What the World Will Look Like 4°C Warmer Micronesia is gone – sunk beneath the waves. Pakistan and South India have been abandoned. And Europe is slowly turning into a desert. This is the world, 4°C warmer than it is now. But there is also good news: Western Antarctica is no longer icy and uninhabitable. This map, which shows some of the effects a 4°C rise in average temperature could have on the planet, is eight years old, but it seems to get more contemporary as it ages (and the planet warms). Few serious scientists doubt that climate change is happening, or that it is man-made. Those on the fact-based side of this argument should realise that continuously bombarding the opposition with doom and gloom is likely to reinforce their resistance to accepting the new paradigm. This map offers an alternative: lots of misery and disaster, but also plenty of hope and solutions. First, the bad news. Orange is not much better: 'Uninhabitable desert'. But there is a flipside. Map found here at Parag Khanna. Strange Maps #842
Government 'tried to bury' its own alarming report on climate change | The Independent The Government has been accused of trying to bury a major report about the potential dangers of global warming to Britain – including the doubling of the deaths during heatwaves, a “significant risk” to supplies of food and the prospect of infrastructure damage from flooding. The UK Climate Change Risk Assessment Report, which by law has to be produced every five years, was published with little fanfare on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) website on 18 January. But, despite its undoubted importance, Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom made no speech and did not issue her own statement, and even the Defra Twitter account was silent. No mainstream media organisation covered the report. One leading climate expert accused the Government of “trying to sneak it out” without people noticing, saying he was “astonished” at the way its publication was handled. It said it largely agreed with experts’ warnings about the effects of climate change on the UK. Reuse content
Abrupt glacier melt causes Canadian river to vanish in four days Updated A vast glacier-fed river which flowed from Canada's Yukon territory across Alaska to drain into the Bering Sea has disappeared in just four days, in what scientists believe is the first observed case of "river piracy". High average temperatures in the first three months of 2016 caused a dramatic spike in the amount of meltwater flowing from the Kaskawulsh glacier, carving a deep canyon in the ice and redirecting the flow toward the Alsek River in the south, rather than the north-flowing Slims River. That changed the Slims River from a three-metre-deep, raging torrent to a place where "massive afternoon dust storms occurred almost daily", according to a scientific paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience. "We were really surprised when we got there and there was basically no water in the river," lead author Daniel Shugar said of the Slims River. "We could walk across it and we wouldn't get our shirts wet."
SEPA makes real-time rainfall data available online Real-time Scottish rainfall data is now available on SEPA’s website. The site provides rainfall information for over 270 locations across Scotland. This may be helpful for a wide range of uses such as flood forecasting, farming, angling and canoeing. Each gauge is represented by a dot on a map which can be clicked to reveal the gauge name and rainfall amounts in a range of hourly, daily, monthly and annual formats. There is also the ability to search by station name. In addition to running these intensity gauges linked by telemetry, SEPA also manages a network of manually read storage gauges operated by public volunteers. Richard Brown, SEPA’s Head of Hydrology, said: “We’re releasing this rainfall beta test site so people can look at the data, use it, and give us feedback on how useful it is and what we could do to improve it.
11 Meaningful Earth Day Activities for Every Grade Level Our students are the future caretakers of our Earth. These fun Earth Day activities help empower kids to have a positive impact on the planet. From recycled art projects to farming simulations, here’s how to roll out the green carpet in your classroom on Earth Day this year. 1. Your middle schoolers know that drinking plenty of H2O is good for them, but they may not realize the impact all those plastic water bottles have on the environment. In this project-based learning unit, they’ll design their own solutions for this issue by using engineering. Bonus: The lessons are aligned with the NGSS Engineering Design Standards. 2. In this art activity, students learn how to take their ideas from paper to reality. Through videos, activities, and lessons, students learn about the importance of recycling. 3. This lesson helps kids understand what could happen to plants and animals if they don’t adapt when their environment changes. 4. How much energy do we consume simply by living our daily lives?
Arctic stronghold of world’s seeds flooded after permafrost melts | Environment It was designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the world’s most precious seeds from any global disaster and ensure humanity’s food supply forever. But the Global Seed Vault, buried in a mountain deep inside the Arctic circle, has been breached after global warming produced extraordinary temperatures over the winter, sending meltwater gushing into the entrance tunnel. The vault is on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen and contains almost a million packets of seeds, each a variety of an important food crop. When it was opened in 2008, the deep permafrost through which the vault was sunk was expected to provide “failsafe” protection against “the challenge of natural or man-made disasters”. But soaring temperatures in the Arctic at the end of the world’s hottest ever recorded year led to melting and heavy rain, when light snow should have been falling. But the breach has questioned the ability of the vault to survive as a lifeline for humanity if catastrophe strikes.
Volcanoes: How often do they erupt and what happens when they do? - Science News - ABC News Planet Earth is covered in hundreds of volcanoes, many of which will be erupting at any one time. Many of us only notice volcanoes when they are about to explode or disrupt our travel plans, but these spectacular forces of nature can have a significant impact on people living in the local area. While volcanoes can be destructive, they are also responsible for creating rich agricultural soil, minerals like gold and silver, diamonds, hot springs and geothermal energy. So how do these iconic wonders form, and what risks do they really pose? What is a volcano? A volcano is like a chimney that allows hot liquid rock, called magma, to flow from a layer within the Earth and erupt onto the surface. As magma rises through many kilometres to the Earth's surface, dissolved gases contained within it form expanding bubbles. These bubbles increase the pressure of the magma and, if this pressure is great enough, the volcano will erupt. Strato volcanoes Anatomy of a strato volcano such as Mt Agung And travel?
Life on Earth is getting a major redistribution, and the consequences are serious Last year in Paris, for the very first time, English sparkling wine beat champagne in a blind tasting event. Well established French Champagne houses have started buying fields in Britain to grow grapes, and even the royal family is investing in this new venture. At the same time, coffee-growing regions are shrinking and shifting. Farmers are being forced to move to higher altitudes, as the band in which to grow tasty coffee moves up the mountain. The evidence that climate change is affecting some of our most prized beverages is simply too great to be ignored. So while British sparkling wine and the beginning of the “coffeepocalypse” were inconceivable just a few decades ago, they are now a reality. Dramatic examples of climate-mediated change to species distributions are not exceptions; they are fast becoming the rule. These changes are already having serious consequences for economic development, livelihoods, food security, human health, and culture. Species on the move Knock-on effects
What Causes Ocean Currents? The systems of ocean surface currents and deep water currents are, as expected, connected, but the locations of the physical connections are limited to three areas (one per main ocean), and are all on the Northern Hemisphere. The downwelling occurs on the Northern Atlantic, while the upwelling occurs on the Northern Pacific and the Northern Indian Ocean, as shown on the side map. The extents of the continental shelf block, or at least seriously limit, the movement of the ocean currents. To see a 3D view of the Conveyor Belt enlarge the diagram below. 1. 2. 3. 4. There is basically just one area on the global ocean where the ocean currents floating as the components of the Conveyor Belt system downwell, performing a radical dive and a switch of the direction.
What's Really Warming the World? Climate deniers blame natural factors; NASA data proves otherwise Climate scientists tend not to report climate results in whole temperatures. Instead, they talk about how the annual temperature departs from an average, or baseline. They call these departures "anomalies." They do this because temperature anomalies are more consistent in an area than absolute temperatures are. The simulation results are aligned to the observations using the 1880-1910 average.
Australia's pollution mapped by postcode reveals nation's 'dirty truth' Updated about an hour agoFri 16 Nov 2018, 2:53am On the fringes of Australia's biggest cities, people work, live, and play next to some of the nation's biggest polluters. Key points: National Pollution Inventory data has been mapped according to postcodes The Australian Conservation Foundation report reveals the country's most-polluted postcodesBotany Bay in Sydney and Altona in Melbourne are the cities' most-polluted areas For the first time, Australia's pollution has been mapped by postcode in a report titled The Dirty Truth by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). Some of the areas identified as being the most polluted in Australia's capital cities include: Botany Bay in SydneyAltona in MelbournePort of BrisbaneParmelia near Perth The ACF found the lower the postcode's weekly household income, the more likely it was to be home to polluting facilities such as factories and refineries. And if you want to avoid living among pollutants? "The best way is to have money essentially.