The sea level rising has begun to take a big toll on the economies of cities from New York, NY and Shanghai, China. Scientists are now saying that economic damages are going to increase at a faster rate as warming continues to increase. It could be a huge problem for big cities that are close enough to waterways that can be affected by sea level rising. A lot of these major cities play a large role in the global economy. Scientists are predicting that major floods whipped up by storms will cause trouble for cities and is forcing cities to add to their budget to cover for damages to trains and buildings. A member of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Juergen Kropp, said, “the damage from sea level rise rises faster than sea level rise itself.” The article highlighted the Danish capital of Copenhagen, and said that a sea level rise of four inches would increase economic damage by $1.1 billion if no action is taken. If the four inches were to double by the year 2050 then it would cost four times as much making the damages around $4.4 billion. The eight inch rise in sea level is the worst possible outlook determined by the UN. A study in 2014 determined that by the year 2100 sea level could rise by one meter (worst-case scenario) and cost anywhere from .3%-9% of total GDP in damages.

Scientists write articles like this to make sure people are aware of the possible changes and are aware of the damages caused by global warming and rising sea levels. Jochen Hinkel of the Global Climate Forum in Berlin said, “People have adapted to sea-level rise in the past and will do so in the future.” This quote concludes that people will be able to adapt and limit economic damages in the future but it is very important preventative action is taken.

Article:

“As Sea Levels Rise, Economic Damage Piles Up Even Faster: Study.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 2016. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/02/28/world/europe/28reuters-climatechange-sealevel.html>.

Some GCM Models have shown that the Indian Ocean is warming faster than any other ocean due to global warming. This could be due to a number of reasons including restricted ocean circulation due to the ocean being primarily landlocked compared to the Pacific and Atlantic. This leads to heat being dispersed through the whole ocean at a much slower rate. This spells trouble for countries surrounding the Indian Ocean.

Higher temperatures could mean a decrease in phytoplankton and could weaken the monsoon season of South Asia. A decrease in phytoplankton would mean a decrease in fishing as it is the base of marine life food chains. Many South Asian countries are dependent on fishing so this would affect food supplies for a large portion of the earth’s population. In addition, a shift and weakening of the monsoon season could rob many people of much needed rain in the monsoon season. Most places will receive less rain and crops could suffer while editorial locations around the Indian Ocean could experience a rise in precipitation but this may still lead to adverse effects as rainfall totals will be unpredictable. Higher temperatures means the atmosphere can hold higher levels of moisture and this could lead to longer droughts outside of monsoon season.

This article caught my attention because such a small area holds the majority of the world’s population and global warming would be affecting so many people.

Resource: http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=141051

This article was focusing on a 12 year long project named ANDRILL. The goal of the project is to keep track of the stability of the ice sheets in Antarctica because the ice sheets are like a cork to a champagne bottle, they hold because huge land based flows of artic ice on the Antarctic continent. 100 scientists from all over the world work on this project because if the ice sheets melt, it can raise sea levels by 180ft. This can be a huge concern for everyone in the world. To get more information about the topic the scientist set 90 tons of drilling equipment on a floating piece of ice. Then they started drilling and collecting rocks that were potentially 20 million years old. The scientists were interested in the carbon dioxide levels in the samples because this can help them predict how fast the ice sheets will melt. Also, they were looking to see if they could relate different time period trends to our current trend. This would help with learning what would be coming in the future. In addition, since the ice sheets are cooled by the air and sea, a small change in temperature can also easily melt them. Overall, the scientist know the ice sheets are melting faster than they would like but the only thing we can do as humans is to be informed and create climate models to predict how much ice is going to melt.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160223143620.htm

Claudia Tebaldi, and Michael Wehne, climate scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, respectively, have just published a study, funded by the Department of Energy, titled Benefits of mitigation for future heat extremes under RCP4.5 compared to RCP8.5,  which describes the effects of climate change on heatwaves, and the disparity in different populations’ exposure to, and ability to adapt to them. The authors state that heatwaves, severe, global temperature anomalies that occur about every 20 years, will be more frequent, and more severe in the next hundred years. Climate change mitigation programs will help some, but the implications are such that governments around the world will still need to provide large amounts of resources for vulnerable peoples, the elderly, young, and low-income urban populations, regardless of potential stringent mitigation efforts.

The report is especially useful for policy-making purposes, because it performs cost-benefit analyses of the large, immediate costs of heatwave adaptation efforts versus their relatively uncertain, long-term, and so discounted, benefits, and still finds the quantified, and monetary benefits to outweigh the costs.

Additionally, the fact that the study is funded through taxpayer money adds political clout to the policy recommendations.

https://www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/news/19559/searing-heat-waves-detailed-study-future-climate

http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/02/24/stories/1060032886

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-016-1605-5

The sea level is rising around the world at the fastest rate since at least the founding of ancient Rome.  Scientist have attributed this rapid sea rise to the increasing in Greenhouse gases from fossil fuels.  Many areas like Miami beach and Norfolk have been affected by the floods from higher sea level.  The floods have caused streets to be blocked and for freshwater to be contaminated.  These events however are seen as small scale to what will come.  The study also found if emissions continue at the current rate the ocean could rise up to three to four feet by 2100.  This startling statistic would cause the need to abandon many coast cities. Sea level rise is also causing flooding on the east coast that would normally not happen in fact as much as three-quarters of the flooding would not naturally happen.  Although sea level rise will does not largely contribute to power of storms like hurricane Katrina or Sandy, it does substantially increases the number of floods an area can have such as Annapolis.

Unfortunately to stop the rapid sea level rise the plans in Paris are not nearly strict enough to make a major change to stop the rising sea levels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/science/sea-level-rise-global-warming-climate-change.html?ref=topics&_r=0

Throughout this course we have been analyzing the global climate and the procedures and tools used to evaluate it. On February 19^th The New York Times put together an interesting database, with the help of AccuWeather, to show the detailed temperature and precipitation patters for 1,801 American cities and 1,334 other locations around the globe. The database shows this information as an interactive chart, where the user inputs the city and the following temperatures and precipitation data for the year 2015 are visually compared with past patterns. The reason they have chosen to compare the year 2015 is because more than 90 percent of the cities had a warmer-than-average year, claiming it to be the hottest year on record.

I found this interesting because it goes hand in hand to what we have been doing and learning in class. We are constantly evaluating the same types of charts and now they are being publicly displayed and used on a high congestion news site, The New York Times. I also played with the charts and found cool information on some of the valuable cities in my own life. I found that Philadelphia had record temperatures in both the months of June, September, and November in 2015. Along with State college, having record temps in November and December.

Overall, the site shows an exciting progression towards global warming awareness and solidifies the fact that we are experiencing a very important time in global history. It is cool to see that the New York Times getting involved and allowing its users to visualize this type of climate data. It will be interesting to see if the 2016 chart will also contain record-breaking temperatures.

Lai, K.K Rebecca. “The Times’s Classic Weather Chart: Now Online With 3,000 Cities.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2016. Web. 23 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/18/upshot/the-times-classic-weather-chart-now-online-with-3000-cities.html>.

Throughout module 6 we have been learning about ocean currents and their effect on global climate. I found an article showing examples of the effects of the El Nino in Los Angeles, California. After receiving ample amounts of rainfall from the El Nino following one of the worst droughts in the history, Los Angeles now has gallons and gallons of storm water. Because of previous flooding dangers, the city has organized their water system to dispose of storm water as quickly and efficiently as possible, draining it straight into the ocean. After a year of cutting their water usage by 25%, this storm water all of a sudden seems like the perfect answer to their drought crisis. Instead of capturing the 200 billion gallons (or at least some) of storm water, the city watched as it washed away into the ocean. This water is now untouchable and was also a potentially perfect answer to the drought and water cutbacks the city has been facing.

The city has now made re-managing their water system a top priority. The El Nino is still expected to shower the state in rain in the following months to come, allowing the state another chance to capture the storm water for reuse. The state is now entering a moment where they know they need to be the ones dealing with their water crisis, the storm water has become a great opportunity for them to cut back on imported water. The task is not as easy as it sounds and will take a generous sum of money and willingness of the residents of California to be successful. The city is composed mostly of impervious surfaces, which will generate a high amount of pollutants in the water which will need to be filtered out for public use. There is much change and work to be done but if they succeed, it will be great.

With the changing climate, Californians know they will now be more susceptible to droughts more than ever. Having a backup water supply will be essential to their state. A new way of managing storm water has become one of the best opportunities for the state of California. This will help them effectively resist both drought and climate change much more smoothly.

References:

Nagourney, Adam. “Storm Water, Long a Nuisance, May Be a Parched California’s Salvation.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 Feb. 2016. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.