If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, up to a third of endemic species living on land – as well as about half living in the sea – face extinction, a new report has revealed. “
“According to the study published in the journal Biological Conservation on Friday, if the planet heats by more than 3C (5.4F), animals and plants face mass extinction.”
Norway fears cargo ship will run aground, spill oil within hours: “
“A Dutch cargo ship that was abandoned at sea during a storm this week is on course to run aground in Norway early on Thursday and could cause an oil spill unless a last-ditch effort to save the vessel prevails, local officials said on Wednesday.”
Frigid air, spilling south from the Arctic, has invaded Europe and Alaska, setting back spring and challenging long-standing records. In Europe, the cold has come as a shock, gripping the region just days after a burst of summerlike warmth… “
“Meanwhile, the temperature in Alaska could plummet as low as minus-50 in the coming days, challenging the lowest mark recorded in …April.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/04/07/record-cold-europe-alaska/
Animals killed and nests destroyed in ‘devastating’ wildfire on moors [Manchester, UK]: “
“…Volunteers and crews from West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service were out again across the land this morning dampening down the area, as several “hot pockets” remained across the moorland.”
‘It’s the end of the road’: UK’s sugar beet farmers face rising pressures… “
“After extreme weather and disease ravaged the 2020 crop, some farmers have given up beet growing and others cut back…”
https://www.ft.com/content/f521ffae-2c1d-41e3-a9ce-0406d5ef5591
French winemakers use fire and tea to protect vines amid record cold: “
“Record low temperatures in the north, centre and east of France are set to continue until at least this weekend, prompting producers to take drastic action.”
Permafrost temperatures in Swiss Alps reach record highs.. “
“The warming trend observed in permafrost over the last two decades continued in 2019-2020, the warmest hydrological year on record in Switzerland, the monitoring network PERMOS said on Thursday.”
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/permafrost-temperatures-in-swiss-alps-reach-record-highs/46513966
Intense hot spell in Subsaharan Africa: “
“…with Dapaon setting a new all-time high of 43.0c [109.4F],while Wa in Ghana and Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Faso both tied their all time Tmax with 42.0C [107.6F].”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1380241758412533766
Senegalese villages swallowed by the sea… [I pinched this article off Twitter and just realised it is six years old, rather than my preferred max of 48 hours. I’ll leave it in for interest though and because the situation is, I think it is reasonable to assume, ongoing.] “
“The fishing community of Goxu Mbath is one of many districts in the city of Saint Louis, the former colonial capital of French west Africa that, little by little, is disappearing under water.”
https://phys.org/news/2015-12-senegalese-villages-swallowed-sea.html
Bangladesh methane gas plumes cause alarm, as country found to be major emitter… “
“While the source is unclear, the methane is likely to originate from a combination of rice paddy fields, landfills, leaky natural gas pipelines and coal stockpiles”
Hong Kong experiences hottest March on record, Observatory says. “
“New data shows the mean maximum temperature last month was 24.8 degrees Celsius [76.64F], breaking the previous record for March set in 1960.”
Photo of the Day: Drought turns Taiwan’s Sun Moon Lake into moonscape… “
“The water levels at Taiwan’s usually scenic Sun Mook Lake have hit a record low with some parts of the lake drying up completely.
“Netizens have been drawn to the drastically altered landscape, posting photos with paradoxical titles such as “Sailing on Land” and the “Sun Mook Lake Prairie.””
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4170642
Timor-Leste, Indonesia, is reeling from record floods and people are just beginning to let it sink in… “
“When the floods came, Markus dos Santos lost almost everything. His wife and three children were all buried by a massive avalanche of mud and water which smashed into their house.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-09/timor-leste-east-timor-dili-floods-recovery/100055858
Cyclone Odette forms off WA coast in rare weather event with Cyclone Seroja, triggering blue alert… “
“A second tropical cyclone has formed off Western Australia, triggering a blue alert across a massive section of the state’s coastline stretching from Coral Bay to Lancelin… People in the affected areas are being warned to start preparing for dangerous weather.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-09/second-cyclone-odette-forms-off-wa-coast-blue-alert/100057858
Brazil’s Amazon Is Under Threat from Proposed Land-Use Laws… New legislation could worsen an already vicious cycle of illegal land invasion and clearing… “
“…supporting the current model of land regularization, or changing the laws to make land privatization even easier, will inevitably result in more illegal occupations and deforestation of public land in the coming years.”
Brazil at high risk of dengue outbreaks after droughts because of temporary water storage… “
“The risk of dengue was high in urban areas three to five months after extreme drought. Extremely wet conditions increased dengue risk in the same month and up to three months later. In rural areas, dengue risk was more readily associated with very wet conditions.”
https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/lsoh-bah040821.php
Forecasters are predicting another abnormally active storm season in 2021, with at least eight hurricanes predicted to hit the US. “
“The country saw a record 30 named storms and 13 hurricanes during the 2020 hurricane season, causing severe damage in multiple southern states and in areas across the US.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/storm-season-2021-8-hurricanes-b1828749.html
California leaders have announced a $536m plan to address the growing threat of wildfires across the state, as a drought threatens to bring on yet another destructive, deadly fire season. “
“The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, along with the state’s senate and assembly leaders announced the new plan at a news conference Thursday near Shaver Lake…”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/08/california-wildfire-plan-gavin-newsom
The Midwest’s Active Fire Season Is a Warning… “
“It’s a climate cliché to say the world is on fire, but it is. Right now, wildfires are burning across the Midwest in a major spring burn. The spring flames there are a warning sign of what could be an active fire season out in the coming months.”
https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-midwest-s-active-fire-season-is-a-warning-1846636339
Sioux Falls sees earliest 90 degree temperature… Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was one of the sites that reached 90 degrees Monday, setting a new record high temperature for the date… “
“It was also the earliest the city reached the 90-degree temperature benchmark in a calendar year, shattering the old record, which was set in 1954, by nine days.”
https://kelo.com/2021/04/07/150959/
How warming waters at the equator could trigger a mass extinction event… When species fled warming waters for cooler temperatures 252 million years ago, 90 percent of marine life died. “
“Scientists are concerned a similar extinction might happen again as sea temperatures rise…”
Climate change: Polar bears forced to eat seabird eggs as Arctic hunting ground shrinks. “
“Polar bears have started scavenging in areas populated by humans, as well as coming ashore at the same time seabirds are nesting and snacking on their eggs.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/polar-bears-eggs-arctic-ice-b1827776.html
Third of Antarctic ice shelves ‘will collapse amid 4C global heating’. “
“‘Unimaginable amounts’ of water will flow into oceans if that temperature rise occurs and ice buffers vanish, warn UK scientists.”
Methane Has Never Risen This Fast in the Atmosphere. “
“There’s more methane in the atmosphere than any other time since record keeping began—and levels really spiked last year, despite the fact that we were all inside for most of the time.”
https://earther.gizmodo.com/methane-has-never-risen-this-fast-in-the-atmosphere-1846642592
US Intelligence forecast sees a post-coronavirus world upended by climate change and splintering societies. “
“U.S. intelligence officials have little comfort to offer a pandemic-weary planet about where the world is heading in the next 20 years. Short answer: It looks pretty bleak.“
You can read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here. I’ll be back over the weekend with an “Economic” thread.
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