CONAHEC News and Information

Ocean waves getting more powerful, thanks to global warming, study says
Jeudi, jan. 31, 2019

Coastal residents, be advised. Not only is climate change causing the oceans to creep upward, it’s making the waves that pound the shore more powerful, according to new research.

Scientists studying the energy contained in ocean waves, which is measured by a metric called wave power, found that wave power has been increasing in direct association with the warming of the ocean surface.

The study was developed at the Environmental Hydraulics Institute at the University of Cantabria in Spain. The results were published last week in the journal Nature Communications.

NOAA posts cartoon which appears to challenge Trump's climate change skepticism
Mercredi, jan. 30, 2019

The day after President Trump posted a tweet suggesting extreme cold temperatures in the Midwest cast doubt on the existence of global warming, the climate service for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tweeted a cartoon explaining warming oceans result in more extreme winter weather.

Duke U. Administrator Steps Down After Telling International Students to Speak English on Campus
Mercredi, jan. 30, 2019

A Duke University administrator who advised graduate students by email to speak English while on the campus will step down immediately as director of graduate studies in biostatistics, the university announced. 

On Friday, Megan Neely, who is also an assistant professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics, emailed students in the program to report that two faculty members had asked her for pictures to identify graduate students. She said the professors wanted to identify some students who were speaking Chinese in a student lounge area.

Once derided, ways of adapting to climate change are gaining steam
Jeudi, jan. 24, 2019

From chronically flooded Midwestern towns to fire-charred California suburbs, from Bangladesh’s sodden delta to low island nations facing rising seas, a long-underplayed strategy for cutting risks related to human-driven climate change is coming to the fore—adaptation.

Through 30 years of efforts to limit global warming, the dominant goal was cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases, most importantly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. Efforts to adapt communities or agriculture to warming and the related rise in seas and other impacts were often seen as a copout.

An unexpected side effect of drought: Higher carbon emissions.
Jeudi, jan. 24, 2019

During the darkest days of the drought that has gripped the western U.S. since the early 2000s, fires raged and crops withered. Dust storms rolled across plains and valleys. And rivers shriveled from north to south.

But the drought had less obvious effects on climate and the environment, too: Low river flows drastically hampered the amount of carbon-free electricity that could be produced by the thousands of hydroelectric power plants dotted along rivers and reservoirs across the West.

(Learn more about how the West is drying out, slowly but surely.)

Why cold weather doesnÔÇÖt mean climate change is fake
Jeudi, jan. 24, 2019

A record-breaking cold snap is relentlessly descending on parts of the U.S. this month. It spawned from a split polar vortex that sent cold, Arctic air across the continent.

In a time when climate change is discussed in the context of record highs, droughts, and wildfires, cold weather and blizzards can seem out of place. For those who deny that climate change is happening, it's an opportunity to undermine scientific consensus.

How do you explain a cold winter in a world that scientists say is getting hotter?

Shutdown Headaches for University Researchers
Mercredi, jan. 23, 2019

Prolonged shutdown delays funding timeline for federal research grants and disrupts travel plans for many scientists. But the worst for research institutions could be ahead.

Mykle Hoban, a doctoral student at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, had planned to leave this week for a two-month stint at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Earth's Oceans Are Heating Up Much Faster Than We Thought, Warns New Report
Mercredi, jan. 23, 2019

A crucial analysis released Thursday reveals that the world’s oceans are not only warming but also that their rate of warming is accelerating — a lot faster than we thought. In the Science paper, newly available data on ocean heat demonstrates that since the ‘60s, ocean warming has been stronger and more consistent than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change previously reported. The consequences, scientists say, will be severe and long-lasting, but human action can still mitigate how bad the outcome will be.

Cities Are Tucking Climate Fixes Into New Laws
Mercredi, jan. 23, 2019

JAKE ANDEREGG, THE Utah state senator representing Salt Lake City and Provo, didn’t actually mean to fight climate change. It was sort of an accident. As in a lot of places in the US, housing in Anderegg’s district is growing scarce and more expensive. So he’s pushing a proposal that would inject money into loans for constructing more housing, especially near transit corridors.

This Could Be The Biggest Scandal Of The Climate Change Era
Mercredi, jan. 23, 2019

Governments and businesses habitually set out emergency response plans to protect their economies, jobs, cities and other crucial assets from potential disaster. Yet when it comes to climate change ― the biggest, most urgent threat the world faces ― there is no emergency plan.

On the issue of our lifetime, countries can agree very little. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2019 published last Tuesday found that increasing divisions between the world’s major powers is the most urgent global risk we face because it stymies vital collective action on climate change.

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