Climate Change

Arctic shows that the climate change is real

Arctic is intensely feeling the heat of climate change. In fact, Arctic is warming faster than any other place on our planet. The latest data suggests that the 2011 was the warmest year on record with average Arctic temperatures 2.28 degrees Celsius (4.1 degrees Fahrenheit) higher compared to those measured in period from 1951-1980.

The highest recorded temperatures have also lead to an all time low Arctic ice cover. The rapid loss of Arctic ice has been measured by researchers and they say that the ice cover on Arctic has declined by staggering 76 percent from 1979 (16,855 cubic kilometers) to 2011 (4,017 cubic kilometers).

The ever-warming Arctic spells the danger for entire planet because researchers believe that the region could soon hit climatic tipping points that could severely affect the rest of the world.

The loss of sea ice is already having devastating effect on Arctic's ecosystems resulting in decline of many animal species such as polar bears and walruses.

One of the recent studies has even connected this year's cold winter in Europe with the loss of Arctic's ice cover and many researchers also believe that massive blizzards that stroke the U.S. in 2009 and 2010 were also connected with increased melting of Arctic.

The thawing of Arctic's permafrost is also raising serious concerns because of the huge amounts of greenhouse gases trapped in the permafrost. If these gases get released they have potential to equal the amount of greenhouse gases currently emitted by deforestation worldwide.

The melting of Arctic's ice should be of real concern to world leaders but instead of worrying about the global environmental impact of Arctic' ice melting they seem to be more occupied with plans to expand oil and gas exploitation, create new shipping routes, and increase mining and other industry in this ecologically sensitive area.

Climate change the main cause for cold weather in Europe?

The exceptionally cold weather characterized by chilling winds and temperatures well below zero degrees Celsius has been striking Europe for more than a week. According to a scientist Alfred Wegener from the Institute for Polar and Marine Research the main cause for this exceptionally cold weather is climate change, or to be more precise the huge loss of Arctic ice.

Wegener (and some other scientists) believes that complex wind patterns are being changed because the retreat of Arctic sea ice has exposed huge swaths of normally frozen ocean to the atmosphere above.

This has lead to a development of high-pressure weather systems over northern Russia, and they are the ones carrying these freezing winds from the Arctic and Siberia to the rest of the Europe.

Professor Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research confirmed that "the current weather pattern fits earlier predictions of computer models for how the atmosphere responds to the loss of sea ice due to global warming."

The ice free Arctic sea is creating high-pressure weather systems because the water is warmer than the Arctic air above it, and this carries the cold air and freezing winds across the Europe. The scientists are convinced that the retreat of ice from the ocean causes the release of huge amounts of heat from the sea into the significantly colder air above which results in the air to rise. Rising air causes destabilization in the atmosphere and changes the difference in air pressure, also changing wind patterns.

This situation should really help open eyes of many people who believe that climate change is only affecting Earth's polar regions and that they don't have to worry about it.

Tropical rainforests store more carbon than previously thought

Tropical rainforests are together with our oceans the largest carbon sinkers and their preservation is certainly one of the key factors that will decide the outcome of our battle against global warming and climate change.

The deforestation of tropical rainforests doesn't only mean less trees to store carbon but it also represents a major source of carbon emissions by releasing approximately 1.1 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year. In large part of the developing world, deforestation is the biggest source of harmful carbon emissions.

The good news comes from the study recently published in Nature Climate Change which concludes that tropical vegetation contains 21 percent more carbon than previously thought.

In this latest study the scientists have created a carbon density map for the tropics with a level of consistency and accuracy never seen before. Among other things they were able to discover that tropical forests in America store around 118 billion tons of carbon, an almost 20% more than shown by previous studies.

It is of vital importance to have the reliable estimates of carbon storage because they are critical to learn about the amount of total carbon released into the atmosphere by changes in land cover and land use.

Without major reduction in greenhouse gas emissions we can only hope that our forests and oceans will be able to expand their carbon storage ability because currently this looks like our only chance against the worst possible climate change scenario.

Greenhouse gases causing huge ocean acidification

The increased emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) are not only contributing to global temperature increase but also cause huge ocean acidification.

According to the latest study by the University of Hawaii man-made carbon emissions have been main factor behind the increased acidity in our oceans. In fact, man-made carbon emissions over the last 100 to 200 years have raised ocean acidity far beyond the range of natural variations.

Ocean acidification is enormous threat to marine life because it impairs the ability of marine organisms such as corals and mollusks to form their skeletons or shells, and these marine organisms play key role in enabling the proper functioning of marine food chain.

If ocean acidification continues world will soon experience huge biodiversity loss in our oceans and seas. This is because such rapid increase in acidity leaves very little time for marine species to adapt.

The natural rate of change in climate has always left enough time for many species to adapt but this is no case with man-made climate change. The researcher Tobias Friedrich at the the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii explained this by saying that "when Earth started to warm 17,000 years ago, terminating the last glacial period, atmospheric CO2 levels rose from 190 parts per million (ppm) to 280 ppm over 6,000 years. Marine ecosystems had ample time to adjust. Now, for a similar rise in CO2 concentration to the present level of 392 ppm, the adjustment time is reduced to only 100 – 200 years."

The only way to stop further ocean acidification is to drastically reduce the amount of carbon emissions on global level and this can be achieved only with very strict international climate deal. Judging by the latest climate change talks new climate deal is very low on political agenda of world leaders, well behind global financial woes that seem to be taking all the attention.

We can’t hide from climate change

Sadly we can’t hide from climate change and our only chance is to try to slow it.

Slowing climate change is lot easier to say than done, particularly without the legally binding international climate deal that would force countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide emissions as the result of excessive fossil fuel burning.

World needs fossil fuels to satisfy ever growing demand for energy and renewable energy sector (despite achieving huge growth in the last couple of years) is still way off from being able to successfully replace fossil fuels on global scale.

As long as world heavily relies on fossil fuels we won't see any significant change in our fight against climate change and we won't be able to prevent a 2C temperature increase seen by many scientists as the point of no return, where climate change will completely run out of control.

The world has already reached the point where political leaders must think about the possible solutions to adapt to climate change instead of just delaying the necessary action for better times. Without the immediate action better times will never come and entire humanity will have to face an uphill task of living together with climate change.

You know that old saying „ you can run but you can't hide“? The same can be applied with climate change. We can run from the truth and pretend like climate change is some imaginary tale invented by environmentalists and burry our head in the sand and pretend like this doesn’t concern us but once climate change starts showing its scary face we won't be able to hide from it because it will affect our entire planet.