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June 06, 2020 , , , , , , , ,

Russia has contained a massive fuel spill that turned a river red and inflicted untold damage on a fragile Arctic region.More than 20,000 tons of diesel oil spilled into the Ambarnaya River from a broken tank at a power plant in Norilsk, 1,800 miles from Moscow, last Friday.

Melting permafrost caused a fuel tank holding 20,000 tons of diesel oil to collapse in Russia's Arctic Circle, leading to a 135-square mile oil spill.
According to Rosprirodnadzor, the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources, 6,000 tons spilled onto the ground, another 15,000 tons into the water. Oil products got into the Ambarnaya and Daldykan rivers and in almost all their tributaries.
The spill occurred in the city of Norilsk, Russia, at a power plant operated by Norilsk-Taimyr Energy Co., a subsidiary of Nornickel. The town is located above the Arctic Circle in Russia’s far North.
Russia declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, five days after a power plant fuel leak in its Arctic region caused 20,000 tonnes of diesel oil to escape into a local river, turning its surface crimson red. The Ambarnaya river, into which the oil has been discharged, is part of a network that flows into the environmentally sensitive Arctic Ocean.
The state-owned TASS news agency reported that the emergency measures were announced within Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Region, located in the vast and sparsely populated Siberian peninsula. The power plant is located near the Region’s Norilsk city, around 3000 km northeast of Moscow. 
State of emergency in Norilsk after 20,000 tons of diesel leaks into Arctic river system. Fear that thawing permafrost caused damage to storage tank  https://t.co/EYvzar8jUQ pic.twitter.com/oN4pOtLZy0
— The Siberian Times (@siberian_times) June 2, 2020

What is permafrost?

The term is used for ground that is frozen continuously for two or more years.
Some 55% of Russia's territory, predominantly Siberia, is permafrost and home to its main oil and gas fields.
A 2017 report to the Arctic Council, an international forum which includes Russia, warned that because of global warming and melting ice, foundations in permafrost regions could no longer support the loads they did as recently as the 1980s.

How did the leak happen?

The thermoelectric power plant at Norilsk is built on permafrost, which has weakened over the years owing to climate change. This caused the pillars that supported the plant’s fuel tank to sink., leading to a loss of containment on May 29. Reports said that around 20,000 tonnes of diesel oil was released into the Ambarnaya river, which has since drifted 12 km on its surface. 
Norilsk Nickel, the Russian mining giant that owns the plant, said it had reported the leak in a “timely and proper” way and that the pillars had held the tank in its place “for 30 years without difficulty”.
The conglomerate, which is the world’s leading nickel and palladium producer, has also been blamed for another leak in 2016, when pollutants from its plant leaked into another river in the region. As per an AP report, its factories have made Norilsk one of the most heavily polluted places on Earth.

What has Russia done so far?

The leak, which took place on Friday, came to the notice of the Region’s governor, Alexander Uss, on Sunday. Uss told President Vladimir Putin during a televised videoconference that he became aware of the spill after “alarming information appeared in social media”. Putin, who appeared irate, ordered a probe into the incident.
Boom obstacles were placed in the river, but they were unable to contain the oil because of shallow waters.
So far, three criminal proceedings have been launched, and the head of the power plant has been detained, the TASS report said.
The state of emergency declared on Wednesday would bring in extra forces and federal resources for the clean-up efforts, the Moscow Times reported.

What is the extent of the damage?

Environmentalists have said the river would be difficult to clean, given its shallow waters and remote location, as well as the magnitude of the spill. A World Wildlife Fund speaking to the AFP news agency described this as the second-largest known oil leak in modern Russia’s history in terms of volume.
The Russian chapter of activist group Greenpeace said damages to the Arctic waterways could be at least 6 billion rubles (over $76 million), and has compared the incident to Alaska’s 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. Its estimate does not include atmospheric damage due to greenhouse gases and soil pollution. In a statement, the NGO said, “The installed buoys will only help collect a small part of the pollution, leading us to say that nearly all the diesel fuel will remain in the environment.”An environmental oversight agency of the Russian government pegged the overall damage at “several dozen, perhaps hundreds of billions of rubles”, as did a federal fishing agency, the Moscow Times reported.

What are the clean-up measures being suggested?

During the video conference with Putin, the Russian minister of natural resources opposed setting the vast quantity of oil afire and recommended diluting the layer with reagents.
An expert told the BBC that the clean-up effort could take between 5-10 years.
Oleg Mitvol, former deputy head of Russia's environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, said there had "never been such an accident in the Arctic zone".
He said the clean-up could cost 100bn roubles (£1.2bn; $1.5bn) and take between five and 10 years.
It is not the first time Norilsk Nickel has been involved in oil spillages.

 Images Source: Google Earth

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June 04, 2020 , , , , , , , ,

Older, carbon-rich tropical forests continue to be lost at a frightening rate, according to satellite data.

Tree loss in Bolivia increased hugely in 2019 because of fires that spread out of control
In 2019, an area of primary forest the size of a football pitch was lost every six seconds, the University of Maryland study of trees more than 5 metres says.
Brazil accounted for a third of it, its worst loss in 13 years apart from huge spikes in 2016 and 2017 from fires.
However, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo both managed to reduce tree loss.
Meanwhile, Australia saw a sixfold rise in total tree loss, following dramatic wildfires late in 2019.
As well as storing massive amounts of carbon, primary, tropical rain forests, where trees can be hundreds or even thousands of years old, are home to species such as orangutans and tigers.
Image copyright
Image captionThe study looks at all causes of trees loss, including fires and natural disturbances
The tropics lost 11.9 million hectares (46,000 square miles) of tree cover, the study found, 3.8 million in older, primary forest areas - the third highest loss of primary trees since 2000 and a slight increase on 2018.
"The level of forest loss that we saw in 2019 is unacceptable," Frances Seymour, from the World Resources Institute, said.
"And one of the reasons that it's unacceptable is that we actually already know how to turn it around.
"If governments put into place good policies and enforce the law, forest loss goes down.
"But if governments relax restrictions on burning, or [are] signalling that they intend to open up indigenous territories for commercial exploration, forest loss goes up."
A fire in Pará, Brazil, in August 2019
Speaking about the losses in Brazil, Mikaela Weisse, from Global Forest Watch, said: "We also noted several new hotspots of primary forest loss within indigenous territories, especially in the state of Pará that were linked to land grabbing and to mining.
"These incursions are particularly worrisome given that indigenous peoples have been some of the best conserves of forests in Brazil and around the world."
Indonesia, however, saw losses remain at historically low levels for the third year in a row, thanks, it seems, to strong government action.
Liz Goldman, from Global Forest Watch, said: "A number of policies in Indonesia have contributed to this positive story, including increased enforcement to prevent forest fires and land clearing and a forest moratorium to prevent new clearing for oil palm plantations and logging activities, which was first established in 2011 and made permanent just this past year."
Protesters in many countries were angry about fires in Brazil
And Columbia, which had seen tree losses surge since a peace agreement came into force in 2016, saw a 35% drop in primary forest loss compared with 2018.
But Bolivia saw losses 80% greater than any other year, after fires set for agricultural clearing spread out of control.
And nearly 12% of the Chiquitano dry forest, in eastern Bolivia, home to indigenous peoples, jaguars, giant armadillos and tapirs, was burned.
Source: By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent
Date: 2nd June, 2020
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May 27, 2020 , , , , , , , , , , ,


Hello World! Here is your blogger again after a long time with an interesting hot topic. As today, we all are more concerned about Nature, Environment and its biological diversity. And we all want to save them. But the thing is that we all are unaware of the importance and the basic knowledge of Nature. So, in this article I’ll highlight the real facts, importance, uses, benefits, beauty, inter-relationships of Nature and the difference between Nature and Environment. I hope you guys will be excited. The purpose of this article is to provide you all with the true crux of Nature which will help us to aware ourselves and others. So let’s start with the ride to the Nature.
“The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations”.

Nature, in the broadest sense, is the natural, physical, or material world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are part of nature, human activity is often understood as a separate category from other natural phenomena.
The word nature is derived from the Latin word natura, or "essential qualities, innate disposition", and in ancient times, literally meant "birth". In ancient philosophy, Natura is mostly used as the Latin translation of the Greek word physis (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics that plants, animals, and other features of the world develop of their own accord.
Within the various uses of the word today, "nature" often refers to geology and wildlife. Nature can refer to the general realm of living plants and animals, and in some cases to the processes associated with inanimate objects—the way that particular types of things exist and change of their own accord, such as the weather and geology of the Earth. It is often taken to mean the "natural environment" or wilderness—wild animals, rocks, forest, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention. For example, manufactured objects and human interaction generally are not considered part of nature, unless qualified as, for example, "human nature" or "the whole of nature". This more traditional concept of natural things that can still be found today implies a distinction between the natural and the artificial, with the artificial being understood as that which has been brought into being by a human consciousness or a human mind. Depending on the particular context, the term "natural" might also be distinguished from the unnatural or the supernatural.

IMPORTANCE OF NATURE IN OUR LIVES


Everything humans have needed to survive, and thrive, was provided by the natural world around us: food, water, medicine, materials for shelter, and even natural cycles such as climate and nutrients. Scientists have come to term such gifts ‘ecosystem services’. 
The rise of technology and industry may have distanced us superficially from nature, but it has not changed our reliance on the natural world: most of what we use and consume on a daily basis remains the product of multitudes of interactions within nature, and many of those interactions are imperiled. Beyond such physical goods, the natural world provides less tangible, but just as important, gifts in terms of beauty, art, and spirituality. Here is a selective sampling of nature’s importance to our lives;
  • Fresh water: There is no physical substance humans require more than freshwater: without water we can only survive a few hellish days. While pollution and overuse has threatened many of the world’s drinking water sources, nature has an old-fashioned solution, at least, to pollution. Healthy freshwater ecosystems—watersheds, wetlands, and forests—naturally clean pollution and toxins from water. Soils, microorganisms, and plant roots all play a role in filtering and recycling out pollutants with a price far cheaper than building a water filtration plant. According to research, the more bio-diverse the ecosystem, the faster and more efficiently water is purified.
  • Pollination: Imagine trying to pollinate every apple blossom in an orchard: this is what nature does for us. Insects, birds, and even some mammals, pollinate the world’s plants, including much of human agriculture. Around 80% of the world’s plants require a different species to act as pollinator. In agriculture, pollinators are required for everything from tomatoes to cocoa, and almonds to buckwheat, among hundreds of other crops. Globally, agricultural pollination has been estimated to be worth around $216 billion a year. However large such monetary estimates don’t include pollination for crops consumed by livestock, bio-fuels, ornamental flowers, or the massive importance of wild plant pollination.

  • Seed dispersal: Much like pollination, many of the world’s plants require other species to move their seeds from the parent plant to new sprouting ground. Seeds are dispersed by an incredibly wide-variety of players: birds, bats, rodents, megafauna like elephants and tapir, and even, researchers have recently discovered, fish. Seed dispersal is especially important for tropical forests where a majority of plants depend on animals to move.
  • Pest control: A recent study found that bats save US agriculture billions of dollars a year simply by doing what they do naturally: eating insects, many of which are potentially harmful to US crops. Almost all agricultural pests have natural enemies, along with bats, these include birds, spiders, parasitic wasps and flies, fungi, and viral diseases. The loss, or even decline, of such pest-eating predators can have massive impacts on agriculture and ecosystems.
  • Soil health: The ground under our feet matters more than we often admit. Healthy fertile soil provides optimal homes for plants, while participating in a number of natural cycles: from recycling nutrients to purifying water. Although soil is renewable, it is also sensitive to overuse and degradation often due to industrial agriculture, pollution, and fertilizers. Natural vegetation and quality soil also mitigates excessive erosion, which can have dramatic impacts from loss of agricultural land to coastlines simply disappearing into the sea.
  • Medicine: Nature is our greatest medicine cabinet: to date it has provided humankind with a multitude of life-saving medicines from quinine to aspirin, and from morphine to numerous cancer and HIV-fighting drugs. There is no question that additionally important medications—perhaps even miracle cures—lie untapped in the world’s ecosystems. In fact, researchers estimate that less than 1% of the world’s known species have been fully examined for their medicinal value. However the ecosystems that have yielded some of the world’s most important and promising drugs—such as rain forests, peat swamps, and coral reefs—are also among the most endangered. Preserving ecosystems and species today may benefit, or even save, millions of lives tomorrow. 

  • Fisheries: Humankind has turned to the rivers and seas for food for at least 40,000 years but probably even longer. Today, amid concern of a global fishery collapse, more than a billion people depend on fish as their primary source of protein, many of them among the global poor. Fisheries also provide livelihoods, both directly and indirectly, for around half a billion. Coral reefs, mangroves, and sea grass ecosystems provide nurseries for the world’s fisheries, while the open ocean is used for migrating routes and hunting. Even with the direct importance of the world’s fisheries for food, stewardship has been lacking, allowing many populations to drop precipitously and still permitting ecologically destructive fishing. While the world’s fisheries are primarily threatened by over fishing, including bycatch, marine pollution is also a major problem.
  • Biodiversity and wildlife abundance: The argument to save the world’s wildlife has often come from an aesthetic point of view. Many conservationists have fought to save species simply because they like a particular species. This is often why more popularly known animals—tigers, elephants, rhinos—receive far more attention than less popular (although just as endangered) wildlife—for example, the red belly egg frog, the smokey bat, or the bastard quiver tree. But beyond making the world a less lonely, less boring, and less beautiful place—admirable reasons in themselves—many of the services provided by biodiversity are similar to those provided by all of nature. Biodiversity produces food, fibers, wood products; it cleans water, controls agricultural pests, pollinates and dispersers the world plants; and provides recreation, such as bird watching, gardening, diving, and ecotourism.
  • Climate regulation: The natural world helps regulate the Earth’s climate. Ecosystems such as rain forests, peat lands, and mangroves store significant amounts of carbon, while the ocean captures massive amounts of carbon through phytoplankton. While regulating greenhouse gases are imperative in the age of climate change, new research is showing that the world’s ecosystems may also play a role in weather. A recent study found that the Amazon rain forest acted as its own ‘bioreactor’, producing clouds and precipitation through the abundance of plant materials in the forest.
  • Economy: In the common tension viewed between the economy and the environment—e.g. do we clear-cut a forest or conserve it?—one fact is often neglected: the environment underpins the entire global economy. Without fertile soils, clean drinking water, healthy forests, and a stable climate, the world’s economy would face disaster. By imperiling our environment, we imperil the economy. According to research published in Science, the global worth of total ecosystem services could run between $40-60 trillion a year.

  • Health: Recent research has found what nature-lovers have long expected: spending time in a green space, such as a park, provides benefits for one’s mental and physical health. Exercising in a park, instead of inside a gym, has shown to provide mental health benefits as a greater sense of well-being. Walking for 20 minutes in a green space has been proven to help children with ADHD improve their concentration, even working as well, or better, than medication. People who live in more natural settings have better overall health, even when research has taken into account economic differences.
  • Art: Imagine poetry without flowers, painting without landscapes, or film without scenery. Imagine if Shakespeare had no rose to compare Juliet to, or if William Blake had no Tyger to set alight. Imagine if Van Gogh lacked crows to paint or Durer a rhinoceros to cut. What would the Jungle Book be without Baloo or the Wind in the Willows without Mr. Badger? Imagine My Antonia without the red grass of the American prairie or Wuthering Heights without the bleak moors. How would The Lord of the Rings film series appear without the stunning mountain ranges of New Zealand, or Lawrence of Arabia without the desert of North Africa? There is no question that the natural world has provided global arts with some of its greatest subjects. What we lose in nature, we also lose in art.
  • Spiritual: While some of what nature provides us is measurable, most of what nature gives us is simply beyond measure. Economic measurements are useful; but as with most of what happens in the world, economics is simply incapable of capturing true worth. Science is also a useful measurement regarding the importance of nature, but once again cannot measure what nature means—practically and aesthetically—to each individual.



WHY IT’S IMPORTANT to VALUE NATURE?


The natural world is an incredible wonder that inspires us all. It underpins our economy, our society, indeed our very existence. Our forests, rivers, oceans and soils provide us with the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we irrigate our crops with. We also rely on them for numerous other goods and services we depend on for our health, happiness and prosperity. 
These natural assets are often called the world's 'natural capital'. These benefits are also hugely important to the economy – from farming and forestry to leisure and tourism. If you add them all up, the total value of these benefits is phenomenal – at least US$125 trillion every year. 
Because nature is free, we often take it for granted and over exploit it. We clear forests, over fish oceans, pollute rivers and build over wetlands without taking account of the impact this will have. By not taking into account the benefits we get from nature, we create huge social and economic costs for ourselves.
We need to look at the value of nature in economic and social terms to help us better understand the full implications of the choices we make. Instead of making decisions based on short-term financial interests, we can look at the longer-term benefits for people and the economy-and of course nature itself. Using this argument, we're persuading governments and businesses to take better care of the natural world, so that it can continue to sustain us all into the future.

NATURE V/S ENVIRONMENT


We usually get confused between Environment and Nature. We sometimes use it together or in place of each other. But there is a huge difference in Environment and Nature. When we talk about Environment, it covers air pollutants, global warming, the greenhouse effect, and other dangers to the planet. It also includes a glossary of environmental terms as well as a brief directory of environmental organizations. It also includes energy crises, its consumption and much more. Basically it includes the impact of anthropogenic activities on environmental variables. While talking about Nature, we simply talk about the appreciation of beauty of Earth’s animals, plants and biodiversity. We don’t consider its crises.

Hope this article helped you a lot in understanding the true essence of Nature and the major difference between Nature and Environment.


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May 06, 2020 , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The UK must avoid lurching from the coronavirus crisis into a deeper climate crisis, the government’s advisers have warned.

They recommend that ministers ensure funds earmarked for a post-Covid-19 economic recovery go to firms that will reduce carbon emissions.
They say the public should work from home if possible; and to walk or cycle.
And investment should prioritise broadband over road-building, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) says.
People should also be encouraged to save emissions by continuing to consult GPs online.
The government will reply later, although the Energy Secretary Alok Sharma has already spoken in favour of a green recovery to the recession.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, the committee says jobless people should be re-trained for work in geographically-spread labour-intensive “green” industries such as home insulation; tree-planting; and peatland restoration.

It makes a veiled reference to the current discussions over a potential government bailout to save jobs in aviation, which is struggling in the crisis.
The letter says: “Many sectors of the UK economy do not currently bear the full costs of emitting greenhouse gases. Revenue could be raised by setting or raising carbon prices for these sectors.”
Green groups say any bailout should include a condition that the industry shrinks until it finds a technological solution to its carbon emissions.



The letter also tackles broader social themes of fairness and risk.

It says the Covid-19 crisis has highlighted inequalities, with poorer people more in danger.
The committee notes: “The response to the pandemic has disproportionately affected the same lower-income groups and younger people - who face the largest long-term impacts of climate change.

“The benefits of acting on climate change must be shared widely, and the costs must not burden those who are least able to pay or whose livelihoods are most at risk as the economy changes.
“It is important that the lost or threatened jobs of today should be replaced by those created by the new, resilient economy.”
The committee says the government must produce policies that allow the UK to reduce emissions to Net Zero in an orderly way – unlike the chaos of the Covid-19 crisis.
The CCC Chairman, Lord Deben, said: “The Covid-19 crisis has shown the importance of planning well for the risks the country faces.
“Recovery means investing in new jobs, cleaner air and improved health. The actions needed to tackle climate change are central to rebuilding our economy.



“The government must prioritize actions that reduce climate risks and avoid measures that lock-in higher emissions.”
The message is not uncontested. Some politicians have argued that jobs must be protected at all cost in the recovery from the Covid-19 recession.
The UK will chair a vital global climate conference next year. Lord Deben said the UK should set a global example by planning a climate-friendly recovery from Covid-19.
The committee has copied the letter to the leaders of Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland. It will expand on its advice in June.
The Green MP Caroline Lucas says the government should harness the lessons from the Covid-19 crisis to create a better society overall.
She says ministers should force firms to show how they will meet CO2 cuts, and give people a right to locally-produced food; affordable clean energy; and access to green space.
The environment consultancy EPR says ministers should change the balance of the planning process to ensure that green space is a top priority rather than a nice-to-have.
Source: By Roger Harrabin (BBC environment analyst)
Date: 6th May, 2020
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April 17, 2020 , , , ,
Melting in Greenland in 2019
While high temperatures were critical to the melting seen in Greenland last year, scientists say that clear blue skies also played a key role.
In a study, they found that a record number of cloud free days saw more sunlight hit the surface while snowfall was also reduced.
These conditions were due to wobbles in the fast moving jet stream air current that also trapped heat over Europe.
As a result, Greenland's ice sheet lost an estimated 600 billion tonnes.
Current climate models don't include the impact of the wandering jet stream say the authors, and may be underestimating the impact of warming.
  • Greenland's ice faces melting 'death sentence'
  • Greenland and Antarctica ice loss accelerating
  • Greenland ice melt 'is accelerating'
Greenland's ice sheet is seven times the area of the UK and up to 2-3km thick in places. It stores so much frozen water that if the whole thing melted, it would raise sea levels worldwide by up to 7m.
Last December, researchers reported that the Greenland ice sheet was melting seven times faster than it had been during the 1990s.
In recent weeks, an analysis of last year's melting said the 600 billion tonnes of ice added 2.2mm to global sea levels in just two months.
This new study says that while rising global temperatures played a role in the events last year, changes in atmospheric circulation patterns were also to blame.
Researchers found that high pressure weather conditions prevailed over Greenland for record amounts of time.
They believe this is connected to what's termed the "waviness" in the jet stream, the giant current of air that mostly flows from west to east around the globe.
As the current becomes more wobbly, it bends north, and high pressure systems that would normally move through in a few days become "blocked' over Greenland.
These systems had different impacts depending on the part of Greenland you were in.
In the southern part of the island, the authors say, it caused clearer skies with more sunlight hitting the surface.
The cloud-free days brought less snow, which meant that 50 billion fewer tonnes were added to the ice sheet.
The absence of snow also exposed bare, dark ice in some place which absorbed more heat - contributing to the melt.
In other parts of Greenland, the changing atmospheric patterns had different but equally damaging impacts.
In northern and western region, the swirling but stuck high pressure systems pulled in warm air from southern latitudes.
"You can imagine that a sort of vacuum cleaner that is spinning clockwise and sucking all the warm and moist air from New York City for example," said lead author Dr Marco Tedesco from Columbia University in New York, US.
"And because of the rotation, it deposits this warm, moist air high in the northern part. It forms clouds, and they behave like a greenhouse, trapping the heat that would normally radiate off the ice."
Dr Tedesco explained that Greenland in 2019 experienced the largest drop in surface mass balance since records began in 1948.
The term surface mass balance describes the overall state of the ice sheet after accounting for gains from snowfall and losses from surface melt-water run-off.
The authors believe their study explains why, despite the fact that 2019 was not as warm as 2012, last year produced a record drop in surface mass balance.
"This is really pushing Greenland into the red," said Dr Tedesco.
Other researchers working in this field agreed that the new paper is a good explanation of what happened last year in Greenland.
"The main message of the paper is that the very high melt was mostly driven by clear skies and direct melting rather than necessarily being attributable to unusually high temperatures over the ice sheet - a radiatively-driven, rather than thermally-driven, melt season as they put it," said Dr Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen.
"In some ways, the weather pattern is rather similar to the great blocking high that lodged over Scandinavia for weeks in 2018, giving us the most extreme drought on record in much of northern Europe."
The exact mechanism by which climate change affects the jet stream isn't understood. But the view is that as the Arctic warms, the temperature differences between the region and the mid-latitudes that drive the air current are reduced. This slows down the stream, making it wander further.
"The more CO2 we pump out, the more divergence starts to emerge between the behaviour of the Arctic and the mid-latitudes and this behaviour is accelerating and enhancing some of the differences. It is a crucial part of what is creating this waviness and the consequences," said Dr Tedesco.
The authors also argue that climate models in general need to take account of this impact of the wavy jet stream. Others in the field say this issue needs addressing.
"These results imply that the climate models we use for future projections of sea level rise from Greenland are underestimating the extreme years at present and therefore likely also the rate at which the ice sheet melts and the oceans will rise in the future," said Dr Mottram.
"The only ray of light is that as processor power increases and we can do higher resolution simulations with climate models, the representation of these processes does seem to improve and not just in Greenland but in other areas of the world where persistent blocking patterns can have an important influence on the season."
The study has been published in the journal The Cryosphere.

Source: By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent (BBC NEWS)
Date: 15 April 2020

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