Climate

Sea level rise contributions from ice melt in different areas, including Greenland (a), West Antarctica (b), East Antarctica (c) and median of global glaciers (d). Values are ratios of regional sea level change to global mean sea level change. Adapted from Kopp et al. 2015.

axios.com - by Andrew Freedman - June 14, 2018

News of Antarctica's accelerating ice melt garnered worldwide headlines yesterday, as scientists revealed that 3 trillion tons of ice has been lost to the sea since 1992 — mostly from the thawing West Antarctic Ice Sheet and Antarctic Peninsula.

Why it matters: The location of the ice melt is important for determining the future of coastal communities, according to climate scientists. And, due to West Antarctica melting, it turns out that the U.S. coastline will be hit extra hard . . .

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Hurricane Harvey over the Gulf of Mexico in August 2017. The storm stalled over Texas and dropped nearly 50 inches of rain in some places.  Credit NOAA/NASA GOES Project

CLICK HERE - STUDY - A global slowdown of tropical-cyclone translation speed

A new study shows that storms are staying in one place longer, much like Hurricane Harvey did last year.

nytimes.com - by Kendra Pierre-Louis - June 6, 2018

 . . . A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature focuses on what is known as translation speed, which measures how quickly a storm is moving over an area, say, from Miami to the Florida Panhandle. Between 1949 and 2016, tropical cyclone translation speeds declined 10 percent worldwide, the study says. The storms, in effect, are sticking around places for a longer period of time.

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submitted by Jan Booher

Figure 1: Unified Sea Level Rise Projection. These projections are referenced to mean sea level at the Key West tide gauge. The projection includes three global curves adapted for regional application: the median of the IPCC AR5 RCP8.5 scenario as the lowest boundary (blue dashed curve), the USACE High curve as the upper boundary for the short term for use until 2060 (solid blue line), and the NOAA High curve as the uppermost boundary for medium and long term use (orange solid curve). The incorporated table lists the projection values at years 2030, 2060 and 2100. The USACE Intermediate or NOAA Intermediate Low curve is displayed on the figure for reference (green dashed curve). This scenario would require significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in order to be plausible and does not reflect current emissions trends.

southeastfloridaclimatecompact.org - Prepared by the Sea Level Rise Work Group - October 2015

Dunlaw Wind Farm at Soutra Hill North in the Scottish Borders. The US president has claimed that climate action is too costly. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Almost all nations would benefit economically from keeping global warming to 1.5C, a new study indicates

CLICK HERE - ABSTRACT - Large potential reduction in economic damages under UN mitigation targets

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH LETTER - Large potential reduction in economic damages under UN mitigation targets

theguardian.com - by Damian Carrington - May 23, 2018