The Global Warming Thread

[Defiant]

How about this?

(And that one's bipartisan - I would imagine there are more partisan ones.)

[Zaxxon]

How about this?

(And that one's bipartisan - I would imagine their are more partisan ones.)

More analysis on that one. Thanks.

[GreenGoo]

I don't like it either, and I don't like some of the non-AGW pieces of the proposed deal. But the larger point of that tweet resonates--what other on-scale proposals by politicians in power have you seen? Please share them.

Sure, but that's like saying the president has a good idea so we should ignore "Not a fan of non-white people" at the end of his speech. The point being, why provide a distraction from the message for people to latch on to?

We can both agree that it isn't important, but I think it's annoying and unnecessary, and particularly unwarrantedly arrogant.

[Zaxxon]

We can both agree that it isn't important, but I think it's annoying and unnecessary, and particularly unwarrantedly arrogant.

We can agree on the entirety of your statement. In some ways AOC reminds me of Elon Musk--I like what she's trying to do, but she frequently likes to get into her own way.

[Kurth]

I don't like it either, and I don't like some of the non-AGW pieces of the proposed deal. But the larger point of that tweet resonates--what other on-scale proposals by politicians in power have you seen? Please share them.

Sure, but that's like saying the president has a good idea so we should ignore "Not a fan of non-white people" at the end of his speech. The point being, why provide a distraction from the message for people to latch on to?

We can both agree that it isn't important, but I think it's annoying and unnecessary, and particularly unwarrantedly arrogant.

+1

Her arrogance bugs me, too, but Incould probably get over that if her policy proposals were grounded and solid. They aren’t, and the combination of arrogance and her shitty GND drives me insane.

[Kurth]

We can both agree that it isn't important, but I think it's annoying and unnecessary, and particularly unwarrantedly arrogant.

We can agree on the entirety of your statement. In some ways AOC reminds me of Elon Musk--I like what she's trying to do, but she frequently likes to get into her own way.

Whoa. Elon Musk has his issues, but he’s no AOC. Please remind me of AOC’s major achievements to date. Maybe I’m missing some important stuff.

[Zaxxon]

We can both agree that it isn't important, but I think it's annoying and unnecessary, and particularly unwarrantedly arrogant.

We can agree on the entirety of your statement. In some ways AOC reminds me of Elon Musk--I like what she's trying to do, but she frequently likes to get into her own way.

Whoa. Elon Musk has his issues, but he’s no AOC. Please remind me of AOC’s major achievements to date. Maybe I’m missing some important stuff.

I'm not talking about achievements but rather propensity to get in one's own way. Musk is a master of that. And I say that as a huge Musk fan who has followed his companies obsessively for many years.

[malchior]

LA Times

For the first time since forecasters began recording data — at least 132 years — the mercury did not reach 70 degrees in downtown Los Angeles for the entire month of February.

The average high for the month was 61 degrees, significantly lower than the historical average of 68 for February. That makes it the eighth-coldest February on record, said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“Most of the time we’ll get one or two Santa Ana wind events in between the rain that would give us temperatures above 70 degrees,” he added. “But it’s just been back-to-back storms and no offshore flows.”

It’s a big change for Southern California, where temperatures having been rising to record levels in recent years along with a prolonged drought. Weather experts said the chilly February doesn’t signal a larger change in some of those trends.

Even factoring in the cold snap, California is still warmer than average, and swings between periods of severe winter rainstorms and profound drought will probably become more pronounced in the future because of climate change, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA.

[malchior]

It is interesting how this slow motion disaster is manifesting in different ways and people still ignore the experts. Hence the ignorant and incredibly frustrating comments on both the LA Times (previously posted) and Washington Post articles.

Washington Post

The salty patches were small, at first — scattered spots where soybeans wouldn’t grow, where grass withered and died, exposing expanses of bare, brown earth.

But lately those barren patches have grown. On dry days, the salt precipitates out of the mud and the crystals make the soil sparkle in the sunlight. And on a damp and chilly afternoon in January, the salt makes Dawson Pugh furrow his brow in dismay.

“It’s been getting worse,” the farmer tells East Carolina University hydrologist Alex Manda, who drove out to this corner of coastal North Carolina with a group of graduate students to figure out what’s poisoning Pugh’s land — and whether anything can be done to stop it.

Of climate change’s many plagues — drought, insects, fires, floods — saltwater intrusion in particular sounds almost like a biblical curse. Rising seas, sinking earth and extreme weather are conspiring to cause salt from the ocean to contaminate aquifers and turn formerly fertile fields barren. A 2016 study in the journal Science predicted that 9 percent of the U.S. coastline is vulnerable to saltwater intrusion — a percentage likely to grow as the world continues to warm. Scientists are just beginning to assess the potential effect on agriculture, Manda said, and it’s not yet clear how much can be mitigated.

[MonkeyFinger]

And then there's this from Scientific American

Widespread and sometimes drastic marine oxygen declines are stressing sensitive species—a trend that will continue with climate change

[hitbyambulance]

Earth's sixth 'great extinction event' happening now

[Paingod]

That's a helluva depressing start to my day.

I weep for the future I'm leaving to my children. Like we should take a world tour, and on each stop I need to tell them "Take it all in kids, you'll be the last generation that gets to see this"

[Zaxxon]

If you want to really weep, watch Rogan's podcast with David Wallace-Wells:



Even better, read his book, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. It's... Depressing.

[coopasonic]

On the plus side, if your grandkids make it they can live out Horizon Zero Dawn!

On second thought, maybe that is not so much a plus.

[Defiant]

The Onion: What’s In The Green New Deal

10-year plan to phase out all Baby Boomers

WWII-style mobilization to invade, occupy, and overthrow the sun

Ban on kites to increase supply of farmable wind

[Combustible Lemur]

one of the architects of green new deal e plains the economic and social intersectionality. Why helping poor people is good for the climate fight.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[em2nought]

Let's compromise and build a "Green New Wall"

[Isgrimnur]

The Guardian

Greenhouse gas emissions from energy production rose strongly again last year, according to new data from the International Energy Agency, with a young fleet of coal-fired power plants in Asia accounting for a large proportion of the increase.

Energy demand grew at its fastest pace this decade, with a 2.3% increase globally driving rises in fossil fuel consumption. Coal use in power stations was a third of the increase in energy consumption, and together gas and coal were responsible for nearly 70% of the growth in energy consumption, and while demand for solar and wind power also increased, it was by much less overall.

Gas consumption in the US leapt by 10%, or the equivalent of the UK’s entire gas consumption in a year. Fracking has been a key driver, and oil production in the US also grew, while the dismantling of government incentives intended to reduce reliance on fossil fuels has continued.

Asia is now responsible for the majority of coal-fired power generation globally, and the average age of power plants there is now just 12 years, meaning they have decades to go before reaching their planned end of production in about 30 to 50 years.

Heating and cooling accounted for a fifth of the increase in global energy demand – the cooling needed for many areas to cope with global warming is an increasing factor in the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, as temperatures in some regions rose to record levels as the result of climate change.

[Zaxxon]

We so fucked.

[Isgrimnur]

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1110586439409025024

Spoiler:

GOP Senators are using their Congressional allowances to print Aquaman posters for themselves to argue that a #GreenNewDeal saving our nation from climate change is a ‘waste of money’

[Isgrimnur]

WaPo

President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he reversed bans on offshore drilling in vast parts of the Arctic Ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic Ocean, a U.S. judge said in a ruling that restored the Obama-era restrictions.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in a decision late Friday threw out Trump’s executive order that overturned the bans that comprised a key part of Obama’s environmental legacy.

Presidents have the power under a federal law to remove certain lands from development but cannot revoke those removals, Gleason said.

“The wording of President Obama’s 2015 and 2016 withdrawals indicates that he intended them to extend indefinitely, and therefore be revocable only by an act of Congress,” said Gleason, who was nominated to the bench by Obama.
...
In 2015, Obama halted exploration in coastal areas of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas and the Hanna Shoal, an important area for walrus. In late 2016, he withdrew most other potential Arctic Ocean lease areas — about 98 percent of the Arctic outer continental shelf.

The bans were intended to protect polar bears, walruses, ice seals and Alaska Native villages that depend on the animals.

In the Atlantic, Obama banned exploration in 5,937 square miles (15,377 square kilometers) of underwater canyon complexes, citing their importance for marine mammals, deep-water corals, valuable fish populations and migratory whales.

[GreenGoo]

It still feels like he has an intern gathering everything Obama touched and then tries to undo it. 1/2 of his presidency has been out of spite.

[Isgrimnur]

WaPo, 2016

White House officials described their actions to make the areas off limits to future oil and gas exploration and drilling as indefinite. Officials said the withdrawals under Section 12-A of the 1953 act used by presidents dating to Dwight Eisenhower cannot be undone by an incoming president. It is not clear if a Republican-controlled Congress can rescind Obama’s action.

“There is a precedent of more than half a century of this authority being utilized by presidents of both parties,” a White House aide said. “There is no authority for subsequent presidents to un-withdraw. . . . I can’t speak to what a future Congress will do.”

David Rivkin, an attorney for the Baker and Hostetler law firm who served on the White House Counsel staffs of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, disagreed with the assertion that the decision cannot be overturned. “Basically I say the power to withdraw entails the power to un-withdraw,” Rivkin said, “especially if you determine the justification for the original withdrawal is no longer valid.”

A legal fight would likely follow, Rivkin said. But “it’s not clear why Congress would want to give a president tremendous authority operating only one way.”

[Zaxxon]

It still feels like he has an intern gathering everything Obama touched and then tries to undo it. 1/2 of his presidency has been out of spite.

Half? His entire agenda comes down to spite.

[Isgrimnur]

It still feels like he has an intern gathering everything Obama touched and then tries to undo it. 1/2 of his presidency has been out of spite.

Half? His entire agenda comes down to spite.

And greed. Spite and greed.

[Daehawk]

Climate-change sceptic says they should have right to 'mislead public' because of free speech

It claims global warming will not cause significant problems, while the scientific evidence suggests the planet is on course for a range of possible outcomes with a greater chance of experiencing ‘dangerous’ weather conditions than avoiding them.

The GWPF has repeatedly been accused of misrepresenting the science and cherry-picking findings that appear to fit with its stance on the issue

[Unagi]

It still feels like he has an intern gathering everything Obama touched and then tries to undo it. 1/2 of his presidency has been out of spite.

Half? His entire agenda comes down to spite.

And greed. Spite and greed.

I was not expecting that.

[Max Peck]

Canada warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, report says

Canada is warming on average at a rate twice as fast as the rest of the world, a new scientific report indicates.

The federal government climate report also warns that changes are already evident in many parts of the country and are projected to intensify.

Canada's Arctic has seen the deepest impact and will continue to warm at more than double the global rate.

The report suggests that many of the effects already seen are probably irreversible.

Canada's annual average temperature has increased by an estimated 1.7C (3F) since 1948, when nationwide temperatures were first recorded.

The largest temperature increases have been seen in the North, the Prairies, and in northern British Columbia.

Annual average temperature in northern Canada increased by approximately 2.3C.

"While both human activities and natural variations in the climate have contributed to the observed warming in Canada, the human factor is dominant," the report states.

"It is likely that more than half of the observed warming in Canada is due to the influence of human activities."

[Paingod]

I suppose that means it'll become habitable sooner than expected?

[Isgrimnur]

I suppose that means it'll become habitable sooner than expected?

Smoove will be thrilled:

Climate change is melting permafrost soils that have been frozen for thousands of years, and as the soils melt they are releasing ancient viruses and bacteria that, having lain dormant, are springing back to life.

[Zaxxon]

https://twitter.com/vmochama/status/111 ... 67040?s=19

[Kraken]

A couple of days ago I read a research paper by a climatologist who spent a year doing a metastudy of the most recent research. He concluded that mainstream scientists are soft-peddling their results and failing to connect the dots, that climate change has already tipped into a runaway feedback loop, that we are already way beyond prevention and even amelioration, and that we are facing social collapse within 10-20 years. He was making a case for justified alarmism.

I didn't link it because the author is a grad student (PhD candidate), because it was written in academia-speak, because I didn't think he adequately supported his conclusion (he left it to the reader to examine the individual studies that led him there), and because I am always leery of predicting 10+ years in the future. I occasionally edit scientific papers before they are accepted for publication, so I have necessarily developed greater tolerance for academic language that is a slog for most readers. Even though I chose not to share it, it was a chilling read.

[Kraken]

Or let Bill McKibben tell a similar story, from his book due out next week:

I could, in other words, do my best to scare you silly. I’m not opposed on principle — changing something as fundamental as the composition of the atmosphere, and hence the heat balance of the planet, is certain to trigger all manner of horror, and we shouldn’t shy away from it. The dramatic uncertainty that lies ahead may be the most frightening development of all; the physical world is going from backdrop to foreground. (It’s like the contrast between politics in the old days, when you could forget about Washington for weeks at a time, and politics in the Trump era, when the president is always jumping out from behind a tree to yell at you.)

But let’s try to occupy ourselves with the most likely scenarios, because they are more than disturbing enough. Long before we get to tidal waves or smallpox, long before we choke to death or stop thinking clearly, we will need to concentrate on the most mundane and basic facts: everyone needs to eat every day, and an awful lot of us live near the ocean.

Granted, McKibben has built a reputation on catastrophism. But when the world's scientists start to panic, well....

[Zaxxon]

You should really check out the David Wallace-Wells book linked way above of you're looking for straight talk--The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. It's a great, terrifying read.

[Max Peck]

Climate change: Central banks warn of financial risks in open letter

The heads of two major central banks have written a stark warning about the financial risks of climate change.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney and France's François Villeroy de Galhau set out the dangers to the global economy in an open letter.

"If some companies and industries fail to adjust to this new world, they will fail to exist," they wrote.

The letter was co-signed by the chair of the climate-focused Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS).

The NGFS is a coalition of 34 central banks which was formed in 2017, with the Bank of England as a founding member. It released its first major report into climate-related financial risks on 17 April.

In the letter published by the Bank of England on Wednesday, Mr Carney and Mr Villeroy de Galhau describe "the catastrophic effects of climate change" already having an impact on the planet, such as "blistering heatwaves in North America to typhoons in south-east Asia and droughts in Africa and Australia".

They say that "these events damage infrastructure and private property, negatively affect health, decrease productivity and destroy wealth".

The NGFS elaborates in its "call to action" report, saying that climate change will lead to "disruptive events such as mass migration, political instability and conflict".

[Pyperkub]

A good quiz to see what you know about what you can do. In honor of Earth Day, 2019:

To reduce our impact on the climate and avert disaster, it’s going to take more than switching to high-efficiency light bulbs. But the most effective ways that individuals, policymakers and businesses can reduce our carbon footprint might surprise you.

Let’s see how much you know about what can be done to fight climate change.

I did ok:

Your score: 28.1%
You’re a student of climate change

Don't fret, but hopefully you learned some about what can be done to reduce carbon emissions. Your next challenge: Try to put one of the solutions for individuals into practice.

[Remus West]

How does

Spoiler:

returning land to indigenous people

help reduce carbon?

34.4% overall. Very interesting quiz though.

[Pyperkub]

I'm guessing this:

Spoiler:

For the indigenous peoples in each of these case study areas, the forest is not only a source of sustenance and livelihoods, but also the very basis of their identities, cultures, knowledge systems, and social organizations.

These community-based forest management strategies involve setting aside conservation areas, woodcutting, and watershed management zones, which have an important role to play in reversing the process of deforestation, thereby sequestering carbon and promoting rural development.

The multiple land-use systems that underpin these forest management strategies are both a livelihood scheme and a source of resilience.

[Blackhawk]

28.1 for me, too. Half of the solutions in that list I've never heard of. Green roof? Walkable cities?

Of course, I've been in rural Indiana for 18 years now, and it isn't exactly the most progressive place in the country. People around here still think it's 1965.

[Paingod]

31.2% ... but I believe the correct answer is "All of the above"