Stem donor meets recipient at Florida Gulf Coast UniversityCCSO ‘Shop with a Cop’ event spreads holiday cheer
FORT MYERS Stem donor meets recipient at Florida Gulf Coast University An FGCU student is giving the gift of life this holiday season. FGCU senior Zoe Horowitz met the person who received her stem cell donation.
PORT CHARLOTTE CCSO ‘Shop with a Cop’ event spreads holiday cheer Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office deputies spent time helping kids pick out gifts for their families during the annual Shop with a Cop event.
CLEWISTON Caught on camera: Explosion in hotel parking lot in Clewiston There was an explosion in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn in Clewiston on Wednesday.
PUNTA GORDA Punta Gorda leaders outline plans for Gilchrist Park repairs Gilchrist Park is closed, and Punta Gorda city leaders have been discussing possibly restoring the park.
NORTH NAPLES Airman surprises 6-year-old daughter at school for the holidays after ten months of service in Kuwait After almost a year of service in Kuwait, one airman came home for the holidays and surprised his daughter.
FORT MYERS Breaking down the Lee County Sheriff’s Office budget The Lee County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Carmine Marceno have been under scrutiny since a federal investigation on potential money laundering began. Many have questioned LCSO’s spending, so we broke down the budget.
How to protect yourself from thieves this holiday season On Cyber Monday, Americans spent $13 billion, which will translate into many packages on doorsteps this holiday season.
FORT MYERS Bishop Verot QB Carter Smith signs with Wisconsin Bishop Verot quarterback Carter Smith signs to play college football for the Wisconsin Badgers on early Signing Day.
WINK NEWS SWFL stars ink with Power 4 programs during Early Signing Period Several Southwest Florida football standouts are taking their talents to the Power 4 gridirons after signing during the Early Signing Period.
Beloved Charlotte County man killed outside home, investigation ongoing A man loved by his peers and his community was taken away from them in the middle of the night at his own home.
FORT MYERS BEACH The Lani Kai Resort reopens on Fort Myers Beach An iconic spot on Fort Myers Beach is back open and taking reservations for the first time since Hurricane Ian.
Gov. DeSantis being considered for defense secretary Will Ron DeSantis be your governor in 2025, or is he headed to Washington?
NAPLES Naples votes to remove fluoride from tap water The Naples City Council has voted to remove fluoride from its tap water.
Red meat linked to health complications Doctors with the Cleveland Clinic are researching a link between eating red meat and increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
LEHIGH ACRES Lehigh Acres man arrested on 10 counts of possession of child sexual abuse material The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has arrested a 71-year-old Lehigh Acres man on 10 counts of possession of child sexual abuse material.
FORT MYERS Stem donor meets recipient at Florida Gulf Coast University An FGCU student is giving the gift of life this holiday season. FGCU senior Zoe Horowitz met the person who received her stem cell donation.
PORT CHARLOTTE CCSO ‘Shop with a Cop’ event spreads holiday cheer Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office deputies spent time helping kids pick out gifts for their families during the annual Shop with a Cop event.
CLEWISTON Caught on camera: Explosion in hotel parking lot in Clewiston There was an explosion in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn in Clewiston on Wednesday.
PUNTA GORDA Punta Gorda leaders outline plans for Gilchrist Park repairs Gilchrist Park is closed, and Punta Gorda city leaders have been discussing possibly restoring the park.
NORTH NAPLES Airman surprises 6-year-old daughter at school for the holidays after ten months of service in Kuwait After almost a year of service in Kuwait, one airman came home for the holidays and surprised his daughter.
FORT MYERS Breaking down the Lee County Sheriff’s Office budget The Lee County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Carmine Marceno have been under scrutiny since a federal investigation on potential money laundering began. Many have questioned LCSO’s spending, so we broke down the budget.
How to protect yourself from thieves this holiday season On Cyber Monday, Americans spent $13 billion, which will translate into many packages on doorsteps this holiday season.
FORT MYERS Bishop Verot QB Carter Smith signs with Wisconsin Bishop Verot quarterback Carter Smith signs to play college football for the Wisconsin Badgers on early Signing Day.
WINK NEWS SWFL stars ink with Power 4 programs during Early Signing Period Several Southwest Florida football standouts are taking their talents to the Power 4 gridirons after signing during the Early Signing Period.
Beloved Charlotte County man killed outside home, investigation ongoing A man loved by his peers and his community was taken away from them in the middle of the night at his own home.
FORT MYERS BEACH The Lani Kai Resort reopens on Fort Myers Beach An iconic spot on Fort Myers Beach is back open and taking reservations for the first time since Hurricane Ian.
Gov. DeSantis being considered for defense secretary Will Ron DeSantis be your governor in 2025, or is he headed to Washington?
NAPLES Naples votes to remove fluoride from tap water The Naples City Council has voted to remove fluoride from its tap water.
Red meat linked to health complications Doctors with the Cleveland Clinic are researching a link between eating red meat and increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
LEHIGH ACRES Lehigh Acres man arrested on 10 counts of possession of child sexual abuse material The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has arrested a 71-year-old Lehigh Acres man on 10 counts of possession of child sexual abuse material.
A chart provided by the study authors shows how rapidly Greenland’s melt has accelerated, and how unprecedented it is compared to rates that occurred over the last 12,000 years. We’ve known for some time now that Greenland’s ice sheet is melting at an alarming rate. Greenland lost more ice last year than in any year on record, and the melting has accelerated rapidly since the 1990s. But in the context of Earth’s 4.5 billion-plus year history, melting in any one year or even a few decades amounts to the blink of an eye. Whether the rapid disintegration we’re seeing on Greenland today compares to anything that has happened in the past is a question on which the science is not completely clear. Now, a new study published in the journal Nature provides some answers, and it is not good news: The rate of melting we’re seeing today already threatens to exceed anything Greenland has experienced in the last 12,000 years. EQIP SERMIA, GREENLAND – AUGUST 01: Water from the Greenland ice sheet flows through heather and peat as the Eqip Sermia Glacier stands behind during unseasonably warm weather on August 01, 2019 at Eqip Sermia, Greenland. The nearby Eqip Sermia glacier is located approximately 350km north of the Arctic Circle, and while the calving of ice from its face is a natural process going back millions of years, the glacier’s retreat of about 3 km over the last 100 years is a new phenomenon. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Over the last two decades, Greenland’s ice sheet has melted at a rate of roughly 6,100 billion tons per century, a rate approached only during a warm period that occurred between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago. “We know there’s a lot of year-to-year variability, so what we were interested in doing is capturing the more meaningful trends over decades and maybe up to a century,” said Jason Briner, a professor of geology at the University at Buffalo and the lead author of the study. “And when you do that, and think about the direction that Greenland is heading this century, it’s pretty clear we’re in quite anomalous times.” The big difference between now and then? The influence of human activity. The melting seen today is driven primarily by greenhouse gas emissions, whereas the warming that occurred thousands of years ago was a result of natural climate variability, Briner said. How much Greenland melts going forward is up to us. Under a scenario where humans continue to raise concentrations of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, Greenland’s ice loss could reach unprecedented levels, with more than 35,900 billion tons of ice potentially lost by the end of this century. ILULISSAT, GREENLAND – AUGUST 04: In this view from an airplane rivers of meltwater carve into the Greenland ice sheet near Sermeq Avangnardleq glacier on August 04, 2019 near Ilulissat, Greenland. The Sahara heat wave that recently sent temperatures to record levels in parts of Europe has also reached Greenland. Climate change is having a profound effect in Greenland, where over the last several decades summers have become longer and the rate that glaciers and the Greenland ice cap are retreating has accelerated. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Right now, Briner says current melt rates track closely with this worst-case scenario. However, if the world resolves to slash emissions enough so that global warming peaks around 2050, ice losses this century could be held to 8,800 billion tons — still a massive amount, but only enough to raise sea levels by about an inch, compared to the roughly 4 additional inches we can expect under a high-emissions scenario. “Humanity has the knobs, and we can turn those knobs to decide what the ice sheet is going to do,” he said. What happens to Greenland’s ice sheet and others around the globe will determine what the future holds for the millions of people living along the world’s coasts. In terms of its potential to raise sea levels, Greenland is the world’s second most important ice sheet, behind only Antarctica. Greenland’s ice sheet contains enough water to raise global sea levels by 24 feet. Over the last 26 years, melt water from Greenland’s ice sheet has raised sea levels by 0.4 inches, and it is currently the world’s biggest contributor to sea level rise Melting from Antarctica, on the other hand, is currently responsible for 20-25% of global sea level rise, but is likely to surpass Greenland as the largest global contributor to sea level rise. Antarctica holds enough water to raise sea levels by about 200 feet, and scientists have recently discovered alarming vulnerabilities in some of its most important glaciers. A report last year from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that sea level rise is likely to exceed 3 feet by the end of this century if greenhouse gas emissions are not reigned in. Rising seas are already causing problems in many coastal areas. And for places like New York and Shanghai, 3 feet or more of sea level rise could spell disaster. Another recent study found that rising seas could cost the global economy $14.2 trillion in lost or damaged assets by the end of the century, and expose as many as 287 million people to episodic flooding, up from 171 million today. “Clearly, the sea level rise from melting ice 12,000 years ago also affected people, but those people were much more widely spread out, and they didn’t have parking garages and integrated modern water systems serving millions of people,” said Richard Alley, a professor of geosciences at Penn State University who was not involved with the study published by Nature. “These results say that human decisions about our energy systems are truly important in deciding how much sea level rise we face from melting of Greenland’s ice.”