Organizations and corporations around the world were once again hit by a massive ransomware attack, in a manner similar to the WannaCry attack launched (and foiled) last May.read more
A $17 million expedition aimed at studying the effects of climate change in Canada’s Hudson Bay has been postponed due to complications brought about by climate change itself. An unusually heavy southward flow of surface ice from the Arctic has blocked the safe passage of the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen, on the first leg of her mission to ferry 40 scientists participating in the Hudson Bay System Study (BaySys).
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President Donald J. Trump has announced that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the accord forged by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2015, with its 195 signatory countries pledging to cut carbon emissions in a effort to limit global warming to no more than 2ºC above pre-industrial levels. Trump says that he plans to halt payments into the Green Climate Fund, and re-negotiate the United States’ place in the agreement, claiming that the deal, as it stands, was specifically made to disadvantage the American economy.
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The World Meteorological Organization is forecasting a possible return of the El Niño phenomenon to the Pacific Ocean later this year, hot on the heels of the 2015-2016 back-to-back El Niño events, with only a short-lived, milquetoast La Niña cooling period having occurred in between.
The WMO, drawing on recent observations, climate models and historical trends, predicts that there is a 50-60 percent chance of a reoccurrence of El Niño before 2017 ends. Regional El Niño-associated warming in the Eastern Pacific has already caused heavy rains in Peru and Ecuador, leading to extensive flooding. The sea surface temperatures in the far eastern tropical Pacific have been 2ºC above normal during February and March.
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