CPOM has a significant presence in the media, whether it’s expertise provided by our scientists or news about CPOM itself. You can read a selection of recent media coverage below:
30.06.20 CPOM research and comments included in articles on rising temperatures in Antarctica
A study published in Nature Climate Change (led by Dr Kyle Clem, Victoria University of Wellington) showed that Antarctica has warmed at three times the global average over the last three decades up through 2018 and that warming at the South Pole was seven times higher than the overall average for the continent. CPOM research is quoted in a Carbon Brief article discussing the research alongside comments from Andrew Shepherd:
It is important to note that, away from the south pole, human-caused warming is causing significant ice melt, says Prof Andrew Shepherd, director of the NERC Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling and scientist at the University of Leeds. He tells Carbon Brief: “Climate change has caused significant ice loss from Antarctica, even if its fingerprint in the frozen interior of the continent is difficult to detect.”
Julienne Stroeve is also quoted in a number of articles about this research, such as The New York Times, Daily Sabah, and CBC:
The new study shows that Antarctica is “waking up” to climate change, Stroeve warned. “That, to me, is alarming.”
23.04.20 European State of the Climate 2019 report released, featuring CPOM research
Media coverage of this report focuses on the fact that 2019 was Europe’s hottest year on record. Comments from Professor Shepherd, a co-author on the report, have been quoted widely:
Andrew Shepherd, director of the University of Leeds’ Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, said C3S’s data was all the more worrying as it foreshadowed accelerated melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
“We can’t avoid the rapid changes in climate that are happening around our planet, even if they occur miles away in the polar regions, because they affect our weather today and will affect our coastlines in the future,” he said.
Sources include: The The Times, Independent, International Business Times, India Today, Breitbart, PhysOrg, RTE, BBC, The Guardian, The Economic Times and Evening Standard.
12.03.20 Six-fold increase in polar ice losses since the 1990s shown from CPOM research
This story has been covered extensively by media outlets and engaged with heavily on Twitter, reaching the top 20 trending topics in the UK at around 10am on 12th March 2020. Sources include: The Guardian, The BBC, The Daily Mail, The Independent, EcoWatch, The Japan Times, The Standard, iNews, Daily Sabah, LaVanguardia (in Spanish), The Australian, The Express, The Evening Standard, Sputnik News (translated from Russian), Bangkok Post, USA Today, IB Times Singapore, Forbes
03.03.20 Professor Andy Shepherd is quoted in a number of articles on the threat of rising sea levels to the world’s beaches
Professor Shepherd’s draws on CPOM research in comments on new research that highlights the risk rising sea levels and storms potentially pose to around half the beaches around the world. These comments were picked up by a number of media sources, such iNews, The Daily Mail, Today Online and SBS News:
The director of the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds, Andrew Shepherd, said the impact of receding coastlines that still maintain a thinning ribbon of sand should also be considered.
“Between a quarter and half of the UK’s sandy beaches will retreat by more than 100m over the next century, depending on how rapidly polar ice sheets melt,” he said.
“Unfortunately, ice losses from Antarctica and Greenland are both tracking the worst-case climate warming scenarios.”
10.12.2019 CPOM’s Nature study shows that Greenland is losing ice ‘faster than expected’
This research has been covered extensively by media sources, such as The Guardian, the BBC, National Geographic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Telegraph, Sky News, and New Scientist. Inès Otosaka also explored the implications of this ice loss in a The Conversation article.
Professor Shepherd, CPOM Director and first author of the study, said: “As a rule of thumb, for every centimetre rise in global sea level another six million people are exposed to coastal flooding around the planet.
On current trends, Greenland ice melting will cause 100 million people to be flooded each year by the end of the century, so 400 million in total due to all sea level rise.
These are not unlikely events or small impacts; they are happening and will be devastating for coastal communities.”
16.05.2019 The Guardian CPOM’s study shows that ice losses are now affecting a quarter of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
The study has received extensive media coverage, including by the BBC, CNN, The Independent, and the New York Post.
06.03.2019 BBC Mal McMillan describes how the Sentinel-3 mission can be used to monitor the Antarctic ice sheet
13.06.2018 BBC Andy Shepherd’s work on the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (IMBIE) shows how Antarctica is losing 159 billion tonnes of ice each year
This study has been covered by more than 200 news outlets worldwide, also including The Guardian, The New York Times and Le Monde.
12.04.2018 Scientific American Hannes Konrad explains how warming ocean water is causing glaciers to melt
