Look Out Below: Antarctic Melting From Underneath
Ice experts have long known that Antarctica is losing ice at the margins of its vast ice sheets, where the frozen continent meets the sea — presumably, they thought, from icebergs breaking off and floating away. According to a report published in Science, however, more than half the ice loss is coming from warming ocean waters, which are melting th… Read More
Catastrophic Oil Spill Threat to Canadian River Basin
The Mackenzie River Basin, a vast globally important area in Canada, is at great risk from climate change and a catastrophic oil spill from the tailing ponds of tar sands mining, according to a panel of nine Canadian, American and British scientists. The warning came just days after the Canadian Oil Producers Association says it expects oil produc… Read More
$110 Billion Price Tag for Extreme Weather Events in 2012
Now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has totaled the losses caused by the 11 most expensive extreme weather and climate disasters in 2012, each of which cost upwards of $1 billion. According to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., these billion-dollar events cost the U.S. a total of $110 billion, which … Read More
New York Launches $19.5 Billion Climate Resiliency Plan
Underlying the portfolio of measures, which amount to the largest climate resilience program of any city worldwide, Bloomberg said, are a recognition that climate change is increasing the risks of damaging storm surge events in New York by increasing sea levels, and that climate change is also likely to worsen heat waves, heavy precipitation events… Read More
Coral Fights Back Gradually From Ocean Heating
Marine biologists’ worst fears seem to be confirmed: coral colonies take a long time to recover from catastrophic climate events. British and Brazilian biologists report in the Public Library of Science One – better known simply as PLoS One – that the richest habitats of the sea could also be among the most vulnerable to climate change. For more … Read More
Jellyfish Surge in Mediterranean Threatens Environment
Scientists across the Mediterranean say a surge in the number of jellyfish this year threatens not just the biodiversity of one of the world's most overfished seas but also the health of tens of thousands of summer tourists. "I flew along a 186-mile stretch of coastline on April 21 and saw millions of jellyfish," said Professor Stefano Piraino of … Read More
Squid Threatened by Ocean Acidity Caused by Rise in CO2
That jet-propelled cephalopod of the seas, the squid, could be in for a hard time. As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, so the oceans become more acid, and this is not good news for one of the most important animals of the ocean ecosystem. Aran Mooney of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the U.S. and other colleagues decided to take… Read More
Wicked Week of Tornadoes, Hurricanes and Flooding
It is extreme weather to the max in this week's slideshow of top climate news. … Read More
