TWH – Several recent news stories provide updated information about the continued, and in some cases escalated, impact of climate change. Burning and deforestation have caused parts of the Amazonian rainforest to release more carbon dioxide than it stores.
In the Northern Hemisphere, this summer has brought extreme heat events. Those heat events have, in turn, triggered wildfires.
In the past, volcanic eruptions have caused cooling “volcanic winters.” For small and medium-sized eruptions, climate change may prevent those cooling events. A recent study examined how past climate change affected the invention of agriculture.
The Amazonian Rainforest
A carbon sink, like a forest, absorbs and stores more carbon dioxide than it releases. In climate change, burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide into the air. When a carbon sink extracts carbon from the air, it mitigates the effect of too much carbon in the air.
For the last nine years, researchers have routinely tested four areas in the Amazonian rainforest, measuring the changes in carbon emissions and absorption over time.
According to a study published by the journal Nature and reported on by NPR, the southeastern Amazonian rainforest has ceased to be a carbon sink. It has begun to release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than it absorbs. Fires and deforestation in the southeastern Amazonian rainforest have driven this reversal.
The dry season in the eastern Amazonian rainforest has become increasingly arid and has also lasted longer. NPR ascribed this excess aridness and warmth to the effects of climate change that have already occurred.
Heatwaves
In mid-July, the BBC aired a segment that examined two heatwaves. On occurred in late June 2021, the second took place in early to mid-July. New high records for temperatures were set for the Pacific Northwest of the US and Canada.
Canada saw its highest ever temperature of 49.6o C (121.3o F). Another heatwave struck Death Valley in southern California. It set a record of 54.4o C (129.9o F).
Heatwaves are created by heat domes that intensify temperatures and are held in place by the jet stream. These factors contribute to the frequency and intensity of wildfires. Areas like the U.S. West have a dry season during the summer which is already hot and dry. The rising temperatures of climate change will aggravate that heat and aridity, increases fire risk.
Since April, over 1,000 wildfires have occurred in western Canada and the western U.S. As of press time, European wildfires have occurred in Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Italy, Siberia, Spain, and Turkey. ABC News has reported that the wildfires in Siberia are larger than those in the rest of the world.
Forest fire in California; credit Bureau of Land Management, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
In the U.S., wildfires are occurring in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. The Bootleg Fire in Oregon has generated its own clouds and thunderstorms, effectively creating its own weather pattern. In Canada, wildfires are occurring in British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario.
According to The Guardian, another heatwave struck the Pacific Northwest in mid-August. In the heatwave of June, temperatures soared to 46.7o C (116o F) in Portland, and on August 12, temperatures in Portland, Oregon rose to 39.4o C (103o F). In the past, Portland’s August temperatures have ranged from 26.5o C (80o F) to 32.2o C (90o F).
In the June heatwave, 96 people from the state of Oregon died. Of that number, 60 came from Portland.
“Only” about 70% of Portland homes have air conditioning, admittedly a First World problem. Among U.S. cities, Portland ranks third from the bottom in the presence of air conditioning. Not everyone in Portland regularly sleeps indoors. For the homeless, a heat emergency can become a health emergency.
Portland’s mayor declared a state of emergency and opened cooling centers in the city. In those centers, people can access beds, food, water, and other necessities.
Volcanic Eruptions
The website Phys.Org reported that researchers from the U.K. found that climate change could also lessen the cooling effects of volcanic eruptions.
Eruption of Stromboli (Isole Eolie/Italia) – Image credit: Wolfgangbeyer – CC BY-SA 3.0
Those eruptions tend to have a cooling effect by spewing debris, such as ash and gas, into the stratosphere. That debris can remain there for years, decreasing the amount of sunlight reaching the earth. Lessened sunlight disrupts the photosynthesis of plants, limiting their growth.
According to U.K. researchers, higher temperatures will change the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere. Those high temperatures will push it upwards.
Small and medium-sized volcanic eruptions will lack the power to push debris beyond that new boundary. In the troposphere, precipitation will rapidly remove the debris from those smaller eruptions. The U.K. researchers estimated that climate change would cause a 75% reduction in the effect of those frequent eruptions. Small and medium volcanic eruptions tend to occur most often.
In contrast, climate change could increase the cooling effect of large volcanic eruptions. They will have the power to push their debris beyond that boundary, and the debris will go right into the stratosphere. Once there, the debris can last for years. Large eruptions occur less often than small or medium-sized eruptions.
Climate change in the past – Japan
In late July 2021, Ritsumeikan University reported that prehistoric climate change led to a more stable climate. That more stable climate enabled the development of agriculture.
This research project examined pollen fossils from 16,000 B.C.E. to 8,000 B.C.E from the sediments of Lake Suigetsu in Japan. It found that plant domestication occurred during a relatively warm and stable period.
After the Ice Age, periods of climatic stability alternated with periods of climatic instability. The warm period began in 13,000 B.C.E. The climate stabilized about 1,000 years later. It was during this latter period that people began to domesticate plants in Japan.
The researchers theorized that agriculture involves planning ahead. Planting precedes harvesting. Without a stable future, planning becomes impossible. In times of an unstable climate, hunting, and gathering may have been a more adaptive strategy than agriculture.
Update to troubled waters
The Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County has issued a Health Alert in the Lake Okeechobee/Pahokee area due to the presence of toxic blue-green algae blooms in the waters.
Blue-green algae naturally occur in freshwater in Florida. Excess nutrients and warmth can cause blue-green algae to grow rapidly. This rapid and sudden growth of algae disrupts the ecological balance, as well as discoloring the water and producing an unpleasant aroma.
The toxins can be harmful to marine life as well as humans. The DOH urges people to avoid swimming, wading, boating, and water skiing in the waters with those blooms. This alert only concerns surface recreational water. These toxins pose no threat to drinking tap water.
As countries and governments have grappled with how to effectively address climate change, the impacts have ceased to be in the future but happening now. Human populations and governments may have moved from the efforts of preventing the effects of climate change to assessing how to adapt and survive them.
The Wild Hunt is not responsible for links to external content.
To join a conversation on this post:
Visit our The Wild Hunt subreddit! Point your favorite browser to https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Wild_Hunt_News/, then click “JOIN”. Make sure to click the bell, too, to be notified of new articles posted to our subreddit.