2017 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #24

Posted on 17 June 2017 by John Hartz

Editor’s Pick

Warm Waters in West Antarctica 

A recent paper in Reviews of Geophysics describes the atmospheric and oceanic processes that are causing ice loss in the Antarctic.

Thwaites Glacier flows out into the Amundsen Sea Embayment where it floats on the seawater. The underside is being melted by relatively warm water. Credit: NASA  

The vast Antarctic ice sheet contains about 30 million cubic kilometers of ice, which is 90% of the Earth’s freshwater ice. If it were all to melt, it would increase sea level by about 70 meters. Fortunately, surface temperatures across most of the continent stay well below freezing all year round so there is virtually no ice loss through surface melt. Instead, most of the ice loss is through iceberg calving and ocean-induced melting from the under-side of ice shelves.

One area that scientists are keeping a close eye on is the Amundsen Sea Embayment to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula. Here the ice is being melted from below by warm ocean waters at a greater rate than ice is added through snow accumulation, and this region is currently contributing about a tenth of current global sea level rise. A review article recently published in Reviews of Geophysics examined the complex atmospheric and oceanic factors that control the delivery of warm waters to the sub-ice region of West Antarctica and considered the potential for ice loss in the future. The editors asked two of the authors to give an overview of scientific research in this area. 

Warm Waters in West Antarctica by John Turner & Hilmar Gudmundsson, Eos.org, June 16, 2017 

Links posted on Facebook

Sun June 11 2017

• World renewable energy production increases by record levels in 2016 – enough to power half of Western Europe by Ian Johnston, The Independent, June 7, 2017
• Paris Climate Exit: Will Trump Continue to Meddle in the Talks? by Marianne Lavelle, InsideClimate News, June 9, 2017
• Paris Comes to Pittsburgh by Laurence Tubiana, Project Syndicate, June 9, 2017
• An Entire Town in the US Is Sinking Because of Climate Change by Karia Lant, Futurism, June 10, 2017
• Americans ‘under siege’ from climate disinformation – former Nasa chief scientist by Hannah Devlin, Guardian, June 8, 2017
• The U.S. solar industry is doing just fine under Trump — for now by Chris Mooney, Energy & Environment, Washington Post, June 9, 2017
• Is Fighting Climate Change a Jewish Duty? by Danielle Ziri, The Jerusalem Post, June 11, 2017
• U.S, G7 partners remain at odds on climate at environment meeting by Stephen Jewkes, Reuters, June 11, 2017

Mon June 12, 2017

• Ph.D. student pioneers storytelling strategies for science communication by Tianyi Dong. Berkley News, June 6, 2017
• Rare US floods to become the norm if emissions aren’t cut, study warns by Oliver Milman, Guardian, June 7, 2017
• Study: Persistent, Highly Acidified Water All Along US West Coast; Some Hot Spots With pH As Low As Any Oceanic Surface Waters In World by James Ayre, CleanTechnica, June 11, 2017
• Aid groups seek to turn on funding tap to douse drought crises by Megan Rowling & Andrew Mambondiyani, Thomson Reuters Foundation, June 12, 2017
• Once Again, Climate Change Cited as Trigger for Conflict by Adam Aton, ClimateWire/Scientific American, June 9, 2017
• How a scheme to discredit climate science spread from conservative media to the EPA chief by Kevin Kalhoefer, Media Matters for Amteica, June 12, 2017
• U.S. Refuses to Join G7 Climate Change Declaration by Georgina Gustin, InsideClimate News, June 12, 2017
• If You Think Fighting Climate Change Will Be Expensive, Calculate the Cost of Letting It Happen by Dante Disparte, Harvard Business Review, June 12, 2017

Tue June 13, 2017

• Peatlands, already dwindling, could face further losses by David Chandler, MIT News, June 12, 2017
• Top Economists: Carbon Price Above 40 Dollars Needed to Meet Paris Climate Goal by Nicholas Kusnetz, InsideClimate News, June 12, 2017
• Kerry says US climate goals in reach despite Trump Paris pullout by Alister Doyle, Reuters, June 12, 2017
• The Paris Agreement and Dangerous Tipping Elements – an Earth101 short, by Stefan Rahmstorf, Earth 101/YouTube, June 13, 2017
• The Larsen C ice shelf collapse hammers home the reality of climate change by John Abraham, Climate Consensus – the 97%, Guardian, June 13, 2017
• Climate fund criticized by Trump has slow, complex start by Heekyong Yang, Jane Chung & Alister Doyle, Reuters, June 13, 2017
• The Trump Effect – Making Lemonade from Lemons by BaerbelW, Skeptical Science, June 13, 2017
• Trump New World Order: Global Alliance with Oil and Gas Producers and the Hell with Our Allies, Green Energy and All Those Jobs by Michael T Klare, TomDispatch/Alternet, June 11, 2017

Wed June 14, 2017

• After Paris: Uncertainty ahead in confronting global warming, Opinion by Yongfu Huang, Asia Times, June 13, 2017
• NASA-MIT Study Evaluates Efficiency of Oceans as Heat Sink, Atmospheric Gases Sponge by Ellen Gray, NASA’s Goddard Instittue for Space Studies, June 9, 2017
• The Trump administration is doing everything it can to keep a huge climate lawsuit from going to trial by Dana Varinsky, Business Insider, June 13, 2017
• Trump calls mayor of shrinking Chesapeake island and tells him not to worry about it by Travis M Andrews, Morning Mix,  Washington Post, June 14, 2017
• Carlsberg aims for zero carbon emissions after Trump’s Paris pullout by Rob Davies, Guardian, June 13, 2017
• Climate change researchers cancel expedition because of climate change by Laura Glowacki, CBC News, June 12, 2017
• New research may resolve a climate ‘conundrum’ across the history of human civilization by Dana Nuccitelli, Climate Consensus – the 97%, Guardian, June 14, 2017
• Team takes temperature to determine cause of Ice Age, Phys.org, June 3, 2017

Thu June 15, 2017

• Growing Concern Over Climate Change Is Creating Interfaith Dialogue by Justin Catanoso, Pacific Standard, June 13, 2017
• Climate Change Pushing Tropical Diseases Toward Arctic by Graig Welch, National Geographic, June 14, 2017
• Donald Trump is handing the federal government over to fossil fuel interests by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, June 14, 2017
• The Dutch Have Solutions to Rising Seas. The World Is Watching. by Michael Kimmelman, World, New York Times, June 15, 2017
• There May Be a Green Future for Britain’s Victorian Sewers by Jess Shankelman, Bloomberg News, June 14, 2017
• Will Paris Have a ‘Tiny’ Effect on Warming? by Vanessa Schipani, FactCheck.org, June 14, 2017
• Scientists stunned by Antarctic rainfall and a melt area bigger than Texas by Chris Mooney, Energy & Environment, Washington Post, June 15, 2017
• May Continues a Ridiculous Warm Streak for the Planet by Brian Kahn, Climate Central, June 15, 2017

Fri June 16, 2017

• Solar & Wind Costs To Plummet And Global Emissions To Peak In 2026, Forecasts BNEF by Joshua S Hill. Clean Technica, June 15, 2017
• Energy Department Closes Office Working on Climate Change Abroad by Brad Plumer, Climate, New York times, June 15, 2017
• Stanford sociologist attempts to explain puzzling lack of grassroots climate change activism in U.S. by Milenko Martinovich, Stanford News, June 15, 2017
• Wind farms are hardly the bird slayers they’re made out to be. Here’s why by Simon Chapman, Smoke Signals, The Conversation AU, June 16, 2017
• Houston fears climate change will cause catastrophic flooding: ‘It’s not if, it’s when’ by Tom Dart, Guardian, June 16, 2017
• Emails reiterate EPA chief’s ties to fossil fuel interests by Michael Biesecker & Adam Kealoha Causey, AP, June 16, 2017
• 40 countries are making polluters pay for carbon pollution. Guess who’s not. by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, June 15, 2017
• Trump’s coal plan sends U.S. energy “back to the past”-Vatican by Alister Doyle, Reuters, June 16, 2017

Sat June 17, 2017

• Our planet in crisis: can we curb global warming and boost economic growth? by Paul Hackenos, The National (Abu Dhabi), June 16, 2017
• Climate-Change Deniers Aren’t Tired of Winning Yet by Emily Atkin, New Republic, June 15, 2017
• Congress to Pruitt: We’re Not Cutting EPA Budget to Trump’s Levels by Marianne Lavelle, Inside Climate News, June 15, 2017
• The Trump Response to the Kids’ Climate Lawsuit Isn’t Denial. It’s Evasion. by Karina Brown, Slate, June 15, 2017
• Wildfires used to be rare in the Great Plains. They’ve more than tripled in 30 years by Chris Mooney, Energy & Environment, Washington Post, June 16, 2017
• States and industries face more climate court action by Paul Brown, Climate News Network, June 15, 2017
• Warm Waters in West Antarctica by John Turner & Hilmar Gudmundsson, Eos.org, June 16, 2017
• SkS Analogy 8 – I’ll take the specialist by Evan, Skeptical Science, June 15, 2017