WTF Climate Change News

[Beebo Brink]

I've been hearing various alarmed reports about spiking sea surface temperatures over the past week. I quite honestly don't grasp the science yet, and there is debate among the science community about just how "real" this all is and just what it means. Maybe just me being paranoid, but I get the same prickles that I felt when the first covid cases were reported. It bears watching, if nothing else.

Daily Sea Surface Temperature:
Climate Reanalyzer

Daily 2-meter Air Temperature:

Climate Reanalyzer

Climate and weather data visualizations

climatereanalyzer.org

 

[WolfEyes]

Youth environmentalists bring Montana climate case to trial after 12 years, seeking to set precedent (msn.com)

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Whether a constitutional right to a healthy, livable climate is protected by state law is at the center of a lawsuit going to trial Monday in Montana, where 16 young plaintiffs and their attorneys hope to set an important legal precedent.

It's the first trial of its kind in the U.S., and legal scholars around the world are following its potential addition to the small number of rulings that have established a government duty to protect citizens from climate change.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

The EU has recently introduced a ban on ICE car sales starting at 2035. Poland now wants to get rid of this ban by going to court.

»Fit for 55«: Polen will EU-Beschluss für Verbrennerverbot vor Gericht kippen

Eigentlich gilt der Abschied vom Verbrennungsmotor als beschlossene Sache. Jetzt will Polen gegen das europaweite Aus für Neufahrzeuge mit Verbrennungsmotor vor ein EU-Gericht ziehen.

www.spiegel.de

 

[Archer]

 

[Beebo Brink]

More on the spiking ocean surface temperatures:
Scientists are baffled why the oceans are warming so fast - The Washington Post

A steady and remarkable rise in average global ocean temperatures this year is now outpacing anything seen in four decades of satellite observations, causing many scientists to suddenly blare alarm over the risks and realities of climate change. But even those typically aligned on climate science can’t agree on what, exactly, triggered such rapid warming and how alarmed they should be. They say there is so far no evidence that the planet has passed some climatic tipping point — though it is also too soon to rule that out.

Whether air pollution and windblown sand have anything to do with the oceans’ rapid warming, it is occurring after years of gradual and accelerating heating, and just at the onset of the El Niño pattern, which is known to supercharge global warming and extreme weather.

So even though the origins of the increase are still being debated, the results are not: more record-breaking weather events.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[WolfEyes]

How hot is too hot for the human body? Our lab found heat + humidity gets dangerous faster than many people realize (msn.com)

Scientists and other observers have become alarmed about the increasing frequency of extreme heat paired with high humidity, measured as “wet-bulb temperature.” During the heat waves that overtook South Asia in May and June 2022, Jacobabad, Pakistan, recorded a maximum wet-bulb temperature of 33.6 C (92.5 F) and Delhi topped that – close to the theorized upper limit of human adaptability to humid heat.

People often point to a study published in 2010 that estimated that a wet-bulb temperature of 35 C – equal to 95 F at 100% humidity, or 115 F at 50% humidity – would be the upper limit of safety, beyond which the human body can no longer cool itself by evaporating sweat from the surface of the body to maintain a stable body core temperature.

It was not until recently that this limit was tested on humans in laboratory settings. The results of these tests show an even greater cause for concern.

 

[Beebo Brink]

‘Unheard of’ marine heatwave off UK and Irish coasts poses serious threat | Marine life | The Guardian

Daniela Schmidt, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Bristol, said: “The extreme and unprecedented temperatures show the power of the combination of human-induced warming and natural climate variability like El Niño.

“While marine heatwaves are found in warmer seas like the Mediterranean, such anomalous temperatures in this part of the north Atlantic are unheard of. They have been linked to less dust from the Sahara but also the North Atlantic climate variability, which will need further understanding to unravel.

“Heat, like on land, stresses marine organisms. In other parts of the world, we have seen several mass mortalities of marine plants and animals caused by ocean heatwave which have caused hundreds of millions of pounds of losses, in fisheries income, carbon storage, cultural values and habitat loss. As long as we are not dramatically cutting emissions, these heatwaves will continue to destroy our ecosystems. But as this is happening below the surface of the ocean, it will go unnoticed.”

 

[Free]

I think it's time to change the name of El Niño to El Hombre Grande.

 

[Free]

I think it's time to change the name of El Niño to El Hombre Grande.

Nah. Just now reading this and it comes off as a new Taco Bell menu item.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Nah. Just now reading this and it comes off as a new Taco Bell menu item.

 

[WolfEyes]

Human impact on Earth's tilt leaves researchers 'surprised and concerned' (msn.com)

Humans pumped and displaced so much groundwater in just two decades that we shifted the tilt of Earth's axis, new research suggests.

Earth's rotational pole — the point around which the planet rotates — shifts with changes in the distribution of mass across the globe, wobbling and wandering in a process called polar motion. While scientists knew that changes in water distribution resulting from climate change could contribute to polar motion, the impact of groundwater depletion was unknown.

Now, researchers estimate that by pumping 2,150 gigatons of water — almost enough water to fill Lake Victoria in Africa, and equivalent to the weight of 5.5 million Empire State Buildings — from underground layers of water-saturated rock known as aquifers, humans caused a "pretty significant" eastward shift of 31 inches (80 centimeters) in Earth's rotational pole between 1993 and 2010.

That's because groundwater used for irrigation and other human activities eventually ends up in the ocean, which redistributes mass from where the water was taken to other parts of the globe.

"humans caused a "pretty significant" eastward shift of 31 inches (80 centimeters) in Earth's rotational pole between 1993 and 2010."

I wonder how much more it tilted in the past 20 years. I do feel a bit vindicated now that all the people who claimed I'm cray and there is no way human could ever possibly affect the tilt of the earth.

ETA: Augh! Lost connection for a bit there and couldn't save the edit. lol

 

[Beebo Brink]

After I heard about the earth tilt, I started wondering whether underground aquifers play any role in cooling the deeper levels of the earth. We are messing with some primal forces.

 

[WolfEyes]

All the resources that have been mined/extracted displacing planet mass is another I wonder about. Add that to the water displacement, for lack of a better way to express it, and it should be obvious we are destroying the only habitable environment we have.

Globally, roughly 70% of the water pumped from the ground is used for irrigation, but only half of that trickles back down to replenish aquifers and other freshwater sources. The other half evaporates and ends up in the ocean through rainfall.

To determine how much groundwater depletion and resulting sea level rise contributed to polar drift, geophysicists built a model of polar motion that accounted for shifts in water mass associated with thinning ice sheets, melting glaciers and water storage in reservoirs.

When they excluded groundwater redistribution from the model, the results did not match observed eastward polar drift and, instead, predicted a much more westward tilt.

When they added the 2,150 gigatons of water from aquifers into the model, the results matched up with recorded observations of Earth's eastward drift.

I don't think it would be such a good idea after all to go mining asteroids in the future.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Texas Grid Nears Crisis Conditions Before Summer Even Arrives (forbes.com)

 

[WolfEyes]

Video:

MSN

 

[Beebo Brink]

Texas Cities Set Temperature Records in Unremitting Heat Wave - Inside Climate News

Readings in Laredo, Del Rio, San Angelo and Junction were the highest ever recorded, while Corpus Christi logged an all-time-high heat index of 125 degrees. Forecasters warn that no relief is in sight this month.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

"Climate change and the permanent opening of the Northwest Passage would be a win for Canada, actually."

Canada:

 

[Beebo Brink]

The usual bad news:
June Extremes Suggest Parts of the Climate System Are Reaching Tipping Points - Inside Climate News

Some highlights from the article above:

“These extraordinary extremes could be an early warning of tipping points towards different weather or sea ice or fire regimes,” said University of Exeter climate researcher Tim Lenton. “We call it ‘flickering’ when a complex system starts to briefly sample a new regime before tipping into it. Let’s hope I’m wrong on that.”

 

[Monica Dream]

Normally I'd avoid this thread like the plague but this popped up on my feed so ...for your pleasure:

Earth's hottest day record set, reset three times this week

The hottest day ever on Earth happened on July 3, 2023. The average global temperature reached 62.62 degrees Fahrenheit.

www.nbcdfw.com