GEOLOGY WITH JEFF SIMPSON
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A New Way of Picturing Rapid, Human-Caused Climate Change

1/13/2021

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We’ve learned the saw-toothed pattern of carbon dioxide levels over the past 1 million years. It has shot swiftly up during climbs to past warm intervals like the climate of today and ramped slowly down into the long ice ages in between. We can also see the sharp recent increase in carbon dioxide that humans have caused, mainly by burning fossil fuels for energy. The graph used to show this jump is arguably the most iconic figure in climate science.   To me, it’s long been the most powerful illustration of climate change’s danger. At a glance, it shows how huge a departure we’ve made from normal.  - Washington Post 

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Climate Crisis: 2020 Was Joint Hottest Year Ever Recorded

1/11/2021

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The climate crisis continued unabated in 2020, with the joint highest global temperatures on record, alarming heat and record wildfires in the Arctic, and a record 29 tropical storms in the Atlantic. Despite a 7% fall in fossil fuel burning due to coronavirus lockdowns, heat-trapping carbon dioxide continued to build up in the atmosphere, also setting a new record. The average surface temperature across the planet in 2020 was 1.25C higher than in the pre-industrial period of 1850-1900, dangerously close to the 1.5C target set by the world’s nations to avoid the worst impacts. - Guardian
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The Long Decline of Arctic Sea Ice

1/5/2021

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Forty years of satellite data show that 2020 was just the latest in a decades-long decline of Arctic sea ice. In a review of scientific literature, polar scientists Julienne Stroeve and Dirk Notz outlined some of these changes: In addition to shrinking ice cover, melting seasons are getting longer and sea ice is losing its longevity.  The longer melting seasons are the result of increasingly earlier starts to spring melting and ever-later starts to freeze-up in autumn. The map above shows trends in the onset of freeze-up from 1979 through 2019. Averaged across the entire Arctic Ocean, freeze-up is happening about a week later per decade. That equates to nearly one month later since the start of the satellite record in 1979. - Earth Observatory / NASA
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20 Signs the Climate Crisis Has Come Home to Roost

11/27/2020

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See the graphics in the High Country News article. 
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An Unusual Snack for Cows, a Powerful Fix for Climate

11/27/2020

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One of the most powerful weapons in the fight against climate change is washing up on shorelines around the world, unnoticed by most beachgoers. It’s seaweed.  In lab tests and field trials, adding a small proportion of this seaweed to a cow’s daily feed — about 0.2 of a percent of the total feed intake in a recent study — can reduce the amount of methane by 98%. That’s a stunning drop when most existing solutions cut methane by about 20 or 30%. - Seattle Times
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The world's largest wetlands are on fire. That's a disaster for all of us.

11/16/2020

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The world watched as California and the Amazon went up in flames this year, but the largest tropical wetland on earth has been ablaze for months, largely unnoticed by the outside world. South America's Pantanal region has been hit by the worst wildfires in decades. The blazes have already consumed about 28% of the vast floodplain that stretches across parts of Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. They are still not completely under control. The Amazon's frontline defenders are under siege The fires have destroyed unique habitats and wrecked the livelihoods of many of the Pantanal's diverse indigenous communities. But their damaging impact reaches far beyond the region.  Wetlands like the Pantanal are Earth's most effective carbon sinks -- ecosystems that absorb and store more carbon than they release, keeping it away from the atmosphere. At roughly 200,000 square kilometers, the Pantanal comprises about 3% of the globe's wetlands and plays a key role in the carbon cycle. - CNN
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Occidental Petroleum Announces Net-Zero Target for greenhouse Gas Emissions

11/16/2020

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Occidental Petroleum Corp OXY.N on Tuesday laid out a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at its operations to net zero by 2040, becoming the latest oil and gas company to set long-term climate goals.  Oil and gas producers, under pressure from investors who want to see the industry operate more cleanly, have announced new emissions targets this year even as they have slashed spending and production following a coronavirus-driven plunge in crude prices.  Occidental will provide detail on its net-zero target by the end of November when it releases its sustainability report, Chief Executive Vicki Hollub said on an earnings call with analysts. - Reuters
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Trump Admin. Removes Scientist in Charge of Assessing Climate Change

11/9/2020

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 The White House has removed the scientist responsible for the National Climate Assessment, the federal government’s premier contribution to climate knowledge and the foundation for regulations to combat global warming, in what critics interpreted as the latest sign that the Trump administration intends to use its remaining months in office to continue impeding climate science and policy.  Michael Kuperberg, executive director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which produces the climate assessment, was told Friday that he would no longer lead that organization, people with knowledge of the situation said. According to two people close to the administration, he is expected to be replaced by David Legates, a deputy assistant secretary at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who previously worked closely with climate change denial groups. - NYTimes

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Arctic Circle Teens Call for Help to Save their Homes

10/18/2020

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Teenagers living in remote Arctic communities say they’re worried about the effects of climate change. Scientists warn that melting ice and warming temperatures show rapid climate change is taking place.  Rarely heard young people from multiple countries within the Arctic Circle say their way of life is at risk and governments must act. - BBC  
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We’re Turning the Amazon Into a Savannah

10/11/2020

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Over the past 50 years, human intervention has been increasingly disrupting the ecological balance of the Amazon. Climate change has led to an increase in temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius across the basin, and to more frequent severe droughts. The droughts of 2005, 2010 and 2015-16 were among the worst in more than 100 years. Since 1980, there’s been an increase in the duration of dry seasons by three to four weeks in the more degraded areas of the Amazon.  Rainforests also increase evaporation and keep surfaces cool. Deforestation could cause temperatures in the basin to increase by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius by 2050. It reduces rainfall, because trees cycle moisture back into the atmosphere. - NYTimes



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    Geo News

    I started a CGCC Facebook page in May of '20 to share geo-environmental news but had qualms about FB's issues with accuracy.  GeoNews is a response and at least a partial solution. sharing a few items from reliable sources each week.  

    Click the
    source link after the included text to read more.

    To respond thoughtfully or ask questions, click "Comments". 

    Contact Prof Jeff to share items.


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