The Global Warming Thread

[Little Raven]

But yeah, in general, that is a hurdle, but the bigger hurdle is Manchin/Sinema, as always.

On this we are agreed. Not a lot of point in worrying about bypassing the requirement to get to 60 if you can't even get to 50.

[malchior]

My only correction here would be to stop calling him a centrist. Call them what they are - corrupt plutocrats. They are in it for themselves at the expense of everyone else. The only just thing about it is they are going to be just as fucked as everyone else.

[malchior]

[Blackhawk]

The only just thing about it is they are going to be just as fucked as everyone else.

They won't miss a single meal. They won't feel the heat. The money they've made is more than enough to ensure that they can buy themselves out of consequences as long as they're alive.

[Zaxxon]

I've come to realize that 'centrist' isn't just a problem when referring to climate. It's a term that literally always means something else these days. Centrism is a non-sequitur.

[malchior]

Centrism is a non-sequitur.

It's the excuse to convince people who think they are serious to accept that we should cling to doing nothing in the face of intolerable misery for others. It is also why this nation is tearing itself apart.

[malchior]

[Smoove_B]

Stay safe out there fOOlks

More than 80 percent of the US population (around 265 million Americans) will see a high above 90 degrees over the next seven days

[Freyland]

So, 18% of the population lives in Alaska?

[Kraken]

Yep, I put my AC into my window a few hours ago and the forecast says it's going to have to stay there until next week. This morning's 3.2-mile walk will be my last one this week.

[stessier]

[dbt1949]

[Jaymann]

I saw a study by MIT that ran multiple scenarios based on economics, population, energy, food production, scientific innovation, etc. in 1972 (before climate change was a factor!). Even the rosiest scenarios predicted a collapse of our civilization by 2040. So most likely we won't be around to experience the worst effects of global warming. I know I won't be but I feel sorry for my grandchildren.

I don't think even the Dick Cheney families of the world in their compounds can survive for long with worthless money and no infrastructure. Can humanity rise from the ashes? Possibly, it has before. It looks like we are running into a Great Filter.

[Unagi]

Link?

[hitbyambulance]

Link?

https://debunkingdoomsday.quora.com/Com ... s-and-data

[Zaxxon]

[em2nought]

Damned covid cleaned up the air and made it hotter.

[Skinypupy]

Just ask Herschel, he can explain it.

[LawBeefaroni]

On Monday, Dutch reforestation company Land Life started what has become a 35,000 acre forest fire in Spain.

The fire started in Bubierca, a province of Zaragoza, the capital of autonomous community Aragon, when a Land Life contractor planting trees accidentally set off sparks that ignited nearby plant life.

...

Land Life is a carbon offsetting firm, which means that it plants trees to, in theory, make up for the carbon emissions of polluting industries. It’s not clear how many acres Land Life has actually planted trees in—one blog post suggested the company aimed to plant around 20,000 acres between 2020-2021.

Oops.

[Smoove_B]

From July 15 to 17, Greenland’s ice sheets melted off 6 billion tons of water each day — enough to cover the entire state of West Virginia in a foot of water.

Mom, please flush it all away
I wanna see it go right in and down
I wanna watch it go right in
Watch you flush it all away

[malchior]

[gilraen]

This sounds like a real-life precursor to the movie "Geostorm".

Should we "dim the sun" to tackle global warming?

As fossil fuel use continues apace and a hotter planet edges close to passing safety limits, some scientists are exploring a controversial technological stopgap: spraying chemicals into the atmosphere to reflect away some of the sun's warmth.
<...>
But the technology, which mimics the sky-darkening effect of volcanic eruptions, also carries serious and unpredictable risks, critics say - with some scientists so worried that they believe research should stop and outdoor tests be banned.

Threats range from potential shifts in rainfall patterns that could spur worsening hunger to rapid, uncontrollable temperature rise if the technology's use is suddenly stopped.

The availability of such a planet-cooling option could also give climate polluters an unwarranted green-light to carry on - even though "stratospheric aerosol injection" (SAI) would only mask the problem, not solve it.

[hitbyambulance]

This sounds like a real-life precursor to the movie "Geostorm".

Should we "dim the sun" to tackle global warming?

As fossil fuel use continues apace and a hotter planet edges close to passing safety limits, some scientists are exploring a controversial technological stopgap: spraying chemicals into the atmosphere to reflect away some of the sun's warmth.
<...>
But the technology, which mimics the sky-darkening effect of volcanic eruptions, also carries serious and unpredictable risks, critics say - with some scientists so worried that they believe research should stop and outdoor tests be banned.

Threats range from potential shifts in rainfall patterns that could spur worsening hunger to rapid, uncontrollable temperature rise if the technology's use is suddenly stopped.

The availability of such a planet-cooling option could also give climate polluters an unwarranted green-light to carry on - even though "stratospheric aerosol injection" (SAI) would only mask the problem, not solve it.

this is kinda the plotline of Neal Stephenson's latest novel, _Termination Shock_. i believe 'unintended consequences' was the theme.

[Smoove_B]

It's something that would make us feel powerful and also tinker with a system we don't fully appreciate or understand, likely causing a cascade of consequences we never imagined.

So I guess that means we're doing it?

[Zaxxon]

Should we "dim the sun" to tackle global warming?

We should not. Betteridge's Law holds.

[coopasonic]

It's something that would make us feel powerful and also tinker with a system we don't fully appreciate or understand, likely causing a cascade of consequences we never imagined.

So I guess that means we're doing it?

Do you want to die a slow, boring death like the grandfather dying in his sleep or a super exciting death like the passengers in his car that he was driving over the bridge across the canyon.

[Jaymann]

Should we "dim the sun" to tackle global warming?

We should not. Betteridge's Law holds.

[Freyland]

Better start building my very own SnowPiercer. I have a circle-driveway, at least.

[Unagi]

I took a continuing education class at Northwestern University last year on a bunch of Climate Change topics.

This idea was talked about by one of the guest lecturers.

In short:
It’s not an idea ‘they’ are remotely comfortable with. The unknowns are ridiculous. And also global buy in would be needed and rightly impossible given the unknowns.

[Kraken]

Yeah, geoengineering is a last-ditch measure that will (probably) never move beyond preliminary experimentation. We won't resort to those measures unless the planet is well on its way to being uninhabitable. It's still not a bad idea to have it in the toolkit, just in case it's that or extinction.

[malchior]

Colorado River water situation dire

Without significant, permanent cuts to water use in the Colorado River basin, both Lake Powell and Lake Mead may be headed for collapse.

That’s according to a new, peer-reviewed paper published in the journal Science this week that analyzed how current agreements between basin users would fare if the 23-year trend of below-average runoff in the basin continues.

The short answer is not well, despite layers of drought contingency plans that have been added in recent years to trigger increasing cutbacks for certain users as Lake Mead’s level drops.

“If this ‘Millennium Drought’ persists,” wrote the paper’s authors, which included a team of researchers from Utah State University’s Center for Colorado River Studies, Colorado State University and the University of Oxford, “then stabilizing reservoir levels to avoid severe outcomes will require reducing water use to match diminished runoff.”

That demand can’t continue to outpace supply without further draining Lake Powell and Lake Mead — which are both filled to 27% of capacity, down from 95% full in 2000 — is a fairly obvious point. It also is clear that the current drought planning measures won’t cut it alone since the federal government had to enact emergency actions last April to send more water than usual into Lake Powell.

[Isgrimnur]

I lived in Vegas when the water went over the spillways.



The body count is up to three.

[Zaxxon]

Here in Colorado, I have neighbors on Nextdoor bitching about our landscape drought restrictions (which aren't even that bad--you're assigned 2 days/week that you can water based on your address) because 'there's plenty of water here; just look at the rivers.' So that's how things are going in these parts.

[malchior]

The climate appears to be pushing back against climate change. Germany has remained as of today committed to phasing out its nuclear power capability.

[malchior]

[Smoove_B]

I did not have zombie ice on my bingo card:

Greenland’s rapidly melting ice sheet will eventually raise global sea level by at least 10.6 inches (27 centimeters) -- more than twice as much as previously forecast — according to a study published Monday.

That’s because of something that could be called zombie ice. That’s doomed ice that, while still attached to thicker areas of ice, is no longer getting replenished by parent glaciers now receiving less snow. Without replenishment, the doomed ice is melting from climate change and will inevitably raise seas, said study co-author William Colgan, a glaciologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.

“It’s dead ice. It’s just going to melt and disappear from the ice sheet,” Colgan said in an interview. “This ice has been consigned to the ocean, regardless of what climate (emissions) scenario we take now.”

Study lead author Jason Box, a glaciologist at the Greenland survey, said it is “more like one foot in the grave.”

[Max Peck]

I liked it better when this was just a glib joke.

This Hot Summer Is One of the Coolest of the Rest of Our Lives

Extreme heat has been a constant in the news this past summer: In July a punishing heat wave in Europe pushed temperatures across parts of the U.K. above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) for the first time in history. That same month was viciously hot across China, including in Shanghai—home to 26 million people—which tied its highest-ever July reading of 105.6 degrees F (40.9 degrees C). And even before the summer officially began, searing heat settled over the U.S. South in May. Amarillo, Tex., recorded its earliest day with temperatures topping 100 degrees F (37.8 degrees C), and Abilene, Tex., endured 14 straight days of 100 degrees F or higher, doubling its previous streak.

Those were just a few of the events that contributed to the Northern Hemisphere’s land areas experiencing their second-warmest June and third-warmest July on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But temperatures that make big news today may seem ho-hum—even relatively cool—within a couple of decades, as the continued burning of fossil fuels pushes baseline temperatures ever higher. Heat waves are also becoming longer and more frequent. Not every summer will be hotter than the one just before it, of course, but global warming means that the heat records set today will eventually fall down the charts. As U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said during the July launch of Heat.gov, a government website for heat information, “The reality is, given the scientific predictions, this summer—with its oppressive and widespread heat waves—is likely to be one of the coolest summers of the rest of our lives.”

[Unagi]

Well.... we are having a thunderstorm in Chicago on December 14th.

That's not normally a thing here.

[Smoove_B]

Hilarious and yet, completely unsurprising:

Terry Dunn couldn't fathom why Alabama's residents — among the poorest in the U.S. — pay some of the nation's most expensive electricity bills.

So in 2010, Dunn ran for a seat on the state commission that sets energy prices. He promised to hold a formal rate hearing at which Alabama Power executives would have to open their financial books and answer questions, under oath and in public. That hadn't happened for nearly three decades.

After winning, Dunn says, a top lobbyist for the utility took him aside and promised he could hold his roughly $100,000-a-year position on the commission for years — as long as he remained a team player. (Alabama Power declined to make the executive available to address the accusation; the utility and its corporate parent, Southern Company, declined all comment for this story.)

...

Yellowhammer News and Alabama Political Reporter offer clashing ideologies - one hardline conservative, the other centrist - and appear simply to be competitors. Owners of the two sites separately defend their coverage, saying they are independent news outlets.

In reality, they are among six news outlets across Alabama and Florida with financial connections to the consulting firm Matrix LLC, a joint investigation by Floodlight and NPR finds. The firm, based in Montgomery, Alabama, has boasted clients including Alabama Power and another major U.S. utility, Florida Power & Light.

In addition to Yellowhammer and The Alabama Political reporter, the sites include Alabama Today, The Capitolist, Florida Politics and the now-defunct Sunshine State News.

A tally of the five still-functioning sites show they have a collective audience of 1.3 million unique monthly visitors. Many of their consumers are political professionals, business leaders and journalists — people who help set the agenda for lawmakers and talk radio shows in both states.

These readers have been unknowingly immersing themselves in an echo chamber of questionable coverage for years.

Connection to this thread:

In Alabama and Florida, Matrix sought to ensure much coverage was secretly driven by the priorities of its clients. Payments flowed as the utilities in Florida and Alabama fought efforts to incorporate more clean energy in electric grids — a fight they are still waging.

For this investigation, Floodlight and NPR drew upon hundreds of internal Matrix documents and public records, more than three dozen interviews, a review of social media postings, and an original analysis of coverage.

Those accounts reflect a complex web of financial links, in which the six outlets collectively received, at minimum, $900,000 from Matrix, its clients, and associated entities between 2013 and 2020.

It's a long article; there's quite a bit more.

[Pyperkub]

What will they call Salt Lake City without a Salt Lake?

Without a “dramatic increase” in inflow by 2024, experts warn the lake is set to disappear in the next five years.

“Its disappearance could cause immense damage to Utah’s public health, environment, and economy,” the authors wrote in the report. “The choices we make over the next few months will affect our state and ecosystems throughout the West for decades to come.”

The Great Salt Lake, plagued by excessive water use and a worsening climate crisis, has dropped to record-low levels two years in a row. The lake is now 19 feet below its natural average level and has entered “uncharted territory” after losing 73% of its water and exposing 60% of its lakebed, the report notes.

Wells are running dry in drought-weary Southwest as foreign-owned farms guzzle water to feed cattle overseas

“The lake’s ecosystem is not only on the edge of collapse. It is collapsing,” Benjamin Abbott, a professor of ecology at Brigham Young University and lead author of the report, told CNN. “It’s honestly jaw-dropping and totally disarming to see how much of the lake is gone. The lake is mostly lakebed right now.”