The amount of heat trapped by Earth’s land, ocean, and atmosphere doubled over the course of just 14 years, a new study shows…
“The two very independent ways of looking at changes in Earth’s energy imbalance are in really, really good agreement, and they’re both showing this very large trend, which gives us a lot of confidence that what we’re seeing is a real phenomenon and not just an instrumental artifact,” said Norman Loeb, a NASA researcher and the lead author for the study in a press release. “The trends we found were quite alarming in a sense.”…
Fourteen years isn’t a long time compared to Earth’s long climate history — researchers will have to keep gathering data to get more information about how this fits into the complete picture of the planet’s energy imbalance.
Of course, if this incomplete science proves inadequate, incorrect…we’re screwed!
“Mapping the hottest temperatures around the world : From 49.6C in Canada to 53.2C in Kuwait, Al Jazeera looks at where the hottest places are on Earth.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/1/interactive-mapping-hottest-temperatures-around-world
“U.N. climate panel confronts implausibly hot forecasts of future warming” (7/27/21) https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/07/un-climate-panel-confronts-implausibly-hot-forecasts-future-warming (see details: RTFA)
“…Many of the world’s leading models are now projecting warming rates that most scientists, including the modelmakers themselves, believe are implausibly fast. In advance of the U.N. report, scientists have scrambled to understand what went wrong and how to turn the models, which in other respects are more powerful and trustworthy than their predecessors, into useful guidance for policymakers. “It’s become clear over the last year or so that we can’t avoid this,” says Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
…For now, policymakers and other researchers need to avoid putting too much stock in the unconstrained extreme warming the latest models [link] predict, says Claudia Tebaldi, a climate scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and one of the leaders of CMIP’s climate projections. Getting that message out will be a challenge. “These issues don’t translate very well in practice,” she says. “It’s going to be hard for people looking to make some projection of a water basin in the West to make sense of it.”
Already scientific papers are appearing using CMIP’s unconstrained worst-case scenarios for 2100, adding fire to what are already well-justified fears. But that practice needs to change, Schmidt says. “You end up with numbers for even the near-term that are insanely scary—and wrong.”
A Heatwave Has Triggered a ‘Massive Melting Event’ In Greenland : Greenland’s ice sheet melted enough in one day to cover all of Florida in two inches of water. https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7bk9d/a-heatwave-has-triggered-a-massive-melting-event-in-greenland
Greenland’s ice is melting faster than any time in the past 12,000 years, scientists have calculated, with the ice loss running at a rate of around one million tons a minute in 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/30/greenland-ice-sheet-florida-water-climate-crisis
“In heat emergency, southern Europe scrambles for resources” https://nypost.com/2021/08/03/in-heat-emergency-southern-europe-scrambles-for-resources/amp/
Dann Mitchell, a professor of climate science at the University of Bristol, said the heat wave in southeast Europe “is not at all unexpected, and very likely enhanced due to human-induced climate change.”
“The number of extreme heat events around the world is increasing year on year, with the top 10 hottest years on record all occurring since 2005,” Mitchell told The Associated Press.
“This year, we have seen a number of significant events, including a particularly dramatic heat wave in western Canada and the U.S., that was extreme even for current levels of climate change,” Mitchell said. “These black swan events have always happened, but now they sit on the background of a hotter climate, so are even more deadly.”
The United Nations released a landmark report Monday that found humans have pushed the climate into “unprecedented” territory, with worse climate impacts still to come.
The vast study, from more than 200 authors, states that there is no longer any scientific doubt that humans are fueling climate change. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/09/ipcc-climate-report-global-warming-greenhouse-gas-effect/
Last month was the world’s worst July for wildfires since records began in 2003, according to scientists, with wildfires burning in Turkey, Italy, Spain and Lebanon. The United States also recorded punishing temperatures, with heat in Montana reaching more than 20 degrees above normal last month.
Wildfires rage across Greece, Turkey, Italy, Spain and Lebanon
Northern Ireland also broke a record, recording its highest temperature to date of 88.5 degrees as officials raised an amber warning of extreme heat. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/09/greece-wildfires-evia-residents-evacuate/
New IPCC climate report is the clearest guidebook for selecting a future https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/new-ipcc-climate-report-is-the-clearest-guidebook-for-selecting-a-future/
“Human-caused methane is responsible for at least 25% of today’s global warming, the Environmental Defense Fund estimates. Staunching those emissions, a new Global Methane Assessment by the United Nations Environmental Programme stresses, is the best hope for quickly putting the brakes on warming.” See https://www.unep.org/resources/report/global-methane-assessment-benefits-and-costs-mitigating-methane-emissions
“The search for the world’s largest methane sources” (BBC) https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210805-the-search-for-the-worlds-largest-methane-sources
Note: conventional mechanical air conditioning accounts for a fifth of total electricity consumption globally
“The city of Yazd in the desert of central Iran has long been a focal point for creative ingenuity. Yazd is home to a system of ancient engineering marvels that include an underground refrigeration structure called yakhchāl, an underground irrigation system called qanats, and even a network of couriers called pirradaziš that predate postal services in the US by more than 2,000 years. [see links]
Among Yazd’s ancient technologies is the wind catcher, or bâdgir in Persian. These remarkable structures are a common sight soaring above the rooftops of Yazd. They are often rectangular towers, but they also appear in circular, square, octagonal and other ornate shapes.
As a wind catcher requires no electricity to power it, it is both a cost-efficient and green form of cooling. With conventional mechanical air conditioning already accounting for a fifth of total electricity consumption globally, ancient alternatives like the wind catcher are becoming an increasingly appealing option.” https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210810-the-ancient-persian-way-to-keep-cool
Earth sizzled in July and became the hottest month in 142 years of record keeping, United States weather officials have announced. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/14/july-was-hottest-month-on-record-us-agency-says
“In this case, first place is the worst place to be,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a press release. “This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.”
One factor helping the world bake this summer is a natural weather cycle called the Arctic Oscillation, sort of a cousin to El Nino, which in its positive phase is associated with more warming, the NOAA climatologist said.
Re: The Arctic oscillation or Northern Annular Mode/Northern Hemisphere Annular Mode see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_oscillation