New Mechanism for Methane Hydrate Dissociation Discovered

Methane hydrates are ice like structures forming a solid similar to ice. Significant amounts have been located under sediments on the ocean floors of the Earth. Generally, methane hydrates are more stable in fresh water than in salt water. A region allowing the formation for methane hydrates (largely dependent on depth and pressure) is called…

Climate tipping-point potential and paradoxical production of methane in a changing ocean

Authors: Hongyue Dang, Jia Li Dang, H. & Li, J. Sci. China Earth Sci. (2018) 61: 1714. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-017-9265-y Access and read the PDF with inline linkages, and reference list here. Abstract The global warming potential of methane (CH4) is about 30 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide (CO2) over a century timescale. Methane emission is hypothesized…

Multi Meter Sea Level Rise, Antarctic Sea Ice & Ice Melt Acceleration

A pair of new studies released on Monday share a same ominous message — that our planet’s ice is melting at an alarming rate, which is bad news for global sea levels. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/14/world/climate-change-antarctica-ice-melt-twin-studies/index.html Antarctic ice-sheet sensitivity to obliquity forcing enhanced through ocean connections https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0284-4 Four decades of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass balance from 1979–2017 https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/01/08/1812883116…

Eric Rignot: Response of the Great Ice Sheets to Climate Warming

In ca 2012, as part of the Discover the Physical Sciences Breakfast Lecture Series at the University of California, climate researcher Eric Rignot (NASA/JPL) outlined our understanding of changes in the major cryosphere hotspots in Antarctica and Greenland, in his talk titled “Response of the Great Ice Sheets to Climate Warming”. Read about his newest…

Jim Anderson: Feedbacks that Set the Time Scale for Irreversible Change

Climate Science Breakfast with James Anderson (2016). EPS/SEAS Climate Science Breakfast: “Coupled Feedbacks in the Climate Structure That Set the Time Scale for Irreversible Change: Arctic Isotopes to Stratospheric Radicals” with James Anderson, Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry, Harvard University. Harvard on Climate Change https://www.harvard.edu/tackling-climate-change

NOAA’s Arctic Report Card 2018

Arctic Report Card: Update for 2018 – Tracking recent environmental changes, with 14 essays prepared by an international team of 81 scientists from 12 different countries and an independent peer-review organized by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme of the Arctic Council. See https://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card Release https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XntO9a-NpeM

Actual Climate Change Expert explains Climate Science to People

Kevin Trenberth, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), gave this public lecture at Ohio State on September 27, 2018, the event is titled, “Changes in extremes with climate change.” Host: Lonnie Thompson https://geography.osu.edu/events/dr.-kevin-trenberth-changes-extremes-climate-change This year’s Bownocker Medal will be awarded to Dr. Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Trenberth…

Expert explains Great Barrier Reef Coral Bleaching

Prof Terry Hughes is the director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Townsville. He was awarded the 2018 John Maddox Prize for his “courageous efforts in communicating research evidence on coral reef bleaching to the public”. He has also been awarded the Darwin Medal…