Posted on 10 May 2020 by John Hartz

Story of the Week...

Disease-carrying mosquitoes could be common in Europe by 2030

Climate change could mean mosquitoes that can carry diseases like dengue, zika and yellow fever become established in southern Europe within 10 years.

Rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are increasing the number of areas Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can live in, potentially spreading diseases to new places.

Modelling from Imperial College London and Tel Aviv University predicts the mosquitoes will accelerate their invasion of parts of China, North America and European countries including Spain, Portugal, Greece and Turkey in the coming decades. The results are published in Nature Communications.

Dr Kris Murray, from the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis in the School of Public Health and the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and Environment at Imperial, said: “This work helps reveal the potential long-term costs of failing to curb greenhouse gas emissions right now.

“Our results show that this species of mosquito has very likely already benefitted from recent climate change across much of the world. But this increase in suitability is now also starting to accelerate. We predict that significant emissions cuts can help slow it down.”

Disease-carrying mosquitoes could be common in Europe by 2030 by Hayley Dunning, Science, Imperial College of London, May 6, 2020

Click here to access the entire article as originally published on the Imperial College London website. 

Toon of the Week...

Hat tip to the Stop Climate Denial Denial Facebook page. 

Coming Soon on SkS...

• EGU2020 - Sharing Geoscience Online - Live-streamed and Recorded Sessions (BaerbelW)
• FLICC-Poster - a successful collaboration between klimafakten and SkS (BaerbelW)
• SkS New Research for Week #19 (Doug Bostrom)
• PETM climate warming 56 million years ago strongly tied to igneous activity Part 2 (Howard Lee)
• PETM climate warming 56 million years ago strongly tied to igneous activity Part 3 (Howard Lee)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #20 (John Hartz)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #20 (John Hartz)

Climate Feedback Claim Review...

Claim that CO2 is cooling the planet is misleading, anthropogenic CO2 emissions overall cause global warming

CLAIM: "Global warming slowing down? 'Ironic' study finds more CO2 has slightly cooled the planet"

VERDICT: 

SOURCE: Global warming news: 'Ironic' study finds more CO2 can 'moderate' global warming by Sebastian Kettley, Express, Feb 18, 2010

KEY TAKE AWAY: Human-caused CO2 emissions are responsible for approximately 100% of the global warming trend observed since 1950. Although enhanced plant growth absorbs some of the CO2 emitted by human activities, reducing the amount of global warming that can occur, this negative feedback has not caused warming to slow in recent years.

Claim that CO2 is cooling the planet is misleading, anthropogenic CO2 emissions overall cause global warming, Edited by Nikki Forrester, Climate Feedback, Apr 24, 2020

SkS Week in Review... 

• EGU2020 - Sharing Geoscience Online - Epilog by BaerbelW (SkS Original) 
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #19 by John Hartz (SkS Original)
• PETM climate warming 56 million years ago strongly tied to igneous activity by Howard Lee (Adapted from article published on Quanta Magazine)
• The Conspiracy Theory Handbook: Downloads and translations by BaerbelW (SkS Original) 
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #18, 2020 by Doug Bostrom 
• EGU2020 - Sharing Geoscience Online - Citizens Science Session by BaerbelW (SkS Original) 
• Denial: Coronavirus & Climate Change (feat. Donald Trump), by Climate Adam (YouTube Video)
• How does the way we define methane emissions impact the perception of its effects on global warming? by Justin Wickman (SkS Original)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #18  by John Hartz (SkS Original)

Poster of the Week...