WTF Climate Change News

[Archer]

These swaths of San Francisco could be underwater in just 70 years, extreme models suggest
https://www.sfgate.com/science/article/climate-change-sea-level-rise-models-underwater-13595207.php

Not very comforting to remember that so far everything has trended worse than predictions.

 

[Beebo Brink]

More on the ocean as a carbon sink:
Ocean sink for man-made CO2 measured | ETH Zurich

The ocean takes up CO2 in two steps: first, the CO2 dissolves in the surface water. Afterwards, the ocean’s overturning circulation distributes it: ocean currents and mixing processes transport the dissolved CO2 from the surface deep into the ocean’s interior, where it accumulates over time.

This overturning circulation is the driving force behind the oceanic sink for CO2. The size of this sink is very important for the atmospheric CO2 levels: without this sink, the concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere and the extent of anthropogenic climate change would be considerably higher.

Determining what share of the man-made CO2 the oceans absorb has long been a priority for climate researchers. An international team of scientists led by Nicolas Gruber, Professor for Environmental Physics at ETH Zurich, has now determined this oceanic sink over a period of 13 years. As reported in the latest issue of Science, the researchers have found that the ocean has taken up from the atmosphere as much as 34 gigatonnes (billions of metric tonnes) of man-made carbon between 1994 and 2007. This figure corresponds to 31 per cent of all anthropogenic CO2 emitted during that time.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

'It was a lost cause' — dramatic photos show Offutt Air Force Base engulfed by floodwaters
It may be one of the most important Air Force installations in the continental United States, but Offutt Air Force Base has proven no match for the full fury of the Missouri River.

As record flooding swept through towns across the Midwest, floodwaters had swallowed at least thirty buildings at Offutt as of Sunday and damaged another 30, the 55th Wing announced, including the headquarters of the 55th Wing, 55th Security Forces Squadron, 97th Intelligence Squadron, and 343rd Reconnaissance Squadron

And while the 55th Wing said that Air Force personnel worked round-the-clock to shore up facilities with 235,000 sandbags and 460 flood barriers "to minimize damage as much as possible," floodwaters were so intense that they eventually abandoned a frantic sandbagging effort.

"It was a lost cause" 55th Wing spokeswoman Tech. Sgt. Rachelle Blake told the Omaha World-Herald. "We gave up."

The full extent of the damage is currently unknown, but it's worth noting that Offutt is home of U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the Pentagon's nuclear strategic deterrence and global strike capabilities — and opened a brand-new $1.3 billion command and control facility at the air base in January.

'It was a lost cause' — dramatic photos show Offutt Air Force Base engulfed by floodwaters

 

[danielravennest]

Coal Deathmap:

This map shows where local wind and solar (within 35 miles) will be cheaper than existing coal by 2025. Local means they can reuse existing transmission lines, rather than building new power lines for distant sources. Maps like these are why I maintain that coal will be essentially dead in 12-15 years.

 

[Romana]

 

[Beebo Brink]

Ocean acidification could impact Atlantic cod populations more severely than previously thought

 

[Sid]

Mosquito-spread diseases may endanger millions in new places due to climate change

Study finds that places where people have never had the diseases could see bad outbreaks if they aren’t prepared

www.theguardian.com

Half a billion more people could be at risk from mosquito-transmitted diseases within 30 years as a result of the warming climate, according to a new study.

Canada and parts of northern Europe could be newly exposed to the threat. People there could come into contact with yellow fever, Zika, dengue and chikungunya, as well as other emerging diseases.

 

[Sid]

Canada warming at twice the global rate, climate report finds

Report by Environment and Climate Change Canada suggests the majority of warming is the result of burning fossil fuels

www.theguardian.com

Under the report’s worst-case scenario, the risk of deadly heatwaves increases tenfold bring with it droughts and forest fires. Western Canada has already grappled with two years of record forest fire seasons. The risk of major rain events also doubles, meaning cities will be inundated with catastrophic urban flooding.
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Access to critical sources of fresh water will also be constrained, due in large part to reduced winter snowfall, which in turn becomes a source of clean water when the snow pack melts.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I'm guessing Siberia is no different, they're getting ridiculous fire seasons too.

 

[Tigger]

Glacial melts in the Canadian Arctic reveal land that hasn't been seen in more than 40,000 years

• Researchers studied melting ice on Canada's Baffin Island and discovered land that was hidden for more than 40,000 years.
• They believe the Canadian Arctic is experiencing its warmest century of the past 115,000 years.
• The vegetation found underneath the ice is most likely from its original growth period many years ago.

 

[Sid]

BBC.com: Climate change: 'Magic bullet' carbon solution takes big step

Carbon Engineering says that its direct air capture (DAC) process is now able to capture the gas for under $100 a tonne.

With its new funding, the company plans to build its first commercial facilities. These industrial-scale DAC plants could capture up to one million tonnes of CO2 from the air each year.

This is of course not THE solution, but it might be an interesting part of it. IMHO it is at least promising.
Of course reducing the use of fossil fuels should stay another priority as well.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Heaven or High Water
Selling Miami's last 50 years

I asked how the flooding was.

“There are pump stations everywhere, and the roads were raised,” he said. “So that’s all been fixed.”

“I mean, it’s not like, you’re going to wake up one day and the ocean is outside your window!” We laughed again. “I think you know, maybe, something – if something is gonna happen it’s like, I think, it’s like, 100, 200 years.”

 

[Porsupah Ree]

The largest party in Norway’s parliament has delivered a significant blow to the country’s huge oil industry after withdrawing support for explorative drilling off the Lofoten islands in the Arctic, which are considered a natural wonder. The move, by the opposition Labour party, creates a large parliamentary majority against oil exploration in the sensitive offshore area, illustrating growing opposition to the polluting fossil fuel, which has made the country one of the world’s most affluent.

Norway refuses to drill for billions of barrels of oil in Arctic, leaving ‘whole industry surprised and disappointed’

Move exposes rift in Norway’s Labour party as climate change competes with union concerns

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Amazon Is Aggressively Pursuing Big Oil as It Stalls Out on Clean Energy

In 2014, Amazon announced that it would power its rapidly expanding fleet of data centers with 100 percent renewable energy. Apple, Facebook, and Google made similar pledges two years before that, and pressure from consumers and environmental groups drove Amazon to follow suit. For the next two...

gizmodo.com

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Rest Of Earth’s Inhabitants Vote To Phase Out People By The Year 2040

NEWARK – In a move that has been expected by everyone other than humans for quite some time, the rest of life on Earth today voted to do what has to be done to save the planet, deciding in a …

outabouter.com

 

[Beebo Brink]

And yet another entry in the overworked "Happening faster than we expected...." department.

The trouble with thaw
The warming Arctic permafrost may be releasing more nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, than previously thought

From the first signs of thaw, scientists rushed to monitor emissions of the two most influential anthropogenic (human-generated) greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane). But until recently, the threat of the third largest (nitrous oxide) has largely been ignored.

In the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) most recent report (from 2010), the agency rates these emissions as “negligible.” Perhaps because the gas is hard to measure, few studies counter this claim.

Now, a recent paper shows that nitrous oxide emissions from thawing Alaskan permafrost are about twelve times higher than previously assumed. “Much smaller increases in nitrous oxide would entail the same kind of climate change that a large plume of CO2 would cause” says Jordan Wilkerson, first author and graduate student in the lab of James G. Anderson, the Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at Harvard.

Ooops.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

The global financial system faces an existential threat from climate change and must take urgent steps to reform, the governors of the Bank of Englandand France’s central bank have warned, writing in the Guardian.

In an article published in the Guardian on Wednesday aimed at the international financial community, Mark Carney, the Bank’s governor, and François Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of the Banque de France, said financial regulators, banks and insurers around the world had to “raise the bar” to avoid catastrophe.

They said: “As financial policymakers and prudential supervisors we cannot ignore the obvious physical risks before our eyes. Climate change is a global problem, which requires global solutions, in which the whole financial sector has a central role to play.”

Mark Carney tells global banks they cannot ignore climate change dangers

Financial sector warned it risks losses from extreme weather and its stakes in polluting firms

www.theguardian.com

Full article by Carney and Villeroy de Galhau here:

The financial sector must be at the heart of tackling climate change

The industry is key to achieving a low-carbon economy, say Mark Carney, François Villeroy de Galhau and Frank Elderson

www.theguardian.com

 

[Kaimi Kyomoon]

Mark Carney tells global banks they cannot ignore climate change dangers

Financial sector warned it risks losses from extreme weather and its stakes in polluting firms

www.theguardian.com

Full article by Carney and Villeroy de Galhau here:

The financial sector must be at the heart of tackling climate change

The industry is key to achieving a low-carbon economy, say Mark Carney, François Villeroy de Galhau and Frank Elderson

www.theguardian.com

You mean it could hurt PROFITS?

 

[Beebo Brink]

From August of last year, I just caught this podcast by Chris Hayes:

Why Is This Happening? Exploring the wicked problem of climate change with Andrew Revkin

Chris Hayes speaks with climate expert Andrew Revkin about what it’s like to be sounding the alarms that seem to fall on deaf ears.

www.nbcnews.com

I was especially interested in their comments about the psychology of people and why it's been so difficult to motivate people. Just one observation out of many:

There's a satisfaction in action, reaction. It's a stimulus response, there's a reason that the people who design elevators, design an elevator so that the button lights up when you press it. And if they don't design it so the button lights up when you press it you press it and you keep pressing it, right?

There's this huge complex dynamic system that's invisible, carbon can't be seen, and there's no light on the elevator button. So, even if you start doing the right thing, you're not getting the response from the system. So, then it's really hard to go around and be like, "We did it guys, good work! Let's do more of this." That's the sort of thing that you were able to do with CFCs.