Global Warming

Glaciers Shrink

A decade of observations from Europe’s Cryosat satellite finds that of the 200,000 or so glaciers on the planet, about 2% of their mass was lost between 2010 and 2020 due to a hotter climate. That amounts to 3 trillion tons of ice melting during the period. Alaska’s glaciers were among the worst affected, with about 5% of the total ice volume in the region melting in 10 years.

In many regions, glaciers are important sources of water for drinking, agriculture and hydropower.

More than 20% of the world’s population relies on the water that flows from the summer melting of glaciers.

European Heat

Forecasters are warning that years of drought across Europe are causing “feedback loops” for the continent’s climate, foreshadowing another dangerously hot and dry summer ahead. Hot, arid conditions in the next few months would mean crop losses and waterways so low that river transport would be snarled and hydroelectric plants would be forced to shut down.

In Spain’s autonomous community of Catalonia, a plague of rabbits starved of fresh grass is also ravaging crops. Officials estimate 250,000 rabbits need to be culled this summer to contain the population. Barcelona faces a water emergency by September if ample rainfall fails to occur from now until the end of summer.

Trump Climate Denial Era Loses Ground to New Normal

A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that an overwhelming majority of Americans say they have recently experienced at least one extreme weather event, with many blaming climate change. The poll conducted in mid-April also finds that about half of the country’s adults became more concerned about the changing climate during the past year even though many remain unsure of their individual role in causing it. Types of severe weather that hit the nation once every 82 days in the 1980s are now occurring slightly more than once every two weeks.