Earth, Environment, and Geosciences

China’s plans to build a massive hydro project in Tibet have sparked fears about the environmental impacts on the world’s longest and deepest canyon. It has also alarmed neighboring India, which fears that China could hold back or even weaponize river water it depends on.

archived (Wayback Machine)

Global temperature leaped more than 0.4°C (0.7°F) during the past two years, the 12-month average peaking in August 2024 at +1.6°C relative to the temperature at the beginning of last century (the 1880-1920 average). This temperature jump was spurred by one of the periodic tropical El Niño warming events, but many Earth scientists were baffled by the magnitude of the global warming, which was twice as large as expected for the weak 2023-2024 El Niño. We find that most of the other half of the warming was caused by a restriction on aerosol emissions by ships, which was imposed in 2020 by the International Maritime Organization to combat the effect of aerosol pollutants on human health. Aerosols are small particles that serve as cloud formation nuclei. Their most important effect is to increase the extent and brightness of clouds, which reflect sunlight and have a cooling effect on Earth. When aerosols – and thus clouds – are reduced, Earth is darker and absorbs more sunlight, thus enhancing global warming. Ships are the main aerosol source in the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. We quantify the aerosol effect from the geographical distribution of sunlight reflected by Earth as measured by satellites, with the largest expected and observed effects in the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. We find that aerosol cooling, and thus climate sensitivity, are understated in the best estimate of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Tropical deforestation was found to cause large reductions in precipitation using a range of observation-based datasets1. However, the limitations of satellite-based space-for-time statistical analysis have hindered understanding of the roles of reshaped mesoscale atmospheric circulation and regional precipitation recycling at different scales. These effects are considered nonlocal effects, which are distinct from the local effects governed by deforestation-induced reductions in evapotranspiration (ET). Here we show reversed precipitation responses to Amazon deforestation across wet and dry seasons. During the wet season, deforested grids experienced a noteworthy increase in precipitation (0.96 mm per month per percentage point forest loss), primarily attributed to enhanced mesoscale atmospheric circulation (that is, nonlocal effect). These nonlocal increases weaken with distance from deforested grids, leading to significant precipitation reductions in buffers beyond 60 km. Conversely, during the dry season, precipitation decreases in deforested grids and throughout all analysis buffers, with local effects from reduced ET dominating. Our findings highlight the intricate balance between local effects and nonlocal effects in driving deforestation-precipitation responses across different seasons and scales and emphasize the urgent need to address the rapid and extensive loss of forest in the Amazon region.

There was a time when an ecologist’s education was not complete without the mud of a marsh on their boots or the scent of damp earth after a rainforest downpour. Increasingly, however, the discipline is moving indoors. A paper published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution by Masashi Soga and Kevin J. Gaston highlights a disconcerting trend: the decline of fieldwork in ecological research and education.

Scientists now say it's likely that the closest active volcano to Anchorage will erupt soon.

https://www.newsweek.com/hurricane-crossing-equator-weather-physics-1790522

Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead.

China's glacier area has shrunk by 26% since 1960 due to rapid global warming, with 7,000 small glaciers disappearing completely and glacial retreat intensifying in recent years, official data released in March showed.

MIT aerospace engineers have found that greenhouse gas emissions are changing the environment of near-Earth space in ways that, over time, will reduce the number of satellites that can sustainably operate there.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/33064194

It is important to note that the new record low for the Arctic in February is not an all-time minimum. Arctic sea ice is currently approaching its annual maximum extent, which typically occurs in March.

There are a lot of papers advocating for a switch away from fossil fuels, and even H2 fuel cells, to ammonia based propulsion in transport. It can be used in combustion engines but there's a risk of NOx production. So the greenest option to me is ammonia to H2 conversion or direct ammonia fuel cells. It's got the same advantages of classic H2 fuel cells but without the constraints of cryogenic or pressurized containment of H2. And ammonia has a better energy density. But it's toxic for humans and, above all, marine life! Especially for fish species. So I'm feeling a bit uneasy about potential mass ammonia spills…

Global warming is helping rats thrive in major cities around the world, with Washington DC seeing the fastest growth in rats