Climate Change News & Discussions

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[Powers]

They will start killing people next.

[Powers]

I say as a joke but really you never know...

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I say as a joke but really you never know...

That's part of the storyline in Ministry for the Future.

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In the Year of Climate Finance, We Need to See Billions Flow Towards Transforming Our Food Systems
by Dr. Lauren Baker, PhD; Jane Maland Cady, and Michael Kwame Nkonu
June 23, 2024

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) This year climate finance is all the talk. As the UN Climate Conference in Bonn wraps up and the stage is set for COP29 later this year, expectations are high for governments to agree on a new climate finance package that will tackle the worsening climate and ecological crises.

In many countries, food production is the climate frontline. Nearly 95% of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) include adaptation and mitigation actions in the agriculture sector yet fail to address the full food system.

It only takes one climate disaster—a drought, flood or heatwave—for entire villages to spiral into debt, poverty and hunger, impacting regional food systems and economies.

Responding to the climate and nature crises, will require a transformation of food systems backed by a rapid redirection of funds to flip agriculture from being part of the problem to offering solutions. Last year, 25 philanthropies—coordinated by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food—called for a tenfold increase in funding towards agroecological and regenerative approaches. Philanthropy, multilateral and bilateral organizations and governments must scale and align funding to catalyze a transition to 50% regenerative and agroecological systems by 2040 and to ensure all agriculture and food systems are transitioning by 2050.

Conclusion:

We are calling on governments, the private sector and other philanthropic partners to join us in this initiative and commit to scaling up their investments so communities, Indigenous Peoples and the health and the future of all living beings and the planet are at the center of our financial decisions.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/a ... -climate

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Study Finds Rising Sea Levels Will Disrupt Millions of Americans’ Lives by 2050
by Nina Lakhan
June 25, 2024

Introduction:

(The Guardian) Sea level rise driven by global heating will disrupt the daily life of millions of Americans, as hundreds of homes, schools and government buildings face frequent and repeated flooding by 2050, a new study has found.

Almost 1,100 critical infrastructure assets that sustain coastal communities will be at risk of monthly flooding by 2050, according to the new research by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The vast majority of the assets—934 of them—face the risk of flood disruption every other week, which could make some coastal neighborhoods unlivable within two to three decades.

Almost 3 million people currently live in the 703 US coastal communities with critical infrastructure at risk of monthly disruptive flooding by 2050, including affordable and subsidized housing, wastewater treatment facilities, toxic industrial sites, power plants, fire stations, schools, kindergartens and hospitals.

The number of critical infrastructure assets at risk of disruptive flooding is expected to nearly double compared to 2020, even when assuming a medium rate of climate-driven sea level rise (rather than the worst case scenario).

California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey have the most critical infrastructure that needs to be made more flood resilient—or be relocated to safer ground.

Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/environmen ... -flooding

[Time_Traveller]

Temperatures 1.5C above pre-industrial era average for 12 months, data shows

Mon 8 Jul 2024 03.00 BST



The world has baked for 12 consecutive months in temperatures 1.5C (2.7F) greater than their average before the fossil fuel era, new data shows.

Temperatures between July 2023 and June 2024 were the highest on record, scientists found, creating a year-long stretch in which the Earth was 1.64C hotter than in preindustrial times.

The findings do not mean world leaders have already failed to honour their promises to stop the planet heating 1.5C by the end of the century – a target that is measured in decadal averages rather than single years – but that scorching heat will have exposed more people to violent weather. A sustained rise in temperatures above this level also increases the risk of uncertain but catastrophic tipping points.

Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which analysed the data, said the results were not a statistical oddity but a “large and continuing shift” in the climate.

“Even if this specific streak of extremes ends at some point, we are bound to see new records being broken as the climate continues to warm,” he said. “This is inevitable unless we stop adding greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and the oceans.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... data-shows

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Greta Thunberg arrested during climate protest in The Hague

https://aussiedlerbote.de/en/greta-thun ... the-hague/

Netherlands L

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2024 could be world's hottest year as June breaks records

Source: Reuters

July 8, 2024 6:39 AM EDT Updated 4 hours ago

BRUSSELS, July 8 (Reuters) - Last month was the hottest June on record, the EU's climate change monitoring service said on Monday, continuing a streak of exceptional temperatures that some scientists said puts 2024 on track to be the world's hottest recorded year.

Every month since June 2023 - 13 months in a row - has ranked as the planet's hottest since records began, compared with the corresponding month in previous years, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a monthly bulletin.

The latest data suggest 2024 could outrank 2023 as the hottest year since records began after human-caused climate change and the El Nino natural weather phenomenon both pushed temperatures to record highs in the year so far, some scientists said.

"I now estimate that there is an approximately 95% chance that 2024 beats 2023 to be the warmest year since global surface temperature records began in the mid-1800s," said Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at U.S. non-profit Berkeley Earth.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/enviro ... 024-07-08/

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Polar warming may be underestimated by climate models, ~50 million year old climate variability suggests
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-polar-und ... -year.html
by Hannah Bird , Phys.org

Polar regions are known to be warming at an enhanced rate compared to lower latitudes, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change citing a ~5 °C increase in air temperature over Arctic land masses during the 20th century and the highest rates of ~1 °C per decade since the 1980s. Clearly, this so-called "polar amplification" of warming, defined as the ratio of high-latitude (>60 ºN/S) to low-latitude (<30 ºN/S) warming, is a significant issue not only affecting the organisms calling polar regions home, but also how this impacts the rest of the planet.

[Time_Traveller]

Florida: tree cactus becomes first local species killed off by sea-level rise

Tue 9 Jul 2024 14.00 BST



Scientists in Florida have recorded what they say is the first local extinction of a species caused by sea-level rise.

The climate emergency has killed off the Key Largo tree cactus growing naturally in the US through salt water inundation and soil depletion from hurricanes, according to researchers from the Florida Museum of Natural History, and Miami’s Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

The species, which is now found only on a handful of remote Caribbean islands, northern Cuba and areas of the Bahamas, was already down to only a single population of six stems in the Florida Keys.

Those were removed to a greenhouse in 2021 to ensure the species’ survival, and frequent searches since have revealed no naturally growing Key Largo cacti. There is also little prospect of it re-establishing itself, despite “tentative plans” with the Florida department of environmental protection (DEP) for a small-scale replanting project.

About 90% of the low-lying Florida Keys island chain is at 5ft of elevation or less, with Nasa predicting future ocean rise of up to 7ft by 2100.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/art ... us-extinct

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Kew Gardens prepares for climate change tree loss

4 hours ago

More than half of Kew Gardens' 11,000 trees could be at risk before the end of the century due to the effects of climate change, its scientists have warned.

These could include English oak, beech, silver birch and holly trees, which they say could be vulnerable to warmer temperatures and longer dry spells.

They say they have already started trying to replace them by planting more species currently found in warmer countries in southern Europe, Asia and Central America.

This means the world-famous site in west London "will certainly look different" by then, one of its curators says.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3g9404p30po



Credit: RBG Kew

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What Project 2025 Would do to Climate Policy in the US
by Zoya Teirstein
July 19, 2024

Introduction:

(Grist) As delegates arrived at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee earlier this week to officially nominate former president Donald Trump as their 2024 candidate, a right-wing policy think tank held an all-day event nearby. The Heritage Foundation, a key sponsor of the convention and a group that has been influencing Republican presidential policy since the 1980s, gathered its supporters to tout Project 2025, a 900-plus-page policy blueprint that seeks to fundamentally restructure the federal government.

Dozens of conservative groups contributed to Project 2025, which recommends changes that would touch every aspect of American life and transform federal agencies — from the Department of Defense to the Department of Interior to the Federal Reserve. Although it has largely garnered attention for its proposed crackdowns on human rights and individual liberties, the blueprint would also undermine the country’s extensive network of environmental and climate policies and alter the future of American fossil fuel production, climate action, and environmental justice.

Under President Joe Biden’s direction, the majority of the federal government’s vast system of departments, agencies, and commissions have belatedly undertaken the arduous task of incorporating climate change into their operations and procedures. Two summers ago, Biden also signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate spending law in U.S. history with the potential to help drive greenhouse gas emissions down 42 percent below 2005 levels.

Project 2025 seeks to undo much of that progress by slashing funding for government programs across the board, weakening federal oversight and policymaking capabilities, rolling back legislation passed during Biden’s first term, and eliminating career personnel. The policy changes it suggests — which include executive orders that Trump could implement single-handedly, regulatory changes by federal agencies, and legislation that would require congressional approval — would make it extremely difficult for the United States to fulfill the climate goals it has committed to under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Read more here: https://grist.org/politics/what-projec ... n-the-us/

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Biden-Harris Administration Announces $4.3 Billion in Grants for Community-Driven Solutions to Cut Climate Pollution Across America
by
July 22, 2024

Introduction:

(EPA)Funded by President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, EPA announces 25 selected applications through competitive Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program to tackle climate change, improve air quality, and advance environmental justice.

When estimates provided by all selected applicants are combined, the proposed projects would reduce greenhouse gas pollution by as much as 971 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2050, roughly the emissions from 5 million average homes’ energy use each year for over 25 years

Read more here: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden ... ions-cut

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