‘Angry Summer’ made worse by climate change: Commission
Full Article at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-04/climate-commission-says-summer-extremes-made-worse-by-climate/4550894
By Sarah Clarke
The latest report from the Federal Government’s Climate Commission says the weather extremes experienced around the country this summer were made worse by climate change.
The report – The Angry Summer – says the extreme heat, floods and bushfires experienced around country were all aggravated by a shifting climate, and it warns the trend is likely to continue.
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The report states that temperature records were set in every state and territory over summer.
It says much of Australia has been drier than usual since the middle of last year.
While Queensland and New South Wales have experienced heavy rainfall, Victoria and South Australia have recorded their driest summer in decades, and there have been devastating bushfires in at least three states.
Full Article at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-04/climate-commission-says-summer-extremes-made-worse-by-climate/4550894
Siberian permafrost thaw warning sparked by cave data
Full Article at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21549643
Evidence from Siberian caves suggests that a global temperature rise of 1.5C could see permafrost thaw over a large area of Siberia.
A study shows that more than a trillion tonnes of the greenhouse gases CO2 and methane could be released into the atmosphere as a result.
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The records from a particularly warm period called Marine Isotopic Stage 11,
which occurred around 400,000 years ago, suggest that warming of 1.5C compared
to the present is enough to cause substantial thawing of permafrost – even in
areas far north from its present-day southern limit.
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“As permafrost covers 24% of the land surface of the Northern Hemisphere,
significant thawing could affect vast areas and release (billions of tonnes) of
carbon.”
Full Article at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21549643
More on this subject at:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23205-major-methane-release-is-almost-inevitable.html
Prepare for 5°C Warmer World, Former Leader of Climate Change Panel Says
Full Article at http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/ex-ipcc_leader_prepare_for_a_5c_warmer_world_20130214/
By Alex Kirby
The world has missed the chance to keep greenhouse gas emissions below the level
needed to prevent the temperature climbing above 2°C, according to the British
scientist who used to chair the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change.
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“When I was chairing the IPCC we were all very optimistic that we’d have a global agreement to limit emissions, though we knew it would be difficult. But we were hopeful that emissions would not go up at the tremendous rate they are rising now.”
A world 5°C warmer than today could expect falling harvests in developing and developed countries, sea level rise threatening many major cities, and significant water shortages.
More species would be facing extinction (10% of species are thought to be at risk for every 1°C of warming), there would be more (and more intense) extreme weather, and a growing risk of abrupt and major irreversible changes in the climate system.
Full Article at http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/ex-ipcc_leader_prepare_for_a_5c_warmer_world_20130214/
NASA: Alarming Water Loss in Middle East
Full Article at http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/02/12/world/middleeast/ap-ml-middle-east-vanishing-water.html?hp&_r=1&
An amount of freshwater almost the size of the Dead Sea has been lost in parts of the Middle East due to poor management, increased demands for groundwater and the effects of a 2007 drought, according to a NASA study.
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Researchers found freshwater reserves in parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran along the Tigris and Euphrates river basins had lost 117 million acre feet (144 cubic kilometers) of its total stored freshwater, the second fastest loss of groundwater storage loss after India.
About 60 percent of the loss resulted from pumping underground reservoirs for ground water, including 1,000 wells in Iraq, and another fifth was due to impacts of the drought including declining snow packs and soil drying up. Loss of surface water from lakes and reservoirs accounted for about another fifth of the decline, the study found.
Full Article at http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/02/12/world/middleeast/ap-ml-middle-east-vanishing-water.html?hp&_r=1&
Dramatic increase in methane in the Arctic in January 2013
Full Article at http://arctic-news.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/dramatic-increase-in-methane-in-the-arctic-in-january-2013.html
By Sam Carana
Above image shows dramatic increases of methane levels above the Arctic Ocean in
the course of January 2013 in a large area north of Norway.
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Overlaying methane measurements with sea ice concentrations shows that the
highest levels of methane coincide with areas in the Arctic Ocean without sea
ice.
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As that post concludes, much of this methane is likely to enter the atmosphere
without getting broken down by bacteria as the sea ice retreats further. Sea ice
is declining at exponential pace. The big danger is that a huge rise of temperatures in the Arctic will
destabilize huge amounts of methane currently held in the seabed.
Full Article at http://arctic-news.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/dramatic-increase-in-methane-in-the-arctic-in-january-2013.html
What are long term threats of plastic in our seas?
Full Article at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21236477
By Susan Watts
Last summer, when filming for a series to be broadcast next year, a team from the BBC’s Natural History Unit saw first-hand how discarded plastic can end up thousands of miles away from where people live when they visited French Frigate Shoals, an island north west of Hawaii.
There they found turtles nesting amongst plastic bottles, cigarette lighters and toys. And they discovered dead and dying albatross chicks, unwittingly killed when their parents fed them plastic carried in as they foraged for food in the sea.
Some of the chicks die when sharp edges puncture their bodies, others from starvation as their stomachs fill with plastic they cannot digest.
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“There’s been a lot of research in the United States looking at how the plastic gets into the food chain, and certainly it’s been shown that it gets into bi-valves, mussels and oysters on the seabed, and it does have an effect on them,” Dr Boxall said.
“They bio-accumulate the plastic as they filter the water. That concentrates the plastic and effectively turns some of those molluscs into hermaphrodites. Some years ago it was assumed that it was like roughage, and didn’t have a major impact, but we know now that those very small plastic particles can mimic certain things like oestrogen,” he added.
Full Article at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21236477
Sydney bakes on hottest day on record as bushfires rage
Full Article at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21072347
The Australian city of Sydney is experiencing its hottest day on record, with temperatures reaching nearly 46C.
A temperature of 45.8C was recorded at Observatory Hill in the city at 14:55 local time (01:55 GMT).
Some areas in the wider Sydney region were even hotter, with the town of Penrith, to the west, registering a temperature of 46.5C.
In Victoria state, one man has been killed by a bushfire, one of dozens raging across southern Australia.
Full Article at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21072347
