Alaskan villages try climigration in the face of climate change
When a town turns to a perpetual disaster area, it might be time to move it.
Kala: The climate of Tibet ...
Pole-land
OF ALL the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.
That is the main reason climatologists are interested in the Earth’s north and south poles. The waxing and waning of the ice provides an unambiguous signal of what is going on—and it is a signal which can be read in rocks a billion years old almost as easily as it can be observed today. But the poles are only two examples. Another would be welcome. And there is one.
Though the amount of ice on the plateau of Tibet and its surrounding mountains, such as the Himalayas, Karakoram and Pamirs, is a lot smaller than that at the poles, it is still huge. The area’s 46,000 glaciers cover 100,000 square kilometres (40,000 square miles)—about 6% of the area of the Greenland ice cap. Another 1.7m square kilometres is permafrost, which can be up to 130 metres deep. That is equivalent to 7% of the Arctic’s permafrost. Unlike the ice at the poles, the fate of this ice affects a lot of people directly. The area is known by some as Asia’s water tower, because it is the source of ten of the continent’s biggest rivers. About 1.5 billion people, in 12 countries, live in the basins of those rivers. Welcome, then, to the Earth’s “Third Pole”
Read more here.
Heat-Trapping Gas Passes Milestone, Raising Fears
The amount of the gas in the air has not been this high for at least three million years, and scientists believe the rise portends large changes in the climate and sea level.
Time-Lapse GIFs Show Earth Transform Over 25 Years
“Starting in the 1980s, Alaska’s Columbia Glacier began retreating, shrinking from 41 miles long (its originally documented length in 1794) to 36 miles long in 1995. This is what that change actually looks like from space.
The images are part of the Timelapse project from Google and TIME, what Google calls “the most comprehensive picture of our changing planet ever made available to the public.”
Learn more from Popular Science.
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China’s Elite Uses Air Purification Systems And Giant Domes To Retreat From Toxic Urban Air
via New York Times
Levels of deadly pollutants up to 40 times the recommended exposure limit in Beijing and other cities have struck fear into parents and led them to take steps that are radically altering the nature of urban life for their children.
Parents are confining sons and daughters to their homes, even if it means keeping them away from friends. Schools are canceling outdoor activities and field trips. Parents with means are choosing schools based on air-filtration systems, and some international schools have built gigantic, futuristic-looking domes over sports fields to ensure healthy breathing.
Face masks are now part of the urban dress code. Parents have scrambled to buy air purifiers. IQAir, a Swiss company, makes purifiers that cost up to $3,000 here and are displayed in shiny showrooms.
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This is how Republicans blocked a vote to confirm the new EPA chief. Not a single one showed up.
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AUSTRALIA URGED TO FORMALLY RECOGNIZE CLIMATE CHANGE REFUGEE STATUS
By Bernard Lagan, The Guardian:
Australia, a close neighbour of small, low-lying South Pacific states at the frontline of climate change, should be the first country to formally recognise climate change refugees, the country’s main refugee advisory body has said.
The Refugee Council of Australia has told the Australian government that it should create a new refugee category for those fleeing the effects of climate change so that they can be offered protection similar to those escaping war or persecution…
• Bernard Lagan’s full report on Kiribati is published on The Global Mail
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Just got chilly in here: Following last month’s announcement that British curriculum guidelines for elementary-school-aged children would essentially be skipping over the topic of climate change, public outcry has been fervid. Now Sir David Attenborough — the Gandalf of British environmentalism — is adding his remarkable voice to the fray. Guardian
Plans to drop climate debate from national curriculum ‘unacceptable’ | The Guardian
