scientists spot warning signs of Gulf Stream collapse
A startling piece foregrounding new research, which warned that the Atlantic ocean system, so vital for weather patterns in Europe, the Americas, West Africa and even India, was becoming unstable, with currents weakening. A total shutdown would be devastating.

This was one of our most-read environment pieces ever, demonstrating reader interest in the risks of tipping points and their importance.

Revealed: how climate breakdown is supercharging toll of extreme weather A comprehensive analysis by environment editor Damian Carrington showed that human-caused global heating is driving more frequent and deadly disasters across the planet. By combining scientific attribution studies with the voices of people on the frontline, he made relatable how fast the world's climate is already changing and the devastating impact it is having on lives and livelihoods.

Scientists praised the exercise as a clear and comprehensive assessment of the damage the climate crisis is already causing.

Pakistan: ground zero of the climate crisisPakistan's floods were so devastating that some have taken to calling the country the ground zero of the climate emergency. Shah Meer Baloch and Matthew Taylor combined reportage, analysis, the stories of those affected and the science behind it all to produce one of the definitive pieces of the past 12 months.

Exposing attacks on the net zero agenda
Our environment reporters Helena Horton and Matthew Taylor used their extensive contacts and rigorous reporting to get to the bottom of how the climate-sceptic Net Zero Scrutiny Group of Conservative politicians was set up in the UK, and who was behind it.

Similarly, in Australia, an exclusive from Graham Readfearn revealed the Morrison government was attempting to block a UN recommendation that countries should try to keep global heating to 1.5C

Australia faces up to its role in the climate disaster
A six-part podcast series scrutinised Australia's role in the climate crisis over more than two decades. Featuring exclusive interviews with former prime ministers, high-ranking politicians and climate experts, the series attracted more than 240,000 downloads. Guardian Australia also won best podcast series at the Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards for its podcast series An Impossible Choice.

Guardian climate journalism, open to all

Down to Earth, the Guardian's climate newsletter

Down to Earth takes a fresh approach to the newsletter format. Each week one of our team of climate journalists from around the world writes an exclusive article to bring readers the latest news and reaction on the climate crisis. Alongside this, composted reads has a digest of the biggest, best (and worst) climate news from theguardian.com - and our subscribers have got involved by nominating a weekly climate hero.

More than 3,000 readers around the world told us why they value the Guardian's urgent climate reporting. Here are some of your messages...
There are now over 300,000 subscribers - many of whom keep us informed of the latest developments from wherever they are in the world.

You can sign up here.

"Thank you for being a real guardian of liberal values, for your great style and your wittiness. Keep on doing what you do."
Antero, Russia

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Carbon bombs and Gulf Stream collapse: the most urgent climate stories of our time

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his year will be remembered as a watershed year for the escalating climate crisis. Dozens of countries have been hit by extreme weather so far in 2022. Millions have been driven from their homes by flood, fire or drought, while food and energy shortages are becoming acute in many regions.

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The August 2022 global surface temperature departure was the sixth highest for August in the 143-year record at 0.90°C above the 20th century average of 15.6°C . The ten warmest Augusts on record have all occurred since 2009. August 2022 also marked the 46th consecutive August and the 452nd consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th century average.

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Temperature

NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information calculates the global temperature anomaly every month based on preliminary data generated from authoritative datasets of temperature observations from around the globe. The major dataset, NOAAGlobalTemp version 5, updated in mid-2019, uses comprehensive data collections of increased global area coverage over both land and ocean surfaces. NOAAGlobalTempv5 is a reconstructed dataset, meaning that the entire period of record is recalculated each month with new data. Based on those new calculations, the new historical data can bring about updates to previously reported values. These factors, together, mean that calculations from the past may be superseded by the most recent data and can affect the numbers reported in the monthly climate reports. The most current reconstruction analysis is always considered the most representative and precise of the climate system, and it is publicly available through Climate at a Glance.

Precipitation

The maps shown below represent precipitation percent of normal (left, using a base period of 1961-1990) and precipitation percentiles (right, using the period of record) based on the GHCN dataset of land surface stations.

August 2022

Precipitation anomalies during August 2022 varied significantly around the world. August precipitation was generally less than normal across the western coast of the contiguous U.S., western Europe, western Russia, and southeast Asia, as well as parts of southeastern Brazil, southern and central Japan, and central Asia. Wetter-than-normal conditions were notable across parts of the southwestern U.S., western and central Gulf of Mexico coast, northern Japan, western India, and Pakistan.

Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP)

The following analysis is based upon the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Interim Climate Data Record. It is provided courtesy of the GPCP Principal Investigator team at the University of Maryland.

August and Seasonal Highlights:

Asian monsoon shows alternating wet and dry anomalies from the Indian Ocean northward associated with floods and drought

La Niña effects still dominate tropical Pacific across to Indian Ocean; land and ocean totals respectively set positive and negative records for August, but cancel out for global total

Drought continues over western Europe into Russia as dry zone extension from Atlantic Ocean

Tropical Indian Ocean to Magellan Straits feature for the June-August period linked to La Niña

For August, the climatological rain belts and dry zones are generally at or near their northernmost positions as seen in the top panel. The Asian monsoon covers southeast Asia, the northern Indian Ocean and extends out into the Pacific Ocean. The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) positions over the Atlantic and Pacific and the peak mean rain areas over South America and Africa are also at their northern extreme positions.

When the specific amounts for this August are compared to the relatively smooth 40-year climatology, the resulting anomaly pattern (middle panel) and percentage anomaly pattern (bottom panel; especially useful in areas with smaller monthly amounts) have an irregular, highly variable pattern reflecting an individual month's precipitation events. While there are broad areas of positive and negative deviations from the mean, superimposed there are very intense features of both signs. On the broad scale, the negative area of anomalies across the tropical Pacific covers almost the entire zone and is generally associated with the ongoing La Niña. Imbedded in that broad zone are some intense negative features that occur mainly in areas of high rainfall and in this case are partially related to the relative absence of tropical cyclones this August, e.g., in the western Pacific. These intense negative features are not as intense in the percentage anomaly chart because of the large climatological means there.

On the positive anomaly side, there is a broad area of that sign across the Maritime Continent and out into the Indian Ocean, again mainly associated with the La Niña. Just to the north of that excess rain feature that was related to flooding in Indonesia is a narrow east-west dry feature running from just south of Indochina westward to India. But further north, another somewhat narrow east-west wet feature running from Pakistan through India, then across Indochina and the South China sea to the Philippines has imbedded peaks that included periods of flooding in Pakistan, northern India, Vietnam, and the northern Philippines. The positive anomaly in Pakistan is the most distinctive feature over land this month and the floods there were devastating with over 1000 dead and 30 million people affected.

Even further north yet another dry zone with similar orientation extends across China covering most of the Yangtze River valley, where a major drought has been inter-related with an intense heat wave reducing the flow in the Yangtze to extremely low levels affecting hydropower and transportation. And finally, north of that dry feature is another wet, east-west, anomaly with accompanying floods in northern China, Korea and Japan during the month. These five anomaly features (and possibly two more further north) point to the spatial variations in the summer monsoon of Asia, the complexities of the dynamics therein, and the large impacts (floods or drought) on communities and countries depending on their position relative to these features.

The seasonal rain belt over Africa was active in August producing a wet anomaly across the continent with associated floods, including in Nigeria, Sudan, and across the Red Sea into Yemen. This active convection zone over the continent extends out into the eastern Atlantic and is the breeding ground for waves that can grow into tropical cyclones. However, this August, for the first time in many years, no named storms (tropical storm or hurricane status) were initiated and that seems to be reflected in the general drier-than-normal situation in the tropical Atlantic into the Caribbean.

Over the Americas, there are variable patterns not linked to the La Niña, but the month shows that both floods and drought can coexist in the same month in the same region. In the midst of a long-term drought, the southwest U.S. and Mexico received some relief through an active monsoon providing above normal rainfall in some of the region. The immediate west coast is still drier than normal for the month as in the northwest U.S. and southwest Canada. Perhaps the driest place in the U.S., Death Valley, CA, experienced a flood in the middle of a very long dry period. The positive anomaly sweeps across the southwest U.S. and Mexico into the Mississippi River valley. On the edge of the feature, in the middle of a heat wave, Dallas, TX experienced a downtown flood and a small area of southeast Illinois received about 250 mm of rain in a day early in the month. Near the end of August, the south-central U.S. coast received substantial rain helping to produce the peak in the figure there and producing flooding along the Pearl River in Jackson, MS which led to serious water system problems there. In contrast, the northeast U.S. was relatively dry with rainfall deficits, with drought conditions in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The Atlantic Ocean east of North America has a precipitation deficit for August and that feature continues into western Europe and northeastward into Russia. The lack of August rainfall extended the major drought over these land areas, and also helped to lead to wildfires in France and Russia and low flow on the Rhine River, negatively affecting shipping.

If one closely examines the anomaly map for this month, it is not hard to detect that most of the ocean area contains precipitation deficits, while the land seems to be dominated by areas of precipitation excess. The global statistics for this month confirm this impression. The global total for this August is estimated to be 2.71 mm/d, almost exactly equal to the climatological normal of 2.72 mm/d. However, the ocean mean value is 2.65 mm/d, with an anomaly of -0.18 mm/d, while the land area mean for this month is 2.83 mm/d with an anomaly of +0.35 mm/d. The land precipitation number is an August record at the high end for the entire record, while the ocean mean is a record low for the entire record.

Although this kind of land/ocean, positive/negative split is expected under La Niña conditions, the record-setting magnitudes are surprising under an average La Niña in terms of the magnitude of the Niño 3.4 SST index (~ -0.8). Perhaps the length of the La Niña (over two years) is a factor.

For this year's June through August period, the seasonal map (top panel) shows the planet's mean precipitation features for this time of year, while the middle panel displays the field of anomalies to compare to the long-term La Niña composite for the period in the bottom panel. Across the tropical Pacific through the Maritime Continent and into the Indian Ocean there is positive correlation between the two anomaly fields, indicating a contribution of La Niña to the seasonal variations, especially in the western Pacific and the Maritime Continent, with possible extensions further out.In fact, the positive anomaly extending from the northern Indian Ocean southeastward through Australia and continuing across the South Pacific into the Straits of Magellan is evident in both the anomaly map for this year's June through August and the composite.

Besides these La Niña-related features, the three-month anomaly map (middle panel) shows the seasonal deficit across western Europe and Russia, the positive anomaly over central Africa and a well-defined positive anomaly over eastern Asia above about 30°N. Over North America, western Mexico and the southwest U.S. is dominated by this year's stronger-than-usual monsoon, with a dry area running south-to-north from eastern Mexico through the Midwest U.S. into Canada.

Drought

Drought Information based on global drought indicators is available at the Global Drought Information System.

August 2022 was another month of excessively hot temperatures across Europe. The August heat, combined with very hot temperatures for July and June, resulted in the warmest summer in the 1910-2022 record for the continent. The persistent excessive heat increased evaporative demand which, when combined with below-normal precipitation, made drought conditions worse from Spain to Germany and from the British Isles to the Balkans. Some short-term relief occurred in some eastern and northern parts of Europe, where August was near to wetter than normal. But dry conditions have persisted for the last 9 to 12 months in some drought indicators, especially in southern areas. Groundwater and soil moisture were depleted, rivers were low, and vegetation stressed across most of the continent. The European Combined Drought Indicator showed drought stretching from Spain to southern Scandinavia and from the British Isles to Ukraine.

Numerous impacts were summarized in media reports: Wildfires continued to rage across the continent. The drought dried up rivers, drained reservoirs, and created water shortages that prompted water restrictions. In Britain, the source of the River Thames has dried up further downstream than ever before. Germans and Poles faced a mass fish die-off in a river flowing between their countries. Europe's Hunger Stones became visible again; this historically has been a warning of famine when water levels are low enough to expose the rocks. French utility EDF had to significantly reduce the capacity utilization rate of its nuclear power plants due to reduced water availability for cooling. Plunging water levels on the Rhine River are making it harder to transport cargo, threatening factories which may have to reduce production or halt it completely. The Rhine's level at Emmerich, near the Dutch border, hit zero on the depth gauge in August. The drought reduced crop yields across the EU, and dried up pastures halted the production of traditional cheese in France (the salers variety in the central Auvergne region) due to no grass for cows, and threatened the production of other prized cheeses.

August was drier than normal in western, central, and southeastern parts of Asia, with the dryness accompanied by abnormally hot temperatures over the west, southwest, and southeast regions. The month was wetter than normal over parts of Southwest Asia, but that did little to alleviate dryness there that has built up over the last year and longer. Indicators such as the Standardized Precipitation Evaporation Index (SPEI) show drought from the last 1 to 12 months, and longer, over central to southwestern Asia and parts of the northeast and northwest. Groundwater and soil moisture were low in these areas and over southeastern areas from China to the Bay of Bengal. Satellite observations show stressed vegetation across central to southwest Asia. According to media reports, in August China issued its first national drought alert of the year as authorities battled forest fires and mobilized specialist teams to protect crops from scorching temperatures across the Yangtze river basin. Up to 66 rivers in 34 counties in the southwestern China region of Chongqing have gone dry, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Factories in China's southwest shut down after reservoirs used to generate hydropower ran low, adding to economic strains.

Some precipitation fell across parts of Africa in August, including areas of drought-stricken East Africa. But it was not enough to eliminate deficits that have built up over several years. Widespread drought is still indicated in East Africa on the SPEI and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), especially at the 3-month and longer time scales. Dryness was also indicated over northern and western parts of Africa, as well as Madagascar. August was warmer than normal across much of Africa, with the heat further exacerbating drought conditions. Soil moisture and groundwater were depleted, and satellite analysis indicates stressed vegetation. According to media reports, in Kenya, pastoralists were losing their herds as the Horn of Africa's worst drought in 40 years leaves pastures desiccated and cows with nothing to eat.

Much of Australia was wetter than normal in August, with temperatures near normal. But longer-term dry conditions persist, especially in the southwest starting at the 2-month time scale and extending to the north coast by the 6-month time scale. The Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) shows dry conditions across western Australia, especially at the 3-month time scale. Groundwater and soil moisture levels are low from the southwest to north central areas, and satellite observations show stressed vegetation in the southwest. The August rains improved streamflow, but the observations of dry soils and rainfall deficits since December 2021 in the north and southwest were confirmed by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's Combined Drought Indicator analyses.

Some of the drought areas in South America received rainfall during August, but temperatures were warmer than normal across much of the continent. But longer-term precipitation deficits persist, especially beginning at the 2-month time scale over parts of Brazil to Bolivia and southward across parts of Argentina. The dryness is especially acute from the 3- to 6-month time scales, but extends beyond that time frame. The ESI indicates high evaporative stress from southeast Brazil to northern Argentina, with large areas of low soil moisture and groundwater levels, plus stressed vegetation in places. Drought in southern and eastern Brazil was confirmed on the Northeast Brazil Drought Monitor.

In North America, August was warmer than normal across western and northern portions of the continent as well as parts of central Mexico. Above-normal precipitation fell over Alaska and much of the contiguous U.S. and Mexico. August was drier than normal across the central Plains and Pacific Northwest in the U.S. and several parts of Canada. The SPEI shows dry conditions across much of the northeastern, central, and western U.S., much of Mexico, and parts of western Canada at the 2- to 12-month time scales and, for some areas, longer time scales. The ESI shows evaporative stress across many parts of the continent. Satellite observations indicated poor vegetative health across much of the western U.S. and Great Plains from northeastern Mexico to the southern Canadian Prairies, as well as parts of the U.S. Northeast. Groundwater and soil moisture were low from northeast Mexico to the U.S. central Plains, across much of the U.S. Southwest, in parts of the northeastern U.S., and over parts of Canada. The North American Drought Monitor product depicted drought over parts of southern Mexico, from central Mexico to much of the U.S. from the West Coast to the Mississippi River, and into the southern Canadian Prairies, as well as across parts of northwestern Canada and eastern North America. According to media reports, drought prompted major cities in Mexico to ration water. Drought and water supply shortages in northern Mexico led President Obrador to say that beer brewing in northern Mexico is at an end (Mexico is the world's largest exporter of beer).

References

Menne, M. J., C. N. Williams, B.E. Gleason, J. J Rennie, and J. H. Lawrimore, 2018: The Global Historical Climatology Network Monthly Temperature Dataset, Version 4. J. Climate, in press. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0094.1.

Huang, B., Peter W. Thorne, et. al, 2017: Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature version 5 (ERSSTv5), Upgrades, validations, and intercomparisons. J. Climate, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0836.1

Peterson, T.C. and R.S. Vose, 1997: An Overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network Database. Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 78, 2837-2849.

Huang, B., V.F. Banzon, E. Freeman, J. Lawrimore, W. Liu, T.C. Peterson, T.M. Smith, P.W. Thorne, S.D. Woodruff, and H-M. Zhang, 2016: Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature Version 4 (ERSST.v4). Part I: Upgrades and Intercomparisons. J. Climate, 28, 911-930.

Adler, R., G. Gu, M. Sapiano, J. Wang, G. Huffman 2017. Global Precipitation: Means, Variations and Trends During the Satellite Era (1979-2014). Surveys in Geophysics 38: 679-699, doi:10.1007/s10712-017-9416-4

Adler, R., M. Sapiano, G. Huffman, J. Wang, G. Gu, D. Bolvin, L. Chiu, U. Schneider, A. Becker, E. Nelkin, P. Xie, R. Ferraro, D. Shin, 2018. The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly Analysis (New Version 2.3) and a Review of 2017 Global Precipitation. Atmosphere. 9(4), 138; doi:10.3390/atmos9040138

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NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information calculates the global temperature anomaly every month based on preliminary data generated from authoritative datasets of temperature observations from around the globe. The major dataset, NOAAGlobalTemp version 5, updated in mid-2019, uses comprehensive data collections of increased global area coverage over both land and ocean surfaces.

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More than 90% of Great Barrier Reef bleached this year

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More than 90% of Great Barrier Reef bleached this year

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/great-barrier-reef-bleach-1.6449536#:~:text=More%20than%2090%20per%20cent,ecosystem%2C%20Australian%20government%20scientists%20said.

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The Associated Press · Posted: May 11, 2022 3:12 PM ET | Last Updated: May 11

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More than 90% of Great Barrier Reef bleached this year | CBC News

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More than 90 per cent of Great Barrier Reef coral surveyed this year was bleached in the fourth such mass event in seven years in the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, Australian government scientists said.

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Forest Fires are effecting the amount of snow the region gets after one.

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Forest Fires are effecting the amount of snow the region gets after one.

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https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/09/wildfires-melting-snow-climate-change/671549/

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This article was originally published in High Country News.
The ground beneath the researcher Stephanie Kampf's boots was black and burned to a sooty crisp in June 2021 as she walked across the burn scar left by the Cameron Peak Fire of 2020. A summer after the fire engulfed more than 200,000 acres in flames, there was no snow to be found in its footprint-despite the fact that it was almost 10,000 feet above sea level, where snow often persists in Colorado. However, in a nearby stand of unburned trees, Kampf noted that some "nice snow" did appear. "It was really striking," she says. "It was so mind-blowing to me."

According to research published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, wildfire is increasingly altering the snowpack in the western United States. Kampf, the study's lead author and a professor of watershed science at Colorado State University, says that the Cameron Peak Fire- Colorado's largest fire to date -inspired her research, because it started so close to the Continental Divide, a mountain range that divides the country's principal drainage systems. That surprised Kampf. "We started wondering, is this something that's happening elsewhere in the West?" she says.

Kampf and her team set out to determine whether more wildfires are burning at high elevations. The answer is unequivocally yes. And the consequences are dramatic: Snow in wildfire-burned areas is completely melting 18 to 24 days earlier than average. Climate change is already fueling an increase in the length, frequency, and severity of the wildfire season. And the snowpack is crucial to the health of western people and ecosystems: It contributes 20 percent to 90 percent of surface water used for agriculture, energy production, aquatic-species habitat, and more, according to Erin Whorton, a hydrologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service's Idaho Snow Survey.
Read: The world needs to start planning for the fire age
The researchers focused in part on places where snow doesn't completely melt until or after May, called late-melt snow zones. These areas tend to stay cold long into spring and then warm relatively quickly-often creating big snowmelt pulses in stream flow. The ground cannot absorb all that snow when it melts simultaneously, and as a result, the water ends up in streams for uses downstream.

The authors found that from 1984 to 2020, 70 percent of late-melt snow zones saw a significant increase in wildfire activity. "What this study shows nicely is that fires are moving into places that we would think of as being more resistant because they're cooler and wetter," says Paul Brooks, a professor who studies mountain hydrology at the University of Utah. Brooks was not involved in the study but reviewed the manuscript. In zones that hold snow the longest in the Southern Rockies, more area burned in 2020 than in the past 36 years combined. "It's a shocking difference," Kampf says. "Seeing that in many different mountain ranges, the trend towards larger fires in snowy areas is really the most important finding."

Wildfires can affect snow in numerous ways. Trees usually intercept some snow, but when they lose foliage or die, more snow initially reaches the ground. Sometimes, this leads to deeper snow. But then other competing factors take hold. A more exposed snowpack absorbs more solar radiation. Soot and other burned materials fall on the snow, reducing its ability to reflect sunlight and also encouraging a faster melt. Open areas are also more vulnerable to being scoured by wind. "It's a balancing act, which one of those wins to create the snow conditions you see at the end of the season," Kampf says.

Low-latitude, south-facing slopes and sunny regions are particularly vulnerable to wildfire's effect on snowpack, as they receive more sunlight and solar energy. So are areas that see severe fires. Regional variability exists: For example, cloudy areas in the Pacific Northwest will likely see different effects on snowpack than areas that see more sun.
Read: Why Alaska's wildfire season was so unusual
The study also found that snow in burned areas contains less water. "Peak snow-water equivalent, where the snowpack gets to at the end of the season, is pretty important," Kampf says. "A lot of places, it's going to be really correlated with how much streamflow there is."

A shorter snowy season, which essentially means a longer summer, can have a cascading effect. "It's like turning off a drip-irrigation system a month early," Brooks says. Plants might be able to start growing sooner, but they might also run out of water as the summer progresses or be prone to early season frosts. That can hamper postfire forest recovery.

The researchers' findings may affect how water is managed in the future. In areas already experiencing drought due to climate change, fire can further exacerbate water shortages. If snow doesn't come in major pulses from late melt, and if parched ground sucks up moisture, less water is likely to make it into streams, rivers, and, eventually, reservoirs. Snowpack surveyors are watching with concern. "Forest fires are having a huge, huge impact on how snowmelt is occurring," Wharton says.

Downstream-water managers might need to prepare for an earlier melt-off that will contribute to reservoirs much earlier than needed. "The timing is a really, really big deal," Brooks says. "The surprising nature of less snow ... should get folks thinking."

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journal proceedings of the national academy of sciences

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Wildfires Quietly Threaten a Crucial Water Source in the West

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This article was originally published in High Country News. The ground beneath the researcher Stephanie Kampf's boots was black and burned to a sooty crisp in June 2021 as she walked across the burn scar left by the Cameron Peak Fire of 2020.

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The aviation industry generates as much CO2 as the entire country of Japan, which is a problem, because aviation is a method of travel there's no replacement for. This is mostly due to how the industry functions, and will require not just new tech, but massive reform

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The aviation industry needs to overhaul its response to climate change

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Aviation’s growing impact on the climate crisis requires radical solutions that may upend the industry, according to a new commentary article.

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Increased rain(up over 400% in last 30 yrs) and flooding(1 in 7 now affected) in Pakistan caused by climate change. 

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Increased rain(up over 400% in last 30 yrs) and flooding(1 in 7 now affected) in Pakistan caused by climate change. 

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The past several years have been marked by meteorological abnormalities, ranging from extreme heat waves to weeks-long floods, hurricanes, droughts, and fires. In 2021 alone, 432 disastrous events related to natural hazards worldwide were reported by the Emergency Event Database (EM-DAT). These accounted for 10,492 deaths, affected 101.8 million people, and caused approximately $252.1 billion USD-worth of economic losses. On September 22, the World Weather Attribution (WWA) released a report demonstrating to what extent climate change exacerbated extreme floods in Pakistan, finding that vulnerable and unprepared populations were hit particularly hard.

Between July and August, Pakistan received an abnormal quantity of rainfall, causing one third of the country to be underwater. The WWA report details how this disaster has been intensified by global warming and attests that we are likely to see more of them in the future. Antonio Guterres, the secretary general of the UN, said while in Pakistan last week that "there is nothing natural about the scale of these disasters."

One in seven Pakistanis was affected by the extreme monsoon, including 16 million children, according to UNICEF. In addition, 1,500 Pakistanis are estimated to have lost their lives, and millions are still without shelter. One third of Pakistan is underwater, damaging 80 to 90 per cent of crops and thus affecting the agricultural sector upon which approximately 40 per cent of the population depends, according to the most recent estimates. Officials additionally estimate $30 billion in economic damages. The Sindh province in the south was the most affected region, reporting to have received 466 per cent more than the 30-year rainfall average. In late August, the government of Pakistan declared a "national emergency": 43 per cent of the population was in a situation of food insecurity even before the flooding, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) warned that the "number of acutely hungry people is expected to rise substantially." With many of the routes and communication lines being interrupted, the floods will also affect food delivery into Afghanistan, the organizations report.

The Daily spoke to Lauren Mueenuddin, specialist in Women and Children's Health at Reproductive Health Network, who is currently in Pakistan in the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where "many of the health units have been washed away," she says. In response to the Pakistani government's announcement that it may take two to six months for the water to recede completely, Mueenuddin comments that the "water insanitation is very grave; it also increases the risk of diseases such as malaria or dengue fever spreading." She adds that "the medical situation was precarious before the floods and has been greatly deteriorated by the breakdown of the transport system." Moreover, "many doctors in Pakistan are finding themselves in difficult situations and are trying to save their own lives," Mueenuddin explains. But she insisted on the fact that "many Pakistanis are responding using their own means." She has been working on trying to "expand primary health care and disease coverage, in particular for children and mothers and more specifically pregnant women, as thousands are expected to give birth alone and with no medical assistance, putting their lives and the life of their child in considerable danger," she adds.

The South Asian Monsoon is part of a regional weather pattern in Pakistan, and in normal times this period of rain is generally viewed as favorable. However, this season's extreme flooding seems to show that this is no longer the case. There are different factors at play to explain the scale of devastation, including what the New York Times lists as political instability, government failures to make adaptive changes since the last major flooding in 2010, and a lack of adequate infrastructures and poor housing situations. Nonetheless, as declared by Friederike Otto, one of the scientists who contributed to the WWA study, human-caused "climate change also plays a really important role here." Not only did the heatwaves that crippled the region in April accelerate the melting of glaciers in the north of the region, but the high temperatures also caused water to evaporate much faster from the Arabian Sea, causing more rain than the soil can absorb. The WWA report observed that the five-day maximum rainfall over the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan is now about 75 per cent more intense than it would have been had the climate not warmed by 1.2 °C.

Pakistan is not alone in being exposed to both high climate vulnerabilities and low readiness. The Global South in general has been disproportionately the target of such disasters, yet it contributes less to greenhouse gas emissions. Pakistan's climate change minister, Sherry Rehman, pointed out in The Guardian, "It is not unreasonable to ask why countries with a negligible carbon footprint, like Pakistan, must pay for global warming catastrophes we had no part in creating." Indeed, Pakistan emits less than one per cent of greenhouse gases in global emissions while the G20 countries (twenty of the world's largest economies) alone account for 75 per cent of global emissions. In addition, the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change explained that "vulnerability of ecosystems and people to climate change differs substantially among and within regions, driven by patterns of intersecting socio-economic development." This is why Antonio Gueterres called for "massive" global support while blaming wealthier countries for contributing to the devastation, calling it "a matter of justice."

In conversation with the Daily, Professor Pasha M. Khan, Chair in Urdu Language and Culture at McGill, insisted on the fact that there is an urgency for rich countries to "take responsibility, which means paying reparations to the countries concerned." Indeed, the contrast between aid and reparation is fundamental - and not just in the case of Pakistan. The financial assistance should not be described as a gesture of "generosity" but rather as the "expected behavior of responsible countries" paying back what they owe, explains Khan.

Furthermore, Mueenuddin raised concern as to the issue of climate refugees not being endorsed by the UNHCR. Instead they are referred to as "persons displaced in the context of disasters and climate change" by the UNHCR. The fact that some displaced by Pakistan's flooding have not "crossed a border" means that they are not legally considered "refugees" under the 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees. Yet, today, 33 million people are displaced within Pakistan. This definition is an "obstacle to aid in situations like this," Mueeneddin says, adding that the response in Pakistan is "minimum." Nonetheless, she mentions that many "schools, universities and youth are also responding without waiting for international aid."

Canada has decreased its GHG emissions from 1.8 per cent in 2005 to 1.5 per cent in 2019, yet it remains among the top ten countries with the most CO2 emissions globally, reports the Union of Concerned Scientists. At McGill, the association Divest McGill has denounced the almost $66 million (5.4 per cent of its endowment) the university has invested in oil and gas industries.

Allie, an environment student at McGill, in conversation with the Daily, pointed out the importance of "shifting national behaviors from guilt to responsibility." The next Climate Change Conference (COP 27) is announced to take place in November in Cairo, and one of its main focuses is the "causes and effects of climate change." The recent events in Pakistan are "very concerning for our future," comments Mueenuddin, emphasizing the importance of rectifying "polluting countries' responsibility for climate disasters in other countries like Pakistan."

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Climate Change Worsens Flooding in Pakistan - The McGill Daily

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The past several years have been marked by meteorological abnormalities, ranging from extreme heat waves to weeks-long floods, hurricanes, droughts, and fires. In 2021 alone, 432 disastrous events related to natural hazards worldwide were reported by the Emergency Event Database (EM-DAT). These accounted for 10,492 deaths, affected 101.8 million people, and caused approximately $252.1 billion USD-worth of economic losses.

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Residents of Atlantic Canada are bracing for the impacts of Fiona, a historic storm now expected to make landfall in Canada due to climate change.

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Residents of Atlantic Canada are bracing for the impacts of Fiona, a historic storm now expected to make landfall in Canada due to climate change.

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https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/climate/impacts/hurricane-fiona-how-climate-change-is-impacting-tropical-cyclones

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What the science says about hurricanes and climate change - The Weather Network

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Climate change is affecting nearly every aspect of our weather, and tropical cyclones and hurricanes are no exception.