[Discussion] Climate Change

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

I looked up Jacobabad on Google maps to try and predict what happens as it gets hotter and the hot region expands.
The Indus river is not to far away and it looks like a main artery for Pakistan. It also looks like while it runs long, it also runs very thin. The thinner that gets, more and more of Pakistan is screwed....

A bit long but a sobering response to the recent climate change conference in Bonn:

California’s largest reservoirs at critically low levels – signaling a dry summer ahead

IMAGE(https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/742813a5aeca563dec728da187b10961695f3095/0_0_7932_4987/master/7932.jpg?width=860&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c3e30a19cb57a52124202e6de9370885)

Doesn't seem so bad, nice little hilly area for hiking and...

/holds earpiece

....I'm sorry, i'm being told that was a lake that looked like this 20 years ago

IMAGE(https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/lake-shasta-with-silverthorn-resort-marina-in-the-foreground-also-ran-picture-id1321508368?s=2048x2048)

It was especially noticeable from the air when I flew down to SoCal and Vegas a couple weeks ago.

But gotta keep the almond farmers happy.

Lake Mead at it's lowest recorded level too. 100 feet from catastrophe.

SallyNasty wrote:

But gotta keep the almond farmers happy.

Yep. Tell those city dwellers don’t wash your car meanwhile let any farmer take thousands of gallons whenever they want. And don’t forget to let them use it to grow cheap alfalfa to ship to China because they don’t have cheap enough water to grow it there and don’t want those container ships going back empty.

Related:

NYT: As the Great Salt Lake Dries Up, Utah Faces An ‘Environmental Nuclear Bomb’

SALT LAKE CITY — If the Great Salt Lake, which has already shrunk by two-thirds, continues to dry up, here’s what’s in store:

The lake’s flies and brine shrimp would die off — scientists warn it could start as soon as this summer — threatening the 10 million migratory birds that stop at the lake annually to feed on the tiny creatures. Ski conditions at the resorts above Salt Lake City, a vital source of revenue, would deteriorate. The lucrative extraction of magnesium and other minerals from the lake could stop.

Most alarming, the air surrounding Salt Lake City would occasionally turn poisonous. The lake bed contains high levels of arsenic and as more of it becomes exposed, wind storms carry that arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents, who make up three-quarters of Utah’s population.

It's like the Dust Bowl mixed with a mustard gas attack from World War I.

I feel for the wildlife. The resorts, not so much.

Looking at all the bodies and cars they're pulling out of Lake Meade and I couldn't help but wonder if the mob's switching to Volts and Teslas.

Rat Boy wrote:

Looking at all the bodies and cars they're pulling out of Lake Meade and I couldn't help but wonder if the mob's switching to Volts and Teslas.

Totally unrelated to the thread, but I read this, opened a new tab, and then saw this:

Toyota recalls its first electric cars amid fears the wheels could fall off

/chefkiss.gif

Milan turns off fountains as Italy warns of more water rationing to fight drought

Authorities in Milan are turning off public fountains amid warnings of daytime water rationing as Italy battles one of its worst droughts in decades.

The measure, which comes after the wider Lombardy region declared a state of emergency, targets about half of the city’s 100 decorative fountains, with the plug already pulled on several over the weekend and the rest to be switched off in the coming days.

Fountains hosting fish and plants are exempt from the rule, as are drinking fountains.

Residents in the business and fashion hub have also been urged to reduce water use at home as much as possible.

In addition, inhabitants and business owners have been told not to set their air conditioning units below 26C in order to conserve energy, after parts of the city were last week hit by power cuts, believed to have been caused by a surge in the use of air conditioners amid high temperatures.

“We must take action and we believe it is right to do our part,” said Beppe Sala, the mayor of Milan.

Italy is experiencing an intense, protracted heatwave with temperatures forecast to eclipse 40C in parts of the country by the end of the week.

Japanese told to turn off lights to save energy amid Tokyo heatwave

Japan’s government has warned millions of people in the Tokyo region to save energy or face power cuts, as the capital battles record June temperatures after a premature end to the rainy season.

Temperatures of 35C (95F) were forecast in the city throughout the day, with similarly extreme weather expected for the rest of the week, according to the Japanese meteorological agency.

“We ask the public to reduce energy consumption during the early evening hours when the reserve ratio falls,” Yoshihiko Isozaki, the deputy chief cabinet secretary, told reporters.

Isozaki advised households and businesses to turn off lights not in use and limit air conditioner use, although he added that people should guard against heatstroke.

The economy and industry ministry said people living in the region serviced by Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco] should conserve energy, especially when demand peaks in the late afternoon and early evening. Reports said reserve generating capacity risked dropping as low as 3.7% in Tokyo and the surrounding region at that time; below 3% risks power shortages and blackouts.

YouKnowTheGif.gif

Municipal water accounts for about 25% of Italy's water use. 50% agricultural and about 25% industrial. What restrictions are being placed on those uses rather than the token gesture of turning off some fountains that recycle their water anyway?

Aren’t most of the old fountains pressure-based flow-through types, rather than loops?

Robear wrote:

Aren’t most of the old fountains pressure-based flow-through types, rather than loops?

Yes. They used to be the primary water supply for citizens, and I doubt they've been converted in any way from what they once were.

Point being, I'd think the last thing you'd want to do is cripple agriculture and industry, in an economic downturn. I'd save those for last, I think.

Do we have anybody with professional experience in these tradeoffs?

Not an economist but we grapple with drought on the regular here. The general approach has been to discourage water use by a combination of universal price increases and water restrictions on domestic/commercial use. We also invested in a desalination plant in Sydney but a protracted wet cycle came (it's still here actually which I understand explains why it's drier in the US and India - the El Nino La Nina Pacific Ocean system and the Indian Ocean dipole system).

When water reserves hit lows in rural areas I think they rationed water to cotton and sugar farmers but I don't recall there being a huge impact on an inflationary basis. Oh and we also have farmers intensively investing in nut trees to cash in on non dairy products and they are known to be incredibly water intensive.

Thus we escaped the harshest outcomes both ecologically and economically simply because a massive collision of warm water bodies on East and West coasts drew huge amounts of moisture into our atmosphere and brought record levels of rainfall. In some cases disaster levels of flooding. But that has been Australian rainfall in a nutshell - either there's little rain or there's too much.

(FWIW, I am team "There is no realistic way to move forward on fighting climate change and getting rid of fossil fuels that does not involve nuclear power.")

I am fully with you Pred.

There may have been a time back in the 80s or 90s when there was enough wiggle room to ramp down fossil fuels while focusing on green energy, but at this point we're already past who knows how many tipping points, so we need a drastic and sudden end to fossil fuels -- nuclear power is the only scalable stopgap we have, as terrible as it is in its own right.

Broadly, same, although my reasoning is "it's the only way forward that allows us to maintain many of our modern comforts because people aren't giving those up even if the ocean waters are up to their chin."

There are some incredible advances in miniature nuclear power plants!

Look, nuclear disasters are friggin scary. But we'd rather suffer the never ending consequences of oil? (wars, greed, climate change, tyrannical governments)

As Farscry said, my position is that it sucks, but the situation we're in, we have to take the least sh*tty stopgap to get where we want to be. There is no realistic all-around good answer here.

ERCOT is once again warning Texans about possible rolling blackouts due to the heat.

From my brother who lives in Texas: "Forecast is 110 today. Yesterday was 109 and that was the 3rd highest temp ever recorded in Austin"

Sorry for them - heck sorry for all of us. It will only get worse I am afraid before people try to really change (but again no animal would act any different. We just pretend we are more "rational" than other animals)

Cruz must already be at the airport waiting on standby.

His girls must be at the ready for blame shaming!
Can you imagine having him for a dad? I thought the Bush daughters had it bad...

One thing I’ve been worrying about is this gut feeling that the existential dread people have over the climate crisis is part of what seems to be driving modern nations to the right politically. I haven’t done much research on this beyond the questionably accurate hemline index: but it feels Truthy that people get more conservative and less tolerant when they’re scared. And, whew, if there was ever a moment in human history for all of us to be scared…

I know I've posted here before about the right slowly embracing the reality of climate change, primarily in order to support their anti-immigration stance, as CC is going to cause a massive human migration, so yeah, you're probably right.

Numerous studies have shown people are easier to manipulate when they are stressed or afraid, and more likely to respond to emotional arguments. That is why Fox News' primary goal is to make people afraid or believe there are big problems to get stressed about.

I am surprised they have not already blamed the Texas electricity outages on immigrants using up all the power.