Category: Research

Australia Fires: Climate Change Increases The Risk Of Wildfires

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UK researchers examined 57 research papers published since the last major review of climate science in 2013 and they find climate change increases the risk of wildfires. The scientists say the recent fires in Australia are a taste of what the world will experience as temperatures rise.

“The average temperature in Australia in December 2019 was exceptionally hot compared to the historical record, and played a key role in the severity and spread of the recent bushfires. Those temperatures would be normal at nearly 3C global warming.”

–Richard Betts, Chair in Climate Impacts at the University of Exeter and Head of Climate Impacts in the Met Office Hadley Centre

Reshaping Earth In Profound, Unsustainable Ways

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In 2016, the world moved permanently above 400 parts per million. The 400 ppm milestone is a symbolic and necessary reminder that we, as humans, are reshaping Earth in profound and unsustainable ways.

The Keeling Curve, named for scientist Charles David Keeling, is a graph that shows the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. Keeling’s measurements showed the first significant evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere.

NASA, with its carbon monitoring system, shows the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere decreases in the spring and summer. In spring and summer, plants in the oceans and on land pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. In the fall and winter, CO2 increases because plants and animals release the carbon dioxide that captured during the growing season.

Since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve been burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, or natural gas) for energy. Fuels release into the atmosphere significantly faster than the plants in the oceans and on the land can take out the CO2. This is moving the Keeling curve up.