Weekly Climate News
Feb. 11, 2021
A flash flood in Uttarakhand, India, has left 31 people dead and 175 missing. The natural disaster has been linked to global warming in the Himalayas.
Developing countries usually see increases in air pollution as population and economies grow. A new study has found that Nigeria is expanding and becoming less polluted.
A research study has found that climate change has produced longer pollen seasons in the United States along with more pollen found in the air.
Peat in Ireland has been found to help to absorb greenhouse gases and aid in mitigating climate change.
Read about the environmental and climate change links to the farmers’ protests in India centered around agricultural reform.
Research continues on the link between climate change and COVID-19. Read this article on the most recent findings.
British scientists have discovered a way to recapture atmospheric carbon and turn it into jet fuel.
Due to climate change, a heatwave including temperatures reaching 100 F in Siberia has led to wildfires and an increase in the melting of sea ice.
Trees Are Becoming Less Efficient at Climate Change Mitigation
At the end of 2020, the U.K government approved planting trees in over 100 acres of a northern England peat bog. Peat bogs, areas where plants have been decaying over thousands of years into soil that traps their carbon, can store twice as much carbon dioxide as forests. When the trees were planted in northern England, they effectively dried out the soil, causing carbon to be released from the bogs and ending the project before it was ever finished.
‘Nature Under Siege’: Insect Populations Declining Due To Climate Change
In 2020, biologists Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs decided to extend their annual six-month stay in Costa Rica for ecological research due to COVID-19 restrictions. With extra time on their hands, they reflected on the declining insect population caused by the “heterogeneous blanket” of climate change. While their primary field of research is not climate change, the toll it takes on ecosystems was hard to ignore. The biologists noticed that rising temperatures led to disturbances in the insect population, affecting food webs from the bottom up.
Climate Change Will Shift Tropical Rain Belt
The tropical rain belt, also known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone, contains equatorial areas considered the warmest in the world. The belt is a meeting point for trade winds from the planet’s Northern and Southern hemispheres, which bring in humidity and precipitation. The rain belt oscillates annually from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere tropics in movement with the sun.
Racism in the Built Environment: Implications of Redlining
Environmental Protections Restored in the Bering Sea
The Biden administration recently delivered a major victory for environmental protection by reinstating the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area. The protected area off the coast of Alaska was originally designated in a 2016 executive order issued by the Obama administration. The designation was then revoked in the early weeks of Trump’s presidency. The NBSCRA was restored as part of Biden’s first executive order, the Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.
Weekly Climate News
Jan. 28, 2021
An earthquake hit Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, causing buildings to collapse and leaving 42 people dead.
One-third of American rivers have turned green as a result of human activity since 1984. Only 5 percent are now considered blue.
Newly inaugurated U.S. President Joe Biden rolled out a slew of environmental policies and climate change goals, including canceling the Keystone Pipeline and rejoining the Paris Agreement.
America’s greenhouse gas emissions plummeted more than 10 percent in 2020.
Earth is reaching serious climate tipping points.
European Union foreign ministers called for an end to financing fossil fuels.
2020 is tied with 2016 for the hottest year on record, and Earth is now committed to a 2-degree hotter future.
As a result of our changing climate, land ecosystems have been found to become less absorbent of carbon dioxide. Furthermore, recent research suggests that trees may become carbon sources rather than carbon sinks.
Women in Kenya are claiming more land rights, a significant step forward, as women’s involvement in decisions about land use and resource allocation is essential to slow down climate change.