Impacts

October 27, 2020

Biden Pledges Ambitious Climate Action. Here’s What He Could Actually Do.

Coral Davenport

Hilary Swift for The New York Times

Climate Action, Decision-making, Impacts, Policy

If elected, Joe Biden and his allies are preparing to pass climate change legislation, piece by piece — knowing full well that the candidate’s $2 trillion plan would be a tough sell. While highly unlikely to pass in its entirety, a President Biden could have real impact: solar panels and wind turbines spread across the country’s mountains and prairies, electric charging stations nearly as ubiquitous as gas stations and a gradual decrease in the nation’s planet-warming greenhouse pollution.

October 13, 2020

Climate change: Ice melt projections may underestimate Antarctica’s impact on sea levels

Sebastian Kettley

GETTY

Antarctica, Climate Change, Ice melt, Impacts, risk factor, Sea-level Rise

By some estimates, ice melt in the Antarctic is expected to push global sea levels up by 22.8 inches (58cm) by the end of the century if climate change goes on unchecked. Paired with ice melt in the northern polar circle, sea levels could rise by a staggering five feet (1.5m) by the year 2100. And yet, scientists in the US fear projections could be off, thanks to weather fluctuations that can have a significant impact on melting ice. Understanding the full range or distribution of projections for a risk factor like sea level rise, especially the tail ends, is part of what makes Riskthinking.AI’s scenarios so valuable.

October 2, 2020

Americans are becoming climate migrants before our eyes

Alex Domash

Samuel Corum/AFP/Getty Images

Climate Change, Climate Migrants, Impacts, North America

More than 8,100 wildfires have burned over 3.9m acres in California this year. The fires have killed 30 people, destroyed more than 7,500 structures, and displaced thousands in the state. Meanwhile in Oregon, half a million people were put under an evacuation order. The message from the visceral scenes unfolding in the western US is clear: climate displacement isn’t something that happens only outside of our borders. It has already begun in the US, and we can no longer turn our backs on the more than 20 million climate migrants worldwide.

September 27, 2020

Marine heatwaves are human-made

Charlotte Laufkötter, Jakob Zscheischler, Thomas L. Frölicher.

The New York Times

Climate Change, Impacts, Marine Heatwave, Oceans, risk factor

Heatwaves in the world’s oceans have become over 20 times more frequent due to human influence. This is what researchers are now able to demonstrate. Marine heatwaves destroy ecosystems and damage fisheries.

September 25, 2020

2020 Arctic Sea Ice Minimum at Second Lowest on Record

Kate Ramsayer

NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

Climate Change, Ice melt, Ice-mass Loss, Impacts, risk factor, Sea-level Rise

This year’s Arctic sea ice cover shrank to the second lowest extent since modern record-keeping began in the late 1970s. Warmer ocean temperatures eat away at the thicker multiyear ice, and also result in thinner ice to start the spring melt season. Melt early in the season results in more open water, which absorbs heat from the Sun and increases water temperatures.

September 18, 2020

Interactive: What is the climate impact of eating meat and dairy?

Daisy Dunne

Climate Change, Carbon, Food, Impacts

Food production accounts for one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and takes up half of the planet’s habitable surface. Adjusting one’s diet to eat less (or no) meat and dairy would deliver tremendous emissions savings and have positive health outcomes as well.

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