WCS coral expert finds that some reefs were less sensitive to warming water over time

A new WCS study reveals evidence that some corals are adapting to warming ocean waters - potentially good news in the face of recent reports of global coral die offs due to extreme warm temperatures in 2016. The study appears in the latest issue of Marine Ecology Progress Series.

The study looked at responses to extreme temperature exposures in the same reefs over time, and found less coral bleaching in 11 of the 21 coral species studied. WCS Senior Conservation Zoologist Tim McClanahan, who has been studying coral responses to climate change since the extreme temperatures of the1998 El Nino, authored the study.

The study took place in two marine national parks of Kenya. Looking at two similarly severe warming events in 1998 and 2016, McClanahan found that the number of pale and bleached coral colonies declined from 73 to 27 percent, and 96 to 60 percent in the two parks with different background temperatures. Most of this change was due to about half of the most common species that did not bleach strongly in 2016. One rare species was, however, more sensitive than in 1998.

The final piece of the puzzle to confirm the Mini Ice Age crop losses have begun and we are indeed transiting into this society changing event was today May 02, as the US lost 20 million acres of wheat due to cold, wind and snow damage. It's now a balancing act of small producers to make up for large producer losses.

The emotions you are feeling is a combination of a step up in the Schumann Resonance of our Earth and the electrical intensification from our Sun during the last solar storm with blue and white auroras.

Other countries lost wheat production as well, but some gained, although the US and Russia are the two main global producers. Losses from this point will mount along with global food price increases.

The Mini Ice Age has begun today!


Sources

Record cold temperatures for the end of April. Farmers worry the next blast could be even colder. Safrinha corn needs to be frost free until at least early June to avoid potential damage.

28 April - According to the Brazilian National Institute of Meteorologia, temperatures in the higher elevations of the state of Santa Catarina fell to -1.1°C (30°F) on Thursday morning.

Temperatures all across southern Brazil are expected to set record lows below 10°C (50°F) for the next several nights in all of three state capitals including Curitiba in Parana, Florianopolis in Santa Catarina, and Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul. The low temperatures Friday night in the state of Parana could drop to -5°C (23°F) in higher elevations with the possibility of frosts across the state until Sunday night.

Leave it to a researcher who studies icy moons in the outer solar system to come up with an out-there scheme to restore vanishing sea ice in the Arctic.

Ice is a good insulator, says Steven Desch, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University in Tempe. That's why moons such as Jupiter's Europa and Saturn's Enceladus, among others, may be able to maintain liquid oceans beneath their thick icy surfaces. On Earth, sea ice is much thinner, but the physics is the same. Ice grows on the bottom surface of floating floes. As the water freezes, it releases heat that must make its way up through the ice before escaping into the air. The thicker the ice, the more heat gets trapped, which slows down ice formation. That's bad news for the Arctic, where ice helps keep the planet cool but global warming is causing ice to melt faster than it can be replaced.

The answer to making thicker ice more quickly? Suck up near-freezing water from under the ice and pump it directly onto the ice's surface during the long polar winter. There, the water would freeze more quickly than underneath the ice, where it usually forms.In theory, Desch says, the pumps used for this top-down approach to ice growth could be driven by technology no more sophisticated than the windmills that have long provided water to farms and ranches on the Great Plains.

Desch and colleagues envision putting such pumps on millions of buoys throughout the Arctic. During winter, each pump would be capable of building an additional layer of sea ice up to 1 meter thick over an area of about 100,000 square meters...

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Now is the time to begin detailed designs and build prototypes, Desch says. The Arctic Ocean's end-of-summer sea ice coverage has decreased, on average, more than 13 percent per decade since 1979. "There'll be a time, 10 to 15 years from now, when Arctic sea ice will be accelerating to oblivion, and there'll be political will to do something about climate change," Desch says. "We need to have this figured out by the time people are ready to do something."

Science News

NOAA has just updated its coastal sea level rise tide gauge data including actual measurements through year 2016 which continues to show no evidence of coastal sea level rise acceleration.

These measurements include tide gauge data coastal locations for 25 West Coast, Gulf Coast and East Coast states along the Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, 7 Pacific island groups and 6 Atlantic island groups comprising more than 200 measurement stations.

The longest NOAA tide gauge data coastal sea level rise measurement record is at The Battery in New York with its 160 year long data record showing a steady rate of sea level rise of about 11 inches per century.

Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula has long been touted by supporters of the theory man is destroying the planet by using fossil fuels as proof of the dangers of global warming. Al Gore, the face of the world-is-going-to-end climate movement, has visited Antarctica on at least two occasions to highlight the alleged problem.

"This prediction has proven true," Gore wrote about the claim Antarctica would warm faster than the global average. "Today, the West Antarctic Peninsula is warming about four times faster than the global average."

Alarmists say the melting of ice sheets in Antarctica will cause massive problems for the rest of the world. For example, left-wing website ThinkProgress wrote in 2012, "Although the vast ice sheets of the frozen continent are remote from almost all of human civilization, their warming has drastic implications for billions of people. With the melting of those almost inconceivable reserves of ice, the planet's sea levels are rising. Scientists now expect 21st-century sea level rise — on the scale of three to six feet or more — will be dominated by the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps."

Climate realists have rightfully pointed out the evidence shows total ice accumulation on Antarctica has outweighed losses, a claim bolstered by a 2015 NASA study, which found, "An increase in Antarctic snow accumulation that began 10,000 years ago is currently adding enough ice to the continent to outweigh the increased losses from its thinning glaciers." But even many climate change skeptics have accepted some significant parts of Antarctica are warming.

One of the latest blizzards on record in the western USA cancels the Global Warming protest march in Denver. All at the same time Al Gore now asks the world to give up another $15 Trillion to stop a 2C temperature rise.


Sources

The thunderstorms sweeping across the state from the west hit the Big Island on Sunday, leaving significant rainfall totals in some spots and a dusting of snow atop Mauna Kea.

The two sites recording the most rainfall in the 24-hour period ending at 4:45 p.m. were both on the leeward side — Kealakomo with 2.7 inches and Saddle Quarry with 2.23 inches. Other significant leeward rainfall totals include: Pali 2, 1.75 inches; Kaupulehu, 1.28 inches; Kealakekua, 1.18 inches; Kahuku Ranch, 1.14 inches. Kona International Airport reported .46 inch.

The wettest windward gauges were: Pahoa, 1.49 inches; Laupahoehoe, 1.47 inches; and Papaikou Well, 1.21. inches.

A flash flood watch is posted through tonight at 6 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

Blizzard conditions and heavy snow swept western Kansas, including 14 to 20 inches in Colby in the northwestern quadrant of the No. 1 winter wheat state in the nation, said the Weather Channel. "We lost the western Kansas wheat crop this weekend. Just terrible," tweeted Justin Gilpin, chief executive of the grower-funded Kansas Wheat Commission.

The snow and freezing weather struck a winter wheat crop that was developing faster than usual, thanks to a mild winter. As a result, the crop was more vulnerable to spring snowfalls and frost. "Generally, temps below 32°F. for a minimum of about two hours will cause damage to the crop," says the Kansas Wheat Commission. "Freeze injury during heading and flowering stages can cause severe yield consequences." A quarter of the wheat crop was headed as of April 23, compared with the five-year average of 17%.

"Most of @KansasWheat country shut down and no power. Devastating conditions," Gilpin tweeted on Sunday afternoon. Some comments on Twitter were more hopeful: "Don't give up yet," said one, and, "Much-needed moisture but wheat will be flat on the ground when the snow melts."

h/t Breitbart - The People's Climate March rally in Colorado Springs, scheduled for April 29th, was postponed due to heavy snowfall and treacherous conditions.

Winter Blast Putting Climate Protests On Ice In Colorado
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Organized by groups seeking to ban the production of oil, natural gas, and coal, including 350.org, Sierra Club, and NextGen Climate, the "People's Climate March" is occurring tomorrow in Washington, D.C., and cities across the country to protest the Trump administration's environmental policies.

With the Washington protest reportedly expected to draw tens of thousands of attendees, hundreds of "sister marches" are planned for cities across the country. But one out of the twelve protests in Colorado has already been postponed due to an impending snowstorm. The National Weather Service's winter storm warning projects six to 12 inches of snow, but there is potential for up to two feet in the Denver Metro Area.

"Sometimes Mother Nature throws you a curveball!" 350 Colorado Springs wrote in a Facebook page earlier this afternoon. "Dangerous conditions and wet heavy snow in the forecast for tomorrow. Stay safe and warm and join us Sunday afternoon same time and place!!"

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Read more: Winter Blast Putting Climate Protests On Ice In Colorado