Twenty-five percent of the earth could see a permanent drought by 2050

Nation of Change

If Earth’s temperature goes up by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050, more than one-quarter of the world would live in a state of drought. Story here.




Parched ground in the southern US. 2011. Photo by Aljazeera English.

'Bomb Cyclone' Forecast to Hit East Coast. (US & Canada)

LIVESCI=NCE

Just when you thought the weather couldn't get worse, the Washington Post hits us with "bomb cyclone." That's right, forecasters suggest this "bomb" will make the U.S. East Coast unbearable for many. Story here.

Scientists Can Now Blame Individual Natural Disasters on Climate Change

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Hurricane Sandy - a Pexels photo.

Extreme event attribution is one of the most rapidly expanding areas of climate science. STORY HERE.

A Dreadful Year-- Farewell 2017!

WORLD

RESOURCES

INSTITUTE

The year we are leaving has been disastrous … Literally ...

STORY HERE.

Surprising revelations about Canada's ice age past. What do they tell us about the present?

SCIENCE MAGAZINE

Western Canada shed its icy cover a thousand years earlier than previously thought, and the circumstances of the ancient glacial retreat can help understand present-day climate patterns.

A new study provides the new glacial retreat timeline based on an analysis of moraine samples. Researchers collected samples of deposits that formed after the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which covered large portions of western Canada, retreated. Using beryllium isotopes to date the samples, the authors found that the CIS may have in fact been largely melted by 14,000 years ago, while newer, smaller alpine glaciers sprung up in pockets between the newly-bared mountain peaks. 

Researchers also used simulations to show how warm temperatures during the late Pleistocene era contributed to CIS's early retreat, which had, in turn, contributed to a significant rise in sea level at the time. According to the authors, CIS response to abrupt climate change could be a model for the behavior of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is comparable in size to CIS. 
Lastly, the authors suggest that their data does not support the migration of people down the west coast, because much of the lower elevations across the area remained covered in ice until about 11,000 years ago.

The research was done by a team of scientists, headed by Brian Menounos of the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George.

Ice Loss and the Polar Vortex: How a Warming Arctic Fuels Cold Snaps

 inside

climate

 news

The loss of sea ice may be weakening the polar vortex, allowing cold blasts to dip south from the Arctic, across North America, Europe and Russia, a new study says. Story here.

A country road in Manitoba. PinP photo.