When category 4 Hurricane Beryl hit the Caribbean last June, the three-island nation of Grenada bore the brunt of its wrath. At the time, the country’s prime minister, Dickon Mitchell, described the destruction as…Continue readingHurricane-hit Grenadians see climate change and reparations as one struggle
Tag: sea level rise
CENTRAL JAVA: Rasjoyo could only watch in silence as his small wooden boat sailed through Semonet, a sleepy fishing village in the northern coast of Java he once called home. Rice…Continue readingDeserted villages, power cuts: Java’s sinking coast hits residents hard, as Prabowo plans 700km sea wall
Last week, analysts at First Street, a financial research firm in Manhattan that models the future of property values in a climate-damaged world, issued a report suggesting that home values in…Continue readingLetter to the Sun Belt
A National Science and Technology Council and Ministry of Environment report projected that Taiwan could stop experiencing winters by 2060 due to climate change. Taiwan summers could extend to over 150…Continue readingClimate change could erase winters in Taiwan by 2060
The low-lying island nation of 13,000 residents is planning a mass inland relocation as the human-caused climate crisis raises global sea levels, eating away at the country’s fertile coastal fringe. Nauru…Continue readingNauru sells citizenship to help fund relocations as sea levels rise
As Arctic ice melts, massive amounts of freshwater flow into the ocean. The seawater becomes diluted and less saline, a development that reduces its density and causes it to sink more…Continue readingLong-term costs of global warming: Weaker ocean circulation could cost trillions
A collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) would have disastrous consequences around the world, severely disrupting the rains that billions of people depend on for food in India, South…Continue readingTotal collapse of vital Atlantic currents unlikely this century, study finds
Insurers paid out a record £585m for weather-related damage to homes and possessions in Britain last year, after record-breaking rain and storms hit the country. The data, from the Association of…Continue readingUK insurers paid out record £585m last year as climate breakdown intensifies
An interdisciplinary team of researchers from NTU Singapore, and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), The Netherlands, has projected that if the rate of global CO2 emissions continues to increase and…Continue readingGlobal sea level very likely to rise between 0.5 and 1.9 meters by 2100 under a high-emissions scenario
Thirteen of the ports with the highest supertanker traffic will be seriously damaged by just 1 metre of sea level rise, the analysis found. The researchers said two low-lying ports in…Continue reading‘Ironic’: climate-driven sea level rise will overwhelm major oil ports
The increasing speed of sea level rise hardly seems to register with policymakers in Britain – even though with the UK weather getting more violent, destructive storm surges are increasingly likely.…Continue readingWeatherwatch: The need to wake up to sea level rise in the UK
The Gulf of Mannar, an inlet of the Indian Ocean connecting India and Sri Lanka, is rich in biodiversity and a source of livelihood for both countries’ fishermen. Kachchatheevu, a tiny…Continue reading‘Treat us like humans’: Fishing wars trap Indians in Sri Lankan waters
Pariva beach is part of Kerema in Papua New Guinea’s Gulf province. In that area, rising sea levels and sand erosion have forced about 40,000 people to move inland over the…Continue reading‘Moving to the mountaintops’: rising seas displace tens of thousands in Papua New Guinea
Five Pacific nations on Thursday plotted how to prosecute a pivotal UN court case that aims to hold climate-polluting countries to account and safeguard their islands’ survival. The International Court of…Continue readingClimate-hit Pacific Islands plot landmark UN court case
We are seeing unprecedented rapidly intensifying tropical storms such as Hurricane Helene in the eastern United States and Super Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam. Unprecedented fires in Canada have destroyed towns. Unprecedented…Continue readingUnprecedented peril: Disaster lies ahead as we track towards 2.7°C of warming this century, researchers warn
Some kind of overshoot of 1.5˚C is increasingly being seen as inevitable by scientists and policymakers. This new study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, cautions against “overconfidence” in such a…Continue readingStudy warns of ‘irreversible’ climate impacts from overshooting 1.5˚C
An international coalition led by Oregon State University scientists concludes in its annual report published in BioScience that the Earth’s worsening vital signs indicate a “critical and unpredictable new phase of…Continue readingClimate report warns of escalating crisis, urges immediate action as UN summit nears
Many of Earth’s “vital signs” have hit record extremes, indicating that “the future of humanity hangs in the balance”, a group of the world’s most senior climate experts have said. More…Continue readingEarth’s ‘vital signs’ show humanity’s future in balance
Climate change is dramatically reshaping life in Pacific Island nations, leaving them ever more vulnerable to storm surges, saltwater contamination, ruined crops, and relentless coastal erosion. “Every day it’s a constant…Continue readingStay or go? Pacific Islanders face climate’s grim choice
Tidal action on the underside of the Thwaites Glacier in the Antarctic will “inexorably” accelerate melting this century, according to new research by British and American scientists. The researchers warn the…Continue reading‘Doomsday’ glacier set to melt faster and swell seas as world heats up
Since taking office in 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has spent about half a trillion dollars to address persistent flooding from extreme weather in the Philippines. But despite the significant spending,…Continue readingBattered by typhoons: Why aren’t Philippine flood control projects working?
The 11th Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research conference was held in Pucón, Chile August 19-23, 2024. Fifteen-hundred academics, researchers, and scientists specializing in Antarctica met to share cutting-edge research. Reports at…Continue readingAntarctica’s Deep Vulnerability Exposed at 11th Scientific Conference
The time has come to accept that climate policy has failed, and that the 2015 landmark Paris agreement is dead. We let it die by pretending that we could both continue…Continue readingThe overshoot myth: you can’t keep burning fossil fuels and expect scientists of the future to get us back to 1.5°C
A world where global mean surface temperature has increased 3°C will be characterized by widespread and intense heat stress, extreme weather events, ruptured and unproductive marine and terrestrial ecosystems, broken food…Continue readingEarth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just & sustainable future
A beach in north-east Scotland is eroding rapidly owing to climate change, leaving a town at risk of flooding and its centuries-old golf links crumbling into the sea. The Dynamic Coast…Continue reading‘This is climate change’: Scottish beach eroding by 7 metres a year
Kevin Jordan thought he would spend his retirement listening to the sound of the sea at his home on the Norfolk coast in eastern England. But his dream collapsed in November…Continue readingUK village fights to turn back tide of climate change
A new and worrying way that large ice sheets can melt has been characterized by scientists for the first time. The research focuses on how relatively warm seawater can lap at…Continue readingNew tipping point discovered beneath the Antarctic ice sheet
Local sea level has risen about a foot in the last 80 years, with 8 inches of that total in the last 30 years, the Herald reported in May. The second…Continue readingRemember they said Miami would be under water? A preview of the future
Government scientists say rising seas driven by climate change are drowning Bangladesh’s densely populated coast at one of the fastest global rates, and at least a million people on the coast…Continue readingSea swamps Bangladesh at one of world’s fastest rates
Waves wash over abandoned homes in a Mexican village slowly being swallowed by the sea—a symbol of the climate change effects being felt by the major fossil fuel producer. The school…Continue readingSubmerged homes, heat waves fuel Mexico climate angst
In the last 80 years, sea level rise has risen about a foot, with 8 inches of that total in the last 30 years, said Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate…Continue readingSea levels are starting to rise faster: Here’s how much South Florida is expecting
The largest ever recorded leap in the amount of carbon dioxide laden in the world’s atmosphere has just occurred, according to researchers who monitor the relentless accumulation of the primary gas…Continue readingRecord-breaking increase in CO2 levels in world’s atmosphere
Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5˚C (4.5˚F) above preindustrial levels this century. Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative…Continue readingWorld’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5˚C target
The climate emergency is already here. Even just 1˚C of heating has supercharged the planet’s extreme weather, delivering searing heatwaves from the US to Europe to China that would have been…Continue reading‘Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair
The gentle roar of the ocean lulled Indian mother-of-two Banita Behra to sleep each night, until one day the encroaching tide reached her doorstep. Behra is among hundreds of people from…Continue readingThe Indian villagers who lost their homes to the sea
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been losing mass in recent decades, contributing to global sea level rise. If it were to melt entirely, global sea levels would rise by around…Continue readingFeedback loop that is melting ice shelves in West Antarctica revealed
On 18 March, 2022, scientists at the Concordia research station on the east Antarctic plateau documented a remarkable event. They recorded the largest jump in temperature ever measured at a meteorological…Continue reading‘Simply mind-boggling’: world record temperature jump in Antarctic raises fears of catastrophe
In recent years, Antarctica has experienced a series of unprecedented heat waves. On 6 February 2020, temperatures of 18.3°C were recorded, the highest ever seen on the continent, beating the previous…Continue readingClimate change is speeding up in Antarctica
The annual State of the Climate report by the UN weather and climate agency confirmed preliminary data showing 2023 was by far the hottest year ever recorded. And last year capped…Continue readingPlanet ‘on the brink’, with new heat records likely in 2024: UN
On the border with New Hampshire and Massachusetts – about 35 miles north of Boston – is Salisbury, a coastal town and popular summer destination for tourists. But for those who…Continue readingMassachusetts town grapples with sea rise after sand barrier fails
A skeleton lies exposed to the elements as turquoise Caribbean waters lap the shores near a shattered tomb—a grisly reminder that the Colombian city of Cartagena is slowly being swallowed by…Continue readingColombia’s Caribbean jewel slowly sinking as sea waters rise
There’s enough water frozen in Greenland and Antarctic glaciers that if they melted, global seas would rise by many feet. What will happen to these glaciers over the coming decades is…Continue readingAn 80-mph (129kph) speed record for glacier fracture helps reveal the physics of ice sheet collapse
AMOC, which encompasses part of the Gulf Stream and other powerful currents, is a marine conveyer belt that carries heat, carbon and nutrients from the tropics towards the Arctic Circle, where…Continue readingAtlantic Ocean circulation nearing ‘devastating’ tipping point
Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey have uncovered the first direct evidence that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet shrunk suddenly and dramatically at the end of…Continue readingIce cores provide first documentation of rapid Antarctic ice loss in the past
In a warming climate, meltwater from Antarctica is expected to contribute significantly to rising seas. For the most part, though, research has been focused on West Antarctica, in places like the…Continue readingCurrently stable parts of East Antarctica may be closer to melting than anyone has realized
Located in West Bengal state in eastern India and neighbouring Bangladesh, the Sundarbans forest system is a cluster of low-lying islands and represents the largest mangrove ecosystem in the world. It…Continue readingThe Sundarbans dilemma: Islands swallowed by water, and nowhere else to go
“Chronic arsenic poisoning from drinking water … is a real problem, not a theoretical exercise,” said the lead researcher, Dr Seth Frisbie, an emeritus professor of chemistry at Norwich University, in…Continue readingClimate crisis to increase cancer risk for tens of millions of people in Bangladesh
How the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) responded to warmer climates in the geologic past has obvious relevance to our understanding of what its future could be as global temperatures rise…Continue readingIce sheet collapse closer than thought
Haiyan was one of the strongest typhoons ever to make landfall. More than 6,300 people were killed as the storm swept across the island of Leyte, flattening homes and causing a…Continue reading10 years after Haiyan, are mangroves protecting Philippine coastal areas?
Greenland’s thousands of peripheral glaciers have entered a new and widespread state of rapid retreat, a Northwestern University and University of Copenhagen study has found. To piece together the magnitude of…Continue readingStudy finds Greenland’s glacier retreat rate has doubled over past two decades
Santa Cruz del Islote, part of the San Bernardo archipelago, a few miles off Colombia’s Caribbean coast, is typical of many of the world’s low-lying coastal regions now at the forefront…Continue reading‘All we can do now is run away’: is time up for the sinking Colombian islands of San Bernardo?
Approached by motorboat across the Caribbean Sea, Gardí Sugdub, or Crab Island, first appears on the horizon as a densely packed cluster of tin-roofed huts, punctuated by the odd coconut palm.…Continue readingMeet the first climate refugees from the Americas to flee rising seas
More than 4,000 of England’s vital flood defences are so damaged they are almost useless, including hundreds in areas battered by Storm Babet. An analysis of Environment Agency data obtained by…Continue readingMore than 4,000 English flood defences ‘almost useless’
By Christoper Ketcham The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has assumed Nordhaus is to be trusted. The integrated assessment models used at the IPCC are based on Nordhausian visions of adaptation…Continue readingWhen Idiot Savants Do Climate Economics
Earth’s vital signs have worsened beyond anything humans have yet seen, to the point that life on the planet is imperiled. William Ripple, a distinguished professor in the Oregon State University…Continue readingClimate report: ‘Uncharted territory’ imperils life on Earth
Accelerated ice melt in west Antarctica is inevitable for the rest of the century no matter how much carbon emissions are cut, research indicates. The implications for sea level rise are…Continue readingRapid ice melt in west Antarctica now inevitable
Tropical coral reefs could end up being one of the first victims of climate change. The marine diversity hotspots are threatened and declining as a result of global warming, ocean acidification,…Continue readingGrowth of coral reefs likely cannot keep pace with rising sea level
Sea ice insulates the ocean, reflects heat, drives currents, supports ecosystems and protects ice shelves. It also has an annual seasonal cycle—some of the ice melts, then freezes again. Every year,…Continue readingDevastatingly low Antarctic sea ice may be the ‘new abnormal,’ study warns
Most coastal communities will encounter 100-year floods annually by the end of the century, even under a moderate scenario where carbon dioxide emissions peak by 2040, a new study finds. And…Continue readingCentury’s end may bring annual 100-year floods
Antarctica is likely warming at almost twice the rate of the rest of the world and faster than climate change models are predicting, with potentially far-reaching implications for global sea level…Continue readingAntarctica warming much faster than models predicted in ‘deeply concerning’ sign for sea levels
Greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea level and ocean heat content reached record highs in 2022, according to the 33rd annual State of the Climate report. “People are causing the largest known…Continue readingInternational report confirms record-high greenhouse gases, global sea levels in 2022
Surrounded by idyllic clear waters, the densely populated island of Carti Sugtupu off Panama’s north coast has barely an inch to spare with houses crammed together—some jutting out into the sea…Continue reading‘We’re going to sink’: hundreds abandon Caribbean island home
The rapid sea level rise and resulting retreat of coastal habitat seen at the end of the last Ice Age could repeat itself if global average temperatures rise beyond certain levels,…Continue readingUsing evidence from last Ice Age, scientists predict effects of rising seas on coastal habitats
Much of the world’s natural coastline is protected by living habitats, most notably mangroves in warmer waters and tidal marshes closer to the poles. These ecosystems support fisheries and wildlife, absorb…Continue readingAfter studying more than 1,500 coastal ecosystems, researchers say they will drown if we let the world warm above 2˚C
Over the past few weeks, a large-scale rescue operation has been under way off the coast and keys of Florida. It began as water temperatures were rising towards a peak of…Continue readingMissing ice and bleached coral: the sudden warming of the oceans
Sea ice in the Antarctic region fell to a record low this year as a result of rising global temperatures and there is no quick fix to reverse the damage done,…Continue readingNo quick fix to reverse ‘astonishing’ Antarctic sea ice loss
More than $122 billion of economic activity—$81 billion in international trade—is at risk from the impact of extreme climate events, according to new research from Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute.Continue readingExploring the multi-billion-dollar risk to economic activity from climate extremes affecting ports
A mile-thick ice sheet in Greenland vanished around 416,000 years ago during a period of moderate natural warming, driving global sea rise to levels that would spell catastrophe for coastal regions…Continue readingGreenland melted recently, says study that raises future sea level threat
Camp Century is 138 miles inland from the coast and only 800 miles from the North Pole; the new Science study shows that the region entirely melted and was covered with…Continue readingGreenland melted some 416,000 years ago, shows high risk of causing sea level rise today
Much of the ice lost in 2022 had been present since 2000, when high-quality records began. If this trend persists, the consequences for the climate and for Southern Ocean ecosystems could…Continue readingFractured foundations: How Antarctica’s ‘landfast’ ice is dwindling and why that’s bad news
Antarctic sea ice reached a record low for the month of June, increasing calls from scientists to intensify research and monitoring of the Earth’s polar ice caps. Since 2016, Antarctic sea…Continue readingRecord low Antarctic sea ice levels worry scientists
The slow-down of the Southern Ocean circulation, a dramatic drop in the extent of sea ice and unprecedented heatwaves are all raising concerns that Antarctica may be approaching tipping points. The…Continue readingAntarctic tipping points: The irreversible changes to come if we fail to keep warming below 2˚C
“Our data show the impacts of climate change are running ahead of schedule,” said lead author Kathryn Gunn, of the Australian Science agency CSIRO and Britain’s Southampton University. The implications could…Continue readingDangerous slowing of Antarctic ocean circulation sooner than expected
We found melting of Antarctic ice is disrupting the formation of Antarctic bottom water. The meltwater makes Antarctic surface waters fresher, less dense, and therefore less likely to sink. This puts…Continue readingAntarctic alarm bells: Observations reveal deep ocean currents are slowing earlier than predicted
“These ice-ocean interactions make the glaciers more sensitive to ocean warming,” said senior co-author Eric Rignot, UCI professor of Earth system science and NASA JPL research scientist. “These dynamics are not…Continue readingResearchers discover a cause of rapid ice melting in Greenland
On September 8, 2022, at 6.30pm in Britain, Buckingham Palace announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The news broke just 30 minutes before the press embargo lifted on a major…Continue readingHumanity’s tipping point? How the Queen’s death stole a climate warning’s thunder
The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are now losing more than three times as much ice a year as they were 30 years ago, according to a new comprehensive international study.…Continue reading‘Devastating’ melt of Greenland, Antarctic ice sheets found
In 2022 the summer minimum was less than 2 million square km for the first time since satellite records began. This summer, the minimum was even lower—just 1.7 million square km.Continue readingAntarctica’s heart of ice has skipped a beat: Science briefing calls for action
The groundbreaking modeling study published by Australian and American researchers at the end of March for the first time includes a detailed assessment of the likely impact of melting ice, revealing…Continue readingNew Research Sparks Concerns That Ocean Circulation Will Collapse
The world’s glaciers melted at dramatic speed last year and saving them is effectively a lost cause, the United Nations reported Friday, as climate change indicators once again hit record highs.…Continue readingUN reports ‘off the charts’ melting of glaciers
Multiple new studies highlight a rate of sea level rise that is ‘unprecedented in at least 120 years’ along the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern U.S. coast.Continue readingSeas have drastically risen along southern U.S. coast in past decade
Ice sheets can retreat up to 600 meters a day during periods of climate warming, 20 times faster than the highest rate of retreat previously measured.Continue readingIce sheets can collapse faster than previously thought possible
New research by Australian scientists suggests 40% slowdown in just three decades could alter world’s climate for centuries.Continue readingMelting Antarctic ice predicted to cause rapid slowdown of deep ocean current by 2050
The study showed that internal climate variability could increase sea level rise in some locations by 20–30% more than what would result from climate change alone, exponentially increasing extreme flooding events.…Continue readingSea level rise poses particular risk for Asian megacities
