Sea Level

“Unimaginable Amounts of Water”: Human-Made Global Heating in Danger of “Uncorking” Massive Antarctic Glaciers, causing Sea Level Rise

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new article in Geophysical Research Letters found that four times as much of the Antarctic ices shelves would melt under a scenario where we heat the earth by 7.2 degrees F. (4 degrees C.) as opposed to the current Paris Climate Treaty goals of 1.5 degrees C. or at […]

Climate Crisis

Antarctica’s ice shelves are trembling as Earth heats, threatening Sea Level Rise unless we Act Now

The Conversation

By Ella Gilbert | – Images of colossal chunks of ice plunging into the sea accompany almost every news story about climate change. It can often make the problem seem remote, as if the effects of rising global temperatures are playing out elsewhere. But the break-up of the world’s vast reservoirs of frozen water – […]

Acidification of Oceans

More CO2 in our Atmosphere now than any time since 3.6 mn Years Ago, when Oceans were 90 feet higher (that’s our fate)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a scientific shocker, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found that despite the slowdown in carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 because of the pandemic, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere rose to a global average of 412.5 parts per million (ppm) from 410 in 2019. At the […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change is making Sea levels rise fastest in big cities – here’s why

The Conversation

By Sally Brown and Robert James Nicholls | – It is well known that climate-induced sea level rise is a major threat. What is less well know is the threat of sinking land. And in many of the most populated coastal areas, the land is sinking even faster than the sea is rising. Parts of […]

Climate Crisis

Michael E. Mann on The New Climate War and Biden’s Greening of America: Interview with Juan Cole

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I am so pleased to present to our readers an interview with one of the world’s foremost climate scientists, Michael E. Mann of Penn State. I have followed him for a decade and a half and have learned tons from his informed, clear and absolutely crucial writing. In his journal […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis: what would 7.1° F. ( 4°C) of global warming feel like?

The Conversation

By Robert Wilby | – Another year, another climate record broken. Globally, 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year ever recorded. This was all the more remarkable given that cool conditions in the Pacific Ocean – known as La Niña – began to emerge in the second half of the year. The Earth’s mean […]

Acidification of Oceans

It might be the world’s biggest ocean, but the mighty Pacific is in peril

The Conversation

By Jodie L. Rummer, Bridie JM Allan, Charitha Pattiaratchi, Ian A. Bouyoucos, James Cook, Irfan Yulianto and Mirjam van der Mheen | – The Pacific Ocean is the deepest, largest ocean on Earth, covering about a third of the globe’s surface. An ocean that vast may seem invincible. Yet across its reach – from Antarctica […]

Climate Crisis

So long, Sucker! Top 6 Reasons we Won’t miss you, 2020, or Trump, either

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – My late friend Fernando Coronil once observed that in order to understand the people of the past we must also understand their own visions of the future. In the 2014 science fiction film Edge of Tomorrow, based on a Japanese young adult novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi […]

Climate Crisis

The Marshall Islands could be wiped out by climate change – and their colonial history limits their ability to save themselves

Juan Cole

By Autumn Bordner and Caroline E. Ferguson | – Along U.S. coastlines, from California to Florida, residents are getting increasingly accustomed to “king tides.” These extra-high tides cause flooding and wreak havoc on affected communities. As climate change raises sea levels, they are becoming more extreme. King tides are nothing new for the Marshall Islands, […]