Italy's Ventina glacier has melted so much geologists now can only monitor it remotely
After this year's hot summer , geologists discovered that the simple stakes used as benchmarks to measure the glacier's retraction each year are now buried under rockslides and debris that have made the terrain too unsteady for future in-person visits.
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CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Trump admin strips ocean and air pollution monitoring from next-gen weather satellites
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is narrowing the capabilities and reducing the number of next-generation weather and climate satellites it plans to build and launch in the coming decades, two people familiar with the plans told CNN. This move — which comes as hurricane season ramps up with Erin lashing the East Coast — fits a pattern in which the Trump administration is seeking to not only slash climate pollution rules, but also reduce the information collected about the pollution in the first place. Critics of the plan also say it's a short-sighted attempt to save money at the expense of understanding the oceans and atmosphere better. Two planned instruments, one that would measure air quality, including pollution and wildfire smoke, and another that would observe ocean conditions in unprecedented detail, are no longer part of the project, the sources said. 'This administration has taken a very narrow view of weather,' one NOAA official told CNN, noting the jettisoned satellite instruments could have led to better enforcement and regulations on air pollution by more precisely measuring it. The cost of the four satellites, known as the Geostationary Extended Observations, nicknamed GeoXO, would be lower than originally spelled out under the Biden administration, at a maximum of $500 million per year for a total of $12 billion, but some scientists say the cheaper up-front price would come at a cost to those who would have benefited from the air and oceans data. 'Our information will be less rich, and our understanding of the whole phenomenon of a hurricane event, or of a fire event or of a drought event will be lesser because we don't have these context information instruments adding real time, integrated understanding of the events,' the official stated. Both instruments were already contracted to BAE Systems, which could now charge cancelation fees. The changes are aimed at curtailing costs and are due in part to the perception that some of the instruments were going to be focused on gathering data to study climate change. According to a Trump administration budget document, weather forecasting should be the 'exclusive' focus of the satellites. In addition to the reduced number of instruments, NOAA is now only building four satellites as part of the constellation, rather than six, with the first set to launch in 2032. Having fewer satellites in the sky means less redundancy and raises the risk of critical data outages, the NOAA official stated. 'It's gambling with the continuity of an operational system that we've relied on since the early 70s,' they said. The satellite series is meant to be the successor to the GOES satellites, which provide a wealth of data for weather forecasting, with the first launch set for 2032 and service lasting through 2055. CNN has contacted NOAA for comment. The atmospheric composition instrument, for example, would have enabled scientists to more precisely measure air pollutants, which could help reduce health risks from wildfire smoke events. It would also enhance US capabilities to conduct air quality monitoring and forecasting, as well as keep tabs on emissions of greenhouse gases and the pollutants that form smog. The atmospheric composition instrument would have been beneficial for both NOAA's weather and climate missions, according to an assessment of the instrument's value that NOAA performed and was signed off on by the Commerce Department, which oversees NOAA. The instrument, the report said, 'is fundamental to understanding changes in air quality, the stratospheric ozone layer, and climate, as well as their corresponding impacts on human health and natural and engineered ecosystems.' The report warned that without the instrument on GeoXO, the US would risk falling behind other countries' air quality monitoring capabilities, jeopardizing America's longtime leadership in Earth observations. Also cut from the planned GeoXO series of satellites is an instrument that would measure ocean color, which could provide insights into fisheries populations, algal blooms, ocean productivity and water quality. While it is not unheard of for NOAA or Congress to alter major satellite series, given a history of cost and schedule overruns in NOAA satellite programs, cancelling already contracted instruments — and doing so in part due to the administration's determination to focus NOAA more narrowly on weather forecasting, and away from climate change observations and research — stands out. The Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 budget request would close NOAA's extensive research facilities, shutting down its greenhouse gas monitoring network, among others. Congress is currently considering that proposal.
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Trump admin strips ocean and air pollution monitoring from next-gen weather satellites
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is narrowing the capabilities and reducing the number of next-generation weather and climate satellites it plans to build and launch in the coming decades, two people familiar with the plans told CNN. This move — which comes as hurricane season ramps up with Erin lashing the East Coast — fits a pattern in which the Trump administration is seeking to not only slash climate pollution rules, but also reduce the information collected about the pollution in the first place. Critics of the plan also say it's a short-sighted attempt to save money at the expense of understanding the oceans and atmosphere better. Two planned instruments, one that would measure air quality, including pollution and wildfire smoke, and another that would observe ocean conditions in unprecedented detail, are no longer part of the project, the sources said. 'This administration has taken a very narrow view of weather,' one NOAA official told CNN, noting the jettisoned satellite instruments could have led to better enforcement and regulations on air pollution by more precisely measuring it. The cost of the four satellites, known as the Geostationary Extended Observations, nicknamed GeoXO, would be lower than originally spelled out under the Biden administration, at a maximum of $500 million per year for a total of $12 billion, but some scientists say the cheaper up-front price would come at a cost to those who would have benefited from the air and oceans data. 'Our information will be less rich, and our understanding of the whole phenomenon of a hurricane event, or of a fire event or of a drought event will be lesser because we don't have these context information instruments adding real time, integrated understanding of the events,' the official stated. Both instruments were already contracted to BAE Systems, which could now charge cancelation fees. The changes are aimed at curtailing costs and are due in part to the perception that some of the instruments were going to be focused on gathering data to study climate change. According to a Trump administration budget document, weather forecasting should be the 'exclusive' focus of the satellites. In addition to the reduced number of instruments, NOAA is now only building four satellites as part of the constellation, rather than six, with the first set to launch in 2032. Having fewer satellites in the sky means less redundancy and raises the risk of critical data outages, the NOAA official stated. 'It's gambling with the continuity of an operational system that we've relied on since the early 70s,' they said. The satellite series is meant to be the successor to the GOES satellites, which provide a wealth of data for weather forecasting, with the first launch set for 2032 and service lasting through 2055. CNN has contacted NOAA for comment. The atmospheric composition instrument, for example, would have enabled scientists to more precisely measure air pollutants, which could help reduce health risks from wildfire smoke events. It would also enhance US capabilities to conduct air quality monitoring and forecasting, as well as keep tabs on emissions of greenhouse gases and the pollutants that form smog. The atmospheric composition instrument would have been beneficial for both NOAA's weather and climate missions, according to an assessment of the instrument's value that NOAA performed and was signed off on by the Commerce Department, which oversees NOAA. The instrument, the report said, 'is fundamental to understanding changes in air quality, the stratospheric ozone layer, and climate, as well as their corresponding impacts on human health and natural and engineered ecosystems.' The report warned that without the instrument on GeoXO, the US would risk falling behind other countries' air quality monitoring capabilities, jeopardizing America's longtime leadership in Earth observations. Also cut from the planned GeoXO series of satellites is an instrument that would measure ocean color, which could provide insights into fisheries populations, algal blooms, ocean productivity and water quality. While it is not unheard of for NOAA or Congress to alter major satellite series, given a history of cost and schedule overruns in NOAA satellite programs, cancelling already contracted instruments — and doing so in part due to the administration's determination to focus NOAA more narrowly on weather forecasting, and away from climate change observations and research — stands out. The Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 budget request would close NOAA's extensive research facilities, shutting down its greenhouse gas monitoring network, among others. Congress is currently considering that proposal.
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Abrupt Antarctic climate shifts could lead to "catastrophic consequences for generations," experts warn
Abrupt and potentially irreversible changes in Antarctica driven by climate change could lift global oceans by meters and lead to "catastrophic consequences for generations," scientists warned Wednesday. More broadly, a state-of-knowledge review by a score of top experts revealed accelerating shifts across the region that are often both cause and effect of global warming, according to a study published in Nature, a peer-reviewed international scientific journal. The study's authors suggest that limiting CO2 emissions, and in turn preventing global warming from exceeding at least 1.5 degrees Celsius, "will be imperative" to reduce and prepare for the broad effects of abrupt Antarctic and Southern Ocean changes. "Antarctica is showing worrying signs of rapid change across its ice, ocean and ecosystems," lead author and Australian National University professor Nerilie Abram told the Agence France-Presse. "Some of these abrupt changes will be difficult to stop." Shifts in different facets of Antarctica's climate system amplify each other and have accelerated the pace of warming globally as well, Abram said. The study looked at evidence of abrupt change — or "regime shifts" — in sea ice, regional ocean currents, the continent's ice sheet and ice shelves, and marine life. It also examined how they interact. Floating sea ice does not significantly add to sea level when it melts, but its retreat does replace white surfaces that reflect almost all of the sun's energy back into space with deep blue water, which absorbs the same amount instead. Ninety percent of the heat generated by manmade global warming is soaked up by oceans. After increasing slightly during the first 35 years that satellite data was available, Antarctic sea ice cover plunged dramatically over the last decade. Since 2014, sea ice has retreated on average 120 kilometers, or roughly 75 miles, from the continent's shoreline. That contraction has happened about three times faster in 10 years than the decline in Arctic sea ice over nearly 50. By July 2025, daily sea ice extent in both hemispheres was at its third lowest in the 47-year satellite record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. Data from NASA, released in 2020, indicated that Antarctica and Greenland had lost thousands of gigatons of ice between 2003 and 2019, indirectly contributing to more than half an inch of overall sea level rise around the world. Last September, scientists warned that the Antarctic Ice Sheet, officially called the Thwaites Glacier, would deteriorate "further and faster," with the increased melting expected to trigger rising sea levels. Research conducted by the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, a collective of more than 100 scientists, found that the volume of water flowing into the sea from the Thwaites glacier and others nearby had doubled from the 1990s to the 2010s. The "overwhelming evidence of a regime shift in sea ice" means that, on current trends, Antarctica could essentially become ice free in summer sooner than the Arctic, the recent study published Wednesday in Nature found. This will speed up warming in the region and beyond, and could push some marine species toward extinction, experts warned. Over the last two years, for example, helpless emperor penguin chicks perished at multiple breeding grounds, drowning or freezing to death when sea ice gave way earlier than usual under their tiny feet. Of five sites monitored in the Bellingshausen Sea region in 2023, all but one experienced a 100 percent loss of chicks, earlier research reported. Unlike sea ice, ice sheets and the ice shelves to which they are connected are on — or supported by — land. The world would need to heat up by 5 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels to melt the entire Antarctic ice sheet, which would lift global oceans an almost unimaginable 58 meters, or nearly 200 feet. Global warming to date — on average about 1.3 degrees Celsius — is fast approaching a threshold that would cause part of the ice sheet to generate at least three meters of sea level rise, flooding coastal areas inhabited today by hundreds of millions, the study said. "Unstoppable collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the most concerning global tipping points," said Abram. "The evidence points to this being triggered at global warming well below 2°C." Another potential risk is the collapse of the Antarctic Overturning Circulation, a system of ocean currents that distribute heat and nutrients within the the region and globally. A "rapid and substantial slowdown" of the currents has already begun, and evidence from the previous interglacial period — between two ice ages — before our own, 125,000 years ago, points to an abrupt stagnation of the system under conditions similar to those seen today. "This would lead to widespread climate and ecosystem impacts," ranging from an intensification of global warming to a decrease in the ocean's capacity to absorb CO2, the study reported. Ultimately, the only way to slow down the interlocking changes is to stop adding more planet-warming gases into the atmosphere. "The greenhouse gas emission decisions that we make over the coming decade or two will lock in how much ice we will lose and how quickly it will be lost," Abram said.
