[GWSG] State of Greenland; smoke waves; E Ant. lakes; Larsen C cracking; FEMA reconstruction limits; g,w, back to 1830

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Jason Box, now in his 25th year of studying Greenland, describes its condition in a twelve-minute interview on Danish TV.  https://climatecrocks.com/2016/08/20/this-glacier-has-lost-its-wings/



2.  Increasing heat will support increasing fires, which will produce more smoke waves bearing dangerous levels of pollutants.  http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/08/17/report-deadly-smoke-waves-will-inundate-west-wildfires-grow?cmpid=tpnews-eml-%21_WEEKLY_NEWSLETTER_HORIZON



3.  Large numbers of lakes have begun to appear on the East Antarctic glacial surface in the past few years.  Similar lake in Greenland have been linked to accelerating melt rates (now at a five-year doubling).  https://climatecrocks.com/2016/08/22/beautiful-and-ominous-lakes-developing-in-east-antarctica/



4.  An eighty-mile crack is increasing in Larsen C, an ice shelf as large as Scotland.  The shelf will probably lose a Delaware-size chunk of floating ice in the next few years, but the eventual impact on sea level rise as the ice sheet behind it slips more readily into the water is disputed.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/08/22/a-huge-crack-is-spreading-across-one-of-antarcticas-biggest-ice-shelves/?utm_term=.bbd105510f72



5.  A proposed FEMA rule would limit federal support for construction to projects at least two feet above the 100-year flood line, and for larger projects such as hospitals, to yet higher areas, perhaps as determined by scientifically grounded predictions of sea level rise for the life of the project.  The comment period ends Oct. 21.    http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160822/fema-seeks-to-move-construction-away-from-flood-zones  Coastal areas in Florida and other low-lying regions may not be eligible to use federal funds for reconstruction after a storm.



6.  New research shows that the burning of fossil fuels was already warming the climate by about 1830.  This sets a new baseline for anthropogenic warming, suggests that the atmosphere may be more sensitive to added carbon than we had thought, and may indicate that we are closer to dangerous levels of change than commonly assumed.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/08/24/human-caused-climate-change-has-been-happening-for-a-lot-longer-than-we-thought-scientists-say/?utm_term=.393f36002901  ?

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