Six years after the Snowmageddon of 2010 buried the Washington DC area in up to 30 inches of snow, another major winter storm is poised to unload upwards of 30 inches of snow in the US capital, while threatening the Atlantic seaboard with hurricane-level storm surge.
Climate change is fueling the destructive power of this storm. Global warming increases ocean heat content, which increases the energy and moisture available to storms. It also increases the heat in the atmosphere, allowing the air to hold and dump more precipitation, and it causes sea level rise, which allows storm surge to ride on higher seas.
2015 is the second of two back-to-back record hot years, and scientists say the record heat’s primary cause is climate change. During 2015, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.62°F (0.90°C) above the 20th century average. This was the highest among all years in the 1880-2015 record, surpassing the previous record set in 2014 by 0.29°F (0.16°C). This is also the largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken.
National security leaders, faith leaders, business and economic leaders, public health and medical professionals, scientists, policy experts and local lawmakers welcomed the announcement of the Paris Agreement.
India’s increase in extreme precipitation events in recent decades is likely tied to climate change. Following Southern India’s wettest November in more than 20 years, December 2015 began with a new round of extreme precipitation that inundated the city of Chennai. While November and December are typically very wet, the rainfall and flooding of 2015 were exceptional.
In a stable climate, the ratio of new record highs to new record lows is approximately even. However in our warming climate, record highs have begun to outpace record lows, with the imbalance growing for the past three decades. This trend is one of the clearest signals of climate change that we experience directly.
There are limits to adaptation. Some climate impacts are already exceeding the the abilities of affected populations to adapt, causing loss and damage. The question of how to address these losses and damages is a key issue in the international negotiation process.
Climate change-related heat stress a harsh opponent as athletes collapse at US Open—extreme heat and humidity retires 10 players as warming leaves a mark on American sports
The Earth’s temperature is now increasing faster than anytime in the last 1,000 years. Alaska and the Arctic, temperatures are rising at twice the global rate—more rapidly than anywhere else in the world, making the region ground zero for climate change. The best estimate is that human activity is responsible for all of the observed increase in global temperatures since 1985. The effects of the temperature changes are transforming a once-frozen seascape into an evolving, navigable ocean. These rapid changes occurring in the North have created a new Arctic climate system.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency has announced that this past July was the warmest on record, a finding reinforced by preliminary NASA data. This means July was likely the hottest of any month on record, and puts 2015 safely on track to beat 2014 as the hottest year on record.
One big question for negotiations at COP21 is whether to develop a long–term global goal for climate action, and if so, what that goal might look like. While all the long-term goals aim to avoid catastrophic climate change, each one proposes a different way to get there. Navigate the maze here.
On Wednesday February 25, 2015, the European Commission published the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) of the European Union, a detailed description of the effort the EU will offer to undertake in cutting greenhouse gas emissions as part of an international agreement on tackling climate change.
2014 has seen unprecedented heat and experienced devastating extreme weather events, some of which have already been linked to climate change.
2014 also witnessed an unprecedented level of support for climate action, from people on the streets demanding change to heads of state reaching record accords.
On Sunday, December 14, 2014, UN climate negotiations closed in Lima, Peru with negotiators agreeing to text that will form the basis for a new international agreement expected next year in Paris. The Lima decision sets the foundation for a Paris agreement that can move the world closer to a clean energy pathway that avoids catastrophic impacts of global warming.
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are gathering in Lima, Peru to lay the foundation for the for the global climate deal that will be finalized in Paris next year.
Climate change is no longer a niche political issue. Recent events such as the drought in California and Superstorm Sandy have brought extreme weather to the forefront, and people are searching for information on climate and weather connections. Voters, reporters and debate moderators are increasingly asking questions about climate change.
Existing analysis from respected military leaders recognizes the potential threat from climate change as no less than massively destructive and an enormous risk to national security.
