Arctic Sea Ice Likely to Hit Record Low Next Week: Scientific American
Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is likely to shrink to a record small size sometime next week, and then keep on melting, a scientist at the U.S. National Climate Data Center said on Monday.
‘A new daily record…would be likely by the end of August,’ said Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the data center, which monitors ice in the Arctic and elsewhere. ‘Chances are it will cross the previous record while we’re still in sea ice retreat.’
The amount of sea ice in the Arctic is important because this region is a potent global weather-maker, sometimes characterized as the world’s air conditioner. This year, the loss of sea ice in the Arctic has suggested a possible opening of the Northwest Passage north of Canada and Alaska and the Northern Sea Route by Europe and Siberia.
Read more…(Scientific American)
The Effect of Dams on Global Warming
A new study has revealed the under-appreciation that exists for the role dams play in climate change; how the reservoirs behind them can cause surges of greenhouse gases as the water levels go up and down. In a study of the water column at such a reservoir, marine scientists found an astonishing 20-fold increase in methane emissions as water levels were drawn down. Bubbles coming out of the mud and sediment at the bottom were chock full of this potent greenhouse gas.
The role of lakes, reservoirs, and streams often go unnoticed when calculating carbon emissions. Most of the time we think about fossil fuel vehicles, factories, power plants, and landfills.
The truth is that there is a lot of biological activity going on behind the dam. This is where the natural flow of sediment and living things stop and therefore accumulate. Through the decomposition of such creatures and organic material comes methane gas that builds up in the lake bed.
Read more… (Environmental News Network)
Some Like it Hot: Cold-Blooded Tropical Species ‘Not as Vulnerable’ to Climate Change Extinction
In the face of a changing climate many species must adapt or perish. Ecologists studying evolutionary responses to climate change forecast that cold-blooded tropical species are not as vulnerable to extinction as previously thought. The study, published in the British Ecological Society’s Functional Ecology, considers how fast species can evolve and adapt to compensate for a rise in temperature.
The research, carried out at the University of Zurich, was led by Dr. Richard Walters, now at Reading University, alongside David Berger now at Uppsala University and Wolf Blanckenhorn, Professor of Evolutionary Ecology at Zurich.
‘Forecasting the fate of any species is difficult, but it is essential for conserving biodiversity and managing natural resources,’ said the lead author Dr. Walters. ‘It is believed that climate change poses a greater risk to tropical cold-blooded organisms (ectotherms), than temperate or polar species. However, as potential adaptation to climate change has not been considered in previous extinction models we tested this theory with a model forecasting evolutionary responses.’
Read more… (ScienceDaily)
1.5 Million Years of Climate History Revealed After Scientists Solve Mystery of the Deep
A new study has successfully reconstructed temperature from the deep sea to reveal how global ice volume has varied over the glacial-interglacial cycles of the past 1.5 million years.
Scientists have announced a major breakthrough in understanding Earth’s climate machine by reconstructing highly accurate records of changes in ice volume and deep-ocean temperatures over the last 1.5 million years.
The study, which is reported in the journal Science, offers new insights into a decades-long debate about how the shifts in Earth’s orbit relative to the sun have taken Earth into and out of an ice-age climate.
Being able to reconstruct ancient climate change is a critical part of understanding why the climate behaves the way it does. It also helps us to predict how the planet might respond to human-made changes, such as the injection of large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, in the future.
Read more… (ScienceDaily)
Behaviors of the Tiniest Water Droplets Revealed
A new study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, and Emory University has uncovered fundamental details about the hexamer structures that make up the tiniest droplets of water, the key component of life — and one that scientists still don’t fully understand.
The research, recently published in The Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), provides a new interpretation for experimental measurements as well as a vital test for future studies of our most precious resource. Moreover, understanding the properties of water at the molecular level can ultimately have an impact on many areas of science, including the development of new drugs or advances in climate change research.
Read more… (ScienceDaily)
Carbon Capture? Is it a Foreseeable Reality?
Interesting new research by MIT takes a look at the viability of capturing carbon from the air. The study suggests that, at least in the near future, this would not be a cost effective measure.
Since most of the world’s governments have not yet enacted regulations to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, some experts have advocated the development of technologies to remove carbon dioxide directly from the air. But a new MIT study shows that, at least for the foreseeable future, such proposals are not realistic because their costs would vastly exceed those of blocking emissions right at the source, such as at the power plants that burn fossil fuels.
Some purveyors of various new technologies for scrubbing carbon dioxide out of the air are reminiscent of “snake-oil salesmen,” says Howard Herzog, a senior research engineer at the MIT Energy Initiative and co-author of the new analysis publishes this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study was co-authored by MIT civil and environmental engineering postdoc Kurt Zenz House, along with researchers C12 Energy in Berkeley, Calif., and at Stanford University.
Read more… (Environmental News Network)
Extreme Hot Spells Rising
It’s not your imagination. Not only are extremely hot temperatures occurring more frequently across the globe, but those heat waves are getting more severe.
Back in the 1950s, temperatures on any given summer day were just as likely to be near average as they were to be unseasonably high or low. Climatologist James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City likens that scenario to rolling a die with two sides each corresponding to low, average, and above-normal temperature.
Since the 1980s, that metaphorical die has increasingly become weighted toward delivering a warm day, Hansen and his coworkers report August 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In fact, Hansen says, since 2000 it’s as though on any roll almost 4.5 sides will draw hotter than average summer heat.
Read more… (Science News)
Steep Fuel Prices Driving Push for Efficient Aircraft
LONDON- Europe’s effort to make international air carriers pay for their greenhouse gas emissions has infuriated other nations and set off a headline-grabbing trade dispute. But unless the cost it imposes on airlines jumps significantly, experts say, the continent’s carbon trading program is unlikely to have much effect on the industry’s climate-warming pollution.
That is because a far more powerful driver is already pushing aircraft manufacturers to increase the efficiency of planes-the high and volatile price of fuel.
With fuel costs accounting for 30 to 40 percent of airlines’ operating expenses, carriers are demanding that their suppliers produce planes that do more with less, said Justin Dubon, a spokesman for Airbus. “Obviously, it’s in our business interest to manufacture the most fuel-efficient aircraft possible,” he said.
Read more… (NYTimes.com)
New Discovery Linked to Climate Change and Human Health
A new atmospheric compound is connected to both climate change and human health issues. According to researchers at both the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Helsinki, this novel chemical combination in the Earth’s atmosphere has been tested to play a significant role in the field of climate and health.
This compound reacts with sulfuric dioxide to form sulfuric acid. The new composite was formed from a family of both natural and man-made hydrocarbons, known as alkenes. Sulfuric dioxide is mainly produced from the aftereffects by coal and other combusting fossil fuels at power plants.
According the Roy Mauldin III, a research associate at the University of Colorado Boulder’s atmospheric and oceanic sciences department and lead study author, this was the first time this complex contact between the two compounds has been documented. Mauldin said that this is important to the field of environmental science because the end product of the combination, sulfuric acid, is the driving force of acid rain production in the atmosphere.
Read more…. (ENN.com)
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