Hottest summer on record could lead to the warmest year ever measured
Summer 2024 sweltered to Earth’s hottest on record, making it even more likely that this year will end up as the warmest humanity has measured, European climate service Copernicus reported Friday.
And if this sounds familiar, that’s because the records the globe shattered were set just last year as human-caused climate change, with a temporary boost from an El Nino, keeps dialing up temperatures and extreme weather, scientists said.
Read more on Associated Press News.
How climate models help us see into the Arctic’s future
Asked to picture an Arctic scientist, you might first think of someone in a red field parka navigating sea ice in an inflatable dinghy or measuring snow depth on an expanse of treeless tundra. But much of what we’re learning about Northern ecosystems and what the region’s future could look like comes from scientists sitting before screens, working with code and supercomputers. These researchers train sets of complex equations called models that make valuable predictions about the future climate and its impacts based on what we know about how ecosystems work and what we’ve observed in the past.
Read more on Permafrost Pathways.
Thawing Alaskan permafrost is unleashing more mercury, confirming scientists’ worst fears
“It has that sense of a bomb that’s going to go off.”
Alaska’s permafrost is melting and revealing high levels of mercury that could threaten Alaska Native peoples.
That’s according to a new study released earlier this month by the University of Southern California, analyzing sediment from melted permafrost along Alaska’s Yukon River.
Researchers already knew that the Arctic permafrost was releasing some mercury, but scientists weren’t sure how much. The new study — published in the journal Environmental Research Letters — found the situation isn’t good: As the river runs west, melted permafrost is depositing a lot of mercury into the riverbank, confirming some of scientists’ worst estimates and underscoring the potential threat to the environment and Indigenous peoples.
Acre’s communities face drinking water shortage amid Amazon drought
Rosineide de Lima, a resident of the Panorama community in Rio Branco, in the state of Acre, faces a daily struggle for survival amid the severe drought that has hit Acre’s capital and surrounding region. In her house, where seven people live, water is rationed daily. “My well will run dry in August,” she told Mongabay, worried about the health of her five children. “For now, I’m still managing to get some water from it to wash clothes once a week and do household chores, but for drinking I’ve started buying mineral water since my children started having health problems, such as dehydration.”
After experiencing an extreme drought in 2023, the Amazon is already feeling signs of a new drought this year. According to experts, the 2024 drought could be even worse. It has already affected 69% of the Amazon’s municipalities, an increase of 56% compared with the same period in 2023.
N.W.T.’s Scotty Creek Research Station rebuilt, now with its own fire-protection system
Peter Cazon of Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation says he’s ready to start up sprinklers at ‘drop of a dime’
Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation is preparing for the grand reopening of the Scotty Creek Research Station in the N.W.T. later this month. The site was almost entirely gutted by wildfire two years ago, and now the First Nation has taken steps to keep that from happening again.
Peter Cazon, a land guardian for the Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation (LKFN), has applied his more than two decades of experience in fighting forest fires to the task. He said he’s built a 75-metre-wide firebreak around the camp, and has helped set up a sprinkler system.
If pilots flying in the area notice fire, Cazon said they’ll call into the community’s airport and soon after he’ll be notified of the threat.
Hurricanes Debby and Beryl show how hot oceans fuel a deadly storm season
Weeks before the typical peak of Atlantic hurricane season, abnormally hot oceans spawned a record-shattering storm. And the trouble is just getting started.
For 15 straight months through June, global sea temperatures have hit all-time seasonal highs. In the Gulf of Mexico and east of Florida, coastal waters are already pushing 90F (32C). Not only is ocean heat breeding dangerous hurricanes like Beryl much earlier in the year than usual, but it’s also giving those storms the fuel to get stronger, faster. Debby slammed into Florida as a hurricane on Monday after rapidly gaining power in the Gulf.
Continue reading on Bloomberg.
Deforestation harms climate less than other types of Amazon degradation, study finds
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came into office in 2023 pledging to tackle deforestation in the Amazon and restore his country as a climate leader after years of intense destruction in the world’s largest rainforest under predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula’s commitment to end deforestation by 2030 is on track with tighter enforcement helping to cut deforestation rates by more than half, according to government figures. But a new study indicates that deforestation alone accounts for a only fraction of climate damage involving the Amazon.
Geoengineering gains momentum, but governance is lacking, critics say
As climate change rapidly advances, with 2023 and 2024 vying for the hottest year on record, solar radiation modification (SRM) geoengineering strategies are gaining momentum as short-term climate fixes. These especially include proposals for the release of cooling aerosols into the Earth’s lower stratosphere.
But preliminary geoengineering efforts (represented by lots of computer modeling and a smattering of small-scale field tests) are proceeding against a backdrop of public mistrust and resistance, while also provoking urgent calls by experts for national and international policies and regulatory structures to govern this burgeoning field.