Category: NOAA

  • Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued an alarming May forecast for the upcoming Atlantic storm season, predicting an increase in storms in a number of categories, including intense hurricanes. The report comes as the climate crisis, coupled with El Niño/La Niña weather phenomena, has already resulted in an increase of devastating natural disasters across the…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • After a year of ocean heat waves and unprecedented temperatures off the coast of Florida that alarmed conservationists last summer, the world is currently experiencing a “global coral reef bleaching event,” the fourth ever recorded and the second in the past decade, according to climate scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Coral reef bleaching occurs as warming…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Climate scientists on Friday said the rapidly rising temperature of the planet’s oceans is cause for major concern, particularly as policymakers in the top fossil fuel emissions-producing countries show no sign of ending planet-heating oil and gas extraction. The European Union’s climate agency, Copernicus Climate Change Service, reported this week that the average daily global ocean surface…

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  • Driven primarily by human activities including fossil fuel extraction, methane levels in the atmosphere had their fourth-largest annual increase in 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday.

    Scientists detected 1,911.9 parts per billion (ppb) of methane in the atmosphere last year, indicating a rise of 14 ppb. The level rose by 17.75 ppb in 2021 and 15.20 ppb the previous year.

    Benjamin Poulter, a scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), told the Associated Press that researchers are “confident that over half of the methane emissions are coming from human activities like oil and gas extraction, agriculture, waste management, and landfills.”

    Responding to pressure from experts and climate campaigners, policymakers and corporations in recent years have made pledges to reduce carbon emissions, but scientists have begun to push for more policies focused on slashing the release of methane into the environment, due to the gas’ ability to trap heat over a short period of time.

    Methane can trap about 87 times more heat than carbon dioxide in its first two decades in the atmosphere.

    Responding to NOAA’s report on atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, Sierra Club campaigner Jens Wieting said that “allowing any new fossil fuel projects, more fracking, and [liquefied natural gas] is an unspeakable climate crime.”

    The report comes a month after The Guardian revealed that more than 1,000 “super-emitter” incidents, in which projects leak at least one tonne of methane per hour, were detected worldwide last year, mainly at oil and gas facilities.

    About 26% of the planetary heating that is attributed to human activity is caused by methane emissions from sources such as landfills, livestock, and oil and gas extraction, Duke University professor Drew Shindell told the AP Thursday.

    Experts also warn that fossil fuel emissions have led to a feedback loop in which the planet itself is releasing more methane due to hotter conditions.

    “If this rapid rise is wetlands and natural systems responding to climate change, then that’s very frightening because we can’t do much to stop it,” Shindell told the AP. “If methane leaks from the fossil fuels sector, then we can make regulations. But we can’t make regulations on what swamps do.”

    Policymakers must take action to cut the methane emissions that can be reduced, said NOAA.

    “The time is now,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad in a statement, “to address greenhouse gas pollution and to lower human-caused emissions as we continue to build toward a climate-ready nation.”

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams.



  • Whales are the biggest creatures on earth, but they are no match for a supertanker. In recent months there has been a rash of whales washed up on U.S. shores, with broken backs or other mortal injury.

    These known deaths are only a fraction of the true toll. Most of the carcasses sink at sea and are never discovered.

    But, by all indications, collisions between whales and ships are on the rise, devastating whale populations. At least three large whale species in U.S. waters are on the brink of extinction, with more listed as endangered. These would be the planet’s first large whale species lost in modern history.

    The leading cause of death for many of these species is preventable ship strikes. And these deaths are expected to continue growing due to a number of causes. First, global trade has grown almost exponentially driving a huge growth in ship traffic in the world’s oceans. Today, there are an estimated four times as many ships at sea than just three decades ago.

    Second, this increasing cargo traffic is carried by bigger ships travelling through coastal waters that are primary whale habitats. Since 2006, the size of the largest container ships has more than doubled. Many of today’s ships are so big that they do not know that they have struck a whale. Both the size of ships and cargo volume are both projected to continue spiraling upward

    At the same time, containership speeds have steadily grown with speeds now averaging between 20 to 25 knots.

    These factors combine to devastating effect. Whales seem to rely on last‐second avoidance. Almost all ships are quieter at lower speeds. Quieter seas allow marine life more leeway to communicate for their essential life functions. The cumulative probability of detecting one of the available “cues” of whale’s presence (and direction of travel) decreases with increased ship-to-whale distances. Moreover, a big ship creates a “bow null effect” that blocks engine noise by the bow, creating a quiet zone in front of the vessel, leaving a whale unaware of the pending threat.

    The net result of thousands of massive ships crisscrossing waters which are prime whale habitat is that many of our busiest coastal shipping routes have become death traps. For example, the Southern California shipping lanes to San Francisco cover the two busiest hubs in California and, not coincidentally, are also two epicenters of whale mortality from ship strikes.

    Despite looming extinctions of whale populations and increasing vulnerability of whales to ship strikes in U.S. waters, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration lacks a coherent strategy for avoidance of these collisions. Instead, the U.S. has a piecemeal approach, limited by certain species and in certain areas.

    In the absence of mandatory restrictions in much of U.S. waters, NOAA and other authorities have depended on voluntary measures, with mixed success. For example, a new analysis of automated ship tracking data shows that nearly 90 percent of vessels transiting mandatory speed zones to protect the highly endangered North Atlantic right whales are violating the speed limits.

    In the San Francisco area, cooperation rates with NOAA’s voluntary speed limits have been hovering around 62 percent for the last three years, with compliance varying by company. Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, has slowed down 79 percent of the time in the Santa Barbara Channel. But ships operated by Matson, a major Pacific shipper, slowed only 16 percent of the time.

    Similarly, collision avoidance techniques are mostly voluntary, and these programs are widely ignored by shippers. But these voluntary efforts do demonstrate that application of active whale avoidance techniques by large ships is feasible. Yet the effectiveness of these measures requires some form of mandatory enforcement to ensure widespread compliance.

    Last year, Congress directed NOAA to establish a near real-time monitoring and mitigation program to reduce the risk to large cetaceans posed by vessel strikes. My organization is proposing a plan to NOAA that directly responds to this congressional direction. We urge the creation of Whale Safety Zones for all large ships entering or leaving U.S. ports or transiting marine sanctuaries and monuments. While in these Whales Safety Zones, these ships must reduce their speed and take other whale avoidance measures that studies show sharply reduces whale mortality when applied.

    International law recognizes the interest of nations in protection of its living marine resources, including rare and endangered species, and the U.S. has the legal ability to impose speed restrictions.

    What is required, however, is the political will to adopt mandatory safety measures that will be effective in stemming the rising tide of preventable whale deaths. Unless NOAA acts in a comprehensive fashion we fear the nation will witness the onset of a cascade of whale extinctions.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams.



  • The Biden administration on Friday denied an emergency petition aimed at protecting critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from being struck and killed by ships in their calving grounds off the southeastern coast of the United States.

    Conservation groups in November asked the National Marine Fisheries Service to establish a rule that mirrors the agency’s yet-to-be-finalized proposal to set speed limits for vessels longer than 34 feet and expand the areas where speed limits apply.

    As the petitioners—the Center for Biological Diversity, the Conservation Law Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, and Whale and Dolphin Conservation—explained, such a regulation “would have helped prevent incidents like the 2021 boat collision that killed a right whale calf off Florida and likely fatally injured its mother.”

    The species’ precipitous population decline has continued year after year. Scientists recently estimated that only 340 North Atlantic right whales remain, including just 70 reproductive females that give birth every three to 10 years.

    “I’m outraged that the Biden administration won’t shield these incredibly endangered whales from lethal ship strikes,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This is an extinction-level emergency. Every mother right whale and calf is critical to the survival of the species.”

    According to the petitioners, the federal agency responsible for stewarding the nation’s marine resources said that it lacks the funds and staff necessary “to effectively implement the emergency regulations.”

    Officials from the fisheries service, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), claim that “they are working with vessel operators to get voluntary slow-downs,” the petitioners added, “but voluntary efforts have not proved effective in the past.”

    “NOAA has dragged its feet on updating the vessel speed rule for over a decade… The agency’s decision not to take emergency action to protect mothers and calves puts the species’ entire future at risk.”

    Defenders of Wildlife senior attorney Jane Davenport noted that “right whales have journeyed to the Southeast since time immemorial to birth and nurse their calves in the safety of warm, shallow waters.”

    “But the calving grounds have become killing grounds,” said Davenport. “NOAA has dragged its feet on updating the vessel speed rule for over a decade; right whale mothers and calves have paid for this delay with their lives. The agency’s decision not to take emergency action to protect mothers and calves puts the species’ entire future at risk.”

    Existing regulations require ships longer than 64 feet to slow to 10 knots or less to safeguard right whales in certain areas at specific times. The fisheries service has acknowledged that bolstering its vessel speed rule is essential to prevent the species’ extinction.

    Vessel strikes are one of two leading threats to right whales’ existence. The other key danger is entanglement in commercial fishing equipment.

    Friday’s rejection of stronger vessel speed limits comes just weeks after Congress enacted a policy rider that gives the fisheries service until 2028 to issue a new regulation requiring the lobster industry to reduce right whale entanglements. Conservationists condemned federal lawmakers’ move to postpone action in spite of a court decision deeming the service’s current rule unlawful, saying that the yearslong delay is almost certain to doom the species to extinction.

    Entanglement in lobster fishing gear kills an estimated four right whales per year—six times higher than the rate considered biologically sustainable. Non-fatal entanglements can also result in illness and interfere with reproduction.

    Monsell said Friday that Congress’ betrayal last month makes “protecting right whales from vessel strikes… even more crucial.”

    Erica Fuller, senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, expressed disappointment that “the government declined to take immediate action to protect these mothers and newborn calves, and instead chose to continue longstanding bureaucratic practices with a species that can’t afford a single death of another breeding female.”

    “The whole world is watching how NOAA plans to save this species,” said Fuller.

    As the petitioners explained:

    Right whales begin giving birth to calves around mid-November, and the season lasts until mid-April. Their calving grounds are off the southeastern coast from Cape Fear, North Carolina, to below Cape Canaveral, Florida. Pregnant females and mothers with nursing calves are especially at risk of vessel strikes because they spend so much time near the water’s surface. Scientists know of no other calving grounds for the right whale.

    “The road to a declining right whale population has been paved by the agency delaying or reducing needed actions,” said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation. “Denying our petition to take emergency action only increases the likelihood that even more drastic actions will be needed moving forward.”

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams.

  • Environmental activists from Extinction Rebellion march from Trafalgar Square during the first day of Impossible Rebellion protests on August, 23, 2021 in London, United Kingdom.

    Bolstering the case for meaningful climate action, a major report released Wednesday found that Earth’s atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and sea levels both hit record highs in 2020.

    Based on the contributions of more than 530 scientists from over 60 countries and compiled by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), State of the Climate in 2020 is the 31st installment of the leading annual evaluation of the global climate system.

    “The major indicators of climate change,” officials from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information pointed out in a statement, “continued to reflect trends consistent with a warming planet. Several markers such as sea level, ocean heat content, and permafrost once again broke records set just one year prior.”

    “Annual global surface temperatures were 0.97°–1.12°F (0.54°–0.62°C) above the 1981–2010 average” in 2020, said NOAA, making last year one of the three warmest on record “even with a cooling La Niña influence in the second half of the year.”

    Last year was the warmest on record without an El Niño effect, and “new high-temperature records were set across the globe,” NOAA said. The agency added that the past seven years (2014-2020) had been the seven warmest on record.

    Although the coronavirus-driven economic slowdown resulted in an estimated 6% to 7% reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2020, the global average atmospheric concentration of CO2 increased to a record high of 412.5 parts per million. The atmospheric concentrations of other major greenhouse gases (GHG), including methane and nitrous oxide, also continued to climb to record highs last year despite the pandemic.

    According to NOAA, last year’s CO2 concentration “was 2.5 parts per million greater than 2019 amounts and was the highest in the modern 62-year measurement record and in ice core records dating back as far as 800,000 years.” Moreover, “the year-over-year increase of methane (14.8 parts per billion) was the highest such increase since systematic measurements began.”

    In addition, global sea levels continued to rise, surpassing previous records.

    “For the ninth consecutive year,” said NOAA, “global average sea level rose to a new record high and was about 3.6 inches (91.3 millimeters) higher than the 1993 average,” which is when satellite measurements began. As a result of melting glaciers and ice sheets, warming oceans, and other expressions of the climate crisis, the “global sea level is rising at an average rate of 1.2 inches (3.0 centimeter) per decade.”

    Other notable findings of the new report include:

    • Upper atmospheric temperatures were record or near-record setting;
    • Oceans absorbed a record amount of CO2, global upper ocean heat content reached a record high, and the global average sea surface temperature was the third highest on record;
    • The Arctic continued to warm at a faster pace than lower latitudes — resulting in a spike in carbon-releasing fires — and minimum sea ice extent was the second smallest in the 42-year satellite record;
    • Antarctica witnessed extreme heat and a record-long ozone hole; and
    • There were 102 named tropical storms during the Northern and Southern Hemisphere storm seasons, well above the 1981–2010 average of 85.

    In contrast to the release less than three weeks ago of the latest assessment from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warned that fossil fuel emissions are intensifying extreme weather disasters — provoking a flurry of reactions and even garnering a short-lived uptick in corporate media’s coverage of the climate emergency — NOAA’s new report was met with less fanfare.

    In one of the few early statements issued by members of Congress in response to the report, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) said that “scientists sounded the alarm on the climate crisis again.”

    “It is clear that without swift action, we can, unfortunately, expect to set new records like these every year,” said Johnson, chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. “The consequences of climate change impact every American — especially disadvantaged communities — across the country; from the devastating floods in Tennessee a few days ago to the record-breaking wildfires in the West.”

    “Building a better future for all means acting on climate now,” the lawmaker added. “This situation is urgent, but it’s not hopeless. We have an opportunity to lead the global response in the fight against the climate crisis — we cannot afford to waste it.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.