This year, the warm air invasion started early. A high amplitude ridge in the Jet Stream stretching for thousands of miles over the temperate Pacific and on up into Alaska and the Chukchi Sea slowly drifted eastward. Reinforced by a powerful bank of blocking high pressure systems over the northeastern Pacific, this ridge settled over Canada’s Northwest Territory in a zone from the Mackenzie Delta and over a broad region east and south. From mid June onward, temperatures in the 70s, 80s and even low 90s dominated sections of this Arctic region.
We know that some things are adapting to a warmer climate by migrating north. Some of these species include the Mangrove forest, butterflies, fish, mosquitos and many others.
Journalist Dahr Jamail and Professor Peter Wadhams say the resulting release of methane will lead to massive climate disruption, and that we have reached a point of no return.
As humanity reaches for more energy, fossil fuels are being selected for five out of every six new units of energy. The energy gap between fossil fuels and renewable energy continues to grow dramatically wider despite decades of efforts to prevent a full-blown climate crisis. Even more troubling, the gap is accelerating. Take a look. My chart below shows global energy use by year, divided into fossil fuels vs everything else. You can see how fossil fuels have been relentlessly widening their lead, decade after decade. And the biggest leap has been in the last decade.
Critics say bioenergy, carbon capture, among draft report's 'false solutions' to sustain business as usual economics. A British environmental organisation that has reviewed the draft of a forthcoming UN IPCC report on mitigating climate change has questioned many of the document's recommendations as deeply flawed.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued its most dire warning yet about how greenhouse gases have driven up global temperatures and extreme weather, while threatening sources of food and water. "Throughout the 21st century, climate-change impacts are projected to slow down economic growth, make poverty reduction more difficult, further erode food security, and prolong existing and create new poverty traps, the latter particularly in urban areas and emerging hot spots of hunger," the report says.
Top scientists say the latest international report on climate change shows that Canadians must wake up to the impact of warming temperatures on land, on water and in communities across the country. They say the Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change, released Sunday in Japan, shows changes are on their way and further delays in responding to them only narrow the options. "We no longer have the option of choosing between mitigation and adaptation," Debra Davidson, a University of Alberta sociologist and lead author on the report, said Monday.
NEW YORK -- Two prominent climate scientists say Roger Pielke Jr., a controversial writer at Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight site, sent emails threatening possible legal action in response to their criticism of his findings for the data-driven news site.
The latest United Nations report card on the impacts of climate change predicts Australia will continue to get hotter. The ABC has obtained drafts of the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Scientists believe the world is still on track to become more than 2 degrees Celsius warmer - and that potentially means whole ecosystems could be wiped out.
