Earthweek: a diary of the planet
For the week ending Friday, April 28.
Rising tides
Global sea levels have been rising 25 percent more quickly than in the 1990s, when scientists started to measure the trend. A study at France’s Laboratory of Geophysical and Oceanographic Studies found that the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet has caused sea level rise to increase by 0.1 of an inch per year since observations began. The increase was about 0.03 of an inch per year faster between 2004 and 2015. That was when the melt quickened.
Long eruption
Costa Rica’s Poás volcano erupted for 48 hours, spewing hot vapors and incandescent rocks that smashed the windows of a national park office, prompting the evacuation of all park rangers. Nearby communities reported falling ash and the smell of sulfur from the eruption, which caused eye and respiratory irritation.
Antarctic melt
Vast areas of Antarctica are teeming with small streams each summer as the continent undergoes extensive melting. “I think most polar scientists have considered water moving across the surface of Antarctica to be extremely rare. But we found a lot of it, over very large areas,” said glaciologist Jonathan Kingslake of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Research published in the journal Nature documents how a threaded network of pools and streams flows out on all sides of the continent.
Urban foxes
There are now four times as many foxes living in urban areas of England than 20 years ago, or about 1 for every 300 city-dwelling humans. Researchers found that London has about 18 foxes per square kilometer, while the whole of England is home to about 150,000 of the urban omnivores. But Trevor Williams of the Fox Project rescue group said he thinks that many foxes have become urban dwellers because cities have expanded into their historic habitats. Foxes also seem to thrive in places like London because of the abundance of rats and mice.
Climate shift
A growing number of Kenyans are switching from traditional livestock to drought-resistant camels because of the changing climate. Longer droughts have resulted in three times as many camels being owned today than a decade ago. “As the climate became drier in this region, the cows stopped producing milk,” resident Mariam Maalim said, adding that her new camels produce milk during drought.