Greenland — a region vulnerable to the slings and arrows of human-forced climate change — appears set to experience both considerable warming and a significant melt spike this week.
Starting on Wednesday, May 3, a sprawling dome of high pressure is expected to begin to extend westward from the far North Atlantic and out over Iceland. As the high pressure dome builds to 1040 mb over the next couple of days, its clockwise flow will thrust abnormally warm and moist air northward out of the Atlantic. This air-mass is expected first to over-ride eastern Greenland, then run up into Baffin Bay, finally encompassing most of the island and its vast, receding glaciers.
(May 5, 2017 GFS model run as shown by Earth Nullschool is predicted to produce widespread above-freezing temperatures over the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Such warming is expected to be accompanied by rainfall over a number of glaciers. Image source: Earth Nullschool.)
Liquid precipitation is then expected to start falling over southern sections of the Greenland Ice Sheet as temperatures rise to 1-6 C (33 to 43 F) or warmer. Since water contains more latent heat energy than air, such rainfall is likely to produce more melt than would otherwise be caused by a simple temperature rise.
For those of us living in more southerly climes, a temperature of 6 C (43 F) may not sound very warm. But for the northeastern region of Greenland shared by the Zachariae, Brittania, Freja, and Violin Glaciers, such temperatures far exceed ordinary expectations for early May. They are anything but normal. In fact, the building influx of heat is more reminiscent to readings Greenland would have tended to experience during summer — if at all — under past climate averages.
(GFS model predictions for May 4 show widespread liquid precipitation falling over southern Greenland. Image source: Climate Reanalyzer.)
Unfortunately, the new climate presented by human-forced warming is now capable of producing some rather extraordinary temperature extremes. And the anomaly ranges that are predicted for the coming week are nothing short of outlandish.
According to climate reanalysis data, by May 5th, temperatures over northern and eastern Greenland are expected to range between 15 C above average over a wide region and between 20 and 28 C above average in the northeast. For the Fahrenheit-minded, that’s 27 to 50 degrees F above normal. Or the equivalent of a 102 F to 125 F May day high in Gaithersburg, MD.
(An amazing temperature spike is expected to ride up and over Greenland on May 3 to May 5. This warming is expected to produce very extreme above average temperatures for this time of year. Image source: Global and Regional Climate Anomalies.)
Overall excessions for Greenland temperature are also predicted to be quite extraordinary for the day — hitting nearly 9 degrees Celsius (16 F) above average for the whole of this large island. So much warmth extending so far inland and combining with liquid precipitation, if it emerges as predicted in these GFS climate models, is likely to produce a significant early season melt spike — especially over southern and eastern Greenland. In places, these temperatures exceed expected normal summer conditions for Greenland’s glaciers. So it is difficult to imagine a situation where a significant surface melt spike does not occur if these predicted temperatures emerge.
Links:
Global and Regional Climate Anomalies
Uncle B
/ May 1, 2017If it were 125 F in Gaithersburg Md. on May 1st, do you think that would get their attention?
robertscribbler
/ May 1, 2017I don’t think it would get Trump’s attention. Nor about half of the republican numbskulls in Congress. Inhoffe would probably have snowball shipped in from the last melting remnant of Greenland or Antarctica.
We’ve mentioned it many times here before, but the poles are warming considerably faster than the rest of the planet. So the warming we are seeing in those regions is amazingly outlandish. Of course, few people live there. But we have the data and if we look we can clearly see what’s happening.
Erik Frederiksen
/ May 2, 2017Katrina and Sandy didn’t get us to change our ways and Katrina killed 1,836 people.
If we wait until a category 6 hurricane hits a heavily populated part of the US Eastern Seaboard on top of a meter or two of sea level rise we’ll wish we responded to Katrina.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017It’s probably fair to say that we are a divided country on the issue of climate change with about half the country involved in active response, about 1/4 of the country dragging its feet, and about another 1/4 of the country in full-fledged opposition. It doesn’t help that those in opposition also presently hold the reigns of power to the Presidency and Congress.
Erik Frederiksen
/ May 2, 2017When we have people like William Nordhaus saying a target of 2.5C is technically feasible but requiring extreme virtually universal measures, we have to put a WWII type effort into removing a lot of CO2 while treating the reduction of emissions as an emergency priority.
Scientists don’t really know when we’ll pass tipping points presenting problems in the pipeline which are insurmountable.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017I’m with you on the big mobilization. That’s why it’s so important to hit the streets, the polls, to vote by reducing consumption and buying renewable whenever you can, and to pull those fossil fuels out of investment portfolios. The less power these fossil fuel guys have, the more likely we get a necessary response.
Titania Baildon
/ May 2, 2017And now, unfortunately, also the Supreme Court. The triple crown all playing for the wrong team.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017New post is up:
https://robertscribbler.com/2017/05/02/india-seeks-to-fight-airpocalypse-by-making-every-car-electric-by-2030/
Jimbot
/ May 1, 2017Interesting comment by “Arctic ice expert” David Barber in this news item:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/arctic-climate-warming-ice-report-1.4083728
Cate
/ May 1, 2017Indeed. Dr Barber, who describes himself as an “Arctic guy”, is one of Canada’s foremost Arctic ice climate scientists. His knowledge of ice is based on a long career of extensive in situ research, not so much on models and satellites. He thinks it’s essential that scientists get up there and eyeball what’s happening. When Dr Barber talks about ice, we all need to sit up and listen very hard.
robertscribbler
/ May 1, 2017You posted a statement by Barber a bit ago as well, didn’t you Cate? Barber’s right. There’s trouble brewing in the Arctic and this trend has worldwide implications. We’d better get a move on with the energy transition — fast.
Erik Frederiksen
/ May 2, 2017I read that the Northern polar jet stream influences weather patterns where billions of people live and depend on agriculture. Think Indian monsoons.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Good point. The present patterns that appear to be more directly influencing the monsoon at this time are a combination of warming of the Indian sub-continent creating a kind of heat wall that slows the monsoon and Pacific Ocean warming delaying the monsoon. Subcontinental warming may also be related to the SSW events we’ve seen recently in the Artic in which high pressure ridging in South Asia pushed jet stream waves into the vertical when they hit the Himalayas. Speculative discussion based on observation for sure. But it’s worth a thought experiment or three.
Jean Mcmahon
/ May 2, 2017I read some of the comment re the article..I cannot believe they still post stuff lie Dr Mann’s Hockey stick was wrong I wonder f some are paid to write those lies ?
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Wouldn’t be surprised. ‘Bots are a part of most ad and PR campaigns now. And climate change denial has probably been the most destructive manifestation of a PR campaign supporting the extended use of a harmful product. Of course, there are certain segments of the population that are predisposed to repeating and perpetuating such arguments.
Jean Mcmahon
/ May 2, 2017Thanks for the reply…
wharf rat
/ May 2, 2017Who stands to gain?
Putin/Trump Regime Plotting to Undermine State Renewable Standards
https://climatecrocks.com/2017/05/01/putintrump-regime-plotting-to-undermine-state-renewable-standards/
Who most likely hacked climategate, has an army of paid trolls trying to influence Western elections, and needs to sell carbon to fund his government?
Trump, Putin and the Pipelines to Nowhere
You can’t understand what Trump’s doing to America without understanding the “Carbon Bubble”
https://thenearlynow.com/trump-putin-and-the-pipelines-to-nowhere-742d745ce8fd
climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ May 3, 2017Based on what I see on Twitter, I’d have to guess yes. Who’s going to spend time, every day, repeating dimwitted lies about climate over and over again for fun? There are lots of one-offs, but definitely some folks who seem like they must be pros.
Alternatively, they’re just tweeting everything some right-wing crank news source feeds them, and I only see the climate-related portion.
Exposing the Big Game
/ May 1, 2017Reblogged this on The Extinction Chronicles.
Erik Frederiksen
/ May 2, 2017The NASA glaciologist said a couple of years ago that the scientific community has been very conservative with timescales of sea level rise.
He said that the records have been bulldozed by the readvance of marine glaciers and that we know that the land glaciers can retreat very fast, and that the marine glaciers can retreat much faster.
Erik Frederiksen
/ May 2, 2017Eric Rignot
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Rignot is definitely one to watch. Even the cutting edge science will tend to have difficulty keeping up with cryosphere changes if we keep burning fossil fuels, in my opinion.
Erik Frederiksen
/ May 2, 2017I agree. I think Hansen has as usual been prescient for decades.
Our current path might dump all of West Antarctica in the ocean in just a handful of decades according to a Richard Alley.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Yeah. That’s not something we want to see.
So the bit that keeps me awake at night RE glaciers is the fact that ocean warming and basal melt have been the primary drivers of the presently raised concerns. And it certainly is a big deal considering the ocean is giving many of the glaciers an increasingly warm bath. But the next hit is going to be liquid precipitation. And I don’t think anyone has a model for rising rainfall rates over glaciers or for single large rain events over glaciers.
Erik Frederiksen
/ May 2, 2017Nor a model for the physics of mile high marine terminating ice cliffs.
Rainfall will certainly increase surface melt, but the main driver of ice sheet mass loss is Ice dynamics and a rise in temperature of 1 degree C is a big insult to an ice shelf almost anywhere on the planet, shelves which constrain ice sheet flow.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017With more ocean under the ice than on top of or in the ice at this time, the issue may seem remote. But where melt ponds are small seas and sub glacial lakes little oceans, then you have an issue of ocean on top and ocean below — as it were. I am thinking we need to add ponding, ice dam, and glacial outburst flood dynamics into a multi variant ice sheet mass loss equation. I can hear the model scientists yelling at me now. 😉
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Warm rain is also not only moving up the latitudes , it’s moving up the altitudes. There was an article last week from Chile where this very thing was reported by the folks down there.
I am convinced , that this was a key component in the great Indus River floods in Pakistan, ten years ago –
The Hindu Kush Before and After the Great Pakistani Floods
https://coloradobob1.newsvine.com/_news/2010/11/10/5439030-the-hindu-kush-before-and-after-the-great-pakistani-floods
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017And a salient point, as ever. Thanks for this, Bob.
Anne
/ May 2, 2017Another thing that troubles me is basal erosion. One tends to think of it in terms of geological time but when things move this fast – who is doing research on short-term changes in subglacial bedrock formation? Depends on the bedrock of course, and the weight and speed of the ice, but could a glacier smooth its own path sooner than we imagine?
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017It’s a good question. I think that in general inertia has been in favor of stable ice sheets because that’s the self-reinforcing preference of a similarly stable temperature regime. At some point, the inertia starts building up for instability and when the factors really start adding up on that side of ledger, that’s when reality just changes.
climatehawk1
/ May 2, 2017Tweet scheduled.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Cheers, Hawk.
Matt
/ May 2, 2017“CSIRO: Leaked emails reveal claims organisation ‘missing in action’ on climate advice”
Political interference? concerned about losing funding? Wow and we are all told by the denial sphere that the scientists are only in it for the money? Pretty poor business model me thinks!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-05-02/csiro-missing-in-action-on-climate-advice/8479568
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Scientists bullied into silence by climate change deniers — headline should read.
Matt
/ May 2, 2017Yes, but unfortunately our ABC has become very conservative due to the exact tactics contained in this article. If you were not paying attention and just looking over this headline you could read it to mean the exact opposite. A point I am sure is not lost to the ABC editors.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Sitting on the other side of this, it’s amazing the amount of pressure and intimidation that’s applied to even a small blog like this one. I can’t imagine what it’s like at a major news org. Of course, I don’t have advertising revenue pressure to consider here. Nor do I accept donations that are special interest, advertising, or politically oriented. The related corruption pressure from money is both carrot and stick. I really think democracies need to look at this not just as an issue with political systems (campaign finance) but also at how it affects the media and, more and more lately, the sciences.
Brian
/ May 2, 2017Robert, can you please elaborate on the pressure and intimidation that is being applied to you? Is there fingerprint trails on where it is coming from? (Obviously the usual suspects, but any in particular?)
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017I get a lot coming from apparent AEI located urls, some other apparent PAC based urls, as well as from petrostate based urls in eastern Europe (Russia etc). It’s the combination of url location and messaging that raises flags.
Brian
/ May 2, 2017Thanks.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Thanks for the concern folks. Sometimes “my black dog” gets into the house , and it’s very hard to get him back out into the yard.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Seems you were in a rough patch there, friend. If you ever need our help, just ask. Will do our best for ya.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Heat Wave Melting Record Snowpack in Northern California
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Heat-Wave–420855593.html
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Well that didn’t take long. Watch out downstream. Oh and lots of heat on the way by about day 3 in the GFS model.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Be glad you’re not planning the repair of the Oroville dam.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017The water cycle has changed for California to the point that they basically need a new water infrastructure. If it keeps warming, it keeps changing…
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017One more thing about rain as murder weapon of ice and snow. It has been linked to the decline of caribou . They have evolved to paw through snow, to get the lichens. They have not evolved to break ice to get lichens. When one of these rain events comes along in the winter , they can produce a really thick ice layer on top of a snowpack .
I can think of four other creatures that are facing this same problem . Musk Ox, buffalo, mice, and owls.
This idea of rain falling where it shouldn’t, and when it shouldn’t , is a real biological feedback loop , as well as a geophysical feedback loop.
bostonblorp
/ May 2, 2017Mass death of reindeer attributed to too much snow and ice for them to paw through.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reindeer-dead-climate-change_us_5832bda6e4b058ce7aabe78e
“In both cases, the animals appeared to have died due to abnormally thick layers of snow and ice in their habitat, which made it impossible for them to access the lichen and other vegetation on which they survive.
Without anything to eat, the deer died en masse.”
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Thanks for the link, BB. It really is amazing how many big and little things just a few degrees of temperature departure can change. Bob’s been covering the impacts to reindeer from freezing rain locking up their available food sources in the comments here for a number of years now. I think this began to crop up as a noticeable issue in the mid 2000s. But the frequency of such events recently has been considerably higher.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017The gift of pain, We all suffer. We have little reason why. We all snubbull foreward with little reason why.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Tonight your president has welcomed to the a man to the White House who has murdered over 7,000 people.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017We now host mass murderers here. Can that that be far behind ?
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Among all Trump’s disturbing traits it can be tough to pick one that could well be considered the worst. But this pandering to dictators and bad actors is extraordinarily disturbing.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Nothing in an American history, has invited a mass murderer to the White House.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Not my President. Not really a president at all. At least in how he behaves.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017The O’Jays – For The Love of Money (Audio)
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Money Money Money Money
Vaughn Anderson
/ May 2, 2017I am having a “visual” of the whole lower half of Jakobshaven Isbrae collapsing in a mass calving event of epic proportions after several rain and melting events in a single melt season. Of course, this could happen to any large Greenland glacier; It could be similar to sudden mountain glacier collapses that have avalanched many miles down mountain valleys in recent years only now on a massive scale. Would something like this get DT’s attention?
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017We’re getting into a range of temperatures where the stresses to ice will tend to compound more rapidly. 1.5 to 2.5 C global and it appears that there are a lot of forces that really come out of the wood-work to put stress on the ice.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Vaughn Anderson
The Jakobshaven Isbrae has another 125 miles of melt out. I wrote about it a long time ago.
Not to punk you . but to inform you.
Jakobshavn Glacier the World’s Fastest, Picking-up Speed
By Colorado Bob
Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:09 AM
https://coloradobob1.newsvine.com/_news/2007/07/10/828271-jakobshavn-glacier-the-worlds-fastest-picking-up-speed
I’ve always been a fan of Nova, and Robert Kurlwich, so I was watching 2 years ago when this Nova Science Now program first aired on the Jakobshavn Glacier. Kurlwich introduces the story by doing a little glacier 101 speed report. The clip is here and it’s 7 min. long .
World’s Fastest Glacier
In the story , they report that around the year 2000 the Jakobshavn started to pick-up speed. It went from the “normal” speed of around less than 1 foot a day to 113 feet a day in 5 years. This was widely reported then, so it’s a pretty good benchmark. The program aired in July of 2005, so this morning I went looking to see what the Jakobshavn was doing 2 years later.
Sure enough, the Washington Post ran a story on June 9, 2007 about the research being done on the glacier.
And in that story we get speed report on the largest glacier in Greenland :
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Vaughn Anderson
Trust me , this is the hole in the Greenland ice keg. And we ain’t seen nothing yet.
Vaughn Anderson
/ May 2, 2017Thanks, coloradobob. I have read much of your writing that you published back then…not all though. I will re-check your link and catch up what i missed.
I live on the Missoula Flood outflow alluvial deposits northwest of the Columbia River Gorge. Well, 100′ above them because another glacial dam near Silver Star Mountain in Washington State dropped another 100′ above the Missoula deposits. When I was a kid, we had a road cut to the East Fork of the Lewis River that made a cut through both of these layers. In circa 1960 I remember asking my dad, “What flood caused all of these layers.” He told me that no flood could get that high. It was not until 1968 that I read some things about Missoula and it was, “Oh yeah. Those are Missoula Flood layers.” I have been an “Ice Dam Collapse Nut” ever since.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Amazing how many more glaciers have become a concern since that time.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017A word about my Newsvine links.
I worked my ass off back then . I knew what was coming . I wanted benchmarks. Now a decade later I have them.
I wrote :
Articles: 117
Seeds: 3268
Comments: 10140 Since: Jan 2007
I saw this as an archive. , and it was. I gave it up when I read Scribbler, and joined him.
My powers were failing , but not toast.
So here I am I’ve been at this for the entire 21st century. Read my B-17 story .
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Farewell B-15A
http://colorado-bob.blogspot.com/2006/10/farewell-b-15a.html
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017A word about my older links. I had a hot rob Mac , and a better liver.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017hot rod Mac
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017I made a lot of cool things on that Mac.
But life is about things slipping through your keyboards. Not your fingers.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017What really strikes me is that there was a decent level of reporting on this issue overall. I think the global warming science reporting back then was starting to get some serious legs. And it was pretty clearly an undercurrent in the follow-on 2008 Presidential race. But again and again it go shoved out of the mainstream.
It’s one of the reasons why I think these marches are so important. Climate change has been a secondary issue for far too long as far as the mainstream is concerned. And in order to make something like this move more into the public consciousness, especially when it has been so repressed for so long, you need a lot of boots on the ground and fingers on the keyboard.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017I made thousands of things in my life , but I really love this above all …………
The Electric Buffalo Skull # 1
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017I really like this one. 🙂
Cate
/ May 3, 2017Stunning work. Bob.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017I really did jump out of helicopters , and scare the shit out of the wild life.
I’m the top dog. in this image. I had an art history background.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017So sorry to flood the thread , with my vanity .
But I am so sick hunting of doom and gloom .
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017It’s not all gloom and doom. India is pushing for full vehicle electrification by 2030 (per an article Mblanc posted on another thread). Just like any other critical time in history there appears to be amazing darkness pierced by brilliant light. Part of being truthful, I think, is keeping eyes open to see it all.
Suzanne
/ May 2, 2017Looking like more and more of the world is going to “pass us by” when it comes to policies that promote renewables…All that stupid MAGA talk..and one of the biggest boosts both to our economy and to our standing in the world would be to “embrace” renewables….The more I see and here coming out of 45 and his ilk..is just how brain dead they are on these issues..
Cate
/ May 3, 2017+100.
Spike
/ May 3, 2017Other good news – even in Australia the renewable revolution seems to be building with 3554MW due to construct this year.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/tables-large-scale-renewable-energy-projects-built-start-46760/
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Now back to that very topic –
The grey whales are thin this year , both calves and mothers, and Orcas are hungry as well.
The folks at Monterey have never seen this feeding frenzy.
Orcas on ‘unprecedented’ killing spree in Monterey Bay
http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/article147716764.html
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Ocean is not back in “balance”.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017This Orca event should be viewed in much larger context . That is the crash of life off our West Coast. Remember the sea stars ?
Watch videos of the Orcas feeding , there are dozens of them , they are starving as well.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017We had an issue with sea lions about two years ago as well. Sea lions are a key food source for orcas.
Jean Mcmahon
/ May 2, 2017PBS had a really GREAT show of how “Moby Dick ” was a metaphor for the greedy USA..I think they removed it from their archives pretty fast ..I could not believe what I was watching..fantastic…So didn’t Herman Melville write the Great American Novel,never to be surpassed? Chris Hedges wrote about this once..
Suzanne
/ May 2, 2017Wow. Would have loved to have seen that one. If you find a link please post.
Spike
/ May 3, 2017And they are being poisoned
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/02/uk-killer-whale-died-extreme-levels-toxic-pollutants
Cate
/ May 3, 2017Spot on, Bob.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017It’s not good when the apex predator is starving .
The whole food chain below it is trouble.
Orca’s eat everything from salmon to great white sharks, and on to whales.
Do not view this story as a gezee item . More like an Oh Shit item.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Crosby and Nash – To The Last Whale.a,Critical Mass. Wind On The Water.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017ASBURY PARK, N.J. — An unusually high number of dead humpback whales washing ashore along the Atlantic coast has prompted marine mammal experts to open a federal investigation of the cause.
But the cause may never be fully determined, according to experts.
Since January 2016, 41 of the mammals have washed ashore from North Carolina to Maine. The only cause of death determined so far are cases in which the whales showed signs of being hit by a vessel. But ship strikes only account for a quarter of the deaths.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/04/28/41-humpback-whale-deaths-atlantic-force-fed-probe/307804001/
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Increases in numbers of ship strikes can also be caused when the whale is in a weak or disoriented state. It’s worth noting that the whales autopsied have not shown signs of biotoxins or infection. I wonder if there’s such a thing as ocean heat exhaustion for humpbacks. They do have an awful lot of blubber stores meant to keep them warm. But maybe that’s a detriment in the very warm waters of today’s Gulf Stream. Of course, there’s always the potential for sonar testing to be an issue. But such whales would have suffered inner ear damage which would have probably been detectable by autopsy.
Jeremy in Wales
/ May 2, 2017Killer whale that died on Scottish coast in 2016 poisoned by PCBs
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/02/uk-killer-whale-died-extreme-levels-toxic-pollutants
Jean Mcmahon
/ May 2, 2017I found one youtube re Moby Dick/Chris Hedges.https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-adk-adk_sbnt&hsimp=yhs-adk_sbnt&hspart=adk&p=Chris+Hedges+Moby+Dick+Metaphor#id=1&vid=aecc45650105eda29fe1e63af5fdc991&action=click
.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017todaysguestis
/ May 2, 2017Antarctica’s troublesome ‘hairdryer winds’
A new study has found an atmospheric melting phenomenon in the region to be far more prevalent than anyone had realised.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39759329
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017Thanks for this, TDG. Certainly very relevant. It’s amazing the various physical processes at play. One of the things that keyed in to the presently predicted Greenland event is the appearance of down-sloping winds along the perimeter in conjunction with considerably warmer than freezing temperatures.
Jeremy in Wales
/ May 2, 2017and in addition the Larsen C crack has now forked at the northern end, heading more towards the ice shelf edge.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39779761
climatehawk1
/ May 3, 2017Scheduling tweet on this, thanks.
coloradobob
/ May 2, 2017Spirit – Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus+ 1970[Full Hd 1080]
Henri
/ May 2, 2017http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-electric-cars-2030-fossil-fuel-air-pollution-piyush-goyal-climate-change-a7711381.html
India is seeking to end the sale of all fossil fuel powered cars by 2030. Often it seems the challenged countries are more ambitious with their plans tackling the problem than those who have the better means.
robertscribbler
/ May 2, 2017India and China are breaking ahead of the OECD pack. And when we look at China’s serious pollution issues and India’s constant heatwaves and droughts, it’s pretty easy to see why. It’s no longer seen as ‘expensive’ to transition away from fossil fuels. And the endlessly falling cost of renewables just keeps reinforcing that sentiment and bringing the fruit more and more within reach. Energy transition isn’t seen as something that the developed nations should lead on while less developed nations try to grow with fossil fuels. It’s more and more the case that these countries see fossil fuel burning as a trap that hurts or removes their future. And this isn’t just the case with India and China. Less developed countries across the world are waking up to the reality that it’s pretty easy to kick the fossil fuel habit and that it’s helpful to remove dependence on these harmful resources. Ironically, such countries seem to suffer less from the political impediments often seen in the developed world. And that appears to be an upshot of how harmful and pervasive outside special interest influence on OECD countries has become. But it’s worth noting that the economics appear to be speaking louder than the politics even in the OECD. So it might be that we’re all in a race to see who can really make the renewables transition the fastest and develop the first-class economic bases of support that arise from it. It’s just that some countries seem to be more aware of this new reality than others.
John McCormick
/ May 2, 2017ColoradoBob
You wrote above: “I am convinced , that this was a key component in the great Indus River floods in Pakistan, ten years ago.”
I saw the before and after photos of mountain peaks in the Karakoram Range above Pakistan. Plenty of snow before the monsoon rain and very depleted after the rain. It washed away lives and land and will repeat the high altitude precipitation.
Suzanne
/ May 2, 2017At NYTimes (no I have not cancelled my subscription yet, still thinking on that)
climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ May 3, 2017Good point made by someone on Twitter–doesn’t think the news side of the paper should have to suffer for editorial decision.
I’m not cancelling–still like the paper. But I do intend to ding them and Stephens at every opportunity on this.
BTW, everyone, really excellent piece by David Roberts at Vox on Stephens:
“The New York Times should not have hired climate change bullshitter Bret Stephens
It’s time for the opinion page to take climate change as seriously as the paper’s reporters do.”
https://www.vox.com/2017/5/1/15482698/new-york-times-bret-stephens
Spike
/ May 3, 2017They haven’t hired a writer. They’ve hired a propagandist.
Cate
/ May 3, 2017+100.
Suzanne
/ May 3, 2017That is where I am at right now.
Shawn Redmond
/ May 2, 2017Well it’s starting to look like the entire deck is well and truly stacked against us. If only we knew who stacked it!
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lakes-worldwide-feel-heat-climate-change
DelSontro simulated how the boreal zone’s 9 million lakes would behave in the future. Just a 1 degree rise in surface temperature would boost methane emissions from boreal lakes by about 10 percent, DelSontro found. That’s not taking into account other factors such as a lengthening of the ice-free season, which would also put more methane into the air.
As if the African continent hasn’t enough to deal with already…..
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-3897015
How much damage has already been done?
We don’t know exactly, because many affected countries have not provided data yet.
Finding out the number of hectares affected and the intensity of the pest is one of the main aims of the emergency summit in Zimbabwe, the UN says.
South Africa, affected by the new pest, is the largest corn producer in the region
South Africa, the region’s biggest maize producer, has confirmed the destruction of crops from the pest in six different provinces.
The Zambian government has said that 130,000 hectares (321,236 acres) of land have been affected, with the prime suspect the fall armyworm.
climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ May 3, 2017Scheduling tweet on the lake piece, thanks.
June
/ May 2, 2017This is a baby step towards proving the viability of off-shore wind farms in the U.S. There’s so much potential waiting to be tapped.
First U.S. Offshore Wind Farm Shutters Diesel Power Plant
Block Island officials on Monday switched on a connection between the island and a cable linking the wind farm to Rhode Island’s mainland power grid. The connection allowed the island’s only electricity source — a small diesel-fueled power plant — to shut down. The island’s 2,000 residents burned about 1 million gallons of diesel fuel annually.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/offshore-wind-farm-shutters-power-plant-21407
Christina MacPherson
/ May 2, 2017Reblogged this on nuclear-news.