Dramatic Natgeo Photos Show How Climate Change Is Transforming The World

Mashable Australia - Maria Gallucci

A solitary bear sits on the edge of one of the Barter Islands, Alaska. There is no snow, when at this time of year, there should be. The locals in Kaktovic noted that it's been an unseasonably warm winter, and that the ice will be late in forming this year. This will have an impact on the local polar bear population when it comes time to hunt seals for their food in the winter months. Image: Patty Waymire, National Geographic Your Shot

The effects of climate change are already visible in communities across the world.
Prolonged droughts are zapping fields dry from Texas to Tanzania. Powerful storms are flooding homes from North Carolina to Nepal. At the farthest ends of the planet, glaciers are melting and habitats are vanishing.
Amid such disruption, a global band of photographers has managed to turn these concerning realities into a collection of stunning scenes from their own backyards. National Geographic this fall tasked its online photo community, called Your Shot, with submitting photographs on the theme of human-caused climate change.
Your Shot includes amateur and professional photographers, in their teens up to their 90s, who use smartphone or point-and-shoot cameras.

Dried-up ponds in Israel caused by a lack of rain. Image: Tomasz Solinski, National Geographic Your Shot

An aerial view of the Chong Kneas floating village on Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia. The lake's seasonal cycles are threatened by changing rainfall patterns and rising temperatures. Image: Stuart Chape, National Geographic Your Shot

 "The hope is to have [climate change] become more real for people," said Monica Corcoran, director of the Your Shot community.
"It's not just something that's going to happen in future generations — we're really seeing the effects happening right now, today," she told Mashable.
NatGeo displayed a selection of the Your Shot images earlier this month during the United Nations climate negotiations in Marrakech, Morocco. Country leaders worked to create an action plan for the Paris Climate Agreement, which commits governments to curbing their greenhouse gas emissions.

Factories off the coast of Singapore spew greenhouse gas emissions. Image: Terence Chiew, National Geographic Your Shot

 Burning fossil fuels for energy, rampant deforestation and other human activities are pushing global temperatures above those seen in the pre-industrial era. As a result, many communities are already seeing effects such as more frequent and intense storms, heavier rainfall, long-lasting and intense droughts along with a higher risk of wildfires.
Corcoran said she hopes the Your Shot assignment will inspire a sense of urgency in everyone who sees the photographs.
"We're trying to connect with the viewer, so they see the image in a way that means something to them on a personal level," she said. "Then, they can take that next step [toward action], because it affects them personally."
Here are more of the surreal Your Shot images, provided by National Geographic:

An ice cave in Iceland's Svínafellsjökull Glacier is rapidly expanding due to the effects of global warming. Icelandic glaciers have lost 12 percent of their size since 2000. Image: Tom Schifanella, National Geographic Your Shot

A woman stands on the Indian island of Mousuni, in the Bay of Bengal, where a rise in sea level threatens to permanently force families from their homes. Image: Arka Dutta, National Geographic Your Shot

Guard dogs confront a polar bear on the Franz Josef Land archipelago. As Arctic sea ice disappears, bears are increasingly moving into human settlements in search of food. Image: Vladimir Melnik, National Geographic Your Shot

A patch of parched dirt in the drought-stricken Puruliya district of West Bengal, India. Image: Ujjal Das, National Geographic Your Shot

A man moves tree trunks in the Zagros Mountains near Hamedan, Iran. Deforestation affects 30 percent of the forest. Image: Mohamad Ali Najib, National Geographic Your Shot

A man fishes in a drought-affected lake in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. Image: Pamela Peters, National Geographic Your Shot

Links

• National Geographic Climate Change: In Focus
• At COP-22, leaders try to put Paris Climate Agreement into action
• Global warming is already more than halfway to U.N. climate target
• Drought-fueled wildfire 'apocalypse' hits Tennessee

Climate-Change Effects You Might Not Have Considered

New Daily - Kemal Atlay

The deadly and damaging effects of climate change are already being felt around the world in ways many people do not recognise, some of Australia’s top environment experts have revealed.
This week, Queensland scientists confirmed this year’s mass coral bleaching has resulted in the largest die-off of corals ever recorded, while a report warned that “megafires” in Australia will become increasingly common as the globe heats up.
Some experts even attributed a freak “thunderstorm asthma” event in Melbourne, which killed eight people, to climate change.
Around the world, bee populations across Europe declined, Israel experienced one of its worst bushfires and Siberia suffered an anthrax outbreak.
We asked experts to explain the serious consequences of some seemingly small changes to the environment.

Bee population
A steadily warming climate, combined with habitat loss and the increased use of pesticides, is causing bee populations to collapse at an alarming rate.

Bees are crucial to the environment. Photo: Getty

There are over 20,000 known species of bees, many of which are not just crucial pollinators for wild plants but for the agriculture industry as well.
In Australia, it is estimated that around 65 per cent of agricultural production is dependent on pollination by European honeybees.
According to a 2015 study by Nature, rising temperatures near the southern parts of Europe and North America is causing the natural range of some bumblebee species to move north by as much as 300 km.

Disease
The World Health Organisation (WHO) predicts the transmission of infectious diseases is “a likely major consequence of climate change”.
Dr Peng Bi, and epidemiology and population health expert from the University of Adelaide, told The New Daily a warmer and more humid climate provided the ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes, which can carry diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.
“A lot of issues we are being challenged at in terms of population health due to climate change.”
We are also seeing the re-emergence of diseases such as anthrax in Siberia, where thawing permafrost exposed anthrax-infected reindeer carcasses spread to the nomadic peoples who inhabit that region.

Food security failures could lead to war
Climate warming is making extreme drought conditions more common and as a result is having severe effects on crop yields, threatening global food security.
Professor Tim Flannery, the Climate Council’s chief councillor, says the quality and seasonality of crops are “increasingly being affected by climate change with Australia’s future food security under threat”.
“Australia’s food supply chain is highly exposed to disruption from increasing extreme weather events driven by climate change, with farmers already struggling to cope with more frequent and intense droughts and changing weather patterns,” he told The New Daily.
A United Nations report forecast that by 2050, the world may not be able to produce enough food for its growing population, which could lead to an increase in civil unrest, war and terrorism.

Ocean acidification
Ocean acidification is proving to be a major challenge for the fishing industry, with the potential to decimate shellfish populations.

Shellfish are hurt by climate change. Photo: Getty

In the US alone, about half of the $35 billion seafood industry hinges on sales of shellfish such as mussels and oysters.
Increased carbon dioxide (CO2) levels from a warming climate is causing oceans to become more acidic – as more atmospheric CO2 is absorbed by the world’s oceans, the pH level of seawater drops to make it more acidic.
This is bad for shellfish because it makes it harder for the organisms to grow and maintain their shells.

Natural disasters
The Climate Council published a 2015 report that explained how climate change was causing natural disaster events such as bushfires and heatwaves to become “hotter, longer and more frequent”.
Mr Flannery explained that “record hot days have doubled in Australia in the last 50 years and 2016 is likely to be the hottest year on record globally for the third year in a row”.
“These longer, hotter and more intense heatwaves and more frequent and severe heatwaves are in turn driving up the likelihood of very high bushfire risk, particularly in southeast and southwest Australia,” Mr Flannery said.

Links

• Record die-off of Great Barrier Reef coral confirmed by scientists, while some tourist areas improved
• Climate change crushes bee populations
• Climate change and human health
• UN warns world must produce 60% more food by 2050 to avoid mass unrest

ACT Leaves Most Of Australia Behind On Climate Change Initiatives: Report

Fairfax - Katie Burgess

State and city governments worldwide are leaving their federal counterparts behind on climate change, according to a report into how regions are responding to the Paris climate agreement.
The Compact of States and Regions 2016 Disclosure Report said while many nations had been slow to act, territories like the ACT were becoming more ambitious with their emission reduction targets.

The ACT set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to achieve zero net emissions by 2050. Photo: Jessica Shapiro 

"To date, a substantial gap remains between emissions reductions stated in national governments' climate plans submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the reduction levels consistent with limiting warming to well below two degrees Celsius," the report said.
"Compared to the data disclosed in 2015, a number of states, provinces and regions have indeed publicly submitted their climate plans and heightened their ambition.
"South Australia, for example, has replaced its 2050 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent with a commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
"Similarly, the Australian Capital Territory has decided to bring forward its long term decarbonisation target by a decade and set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to achieve zero net emissions by 2050."
The ACT this week also took home the Carbon Disclosure Project's award for Best Renewable Target.
Climate change minister Shane Rattenbury said the "Davids" were showing the "Goliaths" how it was done.
"This report confirms what I saw at the United Nations conference on climate change in Marrakech, Morocco – it is cities who are taking on climate change and leading the renewable energy charge, even when their federal governments are dragging their heels," Mr Rattenbury said.
"We cannot, and will not, wait for the Prime Minister of Australia or the President of the United States to decide that the long term interests of our communities are more important that the interests of the coal lobby. Instead, cities like Canberra are taking action now."
To achieve its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent in the next four years, the report said the ACT needed to cut its emissions by at least 4 per cent each year.
Already the ACT had reduced its emissions by 24 per cent since 1990.
South Australia reduced its emissions by 8 per cent in the same time period.
The annual report tracks the progress of 62 regions worldwide in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

Links

• Leading states and regions' 2020 targets in line with 2 degrees scenario, 2016 Disclosure report shows
• Climate actions of leading states and regions across the world are putting a 2 degrees’ Celsius world within reach, shows new report
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - Wikipedia