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Centuries of melting already locked in for polar ice, scientists say
Posted by InsideClimate: Phil McKenna on December 18th, 2015
InsideClimate: The melting of polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers will likely continue for thousands of years, causing irreversible sea level rise, even if global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius, according to a new report published last week during the climate negotiations in Paris. Sea levels could rise 13 to 33 feet or more unless far more ambitious steps are quickly taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report issued by the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, a nonprofit...
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Power grid remains ill prepared for future hurricanes, study shows
Posted by InsideClimate: Phil McKenna on October 27th, 2015
InsideClimate: Three years after Hurricane Sandy devastated the East Coast, key electrical infrastructure remains vulnerable to flooding in major storms. A study released Tuesday by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) says millions of Americans living along the East and Gulf coasts would likely lose power in a Category 3 hurricane.
Sandy left more than 8 million people across 21 states without power and caused billions of dollars in damage when power plants and major electrical substations were inundated...
California faces a future of droughts alternating with floods
Posted by InsideClimate: Phil McKenna on October 23rd, 2015
InsideClimate: A warming climate coupled with more intense El Niño and La Niña events could cause twice as many droughts and three times as many floods in California by 2080, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications. The findings come while California suffers its most severe drought in recorded history, a four-year disaster that has caused an estimated $2.2 billion in economic loss from 2013-14 alone. At the same time, heavy rainfall––which triggered mudslides last week in...
Geoengineering will not save ocean life from acidification, research says
Posted by InsideClimate: Phil McKenna on August 6th, 2015
InsideClimate: Waiting to tackle ocean acidification caused by climate change through yet-to-be developed geoengineering schemes will be too little too late to prevent mass extinction of ocean life, a new study concludes.
Cutting carbon emissions is the only way for oceans to recover from the devastating effects of climate change, according to the new research published in Nature Climate Change. While using deliberate, large-scale manipulation of earth processes to combat global warming has its proponents, intervening...