With global warming comes increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which benefits at least one species: weeds. Carbon dioxide acts as a fertilizer to invasive exotic grasses, resulting in higher growth rates and larger leaves. These stronger plants are also proving more resistant to the world’s most important herbicide, Roundup, which is widely used on genetically-modified crops.
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While most glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, one of them is growing bigger–ALSO as a result of climate change. Hotter summers may actually slow down the melting rate of glaciers. Researchers have learned that increased melting in the warmer summer months is causing the internal drainage system of the Greenland ice sheet to adapt to allow for more melted water, without speeding up the calving of ice chunks and water flow into the oceans. This is happening because in hot weather there is so much water that it runs off into channels below the ice, decreasing the layer that sits on top of the ice sheets and causes melting over a much larger surface area. read more
The second colossal winter storm of the winter is slamming the eastern half of the United States. The greatest cyclone in Australian history is hitting Queensland in Australia. These events come during one of the most intense winters in recorded history, after a summer that was among the hottest on record. The whole situation seems like a chapter out of the book I wrote with Art Bell, Superstorm.
So, what is happening? What can we expect?
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Climate change doesn’t just mean global warming (something that people in the Northeast who are experiencing major blizzards can attest to), it means oscillations of extreme hot and cold. Exceptionally warm weather in the arctic this winter and last, coupled with extremely cold weather further south, has been the cause of exceptional winter storms, and it appears that the massive loss of sea ice in recent years could be the cause.read more