As the California wildfires death toll crosses 24 and “fierce gusts” of wind called the Santa Anas amplify the spread of raging fires, CarbonCopy highlighted research suggesting that climate change is a significant factor fuelling these fires. The January 2025 fires are being driven by strong winds. While the winds are not unusual at this time of year, the delayed onset of the rains means that it is unusually dry.
Climate change is making it less likely to rain in late fall and early winter when the hot, dry, Santa Ana winds peak. Much of Southern California had almost no rainfall since July 2024, despite being halfway into the normal rainy season – the second-driest period in 150 years. Carbon Brief highlighted a new timely research that attributed to climate change induced “hydroclimate whiplash” conditions (rapid swings between periods of high and low rainfall) allowing lots of vegetation to grow, which dry up during a switch to very dry conditions, providing ideal fuel for the wildfire.
Afghanistan to be the most affected region by rising temperatures: study
A new study found that Afghanistan is the worst hit by the rising temperatures in South Asia and Bangladesh is the least affected, CarbonCopy reported. The study looked at the rate South Asia would be warming if global warming were to increase by 1.5°C , 2°C and 3°C, compared to the pre-industrial baseline of 1850–1900.
South Asia would observe a mean temperature rise of 1.5°C and 3°C during 2035–2038 and 2062–2068, respectively. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) models CMIP6 (global climate model) and CORDEX-SA (regional climate model) were used in the study.
The study said Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh are experiencing ice melt in the Himalayas as a result of rising mean temperatures. Punjab is also seeing rising mean temperatures as a result of climate change in adjacent Pakistan. Rising sea levels as a result of mean temperature increases in eastern West Bengal are causing land to sever and submerge, the study stated.
The temperature rise in West Bengal was projected to be the highest. A global warming of 3°C could lead to a mean temperature rise of 4.432°C in the state, the study said. The neighbouring Bangladesh was to be one of the least affected countries due to the rising temperature.
2024 was the warmest year on record, first calendar year to breach 1.5° C
Last year was the hottest year ever on record, and the first calendar year to breach the 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), CarbonCopy reported. C3S found that the global average temperature of 15.10°C was 0.72°C above the 1991-2020 average, and 0.12°C above 2023, the previous warmest year on record. This is equivalent to 1.60°C above an estimate of the 1850-1900 temperature designated to be the pre-industrial level.
In fact, the monthly global average temperature exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for 11 months of the year, while the past ten years has also been the warmest decade on record, according to the report. Region wise, all continents faced their warmest days last year, barring Antarctica and Australasia.
Ocean temperatures highest ever in 2024: Study
The year 2024 was not only the warmest on record, but it also broke the record of highest global ocean temperatures, according to a new international study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences on January 8, 2025, HT reported.
The research, led by Lijing Cheng from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences along with 54 scientists from seven countries, observed new temperature records in six of eight investigated ocean regions: the Indian Ocean, tropical Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Southern Ocean.
The global sea surface temperature (SST) continued its record-high trajectory from 2023 into the first half of 2024, showing a slight decline in the second half of the year in response to increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. The 2024 annual mean global SST surpassed the previous year’s record by 0.05°C–0.07°C, establishing a new high for the instrumentation era.
Study finds 25% global freshwater fish species on brink of extinction, Western Ghats zone among worst hit regions
Around 25% (4,294 of the 23,496) studied species of decapod crustaceans, fishes and odonates living in freshwater may go extinct, according to the international Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species.
The DTE reported that the greatest number of threatened species were found in Lake Victoria, Lake Titicaca, Sri Lanka’s wet zone and the Western Ghats of India. These areas nestle some of the highest freshwater biodiversity in the world, including many species found nowhere else, the report added.
Interestingly, agriculture and invasive species were the major threats to both freshwater species and tetrapods.
The IUCN co-authored study pointed out that some threats are found to be more prevalent to freshwater species, especially pollution, dams and water extraction, and thus they required targeted actions in response. These primary threats would require changes in water management practices at a catchment scale, over and above species-specific or site-based actions.
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