[NeilBlanchard]

https://truthout.org/articles/may-20...across-the-us/

Olympic National Park alone has lost 82 glaciers since just 1984. The Olympic Mountains have four big valley glaciers with glaciers extending down into their lower slopes, but when the park first inventoried its glaciers back in 1958, there were twice as many. The winter of 2015 was the lowest snowpack on record for the Olympics.

In the Arctic, the sea ice hit a record low this year for ice older than five years, and scientists say the summers will be ice-free in the Arctic Ocean in the future — the only question is when. The last four years have been the four lowest on record for the maximum winter sea ice extend and clearly, this trend will continue.

And things are not any better in the Antarctic, where new research found that parts of the Larsen C ice shelf are actually melting during the depths of winter when temperatures stay well below freezing. This is due to the fact that “Foehn winds” are bringing warmer temperatures, and between 2015 and 2017, caused around 23 percent of the annual surface melt of the ice shelf to occur during the winter months.

Another discovery from Antarctica has shown that ACD is likely happening even faster than we know. A group of scientists found that Antarctica’s Southern Ocean is most likely not absorbing as much carbon dioxide as previously believed, which means more is remaining in the atmosphere, which of course, amplifies ACD.

Meanwhile, extreme weather events continue apace. The island of Kauai witnessed a shocking rain event, when one storm brought over four feet of rain in just 24 hours. Scientists warned that the event was a sign of the future, although it is now something that is a matter of history.

The second 1,000-year flood in just two years struck Ellicott City, Maryland, further underscoring the aforementioned warning from scientists.

Disconcertingly, a recently published study showed that CO2 released from dying forests being decimated by tree-killing pests (which are on the increase as temperatures warm) is equivalent to the emissions from 11 million cars.

Rising temperatures bring other problems as well. One study showed that as winters continue to warm, hibernating black bears in the US aren’t sleeping. This means they require more food, and often end up searching for food from humans, which causes obvious problems. The study showed that for every 1 degree Celsius (1°C) minimum temperature increase, bears hibernate six fewer days. According to the study, by 2050, black bears will stay awake between 15-39 days longer each year, thus requiring that much more food.

Complicating things further, a recently published study showed that ACD is on track to cause a calamitous decline of insects across the world. Climate projections show that insects will lose nearly half their habitat from that alone, not even including human encroachment and other factors. Given that insects are vital to nearly every ecosystem on Earth, their widespread collapse would assuredly cause deep disruption across the planet, including humans’ ability to feed ourselves. It is worth remembering that last October, scientists warned of “ecological Armageddon” when a study found that the number of flying insects in Germany (and likely elsewhere) had plummeted by three-quarters in the last 27 years alone.