More meltwater is now pouring off these hardened surfaces and toward
the ocean, a new study finds. That will have an impact on sea level
rise.
By Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News
Sep 18, 2019
Meltwater pools form on Greenland's surface as temperatures
rise and feed into rivers that funnel water toward the ocean. New
research shows ice slabs are now forming in areas where water used to
sink into the snow layer, increasing runoff. Credit: Dave Walsh/VW
Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Scientists have added a new item to the long list of Greenland Ice Sheet woes. Along with snow-darkening algae and increasing rainfall,
giant slabs of ice have been thickening and spreading under the
Greenland snow at an average rate of two football fields per minute
since 2001, new research shows.
The slabs prevent surface meltwater from trickling down and being
absorbed by the snow. Instead, more water pours off the surface of the
ice sheet and into the ocean.
That's speeding Greenland's contribution to sea level rise, said University of Liege climate researcher Xavier Fettweis, a co-author of a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. "It
is very likely that the current climate models overestimate the
meltwater retention capacity of the ice sheet and underestimate the
projected sea level rise coming from Greenland ... by a factor of two or
three," he said.
Names and Location of the Top 100 People Killing the Planet, 2019 – by Jordan Engel
“The earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.” – Utah Phillips
Just 100 companies are responsible for more than 70% of the world’s
greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. The guys who run those companies –
and they are mostly guys – have gotten rich on the backs of
literally all life on Earth. Their business model relies on the
destruction of the only home humanity has ever known.
Meanwhile, we
misdirect our outrage at our neighbors, friends, and family for using
plastic straws or not recycling. If there is anyone who deserves the
outrage of all 7.5 billion of us, it’s these 100 people right here.
Combined, they control the majority of the world’s mineral rights – the
“right” to exploit the remaining unextracted oil, gas, and coal. They
need to know that we won’t leave them alone until they agree to Keep It In The Ground. Not just their companies, but them. Now it’s personal.
Houston tops this list as home to 7 of the 100 top ecocidal planet
killers, followed by Jakarta, Calgary, Moscow, and Beijing. The richest
person on the list is Russian oil magnate Vagit Alekperov, who is
currently worth $20.7 billion.
The map is in the form of a cartogram which represents the size of
countries by their cumulative carbon dioxide emissions since
industrialization.
This map is a response to the pervasive myth that we can stop climate
change if we just modify our personal behavior and buy more green
products. Whether or not we separate our recycling, these corporations
will go on trashing the planet unless we stop them. The key
decision-makers at these companies have the privilege of relative
anonymity, and with this map, we’re trying to pull back that veil and
call them out. These guys should feel the same personal responsibility
for saving the planet that we all feel.
Closeup of the top 32 North Americans killing the planet.
Closeup of the top 18 Europeans killing the planet.
Update, September 2019:
Writer Adam Weymouth contacted every person on this list asking for
an interview to discuss their thoughts on climate change. In the course
of his research, he found a few CEOs have now changed.
They are:
Suncor – CEO Mark Little;
Kiewit – CEO Bruce Grewcock;
NACCO – CEO J C Butler Jr;
Console Energy – CEO James A Brock;
Alpha Natural Resources no longer exists. Bought by Contura Energy. CEO Kevin S Crutchfield;
Polska Grupa Górnicza – CEO Tomasz Rogala;
OKD – CEO Michal Heřman;
EGPC – CEO Abed Ezz El-Regal;
Nigerian National Petroleum – CEO Mele Kyari;
DTEK – CEO Maxim Timchenko (Rinat Akhmetov is the owner);
CNOOC – CEO Yuan Guangyu;
INPEX – CEO Takayuki Ueda;
Berau Coal Energy – CEO Iskak Indra Wahyudi;
Indika Energy – CEO Agus Lasmono
“Names and Location of the Top 100 People Killing the Planet, 2019” was made by Jordan Engel. It can be reused under the Decolonial Media License 0.1.
Dr Will Steffen from the Australian National University discusses
'Climate Change: The Magnitude of the Challenge' at Festival of
Ambitious Ideas, May 2016.
"In 2017 the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering were asked by the UK Government to consider scientific and engineering views on greenhouse gas removal. This report draws on a breadth of expertise including that of the Fellowships of the two academies to identify the range of available greenhouse gas removal methods, the factors that will affect their use and consider how they may be deployed together to meet climate targets, both in the UK and globally."
"Recommendations Greenhouse gas removal (GGR) from the atmosphere will be required to fulfil the aims of the Paris agreement on climate change. This report recommends the following international action to achieve this GGR:
RECOMMENDATION 1
Continue and increase global efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Large-scale GGR is challenging and expensive and not a replacement for reducing emissions.
RECOMMENDATION 2
Implement a global suite of GGR methods now to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. This suite should include existing land-based approaches, but these are unlikely to provide sufficient GGR capacity so other technologies must be actively explored.
RECOMMENDATION 3
Build CCS infrastructure. Scenario building indicates that substantial permanent storage, presently only demonstrated in
geological reservoirs, will be essential to meet the scale required for climate goals.
RECOMMENDATION 4
Incentivise demonstrators and early stage deployment to enable development of GGR methods. This allows the assessment of the real GGR potential and of the wider social and environmental impacts of each method. It would also enable the process of cost discovery and reduction.
RECOMMENDATION 5
Incentivise removal of atmospheric greenhouse gases through carbon pricing or other mechanisms. GGR has financial cost at scale and so will require incentives to drive technological development and deployment of a suite of methods.
RECOMMENDATION 6
Establish a framework to govern sustainability of GGR deployment. Undertake rigorous life cycle assessments and environmental monitoring of individual methods and of their use together.
RECOMMENDATION 7
Build GGR into regulatory frameworks and carbon trading systems. In the UK, as an example, active support for GGR implementation (soil carbon sequestration, forestation, habitat restoration) should be built into new UK agricultural or land management subsidies.
RECOMMENDATION 8
Establish international science-based standards for monitoring, reporting and verification for GGR approaches, both of carbon sequestration and of environmental impacts. Standards currently exist for biomass and CCS, but not for GGR methods at large.RECOMMENDATION 5Incentivise removal of atmospheric greenhouse gases through carbon pricing or other mechanisms. GGR has financial cost at scale and so will require incentives to drive technological development and deployment of a suite of methods."
"Did you know that coastal wetlands, like mangroves, seagrasses, and salt
marshes, can absorb carbon and store it for hundreds of years? Mangrove
forests alone are able to store 3-5 times more carbon per acre than
other tropical forests. Woah.
Not only do they play an important role in carbon sequestration, but
they buffer communities and shorelines by acting as a natural barrier to
floods, storm surges, and rising seas.
Despite their power and potential, they are also some of the most
threatened ecosystems in the world. In the last century, we’ve destroyed
at least half of our coastal wetlands.
Now countries around the world
have the opportunity to both protect these valuable ecosystems and, at
the same time, help fulfill their Nationally Determined Contributions
(NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.
Full Transcript Below:
In the boundary between land and sea, rooted in the shallow waters, lie
powerful ecosystems that sustain people and the planet.
Coastal Wetlands, like mangroves, salt marshes, and sea grasses, are
some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth.
They are shelters for sharks, turtles, and birds.
Feeding and spawning grounds for a variety of fish species, making them
integral to food production.
They are powerful places that safeguard shorelines and combat climate
change.
Which is why we must choose to protect them.
Coastal wetlands have an extraordinary capacity to absorb carbon and
store it for centuries, helping mitigate emissions.
Mangroves alone can store three to five times more carbon per acre than
other tropical rainforests.
Coastal wetlands can also help us adapt to the impacts of climate
change.
By buffering coastlines, they reduce the risk of floods caused by storm
surge and rising seas for millions of people.
But these wetlands are in grave danger of disappearing altogether.
In the last century, we’ve destroyed half of our coastal wetlands,
accelerating biodiversity loss and releasing stored carbon back into the
atmosphere.
This not only contributes to climate change, but leaves us more
vulnerable to its effects.
But there is a path forward to protect these vital ecosystems.
In 2015, 197 parties adopted the Paris Agreement, committing their
countries to reduce emissions and build resilience against the effects
of climate change through Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs.
Protecting and restoring coastal wetlands is one effective way for
governments to meet these commitments.
It is also a critical nature-based solution to help us both mitigate and
adapt to climate change.
In the face of historic threats, we need to take historic action.
It’s time to protect our coastal wetlands."
Earth at 2° hotter will be horrific. Now here’s what 4° will look like.
Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo
Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge
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The best-case scenario of climate change is that world gets just 2°C hotter, which scientists call the "threshold of catastrophe".
Why is that the good news? Because if humans don't change course now, the planet is on a trajectory to reach 4°C at the end of this century, which would bring $600 trillion in global climate damages, double the warfare, and a refugee crisis 100x worse than the Syrian exodus.
David Wallace-Wells explains what would happen at an 8°C and even 13°C increase. These predictions are horrifying, but should not scare us into complacency. "It should make us focus on them more intently," he says.
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DAVID WALLACE-WELLS:
David Wallace-Wells is a national fellow at the New America foundation and a columnist and deputy editor at New York magazine. He was previously the deputy editor of The Paris Review. He lives in New York City.
This month, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a
brand-new animation to explain the increasingly popular concept of
ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA).
Hottest Years
Restoring
and protecting nature is one of the greatest strategies for tackling
climate change, but not just for the obvious reason that it sucks carbon
out the air. Forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems act as buffers
against extreme weather, protecting houses, crops, water supplies and
vital infrastructure.
The strategy of using nature as a defence against climate impacts is called calledecosystem-based adaptation (EbA)– in essence, look after nature and it will look after you.
Here are six ways that nature can defend us from climate change impacts:
