Climate of the Present

Breathing life into a d(r)ying lake in northwest Iran

P. Saemian ^a, O. Elmi ^a, B.D. Vishwakarma ^b, M.J. Tourian ^a, N. Sneeuw ^a
^aUniversity of Stuttgart, Institute of Geodesy (GIS), Germany
^bBristol Glaciology Center, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, UK
August 6, 2020

Figure 1: (a) A ship about forty meters long lies stuck on a salty sandbank right in the center of Lake Urmia (photographed by Sebastian Castelier). (b) The same ship this time floats on the water after nearly 20 years.

Lake Urmia, in Northwest Iran, was once the most extensive and permanent hypersaline lake (salinity >> of ocean) in the world. Since 1995, the lake water level has dropped about 8 m, shrinking to less than 30% of its original surface area and losing more than 90% of its water volume over two decades [1]. Unsustainable water management in response to increasing demand together with climatic e ...[Read More]

Glacier retreat and music

Hans Oerlemans¹ and Felix Keller²
¹Utrecht University (The Netherlands) and Technical University of Graubünden (Switzerland); correspondence: j.oerlemans@uu.nl ²Technical University of Graubünden and Academia Engiadina (Switzerland)
July 20, 2020

Photograph of the Pers glacier (left) and Morteratsch glacier (right) in Switzerland. You can also see Piz Bernina (4049 m) on the right side and a small glacier with fleece cover on the left (Diavolezza firn). Photocredits: Christine Levy (Academia Engiadina), who took the photo on 1st August 2017 from a glider.

In virtually all parts of the world glaciers are retreating, and this is often considered to be one of the clearest signs of global warming (e.g. Leclercq and J Oerlemans, 2011). Glaciers started to shrink in the second half of the 19th century and, apart from some minor interruptions, this development has continued until today. Over the past hundred years glacier melt has made a significant contr ...[Read More]

Hurricane COVID-19: What can COVID-19 tell us about tackling climate change?

Gaby S. Langendijk¹ and Marisol Osman ²
1. Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Hamburg, Germany.
2. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera (CIMA), UMI-IFAECI (CNRS), Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
April 16, 2020

Image has been compiled by authors. Hurricane Image Credit: NASA Goddard Rapid Response Team. COVID-19 Virus Image Credit: Pixabay royalty free images.

Note by the editors: In the unique period our world is currently facing, we have decided to open our blog to hear the voices of our young climate scientists from around the globe. This is an opinion piece provided by two early career climatologists from Argentina and the Netherlands. I just arrived at home with a bunch of groceries from the supermarket after encountering some very empty shelves. I ...[Read More]

Are the risks of zoonotic diseases rising in the Anthropocene due to climate change?

Ichiko Sugiyama, Ph.D. Candidate in the Faculty of Chemistry in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel March 16, 2020

The recent coronavirus outbreak (i.e., nCovID-19; Fig. 1) has caused global panic, along with widespread travel bans, home quarantines and country-wide lockdowns. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared nCoVID-19 as a pandemic as of March 11th, 2020 (WHO, 2020). To tackle this global health crisis, scientists are attempting to synthesize a vaccine, while countries are trying to mitigate the n ...[Read More]