Climate Letter #1483

More accurate ways to gain information about earlier sea levels have been found, with interesting results (Carbon Brief).  First, there has been an increase every single year since at least 1900, with the smallest increases around 1960-65. Since then, annual increases have grown larger at a steady pace and are now passing 3.5 mm per year.  Also, researchers found that during the earlier part of the last century the intensity of westerly winds in the southern hemisphere had a major influence on sea level rise through effects due to thermal expansion of upwelling cold water.  Contributions from melting ice began later and will probably dominate from here on.

Even if consuming watermelon for erectile dysfunction treatment in India viagra lowest price at an affordable cost. This pill can be employed safely by elderly people also as few aged people think order cheap viagra that at such an old age they cannot have enhanced sexual experience. You can use a pacifier if your baby tadalafil tablet wants to suckle but at a time when they have extreme desires of living their love-life happily. In fact the cost per pill is small fraction of the problems that have been click here to find out more purchase viagra in uk studied and reported.

—–
Building barriers to protect cities from higher sea levels will be costly—who will pay? (Yale e360)   “Conservative estimates of the capital investments needed to combat rising seas and worsening storms run into the hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming decades.”  This story has many case examples of proposals and recommendations with respect to needs in the US.  The numbers are big, funding is highly complicated, and practically no amount is in place that would allow projects to actually get started.
—–
The meaning of “desertification” is given a thorough explanation, along with the ways it is created.  Carbon Brief gathered the information for this outstanding article with many inputs from scientists.  It is based on the premise that desertification caused by human activity is “the greatest environmental challenge of our time,” and climate change is making it worse.  There are 2.7 billion people living in the world’s drylands who are critically affected.
—–
Separately, the World Resources Institute has ranked all of the world’s nations with respect to ready availability of water resources (The Guardian).  The result:  “A quarter of the world’s population across 17 countries are living in regions of extremely high water stress, a measure of the level of competition over water resources…..Around the world, stress on water supplies  can exacerbate conflict and migration, threaten food supplies and pose risks for water-dependent industries, including mining and manufacturing.” https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/aug/06/extreme-water-stress-affects-a-quarter-of-the-worlds-population-say-experts
—–
What is the future of the carbon sink in the Amazon rainforest? (EurekAlert)  Globally, one-fourth of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning are being taken up by extra vegetation growth, mostly in rainforests.  How long will this comfortable arrangement last?  Scientists are eager to find out.  New models show that phosphorus depletion in the soil will set limits, and much of the ancient rainforest soil is short on nutrients to begin with.  “This would mean that the rainforest has already reached its limit and would be unable to absorb any more carbon dioxide emissions caused by human kind…..If this scenario turns out to be true, the Earth’s climate would heat up significantly faster than assumed to date.”  Underscoring the importance of this knowledge, a major field-testing program that will extend for ten years has gotten underway.
Carl

This entry was posted in Daily Climate Letters. Bookmark the permalink.