[Discussion] Climate Change

This thread is just to post interesting news, thoughts, opinions about climate change.

Dynasty over Dallas?

farley3k wrote:

Earth just had its 400th straight warmer-than-average month thanks to global warming

It was December 1984, and President Reagan had just been elected to his second term, Dynasty was the top show on TV and Madonna's Like a Virgin topped the musical charts.

It was also the last time the Earth had a cooler-than-average month.

Last month marked the planet's 400th consecutive month with above-average temperatures, federal scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday.

Chinese hoax!

Wow, I was a month old when we just started our downward (upward) spiral into environmental oblivion. Fun.

Rocks falling on that guy's head when he was a baby are responsible for him.

Someone, somewhere in East Asia... you get two guesses.

Jina?

This Video Is All Your Kid Needs to Understand Climate Science

Some good news: cost to pull CO2 from atmosphere has dropped significantly and could result in a cool (ha!) way to repurpose the CO2 as inexpensive fuel. I remain hopeful that we can solve this!

https://www.nature.com/articles/d415...

Top_Shelf wrote:

Some good news: cost to pull CO2 from atmosphere has dropped significantly and could result in a cool (ha!) way to repurpose the CO2 as inexpensive fuel. I remain hopeful that we can solve this!

https://www.nature.com/articles/d415...

I hope they succeed. Prevention is good and all, but I feel like no amount of prevention will stop the rise of CO2, but if we can reverse the effect then we might stand a chance.

At this rate, Earth risks sea level rise of 20 to 30 feet, historical analysis show: New research finds that a vast area of Antarctica retreated when Earth’s temperatures weren’t much warmer than they are now.

Temperatures not much warmer than the planet is experiencing now were sufficient to melt a major part of the East Antarctic ice sheet in Earth’s past, scientists reported Wednesday, including during one era about 125,000 years ago when sea levels were as much as 20 to 30 feet higher than they are now.

“It doesn’t need to be a very big warming, as long as it stays 2 degrees warmer for a sufficient time, this is the end game,” said David Wilson, a geologist at Imperial College London and one of the authors of the new research, which was published in Nature. Scientists at institutions in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Spain also contributed to the work.

Ice loss from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet during late Pleistocene interglacials

They're not sure on the time frame--if we're lucky, it'll take a long time at +2 C to melt all that ice--but whenever it happens pretty much the entire the state of Florida will be underwater.

While several east coast states are sticking their heads in the sand (looking at you, NC), California is planning ahead:

Prepare for 10 Feet of Sea Level Rise, California Commission Tells Coastal Cities: Though an extreme scenario, it should be factored in to coastal infrastructure planning, new guidance suggests

Fall canceled

Yeah it's the Onion but still.

Fall, the long- running series of shorter days and cooler nights, was canceled earlier this week after nearly 3 billion seasons on Earth, sources reported Tuesday.

The classic period of the year, which once occupied a coveted slot between summer and winter, will be replaced by new, stifling humidity levels, near- constant sunshine, and almost no precipitation for months.

"As much as we'd like to see it stay, fall will not be returning for another season," National Weather Service president John Hayes announced during a muggy press conference Nov. 6. "Fall had a great run, but sadly, times have changed."

Said Hayes: "Frankly, we're amazed it lasted as long as it did."

Wife and I were just talking earlier about how September is pretty much another summer month at this point - at least here in the northeast US.

Shifter wrote:

Wife and I were just talking earlier about how September is pretty much another summer month at this point - at least here in the northeast US.

I dunno, my heat actually kicked on last night. It's kinda chilly around here.

Shifter wrote:

Wife and I were just talking earlier about how September is pretty much another summer month at this point - at least here in the northeast US.

September here in the PNW has been glorious for the entire decade I've lived here. I always make a point to eke out as much outdoors in the month as I can before the gloom descends in October.

Chaz wrote:
Shifter wrote:

Wife and I were just talking earlier about how September is pretty much another summer month at this point - at least here in the northeast US.

I dunno, my heat actually kicked on last night. It's kinda chilly around here.

Yeah, we're in the low fifties overnight, and high fifties during the day. I love it - I hate stupidly hot weather, but I'm afraid we're going to get a short fall and then an interminable winter. And I hate stupidly cold weather even more than stupidly hot weather.

Jonman wrote:
Shifter wrote:

Wife and I were just talking earlier about how September is pretty much another summer month at this point - at least here in the northeast US.

September here in the PNW has been glorious for the entire decade I've lived here. I always make a point to eke out as much outdoors in the month as I can before the gloom descends in October.

we do the same. sadly global warming has zero impact on hours of daylight.

Jonman wrote:
Shifter wrote:

Wife and I were just talking earlier about how September is pretty much another summer month at this point - at least here in the northeast US.

September here in the PNW has been glorious for the entire decade I've lived here. I always make a point to eke out as much outdoors in the month as I can before the gloom descends in October.

Shhhhhh! You're not supposed to tell!

Humanity will be dead in a hundred years, so why not make it worse on our way out?

WP: Trump administration sees a 7-degree rise in global temperatures by 2100

Last month, deep in a 500-page environmental impact statement, the Trump administration made a startling assumption: On its current course, the planet will warm a disastrous 7 degrees by the end of this century.

A rise of 7 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 4 degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels would be catastrophic, according to scientists. Many coral reefs would dissolve in increasingly acidic oceans. Parts of Manhattan and Miami would be underwater without costly coastal defenses. Extreme heat waves would routinely smother large parts of the globe.

But the administration did not offer this dire forecast as part of an argument to combat climate change. Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planet’s fate is already sealed.

The draft statement, issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), was written to justify President Trump’s decision to freeze federal fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks built after 2020. While the proposal would increase greenhouse gas emissions, the impact statement says, that policy would add just a very small drop to a very big, hot bucket.

Head in sand...

As sand turns to glass :/

A rise of 7 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 4 degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels would be catastrophic, according to scientists. Many coral reefs would dissolve in increasingly acidic oceans. Parts of Manhattan and Miami would be underwater without costly coastal defenses. Extreme heat waves would routinely smother large parts of the globe.

i.e. where the Democrats live. and vote. no wonder they don't care.

I was going to post this in the news thread but I expect it MIGHT get buried there:

E.P.A. to Eliminate Office That Advises Agency Chief on Science

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency plans to dissolve its Office of the Science Advisor, a senior post that was created to counsel the E.P.A. administrator on the scientific research underpinning health and environmental regulations, according to a person familiar with the agency’s plans. The person spoke anonymously because the decision had not yet been made public.

The science adviser works across the agency to ensure that the highest quality science is integrated into the agency’s policies and decisions, according to the E.P.A.’s website. The move is the latest among several steps taken by the Trump administration that appear to have diminished the role of scientific research in policymaking while the administration pursues an agenda of rolling back regulations.

Separately, on Tuesday, in an unusual move, the E.P.A. placed the head of its Office of Children’s Health, Dr. Ruth Etzel, on administrative leave, while declining to give a reason for the move. Agency officials told Dr. Etzel, a respected pediatric epidemiologist, that the move was not disciplinary. As the head of an office that regularly pushed to tighten regulations on pollution, which can affect children more powerfully than adults, Dr. Etzel had clashed multiple times with Trump administration appointees who sought to loosen pollution rules.

Michael Mikulka, who heads a union representing about 900 E.P.A. employees, said, “Clearly, this is an attempt to silence voices whether it’s in the agency’s Office of Children’s Health or the Office of the Science Advisor to kill career civil servants’ input and scientific perspectives on rule-making.”

Well, at least we'll have a shorter drive to the beach.

Gremlin wrote:

Humanity will be dead in a hundred years, so why not make it worse on our way out?

WP: Trump administration sees a 7-degree rise in global temperatures by 2100

Last month, deep in a 500-page environmental impact statement, the Trump administration made a startling assumption: On its current course, the planet will warm a disastrous 7 degrees by the end of this century.

A rise of 7 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 4 degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels would be catastrophic, according to scientists. Many coral reefs would dissolve in increasingly acidic oceans. Parts of Manhattan and Miami would be underwater without costly coastal defenses. Extreme heat waves would routinely smother large parts of the globe.

But the administration did not offer this dire forecast as part of an argument to combat climate change. Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planet’s fate is already sealed.

The draft statement, issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), was written to justify President Trump’s decision to freeze federal fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks built after 2020. While the proposal would increase greenhouse gas emissions, the impact statement says, that policy would add just a very small drop to a very big, hot bucket.

So, the justification for rolling back CAFE standards is that Chinese hoax global warming will be so extreme that it functionally does not matter. Me thinks this is a roundabout sticking an environmental finger in Trump's eye.

Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040

See, now not having any life savings makes millennials look like forward-thinkers!

INCHEON, South Korea — A landmark report from the United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change paints a far more dire picture of the immediate consequences of climate change than previously thought and says that avoiding the damage requires transforming the world economy at a speed and scale that has “no documented historic precedent.”

The report, issued on Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders, describes a world of worsening food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040 — a period well within the lifetime of much of the global population.

The report “is quite a shock, and quite concerning,” said Bill Hare, an author of previous I.P.C.C. reports and a physicist with Climate Analytics, a nonprofit organization. “We were not aware of this just a few years ago.” The report was the first to be commissioned by world leaders under the Paris agreement, the 2015 pact by nations to fight global warming.

The authors found that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, the atmosphere will warm up by as much as 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial levels by 2040, inundating coastlines and intensifying droughts and poverty. Previous work had focused on estimating the damage if average temperatures were to rise by a larger number, 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius), because that was the threshold scientists previously considered for the most severe effects of climate change.

The new report, however, shows that many of those effects will come much sooner, at the 2.7-degree mark.

Avoiding the most serious damage requires transforming the world economy within just a few years, said the authors, who estimate that the damage would come at a cost of $54 trillion. But while they conclude that it is technically possible to achieve the rapid changes required to avoid 2.7 degrees of warming, they concede that it may be politically unlikely.

For instance, the report says that heavy taxes or prices on carbon dioxide emissions — perhaps as high as $27,000 per ton by 2100 — would be required. But such a move would be almost politically impossible in the United States, the world’s largest economy and second-largest greenhouse gas emitter behind China. Lawmakers around the world, including in China, the European Union and California, have enacted carbon pricing programs.

President Trump, who has mocked the science of human-caused climate change, has vowed to increase the burning of coal and said he intends to withdraw from the Paris agreement. And on Sunday in Brazil, the world’s seventh-largest emitter of greenhouse gas, voters appeared on track to elect a new president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has said he also plans to withdraw from the accord.