Oceans

By Christine Batchelor, Newcastle University and Frazer Christie, University of Cambridge | – The Antarctic Ice Sheet, which covers an area greater than the US and Mexico combined, holds enough water to raise global sea level by more than 57 metres if melted completely. This would flood hundreds of cities worldwide. And evidence suggests it […]

Oceans

“Plasticosis:” Seabirds that swallow Plastic Waste have Diseased, Scarred Stomachs

By Matthew Savoca, Stanford University | – As a conservation biologist who studies plastic ingestion by marine wildlife, I can count on the same question whenever I present research: “How does plastic affect the animals that eat it?” This is one of the biggest questions in this field, and the verdict is still out. However, […]

Climate Crisis: Oceans heating up as though we were Constantly Blowing up Atomic Bombs in them

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released talking points for its report on 2022, warning that the oceans are getting alarmingly hotter every year. The full survey will be out this spring. It turns out of all the extra heat on earth caused by humans putting greenhouse gases into […]

Arctic

2022 Revealed how Major Arctic Climate Shifts endanger People, Ecosystems and Wildlife

By Matthew L. Druckenmiller, University of Colorado Boulder; Rick Thoman, University of Alaska Fairbanks; and Twila Moon, University of Colorado Boulder | – In the Arctic, the freedom to travel, hunt and make day-to-day decisions is profoundly tied to cold and frozen conditions for much of the year. These conditions are rapidly changing as the […]

Ray of Hope: Florida’s Solar-Powered Babcock Ranch Handily survived Hurricane Ian

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Babcock Ranch, Florida, in the southwest of the state, was planned in 2005 as a 17,000 acre community. It had as goals conservation and sustainability. The town was built to withstand the hurricanes that sweep over Florida with ever more frequency and fierceness. And, lo and behold, it was able […]

Dear Gov. DeSantis: Ian isn’t a once-in-500-years Flooding event, it is the New Normal, and Your Policies are helping Cause it

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has abruptly been handed an honest-to-God crisis that may distract him from his usual antics of trolling Venezuelan asylum-seekers, firing elected prosecutors who disagree with him on coerced childbirth, and firing scientists who wouldn’t manipulate state COVID statistics for him. DeSantis called Hurricane Ian a once-in-a-500-year […]

Antarctica

Our Atmospheric CO2 is now past the point that in the Deep Past has Meant the Melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheets

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – So as a historian, I am particularly interested in what the past tells us about the present. I’ve taught courses on climate change in history. But of course my kind of history doesn’t go back very far from the point of view of physical scientists. The academic discipline of “history” […]

Desalinating Seawater sounds Easy, but there are cheaper and more sustainable Ways to meet people’s Water Needs