PBS NewsHour has another segment on how scientists are fighting the effects of climate change. Stay tuned to see if I feature it or return to Emmy Awards coverage tomorrow.PBS NewsHour has a whole series of videos on that theme, so I'm sharing the three most recent. I begin with Scientists explore large-scale geoengineering to slow glacier melt.
At a time when the impact of climate change is undeniable, some researchers suggest we need to start work on far more ambitious approaches for tackling these problems. These proposals are often referred to as geoengineering. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien looks at one such concept to deal with the melting of glaciers and sea ice. It's for our series, Tipping Point.Both Greenland and Antarctica should be familiar to my readers. I blog a lot about the planet's largest island that isn't also a continent, most recently in Howtown asks 'Why is this one spot not warming?' for World Environment Day on Flashback Friday, while I've written about Thwaites Glacier once before in 'Climate gentrification' is one of the answers as PBS Terra asks 'The Doomsday Glacier Is Collapsing…Who Is Most at Risk?' It was time I featured it again.
As for building an underwater barrier to keep out the warm water to slow the melting of Thwaites Glacier to melt it from below, that also strikes me as overly ambitious and impractical, although I think it would have less potential for unintended side effects than other geoengineering projects. I've been worried about those since Greenfinger, which I wrote on January 2, 2013. Coincidentally, that's World Science Fiction Day. Sometimes, I stumble over a holiday long before I know about it!
The next most recent is How satellites and AI cameras are detecting wildfires before they get out of control.
This year is becoming one of the worst for U.S. wildfires in at least a decade. There have been more fires and more acreage burned at this point in the year compared to any in the last ten. With fire seasons growing longer, early detection is critical. Special correspondent Ben Tracy of Climate Central reports on how AI is being used to spot fires faster. It's part of our series, Tipping Point.Oh, good, a story about how technology in general and AI in particular are helping fight fires and other weather-related disasters! Not everything about AI is bad!
I close with How climate change and rising seas endanger historic sites like Jamestown, Virginia.
As the country celebrates its 250th anniversary, rising seas and coastal erosion are putting some of America’s most historic places at risk. For our ongoing series, Tipping Point, special correspondent Ben Tracy with Climate Central reports from Jamestown, Virginia, where archaeologists are racing to uncover America’s past before it’s washed away.I've mentioned several times that "I worked as a Park Naturalist (the type of Ranger most visitors see) at Channel Islands National Park during the summer of 1986," now 40 years ago, so this story hits close to home. Here's to preserving or at least salvaging as much of our country's natural and historic heritage as we can before it sinks beneath the waves.
PBS NewsHour has more, but I'm stopping here to eat lunch and grade papers. It's final exam time, so stay tuned for more relatively brief entries until next Wednesday.
