Climate Change News & Discussions

[caltrek]

Yup! Carbon Dioxide is an Air Pollutant
by Dave Dickey
August 31, 2022

Extract:

(Investigate Midwest) The Supreme Court found (in West Virginia v. EPA) that Congress, in passing the Clean Air Act, had not given the Environmental Protection Agency broad regulatory authority to institute generation shifting (exchanging high producing sources like coal to lower ones like natural gas, wind, and solar). In his concurring opinion Justice Neil M. Gorsuch put the smack down on Congress:

“When Congress seems slow to solve problems, it may be only natural that those in the executive branch might seek to take matters into their own hands. But the Constitution does not authorize agencies to use pen-and-phone regulations as substitutes for laws passed by the people’s representatives.”

Well, Justice Gorsuch, now it has. Tucked in landmark climate law passed earlier this month are amendments to Title VI of the Clean Air Act. New language defines greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons, methane, nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride.

The bottom line is that greenhouse gases in general and carbon dioxide in particular are pollutants under the Clean Air Act, giving EPA an opportunity to develop new plans to combat climate change.

Read more here: https://investigatemidwest.org/2022/08 ... ollutant/

[weatheriscool]

Record of Antarctic ice sheet response to climate cycles found in rock samples
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-antarctic ... imate.html
by University of California - Santa Cruz

By analyzing unusual rock samples collected years ago in Antarctica, scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have discovered a remarkable record of how the East Antarctic Ice Sheet has responded to changes in climate over a period of 100,000 years during the Late Pleistocene.

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet is the world's largest ice mass. Understanding its sensitivity to climate change is crucial for efforts to project how much sea level will rise as global temperatures increase. Recent studies suggest it may be more vulnerable to ice loss than previously thought.

The new study, published September 15 in Nature Communications, provides evidence of changes at the base of the ice sheet over a broad area in response to cyclic changes in climate during the Pleistocene. The changes are reflected in the types of minerals deposited at the base of the ice sheet.

"One of the key findings is that the ice sheet was responding to temperature changes in the Southern Ocean," said coauthor Terrence Blackburn, associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz. "The warm water eats at the edges of the ice sheet and causes the ice to flow faster, and that response reaches deep into the heart of the ice sheet."

The rock samples analyzed in the study consist of alternating layers of opal and calcite that formed as mineral deposits at the base of the ice sheet, recording cyclic changes in the composition of subglacial fluids.

"Each layer in these samples is a manifestation of a change at the base of the ice sheet driven by changes in the motion of the ice streams," said first author Gavin Piccione, a Ph.D. candidate working with Blackburn at UCSC.

By dating the layers, the researchers found a striking correlation between the layers of mineral deposits and the record of polar sea surface temperatures derived from ice cores. The opal was deposited during cold periods, and the calcite during warm periods.

[weatheriscool]

U.S. ratifies global treaty curbing climate super-pollutants
Source: Washington Post

With broad bipartisan support, the Senate on Wednesday ratified by a 69-27 vote a global treaty that would sharply limit the emissions of super-pollutants that frequently leak from air conditioners and other types of refrigeration. The treaty — known as the Kigali Amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol — compels countries to phase out the use of the potent hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are hundreds to thousands of times as powerful as carbon dioxide in speeding up climate change.

The United States became the 137th country to ratify the amendment — and negotiators said the move would encourage the remaining nations to follow suit. The earlier Montreal Protocol clamped down on the production of ozone-depleting substances. U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry, who was in the Rwandan capital of Kigali when the amendment was negotiated, said the Senate vote “was a decade in the making and a profound victory ​for the climate and the American economy.”

The treaty, which had to win support of at least two-thirds of the Senate, brought together an unusual coalition of supporters including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers as well as the Natural Resources Defense Council. In a statement, Kerry said that “businesses supported it because it drives American exports; climate advocates championed it because it will avoid up to half a degree of global warming by the end of the century; and world leaders backed it because it ensures strong international cooperation.”

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that ratifying the Kigali Amendment and adopting the Inflation Reduction Act was “the strongest one-two punch against climate change any Congress has ever taken.” He said the treaty would “reduce global temperatures by about half a degree Celsius by the end of this century, a little talked about fact with very significant impact.” That reduction equals about 1 degree Fahrenheit. He called it a “win-win in our fight against climate change.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... s-climate/

[weatheriscool]

Yup! Carbon Dioxide is an Air Pollutant
by Dave Dickey
August 31, 2022

Extract:

(Investigate Midwest) The Supreme Court found (in West Virginia v. EPA) that Congress, in passing the Clean Air Act, had not given the Environmental Protection Agency broad regulatory authority to institute generation shifting (exchanging high producing sources like coal to lower ones like natural gas, wind, and solar). In his concurring opinion Justice Neil M. Gorsuch put the smack down on Congress:

“When Congress seems slow to solve problems, it may be only natural that those in the executive branch might seek to take matters into their own hands. But the Constitution does not authorize agencies to use pen-and-phone regulations as substitutes for laws passed by the people’s representatives.”

Well, Justice Gorsuch, now it has. Tucked in landmark climate law passed earlier this month are amendments to Title VI of the Clean Air Act. New language defines greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons, methane, nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride.

The bottom line is that greenhouse gases in general and carbon dioxide in particular are pollutants under the Clean Air Act, giving EPA an opportunity to develop new plans to combat climate change.

Read more here: https://investigatemidwest.org/2022/08 ... ollutant/

When you think about it so is water vapor and oxygen if at a high enough percentage....Co2 can be good or bad depending on the percentage contained within the atmosphere.

[raklian]

[caltrek]

Grassland Soil Carbon Sequestration: Current Understanding, Challenges, and Solutions
by Yongfei Bai and M. Francesca Cotrugo
September, 2022

Introduction:

(Science) Grasslands store approximately one third of the global terrestrial carbon stocks and can act as an important soil carbon sink. Recent studies show that plant diversity increases soil organic carbon (SOC) storage by elevating carbon inputs to belowground biomass and promoting microbial necromass contribution to SOC storage. Climate change affects grassland SOC storage by modifying the processes of plant carbon inputs and microbial catabolism and anabolism. Improved grazing management and biodiversity restoration can provide low-cost and/or high-carbon-gain options for natural climate solutions in global grasslands. The achievable SOC sequestration potential in global grasslands is 2.3 to 7.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year (CO2e year−1) for biodiversity restoration, 148 to 699 megatons of CO2e year−1 for improved grazing management, and 147 megatons of CO2e year−1 for sown legumes in pasturelands.

Read more here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo23

[weatheriscool]

Arctic sea ice loss leads to more frequent strong El Niño events
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-arctic-se ... quent.html
by University at Albany

Over the last 40 years, a rapid shrinking of Arctic sea ice has been one of the most significant indicators of climate change. The amount of sea ice that survives the Arctic summer has declined 13% per decade since the late 1970s and projections show the region could experience its first ice-free summer by 2040.

This rapid melting is not just disruptive to surrounding coastal cities and small island nations; it also may have a lasting impact on global weather patterns, according to new paper from a University at Albany researcher.

In a new Nature Communications paper, researchers have revealed that the magnitude and pattern of Arctic sea-ice loss can directly influence El Niño. Further, as the Arctic becomes seasonally ice-free, the frequency of strong El Niño events increases significantly.

El Niño is a complex weather pattern that occurs when surface water in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean becomes warmer than average and east winds blow weaker than normal. The events, which typically occur every few years, can produce unusual and, sometimes dangerous, weather conditions around the world including droughts, floods and severe storms.

Prior to this study, little was known about whether dwindling Arctic sea ice is capable of influencing strong El Niño events, according to its lead author Jiping Liu, an associate professor in UAlbany's Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences.

"El Niño is an important climate phenomenon, recognized as a driver of climate variability responsible for large and diverse societal impacts," Liu said. "Our study, for the first time, finds that large Arctic sea-ice loss directly influences global climate extremes, including an increase in the frequency of strong El Niño events."

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Nord Stream leaks likely single largest methane release ever: UN

1 Oct 2022

The ruptures on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline system under the Baltic Sea have led to what is likely the biggest single release of climate-damaging methane ever recorded, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has said.

A huge plume of highly concentrated methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent but shorter-lived than carbon dioxide, was detected in an analysis this week of satellite imagery by researchers associated with the UNEP’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, or IMEO, the organisation said on Friday.

“This is really bad, most likely the largest emission event ever detected,” Manfredi Caltagirone, head of the IMEO for UNEP, told Reuters.

“This is not helpful in a moment when we absolutely need to reduce emissions.”

Researchers at GHGSat, which uses satellites to monitor methane emissions, estimated the leak rate from one of four rupture points was 22,920kg (around 50,000 lbs) per hour. That is equivalent to burning about 630,000 pounds (around 286,000kg) of coal every hour, GHGSat said in a statement.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/ ... se-ever-un

[caltrek]

Climate Idiocy of DeSantis Exposes Him as Threat to Entire Nation
by Juan Cole
October 1, 2022

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has abruptly been handed an honest-to-God crisis that may distract him from his usual antics of trolling Venezuelan asylum-seekers, firing elected prosecutors who disagree with him on coerced childbirth, and firing scientists who wouldn't manipulate state COVID statistics for him.

DeSantis called Hurricane Ian a once-in-a-500-year flood event.

DeSantis, who hates people who know what they are talking about the way the devil hates holy water, shouldn't be relied on for either science or history. The flooding caused by Ian could well be the worst for thousands of years. The most recent warm era in the north Atlantic, the medieval warming period, around 900-1200, seems to have seen ocean surface temperatures that were still colder than today's. It is our very warm surface ocean temperatures that feed monster storms such as Ian. Moreover, it isn't going to be something that only happens once in a half-millennium. Massive hurricanes and floods are the new normal caused by humans burning petroleum, coal and fossil gas, which puts billions of tons a year of the dangerous heat-trapping gas, carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.

This is the same DeSantis who signed a bill into law that forbade Florida municipalities from getting off fossil fuels and turning to wind and solar instead by restricting land use, banning fracking, or interfering with pipelines. The law was supported by the Florida Natural Gas Association. Sunny Florida, which could put in as much solar power as California if its government wanted to, is instead locked into getting 70% of its power from dirty fossil gas, which produces the CO2 that heats the oceans and calls forth monster storms like Ian.

This is the same DeSantis who according to the Orlando Weekly "wants to prohibit state investments that use 'environmental, social and governance" ratings, which can include taking into account impacts of climate change.'"

Read more of the Common Dreams article here: https://www.commondreams.org/views/202 ... re-nation

Read the Orlando Weekly article here: https://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/flo ... -32127821

[caltrek]

What the War in Ukraine Means for Asia’s Climate Goals
October 2, 2022

Introduction:

(AP via The Asahi Shimbun) DELHI--The queues outside petrol pumps in Sri Lanka have lessened, but not the anxiety.

Asanka Sampath, a 43-year-old factory clerk, is forever vigilant. He checks his phone for messages, walks past the pump, and browses social media to see if fuel has arrived. Delays could mean being left stranded for days.

“I am really fed up with this,” he said.

His frustrations echo that of the 22-million inhabitants of the island nation, facing its worst ever economic crisis because of heavy debts, lost tourism revenue during the pandemic, and surging costs.

The consequent political turmoil culminated with the formation of a new government, but recovery has been complicated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the upending of global energy markets.

Read more here: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14732982

[caltrek]

New Genetic Variation from Old and Exotic Varieties for Environmentally Friendly Wheat Cultivation
October 4, 2022

Introduction:

(EurekAlert) Thanks to the continuous funding of the work over six years so far by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, it was possible to test the IPK Leibniz Institute's extensive collection of old wheat varieties for their yield performance and resistance to yellow rust in the laboratory, but also in field trials. "This required a logistical masterstroke from all project participants and many innovative approaches to evaluate the potential of the old varieties without disruptive effects," says Dr. Albert Schulthess, first author of the study. To determine the yield potential, the old varieties were crossed with adapted elite varieties, for example. Only then became the yield potential of the old varieties clearly visible.

And that's not all: the researchers used the results to develop bridging lines for wheat breeding from promising old varieties by crossing them with current varieties. The performance of the resulting progeny surprised the researchers: "We observed higher yields in some bridging lines as compared to important current elite varieties," says Dr. Albert Schulthess, scientist in the research group "Quantitative Genetics". Prof. Dr. Jochen Reif, coordinator of the consortium and head of the research group, is convinced that thanks to the involvement of the two breeding companies, the biodiversity of the elite pool can be increased by using new valuable genetic variation of the bridge lines: "This is of great importance to tackle the huge problems that climate change poses to agriculture."

But that was not all. The results of the study enable a big step towards farming with less or no pesticide use. "Through the comprehensive sequencing of old and new varieties in combination with the valuable field data, we were able to identify possible new gene variants for resistance to yellow rust infestation," says Dr. Albert Schulthess. This would not have been possible without the decoding of the wheat genome, in which the IPK Leibniz Institute played a leading role. "With the new genome regions we discovered in a few old varieties, we can diversify the immune system of wheat," explains Prof. Dr. Jochen Reif.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/966824

[weatheriscool]

Melting permafrost increases greenhouse gas from Arctic lakes
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-permafros ... lakes.html
by Anna-Lena Lindskog, Umea University

Groundwaters that circulate through the subsoil as a result of melting permafrost can transport carbon dioxide and methane to Arctic lakes and in turn be emitted to the atmosphere. This process of transporting greenhouse gases increases the effects of climate change and is now being quantified for the first time by researchers from the universities in Umeå, Barcelona, and Linköping. The study is published in Nature Communications.

Permafrost is the soil that remains frozen all year round in different parts of the planet, such as the Arctic and Antarctica, as well as in high mountains and high plateaus. The current study focuses on Arctic lakes located in the sporadic permafrost region of northern Sweden. In this area —a typical tundra ecosystem—between 10 and 50% of the soils are permanently frozen. The top layer of the soil above the permafrost, the active layer, freezes and thaws annually.

In this region, the average annual temperature has risen considerably in recent years and is now above 0 degrees Celsius. This causes the permafrost—with its abundant organic matter rich in carbon and greenhouse gases—to thaw. Through the circulation of the groundwater, the permafrost acts as a spring that supplies the hydrologically connected lakes in the region with greenhouse gases. The gases are finally emitted from the lakes into the atmosphere.

To date, little has been known in detail about the importance of groundwater on greenhouse gas emissions from Arctic lakes. To answer questions about this process, the Spanish-Swedish researcher team in the current study used radon—a gas abundant in subsoil currents—as a tracer of groundwater discharge into the lakes.

[caltrek]

Scientists Refine Understanding of Seasons in Antarctica
by Madalyn Wright
October 6, 2022

Introduction:

(Courthouse News) — Thanks to satellite imaging technology, scientists can track seasonal changes in Antarctica for the first time. In a study published Thursday in The Cryosphere, researchers at the University of Cambridge and Austrian engineering company ENEVO detailed their findings that can lead to more accurate sea-rise calculations.

In contrast to its northern counterparts, such as the Greenland Ice Sheet, historically, there has not been data on the Antarctic ice flow. However, there was a general assumption by scientists that it was not subject to the same seasonal movements, especially in areas with large ice shelves and consistent below-freezing temperatures.

Using data from the Sentinel-1 radar satellite through the European Space Agency and NASA's optical Landsat 8, the researchers found recognizable seasonal movements flowing from glaciers into the George VI Ice Shelf, which is larger than the state of New Jersey. Specifically, there is a 15% increase in the glaciers feeding the ice shelf during the summer.

"Seasonality is important because, at the moment, all the estimations of how much mass is being lost from Antarctica don't account for the fact that there's any kind of seasonality or change in how fast the ice is flowing each season. It means that our current estimates are either over or underestimating how much mass is lost from Antarctica," said Karla Boxall from Cambridge's Scott Polar Research Institute in an interview. "Our projections of sea level rise are also going to be off."

The satellite advancements allowed scientists to get images every six days of the glacier. Then, using offset tracking, they could compare the images and measure the speed of change. The use of both satellites that both found the same data allowed photos — rain or shine.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/scienti ... tarctica/

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Global warming at least doubled the probability of extreme ocean warming around Japan
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-global-pr ... japan.html
by National Institute for Environmental Studies

In the past decade, the marginal seas of Japan frequently experienced extremely high sea surface temperatures (SSTs). A new study led by National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) researchers revealed that the increased occurrence frequency of extreme ocean warming events since the 2000s is attributable to global warming due to industrialization.

In August 2020, the southern area of Japan and the northwestern Pacific Ocean experienced unprecedentedly high SSTs, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). A recent study published in January 2021 revealed that the record-high northwestern Pacific SST observed in August 2020 could not be expected to occur without human-induced climate changes.

Since then, the JMA again announced that the record high SSTs were observed near Japan in July and October 2021 and from June to August 2022, but it remains unclear to what extent climate change has altered the occurrence likelihood of these regional extreme warming events.

"Impacts of global warming is not uniform, rather show regional and seasonal differences," said a co-author Hideo Shiogama, the head of the Earth System Risk Assessment Section at Earth System Division, NIES.

[caltrek]

Large-Scale Study Shows Climate Change and Deforestation May Drive Tree-dwelling Primates to the Ground
October 10, 2022

Introduction:

(EurekAlert) SAN DIEGO – A large-scale study of 47 species of monkeys and lemurs has found that climate change and deforestation are driving these tree-dwelling animals to the ground, where they are at higher risk due to lack of preferred food and shelter, and may experience more negative interaction with humans and domestic animals.

The study, slated to publish Oct. 10, in the journal The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS),was led by Timothy Eppley, Ph.D., a postdoctoral associate at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA), and examined more than 150,000 hours of observation data on 15 lemur species and 32 monkey species at 68 sites in the Americas and Madagascar. This study was a remarkable worldwide collaboration, including 118 co-authors from 124 unique institutions.

“This study began with a discussion among colleagues about how we’d noticed certain populations of arboreal primates spending more time on the ground,” said Dr. Eppley, “yet at sites with relatively less disturbance, members of the same species may never descend to the ground.”

The authors estimated the influence of ecological drivers, including potential human-induced pressures and/or species-specific traits, on the level of terrestriality (time spent on the ground) in arboreal primates. The study found that primates that consume less fruit and live in large social groups were more likely to descend to the ground. The authors suggest that these traits act as a potential “pre-adaptation” to terrestriality. Furthermore, primates living in hotter environments, and with less canopy cover, were more likely to adapt to these changes by shifting toward more extensive ground use.

Many of these species are already burdened with living in warmer, fragmented and heavily disturbed environments that often have fewer available dietary resources. As climate change worsens and arboreal habitats diminish, the study suggests primates consuming a more generalized diet and living in larger groups may more easily adapt to a terrestrial lifestyle.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/967024

[wjfox]

Latest from Just Stop Oil.

I agree with their message... but disagree with their increasingly disruptive methods. Such as vandalising historical artworks. A step too far, IMO.

(thankfully the painting wasn't damaged, as it's protected by glass, although the frame was slightly damaged.)

[weatheriscool]

Study reveals new insights into how fast-moving glaciers may contribute to sea level rise
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-reveals-i ... ibute.html
by University of Oxford

Climate change is resulting in sea level rise as ice on land melts and oceans expand. How much and how fast sea levels will rise in the near future will depend, in part, on the frequency of glacier calving events. These occur when large chunks of ice detach from glaciers that terminate in the ocean (known as tidewater glaciers), and fall into coastal fjords as icebergs. The faster these glaciers flow over the ground towards the ocean, the more ice enters the ocean, increasing the rate of sea level rise.

During the warmer summer months, the surface of Greenland's glaciers can melt and form large lakes that may then drain through to the base of the glacier. Studies on the inland Greenland ice sheet have shown that this reduces friction between the ice and ground, causing the ice to slide faster for a few days. Up to now, however, it has been unclear whether such drainage events affect the flow speed of tidewater glaciers, and hence the rate of calving events.

[wjfox]