Just as European leaders are faltering in their efforts to tackle climate change, a new survey of the science by WWF has found that the climate is changing much faster, stronger and sooner than even the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) forecast. According to WWF, research on climate change and its impacts published since … Read More
melting Arctic
Welcome to 2030: Refugees in Antarctica, bio-warfare over water….
If you think that the events of the last few weeks have been unprecedented, they are mild compared to the bumper roller-coaster ride you are in store for because of climate change. A set of possible future scenarios for 2030 envisages refugees in Antarctica, a virtual Olympics, and bio-warfare over water. Developed by the British … Read More
The Methane Time Bomb Explodes
For nearly twenty years anyone concerned about climate change has been worried about the millions and millions of tonnes of frozen methane locked in the permafrost slowly melting and being released into the atmosphere. It was seen as a nightmare scenario, known as a positive feedback mechanism, where the more the Arctic melted the more … Read More
The Ice-Free North Pole
Will there be one event that finally galvanizes international action on climate change? Something so shocking that it becomes a tipping point for politicians to finally take this issue seriously. It did not happen after Hurricane Katrina. Nor did it happen after the European floods or heatwaves. Maybe the news, from today’s Independent, that for … Read More
US Protects Polar Bears … but only from hunting
The United States declared the polar bear a threatened species yesterday; saying the dramatic reduction in sea ice caused by global warming has put it in imminent danger of extinction. Although this was the first time the US Endangered Species Act was used to protect a species threatened by climate change, the bears will only … Read More
Methane Levels Rising Again
This is worrying. Levels of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere seem to be rising having remained stable for nearly 10 years. Data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in the US suggest concentrations rose by about 0.5% between 2006 and 2007. The rise could reflect melting of permafrost, increased industrialisation in … Read More
Greenland Joins the Oil Rush
There is something absurdly ironic when climate change caused by the oil industry leads to the melting of ice, which in turn leads to more land or sea being available to explore for oil and gas. The latest country to be affected is Greenland, where oil companies have begun looking for crude deposits off the … Read More
Gore: Climate Change Worse Than Feared
Climate change is occurring far more rapidly than even the worst predictions of the UN’s Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change, Al Gore warned yesterday. Recent evidence shows “the climate crisis is significantly worse and unfolding more rapidly than those on the pessimistic side of the IPCC projections had warned us,” said Gore. There … Read More
Greenland Ice Melting at Unprecedented Rate Too
Just days after the revelation that Antarctica is melting faster than predicted (See blog), comes news that the Greenland ice sheet is also shrinking fast. Last summer Greenland’s ice sheet melted more than at anytime in the last 50 years, international glaciologists and climatologists report today in the Journal of Climate.
A “Warm Wind’ in the Arctic
The Arctic is being hit by melting ice, hotter air and dying wildlife, according to a US government report on the impact of climate change there. A new wind circulation pattern is blowing more warm air towards the North Pole than in the 20th Century, scientists found. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) … Read More