Climate Change News & Discussions

[weatheriscool]

Hot take but could the current spike be in part related to the wildfires in Canada?

Wildfires = smoke that blocks some of the sunlight. A few years ago there was a few days that should have been around 105f in my area but a shitload of smoke moved into my area in it was a good 10-12f cooler.

[caltrek]

A Vital Atlantic Ocean System Could Collapse Sooner Than Previously Thought
by Siri Chilukuri
July 26, 2023

Introduction:

(Grist) Oceans all over the world rely on a delicate balance of different elements to remain stable: Temperature, salinity, pH, and pressure all combine to create the complex bodies of water that maintain conditions for marine life and define the planet. Climate change has altered those conditions, though, by warming oceans to record-high temperatures and introducing more fresh water through sea-ice and glacier melt.

Now, new research published on Tuesday warns that a vital Atlantic Ocean system could collapse by 2060, setting off one of the planet’s tipping points, or potential points of no return. That collapse could eventually spell catastrophe for the people who live in countries that border the Atlantic Ocean, leading to increased sea-level rise in the United States, decreased temperatures and altered storm patterns over Western Europe, rejiggered climate and agricultural zones, and hotter ocean temperatures in the Caribbean.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, contradicts findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, the United Nations’ scientific collaboration that publishes reports on the state of climate change. The group’s latest assessment, released last year, found the collapse of the group of Atlantic Ocean currents to be unlikely given the group only acknowledges weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, starting in 2004. The report notes that scientists cannot say when or if a collapse will happen, since they state even the decline prior to the 2000s cannot necessarily be attributed to climate change.

“We absolutely have deep respect for the IPCC report,” Susanne Ditlevsen, a statistician at the University of Copenhagen and co-author of the study, told Grist. “When we first started, we had this idea that we could use this method that’s data-based, to kind of confirm what the IPCC report is saying. So when we actually got our first results, we were very surprised, and we didn’t believe them.”

Read more here: https://grist.org/climate/a-vital-atla ... collapse/

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[caltrek]

One Person Stopped California’s Divestment from Fossil Fuels — Again
by
August , 2023

Introduction:

(Capital & Main) Environmental groups, faculty associations and others seeking to slow climate change are pushing California to cut its investments in fossil fuels. Divestment supporters point to the state’s massive economy — the largest in the country — as evidence that divesting here could help kick off a nationwide trend by hurting fossil fuel companies and accelerating the transition to clean energy.

They’ve had little success. A recent divestment bill that would have directed managers of California’s public pension and teachers’ retirement funds to stop investing in the 200 largest oil, gas and coal companies failed in the Legislature for the second year in a row. State pension funds have an estimated $14.8 billion invested in fossil fuel companies that are driving the climate crisis.

SB 252 would require the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) to sell their remaining fossil fuel investments by the 2030s.

Supporters of divestment say their goal is to “delegitimize fossil fuel companies as political players.”

For the second time in two years, the bill was blocked by a single legislator heading the Assembly’s Committee on Public Employment and Retirement. It will be up for reconsideration next year.

Read more here:

caltrek’s comment: The article goes on to identify Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood) as the legislator responsible for blocking the legislation. Her explanation is that she wanted more information on how the legislation might affect CalPERs and its beneficiaries.

There would seem to be plenty of opportunities for investment outside of oil and gas companies for any negative effect to be negligible. Meanwhile, there should not need to be any further study on the negative effects of fossil fuels on global climate change. Urgent action on that front is needed NOW. Not years from now after some government committee piddle paddles around “analyzing the effect” of the proposed legislation. If McKinnor doesn’t have a sufficient grasp of the issue to make a logical decision that is prompt, perhaps she should consider stepping aside and letting somebody, who does understand what is at stake, to function in her place.

P.S. and by way of full disclosure: I personally do receive monthly payments through the CalPERS retirement system.

[weatheriscool]

European scientists make it official. July was the hottest month on record by far
Source: AP

Now that last month’s sizzling numbers are all in, the European climate monitoring organization made it official: July 2023 was Earth’s hottest month on record by a wide margin.

July’s global average temperature of 16.95 degrees Celsius (62.51 degrees Fahrenheit) was a third of a degree Celsius (six tenths of a degree Fahrenheit) higher than the previous record set in 2019, Copernicus Climate Change Service announced Tuesday. Normally global temperature records are broken by hundredths or a tenth of a degree, so this margin is unusual.

The United States is now at a record 15 different weather disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Tuesday. It’s the most mega-disasters through the first seven months of the year since the agency tracked such things starting in 1980, with the agency adjusting figures for inflation.

“These records have dire consequences for both people and the planet exposed to ever more frequent and intense extreme events,” said Copernicus deputy director Samantha Burgess. There have been deadly heat waves in the Southwestern United States and Mexico, Europe and Asia. Scientific quick studies put the blame on human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. The previous single-day heat record was set in 2016 and tied in 2022.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/hot-july-rec ... 206f2be644

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

caltrek’s comment: The article goes on to identify Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood) as the legislator responsible for blocking the legislation.

[caltrek]

House Republicans propose planting a trillion trees as they move away from climate change denial

https://apnews.com/article/climate-chan ... bfa18b72c2

So, a lot of the criticism in the article is true, and I could even add some but I won't for the moment. There's nuance, there's a right way to plant a forest and an ineffectual way. Here's the thing though, the core idea here is a good idea. Americans, the media at large and partisan politics need to end on the grounds of ecology. Even if the GOP doesn't endorse anything else it would still be really good for the world to start a tree-planting initiative at this scale. Trillions of new trees is the kind of scale that we need to start rebuilding our planets ecosystem.

This is the first time I've seen a politician suggest something related to climate change that will actually have an impact. I hope to see more of it from our society at large.

(I'm not naive enough to think that the whole GOP is on board btw, or that they will propose good policies as a rule, but this is a good policy and it should be enthusiastically supported if it is genuinely implemented.)

I know that I have already commented upon this, but I have since come across an article that further discusses this Republican proposal. It confirms my worst fears.

An Insidious Form of Climate Denial is Festering in the Republican Party
by Rebecca Leber
August 11, 2023

Extract:

(Vox) When Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR) first proposed the Trillion Trees Act in 2020, environmentalists said the bill “would significantly increase logging across America’s federal forests, convert millions of acres into industrial tree plantations, increase carbon emissions, increase wildfire risk, and harm wildlife and watersheds.” The idea was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, effectively giving loggers more allowances as long as they planted seedlings which are decades away from delivering climate benefits.
…
Planting a trillion trees to save us from climate change is not a serious proposal on its own. The authors of the 2019 study that has inspired the GOP’s talking point have themselves said that planting trees alone does not eliminate “the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

As Inglis put it, “trees can be part of the solution, but they’re not a solution on the scale of the problem. ... What we’re looking for is a worldwide solution to the challenge of climate change.” Inglis’s group advocates for what he calls a conservative approach that does address the scale of the problem, a revenue-neutral carbon tax along with a border tax adjustment that works across the economy.

The GOP idea to plant more trees may seem innocuous compared to calling climate change a hoax, but the outcome is the same. They will try “anything that pushes the problem downstream,” said Supran, to shut down more immediate action. Invariably, inertia on climate change benefits the status quo — which just so happens to benefit fossil fuel industries, a major benefactor of the Republican Party.

Read more here: https://www.vox.com/climate/23815966/r ... al-trees

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[raklian]

[weatheriscool]

[caltrek]

A frightening thing about this graph is it actually looks like the increase in temperature may be following a slope more characteristic of a geometric increase as opposed to a linear increase. The linear increase is suggested by the red line. However, look at how the actual data beginning about the year 2000 causes a more curved slope. If that is the case, then higher temperatures will be experienced at an accelerated rate. Moreover, there is no real reason to suppose that there is any end in sight. Long-term, there may be a plateau, but that might be at a level far higher than what humans can endure.

Of course, I hope that I am wrong. Yet, this is the sort of gamble that we have taken by not adequately addressing the issue of climate change. The situation may be even worse than climate models suggest because of poorly understood or anticipated feedback mechanisms. Ironic that people that call themselves "conservative" have been willing to engage in such a radical gamble concerning our future. It is they who are proving out to be the radical extremists.

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

A frightening thing about this graph is it actually looks like the increase in temperature may be following a slope more characteristic of a geometric increase as opposed to a linear increase. The linear increase is suggested by the red line. However, look at how the actual data beginning about the year 2000 causes a more curved slope. If that is the case, then higher temperatures will be experienced at an accelerated rate. Moreover, there is no real reason to suppose that there is any end in sight. Long-term, there may be a plateau, but that might be at a level far higher than what humans can endure.

Of course, I hope that I am wrong. Yet, this is the sort of gamble that we have taken by not adequately addressing the issue of climate change. The situation may be even worse than climate models suggest because of poorly understood or anticipated feedback mechanisms. Ironic that people that call themselves "conservative" have been willing to engage in such a radical gamble concerning our future. It is they who are proving out to be the radical extremists.

I think most of the warming has happened from May-Sept or during the late spring through late summer months. I'd go as far as to agree with you when it comes to this time period. On the otherhand, I believe winter hasn't hardly changed at all in the past 30 years where I live at least and globally I believe the warming has been about half.

[weatheriscool]

[Time_Traveller]

[weatheriscool]