WTF Climate Change News

[Beebo Brink]

Earth's largest-ever mass extinction is a warning for humanity

But this is not the first time that life on our planet has faced an epic challenge. The worst came a little over 250 million years ago — before dinosaurs walked the earth — in an episode called the Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction, or the Great Dying, when 90% of life in the oceans and 70% of life on land vanished.

Recently, two groundbreaking studies on the Great Dying reveal that the causes of that mass extinction bear some striking similarities to what's happening today. In fact, in some ways the pace of change, such as the rate of release of greenhouse gases, is much faster today than it was 250 million years ago.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Evernote link because paywall

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Global heating pushes tropical regions towards limits of human livability

Rising heat and humidity threatening to plunge much of the world’s population into potentially lethal conditions, study finds

www.theguardian.com

 

[Soen Eber]

Evernote link because paywall

What's his beef with German diplomacy? I know they're recognized as Russia experts because of the country's long history with them and I rather like them putting the brakes on over-excitable American politicians ... considering their history as a potential nuclear battlefield and doing all the right things about their own history.

But this guy seems to have a lot behind him as well, he seems to be a top one percenter in the the brains and accomplishments department, and being Estonian with even closer experience with Russia I have to take him seriously. Looking for information here, I don't know enough to form any views or push any agendas.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

What's his beef with German diplomacy? I know they're recognized as Russia experts because of the country's long history with them and I rather like them putting the brakes on over-excitable American politicians ... considering their history as a potential nuclear battlefield and doing all the right things about their own history.

But this guy seems to have a lot behind him as well, he seems to be a top one percenter in the the brains and accomplishments department, so I have to take him seriously. Looking for information here, I don't know enough to form any views or push any agendas.

He's a former president of Estonia, so he certainly should be taken seriously, I think.

The Baltic Republics, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, were until 1991 illegally annexed by the USSR, as a result of the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact, so there are particular local sensitivities, of course, but if I lived up there, I'd be very aware that a lot of Russians, including Putin, have never really accepted the independence of "the near abroad" and that the US and much of the EU are potentially uncertain allies.

People in the Baltics generally tend, I think, to see themselves as part of the community of Scandinavian nations than as aligned with central or eastern Europe.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Climate crisis: recent European droughts 'worst in 2,000 years'

Study of tree rings dating back to Roman empire concludes weather since 2014 has been extraordinary

www.theguardian.com

 

[Beebo Brink]

Scientists Stunned to Discover Plants Beneath Mile-Deep Greenland Ice – And Why This Is So Troubling

Long-lost ice core provides direct evidence that giant ice sheet melted off within the last million years and is highly vulnerable to a warming climate. In 1966, US Army scientists drilled down through nearly a mile of ice in northwestern Greenland — and pulled up a fifteen-foot-long tube of dirt

scitechdaily.com

More details about Camp Century:

Secrets Under the Ice

www.uvm.edu

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Dunno what the former guy is going to make of these

Good vibrations: bladeless turbines could bring wind power to your home

‘Skybrators’ generate clean energy without environmental impact of large windfarms, say green pioneers

www.theguardian.com

 

[Ashiri]

Dunno what the former guy is going to make of these

Good vibrations: bladeless turbines could bring wind power to your home

‘Skybrators’ generate clean energy without environmental impact of large windfarms, say green pioneers

www.theguardian.com

Will be interesting to see if they can be scaled to compete with conventional turbines. I could see an application for a marine version in harnessing tidal currents.
Also wonder what noise is generated.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Will be interesting to see if they can be scaled to compete with conventional turbines. I could see an application for a marine version in harnessing tidal currents.
Also wonder what noise is generated.

According to the article,

The turbine is no danger to bird migration patterns, or wildlife, particularly if used in urban settings. For the people living or working nearby, the turbine would create noise at a frequency virtually undetectable to humans.

“Today, the turbine is small and would generate small amounts of electricity. But we are looking for an industrial partner to scale up our plans to a 140 metre turbine with a power capacity of 1 megawatt,” says Yáñez.

Though I supposed we don't know what the noise from a larger turbine will sound like.

 

[Ashiri]

Though I supposed we don't know what the noise from a larger turbine will sound like.

That is what I was wondering. The oscillating part would have to be well designed not to create noise arising from the interaction of the wind with the lightweight structure and skin. It would probably have to be made in a similar way to how wind turbine blades are made.

 

[Free]

I'm certain 1 (but likely 12) of the punditry in Fox News' orbit will be blowing up over this today.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Doubling uptake of wind and solar power could set up Australia for net zero emissions by 2040

Australian National University report author says green energy transformation will surprise ‘on the upside, not the downside’

www.theguardian.com

 

[Beebo Brink]

Growing an Ounce of Pot Indoors Can Emit as Much Carbon as Burning a Full Tank of Gas

In some parts of the United States, the growing cannabis industry is responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions

www.smithsonianmag.com

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Growing an Ounce of Pot Indoors Can Emit as Much Carbon as Burning a Full Tank of Gas

In some parts of the United States, the growing cannabis industry is responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions

www.smithsonianmag.com

 

[danielravennest]

Doubling uptake of wind and solar power could set up Australia for net zero emissions by 2040

Australian National University report author says green energy transformation will surprise ‘on the upside, not the downside’

www.theguardian.com

Solar Market Year in Review

• In 2020, the U.S. solar market installed a record 19.2 GWdc of solar capacity, a 43% increase over 2019.
• Solar accounted for 43% of all new electricity-generating capacity added in the U.S. in 2020, representing solar’s largest ever share of new generating capacity and ranking first among all technologies for the second year in a row.

Coal is dead. Natural Gas is starting to get squeezed out:

Solar keeps getting cheaper:

 

[Beebo Brink]

Northeast 'ghost forests' multiply as waters rise - Futurity

"Ghost forests" filled with dead trees are becoming a growing phenomenon in parts of the Northeast. New research offers two explanations.

www.futurity.org

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Presumably this applies equally to the armed forces of other countries, too.

Climate change puts military in danger on multiple fronts

British military bases at home and overseas are likely to become increasingly vulnerable because of climate change, according to a report seen by The Times.The entire defence estate could be affected

www.thetimes.co.uk

Evernote link because paywall

Certainly applies to the US

Pentagon fears climate change damage to US bases

The impact of increasingly extreme weather could lead to outbreaks of war and will cost billions of dollars in damage to vulnerable US military bases, the Pentagon’s top specialist on climate change

www.thetimes.co.uk

Evernote link because paywall

 

[Beebo Brink]

Presumably this applies equally to the armed forces of other countries, too.

I don't think any of us -- including squinty-eyed pessimists like me -- fully grasp the scope of what we're facing. There's just no precedent in our perspective for the pervasive and implacable forces that are coming to bear on us.

Climate change will affect the military, infrastructure, agriculture, water resources, coastal real estate, fishing industry, and countless other aspects of life and all at the same time. It will continue to escalate, inexorably, and nothing we do in the present will stop the baked-in change we're created. What never seems to factor in to long-range plans for capping emissions -- to prevent yet more catastrophic climate change -- is the disruptions that are inevitable in the short-term.

We're competent enough at recovering from one or two major disasters (hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, winter storms) that come every few decades. The country absorbs the regional economic losses, rebuilds, gets back on track. When we get to the point where every region is experiencing disasters, and they come every few years instead of every few decades, our resiliency will be sorely tested.