Climate Point: Humans have altered daytime

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. From Palm Springs, California, I'm Janet Wilson, which along with the rest of the planet, is experiencing slightly longer days due to climate change.

That's right, as Doyle Rice writes for USA Today, now we humans are affecting time itself. Two new studies suggest that global warming is changing the rotation of the Earth and is also increasing the length of day "at an unprecedented rate."

Here's what's happening: As the planet heats up, ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting, and this water from the polar regions is flowing into the world’s oceans – and especially into the equatorial region. This is changing the Earth's shape and thus slowing its speed of rotation.

Why do I not feel joy at the prospect of more daylight? Maybe I need to get away from city sidewalks and find some greenery. When I was young and my family would escape our New York City hotbox apartment in the summer, my dad would always roll down the car windows and exclaim once we'd reached leafy suburbs, "feel that? It's 10 degrees cooler out here!"

He was on to something. Urban heat islands are real, experts say, and large differences in temperatures occur not just between cities and rural areas, but between typically poorer neighborhoods with less parks and trees and more sylvan spots. The Fort Collins Coloradoan put this to the test during a recent heat wave. as reporter Ignacio Calderon writes, taking instant measurements on a toasty afternoon .

"Photojournalist Logan Newell and I walked around (poorer) Highlander Heights, including across a massive but empty parking lot, in the afternoon on July 10. On a shadeless stretch of the sidewalk, we measured the surface temperature to be 128 degrees Fahrenheit.

Less than 4 miles away at City Park, which has a body of water and numerous large trees, you can walk in almost complete shade in the sidewalk by the houses adjacent to the park. Here, the surface temperature was 72 degrees that afternoon."

That's a nearly 50 degree difference. City planners are bulking up their urban forest and aiming for increased walkability in all neighborhoods.

Such high heat can be deadly too, and fatalities are likely undercounted every year, reports USA Today. Stephen J. Beard also has a great graphic story on urban heat islands and how they work. Since 80% of the U.S. lives in a metropolitan area, it applies to most of us. If you want to nerd out on how urban heat is measured, The Arizona Republic's Joan Meiners has a nice read on how scientists in blisteringly hot Phoenix do it, complete with a vermilion sunset amped up by air pollution particles.

Surviving summer tips

Cool it . Looking for tips to weather high heat? Many Americans still don't have air conditioning, including in long-temperate areas like the Pacific Northwest, even they experience deadly heat domes and warming temperatures. USA Today's Elizabeth Weise has some tips if you don't have AC.. Meet you in the basement, if you've got one.

Squishy. Amanda Ogslesby offers help on how to avoid six different types of stinging jellyfish on the Jersey Shore and other beaches nationwide, from 100-foot-long lion's mane with tentacles that wrap around your legs in the water to and gelatinous mushroom caps dotting wet sand to a tiny one dubbed sea lice that gets inside swimsuits. Eew. She also has advice on what to do if you are stung.

Throwing shade. If you've wondered about so-called mineral sunblock, it likely is better, reports USA Today's Clare Mulroy, both for your skin and for the environment. That and other tips from experts who spill on sunscreens.

"Breaking" news

A huge Vineyard Wind turbine blade in the Atlantic Ocean is literally falling to pieces. Heather McCarron with the Cape Cod Times has filed frequent dispatches since the first three large pieces snapped off a blade on Saturday night, followed by more falling pieces on Wednesday night and a large section Thursday morning.

All operations were halted by federal regulators at the offshore wind farm , which is about 15 miles south of Martha's Vineyard. Debris has washed ashore on Nantucket and nearby smaller islands, and a 500 meter safety zone is in place. General Electric, which manufactures the project’s Haliade-X turbines and blades is analyzing of what happened.

Water news

All wet. When it's hot, shallow ponds, rivers and other water bodies often clog with fast-growing invasive grasses, fecal bacteria, and blue green algae, often caused by fertilizer runoff pumping up noxious blooms and polluted flows. An unusual cause? Turns out Splenda and other artificial sweeteners may not be so splendid when it comes to water quality , as they contain sucralose, which new research says could cause algae growth and upset ecosystems.

Worcester, Massachusetts residents are mad at city officials for using herbicides in local waterways to eliminate thick mats of plants , and are urging them to use divers with suction hoses and other mechanical methods. City officials say they can't afford it, but they're trying to work with residents.

Elsewhere, entrepreneurs are trying to make some green off greener fertilizers in Iowa , and proposed legislation in Florida would have the US Army Corps of Engineers skim thick cyanobacteria off waterways to make a unique "biofuel."

At last. The Navajo, Hopi and Paiute tribes on Wednesday finally signed agreements with Arizona state and local entities and the federal government to get drinking water to which they very likely had rights all along. Residents of remote stretches of Navajo lands in particular have never had tap water or flush toilets, instead carrying sloshing buckets from far-flung communal faucets. Debra Utacia Krol with the Arizona Republic covers the story of how decades of prayer, advocacy and legal claims have finally been answered.

Read on for more, including how some farmers may be paid millions not to grow hay while the sun shine. Some of the stories below may require a subscription. Sign up and get access to all eNewspapers in the USA TODAY Network. If someone forwarded you this email and you'd like to receive Climate Point in your inbox for free once a week, sign up here .

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Climate Point: Humans have altered daytime