Legal mining sites in Brazil store 2.55 gigatonnes of CO2 in vegetation and soil, study estimates
Researchers at the University of São Paulo highlight the importance of monitoring these areas and advocate the use of technosols based on tailings and other waste to offset part of their emissions.
As global temperatures continue to reach all-time highs and discussions intensify about ways to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, researchers at the University of São Paulo’s Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ-USP) in Brazil have reported the results of a scientific study showing that if all the country’s active legal mining sites continue to operate in the coming decades, emissions will total an estimated 2.55 gigatonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide (Gt CO2eq) due to loss of vegetation (0.87 Gt CO2eq) and soil (1.68 Gt CO2eq). This total corresponds to about 5% of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.
The loss of Arctic sea ice has been a conspicuous hallmark of climate change. But the rate of loss slowed after sea ice extent hit a record low in summer 2012, even though global and Arctic warming continued unabated. New research by an international team of scientists explains what’s behind that perplexing trend. The findings indicate that the stall is linked to an atmospheric wind pattern known as the Arctic dipole, and that stronger declines in sea ice extent will likely resume when the dipole reverses itself in its naturally recurring cycle.
The many environmental responses to the Arctic dipole are described in a paper published recently in the journal
Addis Ababa will likely face increased heatwaves, droughts and severe flooding over the next 67 years. These changes will pose risks to public health and infrastructure. They’ll also be felt most acutely by the Ethiopian capital’s most vulnerable residents: those living in informal settlements.
Addis Ababa is one of the fastest-growing cities in Africa, and its current metropolitan population of about 5.4 million is projected to reach close to 9 million by 2035.
Continue reading on African Arguments.
Deadly humid heatwaves to spread rapidly as climate warms – study
Small rise in global temperatures would affect hundreds of millions of people and could cause a sharp rise in deaths
Life-threatening periods of high heat and humidity will spread rapidly across the world with only a small increase in global temperatures, a study has found, which could cause a sharp acceleration in the number of deaths resulting from the climate crisis.
The extremes, which can be fatal to healthy people within six hours, could affect hundreds of millions of people unused to such conditions. As a result, heat deaths could rise quickly unless serious efforts to prepare populations were undertaken urgently, the researcher said.
Alaska firefighters experiment with targeting blazes to save carbon
The Bureau of Land Management pilot program represents a shift designed to help curb climate change
Firefighters are embarking on an ambitious experiment to stamp out blazes deep in the Alaskan wilderness as a way to avert carbon emissions in what experts say is a seismic shift in thinking in modern wildfire management that has traditionally focused only on fires that threaten human life, property or commercial interests.
Read more on The Washington Post.
Putting the emphasis on the local level to address climate change
Jobs Neck, Martha’s Vineyard, MA
With effects of climate change becoming more apparent in recent years, an ever-growing body of research has emerged to quantify, understand, model and predict the risks associated with the phenomenon.
But within that field, said Woodwell Climate Research Center climate risk director Christopher Schwalm, the focus has always been on global climatic trends.
Continue reading on The Vineyard Gazette.
As climate warming drives more extreme weather, ‘everything we care about is on the line’
The extreme weather this year has been relentless. Currently, a heat dome over the southeastern United States is sending temperatures well above 100°F, more than 1,000 fires are actively burning across Canada, and some 100,000 people in Pakistan have been evacuated after a river overflowed and sent up to six feet of water across roadways.
Meanwhile, hurricane season is just ramping up, ocean temperatures are at record highs, and parts of Greenland’s ice sheet are melting at a record pace.
This is life on planet Earth that is roughly 2°F warmer than preindustrial times. Even for climate scientists who have long warned this was coming, the onslaught of crises has been nothing short of shocking.
Read more on The Boston Globe.
Is Earth’s largest heat transfer really shutting down?
With unprecedented heat waves and record-breaking global temperatures, it’s hard to believe that there might be a place on earth that has actually COOLED since the industrial revolution. But, it turns out, there is such a spot. The COLD BLOB off of Greenland mystified scientists for years, but new studies have uncovered a scary reality – this cool patch might be a warning of the impending collapse of a vital earth circulation system. And the consequences would be dire. In this episode of Weathered, we travel to the Gulf Stream with the new PBS Terra show Sharks Unknown to experience the AMOC first hand. And we ask, what is the likelihood that the AMOC will collapse, and what would the consequences be?