Climate Change News & Discussions

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Time_Traveller
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Source of the River Thames moves fives miles for first time in its history
16:12, 5 AUG 2022

The source of the River Thames has moved five miles downstream for the first time in its history. While parts of the riverbed in Gloucestershire regularly dry out during the summer, experts said it was a worrying sign of the impact of the climate crisis to see the Thames begin flowing so far downstream.

It comes after weeks of dry spells, and temperatures reaching in excess of 40C in parts of the UK last month.

Christine Colvin, advocacy and engagement director of the Rivers Trust, said: "What we're seeing at the source of the iconic River Thames is sadly emblematic of the situation we're facing across the country, now and in future. Whilst it's not uncommon for the source to be dry in the summer, to only be seeing the river flowing five miles downstream is unprecedented.

"The climate crisis is leading, and will lead, to more extreme weather including droughts and heatwaves. This poses a grave threat to rivers and, as a result, the wider landscape."

The Rivers Trust is calling for accelerated metering, rapid reduction in leakage, support for households to reduce water usage, such as installing low flow toilets and water butts, and sustainable drainage including rain gardens, wetlands and permeable paving to build up local stores of water underground. The source of the Thames has moved east from Kemble, just south of Cirencester, to beyond Somerford Keynes.
https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/n ... es-7428122
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caltrek
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Decarbonizing the Energy System by 2050 Could Save Trillions, Says new Oxford Study
September 13, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert)
• New study shows a fast transition to clean energy is cheaper than slow or no transition
• Idea that going green will be expensive is ‘just wrong’
• Green technology costs have fallen significantly over the last decade, and are likely to continue falling
• Achieving a net zero carbon energy system by around 2050 is possible and profitable

Transitioning to a decarbonised energy system by around 2050 is expected to save the world at least $12 trillion, compared to continuing our current levels of fossil fuel use, according to a peer-reviewed study by Oxford University researchers, published in the journal Joule today.
Read more of the EurekAlert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/964145

Read the lengthy Joule article here: https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2 ... 22)00410-X

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The monthly GISTEMP surface temperature analysis update has been posted. The global mean temperature anomaly for August 2022 was 0.95°C above the 1951-1980 August average. https://go.nasa.gov/2PakncL
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August 2022
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monito ... bal/202208
The August 2022 global surface temperature departure was the sixth highest for August in the 143-year record at 0.90°C (1.62°F) above the 20th century average of 15.6°C (60.1°F). The ten warmest Augusts on record have all occurred since 2009. August 2022 also marked the 46th consecutive August and the 452nd consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th century average.

Seasonal Temperature: June–August 2022

The June–August 2022 global surface temperature was 0.89°C (1.60°F) above the 20th-century average of 15.6°C (60.1°F). This ranks as the fifth-warmest June-August period in the 143-year record, tied with the June–August periods of 2015 and 2017. This is 0.05°C (0.09°F) cooler than the warmest June–August period (2016). The five warmest June–August periods have occurred from 2015 to present.

The January–August global surface temperature was 0.86°C (1.55°F) above the 1901-2000 average of 14.0°C (57.3°F) — the sixth-highest January–August temperature in the 143-year record. The ten warmest January–August periods on record have occurred since 2010. According to NCEI's statistical analysis, the year 2022 is very likely to rank among the ten warmest years on record but only has a 10.4% chance to rank among the five warmest years on record.
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Researchers develop a new way to predict droughts
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-droughts.html
by Jared Sagoff, Argonne National Laboratory

Scientists looking at the meteorological impacts of climate change have typically looked at increases in severe weather and hurricanes. Now, they are studying another consequence of global warming that will have significant economic ramifications: drought.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed a new method to assess the likelihood of extreme drought conditions in several different regions of the United States over the remainder of the century. Using this method, based on highly detailed regional climate models, they have found that droughts are likely to be exacerbated by global warming. This finding is especially likely in regions like the Midwest, Northwestern U.S. and California's Central Valley.

"The projected worsening of droughts as a result of global warming is likely to have significant consequences in terms of crop loss, wildfires, and demand for water resources," said Rao Kotamarthi, an Argonne environmental scientist and author of the new study.

In looking at future forecasts of droughts over the course of the remainder of the century, the researchers believe the new technique can help them to understand "flash drought" events that have a quick onset period that could be as short as few weeks. "Flash droughts, as their name implies, happen really quickly," Kotamarthi said. "While conventional droughts are related to a prolonged lack of precipitation, flash droughts occur because of high temperatures and extremely high evaporation rates."
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Tropical wetlands emit more methane than previously thought
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-tropical- ... ously.html
by Rachel Fritts, American Geophysical Union

Since 2007, the world's atmospheric methane concentration has risen at an accelerated rate, but scientists aren't exactly sure why. This is a problem, because methane is a particularly potent greenhouse gas. It has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere, and it accounts for about 30% of global warming since preindustrial times.

To better understand methane's recent climb and how to mitigate it, scientists are trying to collect more accurate measurements of methane's sources, both human and natural. In a new study published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Shaw et al. find that tropical wetlands, which are responsible for about a fifth of the world's methane emissions, are releasing significantly more methane than previously thought.

Methane emissions from tropical wetlands are poorly studied, especially in Africa. The researchers set out to help fill this data gap with the first-ever airborne surveys of methane released from wetlands in Zambia, focusing on three of the country's large wetland areas: Bangweulu, Kafue, and Lukanga. They used the United Kingdom's Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements, a British Aerospace 146 aircraft fitted with a scientific measurement laboratory, to sample environmental data. And to estimate methane emissions, they applied three approaches at each wetland site: airborne mass balance, airborne eddy covariance, and atmospheric inversion.
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caltrek
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Patagonia's Billionaire Founder Donates His Company to Fight Climate Change
by Brandon Gage
September 14, 2022

Introduction:
(Alternet) The 83-year-old founder of the outdoor-themed clothing brand Patagonia and his family have given away ownership of the three-billion-dollar conglomerate so that its profits can be used to fund efforts to protect the environment.

Yvon Chouinard, renowned for his aversion to material wealth and passion for nature, established "a specially designed trust and a nonprofit organization" that "were created to preserve the company’s independence and ensure that all of its profits — some $100 million a year — are used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the globe," The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

"The unusual move comes at a moment of growing scrutiny for billionaires and corporations, whose rhetoric about making the world a better place is often overshadowed by their contributions to the very problems they claim to want to solve," the outlet noted.

“Hopefully this will influence a new form of capitalism that doesn’t end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people. We are going to give away the maximum amount of money to people who are actively working on saving this planet," Chouinard said in an exclusive interview with the Times.

"In August, the family irrevocably transferred all the company’s voting stock, equivalent to 2 percent of the overall shares, into a newly established entity known as the Patagonia Purpose Trust," the Times explained.
Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/2022/09/new-f ... atagonia/
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Scientists chart 45 million years of Antarctic temperature change
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-scientist ... ature.html
by University of Birmingham

Molecular fossils and machine learning have enabled scientists to build the first charts of Antarctic ocean temperatures over the past 45 million years, offering important insights into future sea level changes.

The team, led by scientists from Victoria University of Wellington (NZ) and Birmingham (UK) say their results suggest we are nearing a "tipping point" where ocean warming caused by atmospheric CO2 will cause catastrophic rises in sea levels because of melting ice sheets. Their results are published today (September 15, 2022) in Nature Geoscience.

In the study, the team examined molecular fossils from core samples taken during ocean drilling projects. The fossil remains are in fact single lipid (insoluble in water) molecules produced by archaea—single-celled organisms which are similar to bacteria. The archaea adjust the composition of their outer membrane lipids in response to changing sea temperatures. By studying these changes, scientists can draw conclusions about the ancient sea temperature which would have surrounded a particular sample as it died.
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caltrek
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Most Aggressive Climate Change Action in Nation Now Law in California
by Natalie Hanson
September 16, 2022

Introduction:
VALLEJO, Calif. (Courthouse News) — California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an expansive package of bills Friday earmarking billions to tackle climate change.

Standing in Solano County on Friday, Newsom highlighted a record $54 billion climate investment in this year’s budget. He signed 40 bills recently passed by the Legislature including Assembly Bill 1279, the California Climate Crisis Act. It codifies policy to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 and ensures that by the same year human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 85% below 1990 levels.

He also approved Senate Bill 1020, the Clean Energy, Jobs and Affordability Act of 2022. This bill makes the California Air Resources Board responsible for monitoring and regulating sources of greenhouse gasses, planning for “maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions” and conducting public workshops — including for communities of color and low-income communities. It also sets interim targets to reach 100% carbon neutrality by 2045 — with goals to reach 90% neutrality by 2030 and 95% by 2040.
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/most-ag ... lifornia/
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Refreezing Earth's poles feasible and cheap, new study finds
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-refreezin ... cheap.html
by Faye Holst, Institute of Physics
The poles are warming several times faster than the global average, causing record smashing heatwaves that were reported earlier this year in both the Arctic and Antarctic. Melting ice and collapsing glaciers at high latitudes would accelerate sea level rise around the planet. Fortunately, refreezing the poles by reducing incoming sunlight would be both feasible and remarkably cheap, according to new research published today in Environmental Research Communications.

Scientists laid out a possible future program whereby high-flying jets would spray microscopic aerosol particles into the atmosphere at latitudes of 60 degrees north and south—roughly Anchorage and the southern tip of Patagonia. If injected at a height of 43,000 feet (above airliner cruising altitudes), these aerosols would slowly drift poleward, slightly shading the surface beneath. "There is widespread and sensible trepidation about deploying aerosols to cool the planet," notes lead author Wake Smith, "but if the risk/benefit equation were to pay off anywhere, it would be at the poles."

Particle injections would be performed seasonally in the long days of the local spring and early summer. The same fleet of jets could service both hemispheres, ferrying to the opposite pole with the change of seasons.

Pre-existing military air-to-air refueling tankers such as the aged KC-135 and the A330 MMRT don't have enough payload at the required altitudes, whereas newly designed high-altitude tankers would prove much more efficient. A fleet of roughly 125 such tankers could loft a payload sufficient to cool the regions poleward of 60°N/S by 2°C per year, which would return them close to their pre-industrial average temperatures. Costs are estimated at $11 billion annually—less than one-third the cost of cooling the entire planet by the same 2°C magnitude and a tiny fraction of the cost of reaching net zero emissions.
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