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climate change

The Heat Is Coming

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heat - pixabay

When I say, “how about that heat wave,” perhaps you think of the western United States, where temperatures last week soared above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius), smashing dozens of historical heat records from Oregon to Arizona. Or maybe you think of India — where intense heat has scorched the country for more than a month, killing at least 36 people and forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate their villages — or perhaps Kuwait, where local media recently reported high temperatures of 145 F (63 C), potentially the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth. The point is, the Northern … Read more

We May Have Only Thirty Years Until the End of Civilization

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apocalypse - pixabay

It seems every week there’s a scary new report about how man-made climate change is going to cause the collapse of the world’s ice sheets, result in the extinction of up to 1 million animal species and — if that wasn’t bad enough — make our beer very, very expensive. This week, a new policy paper from an Australian think tank claims that those other reports are slightly off; the risks of climate change are actually much, much worse than anyone can imagine. According to the paper, climate change poses a “near- to mid-term existential threat to human civilization,” and … Read more

CLIMATE CHANGE: Bill Nye Drops the F-Bomb

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During his appearance on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” on Sunday (May 12), Nye used frank language to talk to millennials about the impacts of global warming on Earth. (Nye’s comments are heavily edited here for language; viewer discretion is advised if you watch the video.) “By the end of this century, if temperatures keep rising, the average temperature on Earth could go up another 4 to 8 degrees,” Nye said to Oliver. (Nye was referring to degrees Celsius; the equivalent change in Fahrenheit is roughly 7 to 14 degrees). “What I’m saying is, the planet’s on [expletive] … Read more

Humans Cause Most Dramatic Climate Change in 3 Million Years

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glacier - pixabay

The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today is likely higher than it has been anytime in the past 3 million years. This rise in the level of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, could bring temperatures not seen over that entire timespan, according to new research. The study researchers used computer modeling to examine the changes in climate during the Quaternary period, which started around 2.59 million years ago and continues into today. Over that period, Earth has undergone a number of changes, but none so rapid as those seen today, said study author Matteo Willeit, a postdoctoral climate … Read more

SCIENCE: Climate Change Could Destroy Stratocumulus Clouds, Which Would Scorch the Planet

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If humanity pumps enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, one of Earth’s most important types of cloud could go extinct. And if the stratocumulus clouds — those puffy, low rolls of vapor that blanket much of the planet at any given moment — disappear, Earth’s temperature could climb sharply and radically, to heights not predicted in current climate models. That’s the conclusion of a paper published today (Feb. 25) in the journal Nature Geoscience and described in detail by Natalie Wolchover for Quanta Magazine. As Wolchover explained, clouds have long been one of the great uncertainties of climate models. Clouds … Read more

Climate Change to Kill a Quarter Million a Year

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In the coming decades, more than a quarter-million people may die each year as a result of climate change, according to a new review study. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that climate change would lead to about 250,000 additional deaths each year between 2030 and 2050, from factors such as malnutrition, heat stress and malaria. But the new review, published Jan. 17 in The New England Journal of Medicine, said this is a “conservative estimate.” That’s because it fails to take into account other climate-related factors that could affect death rates — such as population displacement and … Read more

FOR WRITERS: Living in a Warming World

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FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer J. Scott Coatsworth: The science on climate change is now virtually undisputed (unless you’re a scientist hired by a fossil fuel company). How does this play out in your speculative fiction? Share how you integrate this into your sci fi stories, if you do, and if not, why you choose not to. Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat

Greenland May Soon Be Green Again – Live Science

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Greenland - Sarah Das/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Greenland is melting faster today than it has at any time in the last 350 years, and probably much longer, new research finds. Surface melt from the icy island has increased 50 percent in the last 20 years compared with the early 1800s, before the industrial era, researchers report today (Dec. 5) in the journal Nature. The runoff alone is now contributing about a millimeter to the global average sea level per year, said study co-author Sarah Das, a glaciologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “Climate change has hit Greenland very hard recently, and the ice sheet is responding quickly,” … Read more

SCIENCE: Climate Change Killed Off Most Life on Earth Before

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Ammonite

The end of the Permian period, around 252 million years ago, was a dire time for life on Earth. Scientists believe a series of violent volcanic eruptions occurred in what is today Siberia, pumping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, which warmed the planet. Then came the “Great Dying.” About 96 percent of creatures in the ocean and 70 percent of terrestrial species living on the supercontinent Pangaea went extinct in a matter of several thousand years (not a very long time in geological terms). The so-called Permian-Triassic mass extinction event was the worst in Earth’s … Read more

FOR WRITERS: Writing a Warming World

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climate change - pixabay

FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer J. Scott Coatsworth: As the climate changes, there will be all kinds of ramifications – on the physical world, on society, and on our institutions. How do you forsee the world changing? What sci fi nuggets can we pry out of it? And can we somehow make a difference in the shape of things to come? Join the chat