2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #22

Editor's Choice

Antarctic Ocean Reveals New Signs of Rapid Melt of Ancient Ice, Clues About Future Sea Level Rise

A study of seafloor ripples suggests that ice shelves can retreat six miles per year, a quantum increase over today’s rates.

A new study in the journal Science found that floating ice shelves can melt much more rapidly than previously thought—at a rate of about six miles per year. Credit: Massimo Rumi/Barcroft Media via Getty Images 

Climate researchers racing to calculate how fast and how high the sea level will rise found new clues on the seafloor around Antarctica. A study released today suggests that some of the continent's floating ice shelves can, during eras of rapid warming, melt back by six miles per year, far faster than any ice retreat observed by satellites.

As global warming speeds up the Antarctic meltdown, the findings "set a new upper limit for what the worst-case might be," said lead author Julian Dowdeswell, director of the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.

The estimate of ice shelf retreat is based on a pattern of ridges discovered on the seafloor near the Larsen Ice Shelf. The spacing and size of the ridges suggest they were created as the floating ice shelves rose and fell with the tides while rapidly shrinking back from the ocean. In findings published today in Science, the researchers estimate that to corrugate the seafloor in this way, the ice would have retreated by more than 150 feet per day for at least 90 days.

Antarctic Ocean Reveals New Signs of Rapid Melt of Ancient Ice, Clues About Future Sea Level Rise by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News, May 28, 2020

Click here to access the entire article as originally published on the InsideClimate News website.

Articles Linked to on Facebook

Sun, May 24, 2020

• Parts of Siberia are hotter than Washington, with temperatures nearly 40 degrees above average by Andrew Freedman and Matthew Cappucci, Capital Weather Gang, Washington Post, May 22, 2020
• 'I don't want to be seen as a zealot': what MPs really think about the climate crisis by Rebecca Willis, Environment, Guardian, May 21, 2020
• Pandemic piles pressure on world's shrinking forests by Thin Lei Win, Thomson Reuters Foundation, May 22, 2020
• What a Week’s Disasters Tell Us About Climate and the Pandemic by Somini Sengupta, Climate, New York Times, May 23, 2020
• Louisiana Breaks Ground on Isle de Jean Charles Resettlement Project Amid Pandemic by Julie Dermansky, DeSmog, May 22, 2020
• Public returns to St. Peter's Square; pope calls for defence of environment by Philip Pullella, Reuters, May 24, 2020

Mon, May 25, 2020

• American Climate Video: The Family Home Had Gone Untouched by Floodwaters for Over 80 Years, Until the Levee Breached by Katelyn Weisbrod, InsideClimate News, May 24, 2020
• Will pandemic push humans into a healthier relationship with nature? by Thin Lei Win, Thomson Reuters Foundation, May 21, 2020
• Because of Rising CO₂, Trees Might Be Warming the Arctic by Chelsea Harvey, E&E News/Scientific American, May 24, 2020
• Bust-up over climate weighs on EU-UK talks, risks trade rifts by Gabriela Baczynska and Kate Abnett, Reuters, May 25, 2020

Tue, May 26, 2020

• Nearly 200 Groups in Canada Vow to Fight for Covid-19 Recovery That Puts Human and Ecological Health First by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams, May 25, 2020
• Michael Moore film Planet of the Humans removed from YouTube by Jonathan Watts, Environment, Guardian, May 25, 2020
• World health leaders urge green recovery from coronavirus crisis by Fiona Harvey, Environment, Guardian, May 26, 2020
• Climate change could dramatically reduce U.S. snowstorms, Press Release, NIU Newsroom, May 25, 2020
• Loss of Louisiana marshes that protect New Orleans is ‘probably inevitable,’ study finds by Chris Mooney, Climate & Environment, Washington Post, May 22, 2020
• Britain, Host of U.N. Climate Talks, Proposes Full-Year Pandemic Delay by Somini Sengupta, Climate, New York Times, May 26, 2020

Wed, May 27, 2020

• Climate change in deep oceans could be seven times faster by middle of century, report says by Graham Readfearn, Environment, Guardian, May 25, 2020
• Nordic investors turn up heat on coal in climate campaign by Gwladys Fouche & Simon Jessop, Reuters, May 26, 2020
• Airlines could get free pass on climate for five years under industry proposal by Chloé Farand, Climate Home News, May 26, 2020
• Tropical Storm Bertha Makes Landfall in South Carolina, Will Spread Heavy Rain Toward North Carolina and Virginia, Hurricane Central, The Weather Channel, May 27, 2020
• Can Planting a Trillion Trees Stop Climate Change? Scientists Say it’s a Lot More Complicated by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News, May 27, 2020
• If COVID-19 frightens you, you should be terrified by climate change by Daniel P Horan, EarthBeat, National Catholic Reporter, May 27, 2020
• At last, a climate policy platform that can unite the left by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, May 27, 2020
• SF, other California cities permitted to sue oil industry over climate change, judges rule by Kurtis Alexander, Environment, San Francisco Chronicle, May 26, 2020

Thu, May 28, 2020

• Global energy investment expected to tumble 20% in 2020 due to COVID crisis -IEA by Bate Felix, Reuters, May 27, 2020
• COVID-19: Four Sustainable Development Goals that help future-proof global recovery, Press Release, UN Environment Programme (UNEP), May 26, 2020
• EU pledges 40 billion euros for 'just transition' from fossil fuels by Kate Abnett, Reuters, May 27, 2020
• Four more years of Donald Trump could ‘delay global emissions cuts by 10 years’ by Josh Gabbatiss, Carbon Brief, May 27, 2020
• Why Is the Fed Spending So Much Money on a Dying Industry?, Opinion by Sarah Bloom Raskin, New York Times, May 28, 2020
• States Sue to Block Trump From Weakening Fuel Economy Rules by Hiroko Tabuchi, Climate, New York Times, May 27, 2020
• Joe Biden has a chance to make history on climate change by David Roberts, Vox, May 28, 2020

Fri, May 29, 2020

• Lost giants: Logging and climate shifts slash forest carbon storage by Michael Taylor, Thomson Reuters Foundation, May 28, 2020
• E.U.’s Coronavirus Recovery Plan Also Aims to Fight Climate Change by Nathanial Gronewold, E&E News/Scientific American, May 28, 2020
• IEA: Coronavirus ‘accelerating closure’ of ageing fossil-fuelled power plants by Josh Gabbatiss, Carbon Brief, May 27, 2020
• Understand SC: Documenting Charleston’s climate emergency in real time by Emily Williams, Podcast, The Post & Courier (Charleston SC), May 28, 2020
• How time in nature helped a therapist cope with disaster by Samantha Harrington, Audio, Yale Climate Connections, May 20 , 2020
• 'The human fingerprint is everywhere': Met Office's alarming warning on climate by Jonathan Watts, Environment, Guardian, May 27, 2020
• Sea rise, floods to dramatically change SC coast by Bo Petersen, Rising Water, The Post & Courier (Charleston, SC), May 20, 2020

Sat, May 30, 2020

• Major milestone: Coal consumption falls behind renewable energy in the United States by Matt Eagen, CNN Business, May 28, 2020
• Energy efficiency helped the Empire State Building save money and cut carbon. It can help you, too. by Sarah Kaplan, Climate Solutions, Washington Post, May 28, 2020
• Antarctic Ocean Reveals New Signs of Rapid Melt of Ancient Ice, Clues About Future Sea Level Rise by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News, May 28, 2020
• Australia's severe bushfire season was predicted and will be repeated, inquiry told by Calla Wahlquist, Australia, Guardian May 25, 2020
• Climate Change And Deforestation Mean Earth's Trees Are Younger And Shorter by Nathan Rott, Environment And Energy Collaborative, NPR News, May 29, 2020

Posted by John Hartz on Saturday, 30 May, 2020

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