News from a Changing Planet

News from a Changing Planet

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News from a Changing Planet
News from a Changing Planet
News from a Changing Planet -- This Week on Earth #39

News from a Changing Planet -- This Week on Earth #39

Lakes icing-out earlier and earlier, the landmark new EPA rule for reducing emissions, the climate corps becomes a reality, a high-up NASA scientist on this year's unprecedented heat and much more!

Tatiana Schlossberg's avatar
Tatiana Schlossberg
Mar 24, 2024
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News from a Changing Planet
News from a Changing Planet
News from a Changing Planet -- This Week on Earth #39
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Lake Minnetonka with and without ice between March 9 and 21. The first image is 2024, going back in time to 2018, left to right. (I added the years and it says all the fonts are the same size but we know the truth!) Credit Sentinel Hub, European Space Agency via Washington Post

CONTINUING COVERAGE OF CASE OF THE MISSING LAKE ICE: Across the northern part of the U.S., lakes aren’t freezing, or are melting way early. (Washington Post)

It’s not just the Great Lakes, as I wrote about earlier this week: lakes all over the place aren’t freezing anymore, or are “icing out” much earlier in the season. This story has some shocking visualizations of ice cover (or lack thereof) in various lakes in the northeast and midwest.

“It’s a vivid sign that winters are warming faster than any other season across what is usually the frigid North. Declining snowfall and ice cover serve as both symptom and driver of that trend, in a feedback loop that is having stark effects in communities that thrive on harsh winters.”

Walden Pond wasn’t included, but it reminded me that icing out was one of the key indicators of a changing climate between Thoreau’s time and now: For Thoreau, the average ice-out date was April 1. Between 1995 and 2009, ice-out came, on average, on March 17. Now, there are winters when Walden doesn’t freeze at all. (You can read more about climate change and Walden Pond in this earlier edition of the newsletter).

This guy knows a B.F.D. when he sees one! Credit Kevin Lamarque for Reuters, via The Washington Post

STRONGEST EVER RULES ON VEHICLE EMISSIONS: A slight concession to the auto industry, but still a B.F.D.! (Washington Post)

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