We are poised to pass 1.5℃ of global warming – world leaders offer 4 ways to manage this dangerous time

Marcus E Jones, Shutterstock Jonathan Symons, Macquarie UniversityFor three decades, the goal of international climate negotiations has been to avoid “dangerous” warming above 1.5℃. With warming to date standing at around 1.2℃, we haven’t quite reached the zone we labelled dangerous and pledged to avoid.But recent scientific assessments suggest we’re on the brink of passing that milestone. Within this decade, global annual temperatures will likely exceed 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average for at least one year. This threshold was already briefly passed for the month of July 2023 during the Northern summer. The question is, how do we manage this period of “overshoot” and bring temperatures back down? The goal will be to restore a more habitable climate, as fast as possible. Today an independent group of global leaders released a major report. The Climate Overshoot Commission offers guidance at this crucial time. So far the report’s call for an immediate moratorium on “solar radiation management” (deflecting the sun’s rays to reduce warming) has attracted the most attention. But the details of other recommendations deserve closer inspection.  How can we respond to climate overshoot? Historically, climate policies have focused on mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions). More recently, adaptation has gained...

Read More........→September 18, 2023

How is Antarctica melting, exactly? Crucial details are beginning to come into focus

Madelaine Gamble Rosevear, University of Tasmania; Ben Galton-Fenzi; Bishakhdatta Gayen, The University of Melbourne, and Catherine Vreugdenhil, The University of MelbourneThe size of the Antarctic ice sheet can be hard to comprehend. Two kilometres thick on average and covering nearly twice the area of Australia, the ice sheet holds enough freshwater to raise global sea levels by 58 metres. Ice loss from this sheet is projected to be the leading driver of sea level rise by 2100, yet its contribution remains highly uncertain. While sea levels are certain to rise this century, projections of the contribution from Antarctic ice vary from a 44 cm rise to a 22 cm fall. Much of this uncertainty is because the ocean processes that control the fate of the sheet occur on an incredibly small scale and are very difficult to measure and model. But recently scientists have made significant progress in understanding this “ice-ocean boundary layer”. This progress is the subject of our new review paper, published today in Annual Reviews. Shrinking, thinning and retreating At the margins of the Antarctic ice sheet, glaciers flow into the Southern Ocean, forming floating ice shelves. These ice shelves act as keystones, stabilising the ice sheet. They’re also shrinking. The ocean melts ice shelves from below – a process known as “basal melting”....

Read More........→June 14, 2023

Why are sunsets so pretty in winter? There’s a simple explanation

Chloe Wilkins, University of NewcastleIf you live in the southern hemisphere and have been stopped in your tracks by a recent sunset, you may have noticed they seem more vibrant lately. The colours are brighter and bolder, and they linger longer in the sky. Why are sunsets “better” at some times of the year compared to others? We can use science to explain this. There are many ingredients for a “good” sunset, but the main three are clear skies, low humidity, and the Sun sitting low in the sky. From light to colour To understand why we get such vibrant sunsets in the colder months of the year, we first need to know how colours appear in the sky. All visible light is actually energy that travels in waves; the length of those waves determines the colour that our eyes see. Although sunlight might look white to us, it’s actually a mix of different wavelengths of light that make up all the visible colours – from fiery reds and oranges (longer wavelengths) to deep blues and purples (shorter wavelengths). These individual colours become visible when sunlight is “scattered”, which is precisely what happens when it passes through the invisible gas molecules in Earth’s atmosphere – mostly nitrogen and oxygen. When sunlight hits these molecules, it’s absorbed and shot back out (scattered) in different directions. Blue and violet light...

Read More........→June 01, 2023

Earthquake footage shows Turkey’s buildings collapsing like pancakes. An expert explains why

Mustafa Karali / AP Mark Quigley, The University of MelbourneA pair of huge earthquakes have struck in Turkey, leaving more than 3,000 people dead and unknown numbers injured or displaced.The first quake, near Gaziantep close to the Syrian border, measured 7.8 in magnitude and was felt as far away as the UK. The second occurred nine hours later, on what appears to be an intersecting fault, registering a magnitude of 7.5.Adding to the devastation, some 3,450 buildings have collapsed, according to the Turkish government. Many of the modern buildings have failed in a “pancake mode” of structural collapse.Why did this happen? Was it simply the enormous magnitude and violence of the quake, or is the problem with the buildings?Thousands of years of earthquakesEarthquakes are common in Turkey, which sits in a very seismically active region where three tectonic plates constantly grind against one another beneath Earth’s surface. Historical records of earthquakes in the region go back at least 2,000 years, to a quake in 17 CE that levelled a dozen towns.The East Anatolian Fault zone that hosted these earthquakes is at the boundary between the Arabian and Anatolian tectonic plates, which move past each other at approximately 6 to 10 mm per year. The elastic strain that accumulates in this plate boundary zone is released by intermittent earthquakes,...

Read More........→February 08, 2023

Indian outfit wins UN award for efforts to combat climate change amid COVID-19

SPORTS LIFESTYLE ENTERTAINMENT SPECIALS FEEDS UPCLOSE GALLERY CITIZEN REPORTER DOGRI CORNER Home World Indian outfit wins UN award for efforts to combat climate change amid COVID-19 OCT 28, 2020 UNITED NATIONS: An Indian organisation that leverages tourism and technology to help remote communities access solar energy has won a prestigious UN award for its efforts to combat climate change amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE) is among the winners of the 2020 UN Global Climate Action Award. GHE is one of the world's first organisations using tourism and technology to bring solar energy to remote communities. The recipients of the 2020 United Nations Global Climate Action Awards, announced Tuesday, bring focus to the best examples of what people across the globe are doing "to combat climate change in a year that has cast darkness upon so many." According to a statement on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) website, GHE is the one of the world's first outfit using tourism and technology to bring solar energy to remote communities as recognised by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). In the Hindu Kush Region, there are more than 16 million people without access to basic energy mainly due to their geographic remoteness....

Read More........→October 30, 2020