Global Warming

Earth’s Water Cycle Is Ramping Up As Climate Warms

The rate at which plants and the land surface release moisture into the air has increased on a global scale between 2003 and 2019. These processes are collectively known as evapotranspiration, and a new NASA study has calculated its increase by using observations from gravity satellites.

By gauging the mass change of water between the oceans and the continents, the researchers determined that evapotranspiration’s rate of increase is up to two times higher than previous estimates. This is important because evapotranspiration represents a critical branch of the global water cycle – a cycle that creates the conditions for life on land.

The study found that evapotranspiration has increased by about 10% since 2003.

But how does the rate of evapotranspiration affect the global water cycle? As moisture from the oceans circulates through the atmosphere, a portion falls as precipitation over the continents. Some of this water goes into rivers as runoff, and some seeps into soils. The remaining water evaporates from the land and transpires from plants back into the air.

As the Earth’s climate warms, more water is released into this cycle.

Iceland Loses 750 sqkm of Glaciers

The glaciers, which cover more than 10 percent of the country’s land mass, shrank in 2019 to 10,400 square kilometres, the study in the Icelandic scientific journal Jokull said. Iceland’s glaciers have lost around 750 square kilometres (290 square miles), or seven percent of their surface, since the turn of the millennium due to global warming, a study published on Monday showed.

Global warming already responsible for one in three heat-related deaths

Between 1991 and 2018, more than a third of all deaths in which heat played a role were attributable to human-induced global warming, according to a new article in Nature Climate Change. Using data from 732 locations in 43 countries around the world it shows for the first time the actual contribution of human-made climate change in increasing mortality risks due to heat.

Overall, the estimates show that 37% of all heat-related deaths in the recent summer periods were attributable to the warming of the planet due to anthropogenic activities. This percentage of heat-related deaths attributed to human-induced climate change was highest in Central and South America (up to 76% in Ecuador or Colombia, for example) and South-East Asia (between 48% to 61%).

Climate Change Is Melting Arctic Ice Cellars

For generations, Native Alaskans have preserved foods by digging 10 to 20 feet into the permafrost. As the planet warms, more than their food security is at stake. The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world, causing permafrost to degrade “extensively, persistently, and rapidly,” according to new research published in the journal Advances in Climate Change Research.

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