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Less Rain in Hawaii
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on April 25th, 2013
Environmental News Network: The Hawaiian Islands ecoregion includes one of the world's wettest places, the slopes of Mount Wai?ale?ale, which average 460 in (12,000 mm) of rainfall per year. However, almost imperceptibly, rainfall over the Hawaiian Islands has been declining since 1978, and this trend is likely to continue with global warming through the end of this century, according to a team of scientists at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) and the University of Colorado at Boulder. This latest Hawaii rainfall study,...
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Antarctica Peninsula Climate Reconstruction
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on April 19th, 2013
Environmental News Network: The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica. It is the section closest to another continent (South America). A new 1000-year Antarctic Peninsula climate reconstruction shows that summer ice melting has intensified almost ten-fold, and mostly since the mid 20th Century. Summer ice melt affects the stability of Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers. The research, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, adds new knowledge to the international effort that is required...
Grey Water
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on February 13th, 2013
Environmental News Network: There is only so much fresh water in the world of the kind people need to drink to live. Recycled water, or gray water, is water that has been used for household activities such as taking showers or washing dishes. Then there is water that is a bit more dirty such as from the toilet. There are or will be a time and a place where such water will have to be used as is or will be treated so as to reuse once again. Even now in places like Singapore and Namibia, limited supplies of freshwater are being...
The Effect of Forests on Climate
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on February 1st, 2013
Environmental News Network: Once there were vast forests covering North America and Europe. What happens to the climate if they were returned? Planting trees in an area where there are no trees now, can reduce the effect of climate change by cooling temperate regions finds a study in BioMed Central's open access journal Carbon Balance and Management. Afforestation could lead to cooler and wetter summers by the end of this century if it was done now. Of course doing it now is a problem not only of resources of what it replaces...
Antarctic Melting and Sea Level
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on December 3rd, 2012
Environmental News Network: Due to its location at the South Pole, Antarctica receives relatively little solar radiation. This means that it is a very cold continent where water is mostly in the form of ice or snow. This accumulates and forms a giant ice sheet which covers the land. New data which more accurately measures the rate of ice-melt could help us better understand how Antarctica is changing in the light of global warming. The rate of global sea level change is reasonably well-established but understanding the different...
Temperatures are Up
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on November 23rd, 2012
Environmental News Network: Feel warmer? Maybe not everywhere but global temperatures were the fifth highest on record for October. Meanwhile arctic sea ice doubles from last month, yet remains second lowest on record for October. The globally-averaged temperature for October 2012 was the fifth warmest October since record keeping began in 1880. October 2012 also marks the 36th consecutive October and 332nd consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average. Higher-than-average monthly temperatures...
Ground Water Inundation
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on November 14th, 2012
Environmental News Network: Scientists from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) published a study today in Nature Climate Change showing that besides marine inundation (flooding), low-lying coastal areas may also be vulnerable to groundwater inundation, a factor largely unrecognized in earlier predictions on the effects of sea level rise. Ground-water flooding or inundation occurs in low-lying areas when the water table rises above the land surface. Previous research has predicted that by the end of the century, sea level...
The Browning of America
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on October 5th, 2012
Environmental News Network: Nearly two thirds of the contiguous United States was experiencing some level of drought by the end of August 2012, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. 39 percent of the nation suffered from severe to extreme drought. Though the numbers changed a bit in mid-September, the drought parched much of the interior United States and left both domestic and wild animals scrounging for food. There were also plenty of spectacular wild fires. The browning and withering of vegetation in the United States and...
Glacier Drainage
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on September 20th, 2012
Environmental News Network: Fast-flowing and narrow glaciers have the potential to trigger massive changes in the Antarctic ice sheet and contribute to rapid ice-sheet decay and sea-level rise, a new study has found. These glaciers are suspected to act as a sort of stream that drain off inland ice sheets. Research results published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveal in more detail than ever before how warming waters in the Southern Ocean are connected intimately with the movement and thinning...
Salinity and Climate
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on September 6th, 2012
Environmental News Network: The degree of salinity in oceans is a driver of the world's ocean circulation, where density changes due to both salinity changes and temperature changes at the surface of the ocean produce changes in buoyancy, which cause the sinking and rising of water masses. Changes in the salinity of the oceans are thought to contribute to global changes in carbon dioxide as more saline waters are less soluble to carbon dioxide. A NASA-sponsored expedition is set to sail to the North Atlantic's saltiest spot...