WTF Climate Change News

[Beebo Brink]

The Arctic just hit an unfortunate climate milestone | Grist

The last nine years have been the warmest ever recorded in the Arctic Circle, and this year saw a number of new milestones in the region: It was the rainiest summer on record, and plant life bloomed across the tundra at a near-record pace.

As the Arctic reacts to the planet-warming gases that humans have pumped into the atmosphere, the region is swiftly transforming and entering what scientists call a “new regime.” That’s one of the findings of this year’s Arctic Report Card, a document published by the U.S. government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which shows how wildfires and thawing permafrost have turned the region into a net source of carbon emissions for the first time.

 

[Free]

They've asked for it.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

A premiere: Downtown San Francisco experiences first tornado warning in recorded history.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/14/us/san-francisco-tornado-warning/index.html

 

[Govi]

It hit nearby Scotts Valley with an actual tornado (EF-1) yesterday. We were planning on going over the hill yesterday, but the weather outlook made me chicken out.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/weather/article/scotts-valley-tornado-19981316.php

Tornado rips through Scotts Valley, several injured as emergency crews respond

After strong winds and rain toppled trees and caused power outages across Santa Cruz County late Friday and early Saturday, a tornado touched in Scotts Valley, demolishing vehicles, tearing down po…

www.santacruzsentinel.com

I shop at that Target, at that Safeway, at the Nob Hill store mentioned in the Santa Cruz Sentinel's story. We were at home, astounded at the ferocity of the brief hailstorm that hit us, apparently simultaneous to the tornado touching down in Scotts Valley, 4 miles away. We're used to high winds, heavy rain, but this is a new twist(er) for us.

 

[Free]

Mexico Is Getting So Hot That Even Young People Are Dropping Dead

Scientists have found that not just older adults are succumbing to dangerous temperatures driven by climate change.

futurism.com

Scientists have found that it's not just older adults succumbing to dangerous temperatures driven by climate change — even younger people may be more susceptible to extreme heat as well.

As detailed in a new study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers found that three-fourths of heat-related deaths in Mexico between 1998 and 2019 were people under the age of 35.

It's a fascinating — and perhaps foreboding — new finding that suggests it's not just the elderly who are at the highest risk of dying from heat.

 

[Beebo Brink]

New data shows insurance model doesn't work for our level of climate disasters | Canada's National Observer: Climate News

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

When evidence of climate change pops up in the most surprising of places

 

[Rose Karuna]

This is actually good news. A innovative young man who came up with a stellar idea to both provide a product made from an invasive species and also to make the product biodegradable, which it's not now.

https://www.cnn.com/world/africa/hyacinth-alien-plant-environment-plastic-spc/index.html

Water Hyacinth is a horribly invasive plant and has really become a problem in Florida: SS-AGR-380/AG385: Waterhyacinth: Florida's Worst Floating Weed

It would be great to be able to get rid of non-degradable plastics AND use an invasive plant here. I hope this really takes off.

 

[Archer]

Earth Passed 1.5C of Heating in 2024

Climate breakdown drove the annual global temperature above the internationally agreed 1.5C target for the first time last year, supercharging extreme weather and causing “misery to millions of people”.
The average temperature in 2024 was 1.6C above preindustrial levels

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Henry Mance (@henrymance.bsky.social)

To predict the future, you need both science and imagination. Britain is cold today. But there is a real chance that global warming could make it dramatically colder, even as much of the world gets hotter. How is that possible? This article tries to explain: on.ft.com/4ja9vti...

bsky.app

Evernote Link

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

It got up to 70 here yesterday. 70! In the early middle of January!

Don't get me wrong, it felt great. But I worry about crops here that depend on freezing temperatures, and how much hotter this coming summer will be compared to last summer.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

It got up to 70 here yesterday. 70! In the early middle of January!

I love how in the current climate it's not immediately clear if you're talking modern or ancient system.