• Climate Change

The 2010s Were Hottest Recorded, 2019 2nd Warmest Year, With U.S. Carbon Emissions Lower

• climate change
• greenhouse gas emissions
• hottest
• temperature
• warming

Due to closures of coal-fired power plants, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2019, according to an analysis of preliminary figures published Tuesday by the Rhodium Group, CNN reported.  However, as Axios reported, the 2010s was a decade of record-high global temperatures, with 2016 coming in as the hottest year on record just beating 2019 by 0.04 degrees Celsius, according to an analysis by Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service using U.S. government climate data.

Why This Matters:  These trends need to both be heading down — even if our greenhouse gas emissions fell slightly, we need to make deeper emissions cuts to stop the global temperatures from spiral even higher in the 20s.

• Climate Change

Climate Change Impacts Daily Weather On Global Scale

• climate change
• warming
• weather

Scientists who have studied global weather data say that beginning in 2012 “on the basis of a single day of globally observed temperature and moisture, we detect the fingerprint of externally driven climate change, and conclude that Earth as a whole is warming.”

Why This Matters:   When we talk about climate change, we can now explain it as something that is immediately apparent — not something that takes years to comprehend.  This should help in rebutting climate deniers insofar as they were resting on arguments about weather variability.

• Climate Change

Flesh-Eating Bacteria On Rise Due To Climate Change

• bacteria
• brackish
• disease
• infection
• ocean
• warming

This summer the number of cases of people who are made ill by a flesh-eating bacteria called vibrio vulnificus that stops blood circulation, causing muscle tissue to die and skin to decay is increasing around the country — and the cause is believed to be climate change. 

• Forests

As First Residents Return to Paradise, Study Shows Cali Forest Fires Have Increased 800%

• California
• climate change
• forest fires
• warming
• wildfire

A study just published in the Journal Earth’s Future found that as a result of California’s increasingly long and dry summers caused by climate change, the state overall has experienced in the last 50 years a 500% increase in the amount of land burned in fires.  While non-forest areas have not experienced a huge increase in fires in those areas, forested areas have seen an 800% increase in areas that have burned. 

• Ocean

Marine Life Declines Considerably In Worst Case Climate Crisis Scenario

• extinction
• fish
• greenhouse gas emissions
• ocean
• tropics
• warming

A new study published on Tuesday by the National Academies of Science found that all the marine life in the ocean will decline by one-sixth by the year 2100 under the high emissions global warming scenario but on by 5% if we can stay within the low emissions scenario — with an average 5% decline for every 1 °C of warming. These losses are driven by temperature increases rather than fishing and were more significant in the tropics. 

Climate change threatens fragile Himalayan glaciers

• Himalayas
• snow
• SOTU
• warming
• water

The Himalayan range is home to our planet’s highest peaks and it would be easy to assume that it’s protected from the effects of climate change due to this staggering altitude. Unfortunately, as it turns out, neither the ocean floor nor the tallest mountain is immune from planetary warming as a new study has discovered […]

• Climate Change

Warming winters a major threat to snow sports economy

• economic threat
• economy
• Lindsey Vonn
• snow
• snow boarding
• warming
• winter sports

While the thought of avoiding winter might sound nice, the actual impact of warming temperatures in cold months is nothing to wish for. Already in most U.S. states, winters have already warmed faster than any other season and as Climate Central reported those warmer winters are coming with serious (and rising) costs. America’s cold-weather recreation sector has a particularly big stake in warming winters. Activities from downhill skiing to ice fishing and outdoor ice hockey all rely on low temperatures, ample snowfall, or both. Every year, winter recreation contributes billions of dollars to the United States’ economy.

• Ocean

Oceans Warming Much Faster Than Previously Thought

• climate
• climate change
• coral bleaching
• ocean
• ocean acidification
• OHC
• sea level rise
• sensors
• warming

Oceans are heating up at a rate as much as 40% faster than the global consensus of scientists studying climate change had previously predicted.  A team of scientists looking at the numerous recent studies which made that claim have now validated those studies’ conclusions based on ocean heat content (OHC) observations (actual ocean temperature data), according to a new report published in the journal Science on Friday.  It also validates (as if we needed more proof) that the planet is clearly warming.  

Why This Matters:  Science matters.  The more data scientists have to work with, the better they can understand the changes that are wreaking havoc with our planet.  With more ocean observing sensors, which could be much more beneficial if we expanded the network of buoys and added sensors to more ships, we would not have to fill in nearly so many gaps and could do a much better job of forecasting risks and impacts, such as sea level rise, coral bleaching, and ocean acidification.  As the experts who conducted the review said, “There is a clear need to continue to improve the ocean observation and analysis system to provide better estimates of OHC, because it will enable more refined regional projections of the future.”