WTF Climate Change News

[danielravennest]

So this just blew up:

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Washington state passes 100 percent clean electricity legislation

<p>The Washington State Legislature passed <a href="https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5116&Initiative=false&Year=2019&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery">Senate Bill 5116</a> on Monday – a bill that will eliminate coal power by 2025 and transition the state to 100 percent clean...

www.kiro7.com

 

[Beebo Brink]

OLYMPIA, Wash. - The Washington State Legislature passed Senate Bill 5116 on Monday – a bill that will eliminate coal power by 2025 and transition the state to 100 percent clean and renewable electricity by 2045.

“On this Earth Day, I couldn’t be more proud of the Legislature’s action to pass the country’s most forward looking clean energy bill,” Gov. Jay Inslee said in a news release.

And this is why we're sooooo screwed. Our most forward looking attempts are still decades in the making, as if we have the luxury of that much time.

 

[Sid]

And this is why we're sooooo screwed. Our most forward looking attempts are still decades in the making, as if we have the luxury of that much time.

Most people will not give up their lifestyles and their mobility overnight.
So I guess our only chance will be long term solution finding. And yes, that makes the chances that we will be screwed big time at some point not unlikely. But unfortunately there are no short term alternatives in sight, without getting in the revolt, riot, revolution, war scenario's.

 

[Porsupah Ree]

Labour will this week force a vote in parliament to declare a national environmental and climate change emergency as confidential documents show the government has spent only a fraction of a £100m fund allocated in 2015 to support clean air projects.

Jeremy Corbyn’s party will demand on Wednesday that the country wakes up to the threat and acts with urgency to avoid more than 1.5°C of warming, which will require global emissions to fall by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching “net zero” before 2050.

Corbyn launches bid to declare a national climate emergency

Labour will attempt to force Commons vote as it is revealed that the government has failed to spend anti-pollution cash

www.theguardian.com

 

[Pamela]

 

[Beebo Brink]

A lot to unpack in a very short article about melting permafrost.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/permafrost-melting-1.5119767

Climate scientists have assumed a slow, steady erosion of permafrost and a similar pace of carbon release. Turetsky and her colleagues found something different.

Instead of a few centimetres of thaw a year, several metres of soil can destabilize within days. Landscapes collapse into sinkholes. Hillsides slide away to expose deep permafrost that would otherwise have remained insulated.

This is just one example of the way in which the reality of climate change keeps outstripping the predictions. Scientists in general tend to be conservative with estimates of any kind, which puts them even farther behind the curve when new and unexpected twists occur.

"Permafrost at [that] depth, even 100 years from now, probably would still be protected in the soil," she said. "Except here comes this really crazy liquefication where this abrupt thaw really churns up this stuff."

Far from exaggerating the dangers of climate change, you can pretty much count on all predictions underestimating the speed and intensity of the threat.

There was also another line that is touched on by articles here and there, but isn't really getting that much attention yet.

"We've got a lot of people living on top of permafrost and building infrastructure on top of permafrost. It's enough to sink northern budgets."

We talk about the monetary impact in discrete packages: the cost to rebuild an army base, the cost to developers in Florida, the loss of roads in Alaska. When you put this all together, however, what we're facing is major degradation of our industrial infrastructure on a global level. And there simply isn't enough money to fix this damage as it continues to accelerate. The costs of fires, floods, droughts, storms are going to smack up against social security, medicare, health care, social services and our sky-high level of military expenditure.

All aspects of life will be eroded by the loss of government funding that is diverted to rebuilding or just damage control.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Discuss:

 

[Kaimi Kyomoon]

The petroleum industry just has to stop. They'll never do that until they're forced to. That will never happen until they stop bribing lawmakers. At this point I'm just hoping the planet can sustain life until I can have some sort of pleasant death. I weep for my descendants and for everyone younger than I.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Discuss:

I've had that very argument here (well, here as in SLU) with several people who are immersed in wonderful green projects. They felt like my "we're fucked" was somehow a disparagement of their efforts, which is not the case. There are many reasons to applaud a green approach to living, and we will all reap benefits from a move to sustainable agriculture and low-carbon footprints. We're just not going to stop climate change by micro-changes at that level. At least not in the very limited window of opportunity that is open to us now.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Archer]

Discuss:

Unless we ALL use our reusable grocery bags to carry our stuff while we march on the world's capitol cities and demand our crappy politicians actually DO SOMETHING! Because at this point, any positive change in the right direction is only going to happen if massive protests happen around the world on an ongoing basis. As in, we won't go home until meaningful legislation is enacted!

 

[Porsupah Ree]

It’s no secret that climate change comes at a cost — so much so that even the insurance industry has flagged it as a priority. According to a new industry survey, actuaries (the people who calculate insurance risks and premiums based on available data) ranked climate change as the top risk for 2019, beating out concerns over cyber damages, financial instability, and terrorism.

Insurance experts rank climate change as top risk for 2019

A survey of professional actuaries ranked it higher than cyber crimes, terrorism, or financial insecurity.

grist.org

 

[Clara D.]

Insurance experts rank climate change as top risk for 2019

A survey of professional actuaries ranked it higher than cyber crimes, terrorism, or financial insecurity.

grist.org

Considering rising sea levels and increasingly destructive weather, that makes perfect sense.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Considering rising sea levels and increasingly destructive weather, that makes perfect sense.

And of course Trump and the GOP want to continue to deny its existence and bury their heads in the sand.

 

[Kaimi Kyomoon]

And of course Trump and the GOP want to continue to deny its existence and bury their heads in the sand.

They only care about gathering enough wealth now to somehow save their families in 20 years when most of the Earth is uninhabitable in 20 years.

 

[danielravennest]

They only care about gathering enough wealth now to somehow save their families in 20 years when most of the Earth is uninhabitable in 20 years.

Maybe Putin has promised the Trump family a dacha in Siberia, which will be quite pleasant by then.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

They only care about gathering enough wealth now to somehow save their families in 20 years when most of the Earth is uninhabitable in 20 years.

If the tax cut doesn't pay for a personal private military and a biosphere, the vote was not a rational one.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Maybe Putin has promised the Trump family a dacha in Siberia, which will be quite pleasant by then.

Building on thawing permafrost will be tricky, however.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]