Ice Caps Are Melting Faster, Nikola-Tesla Rivalry Heats Up And Making Green Hydrogen

This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.

Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found that coastal glaciers in Antarctica are melting at a faster rate than previously thought. When the ice from these glaciers leaves the land and moves into the ocean, they serve as the primary driver of sea level rise around the world. Over the past 25 years, the net loss of Antarctic ice has been an area about the size of Switzerland.

Things aren’t looking much better on the top of the world. A new study published Thursday found that the Arctic has warmed nearly four times as quickly as the rest of the planet since 1979. That’s a finding that doubles previous estimates, with researchers noting that the region is “more sensitive to global warming than previously thought.” Those warmer temperatures lead to a number of knock-on effects, including making water levels hard to predict and melting permafrost on land areas.

The Big Read

Climate Change Threatens Panama Canal And Global Maritime Trade

The Panama Canal is a conduit for 6% of the global maritime traffic. But climate change is disrupting that trade. While high temperatures and little rain are the primary causes, four hurricanes over seven years have been equally devastating.

Read more here.

Discoveries And Innovations

A new study suggests over half of infectious diseases could be worsened by climate change, as warming temperatures, droughts, wildfires and other weather phenomena that displace people make it easier for pathogens to spread.

The U.S. has experienced four separate flooding events this summer that each qualify as 1-in-1,000 year rain storms, as parts of the country across the Midwest and the West experienced flash flood warnings, mudslides, road closures and even death.

Engineers at MIT have developed a way to boost the output of existing wind farms without making any physical changes to them by optimizing the turbines for the wind flow of the area.

Semiconductor company Energous announced that it’s received FCC approval for its wireless power transmitter WattUp PowerBridge to deliver up to 15W of energy as well as data to sensors and other IOT devices.