“The dramatic loss of ice in the Arctic is influencing sea-ice transport across the Arctic Ocean. As experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research report in a new study, today only 20 percent of the sea ice that forms in the shallow Russian marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean actually reaches the Central Arctic, where it joins the transpolar drift; the remaining 80 percent of the young ice melts before it has a chance to leave its “nursery.” Before 2000, that number was only 50 percent.
“According to the researchers, this development not only takes the planet one step closer to an ice-free summer in the Arctic; as the sea ice dwindles, the Arctic Ocean stands to lose an important means of transporting nutrients, algae and sediments…
“”Our study shows extreme changes in the Arctic: the melting of sea ice in the Kara Sea, Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea is now so rapid and widespread that we’re seeing a lasting reduction in the amount of new ice for the transpolar drift. Now, most of the ice that still reaches the Fram Strait isn’t formed in the marginal seas, but comes from the Central Arctic. What we’re witnessing is a major transport current faltering, which is bringing the world one major step closer to a sea-ice-free summer in the Arctic,” says first author Dr. Thomas Krumpen, a sea-ice physicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-04-transpolar-drift-falteringsea-ice-nursery.html
““Could a thaw of permafrost begin decades sooner than many people expect in some of the Arctic’s coldest, most carbon-rich regions, releasing trapped greenhouse gases (GHG) that could accelerate human-caused climate change?”
“Ipso facto, signage needs to be posted in northern Siberia with big bold red lettering: “Caution… Area Subject to Massive Release of Greenhouse Gases and Runaway Global Warming!””
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/03/arctic-permafrost-no-longer-freezes-even-in-winter/
“Yakima, Washington, experienced the coldest March on record, according to data from the National Weather Service. The average temperature was 35.9 degrees at the Yakima airport, which was 7.3 degrees below normal.
“The previous coldest March was 37.1 degrees in 1955, the weather service said.”
“Whitehorse, Yukon, had more warm days than Toronto this March…
“The average high temperature during March in Whitehorse, Yukon (+4.7ºC) was warmer than the average high recorded in Toronto (+3.1ºC), according to meteorologist Dr. Doug Gillham. “March was an historic month across most of northern Canada with several places, including Yellowknife, recording their warmest March on record. Inuvik, N.W.T., was a whopping 14.4ºC warmer than normal for the month,” said Gillham.”
“A new study has predicted that climate change will result in millions more people, especially in Europe, being exposed to mosquito-borne diseases in the coming decades.”
“Floods, droughts, heatwaves and other climate-related extremes caused economic losses of €453 billion between 1980 and 2017, claiming the lives of more than 115,000 people across Europe.
“According to data published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on Tuesday (2 April), the 33 European Economic Area countries have experienced a collective loss of €13 billion a year since the turn of the decade.”
“UK Food prices rose at the highest rate for nearly six years in March, data showed on Tuesday, as increased commodity prices and adverse weather took their toll.
“The British Retail Consortium said …that last year’s erratic weather, including the so-called Beast from the East and then the prolonged summer heatwave, last year meant that many UK crops, such as onions, potatoes and cabbages, had lower yields than normal.”
“After an exceptionally dry winter and weeks of unseasonably high temperatures…
“…Portugal is assembling a record number of firefighters and water-dropping aircraft as it braces for a potentially difficult wildfire season.”
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/04/03/world/europe/ap-eu-portugal-wildfires.html
“The death toll from major floods in Iran over the past 15 days has risen to 62, the head of the Iranian Legal Medicine Organisation has told local media.
““Seventy-eight intercity roads have been blocked, as many as 2,199 rural roads and 84 bridges have been washed away,” Behnam Saeedi, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Organisation, told state TV. “Across 15 provinces, 141 rivers burst their banks and around 400 land slides were reported.”
“The government said the flooding had damaged nearly 7,500 miles (12,000km) of roads, or 36% of the country’s entire network.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/04/iran-floods-death-toll-reaches-62
“Many states across India are rapidly coming under the influence of heat waves.
“The central and western regions have consistently crossed the 40°C mark this week. Going forward, The Weather Channel forecasts suggest that Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha will continue witnessing 40°C-plus temperatures for the rest of the week.”
“About 42 percent of India’s land area is facing drought, with 6 percent exceptionally dry–four times the spatial extent of drought last year, according to data for the week ending March 26, 2019, from the Drought Early Warning System (DEWS), a real-time drought monitoring platform.
“Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, parts of the North-East, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana are the worst hit. These states are home to 500 million people, almost 40 percent of the country’s population.”
“According to the Department of Agriculture of the Philippines… the weather phenomenon has so far affected 164,672 farmers and 177,743 hectares of land as of Tuesday. Agriculture Secretary said:
“”Everyday that passes where there is no rain, there will be greater damage, and so the total damage to crops, mainly rice and corn, has breached the 5-billion level.””
https://menafn.com/1098340655/Drought-in-Philippines-causes-agricultural-damage-worth-USD96m
“As the Pilbara coast recovers from severe Tropical Cyclone Veronica which flooded the region last week, another potential cyclone brewing in the Top End is threatening to wreak further havoc… A tropical low formed about 500 kilometres north-north-east of Darwin yesterday and is forecast to move into waters off Western Australia.”
“Rainfall from ex tropical cyclone Trevor continues to travel south through South Australia’s channel country rivers and is expected to cause major flooding, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
“The rainwater, from the Northern Territory and Queensland, is expected to make its way to Lake Eyre in coming weeks or even months.”
“Events linked to global warming have damaged the Great Barrier Reef to such an extent that the ability of its corals to recover from shocks has been severely disrupted.
“According to a study published in the journal Nature, the replenishment of new coral fell by a staggering 89 percent following two severe mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, which were caused by significant spikes in water temperature.”
https://www.newsweek.com/climate-change-great-barrier-reef-dead-corals-1384726
“Trees growing near the South Pole, sea levels 20 metres higher than now, and global temperatures 3C-4C warmer. That is the world scientists are uncovering as they look back in time to when the planet last had as much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as it does today.
“Using sedimentary records and plant fossils, researchers have found that temperatures near the South Pole were about 20C higher than now in the Pliocene epoch, from 5.3m to 2.6m years ago.”
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