News Review (Editor’s Choice) Climate Change, Atmospheric Science - Science Ecology and Sustainability

 

PLANET EARTH

Credit: Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

CLIMATE CHANGE

Global Warming, the gradual heating of the planet’s surface, oceans and atmosphere

Global Warming will have far-reaching, long-lasting and, in many cases, devastating consequences for planet Earth in the foreseeable future.

Despite political controversy about climate change, already Global Warming is having a measurable effect on the planet. Profound and widespread, the consequences of Global Warming are real. 

The changes wrought by Global Warming

Increase in average temperatures and temperature extremes 

Extreme weather events 

Ice melts 

Sea levels and ocean acidification 

Plants - changing dates of activity 

Animals - shifting migration patterns 

Social effects – agricultural systems 

Humankind is responsible for nearly all Global Warming, ‘prevention before cure,’ are we doing enough?

Ignorance is neither an excuse and nor an answer .

Into the future, Global Warming update, what the statistics and trends are saying and the link between human activities and Global Warming. 

SciTechDaily – News 2021

     “Earth’s Global Warming Trend Continues: 2020 Tied for Warmest Year on Record

Credit: scitechdaily.com

2020 

 NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, based on data from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Story derived from NASA and NOAA press releases by Michael Carlowicz. 

Earth’s global average surface temperature in 2020 tied with 2016 for the warmest year on record, according to an analysis by NASA.

Continuing the planet’s long-term warming trend, the globally averaged temperature in 2020 was 1.02 degrees Celsius (1.84 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the baseline 1951–1980 mean, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). The year was slightly warmer than 2016 but within the margin of error of the analysis, making the years effectively tied.

“The last seven years have been the warmest seven years on record, typifying the ongoing and dramatic warming trend,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt. “Whether one year is a record or not is not really that important; the important things are long-term trends. With these trends, and as the human impact on the climate increases, we have to expect that records will continue to be broken.”

The map above depicts global temperature anomalies in 2020.”


"This is a direct citation" By NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY JANUARY 15, 2021. Read the full story, retrieved from https://scitechdaily.com/earths-global-warming-trend-continues-2020-tied-for-warmest-year-on-record/

Atmospheric Science and Science Ecology

SUSTAINABILITY

Earth’s atmospheric guardians, plant life doing their best to shield us. But can plant life sustain the temperature tipping point of human-caused carbon emission? How close are we to ‘breaking point’? The results are alarming.

SciTechDaily – News 2021

     “Alarming New Climate Research: Earth to Reach Critical Temperature Tipping Point in 20–30 Years

Graphic depicting the temperature tipping point at which Earth’s plants will start decreasing the amount of human-caused carbon emissions they can absorb. Credit: Victor O. Leshyk/Northern Arizona University

Earth’s ability to absorb nearly a third of human-caused carbon emissions through plants could be halved within the next two decades at the current rate of warming, according to a new study in Science Advances by researchers at Northern Arizona University, the Woodwell Climate Research Center and the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Using more than two decades of data from measurement towers in every major biome across the globe, the team identified a critical temperature tipping point beyond which plants’ ability to capture and store atmospheric carbon - a cumulative effect referred to as the “land carbon sink” - decreases as temperatures continue to rise.

The terrestrial biosphere - the activity of land plants and soil microbes - does much of Earth’s “breathing,” exchanging carbon dioxide and oxygen. Ecosystems across the globe pull in carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and release it back to the atmosphere via the respiration of microbes and plants. Over the past few decades, the biosphere has generally taken in more carbon than it has released, mitigating climate change.”


"This is a direct citation" by NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY JANUARY 14, 2021. Read the full story, retrieved from https://scitechdaily.com/alarming-new-climate-research-earth-to-reach-critical-temperature-tipping-point-in-20-30-years/

Conservation Science

MASS DISTINCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

Without drastic intervention, the promise of a bleak future looks imminent unless humankind quickly commits to specific and long-lasting action (methods that promise results) against environmental pollution.

SciTechDaily – News 2021

“Humans Face a “Ghastly Future” Unless Extraordinary Action Is Taken Soon on Sustainability

 

Credit: scitechdaily.com

  

The global population could reach 10 billion by 2050; explosive population growth is contributing to a broad array of other challenges for the planet.

Global team of scientists, including UCLA’s Daniel Blumstein, points to environmental, population and political challenges.

Without immediate and drastic intervention, humans face a “ghastly future”  - including declining health, climate devastation, tens of millions of environmental migrants and more pandemics  - in the next several decades, according to an international team of 17 prominent scientists.

In a paper published today (January 13, 2021) in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science, the researchers cite more than 150 scientific studies and conclude, “That we are already on the path of a sixth major extinction is now scientifically undeniable.”


"This is a direct citation" By UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES JANUARY 13, 2021. Read the full story, retrieved from https://scitechdaily.com/humans-face-a-ghastly-future-unless-extraordinary-action-is-taken-soon-on-sustainability/