University of Melbourne, Australia - Devastating cost of future coastal flooding for many developing nations predicted in new study

Title:

Devastating cost of future coastal flooding for many developing nations predicted in new study

 

Source:

University of Melbourne

 

Published:

ScienceDaily, 7 February 2023

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230207144251.htm

 

Summary:

New global modelling predicts the devastating socioeconomic impacts of future extreme coastal flooding for developing nations caused by climate change, with Asia, West Africa and Egypt facing severe costs in the coming decades. 

 

Universities of Edinburgh, Cambridge and Washington (January 2023) - Antarctic ice sheet retreat slowed by ocean changes

Title:

Antarctic ice sheet retreat slowed by ocean changes

 

Published:

The University of Edinburgh, 27 January 2023

https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2023/antarctic-ice-retreat-slowed-by-ocean-changes

From the article:

A team of researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Cambridge and Washington used satellite imagery and climate and ocean records to obtain the most detailed understanding yet of how the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is responding to climate change.

 

University of Bath, UK - Climate anxiety an important driver for climate action – new study

Title:

Climate anxiety an important driver for climate action – new study

 

Published:

University of Bath, 2 September 2022 [last updated: 5 September 2022

https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/climate-anxiety-an-important-driver-for-climate-action-new-study/

 

From the press release:

A study from CAST finds that whilst climate anxiety is low amongst the UK public, it may be an important driver of climate action such as cutting down on waste. 

 

University of South Florida, USA - Faster in the Past: New seafloor images – the highest resolution of any taken off the West Antarctic Ice Sheet – upend understanding of Thwaites Glacier retreat

Title:

Faster in the Past: New seafloor images – the highest resolution of any taken off the West Antarctic Ice Sheet – upend understanding of Thwaites Glacier retreat

 

Author:

Kristen Kusek

 

Published:

University of South Florida, 5 September 2022

https://www.usf.edu/marine-science/news/2022/faster-in-the-past-new-seafloor-images-the-highest-resolution-of-any-taken-off-the-west-antarctic-ice-sheet.aspx

 

From the news article:

The Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica – about the size of Florida – has been an elephant in the room for scientists trying to make global sea level rise predictions. This massive ice stream is already in a phase of fast retreat (a “collapse” when viewed on geological timescales) leading to widespread concern about exactly how much, or how fast, it may give up its ice to the ocean. The potential impact of Thwaites’ retreat is spine-chilling: a total loss of the glacier and surrounding icy basins could raise sea level from three to ten feet.  

 

A new study in Nature Geoscience led by marine geophysicist Alastair Graham at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science (USF CMS), adds cause for concern.

 

CHILE - Green buildings in Chilean public higher education: a trend or a must-have in university strategic guidelines? [Scholarly Article - International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, July 2022]

Title:

Green buildings in Chilean public higher education: a trend or a must-have in university strategic guidelines?

 

Authors:

Claudia Mac-lean, GAIA Antarctic Research Centre, University of Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile

Pablo Núñez-Cárdenas, Horticulture & Floriculture Centre, Institute of Patagonia, University of Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile

Bárbara Rodríguez, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

&

Cristian Aldea, GAIA Antarctic Research Centre, University of Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile; Department of Sciences and Natural Resources, University of Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile

 

Published:

International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 3 July 2022

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504509.2022.2095452?journalCode=tsdw20

 

Abstract:

Green buildings have gained increasing relevance and market share in recent decades. Also, higher education institutions are progressively incorporating the conceptualisation of sustainable development by greening campuses. Thus, given the construction sector relevance in climate change mitigation and the role universities have to play as models for society, the purpose of the present paper is twofold. First, the authors develop a baseline study to determine the extent to which green buildings’ features and certifications are being incorporated in public Chilean higher education institutions, as a first of its kind effort in the higher education sector in Chile. Second, the authors explore the opportunities that can support the advancement of campus greening through green buildings deployment on university campuses in Chile. This study follows a qualitative strategy approach in the form of a survey design based on the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking that was administered through an online questionnaire to representatives who hold the position of Sustainability or Infrastructure Heads in public universities, which are united in the Chilean State Universities Consortium. The main findings suggest a general maturation process of green building features´ incorporation on campuses at Chilean public higher education institutions in early or transitional stages. The leading indicators relate to open space, pedestrian paths, and efficient appliances, whereas the reported performance is lower with respect to sustainability budget, zero emission vehicles, and greenhouse gas emission reduction programmes. The opportunities identified for promoting the implementation of green buildings relate to three entrenched dimensions: research, promotion, and public policy.

Iraq’s archaeological treasures face looming threat of climate change [Arab News, 2022]

Title:

Iraq’s archaeological treasures face looming threat of climate change

 

Author:

Rebecca Anne Proctor

 

Published:

Arab News, 31 July 2022

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2132221/middle-east

 

From the article:

* Dust storms, rising temperatures and salinity are damaging artifacts and excavation sites, undermining conservation efforts 

 

* Extreme weather events are harming the country’s natural heritage, including the once verdant southern marshland

A Concerning Change Is Happening to Earth's Water Cycle, Satellite Data Reveal [Science Alert, May 2022]

Title:

A Concerning Change Is Happening to Earth's Water Cycle, Satellite Data Reveal 

 

Author:

Carly Cassella

 

Published:

Science Alert, 2 May 2022

https://www.sciencealert.com/earth-s-water-cycle-is-accelerating-and-it-s-cause-for-great-concern

 

From the article:

Climate change is throwing Earth's water cycle severely out of whack. According to new satellite data, freshwaters are growing fresher and salt waters are growing saltier at an increasingly rapid rate all around the world. If this pattern continues, it will turbocharge rainstorms.

ALSO SEE

Olmedo, E., Turiel, A., González-Gambau, V. et al. Increasing stratification as observed by satellite sea surface salinity measurements. Sci Rep 12, 6279 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-10265-1

Victoria University, Australia - Another day, another flood: Preparing for more climate disasters means taking more personal responsibility for risk

Title:

Another day, another flood: Preparing for more climate disasters means taking more personal responsibility for risk

 

Authors:

Celeste Young 

Collaborative Research Fellow Institute of Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities/College of Business  

&

Professor Roger Jones 

Professorial Research Fellow Institute of Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities

 

Published:

Victoria University, 7 April 2022

https://www.vu.edu.au/about-vu/news-events/news/another-day-another-flood-preparing-for-more-climate-disasters-means-taking-more-personal

 

From the article:

Climate change is making disasters more frequent and severe, so how should we be preparing for these inevitable events?

 

The original climate crisis – how the little ice age devastated early modern Europe [The Conversation, March 2022]

Title:

The original climate crisis – how the little ice age devastated early modern Europe

 

Authors:

Ariel Hessayon 

Reader in Early Modern History, Goldsmiths, University of London  

&

Dan Taylor 

Lecturer in Social and Political Thought, The Open University

 

Published:

The Conversation, 7 March 2022

https://theconversation.com/the-original-climate-crisis-how-the-little-ice-age-devastated-early-modern-europe-178187

 

From the article:

Just as the UK was recovering from storms Eunice and Franklin, scientists of UN’s the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a landmark report warning of a future with spiralling weather extremes, fiercer storms, flash flooding and wildfires.  This isn’t the first time that Britain has experienced drastic climate change, however. By the 16th and 17th centuries, northern Europe had left its medieval warm period and was languishing in what is sometimes called the little ice age.

Operational extreme weather event attribution can quantify climate change loss and damages [Scholarly article - PLOS Climate, 2022]

Title:

Operational extreme weather event attribution can quantify climate change loss and damages

 

Authors:

Michael F. Wehner

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States of America

& 

Kevin A. Reed

School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America

Published:

PLOS Climate, 1 February 2022

https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000013

 

Abstract:

“It is now well established that the influence of anthropogenic climate change on certain individual extreme weather events can be quantified by event attribution techniques. It is time that these activities move from the research community to the operational centers. Such routine evaluation of the human influence on extreme weather increases our scientific understanding and informs the public of climate change impacts. Furthermore, quantification of the human influence on extreme weather can be used to fairly evaluate climate change induced loss and damages”.

University of Cape Town, South Africa - Climate change threatens African heritage sites

Title:

Climate change threatens African heritage sites    

 

Published:

University of Cape Town, 14 February 2022

https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2022-02-14-climate-change-threatens-african-heritage-sites

 

From the article:

As the effects of climate change continue to cause significant damage across the globe, recent research led by the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) revealed that heritage sites of “outstanding and universal value” located along the African coast are at threat of rising sea levels.

 

Flowers in The UK Are Blooming a Whole Month Earlier Than They Did in The 1980s [ScienceAlert, February 2022]

Title:

Flowers in The UK Are Blooming a Whole Month Earlier Than They Did in The 1980s

 

Author:

Carly Cassella 

Published:

ScienceAlert, 2 February 2022

https://www.sciencealert.com/flowers-are-blooming-a-whole-month-earlier-in-britain-than-they-did-in-the-early-80s

 

From the article:

For centuries, British flowers have been blooming like clockwork. A few months into spring, sometime around May or June, the nation bursts into color.  

 

Since the early 1980s, however, hundreds of plants have grown out of sync with the seasons, which means they're also unraveling from the complicated tapestry of interactions that keep ecosystems sustainably functioning.  

 

When analyzing the first blooms of 406 plant species from 1753 to 2019, researchers found a clear and worrisome shift.

Climate change research and action must look beyond 2100 [Scholarly Article - Global Change Biology, 2021]

Title:

Climate change research and action must look beyond 2100 

 

Authors:

Christopher Lyon,Erin E. Saupe,Christopher J. Smith,Daniel J. Hill,Andrew P. Beckerman,Lindsay C. Stringer,Robert Marchant,James McKay,Ariane Burke,Paul O’Higgins,Alexander M. Dunhill,Bethany J. Allen,Julien Riel-Salvatore & Tracy Aze

 

Published:

Global Change Biology, 24 September 2021

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.15871

 

Abstract:

Anthropogenic activity is changing Earth's climate and ecosystems in ways that are potentially dangerous and disruptive to humans. Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to rise, ensuring that these changes will be felt for centuries beyond 2100, the current benchmark for projection. Estimating the effects of past, current, and potential future emissions to only 2100 is therefore short-sighted. Critical problems for food production and climate-forced human migration are projected to arise well before 2100, raising questions regarding the habitability of some regions of the Earth after the turn of the century. To highlight the need for more distant horizon scanning, we model climate change to 2500 under a suite of emission scenarios and quantify associated projections of crop viability and heat stress. Together, our projections show global climate impacts increase significantly after 2100 without rapid mitigation. As a result, we argue that projections of climate and its effects on human well-being and associated governance and policy must be framed beyond 2100.

World Inequality Report 2022 [World Inequality Database, December 2021]

Title:

World Inequality Report 2022

 

Published:

World Inequality Database (WID), 7 December 2021

https://wir2022.wid.world/

 

From the Executive Summary: 

This report presents the most up-to-date synthesis of international research efforts to track global inequalities. The data and analysis presented here are based on the work of more than 100 researchers over four years, located on all continents, contributing to the World Inequality Database (WID.world), maintained by the World Inequality Lab. This vast network collaborates with statistical institutions, tax authorities, universities and international organizations, to harmonize, analyze and disseminate comparable international inequality data.

Southern Africa’s Namaqualand daisies are flowering earlier: why it’s a red flag [The Conversation, 13 January 2022]

Title:

Southern Africa’s Namaqualand daisies are flowering earlier: why it’s a red flag

 

Author:

Jennifer Fitchett 

Associate Professor of Physical Geography, University of the Witwatersrand

 

Published:

The Conversation, 13 January 2022

https://theconversation.com/southern-africas-namaqualand-daisies-are-flowering-earlier-why-its-a-red-flag-174724

 

From the article:

In late August each year, the normally barren landscape of the Namaqualand, along the western boundary of South Africa, is transformed into a vista of brightly coloured daisies as far as the eye can see. The flowering of the Namaqualand daisies attracts close to 10,000 tourists per season to a part of the country that doesn’t get many visitors otherwise. But climate change poses a threat to the flowering event, and to the tourist arrivals which generate regional income.

 

Climate change and small-scale agriculture in Africa: does indigenous knowledge matter? Insights from Kenya and South Africa [Scholarly Article - Scientific African, June 2021]

Title:

Climate change and small-scale agriculture in Africa: does indigenous knowledge matter? Insights from Kenya and South Africa

 

Authors:

Amos Apraku, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Department of Languages and General Studies, Sunyani, Ghana

& 

John F Morton, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Kent ME4 4TB, United Kingdom

& 

Benjamin Apraku-Gyampoh, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology; Department of Fisheries and Watershed Management, Kumasi, Ghana

 

Published:

Scientific African, 16 June 2021, e00821

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227621001253

[This article is in Press. In other words, the article is accepted and peer reviewed, but not yet assigned to a volume/issue]

 

Abstract:

Africa is highly vulnerable to changes in global climatic conditions due to its low adaptive capacity and sensitivity to changes in climatic variables, particularly in the agricultural sector. A key attribute of studies on climate change coping strategies and adaptation mechanisms in Africa is that they lack local specificity. Within a discourse dominated by large-scale attempts to measure the extent of climate change and its impacts with methods drawn from physical and biological sciences, there is little focus on how locally-specific knowledge and practices help communities to cope with effects of adverse environmental conditions on their agriculture at the farm level. From a sample of 115 respondents drawn from South Africa and Kenya and through interviews, discussions and interactions, this paper demonstrates that local residents deploy their indigenous knowledge in predicting seasonal weather and rainfall patterns, determining wind speed and direction, preserving grains for planting purposes and various traditional farming support systems to lessen the impacts of climate change on their agricultural activities. The paper concludes that merging local knowledge with modern science in Africa could help develop a syncretic agronomical knowledge among farmers in handling climate change.

 

AFRICA - African forest maps reveal areas vulnerable to the effects of climate change [Nature, April 2021]

Title:

African forest maps reveal areas vulnerable to the effects of climate change 

 

Authors:

Marion Pfeifer & Deo D. Shirima

 

Published:

Nature, 21 April 2021

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00978-0

 

From the article:

An analysis of six million trees reveals spatial patterns in the vulnerability of Central African rainforests to climate change and human activities. The maps generated could be used to guide targeted actions across national boundaries.

 

Melting Glaciers Can Even Shift Earth’s Poles, Says Study [Forbes, 23 April 2021]

Title:

Melting glaciers can even shift Earth's poles, says study

Author:

Bruce Dorminey

Published:

Forbes, 23 April 2021

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2021/04/23/melting-glaciers-can-even-shift-earths-spin-axis-says-study/?sh=6fb5e52a3731

From the article:

Global warming is likely the cause of a slight shift in Earth’s poles that occurred in the 1990s, a new Chinese-led study reports. Melting glaciers redistributed enough water to push the poles into a sudden and rapid drift toward longitude 26 degrees East at a rate of 3.28 millimeters (0.129 inches) per year, the team reports.

 

Agricultural adaptation to climate change in the trans-Himalaya: a study of Loba Community of Lo-manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal [Scholarly Article - International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology, 2021]

Title:

Agricultural adaptation to climate change in the trans-Himalaya: a study of Loba Community of Lo-manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Authors:

Man Bahadur khattri

Central Department of Anthropology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

&

Rishikesh Pandey

School of Development and Social Engineering, Pokhara University, Pokhara, Nepal

 

Published:

International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology, 12 January 2021

https://ijae.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41257-020-00039-w

 

Abstract:

This paper presents community interference on agricultural ecology against climate change impacts in Lo-manthang, Upper-Mustang, Nepal. The peoples’ response strategies are based on traditional agroecological knowledge. This study applied the human ecological approach (Cause ➔ Effect ➔ Response) to analyze continuity and change in the agricultural practice of the indigenous Loba community of the Trans-Himalaya. Data were generated through anthropological fieldwork using quasi-ethnomethodology. Qualitative data on changing climate was further supported by the analysis of meteorological records of last 40 years from the nearest station. The overall impression of the study is that the Lobas are hardly adapting to the dynamics of socio-environmental factors as climatic, geo-environmental, and politico-institutional changes. The strategy adopted to respond to the impacts of change on the local livelihoods is particularly associated with altering traditional agricultural practices. Indigenous knowledge-based systems of farm, labor, and resource management, accompanied by changes in food preference (food value) and linking agriculture with spiritual practice, are specific adaptation options, further supported by emerging options such as occupational modernization and migration. However, not all of these strategies produced positive outcomes in the local socio-ecological system of Lo-manthang. Therefore, policymakers should recognize Trans-Himalayan environmental uniqueness and its sensitivity to different drivers while designing policy to address them.

Climate change projections and extremes for Costa Rica using tailored predictors from CORDEX model output through statistical downscaling with artificial neural networks [Scholarly Article - International journal of Climatology, January 2021]

Title:

Climate change projections and extremes for Costa Rica using tailored predictors from CORDEX model output through statistical downscaling with artificial neural networks 

 

Authors:

Dánnell Quesada‐Chacón, Klemens Barfus & Christian Bernhofer

 

Published:

International journal of Climatology, Volume 41, Issue 1, 3 January 2021

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/joc.6616

 

Abstract:

Despite intense research on climate change (CC), regional studies for Central America, which is considered a CC hot spot, remain scarce. The information provided by general circulation models (GCMs) is too coarse to accurately reproduce local‐scale climatic features, which are needed for impact assessment. Thus, downscaling techniques are employed to address this scale mismatch. Costa Rica is the present case study, for which suitable predictors were tailored for downscaling related to regional climatic characteristics, such as the Inter‐Tropical Convergence Zone, El Niño Southern Oscillation, the Caribbean Low‐Level Jet, and the Mid‐Summer Drought. Statistical downscaling models were calibrated for precipitation, maximum and minimum temperature, using the perfect prognosis methodology by means of station data, ERA‐INTERIM reanalysis and artificial neural networks, yielding satisfactory results. As found in several studies, the temperature models replicated more accurately the statistics of the observed datasets. However, here, through the implemented approach and the tailored predictors, the precipitation models conveyed an improvement compared to standard methods. Projected daily climate was obtained employing CORDEX data under the RCP8.5 scenario for the central region of the country. Overall, the changes in climate estimated by the end of the 21st century agree with coarser‐scale projections. Finally, projected climate extremes indices were calculated and rendered further details on the intensity of future CC by the end of the century.