Climate Change News & Discussions

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caltrek
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What the War in Ukraine Means for Asia’s Climate Goals
October 2, 2022

Introduction:
(AP via The Asahi Shimbun) DELHI--The queues outside petrol pumps in Sri Lanka have lessened, but not the anxiety.

Asanka Sampath, a 43-year-old factory clerk, is forever vigilant. He checks his phone for messages, walks past the pump, and browses social media to see if fuel has arrived. Delays could mean being left stranded for days.

“I am really fed up with this,” he said.

His frustrations echo that of the 22-million inhabitants of the island nation, facing its worst ever economic crisis because of heavy debts, lost tourism revenue during the pandemic, and surging costs.

The consequent political turmoil culminated with the formation of a new government, but recovery has been complicated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the upending of global energy markets.
Read more here: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14732982
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New Genetic Variation from Old and Exotic Varieties for Environmentally Friendly Wheat Cultivation
October 4, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Thanks to the continuous funding of the work over six years so far by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, it was possible to test the IPK Leibniz Institute's extensive collection of old wheat varieties for their yield performance and resistance to yellow rust in the laboratory, but also in field trials. "This required a logistical masterstroke from all project participants and many innovative approaches to evaluate the potential of the old varieties without disruptive effects," says Dr. Albert Schulthess, first author of the study. To determine the yield potential, the old varieties were crossed with adapted elite varieties, for example. Only then became the yield potential of the old varieties clearly visible.

And that's not all: the researchers used the results to develop bridging lines for wheat breeding from promising old varieties by crossing them with current varieties. The performance of the resulting progeny surprised the researchers: "We observed higher yields in some bridging lines as compared to important current elite varieties," says Dr. Albert Schulthess, scientist in the research group "Quantitative Genetics". Prof. Dr. Jochen Reif, coordinator of the consortium and head of the research group, is convinced that thanks to the involvement of the two breeding companies, the biodiversity of the elite pool can be increased by using new valuable genetic variation of the bridge lines: "This is of great importance to tackle the huge problems that climate change poses to agriculture."

But that was not all. The results of the study enable a big step towards farming with less or no pesticide use. "Through the comprehensive sequencing of old and new varieties in combination with the valuable field data, we were able to identify possible new gene variants for resistance to yellow rust infestation," says Dr. Albert Schulthess. This would not have been possible without the decoding of the wheat genome, in which the IPK Leibniz Institute played a leading role. "With the new genome regions we discovered in a few old varieties, we can diversify the immune system of wheat," explains Prof. Dr. Jochen Reif.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/966824
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Melting permafrost increases greenhouse gas from Arctic lakes
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-permafros ... lakes.html
by Anna-Lena Lindskog, Umea University
Groundwaters that circulate through the subsoil as a result of melting permafrost can transport carbon dioxide and methane to Arctic lakes and in turn be emitted to the atmosphere. This process of transporting greenhouse gases increases the effects of climate change and is now being quantified for the first time by researchers from the universities in Umeå, Barcelona, and Linköping. The study is published in Nature Communications.

Permafrost is the soil that remains frozen all year round in different parts of the planet, such as the Arctic and Antarctica, as well as in high mountains and high plateaus. The current study focuses on Arctic lakes located in the sporadic permafrost region of northern Sweden. In this area —a typical tundra ecosystem—between 10 and 50% of the soils are permanently frozen. The top layer of the soil above the permafrost, the active layer, freezes and thaws annually.

In this region, the average annual temperature has risen considerably in recent years and is now above 0 degrees Celsius. This causes the permafrost—with its abundant organic matter rich in carbon and greenhouse gases—to thaw. Through the circulation of the groundwater, the permafrost acts as a spring that supplies the hydrologically connected lakes in the region with greenhouse gases. The gases are finally emitted from the lakes into the atmosphere.

To date, little has been known in detail about the importance of groundwater on greenhouse gas emissions from Arctic lakes. To answer questions about this process, the Spanish-Swedish researcher team in the current study used radon—a gas abundant in subsoil currents—as a tracer of groundwater discharge into the lakes.
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Scientists Refine Understanding of Seasons in Antarctica
by Madalyn Wright
October 6, 2022

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — Thanks to satellite imaging technology, scientists can track seasonal changes in Antarctica for the first time. In a study published Thursday in The Cryosphere, researchers at the University of Cambridge and Austrian engineering company ENEVO detailed their findings that can lead to more accurate sea-rise calculations.

In contrast to its northern counterparts, such as the Greenland Ice Sheet, historically, there has not been data on the Antarctic ice flow. However, there was a general assumption by scientists that it was not subject to the same seasonal movements, especially in areas with large ice shelves and consistent below-freezing temperatures.

Using data from the Sentinel-1 radar satellite through the European Space Agency and NASA's optical Landsat 8, the researchers found recognizable seasonal movements flowing from glaciers into the George VI Ice Shelf, which is larger than the state of New Jersey. Specifically, there is a 15% increase in the glaciers feeding the ice shelf during the summer.

"Seasonality is important because, at the moment, all the estimations of how much mass is being lost from Antarctica don't account for the fact that there's any kind of seasonality or change in how fast the ice is flowing each season. It means that our current estimates are either over or underestimating how much mass is lost from Antarctica," said Karla Boxall from Cambridge's Scott Polar Research Institute in an interview. "Our projections of sea level rise are also going to be off."

The satellite advancements allowed scientists to get images every six days of the glacier. Then, using offset tracking, they could compare the images and measure the speed of change. The use of both satellites that both found the same data allowed photos — rain or shine.
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/scienti ... tarctica/
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Global warming at least doubled the probability of extreme ocean warming around Japan
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-global-pr ... japan.html
by National Institute for Environmental Studies
In the past decade, the marginal seas of Japan frequently experienced extremely high sea surface temperatures (SSTs). A new study led by National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) researchers revealed that the increased occurrence frequency of extreme ocean warming events since the 2000s is attributable to global warming due to industrialization.

In August 2020, the southern area of Japan and the northwestern Pacific Ocean experienced unprecedentedly high SSTs, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). A recent study published in January 2021 revealed that the record-high northwestern Pacific SST observed in August 2020 could not be expected to occur without human-induced climate changes.

Since then, the JMA again announced that the record high SSTs were observed near Japan in July and October 2021 and from June to August 2022, but it remains unclear to what extent climate change has altered the occurrence likelihood of these regional extreme warming events.

"Impacts of global warming is not uniform, rather show regional and seasonal differences," said a co-author Hideo Shiogama, the head of the Earth System Risk Assessment Section at Earth System Division, NIES.
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Large-Scale Study Shows Climate Change and Deforestation May Drive Tree-dwelling Primates to the Ground
October 10, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) SAN DIEGO – A large-scale study of 47 species of monkeys and lemurs has found that climate change and deforestation are driving these tree-dwelling animals to the ground, where they are at higher risk due to lack of preferred food and shelter, and may experience more negative interaction with humans and domestic animals.

The study, slated to publish Oct. 10, in the journal The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS),was led by Timothy Eppley, Ph.D., a postdoctoral associate at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA), and examined more than 150,000 hours of observation data on 15 lemur species and 32 monkey species at 68 sites in the Americas and Madagascar. This study was a remarkable worldwide collaboration, including 118 co-authors from 124 unique institutions.

“This study began with a discussion among colleagues about how we’d noticed certain populations of arboreal primates spending more time on the ground,” said Dr. Eppley, “yet at sites with relatively less disturbance, members of the same species may never descend to the ground.”

The authors estimated the influence of ecological drivers, including potential human-induced pressures and/or species-specific traits, on the level of terrestriality (time spent on the ground) in arboreal primates. The study found that primates that consume less fruit and live in large social groups were more likely to descend to the ground. The authors suggest that these traits act as a potential “pre-adaptation” to terrestriality. Furthermore, primates living in hotter environments, and with less canopy cover, were more likely to adapt to these changes by shifting toward more extensive ground use.

Many of these species are already burdened with living in warmer, fragmented and heavily disturbed environments that often have fewer available dietary resources. As climate change worsens and arboreal habitats diminish, the study suggests primates consuming a more generalized diet and living in larger groups may more easily adapt to a terrestrial lifestyle.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/967024
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Latest from Just Stop Oil.

I agree with their message... but disagree with their increasingly disruptive methods. Such as vandalising historical artworks. A step too far, IMO.

(thankfully the painting wasn't damaged, as it's protected by glass, although the frame was slightly damaged.)











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Study reveals new insights into how fast-moving glaciers may contribute to sea level rise
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-reveals-i ... ibute.html
by University of Oxford
Climate change is resulting in sea level rise as ice on land melts and oceans expand. How much and how fast sea levels will rise in the near future will depend, in part, on the frequency of glacier calving events. These occur when large chunks of ice detach from glaciers that terminate in the ocean (known as tidewater glaciers), and fall into coastal fjords as icebergs. The faster these glaciers flow over the ground towards the ocean, the more ice enters the ocean, increasing the rate of sea level rise.

During the warmer summer months, the surface of Greenland's glaciers can melt and form large lakes that may then drain through to the base of the glacier. Studies on the inland Greenland ice sheet have shown that this reduces friction between the ice and ground, causing the ice to slide faster for a few days. Up to now, however, it has been unclear whether such drainage events affect the flow speed of tidewater glaciers, and hence the rate of calving events.
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