Oceans

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – CNN and The Independent reported this week on a massive ice melt in Greenland, with on the order of 6 billion tons of ice lost in three days. The melting was because of a heat wave at the top of the world, caused by our burning coal, gasoline and methane […]

Climate Crisis

Climate: Scientists Stunned to Find Atlantic Plankton 90% Gone; Marine Life, our Oxygen Imperiled

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – (Note: After publication, Jonathan Gitlin at Ars Technica took issue with the below on the grounds that it is based on a preprint and not a peer-reviewed academic journal article. He implies that Dryden’s study did not have enough data points to support his conclusions. I’ll let readers judge how […]

Climate Crisis

Now the Climate Emergency is changing Ocean Waves, Menacing Coasts with Rapid Erosion

The Conversation

By Thomas Mortlock, Macquarie University; Adrean Webb, Tokyo Institute of Technology; Itxaso Odériz, Universidad de Cantabria; Nobuhito Mori, Kyoto University; Rodolfo Silva, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and Tomoya Shimura | – The world’s coastlines are at the forefront of climate change. That’s because they’re constantly changing, and respond quickly to changes in climate. […]

Antarctica

Ice world: Antarctica’s riskiest glacier is under assault from below and losing its grip

The Conversation

By Ted Scambos, University of Colorado Boulder | – Flying over Antarctica, it’s hard to see what all the fuss is about. Like a gigantic wedding cake, the frosting of snow on top of the world’s largest ice sheet looks smooth and unblemished, beautiful and perfectly white. Little swirls of snow dunes cover the surface. […]

Climate Crisis

The last Time our Atmosphere had 421 ppm of Carbon Dioxide, Florida was under Water and Giant Camels and Rhinoceri roamed Indiana

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Friday that in May, carbon dioxide peaked at 421 parts per million, a level not seen since the Pliocene Climatic Optimum between 4.1 and 4.5 million years ago. Human civilization developed during a long period when carbon dioxide was between 270 […]

Climate Crisis

Electricity from the cold Ocean Depths could One day Power Island States

The Conversation

By Rosalind Archer, Griffith University | – In the tropics, the deep sea is cold and the sea surface is very warm. That temperature difference can be harnessed and turned into electricity. If we can improve the technology, this method of producing power could be a godsend for island nations reliant on expensive and polluting […]

Climate Crisis

Will Japan be the Godzilla of Deep Sea Current Energy?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – If you were going to try to generate electricity from a deep water ocean current, you’d like it to be flowing in one direction and to be fast and steady. Most deep sea currents are unidirectional because of the earth’s rotation. and this tendency is reinforced where they flow through […]

Climate Crisis

Busan, S. Korea, constructing Solar-Powered Artificial Biorock Island to replace Coastal land lost to Sea Level Rise

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – UN Habitat, the municipality of Busan in South Korea, and the company OCEANIX are responding to the challenge of sea-level rise by building an artificial floating city off the coast of the country’s second-largest city. A prototype is expected to be in the water as early as 2025. Although a […]

Acidification of Oceans

Fossil-Fuel Burning Humans are as Catastrophic for Sea Life as the Chicxulub Meteor was that also killed the Dinosaurs

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new study by Justin L. Penn and Curtis Deutsch shows that over the next 200 years, humanity could kill off half of all marine life by by pumping billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps the sun’s heat on earth […]