Tag: climate change

Green stimulus can repair global economy — and climate

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Projects which cut greenhouse gas emissions as well as stimulating economic growth deliver higher returns on government spending, in the short term and in the longer term, than conventional stimulus spending, the study from Oxford University found.

Many of the projects that could create new jobs in the UK are “shovel-ready”, compliant with social distancing requirements and could be started quickly, said Cameron Hepburn…lead author of the study.

He cited energy efficiency programmes to insulate the UK’s draughty housing stock, the building of electric vehicle charging networks, redesigning roads for more cycling, flood protection and planting trees. “These all need large-scale deployment, offer low to moderate skilled work and will have benefits in terms of climate change as well as boosting the economy,” he said.

Problems and solutions in the UK and USA are similar enough that I imagine it wouldn’t take more tweaking than deciding which side of the road to drive on. Worth examining further. Expressed thoughtfully, could be a decent add to November election issues.

129, 000 years ago the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melted. Earth’s oceans rose about 10 feet.

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High temperature in Antarctica, this week = 69°F.

…The mass melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet was a major cause of high sea levels during a period known as the Last Interglacial (129,000-116,000 years ago). The extreme ice loss caused more than three metres of average global sea level rise – and worryingly, it took less than 2˚C of ocean warming for it to occur.

To conduct our research, we travelled to an area on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and drilled into so-called blue ice areas to reconstruct the glacial history of this ice sheet…

…The results showed that most ice loss happened at the start of Last Interglacial warming, some 129,000 years ago – showing how sensitive the Antarctic is to higher temperatures. We think it’s likely this melting started well before the ocean warmed by 2˚C….

Our results suggest a 3.8 metre sea level rise during the first thousand years of a 2˚C warmer ocean. Most of the modelled sea level rise occurred after the loss of the ice shelves, which collapsed within the first two hundred years of higher temperatures.

I know, I know. Most Americans think like most American politicians. It ain’t happening while I’m around. Probably my kids and grandkids will be OK, as well. Someone further down the road will think of something to save our butts.

I’d rather have the concession for caskets that float.

Antarctica discovered 200 years ago…More marine conservation overdue!

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Looking back, it seems only fitting that a Russian, Adm. Fabian von Bellingshausen, was the first person to sight Antarctica…200 years ago. In fact, on Jan. 27, 1820.

Now, the 25 member governments of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources [CCAMLR], which governs human activity in the Southern Ocean, should honor the anniversary of von Bellingshausen’s discovery and the spirit of the treaty with a renewed push to protect the Southern Ocean.

This marine environment and the species that live there face unprecedented threats, led by climate change…Fortunately, CCAMLR already has proposals on the table for the creation of three MPAs—in East Antarctica…the Weddell Sea, and the Antarctic Peninsula. Each would safeguard critical foraging and nursery grounds for Southern Ocean species, including seals, whales, and penguins, and preserve the region’s essential function as a carbon sink.

The great Antarctic explorers and the signatories of the 1959 treaty have their names etched in history, and by doing the right thing this year, CCAMLR members could join them.

I’ll second that emotion.

Guess who AP cropped out of this photo when they published it?

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Press conference in Davos of prominent young climate activists
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When Vanessa Nakate addressed a tweet to the Associated Press asking why she had been cropped out of a photo, it was out of curiosity. She didn’t think her question would ignite a firestorm of criticism and spark an international conversation on erasure and diversity within the environmental movement.

“When I saw the photo, I only saw part of my jacket. I was not on the list of participants. None of my comments from the press conference were included,” she said. “It was like I wasn’t even there.”

The 23-year-old Ugandan activist had appeared at a joint press conference in Davos with other prominent climate activists, including Greta Thunberg, Loukina Tille, Luisa Neubauer and Isabelle Axelsson.

But when the news agency published a picture of the event, Nakate had been cut from the image – which showed only the four white activists.

AP responded with the standard trick bag of excuses for their racist screwup. Of course.

Atmospheric river storms are getting stronger

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Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of moisture in the atmosphere that extend from the tropics to higher latitudes. These rivers in the sky can transport 15 times the volume of the Mississippi River. When that moisture reaches the coast and moves inland, it rises over the mountains, generating rain and snowfall and sometimes causing extreme flooding.

Recently…a team of researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Army Corps of Engineers in the first systematic analysis of damages from atmospheric rivers due to extreme flooding. We found that while many of these events are benign, the largest of them cause most of the flooding damage in the western U.S. And atmospheric rivers are predicted to grow longer, wetter and wider in a warming climate.

RTFA. More info. A scale for evaluating the dangerous potential in these rivers. Another wake-up call for this nation.

Australian PM says he won’t admit to climate change — while changing policies over climate change

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Joel Carrett/AAP

” Scott Morrison has signalled the Australian government will not increase its efforts to combat climate change despite an extended bushfire crisis and a record-breaking heatwave.

Returning to work on Sunday after a controversial family holiday in Hawaii, the Australian prime minister apologised for his absence on top of the mea culpa he offered on Friday while still overseas…

” Morrison then sought to turn the page on the episode by unilaterally declaring “the time for that discussion is over”.

Morrison said there was “no argument” about the links “between broader issues of global climate change and weather events around the world” but it was “not a credible suggestion” to make a direct connection to any single fire event…

” Minutes after calling for an end to division, arguing, partisanship and point scoring, Morrison said the Coalition is reducing emissions without the “reckless job-destroying and economy-crunching targets that others are seeking to force upon us”.

The government’s own projections show Australia [now] is on course for 50% renewables by 2030 – a target which Morrison labelled as reckless and economy-wrecking in the May election campaign.

Yup. Morrison tells the public the same lies he tells his base. The only difference with the Fake President we have in the GOUSA is that Morrison has learned to craft his lies to say he hasn’t changed policies at all – when obviously he’s been pushed into doing so.

The music goes round and round…

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” “U.N. climate negotiations ended in disarray on Sunday, amid worries that President Donald Trump will win reelection next year and follow through on his promises to withdraw the U.S. from the international effort to head off catastrophic changes across the planet…

The U.S. cannot officially withdraw from the Paris agreement until Nov. 4, 2020, the day after the election. But Trump has repeatedly disavowed the pact, has dismissed climate change as a hoax and has begun dismantling the Obama-era regulations aimed at reducing the United States’ greenhouse gas output.”

The rest of the world’s governments stand around while the Fake President fiddles with his tiny extremities.

Looks like climate change feedback has arrived in the Arctic

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Permafrost…melts into the Kolyma River outside Zyryanka, Russia
Michael Robinson Chavez/Washington POST

” The Arctic is undergoing a profound, rapid and unmitigated shift into a new climate state, one that is greener, features far less ice, and is a net source of greenhouse gas emissions from melting permafrost, according to a major new federal assessment of the region released Tuesday.

The consequences of these climate shifts will be felt far outside the Arctic in the form of altered weather patterns, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and rising sea levels from the melting Greenland ice sheet and mountain glaciers.

” The findings are contained in the 2019 Arctic Report Card…Especially noteworthy is the report’s conclusion that the Arctic may have already turned into a net emitter of planet-warming carbon emissions due to thawing permafrost, which would only accelerate global warming. Permafrost is the carbon-rich frozen soil that covers 24% of Northern Hemisphere land area, encompassing vast stretches of territory across Alaska, Canada, Siberia and Greenland…

” “These observations signify that the feedback to accelerating climate change may already be underway,” the report concludes.

“Each of the studies has some parts of the story. Together they really paint the picture of – we’ve turned this corner for Arctic carbon,” said Ted Schuur. “Together they complement each other nicely and really in my mind are a smoking gun for this change already taking place.”

RTFA. Read it and weep for the damage we have done…continue to do under the “leadership” of the League of Corporate Pimps in Washington, DC. Otherwise known as Congress, the White House and the Federal Government.