Climate Change News & Discussions

weatheriscool
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Coastal glacier retreat linked to climate change
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-coastal-g ... imate.html
by University of Texas at Austin

More of the world's coastal glaciers are melting faster than ever, but exactly what's triggering the large-scale retreat has been difficult to pin down because of natural fluctuations in the glaciers' surroundings. Now, researchers at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) and Georgia Tech have developed a methodology that they think cracks the code to why coastal glaciers are retreating, and in turn, how much can be attributed to human-caused climate change. Attributing the human role for coastal glaciers—which melt directly into the sea—could pave the way to better predictions about sea level rise.

So far, scientists have tested the approach only in computer models using simplified glaciers. They found that even modest global warming caused most glaciers to melt, or retreat.

The next step, the researchers said, is for scientists to simulate the coastal glaciers of a real ice sheet, like Greenland's, which holds enough ice to raise sea level by about 22 feet (7 meters). That will reveal whether they are retreating due to climate change and help predict when major ice loss might next occur.

"The methodology we're proposing is a road map towards making confident statements about what the human role is [in glacial retreats]," said glaciologist John Christian, who is a postdoctoral researcher at both The University of Texas at Austin and Georgia Tech. "Those statements can then be communicated to the public and policymakers, and help in their decision making."
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High-tide floods surge as climate changes and sea level rises
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-high-tide ... e-sea.html
by American Geophysical Union

Over recent decades, coastal cities in the U.S. have experienced significant increases in floods that occur during high tide, which create dangerous driving conditions, road closures, groundwater contamination and other safety issues. Climate change and sea level rise have facilitated more of these high-tide floods, according to new research in AGU's Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans.

Multiple processes contribute to high-tide flooding, also called "nuisance flooding" or "sunny-day flooding," depending on tides and local wind and pressure conditions, as well as larger-scale phenomena like El Niño/La Niña. But little is known about how these factors work in concert to cause regional high-tide flooding.

Their analyses also revealed that as sea level has risen, the number of co-occurring factors needed to cause a high-tide flood has dropped from three or four to two, or even one. Simply put, in many coastal cities, fewer things need to go wrong for a high-tide flood to hit.

"When I started my career 15 years ago, I don't think we had a name for what now we know as high-tide flooding," says Thomas Wahl, a coastal engineer at the University of Central Florida and coauthor of the new study. "It is an emerging issue and one of the immediate consequences of rising sea levels."
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As globe warms, infected pines starve and disease-causing fungi thrive
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-globe-inf ... fungi.html
by Emily Caldwell, The Ohio State University

The high heat and low water conditions produced by global warming weaken pine trees' resistance to disease by hindering their ability to mount an effective defense at the same time that pathogenic fungi in their tissues become more aggressive, new research suggests.

The study is the first to simultaneously examine metabolic gene expression in both host trees and the pathogens attacking them under normal and climate-change conditions. The findings help explain the mechanisms behind what has become a well-known fact: The warming world makes trees more susceptible to disease.

The study was conducted on Austrian pines, which are native to southern Europe and used ornamentally in the United States. Researchers tested climate change conditions' effects on the trees after infection by two related fungi that have killed large swaths of these pines over time.
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Voters See a Bad Economy, Even if They're Doing OK
Source: New York Times
The fastest inflation in four decades has Americans feeling dour about the economy, even as their own finances have, so far, held up relatively well.

Just 10 percent of registered voters say the U.S. economy is “good” or “excellent,” according to a New York Times/Siena College poll — a remarkable degree of pessimism at a time when wages are rising and the unemployment rate is near a 50-year low. But the rapidly rising cost of food, gas and other essentials is wiping out pay increases and eroding living standards.

Americans’ grim outlook is bad news for President Biden and congressional Democrats heading into this fall’s midterm elections, given that 78 percent of voters say inflation will be “extremely important” when they head to the polls.

It could be bad news for the economy as well. One long-running index of consumer sentiment hit a record low in June, and other surveys likewise show Americans becoming increasingly nervous about both their own finances and the broader economy.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/busi ... lling.html
Nanotechandmorefuture
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Vakanai wrote: Tue Jul 12, 2022 10:58 am
Nanotechandmorefuture wrote: Tue Jul 12, 2022 8:34 am UN projects world population will reach 8 billion on Nov. 15
By Edith M. Lederer Associated Press
July 12, 2022, 1:32 AM

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/exp ... 5-86606295
UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations estimated Monday that the world’s population will reach 8 billion on Nov. 15 and that India will replace China as the world’s most populous nation next year.

In a report released on World Population Day, the U.N. also said global population growth fell below 1% in 2020 for the first time since 1950.

According to the latest U.N. projections, the world’s population could grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and a peak of around 10.4 billion during the 2080s. It is forecast to remain at that level until 2100.

The report says more than half the projected increase in population up to 2050 will be concentrated in just eight countries: Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.

The report, “World Population Prospects 2022,” puts the world's population at 7.942 billion now and forecasts it will reach 8 billion in mid-November
Weirdest thing, I have a memory from like middle school back in the late 90s/early 00s of us reaching this 8 billion milestone. Am I just misremembering? Or was that the time we hit 7 billion? Swear to god I've spent most my life now at this point thinking there were already over 8 billion of us.
It could be likely. I went to a decent middle school thank god but unless you were in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate Programs you probably were not tuned into the climate change agenda then so I missed out due to being in regular classes. In my middle school 7th grade 911 happened. The fake "mandela effect" kicking in could account for that guesstimation on part of the world governments.

Now with tech it will be much easier to get the correct metrics of course.
Vakanai
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Re: Climate Change News & Discussions

Post by Vakanai »

Nanotechandmorefuture wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 2:16 pm
Vakanai wrote: Tue Jul 12, 2022 10:58 am
Nanotechandmorefuture wrote: Tue Jul 12, 2022 8:34 am UN projects world population will reach 8 billion on Nov. 15
By Edith M. Lederer Associated Press
July 12, 2022, 1:32 AM

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/exp ... 5-86606295

Weirdest thing, I have a memory from like middle school back in the late 90s/early 00s of us reaching this 8 billion milestone. Am I just misremembering? Or was that the time we hit 7 billion? Swear to god I've spent most my life now at this point thinking there were already over 8 billion of us.
It could be likely. I went to a decent middle school thank god but unless you were in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate Programs you probably were not tuned into the climate change agenda then so I missed out due to being in regular classes. In my middle school 7th grade 911 happened. The fake "mandela effect" kicking in could account for that guesstimation on part of the world governments.

Now with tech it will be much easier to get the correct metrics of course.
I wasn't even aware of climate change back then, and the way I remember people talking about it had nothing to do with climate. You must've been a couple years younger than me - I was in 8th grade when 9/11 happened and I had been held back a year (kindergarten of all grades). But I swear I remember the news on tv making a big deal of 8 billion people in...6th grade? Might've been 5th grade elementary actually...
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weatheriscool
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NASA GISS
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Jul 14
The monthly GISTEMP surface temperature analysis update has been posted. The global mean temperature anomaly for June 2022 was 0.91°C above the 1951-1980 June average. https://go.nasa.gov/2PakncL
weatheriscool
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AP source: Biden holds off on climate emergency declaration
Source: Associated Press
President Joe Biden will travel to Massachusetts on Wednesday to promote his efforts to combat climate change but will stop short of issuing an emergency declaration that would unlock federal resources to deal with the issue, according to a person familiar with the president’s plans.

Biden has been under pressure to issue an emergency declaration after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., pulled out of negotiations over climate legislation. During his visit to Somerset, Mass., Biden could announce other steps on climate change but the White House has not released details.

The president has been trying to signal to Democratic voters that he’s aggressively tackling global warming at a time when some of his supporters have despaired about the lack of progress. He has pledged to push forward on his own in the absence of congressional action.

The person familiar with Biden’s intention to hold off on making an emergency declaration spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans publicly. It was not clear whether an emergency declaration remains under consideration...
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/climate-bide ... 0aec3b079b
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caltrek
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Modified Rail Cars Can Clean Air of CO2 and Help Mitigate Climate Change
July 20, 2022

Extract:
(EurekAlert) Rail systems around the world could help mitigate climate change and clean the air of CO2 by capturing the sustainable energy generated when trains break and decelerate.

US-based startup, CO2Rail Company have been working with a world-renowned team of researchers, including engineers from the University of Sheffield, to design Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology that removes carbon dioxide from the air, which can be used within special rail cars placed with already running trains in regular service.

The DAC rail cars work by using large intakes of air that extend up into the slipstream of the moving train to move ambient air into the large cylindrical CO2 collection chamber and eliminate the need for energy-intensive fan systems that are necessary with stationary DAC operations.

The air then moves through a chemical process that separates the CO2 from the air and the carbon dioxide free air then travels out of the back or underside of the car and returns to the atmosphere.

After a sufficient amount has been captured, the chamber is closed and the harvested CO2 is collected, concentrated, and stored in a liquid reservoir until it can be emptied from the train at a crew change or fuelling stop into normal CO2 rail tank cars. It is then transported into the circular carbon economy as value-added feedstock for CO2 utilisation, or to nearby geological landfill sites.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/959269

Edit: Here is another article on the same topic: https://www.inverse.com/innovation/carb ... ure-trains
Last edited by caltrek on Fri Jul 22, 2022 6:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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