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climate

Flash flood in Dubai: natural or artificial event?

2024-04-26T20:03:39+02:0026 April 2024|Categories: Environment|Tags: , , |

Between Monday evening 15 April and Wednesday 17 In April, the United Arab Emirates and neighboring Oman were hit by a series of torrential rains that caused intense flooding (“flash floods” in inglese). They crashed at Dubai airport 119 mm in sole 24 ore, when the average amount of rain that falls in a year is 74 mm. A Muscat, capital of Oman, they fell between Sunday and Wednesday 230 mm of rain, according to the authorities, more than double that which occurs in the year, even causing 20 deaths [1]. Ad Al Ain, negli [...]

When will global warming end??

2024-03-19T12:11:41+01:0019 March 2024|Categories: Earth and Sky|Tags: , , , , |

There is a question that worries climate scientists a lot: Global warming will stop when we reach zero greenhouse gas emissions? There are two schools of thought on this matter: the "optimistic" one claims that when (and if) we will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, methane, N2O, CFC, …), the long-term increase in the earth's temperature will stop; l'altra campana è quella “pessimista”, which states that our emissions risk increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere so much as to create a domino effect that is difficult to stop. Le etichette “ottimista” e “pessimista” qui non hanno [...]

The Dawn of the Next Day

2024-03-19T12:15:07+01:0018 January 2024|Categories: Earth and Sky|Tags: , , , , |

Imagine a boundless expanse of ice. Smooth, dazzling, immutable. Succede qualcosa però. Il ghiaccio comincia a rompersi, mettendo a rischio i malcapitati protagonisti che si trovano sulla calotta. Se avete pensato alla scena iniziale de ”L’Era Glaciale”, ci avete quasi azzeccato. Invece di un adorabile scoiattolo preistorico e la sua amata ghianda, in questo caso però il problema è il cambiamento climatico. In “L’Alba del Giorno Dopo” (2004) il protagonista è Jack Hall, uno scienziato esperto di paleo-clima (lo studio del clima passato della Terra). L’ambientazione iniziale è la piattaforma di ghiaccio Larsen C in Antartide, che è effettivamente [...]

Watch out for those two! The return of El Niño

2023-09-22T19:17:34+02:0022 September 2023|Categories: Earth and Sky|Tags: , , , |

The pestiferous child who modulates the earth's climate, together with his little sister. One of the most powerful climatic phenomena that occur on the planet. We are naturally talking about El Niño (the child, in Spanish) and its counterpart La Niña. Se ne parla di nuovo perché l’ufficio meteorologico australiano ha finalmente annunciato che è ufficialmente iniziato un evento del Niño nell'Oceano Pacifico [1], after its American counterpart had already done so a few months ago, che durerà probabilmente fino all'anno prossimo. Let's see together why it is important. The climate has its own cycles of change, that is, not caused by any external forcing. La più [...]

What happens in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica

2023-03-04T20:12:49+01:0013 February 2023|Categories: Earth and Sky|Tags: , , , |

News of huge icebergs detaching from the polar ice shelves is increasingly frequent. The latest in chronological order is that relating to the block of ice detached from the Brunt shelf in Antarctica [1], now called A-81. The event was captured by ESA's Sentinel-2 satellite, which also allowed the experts to monitor all stages of formation and widening of the rift on the platform, until the final detachment of the block. As usual, we indulged ourselves in finding comparisons for the size of the iceberg; we say that the extent of the piece of ice in question is similar to twice the [...]

Who caused climate change?

2022-11-03T18:58:31+01:003 November 2022|Categories: Earth and Sky|Tags: , , , |

The twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties begins on Sunday (COP27) of the United Nations on climate change. This year the conference is held in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt. Delegates from every country in the world are called to discuss political and economic solutions to the climate crisis. The science is clear: the cause of recent climate change is greenhouse gas emissions from human activities [1]. The main task of the conference is therefore to review (and possibly strengthen) national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to find ways to implement them. This is part of the set of measures taken [...]

An extreme summer

2022-10-04T17:42:19+02:004 October 2022|Categories: Earth and Sky|Tags: , , |

Last summer has been difficult on the front of extreme events in the world. Let's start from Italy. After months of drought, in the evening of the 15 September the Marche region was affected by a self-regenerating storm, a very dangerous type of weather system, characterized by its ability to self-feed and stay on the same area for hours. We have already talked about this event in a post [2]. We only add some data that we did not have at the time. The disturbance led to very heavy rainfall, over 400 mm of cumulated rainfall in some areas, according to Protezione Civile [1]. In meteorology, 1 [...]

The Great Green Wall: story of a rebirth

2022-06-10T11:41:57+02:006 June 2022|Categories: Nature|Tags: , , , , |

Recent climate change does not have the same impact anywhere in the world. In fact, there are regions that are most affected by its effects., both from a social and economic point of view. In general, we talk about an increase of heat waves, sea level rise and soil aridity, and an increase in diseases transmissible to humans. All of this could get worse in the future and the scenarios are certainly not positive. If we weren't talking about global warming, you could say it doesn't rain but it pours. The worst effects of climate change are in fact seen in developing countries [...]

The climate has changed

2021-11-02T23:59:20+01:002 November 2021|Categories: Earth and Sky|Tags: , , , , , |

The climate has changed, Time is up. The twenty-sixth edition of the annual Conference of Parties (COP26), literally "Conference of the Parties", starts this week in Glasgow (Scotland), in collaboration between the UK and Italy. The conference is held one year after the originally scheduled date, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and sets itself ambitious goals. We already talked about the COP a few months ago on the occasion of the US re-entry into the Paris Agreement, but perhaps it is appropriate to refresh the subject. In summary, the COP has been organized every year since 1995 by the United Nations, under the [...]

Welcome back, USA!

2021-07-03T17:43:04+02:0021 February 2021|Categories: Earth and Sky|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

The United States is finally part of the Paris climate agreement. Ready, to the posts, via. Just established, Joe Biden's new stars and stripes administration has brought the USA back into the Paris climate agreement. This is a nice change of pace from Donald Trump's previous administration, who had decided to leave that agreement. For the occasion, climate expert Ed Hawkins has produced a special version of his famous warming stripes. Despite what some people think, the Paris Agreement does not only concern the citizens of the French capital, but all of us. But one question is legitimate: what's this [...]

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