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The alarming science driving much higher sea level projections for this century
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on March 31st, 2016
Washington Post: For many scientists studying Antarctica, and particularly the vulnerable West Antarctic ice sheet, a major new study significantly increasing expectations for sea-level rise is the culmination of a large body of prior research -- combined with alarming recent observations.
The study, just published in Nature, is based on an improved understanding of past warm eras in Earth’s history that featured much higher seas. By creating advanced computer simulations of how Antarctica’s ice melts and flows...
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Antarctica could be much more vulnerable to melting than we thought
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on February 23rd, 2016
Washington Post: In two new studies, scientists say that the vast ice continent of Antarctica seems to have given up tremendous volumes of ice -- even sprouting considerable plant life -- during an era over 10 million years ago when concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide don’t seem to have been all that much higher than they are now.
That period was known as the Miocene. And during its early and middle phases, between 23 and 14 million years ago, carbon dioxide concentrations are believed to have sometimes...
The surprising way that climate change could worsen East Coast blizzards
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on January 25th, 2016
Washington Post: As the East Coast digs out from the enormous snowfalls of Winter Storm Jonas, a prominent climate scientist has drawn a provocative connection between the storm, warm ocean temperatures off the U.S. and a slowdown of ocean circulation in the North Atlantic that may also be behind a much discussed cold ‘blob‘ to the southeast of Greenland.
“People have thought, you get this cold blob, and it’s going to maybe affect Britain,” says Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research,...
Greenland has lost a staggering amount of ice — and it’s only getting worse
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on December 17th, 2015
Washington Post: A massive new study by 16 authors has calculated just how much ice the Greenland ice sheet has lost since the year 1900. And the number, says the paper just out in the journal Nature, is astounding: 9,103 gigatons (a gigaton is a billion metric tons).
That’s over 9 trillion tons in total. And moreover, the rate of loss has been increasing, the research finds, with a doubling of annual loss in the period 2003 to 2010 compared with what it was throughout the 20th century.
The study was led by...
The troubling science that’s pushing the world toward a much tougher climate goal
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on December 11th, 2015
Washington Post: Perhaps the most surprising story out of the Paris climate talks so far is the shift that seems to be occurring in favor of at least some acknowledgment -- if not an outright embrace -- of a 1.5 degrees Celsius global temperature target in a final agreement here.
Holding warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- rather than to 2 degrees, which up until now has been the most widely accepted target – would be extraordinarily difficult, if not outright impossible. Scientists have...
Scientists say Greenland just opened up major new ‘floodgate’ of ice into the ocean
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on November 13th, 2015
Washington Post: As the world prepares for the most important global climate summit yet in Paris later this month, news from Greenland could add urgency to the negotiations. For another major glacier appears to have begun a rapid retreat into a deep underwater basin, a troubling sign previously noticed at Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier and also in the Amundsen Sea region of West Antarctica.
And in all of these cases, warm ocean waters reaching the deep bases of marine glaciers appears to be a major cause.
The...
Scientists confirm their fears about West Antarctica — that it’s inherently unstable
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on November 3rd, 2015
Washington Post: It may be the biggest climate change story of the last two years. In 2014, several research groups suggested that the oceanfront glaciers in the Amundsen Sea region of West Antarctica may have reached a point of “unstoppable” retreat due to warm ocean waters melting them from below. There’s a great deal at stake — West Antarctica is estimated to contain enough ice to raise global sea levels by 3.3 meters, or well over 10 feet, were it all to melt. The urgency may now increase further in light of...
Why monster hurricanes like Patricia are expected on a warmer planet
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on October 24th, 2015
Washington Post: First there was Supertyphoon Haiyan - which peaked out at 170-knot or 315 km/h mile-per-hour winds in 2013 as it slammed the Philippines. And now there is Patricia, forecast to soon hit Mexico, with currently estimated maximum sustained wind speeds of 175 knots or more than 324 km/h. It is officially the strongest hurricane ever measured by the U.S. National Hurricane Center, based on both its wind speed (175 knots) and its minimum central pressure (880 millibars). The wind measurement "makes Patricia...
Alaska’s terrifying wildfire season and what it says about climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on July 26th, 2015
Washington Post: Hundreds of wildfires are continually whipping across this state this summer, leaving in their wake millions of acres of charred trees and blackened earth. At the Fairbanks compound of the state’s Division of Forestry recently, workers were busy washing a mountain of soot-covered fire hoses, which stood in piles roughly six feet high and 100?feet long. About 3,500 smokejumpers, hotshot crews, helicopter teams and other workers have traveled to Alaska this year from across the country and Canada....
Alaska’s glaciers are now losing 75 billion tons ice every year
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on June 18th, 2015
Washington Post: In a new study, scientists with the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and several other institutions report a staggering finding: Glaciers of the United States’ largest — and only Arctic — state, Alaska, have lost 75 gigatons (a gigaton is a billion metric tons) of ice per year from 1994 through 2013. For comparison, that’s roughly half of a recent estimate for ice loss for all of Antarctica (159 billion metric tons). It takes 360 gigatons of ice to lead to one millimeter of sea level rise, which...