“Greenland’s ice sheet lost a record amount of mass last year, according to a study published on Thursday, a finding that could prompt scientists to redefine their worst-case scenario as they assess the effects of climate change.
“That loss of 532 gigatons of ice – equivalent to about 66 tons of ice for each person on Earth – was 15% more than the previous record in 2012.”
““Thawing [in Alaska and the Canadian North] is happening even faster than we thought,” said Thomas Douglas, an environmental engineer with the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory and lead author of the study.
““We’ve had these crazy wet summers. It’s gonna be bad for permafrost.””
https://thenarwhal.ca/climate-change-rain-arctic-permafrost-thaw/
“The US government is pushing forward with controversial plans to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, by laying out the terms of a leasing programme that would give oil companies access to the area.
“The wildlife refuge in north-eastern Alaska sits above billions of barrels of oil. However, it is also home to many animals, including reindeer, polar bears and different species of bird.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53819727
“Alaskan salmon are getting smaller due to climate change and competition, according to a new study…
“”We know that climate drives changes in ocean productivity, and we see a consistent signal of climate factors associated with decreasing salmon size,” Eric Palkovacs, a professor at UC Santa Cruz and a corresponding author of the study, said.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/20/us/alaskan-salmon-size-decreasing-trnd-scn/index.html
“Several central San Joaquin Valley counties have issued emergency proclamations to prevent a pile-up of cow carcasses killed from the recent stretch of scorching temperatures.
“County agriculture officials estimate livestock operators may be seeing an increase of 50 to 100% in mortality.”
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article245124705.html
“Californians across the state are now facing a crisis across multiple fronts. As the coronavirus pandemic drags on, lightning strikes and hot weather have fueled dozens of wildfires.
“Millions face losing power, and thousands have already been evacuated.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/20/californians-face-the-dual-nightmare-of-wildfires-coronavirus.html
“California isn’t the only state battling ferocious wildfires.
“A wildfire burning in western Colorado has grown into the second-largest in the state’s history, fire officials said Wednesday. As of Wednesday, the Pine Gulch fire has spread across more than 195 square miles…”
“Fish may not be the only victims of the pollution and hot temperatures that drove oxygen to insufficient levels in Biscayne Bay and led to a mortality event that shocked Miami residents last week.
“Coral reefs in the bay risk bleaching if water conditions don’t improve soon, scientists said.”
https://phys.org/news/2020-08-thousands-fish-dead-biscayne-bay.html
“Sales of home air conditioners soared last week as the UK sweltered under a heatwave that saw temperatures exceed 34C for more than six days in a row…
“…the UK’s changing weather patterns is extending the traditional busy season for air conditioner sales.”
https://inews.co.uk/news/air-conditioning-sales-soar-climate-change-583987
“Over 400 more people died in the Netherlands last week, during the hottest week since temperature measurements started, than in the weeks before, Statistics Netherlands reported on Friday.
“The recorded coronavirus related deaths were low, so the excess mortality “is thus almost entirely attributable to the higher temperatures”, the stats office said.”
https://nltimes.nl/2020/08/21/400-heat-deaths-netherlands-hottest-week-ever
“The drought in France is expected to last until autumn with temperatures up to 2C above seasonal norms, which will continue to cause low river levels, experts told Montel.
“High pressure in the Alpine region is expected to continue to result in below-normal precipitation in the country “until September, maybe even longer,” said Robin Girmes of Energy Weather.”
https://www.montelnews.com/en/story/frances-drought-to-continue-until-autumn–forecasters/1140654
“Cyprus is feeling the impact of global warming with weather experts puzzled as they see new temperature records on a monthly basis while an ever-increasing number of extreme heat warnings are being issued.
“Cyprus’ Met Office issued its 64th warning for extreme weather for Wednesday with maximum temperatures expected to exceed a scorching 40 degrees Celsius.”
https://www.financialmirror.com/2020/08/19/endless-cyprus-heatwaves-signal-climate-change/
“…Morocco will see a heatwave from Thursday, August 20 to Sunday, August 23 in several provinces. DGM forecast temperatures ranging between 39 and 47 degrees Celsius in several regions throughout Morocco…
“The upcoming heatwave is likely to add to the difficult conditions that Morocco’s agriculture is enduring, marked by two consecutive years of drought.”
“After more than a year of unusually heavy rainfall, over 800,000 Kenyans have been displaced by flooding, according to the government.
“The situation has been made worse by flooded rivers channelling huge volumes of water into Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, causing it to spill over onto its shores – a phenomenon called “backflow”.”
“At least 24 people were killed as heavy rains lashed Pakistan’s Punjab province on Thursday, August 20.
“Rescue officials told local media that several houses have been completely destroyed, and the majority of the victims were killed due to roof collapse incidents…”
https://weather.com/en-IN/india/news/news/2020-08-20-at-least-24-dead-as-heavy-rains-lash-pakistan
“Rains in Delhi and its neighbouring areas Thursday morning led to long traffic snarls and damaged property. In Bihar, the flood situation remained grim.
“With two more deaths, the toll in the Bihar flood climbed to 27 as 81.79 lakh [ie 100,000] people were affected in 16 districts.”
“With 75,000 cubic metres per second of water flowing in from the Yangtze river on Thursday, the reservoir’s depths reached 165.6 metres by Friday morning, up more than 2 metres overnight and almost 20 metres higher than the official warning level…
““They will do everything they can to prevent the dam from overtopping,” said Desiree Tullos, a professor at Oregon State University who studies the Three Gorges project.
““An overtopping dam is a worst-case scenario because it produces significant damage… and can lead to the entire thing collapsing.”“
“Chinese megacity Chongqing braces for record flood.
“City goes on the highest alert level for the first time as it braces for its biggest wave of water in 40 years. It is the fifth round of flooding this season and comes just two days after the fourth…”
“Fires set by poachers are a top cause of habitat degradation in Way Kambas National Park on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island.
“The park is home to critically endangered Sumatran rhinos, tigers and elephants, among hundreds of wildlife species.”
“Parts of Queensland, Australia have broken August temperature records and much of the state is in for a warmer and wetter spring than average…
“Mareeba and Cooktown in Far North Queensland and Yeppoon in Central Queensland had their hottest August day in decades this week.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-21/queensland-locations-break-weather-records/12581934
“The North Pole ice sheet has thawed so much that it has shattered, climate researchers have discovered.
“Scientists onboard the German research ship Polarstern yesterday reached the Earth’s northernmost point and said they were surprised by how freely the vessel could move in waters typically known to be frozen solid.”
“…a record of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations retrieved from the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Dome C ice core showing that …carbon dioxide jumps occurred during both cold and warm periods between 330,000 and 450,000 years ago.
“They relate these pulses to disruptions of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation caused by freshwater discharge from ice sheets. Such rapid carbon dioxide increases could occur in the future if global warming also disrupts this ocean circulation pattern [it already is!].
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6506/1000.full
You can read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here.
Proof that climatologists are lying and have been lying since the ’80s.:
“… could prompt scientists to redefine their worst-case scenario …”
“… is happening even faster than we thought, …”
We see phrases like that every day, but the reason we see them is that the modelers purposely wrote the models to produce results that would not “embarrass” the modelers. They lied so that the results would not be too scary which resulted in complacency which caused humanity to ignore the problem until it is way, way too late.
Oh, well. I bought a new guitar the other day. It is a limited edition and really beautiful. Makes me want to practice!
“… if global warming also disrupts this ocean circulation pattern …”
So called journalists also lie obviously. I hate liars … cant help it.
Well, plenty of ’em to hate, lol.
Pintada, there is talk of a drinking game in my little corner of Facebook. Every time you encounter one of those tiresome phrases about startled climatologists you get to have a shot of something potent, lol. Happy strumming! H
Cannabis is legal here, so I don’t need to use alcohol very much. It seems though that some sort of mood/mind altering substance is needed.
Pintada, *definitely*. I’ve produced my first bit of subscriber only content btw – you can find it on Patreon! H