Globally 8.7 million premature deaths from particulate matter from fuel combustion

Fossil fuel combustion emits particulate matter (PM2.5) harmful to public health. This study estimates 8.7 million premature deaths globally in 2018 due to PM2.5 from fuel combustion.

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New high resolution methane emissions measuring satellite launched

Last night, September 2 GHGSAT-C1 or “Iris”, a 16 kg Canadian satellite that detects methane emissions from specific oil and gas facilities at high resolution was launched. The new satellite will enable private industry to estimate emissions from its own facilities anywhere in the world with 25 metre resolution.

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Temperatures slightly warmer than present deglaciated southern Greenland

Analysis of the last four interglacials reveals that significant loss of Greenland ice occurred under climate conditions only slightly warmer than present. During the oldest interglacial, 394,700 to 424,200 years ago, there was nearly complete deglaciation of southern Greenland.

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Economic losses caused by natural catastrophes are trending upwards

Since 1980 Munich Re has been collecting data on natural events worldwide which are triggered by natural and man-made climate variability. The data reveals an accelerating trend dominated by meteorological and hydrological events.

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Declining insect abundance and diversity in Germany 2008-2017

Insect diversity and abundance data collected from 150 grassland and 140 forest sites in 3 regions of Germany reveals diversity in grasslands and forests decreased over time, indicating loss of species across sites and regions. In grasslands, insect abundance decreased by 78%.

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Himalayan glaciers lost 28% of ice in last 40 years

A new study of ice mass loss of 650 Himalayan glaciers over the past 40 years has revealed that of the total ice mass in 1975, only 72% remained in 2016. Futhermore the average rate of ice loss was found to be twice as rapid in 2000-2016 compared to 1975-2000.

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Beaver expansion into Arctic tundra resulting from and accelerating permafrost thawing

A recent study uses remote sensing to document the range expansion of North American beaver into the Arctic region of northwest Alaska which suggests that permafrost thawing may be expanding. Beaver ponds and associated hydrologic changes are resulting from and contributing to thawing permafrost as pond formation increases winter water temperatures ponds and downstream.

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Uncertain source of accelerating atmospheric methane

In 2007 after a seven year plateau atmospheric methane concentration began rising while at the same time the fraction of carbon-13 in methane has been decreasing. Plausible causes of the increasing methane include higher temperatures in tropical wetlands, more livestock, biomass being replaced by fossil fuel burning, or changes in atmospheric chemistry.

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Warm/cool epochs over past 2000 years were regional until 20th century warming

Recent research has found no evidence that warm and cool periods recorded in Europe over the last 2000 years including the Little Ice Age (1300 and 1850 CE), the Mediaeval Warm Period (800–1200 CE), the Dark Ages Cold Period (400–800 CE) and the Roman Warm Period (250 BCE to 400 CE) extended over the entire globe. By contrast, the warm period during the twentieth century covered more than 98 per cent of the globe.

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First forest canopy heights from NASA’s ICESat mission

Launched in September 2018, ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2) has just begun making its first data available. Data from ICESat-2 will provide global terrain elevation and canopy height estimates as well as showing potential for estimation of forest biomass.

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From Our Files

Global deep ocean temperature 60 million years ago to present

New evidence that CO2 may have driven cooling 50-30 million years ago

New evidence from analyzing fossil plankton shells has revealed that CO2 concentration in the Earth’s atmosphere was about triple current levels around 52 million years ago. It then declined to levels close to current atmospheric CO2 concentration 34 million years ago when Antarctica began to glaciate.

Evidence of biological feedback driving warming at ice age terminations

It is known that orbital forcing is involved in glacial/deglacial cycles but is insufficient by itself to explain the glacial/deglacial cycles. This study argues that a biological feedback mechanism kicks in when a threshold is reached and together with orbital forcing results in the sustained and rapidly increasing CO2 and surface temperature of a deglaciation.

Global warming “hiatus” not supported by new analysis

In this new study an analysis of new global ocean and land temperature data with corrections to older shipboard measurements reveals that the temperature trend over the period 2000-2014 does not differ from the temperature trend over the period 1950-1999. It is concluded that the “hiatus” reported in IPCC AR5 is most likely an artifact of older measurement techniques.

Temperature and atmospheric CO2 from Dome C for 800 000 years

Observed coupling between surface temperature and atmospheric CO2 extended to 1.5 million years ago

Evidence from Antarctic ice cores have revealed a close correlation between surface temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration for the past 800,000 years (excluding the immediate present.) A recent analysis of Antarctic blue ice has found that the close correlation between temperature CO2 extends to 1.5 million years ago during the time when the glacial/interglacial period was 40,000 years.

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