Global warming | World Tech Today

Global Sea Levels are Rising Faster than previously thought

May 12, 2015 by William Harper Leave a Comment

The Global Sea Levels are rising at an alarming rate, much faster than previously thought according to a new analysis which highlights what climate scientists have been warning for years –impact of melting ice sheets and glaciers near the earth poles.

Analyzing the data obtained from satellites, scientists have painted a bleak picture of our future. It seems the sea levels are rising at a faster rate than earlier thought. It means that mankind is much closer to living in Kevin Costner’s Water world much earlier than presumed. Scientists compared data of satellite records of sea level from 1993 to 2014 and contrary to popular beliefs, the sea levels are rising at a much faster pace.

The IPCC or the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that the Global Mean Sea Level rose by 7.6 inches from 1901 to 2010, about 0.06 of an inch per year. This has now accelerated to 0.12 inches per year between 1993 and 2010, according to the IPCC. Another study however negated the IPCC finding and showed that the sea levels are not rising as fast as claimed by IPCC. The latest study confirmed that indeed the sea levels are rising at a very fast pace.

The latest figures add credence to IPCC claims that sea levels are indeed rising at a fast rate due to melting polar ice caps caused by global warming.

Previous studies based on have suggested a slowing in the rate of sea level rise over the past decade relative to the one before it.

Watson, senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania said, “That was a puzzle because it coincides with a period where we’ve got increasing water from West Antarctica and Greenland.”

However when the hourly tide gauge data were compared with the satellite data suggests that sea levels have risen faster since 1993 as compared to the slower rates in previous decades.

Pacific slows global warming temporarily

Apr 16, 2015 by Karla Fetrow Leave a Comment

According to a group of scientists, led by Tom Delworth says that strong winds, blowing east to west across the Pacific Ocean had slowed down melting of ice. But that could change within the few years.

The climate modeler at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Delworth says that this pushing of the accumulating heat into the ocean has caused an increased upwelling of cold water, near the coasts of western US.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab is located in Princeton, New Jersey. This explains why the temperatures have not been rising as fast as climate models had previously suggested, over the past 15 to 20 years. This was called as “the slowdown” by scientists.

Delworth and his team have reached to the conclusion that cold water was responsible for slowing the global warming effects. It is also believed that the cold water is responsible for the prolonged droughts, which plagued the western coasts of US for nearly two decades.

The buffer zone, caused because of the cold water acts like a blockade to the moisture-filled weather systems. This has caused large storms to shift northwards to Canada.

Interestingly, a similar study, which was published recently in the Nature Climate Change Journal, also blames the Pacific Ocean for “the Slowdown”. They have cited this phenomenon as the ‘Pacific Decadal Oscillation’ (PDO) and ‘Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO)). Scientists have however warned that the slowdown in not permanent in nature. If history is to be referred, IPO switches back to warm phase and kicks global warming into a higher gear.

Aigup Dai, an atmospheric scientist at the University at Albany, and the author of the new study in Nature, mentioned that the tropical Pacific remains in relative cold condition during the negative IPO phase. However, because the global mean-temperatures tend to be lesser during the negative IPO phase, phase changes could have larger implications to the rate of global warming.

Research states ‘Warm blob’ in Pacific Ocean is not caused by climate change

Apr 12, 2015 by Karla Fetrow 4 Comments

The weather conditions in East Coast have elevated the tensions of the local authorities lately. A research conducted by Seattle Scientists clarifies that the dry, hot weather conditions in the West Coast and extremely cold conditions in the East Coast weather are not linked to Arctic melting but warming in the Pacific.

The study has put them in an emulous situation with other scientists who think that the global warming is the root cause of this problem.

Warm Blob in West Coast:

An enormous blob of warm water is parked off the West Coast for the last 18 months or so. It’s a part of the pattern that clearly explains the drought conditions in California, record squall in New England, and snow-starved ski resorts in Washington.

The study has been conducted by a team of Seattle scientists who worked hard for weeks to reach this conclusion. Most of the scientists in the country think that global warming is the primary reason for this environmental turmoil.

According to them, melting in Arctic upset the polar vortex and led to this awful situation in East Coast over the past two winter seasons, though the team of Seattle scientists doesn’t agree with them.

It was Nick, Climate Scientist, University of Washington, who used the term ‘The Blob’ for the pool of water which was 7 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the normal water. It was first witnessed in the fall of 2013.

It hasn’t disappeared since then and stretching swiftly from Alaska to Mexico. Due to the increased radius of ‘The Blob,’ the average temperature of the area has gone 3.6 degrees higher than the normal. The climate experts have informed the authorities that it will continue to go higher throughout the year.

If the government doesn’t think seriously about it, then things can become worse in the near future.

Research shows Greenhouse Gases emission also a reason of rapid Arctic melting down

Apr 9, 2015 by Karla Fetrow 4 Comments

A researcher from the Northern Arizona University’s Biology Department, Ted Schuur, in his recent findings explains that the climate change was also the reason that Arctic is warming rapidly. The increase in greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere is leading to global warming, but according to the researcher, this could be the other way round as well. It means that the warming of Arctic is seen as a cause of this global warming.

The plight of warming Arctic

The Arctic as well as subarctic regions, at present, has been estimated to have 1,330 to 1,580 billion tons quantity of the organic carbon that is blocked into the frozen soil. The researchers explain that there is a possibility that more quantity of this substance is locked within the womb of permafrost. The fact is enough to trigger serious consideration of reducing the human emission of greenhouse gases into the air.

The researchers explain that with the warming of Arctic, the risk of microbes getting activated will increase and this will lead to a release of methane and carbon dioxide in atmosphere, the quantity of which will be worth more than centuries.

Ted Schuur says that the question in such a scenario is that what quantity, how fast and what will lead this carbon to escape. However, his research answers the question, but partially. The study says that the release of carbon will take place gradually. This means that the greenhouse gases will find a way out in several decades instead of bursting all in just a single decade. If, at all, these gases release in just one decade, it will be a disaster that will not allow humans to curb the global warming.

The flip side to this is that there will be substantial sources of these gases moving forward, even if human emissions are restricted.

In the research, it is also explained that the present scenario of climate change can be attributed to the activities of humans only. For example, the study says, burning of the fossil fuels leads to a natural carbon cycle, which is trickier to regulate or curb.

Polar bears cannot rely on land based sources of food alone anymore: New study

Apr 3, 2015 by Ambika Mahajan Leave a Comment

The adorable looking furry polar bears found in the Arctic ice caps might not be able to survive on land based food sources alone, points out a new study. As global warming continues to affect oceans and cause melting and thinning of ice caps, the polar bears have found it increasingly difficult to get to their main food source, namely seals. Consequently, they have been seen to be looking for prey in areas hitherto dominated by grizzly bears.

Unable to find enough food to replace the seals which they like to feast upon, the polar bears will now have to compete with the grizzlies which are seasoned land predators. The findings of this new study are in sharp contrast to some previous findings which suggested that that they might instead be subsisting on berries, bird and some other land food sources.

The terrestrial sources of food which are richer in protein and vegetation are, however, lower in fat which these huge animals need in abundant quantities to be able to survive. Besides, they cannot digest plants properly making things doubly difficult for them.

Says Karne Rode, co-author of the new study, “Although some polar bears could eat terrestrial foods, there is no proof the behavior is widespread. In the regions where terrestrial feeding of polar bears has been documented, the body conditions of the polar bear and survival rates have declined.”

“The reports of terrestrial feeding by polar bears give necessary insights into the ecology of bears toward land,” Rode says. “In this paper, we have a tendency to try to place those observations into a broader context. targeted analysis can ease North American nation verifies whether or not terrestrial foods may contribute to polar bears, nutrition despite the physiological and organic process limitations and therefore the low accessibility of most terrestrial food resources. However, the proof to date suggests that redoubled consumption of terrestrial foods by polar bears is unlikely to offset declines in body condition and survival ensuing from ocean ice loss.”

However, all experts who have studied polar bears do not seem to agree with the findings of Rode and other authors at Washington State University and Polar Bear International. An eminent ecologist at City College of New York, Robert Rockwell, has watched polar bears for more than four decades. He says he has seen the animals move on from seals to eating goose eggs and caribou calves in the recent years.

Why has the effort to combat climate change and global warming have failed?

Mar 28, 2015 by Karla Fetrow 1 Comment

Most plans to combat climate change have failed due to lack of participation from the vast majority. This problem has led to the failure of the Kyoto protocol and is behind the failure of almost all initiative to combat climate change. However, the example of Copenhagen shows that such should not always be the case.

In Copenhagen majority of the people commute using bicycles and have shown that social pressure combined with strong community spirit and moral compass can get large groups of people to act positively on climate front.

Residents of Copenhagen used to have car dependency as much as anywhere else, however after the oil crisis in 1970 people began shifting to bicycles for commute and over time most of the residents have made the move. This happened due to a close knit community, strong social pressure to shift to bicycle and a critical mass of bicycle riders who made it easier for other people to shift to bicycle. Such acts by common people no matter how small are important for fight against climate change, however they are not enough.

The same principle can also be applied to countries with creation of ‘climate clubs’ where the same dynamics that caused people in Copenhagen to shift to bicycle from motor cars makes them take action on climate change. Climate change is a problem on global scale and it requires concerted global actions. This can be done by making ‘climate clubs’ according to William D. Nordhaus of Yale. He calls it the climate clubs theory.

According to the climate clubs theory theory countries may club together and make co-ordinated actions like reduction of carbon emissions and encouragement of lowering of carbon emissions through tax breaks. While at the same time the countries can effect tariff barriers against countries that are not in the group. This will create incentive to countries who free ride on carbon emission cuts of other countries to join the fight against climate change.

Warming oceans beginning to affect ice sheets in East Antarctica as well

Mar 17, 2015 by Ambika Mahajan Leave a Comment

A gigantic glacier in Antarctica, the largest in the eastern part of the icy continent is melting at a never before rate, giving rise to fears of sea levels rising by another 10 feet during this year. The meltdown of the Totten Glacier, which has been caused by a warming ocean and globally rising temperatures, will have the most significant impact on the residents in the Northern hemisphere where, due to the earth’s gravitational force, the sea level rise will be more pronounced as compared to the rest of the world.

The concern has been raised by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, NASA and other research organizations who discovered two seafloor troughs which could allow warm ocean water to reach the base of Totten Glacier, already being referred to as East Antarctica’s most rapidly thinning glacier.

Newly discovered rivers under the Totten glacier are allowing in water from an increasingly warmer ocean, triggering this meltdown. As the sea water moves inland further, the glacier which is almost twice the size of Victoria will start melting at a faster rate, fear the Australian scientists.

Using ice-penetrating radar, aerial surveys have confirmed that a greater part of the ice on this glacier rests in deep valleys up to 1.5 kilometres below sea level, meaning the warming water can eat away at the polar ice cap, Australian Antarctic Division program leader Tas van Ommen said.

If the glacier in question was to melt down completely, it would cause sea levels across the world to rise by at least 11 feet. Till now, the western side of the continent, which is melting rapidly, had drawn more attention than the eastern side.

“The newly discovered troughs are deep enough to give the deep warm water access to the huge cavity under the glacier. The deeper of the two troughs extends from the ocean to the underside of Totten Glacier in an area not previously known to be floating,” say the scientists.

The result, published in the journal Nature Geoscience today, March 16th, has global implications because “the ice flowing through Totten Glacier alone is equivalent to the entire volume of the more widely studied West Antarctic Ice Sheet.”

Scientists discover how to use Baking Soda to scrub CO2 caused global warming away

Feb 7, 2015 by Karla Fetrow Leave a Comment

Harvard University collaborated with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to come up with a innovative and creative way to reduce carbon emissions for industrial facilities. The group is utilizing micro capsules to create an industrial scrubber that will remove carbon emissions and help protect the environment.

The new discovery was recently published in the journal of nature communications and is a major breakthrough in fighting global warming.

Slowing Emissions

The new system consumes little power and uses environmentally friendly products so even it is earth friendly. Micro capsules are used in many applications that include food flavoring, prescription drugs, cosmetics and agricultural methods. They are used for controlled delivery and release but is set is unique and utilizes controlled capture.

The system also uses a lot of baking soda along with the micro capsulated carbon sorbents to absorb the CO2 emissions. This allows for large scale scrubbing of carbon emissions which is critical to controlling global warming.

Global Initiative

Global warming is a worldwide debate and proponents like former Vice President Al Gore remain adamant that it is causing unusual weather patterns and other environmental phenomenon that are destroying the planet and threading man. Many reports are advocating a global effort to lower carbon emissions and many countries have joined the coalition to achieve the goal. If this new technique is successful it could be a huge part of the effort to remove carbon emissions from large industrial plants.

The emissions these plants release are responsible for creating a effect on the atmosphere that raises global temperatures. This results in fluctuations of ocean temperatures and causes effects like El Niño that crate excessive hurricanes and storms. Every year leaders of many countries gather in Japan to discuss the effects of global warming and seek to institute efforts to lower carbon emissions among other things.

Land in Iceland rising by 1.4 inches a year due to global warming

Feb 3, 2015 by Ambika Mahajan Leave a Comment

A research team at the University of Arizona has pointed out that that the Scandinavian island of Iceland is rising as a result of global warming. After studying the relatively fast rising of Iceland crust over the last three decades, the researchers have raised concerns over the fact that it could be rising by as much as 1.4 inches a year and that it could lead to an increase in volcanic activity in the future.

“There have been a lot of studies that have shown that the uplift in Iceland is primarily due to ice loss,” said lead author Kathleen Compton, an Arizona PhD student, adding that her study was the first to show accelerated sea level rise influences the land.

The research draws attention towards the rising of the vast ice sheets with the onset of global warming nearly three decades back. Kathleen says the team first began using GPS technology similar to what you’d find in a car to measure uplift in 2006.

“We used 62 GPS stations located all across the island of Iceland, and looked at how fast those GPS stations were moving upward through time,” Compton told FoxNews.com.

What really surprised researchers was the speed at which some sites in Iceland were rising.

“They’re not only moving upward very rapidly in the central and southern part of the island, but they’re speeding up over time- moving faster and faster each year.”

Some sites are rising as much as 1.4 inches a year. Researchers are worried that the rebound of the crust could mean an increase in the frequency of volcanic eruptions similar to the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull which had disrupted air travel over the European continent on an unprecedented scale.

Shortly afterwards, another Icelandic volcano Bardarbunga had began erupting in August 2014 and it hasn’t stopped since.

“I anticipate, given the 2014 Bardarbunga eruption, that there will be continued close monitoring of activity in Iceland- at least for the next five years,” said co-author Richard Bennett, an associate professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona to FoxNews.

The team’s study was financed by the National Science Foundation and the Icelandic Center for Research and the findings were published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.