Oceans

By Ella Gilbert | – Images of colossal chunks of ice plunging into the sea accompany almost every news story about climate change. It can often make the problem seem remote, as if the effects of rising global temperatures are playing out elsewhere. But the break-up of the world’s vast reservoirs of frozen water – […]

Acidification of Oceans

More CO2 in our Atmosphere now than any time since 3.6 mn Years Ago, when Oceans were 90 feet higher (that’s our fate)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a scientific shocker, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found that despite the slowdown in carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 because of the pandemic, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere rose to a global average of 412.5 parts per million (ppm) from 410 in 2019. At the […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change is making Sea levels rise fastest in big cities – here’s why

The Conversation

By Sally Brown and Robert James Nicholls | – It is well known that climate-induced sea level rise is a major threat. What is less well know is the threat of sinking land. And in many of the most populated coastal areas, the land is sinking even faster than the sea is rising. Parts of […]

Oceans

Where does the 10 Million Tons of Plastic we put into the Oceans Annually actually go?

The Conversation

By Bruce Sutherland, Michelle DiBenedetto and Ton van den Bremer | – Of the hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic waste we produce each year, it’s estimated that around ten million tonnes enters the ocean. Roughly half of the plastics produced are less dense than water, and so they float. But scientists estimate that […]

Acidification of Oceans

Saving the Planet: Why a net-zero future depends on the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon

The Conversation

By Anya M. Waite, Brad deYoung, Chris Milley, and Ian G. Stewart | – Most of us growing up along Canada’s East Coast never worried about hurricane season. Except for those working at sea, we viewed hurricanes as extreme events in remote tropical regions, seen only through blurred footage of flailing palm trees on the […]

Oceans

The Plastic Plague: Fish are eating more Microplastics, and We are eating those Fish

The Conversation

By Alexandra McIntur and Matthew Savoca | – Trillions of barely visible pieces of plastic are floating in the world’s oceans, from surface waters to the deep seas. These particles, known as microplastics, typically form when larger plastic objects such as shopping bags and food containers break down. Researchers are concerned about microplastics because they […]

Acidification of Oceans

It might be the world’s biggest ocean, but the mighty Pacific is in peril

The Conversation

By Jodie L. Rummer, Bridie JM Allan, Charitha Pattiaratchi, Ian A. Bouyoucos, James Cook, Irfan Yulianto and Mirjam van der Mheen | – The Pacific Ocean is the deepest, largest ocean on Earth, covering about a third of the globe’s surface. An ocean that vast may seem invincible. Yet across its reach – from Antarctica […]

Climate Crisis

So long, Sucker! Top 6 Reasons we Won’t miss you, 2020, or Trump, either

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – My late friend Fernando Coronil once observed that in order to understand the people of the past we must also understand their own visions of the future. In the 2014 science fiction film Edge of Tomorrow, based on a Japanese young adult novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi […]

Climate Crisis

The Caspian Sea, central to Iran & Russia, is set to fall by 9 Yards or more this century – an ecocide is imminent

The Conversation

By Frank Wesselingh and Matteo Lattuada | – Imagine you are on the coast, looking out to sea. In front of you lies 100 metres of barren sand that looks like a beach at low tide with gentle waves beyond. And yet there are no tides. This is what we found when we visited the […]