Be it in the oceans, on the land, or in the air and from the American breadbasket to the Siberian icy forests, to the land down under. global warming is occurring rapidly, right before our eyes. Only the self-absorbed or the intentionally blind fail to see it underway. Here is but a few spots at a brief point in time, and their cousins are expected to be repeated near endlessly.
Phoenix in the Climate Crosshairs
Phoenix’s pyramid of complexities looks shakier than most because it stands squarely in the crosshairs of climate change. The area, like much of the rest of the American Southwest, is already hot and dry; it’s getting ever hotter and drier, and is increasingly battered by powerful storms. Sandy and Katrina previewed how coastal cities can expect to fare as seas rise and storms strengthen. Phoenix pulls back the curtain on the future of inland empires. If you want a taste of the brutal new climate to come, the place to look is where that climate is already harsh, and growing more so -- the aptly named Valley of the Sun.
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Australia experiences 'angry summer'
SYDNEY, March 5 (UPI) -- In what it calls the "Angry Summer," a new report from Australia's Climate Commission links the country's extreme weather events to climate change.
At least 123 weather records were broken during Australia's 2013 summer -- the hottest ever -- through Feb. 28.
Extreme heat waves and catastrophic bushfire conditions during the "Angry Summer" were made worse by climate change, the report says, adding that "it is virtually certain that extreme hot weather will continue to become even more frequent and severe around the globe, including Australia, over the coming decades."
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Barrow, Alaska: Ground Zero for Climate Change
Scientists converge on the northernmost city in the United States to study global warming's dramatic consequences
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, according to a 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report, the most recent available. Summer sea ice in the region shrank by nearly 40 percent between 1978 and 2007. Winter temperatures have been several degrees Fahrenheit warmer than they were a few decades ago. Trees have spread into the tundra. In 2008, a wildfire broke out in an area north of the Brooks Range, where the local dialect had no word for forest fire.
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Climate Change Is Making Canada Look More Like the United States
Observant people who've driven through Canada their entire lives may have noticed a shift in their natural surroundings. That is, it's greener: A huge portion of the country, roughly equal to the area of the entire United States, is sprouting thick, luscious new coats of trees and bushland.
Scientists monitoring the Northern American landmass from space have seen it happen over the past three decades, and now they've released data fingering climate change for the unusual boom in vegetation. Writing in Nature Climate Change, researchers with the NASA-funded study say that winters above the U.S.-Canada border are warming up quicker than the summers. That's causing the seasons to blend together, thawing out the ground for longer periods of time and supporting an eruption of "vigorously productive vegetation" covering about 3.5 million square miles.
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Canadian glaciers face 'irreversible' thaw
Canadian glaciers that are the world's third biggest store of ice after Antarctica and Greenland seem headed for an irreversible melt that will push up sea levels, scientists said on Thursday.
About 20 per cent of the ice in glaciers, on islands such as Ellesmere or Devon off northern Canada, could vanish by the end of the 21st century in a melt that would add 3.5 cm (1.4 inch) to global sea levels, they said.
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Climate change significant challenge facing Libya
If new government doesn’t address the issues related to climate change, Libya could see more turmoil, say Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell.
If the new government does not address the issue of water shortages, Libya could see more turmoil, Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell write in their essay, which examines Libya’s water and desertification problems.
A recent report by Joshua Busby at the University of Texas, Austin, notes that between now and the middle of the century, some of the wettest and most populated areas of Libya, along the Mediterranean coast, are likely to experience increases in drought days — meaning no rainfall — from a current 101, to a whopping 224.
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Related Books:
The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis
by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac
The authors, who played key roles in the Paris Agreement on climate change, offer insights and strategies for addressing the climate crisis, including individual and collective action.
Click for more info or to order
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming
by David Wallace-Wells
This book explores the potential consequences of unchecked climate change, including mass extinction, food and water scarcity, and political instability.
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The Ministry for the Future: A Novel
by Kim Stanley Robinson
This novel imagines a near-future world grappling with the impacts of climate change and offers a vision for how society might transform to address the crisis.
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Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
by Elizabeth Kolbert
The author explores the human impact on the natural world, including climate change, and the potential for technological solutions to address environmental challenges.
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Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
edited by Paul Hawken
This book presents a comprehensive plan for addressing climate change, including solutions from a range of sectors such as energy, agriculture, and transportation.
