Global Warming

Rising Tides

Sea levels around the world have risen by an average of nearly 3 inches since 1992, with some areas experiencing a rise of more than 9 inches, according to a NASA analysis of satellite observations.

Experts say that changes in sea level vary widely around the world due to local conditions, but climate change is the main driver.

Scientists estimate about a third of the rise is due to expansion caused by warming oceans, while the remainder is evenly divided between ice loss of the massive Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and the melting of mountain glaciers.

NASA scientists told a press conference that they now have data to help planners determine what coastal areas will be threatened by sea level rises over the next century.

NASA says rises of up to 3 feet during that period are “unavoidable.”

Even today, normal spring high tides cause street flooding in sections of Miami, something that didn’t happen regularly just a few decades ago.

Tragic Cleansing

About the only promising development to come out of the conflict-ravaged Middle East in the past few years is a pronounced drop in greenhouse gas emissions.

With untold thousands of refugees fleeing to Europe from Syria and Iraq, the shattered economies they leave behind are in no shape to burn the volume of fossil fuels they did prior to the onset of the Syrian civil war.

Nitrogen dioxide emissions have plunged 40 percent over Damascus and 50 percent over Aleppo since Arab Spring protests reached Syria in 2011.

Writing in the journal Science Advances, Jos Lelieveld of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Chemistry says the cleaner air observed by atmospheric monitoring from space is due to “international boycotts, armed conflict and related mass migration of people.”

But he adds that air pollution reductions instituted by neighboring Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have also contributed to the region’s overall drop in carbon emissions.

This graphic of nitrogen dioxide measurements from space illustrates the trend toward less greenhouse gas emissions.

Environment

Vietnam is suffering increased levels of coastal soil erosion due to the increased frequency of typhoons and tropical cyclones hitting the country, as well as rising sea levels. Vietnam has been identified as one of the top five countries likely to be most affected by rising sea levels.

Numerous coastal mangrove forests have been wiped out, while coastal residents are being forced to move further inland every few years to escape the waves, using rocks and sandbags to protect their homes.

Environment

Sea levels have risen almost six centimeters since 1995.

Sea levels have continued to increase by 3.2 millimeters per year, according to a NASA chart analyzing data from 1992 to 2012. There was some debate after recordings showed a quarter inch drop in seal levels between the summer of 2010 to the summer of 2011. The reason for the drop was due to a big El Nino followed by a massive La Nina. These climate events were so powerful they changed storm patterns around the world and brought massive rains and floods to places like Australia, South America, and Southeast Asia. So much water was transferred onto the continents that the level of the oceans fell by about five millimeters, circled on the chart below.

Climate change skeptics used this drop to deny the oceans are rising, but the latest data shows we are still on track for rising waters. The NASA and European Topex/Poseidon, Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellites have been circling the Earth, tracking the rise of the oceans. The oceans are rising due to global warming melting glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.

Environment

The Dead Sea is slowly dying as industrial and agricultural extraction of water causes the lake to shrink at record rate over the last year.

NASA satellite images illustrating the decline of the Dead Sea over the past 40 years:

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The week's hottest temperature was 121.1 degrees Fahrenheit (49.5 degrees Celsius) at Kaedi, Mauritania.

The week's coldest temperature was minus 79.6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 62.0 degrees Celsius) at Russia's Vostok Antarctic research station.

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Every rainy season, the Guna people living on the Panamanian white sand archipelago of San Blas brace themselves for waves gushing into their tiny mud-floor huts.

Rising ocean levels caused by global warming and decades of coral reef destruction have combined with seasonal rains to submerge the Caribbean islands for days on end.

Once rare, flooding is now so menacing that the Guna have agreed to abandon ancestral lands for an area within their semi-autonomous territory on the east coast of the mainland.

Environment

Parts of Miami Beach, Florida, USA were flooded by an unusually high tide Tuesday morning. Miami-Dade County officials said the flooding of low-lying areas in Miami Beach is a warning about the perils of rising sea levels due to climate change.

Climate Change

A recent study published Sunday, shows that sea levels are rising much faster along a 600 mile stretch of USA coastline from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to just north of Boston, than they are around the globe.

Since 1990, global sea levels have risen by about 2 inches, while along this stretch of coastline, sea levels have risen by up to 4.8 inches.

Computer models have previously suggested that melting ice from Greenland and Antarctica will change ocean currents causing a rise of sea levels along the US east coast. Now this is the first study that shows this has already happened.

 

New Antarctic Ice Shelf Under Threat

Researchers have found that the 450 000 sq km Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf fringing the Weddell Sea on the eastern side of Antarctica, which previously had seemed to be unaffected by global warming, is being affected by rising warming water from below.

This process is slow, but predictions are that the ice shelf may disappear by the end of the century and could add up to 4.4 mm per year in rising sea levels.

Global Warming

A  recent study suggests that Greenland's glaciers may be melting at a slower rate leading to a slower rise in sea water levels. The study extended over ten years ending in 2011. A caveat is that the full effects of global warming may not have reached Greenland's  northern glaciers yet.