“Throughout the 1990s, Greenland and Antarctica together lost 81 billion tons of ice per year. But this month, a comprehensive assessment of the changing ice sheets published in the journal Nature, found that in the 2010s, the rate of ice loss has risen by a factor six. This means that the two ice sheets are now losing 475 billion tons of ice per year.
“The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report predicted a rise in global sea levels of 28 inches by 2100. But this new study shows that ice losses from both Antarctica and Greenland are rising faster than expected, tracking with the IPCC’s worst-case scenario.”
“…the two main ocean currents in Fram Strait transport the microscopically small plastic particles into the region between Greenland and Spitsbergen from both the Arctic and the North Atlantic.
“While passing through the Strait, many particles eventually drift to the seafloor, where they accumulate.”
“Climate change scientists, historians and archaeologists from the Universities of Nottingham, Harvard and Maine used ultra-high precision laser technology to analyse the contents of the 800-year-old section of [Alpine] ice, which they found “exactly maps the comings and goings of England’s Kings”.”
“Florida is searing through what could be a record dry and hot March, and that combination is raising the threat of wildfires and drought heading into the heart of the state’s dry season…
“Even though March is in the heart of this drier time of the year, parts of Florida are threatening records with virtually no rain all month.”
https://weather.com/forecast/regional/news/2020-03-30-florida-wildfire-threat-hot-dry-march
“As temperatures rise, so do rates of mental health problems, new research shows.
“A survey study of more than 3 million respondents showed a significant increase in the probability of self-reported psychiatric problems…
“…when temperatures were above 80° F…”
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/927738
“That same storm had dropped 16.45 inches of rain on the peaks of Mount Waialeale [Hawaii] on March 16, with another 11.5 coming down the next day.
“Almost an inch of rain was recorded in just 15 minutes’ time during the height of the storm. In the past two weeks, Kauai has been placed under seven severe thunderstorm warnings.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/03/30/hawaii-kona-storm-kauai/
“Japan has laid out its plans to tackle greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris agreement in the run-up to UN climate talks this year, becoming the first large economy to do so.
“But its proposals were criticised by campaigners as grossly inadequate, amid fears the Covid-19 crisis could prompt countries to try to water down their climate commitments.”
“International prices of rice have surged as droughts keep production low in key exporters Thailand and Vietnam, while panic buying amid the coronavirus pandemic is also tightening supply.
“The benchmark export price of Thai-grown rice reached about $550 a ton in late March, the highest since August 2013…”
“Eighteen firefighters and one forestry guide died while fighting a huge forest fire in southwestern China, the local government said Tuesday.
“State television footage showed large flames shooting into the sky from the mountains above the city of Xichang in Sichuan province, turning the sky orange.”
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/03/31/nineteen-killed-in-massive-china-forest-fire.html
“In 2017, Stafford Sheehan handed a friend an unusual bottle of booze. He had made it himself — but not the usual way.
“A chemical physicist, Dr. Sheehan had invented a process to make alcohol from carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas associated with climate change, not cocktail hour… However… the competition has been delayed by the coronavirus crisis.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/climate/xprize-carbon-coronavirus.html
“This summer, Casey Research Station, in the Windmill Islands oasis [Antarctica], experienced its first recorded heatwave. For three days, minimum temperatures exceeded zero and daily maximums were all above 7.5C. On 24 January, its highest maximum of 9.2C was recorded, almost 7C above Casey’s 30-year mean for the month…
“By February, most heat was concentrated in the Antarctic Peninsula at the northernmost part of the continent. A new Antarctic maximum temperature of 18.4C was recorded on 6 February at Argentina’s Esperanza research station on the peninsula – almost 1C above the previous record. Three days later this was eclipsed when 20.75C was reported at Brazil’s Marambio station, on Seymour Island east of the peninsula.”
Read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here.
