Sweden calls for help as Arctic Circle hit by wildfires

18.07.18

News

Sweden calls for help as Arctic Circle hit by wildfires

Sweden has called for emergency assistance from its European Union partners to help deal with at least 11 separate wildfires that have broken out in the Arctic circle, the Guardian reports. The Guardian notes that never before has Sweden had to deal with wildfires over such a wide area and that blazes have also broken out further north in Greenland, Alaska, Siberia and Canada. Vincent Gauci, professor of global change ecology at the Open University, told the Guardian that the Arctic and other areas that were once relatively fire-free are likely to become more vulnerable. “These areas are typically mild and wet which allows forests and peatlands to develop quite large carbon stores,” he says. “When such carbon-dense ecosystems experience aridity and heat and there is a source of ignition – lightning or people – fires will happen.” A second story in the Guardian reports on a study finding that hundreds of glaciers in Canada’s high Arctic are shrinking and many are at risk of disappearing completely. The study, published last month in the Journal of Glaciology, finds that glaciers in the Ellesmere Island region shrunk by more than 1,700sq km over a 16-year period, representing a loss of about 6%.

EU-Japan trade deal first to carry Paris climate clause

Climate Home

The EU’s free trade deal with Japan is the first to include a specific provision on the Paris Agreement, Climate Home News reports. The bilateral trade deal noted that trade could make a “positive contribution” to the fight to stop global warming. The deal also said Japan and the EU would “strive to facilitate” trade in renewable energy and other low-carbon solutions.

Meat and dairy companies to surpass oil industry as world’s biggest polluters, report finds

The Independent

Meat and dairy production companies could be on track to becoming the world’s largest contributors to climate change, overtaking the fossil fuel industry, a new report says, according to the Independent. The report, which was conducted by non-profit organisations the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and GRAIN, finds that, under a “business as usual” scenario, the world’s 35 largest meat and dairy producers could account for 80% of the allowable greenhouse gas budget by 2050.

Fueled by Climate Change, Wildfires Erode Air Quality Gains

E&E News via Scientific American

In some parts of the US, global warming is making wildfires more likely, leading to falls in air quality in those same regions, according to a study. The research shows that wildfires, exacerbated by climate change, may drive spikes in PM2.5, a fine particulate matter generated by coal-burning power plants, cars and the manufacturing sector, among other sources.

Comment

With Pruitt gone, Trump and his allies continue to threaten the EPA

Editorial, Nature

An editorial in Nature says “scientists should be wary about celebrating [Scott] Pruitt’s exit” from the Environmental Protection Agency. The editorial argues that if “whoever takes on the job” is more productive than Pruitt, “Trump’s problematic policies are likely to have more impact, too. And that could spell more trouble for public health and the environment, not just in the United States but around the globe – at a time when a sound and evidence-based approach to both has never been so critical.”

Why the world is so excited about electric cars, in charts

Akshat Rathi, Quartz

Quartz presents three charts that show “why the world is so excited about electric cars”. The article draws on Carbon Brief analysis of the latest National Grid Future Energy Scenarios, which project that as many as 36m electric vehicles could be on UK roads by 2040. Meanwhile, an analysis by BBC News examines whether cars are losing favour among young people.

Science

Editorial for the Med-CORDEX special issue

Climate Dynamics

The journal Climate Dynamics has a special issue on the “Med-CORDEX” initiative that uses regional climate modelling to analyse the climate of the Mediterranean region. This editorial introduces the issue and outlines its contents, which includes articles on new reference datasets for regional climate model evaluation, assessment of the Med-CORDEX models, studies of the understanding of key regional climate or oceanic phenomena, as well as future climate change projections for the Mediterranean.

Understanding weather and climate of the last 300 years from ships’ logbooks

WIRES climate change

Ships’ logbooks are a “consistent, but underexploited, source of relevant climatic data that will widen our knowledge of the past climate,” says a new review paper. The researchers look at how ships’ logbooks provide “reliable information relevant to meteorology and climatology” of Europe going back to at least the early 18th century. The information contained in logbooks can help improve knowledge on weather extremes and modes of variability such as El Niño, the researchers say, as well as feed into long-term data reanalysis and the detection and attribution of climate change.

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