Here are a bunch of recent climate change updates you may have missed, for all the cli-fi writers out there:
When did scientists first warn humanity about climate change?
Climate change warnings are coming thick and fast from scientists; thousands have signed a paper stating that ignoring climate change would yield “untold suffering” for humanity, and more than 99% of scientific papers agree that humans are the cause. But climate change wasn’t always on everyone’s radar. So when did humans first become aware of climate change and the dangers it poses?
https://www.livescience.com/humans-first-warned-about-climate-change
Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ could meet its doom within 3 years
Time is melting away for one of Antarctica’s biggest glaciers, and its rapid deterioration could end with the ice shelf’s complete collapse in just a few years, researchers warned at a virtual press briefing on Monday (Dec. 13) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
https://www.livescience.com/agu-antarctica-thwaites-glacier-future
UN confirms hottest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic
The highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic has been officially confirmed by the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO), sounding ”alarm bells” about climate change. The temperature, a ”Mediterranean” 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) — which was recorded in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk in June 2020 — was measured at the peak of an extended heat wave. In fact, temperatures across the region that summer averaged as much as 18 F (10 C) above normal, the WMO said in a statement.
https://www.livescience.com/un-confirms-arctic-hottest-temperature
8 ominous climate milestones reached in 2021
Wildfires. Heat waves. Life-threatening floods. The disastrous consequences of burning fossil fuels and pumping greenhouse gases into Earth’s atmosphere are everywhere around us. Study after study directly links human-caused climate change to more powerful and wetter storms, longer and more intense droughts and rising sea levels that threaten coastal communities worldwide.
https://www.livescience.com/climate-change-running-out-of-time-2021
Greenland lost enough ice in last 2 decades to cover entire US in 1.5 feet of water
The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on the planet, and the toll on Greenland’s massive ice sheet is becoming achingly clear. According to new satellite data compiled by Polar Portal, a collection of four Danish government research institutions, Greenland has lost more than 5,100 billion tons (4,700 billion metric tons) of ice in the past 20 years — or roughly enough to flood the entire United States in 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) of water.
https://www.livescience.com/greenland-ice-loss-cover-united-states
Sudden collapse of Antarctic ice shelf could be sign of things to come
A massive Antarctic ice shelf that covered an area about the size of New York City or Rome just collapsed into the ocean. Scientists warn that while they do not expect significant impacts as a result of this event, melting ice in this historically stable region may be a foreboding sign of things to come.
https://www.livescience.com/antarctica-conger-ice-shelf-collapse
What countries and cities will disappear due to rising sea levels?
Sea levels are rising rapidly. The rate at which they are rising has more than doubled, from 0.06 inch (1.4 millimeters) annually throughout most of the 20th century to 0.14 inch (3.6 millimeters) per year from 2006 to 2015, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
https://www.livescience.com/what-places-disappear-rising-sea-levels
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