Solar flares and magnetic storms pose a real danger
About once every thousand years, Earth experiences an extreme solar event that can cause severe damage to the ozone layer and increase ultraviolet (UV) radiation levels at the surface. Over the past century, the north magnetic pole has moved across northern Canada at about 40 kilometers per year, and the field has weakened by more than 6%. Geological records show that there have been periods of centuries or millennia when the geomagnetic field was very weak or even absent.
Solar flares continue to break records
NOAA Is Rewriting the Book on How to Rank Solar Storms: The Capabilities, the Science, and Our Understanding of the Science — A lot has changed in space weather in the last 25 years. Technology has improved, and scientists have learned more about extreme space weather events from historic geomagnetic storms like the Halloween solar storm of October 2003 and the Gannon Event of May 2024. Looking to the future, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) are now looking for ways to better inform the public about space weather events that can impact Earth. That’s why NOAA is asking the public for input on how to rewrite its space weather scales.
What are Hurricanes? Rescue and Evacuation Plan. Latest Hurricane and Storm News
The shift from El Niño to La Niña has made for longer, more severe hurricane seasons. This year’s hurricane season will be stronger than average, forecasters warn. The Atlantic and Pacific hurricane seasons bring a host of dangerous weather, from blistering winds, torrential rains, power outages, and flash flooding. And with climate change linked to increased hurricane intensity, those impacts could continue to worsen.
Increased number of extreme forest fires due to climate change has become a global problem
Energetically extreme fires have a huge impact on the Earth system, releasing huge plumes of smoke into the atmosphere comparable to volcanic eruptions. They release vast stores of carbon and cause severe damage to ecosystems and societies, sometimes destroying entire cities or suburbs. A new study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution has tracked the rapid increase in energetically extreme wildfires across the planet over the past two decades.
Jet fuel and fires are new global air pollutants
Wildfires in Canada have emitted more CO2 than almost all of the world’s countries combined in a year. They have released 647 million tons of carbon atoms into the atmosphere, equivalent to 2.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide. Ultrafine particles from jet fuel pose a health risk.
Abnormally restless Sun: the number of solar flares has increased several times
The Sun triggers an X-class solar flare, sending coronal mass ejections toward Earth. Active sunspot AR3777 in early August 2024 triggered the most powerful of three solar flares in that period, sending another coronal mass ejection toward Earth with a possible geomagnetic storm. CMEs are powerful explosions of magnetic fields and plasma that result from solar flares on the Sun that can lead to powerful geomagnetic storms on Earth.
Earth’s plate tectonics began earlier than 4 billion years ago
New research suggests that plate tectonics began earlier than 4 billion years ago — shortly after Earth formed. New research suggests that plate tectonics, which causes earthquakes, mountain formation and the separation of continents, may have begun when Earth was just forming — much earlier than many scientists thought.
The earth’s crust is unstable
The Earth is starting to shake because of global warming. Tectonic plates are moving apart regardless of warming: the giant tectonic plate under the Indian Ocean is splitting apart, the Dead Sea Fault in the Middle East is moving about twice as fast, or 0.2 inches (0.4 cm) per year, while the San Andreas Fault in California is moving about 10 times faster, about 0.7 inches (1.8 cm) per year.
Earthquakes continue to rage along the Pacific coast
A strong earthquake occurred off the coast of Sakhalin on August 10, a powerful earthquake occurred off the coast of Japan on August 8, and an earthquake occurred off the coast of the Southern Kuril Islands on July 30. A strong earthquake occurred in Taiwan on April 3, which was the most powerful on the island in the last 25 years.
The Arctic and Antarctica continue to melt rapidly, revealing ancient things hidden beneath the ice
The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth. Ice and snow are melting, and Arctic sea ice is thinning and retreating. This means that algae living on the bottom of the sea ice are getting more sunlight, leading to an annual summer bloom once there is enough light. Erebus, located on Antarctica’s Ross Island (separated from the mainland by McMurdo Sound), is the southernmost active volcano on Earth; the second-tallest on the sixth continent, at 3,794 metres.
The obvious consequences of global warming are already being observed: a blow to the world economy, drying up of reservoirs, floods and earthquakes
Scientists have discovered the many faces of global warming: it not only accelerates the melting of glaciers, raising the level of the World Ocean, but also leads to seismic activity. Over the past 30 years, the amount of dust in Central Asia has increased by 7%. One of the reasons for this is the drying up of the Aral Sea. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said on Wednesday that the famous waterway continues to face a shortage of water.
Glaciers in the Andes, Alaska, and Kamchatka could disappear in the next 50 years. Venezuela is already without glaciers
Glaciers in Peru’s Central Andes could disappear by the 2050s, a study says. A village in Checacupa, in the southern Cusco region of the Peruvian Andes, used to hold a ceremony to prepare a glacial lagoon to collect water, said Richart Aybar Quispe Soto, a local hospital worker. It was a ritual that honored the apus, the spirits of the mountains and water, he said. New research suggests that glaciers and water in the central range, closer to the capital, Lima, could suffer the same fate.
June 2024 was the hottest on record on the planet. Summer 2023 is the hottest in 2,000 years (or 10,000 years)
Last June was the hottest month on record and the 13th month in a row to set a monthly temperature record, according to new data released by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. For 12 months in a row, the average global temperature has been 1.5°C higher than in the pre-industrial era. The average sea surface temperature in June was 20.85°C, which is also the highest value in the entire period of observation.
The mortality rate in megacities from heat waves is 46% higher than in villages. By 2050, this figure will increase
A person who is 40 today will be about 70 years old in 2050. The world is undergoing unprecedented and inexorable change: scientists predict that by 2050, more than 20% of the world’s population will be over 60. This demographic shift coincides with another major change: the warming of the Earth due to human-caused climate change.
Global warming or Ice Age? Dangerous games of carbon dioxide
According to research by experts from the University of Colorado Boulder, more and more fresh water has been entering the Arctic Ocean over the past two decades. If this trend continues, the freshening of the North Atlantic could disrupt ocean currents, the authors of the study fear. During the last ice age, the Earth experienced the highest increase in CO2: 14 parts per million in just 55 years. Deep beneath the ice of Antarctica, a giant river system has been discovered that existed 40 million years ago.
Extreme heat waves cause deadly heat stress and fires around the world
Unbearable temperatures exceeding 40° and 50° are increasingly observed in many parts of the world, paralyzing society and creating a serious threat to the health and well-being of people. One of the main consequences of global warming is extreme weather events, which include, in particular, periods of abnormally high temperatures in winter, heat waves in summer. They can cause severe heat stress for the human body, against which background already existing diseases are most often exacerbated.
Tropical rains have moved north and deadly thunderstorms have become more frequent
Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have found that carbon dioxide emissions will cause tropical rains to shift north in the coming decades. This will have a profound impact on agriculture and the economy of the Earth’s equatorial belt. Eastern China has seen heavy rains that have caused significant water levels in the Yangtze and other rivers, forcing the evacuation of nearly a quarter of a million people. In 2022, lightning strikes across India killed nearly 3,000 people. In Central America, continuous rainfall has killed at least 27 people in landslides and floods over the past week.
Arctic cold hit the Russian Plain in May
Snowfalls will continue to break deep into the Russian Plain. Before this, winter had already reminded the northerners of itself: in Arkhangelsk on Thursday, May 2, a real May snowstorm raged. The same fate befell the residents of Syktyvkar. On May 5, a partly cloudy Scandinavian anticyclone and a stormy North Atlantic cyclone collided over the Russian Plain. Along the dividing line of these vortices in the atmosphere, a powerful northern jet is formed, carrying cold air masses from the Barents Sea to the region.
Modern latest satellite meteorological monitoring systems
Space-based observing systems account for approximately 90% of the data used in global numerical weather prediction models. Everyone on Earth is affected by the effects of climate change, such as rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns and rising sea levels. Natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, floods and tornadoes can dramatically change the Earth’s surface to the point where the changes are visible in space. Changes caused by human actions and interventions such as mining and deforestation are also visible in satellite images. Collecting climate data helps communities better plan for and become more resilient to these changes.
Global warming will allow species of flora and fauna to colonize previously uncharacteristic territories
In Russia, it was revealed that the fauna of Siberia is becoming more southern due to climate change. Global warming will allow tropical species from the Atlantic to colonize the Mediterranean Sea. Global warming is making some species of marine animals more susceptible to the spread of diseases such as avian influenza due to the animals congregating in breeding and feeding areas or changing migration patterns. Some researchers are concerned that current rates of warming could make oceans as warm and acidic as they were during the end of the Permian extinction, 250 million years ago, when up to 90 percent of marine species died out.
Global warming tipping point could trigger ice age
Temperatures in Western Europe could fall by 5 to 10 degrees Celsius over the course of the century. While this may sound good in an era of rising temperatures around the world, such a climate event would have devastating consequences for agriculture. As one climate scientist told Inside Climate News, it would be like “trying to grow potatoes in Northern Norway.” According to Slate, other places (such as Norway) will simply become too cold for human habitation.
New natural sources of greenhouse gases and associated climate control technologies
Layers of methane are locked under permafrost in Arctic regions, but if they were released it could cause problems for the rest of the world. Researchers also discovered intense methane emissions deep in the Baltic Sea. Methane can be a real problem for the environment. The greenhouse gas, made up of carbon and hydrogen and about 80 percent more potent than carbon dioxide, occurs naturally in sedimentary layers of the seafloor and is responsible for about 30 percent of global temperature rise.
Climate control technologies and critical points of no return are on the agenda
Experts examined the problem of so-called critical points, in which the behavior of natural systems changes in an unpredictable way. According to one hypothesis, if the atmosphere overheats, the collapse of the Gulf Stream and the death of the Amazon forests, an important carbon dioxide sink, are possible. The threshold is unknown, but as noted in the report, the likelihood of crossing it increases.
The Government of the Russian Federation has approved an action plan for adaptation to climate change. February was the warmest on record
The message on the approval of the national action plan for the second stage of adaptation to climate change was published on the website of the Government of the Russian Federation. February 2024 on Earth became the warmest on record. Sea ice on both the top and bottom of the planet continued to decline in 2024.
Global warming leads to a change in the speed of rotation of the Earth and a change in the length of the day
The melting of polar ice leads to a change in the planet’s rotation speed, which in turn affects the global calculation of time, a study from the University of California showed, reports the scientific journal Nature. Geophysicists from the University of California have found evidence that the slowing rotation of the Earth’s core, combined with the melting of the Antarctic and Greenland glaciers, will lead to the fact that in 2029, humanity will have to shorten, rather than increase, the length of the day for the first time.
The Arctic could become ice-free in the 2030s, Antarctica and Greenland are melting at record rates
The Arctic will be ice-free within a decade during the summer months. A new study from the University of Colorado Boulder says the Arctic could become ice-free in August or September as early as the 2020s or 2030s. The Arctic could then remain ice-free for nine months of the year, as predicted by worst-case climate scenarios. This is largely due to the fact that sea ice, which reflects solar radiation, melts into the open ocean, which absorbs solar radiation.
Melting permafrost could release nuclear waste and pathogens
A team of scientists has discovered that thawing permafrost could release a dangerous legacy of the Cold War – nuclear waste that is still radioactive. In addition, the release of pathogenic microorganisms is possible, reports Nature Climate Change. Melting Arctic glaciers could release radioactive waste from Cold War-era nuclear submarines and reactors. The Arctic’s nine million square miles of ice have been accumulating for more than a million years a variety of substances that could be released into the air and water due to climate change.
More than 100 world leaders have pledged to end deforestation by 2030
More than 100 world leaders have pledged to end deforestation by 2030 in the first major deal at the Glasgow climate summit. Countries that supported the decision include Brazil, Russia, Canada, Colombia, the US, the UK and Indonesia. It is noted that in total these countries account for about 85% of the world’s forests. The agreement includes the allocation of $20 billion, part of which will be used to restore already damaged forest areas and fight forest fires. The governments of 28 countries also pledge to stop deforestation for agricultural production, in particular for the production of palm oil, cocoa and soybeans.
Global warming has accelerated 4 times compared to expectations and the Paris Agreement
Faster warming in the Arctic will result in a global temperature rise of 2° being reached 8 years earlier than if the region had warmed at the global average, UCL researchers have found. The Arctic is currently warming almost 4 times faster than the global average.
2023 was the warmest year on record
According to NASA analysis, the average surface temperature of the Earth in 2023 was the highest on record. Global temperatures last year were about 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA’s baseline period (1951-1980), scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York reported.
Scientists do not rule out the onset of an ice age
A new study shows just how important the ozone layer is to the living world. Without it, the planet would be 3.5° colder than it is today, and temperatures would approach ice age levels. In this case, the amount of carbon dioxide would remain unchanged. According to the authors of the work, the main effect of ozone deficiency will be cooling of the upper layers of the stratosphere. Colder air cannot hold as much moisture, so the stratosphere will become drier. Water vapor is an important greenhouse gas, so without it the Earth’s overall greenhouse effect would be reduced.
The largest cities on the US east coast are settling and drowning under their own weight
The entire east coast of the United States is sinking, with densely populated areas sinking at a faster rate of up to 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) per year. This subsidence is enough to put the coastline on high alert. At least that’s how it should be, according to a new study from Virginia Tech and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The greatest risk of land flooding is in densely populated areas with critical infrastructure. Combined with global sea level rise, scientists say these challenges require a proactive approach.
Alaska’s Columbia Glacier is one of the fastest-changing glaciers in the world
ESA’s (European Space Agency) Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission explored Alaska’s Columbia Glacier, one of the fastest-changing glaciers in the world. The Columbia Glacier is a tidal glacier flowing down the snow-covered slopes of the Chugach Mountains. The mountains contain the largest concentration of glacial ice in Alaska. Since the early 1980s, the Columbia Glacier has retreated more than 20 km and lost about half of its total volume. This glacier accounts for nearly half of the ice lost in the Chugach Mountains.
Antarctica: Humanity still has time to prepare for rapidly rising sea levels
Antarctica’s glaciers are melting at a catastrophic rate, but humanity still has time to prepare for rapidly rising sea levels. An international team of oceanologists has discovered that quite strong and warm currents move through large cracks in the bases of Antarctic sea glaciers, which accelerate the process of melting of these ice masses, preventing the continental glaciers of Antarctica from quickly “sliding” into the sea. The retreat of Antarctic glaciers due to rising summer temperatures has led to the melting of ancient mosses. Fossil mosses, buried under ice for several thousand years, became accessible to microorganisms and became a source of the greenhouse gas methane.
A wall of 17 artificial islands in the Pacific Ocean with a total length of 24 kilometers will be built around the capital of Indonesia
Jakarta, a metropolis of 10 million, is recognized as the most sinking city in the world. Every year the capital drops by 25 centimeters, and floods due to tides rise by 200 centimeters. Floods are already costing the state dearly – the disaster takes tens of billions of dollars from the government every year. According to forecasts, in the next 10 years there will be even more flooding, and by 2050 a third of the city risks being under water.
Glaciers in northern Greenland have shrunk by more than a third in volume, and Greenland was ice-free a million years ago
Even if the world stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the ice sheet would lose more than 110 trillion tons of ice, causing global sea levels to rise by nearly 30 cm. Greenland currently contains enough ice to raise sea levels by about 7 meters. Complete melting of the ice sheet will not happen in our lifetime, but the potential consequences for future generations will be catastrophic.
Massive natural and industrial sources of greenhouse gases are accelerating warming
Leaks of methane and carbon dioxide from the ocean floor, from cracks in the ground, industrial leaks and emissions from tropical forests have been detected.
Scientists observe increased amounts of salt in water bodies
The global salt cycle in nature is disrupted, which leads to salinization of fresh water, and the distribution of salt by ocean currents plays a role in regulating surface water temperature and sea level.
Humanity lives in a new geological era – the Anthropocene
In 2011, Nobel laureates concluded that the term “Anthropocene” could be a useful way to describe and summarize the situation in which we find ourselves. The journal Nature has also proposed it as a convenient means by which to integrate and make sense of information about what is happening on our planet.
Large-scale floods and landslides continue in South America
Typically, the rainy season in Colombia begins in August, but this year some areas of the country were hit by heavy rains as early as late March and early April. Between 1998 and 2020, climate change-related natural disasters killed 312,000 people in Latin America and the Caribbean. Overall, more than 277 million people were affected to some extent.
The average tropopause heights of the Earth’s atmosphere have changed
The tropopause is a powerful retaining layer that prevents the vertical transport of aerosols and water vapor. The height of the tropopause is increasing due to climate change.
The Earth’s South Pole is melting and cracking, and many new faults have opened in recent years
The Glenzer-Conger Glacier collapsed in East Antarctica, an area long considered stable and not greatly affected by climate change.
Anomalous temperatures were simultaneously recorded in the Arctic and Antarctica
Simultaneous significant warming was recorded at the North and South poles of the planet – the temperature at the Antarctic Concordia station, located at an altitude of 3234 meters above sea level, reached −12.2°C the day before, which is 40°C above average.
Warming continues to accelerate on its own
The accumulation of sea salt and the seepage of warm, salty seawater under ice sheets as glaciers melt accelerate the warming process.
A database of the sea coasts of the Russian Arctic has been created, and plans include a digital model of the World Ocean
More than sixty percent of Russia is permafrost zone. More than 15 million people live in this territory, and there is an infrastructure developed that is not found anywhere else in the world on permafrost soils.
Global warming is accelerating itself
On the Pacific islands, entire cities are retreating inland under the pressure of water. Melting permafrost is changing landscapes, destroying animal habitats, releasing carbon and releasing dangerous microorganisms that have been trapped in the ice for millennia.
Highest rogue wave in history recorded
The highest rogue wave in history was recorded in the North Pacific Ocean. It received its own name – “Ucluele” and was recorded by a buoy of the MarineLabs project. Scientists believe wave heights in the North Pacific will only increase with climate change.
Extremely high temperatures occur in half of the world’s oceans
At the end of the 19th century, only 2% of the ocean surface experienced extremely high temperatures, so-called “heat waves.” In 2019, “heat waves” were already observed on 57% of the ocean surface.
Climate change provokes military conflicts and famine
According to American military analysts, such military clashes could begin no later than 2040. At the same time, as the developers of the document believe, the conflicting parties will use weather control technologies against each other, which can intensify natural disasters such as droughts and floods.
South Pole Ice Sheet Contains Major Volcanic Activity
The scan showed that in Antarctica, 138 volcanoes rest under 3-4 km of ice, 91 of which are geologically hazardous objects.