Climate Change News & Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

Antarctic ocean currents heading for collapse - report

1 day ago

Rapidly melting Antarctic ice is causing a dramatic slowdown in deep ocean currents and could have a disastrous effect on the climate, a new report warns.

The deep-water flows which drive ocean currents could decline by 40% by 2050, a team of Australian scientists says.

The currents carry vital heat, oxygen, carbon and nutrients around the globe.

Previous research suggests a slowdown in the North Atlantic current could cause Europe to become colder.

The study, published in the journal Nature, also warns the slowdown could reduce ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-austra ... gn=KARANGA

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

The Corporate Media's Shocking Silence on Latest Tipping Points Study
by Julie Hollar
April 5, 2023

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) On the heels of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report (3/20/23), which featured scientists running out of ways to emphasize how urgently deep cuts in fossil fuel use are needed, a troubling new climate study has emerged. Published in the prominent peer-reviewed science journal Nature (3/29/23), the study found that a little-studied deep ocean circulation system is slowing dramatically, and could collapse this century. One IPCC author not involved in the study declared it "headline news." Unfortunately, science doesn't guide US corporate media, which were virtually silent on the landmark study.

The authors modeled the effects of Antarctic meltwater on deep ocean currents crucial to marine ecosystems. Similar to the more well-studied Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) that the Gulf Stream is a part of, and which is also known to be dangerously weakening, the Antarctic overturning circulation has major planetary impacts. It pushes nutrient-dense water from the ocean floor up toward the surface, where those nutrients support marine life. The Nature study, which also refers to the current as the Antarctic Bottom Water, found that this circulation system is projected to slow down 42% by 2050, with a total collapse "this century," according to study co-author Matthew England (CNN.com, 3/29/23).

This is indeed "headline news," with major impacts on the sustainability of marine ecosystems and the ocean's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, accelerating climate change. And this deep warming could cause further ice melt, which isn't incorporated into the study's models—meaning this could all happen even faster than their model predicts.

Yet FAIR could find no record of any US newspaper even mentioning the Nature study in the week since it came out—let alone giving it the front-page coverage it inarguably deserves. Nor did we find mentions on national TV news programs, aside from CNN anchor Michael Holmes interviewing England for the network's 3 a.m. airing of CNN Newsroom (4/1/23). Aside from science- and environment-focused news outlets (Conversation, 3/29/23; Grist, 4/3/23, picked up by Salon, 4/3/23), almost no major US-based web outlets offered reports either, with the exception, again, of CNN.com (3/29/23), which ran a creditable article by Australian-based journalist Hilary Whiteman.

Read more of the Common Dreams article here: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/m ... ng-points

Here is the presentation of the climate study report as found in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586 ... T1Yraw%3D

[weatheriscool]

20 Times Quicker – Ice Sheets Can Collapse Far Faster Than Previously Thought Possible
https://scitechdaily.com/20-times-quick ... -possible/
By Newcastle University April 8, 2023

Scientists discover that during periods of global warming, ice sheets can retreat at a pace of up to 600 meters per day, which is 20 times quicker than the previous highest recorded rate of retreat.

An international team of scientists, headed by Dr. Christine Batchelor from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, utilized high-resolution imagery of the ocean floor to uncover the rapid pace at which a former ice sheet that stretched from Norway receded at the end of the last Ice Age, approximately 20,000 years ago.

The team, which also included researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Loughborough in the UK and the Geological Survey of Norway, mapped more than 7,600 small-scale landforms called ‘corrugation ridges’ across the seafloor. The ridges are less than 2.5 m high and are spaced between about 25 and 300 meters apart.

These landforms are understood to have formed when the ice sheet’s retreating margin moved up and down with the tides, pushing seafloor sediments into a ridge every low tide. Given that two ridges would have been produced each day (under two tidal cycles per day), the researchers were able to calculate how quickly the ice sheet retreated.

[weatheriscool]

Troubled Waters: Record-Breaking Rates of Sea-Level Rise Found Along the U.S. Southeast and Gulf Coasts

https://scitechdaily.com/troubled-water ... lf-coasts/
By Tulane University April 10, 2023

Researchers found rates of sea-level rise of about a half an inch per year since 2010 — three times higher than the global average over the same period.

A Tulane University study found that sea levels along the U.S. Southeast and Gulf coasts have accelerated at record-breaking rates of half an inch per year since 2010 due to compounding effects of climate change and natural variability. The study emphasizes the urgency of addressing climate change to protect vulnerable coastlines.

Sea levels along the U.S. Southeast and Gulf coasts have been rapidly accelerating, reaching record-breaking rates over the past 12 years, according to a new study led by scientists at Tulane University.

In the study, published today (April 10, 2023) in the journal Nature Communications, researchers said they had detected rates of sea-level rise of about a half an inch per year since 2010. They attribute the acceleration to the compounding effects of man-made climate change and natural climate variability.

“These rapid rates are unprecedented over at least the 20th century and they have been three times higher than the global average over the same period,” says Sönke Dangendorf, lead author and the David and Jane Flowerree Assistant Professor in the Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering at Tulane.

The authors studied a combination of field and satellite measurements since 1900, pinpointing the individual contributors to the acceleration.

[wjfox]

Climate models warn of possible ‘super El Niño’ before end of year

Tue 11 Apr 2023 16.00 BST

Climate models around the globe continue to warn of a potential El Niño developing later this year – a pattern of ocean warming in the Pacific that can increase the risk of catastrophic weather events around the globe.

Some models are raising the possibility later this year of an extreme, or “super El Niño”, that is marked by very high temperatures in a central region of the Pacific around the equator.

The last extreme El Niño in 2016 helped push global temperatures to the highest on record, underpinned by human-caused global heating that sparked floods, droughts and disease outbreaks.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said in a Tuesday update that all seven models it had surveyed – including those from weather agencies in the UK, Japan and the US – showed sea surface temperatures passing the El Niño threshold by August.

But the bureau and climate scientists warned that forecasts were much less reliable during the southern hemisphere autumn and outlooks should be “viewed with some caution”.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... nd-of-year

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

US energy secretary says G7 can lead global emissions cuts
Source: AP

By ELAINE KURTENBACH today

OTARU, Japan (AP) — Wealthy nations can lead by example in cutting carbon emissions, though much faster action is needed to stem global warming, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.

Granholm and other senior energy and environment officials from the Group of Seven advanced economies are in Hokkaido in northern Japan this week for meetings on climate change, energy security and related issues.

“That’s what we hope to do is lead by example,” Granholm said after touring the world’s first and only liquefied hydrogen carrier, a ship that showcases Japanese efforts to transform heavily polluting coal into emissions-free hydrogen power.

At the G-7 summit in May last year, member nations set a common goal of achieving a fully or predominantly decarbonized electricity supply by 2035.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/energy-emiss ... d1cda6605f

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Also the second hottest march globally. First is 2016.