Record-breaking wildfires blanket Brazil with smoke
The blazes comes on top of a drought that has left some river communities stranded.
A record-breaking number of wildfires are blanketing the Amazon with smoke, choking some Brazilian cities and further isolating many Indigenous villages. Over 2,700 wildfires have been reported in the region in the first 11 days of the month — the highest number for any October since 1998, when the record-keeping began.
Air quality became so poor last week in places like Manaus that officials had to postpone the city’s annual marathon, and major universities canceled classes. Philip Fearnside, research professor at the National Institute for Research in Amazonia, said hospitals in the city are full of people who are having respiratory issues. “That should be a wake up call to actually change government policies and individual behavior to actually contain global warming,” he said.
World breaches key 1.5C warming mark for record number of days
The world is breaching a key warming threshold at a rate that has scientists concerned, a BBC analysis has found.
On about a third of days in 2023, the average global temperature was at least 1.5C higher than pre-industrial levels.
Staying below that marker long-term is widely considered crucial to avoid the most damaging impacts of climate change.
But 2023 is “on track” to be the hottest year on record, and 2024 could be hotter.
Understanding Arctic ecology and climate science
Dr. Susan Natali, Arctic program director and senior scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center, discusses the effect of permafrost thaw and wildfires on northern ecosystems, the Arctic population, and the global climate. Esri scientist Dr. Sheridan Moore investigates how mapping and analytics are informing Arctic ecology and global climate action.
Listen on Esri & the Science of Where.
Lawrence Livermore grabs two spots in DOE’s Energy Earthshot program
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists will lead and co-lead projects in support of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) new Energy Earthshot program.
The Energy Earthshots Initiative calls for innovation and collaboration to tackle the toughest topics in energy-related research. In January, DOE announced Office of Science funding for the Energy Earthshot Research Centers (EERCs) — they will build off a concept the DOE successfully demonstrated in the previous Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) and the Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program. The new centers will support fundamental research to accelerate breakthroughs in support of the Energy Earthshots Initiative.
Read more on Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
NCCS hosts modeling analysis of carbon uptake by global boreal forests
According to NASA research, summer 2023 was Earth’s hottest since global records began in 1880. In this changing climate, the Arctic and boreal region is experiencing the strongest warming trends – close to four times the global average.
“This warming is having profound (often contrasting) impacts on the landscape and carbon cycle,” said Jennifer Watts, Assistant Scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts. For instance, “permafrost and seasonally frozen soils in this region hold more carbon than is currently in the entire atmosphere,” she said. As these soils thaw in warmer temperatures, solid carbon stored in them can become food for microbes and get converted into carbon dioxide or methane gas. “Adding these additional sources of carbon dioxide or methane into the atmosphere is very bad for our Earth because it further accelerates climate change, including the warming of Arctic-boreal regions,” Watts said.
Continue reading on NASA Center for Climate Simulation.
This summer previewed the security threats of climate change: The US needs to do more
Extreme weather events during this past summer — the hottest ever recorded — have highlighted the immediate danger of climate change to not only individuals, but also global security.
As fossil fuel emissions continue to increase (carbon emissions are on course for another record high), we will have to navigate a world of more severe extremes and their deadly impacts. Record high temperatures across the globe this summer were a case in point, with nearly half the world’s population facing at least 30 days of extreme heat. Heatwaves in turn fueled unprecedented wildfire seasons, such as the ongoing Canadian blazes that have burned 16.5 million hectares, displaced tens of thousands of Indigenous residents, and spread unhealthy air quality across North America. Maui’s wildfires were the deadliest the United States has seen in over a century, exceeding deaths in the United States from terrorism in any year following the 9/11 attacks. Southern Europe has been battling widespread forest fires as well, with Greece experiencing the largest wildfire on record in the European Union. Across the Mediterranean, devastating flooding in Libya has resulted in over 5,000 casualties.
Continue reading on Just Security.
Why September’s record-warm temperatures have scientists so worried
After months of record planetary warmth, temperatures have become even more abnormal in recent weeks — briefly averaging close to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, a global warming threshold leaders are seeking to avoid.
“I thought we had seen exceptional temperatures back in July,” said Zeke Hausfather, climate research lead for the payment company Stripe. “What we’ve seen this week is well above that.”
The trend adds to near-certainty that 2023 will be Earth’s warmest on record, and heightens threats of the extreme conditions the heat could fuel around the world.
Read more on The Washington Post.
Q&A: How scientists tackle the challenges of estimating wildfire CO2 emissions
Wildfires – and their emissions – have made headlines around the world this year.
From the otherworldly haze that blanketed much of the US east coast in June to the devastating fire that ripped through Hawaii’s Maui in early August, the impacts of fire are becoming increasingly tangible beyond typically fire-prone regions.
Wildfires are fuelled, in part, by climate change. But they also change the climate, emitting around 5.3bn tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere in 2022 – more than any country contributed from fossil-fuel burning that year, except China.
Continue reading on Carbon Brief.