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#Post#: 20116--------------------------------------------------
Re: Climate, Weather, and Climate Effects, 2020 and Beyond
By: 2ThaSun Date: June 4, 2023, 2:34 pm
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Climate Shocks Are Making Parts of America Uninsurable. It Just
Got Worse.
[quote]The climate crisis is becoming a financial crisis.
This month, the largest homeowner insurance company in
California, State Farm, announced that it would stop selling
coverage to homeowners. That’s not just in wildfire zones, but
everywhere in the state.
Insurance companies, tired of losing money, are raising rates,
restricting coverage or pulling out of some areas altogether —
making it more expensive for people to live in their homes.
“Risk has a price,” said Roy Wright, the former official in
charge of insurance at the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
and now head of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home
Safety, a research group. “We’re just now seeing it.”
In parts of eastern Kentucky ravaged by storms last summer, the
price of flood insurance is set to quadruple. In Louisiana, the
top insurance official says the market is in crisis, and is
offering millions of dollars in subsidies to try to draw
insurers to the state.
And in much of Florida, homeowners are increasingly struggling
to buy storm coverage. Most big insurers have pulled out of the
state already, sending homeowners to smaller private companies
that are straining to stay in business — a possible glimpse into
California’s future if more big insurers leave...[/quote]
Entire article:
HTML https://wnyuz.com/2023/05/31/climate-shocks-are-making-parts-of-america-uninsurable-it-just-got-worse/
Another climate tipping point to worry about: Plankton
[quote]Rising temperatures could turn one of the world's most
common organisms into a major source of carbon
emissions.[/quote]
[quote]Rising temperatures could transform plankton and other
tiny aquatic organisms into a huge source of carbon emissions, a
little-known — and potentially catastrophic — climate tipping
point that could accelerate global warming.
A study, published Thursday in Functional Ecology, found that
rising temperatures cause a sudden shift in these microbes’
eating habits, flipping them from carbon absorbers to carbon
emitters.
No one knows just how much carbon these microorganisms could
release, and this tipping point hasn’t yet been considered in
climate models. But it could be quite substantial, because
they’re among the world’s most abundant organisms, living in the
ocean, lakes, peatlands, and other bodies of water...[/quote]
Entire article:
HTML https://grist.org/science/plankton-climate-tipping-point-carbon-emissions/
#Post#: 20145--------------------------------------------------
Re: Climate, Weather, and Climate Effects, 2020 and Beyond
By: guest98 Date: June 5, 2023, 4:12 pm
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HTML https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/number-of-quebec-wildfires-rises-to-164-at-least-114-are-out-of-control-1.6427715
Number of Quebec wildfires rises to 164, at least 114 are out of
control
[quote]
The Quebec government says there are 164 wildfires burning
across the province, including at least 114 that are out of
control.
Kateri Champagne Jourdain, the minister responsible for the
Cote-Nord region, told reporters in Sept-Iles, Que., that the
fires in her region northeast of Quebec City are unprecedented.
A smog warning is in effect over large swaths of Quebec,
including in Montreal, due to smoke from the forest fires.
[/quote]
#Post#: 20165--------------------------------------------------
Re: Climate, Weather, and Climate Effects, 2020 and Beyond
By: guest98 Date: June 6, 2023, 2:19 pm
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HTML https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/05/countries-must-put-aside-national-interests-for-climate-crisis-un-says
Countries must put aside national interests for climate crisis,
UN says
[quote]
The world is at a “tipping point” in the climate crisis that
requires all countries to put aside their national interests to
fight for the common good, the UN’s top climate official has
warned.
Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change, pointed to recent findings from
scientists that temperatures were likely to exceed the threshold
of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels within the next five years.
“Climate change is accelerating, and we are lagging behind in
our actions to stem it,” he warned. “Remember the best available
science, which doesn’t arbitrate on who needs to do what or who
is responsible for what. The science tells us where we are and
highlights the scale of response which is required.”
[/quote]
#Post#: 20178--------------------------------------------------
Re: Climate, Weather, and Climate Effects, 2020 and Beyond
By: guest98 Date: June 7, 2023, 2:40 pm
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HTML https://globalnews.ca/news/9749479/research-summer-ice-free-arctic-2030/
Arctic will likely see summer free of ice by 2030, research says
[quote]
New research has moved up the time by which the Arctic Ocean is
predicted to be free of summer ice.
A paper published Tuesday in the journal Nature has concluded
that those northern waters could be open for months at a time as
early as 2030, even if humanity manages to drastically scale
back its greenhouse gas emissions.
“It brings it about a decade sooner,” said Nathan Gillett, an
Environment and Climate Change Canada scientist and one of the
co-authors of the study.
Gillett and his colleagues had noticed the growing differences
between what climate models say should be happening to sea ice
and what’s actually going on.
“The models, on average, underestimate sea ice decline compared
with observations,” Gillett said.
“More ice is being lost, faster than even the most recent models
predict,” she wrote in an email.
“Observations today outpace even high-end predictions. Global
ice stores simply are more sensitive than we thought to slight
changes in warming.”
Gillett said an ice-free Arctic would certainly hasten the
warming of lands around the waters — already warming at three
times the global average. The fragile ecosystem that depends on
sea ice — home to everything from algae to polar bears — would
change utterly.
And when it comes to climate, what happens in the Arctic may not
stay in the Arctic.
[/quote]
HTML https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/environment-minister-says-he-could-accelerate-action-on-climate-change-if-he-didn-t-have-to-fight-the-conservative-party-1.6430497
Environment minister says he could accelerate climate action if
he didn't have to 'fight' Conservatives
[quote]
Federal officials are characterizing this year's wildfire season
across the country as "unprecedented," and a "new normal" driven
by, among other things, climate change.
"People would say, well, we've always had forest fires; what's
new?" Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault told Power Play
host Vassy Kapelos. "Well this year the area that's being burned
is ten times normal average… we know that because of increased
global temperatures and climate change, we will have more
episodes like forest fires."
Kapelos asked Guillbeault whether that means the government
would move more aggressively on net zero targets. The current
target is 2050, but the latest report from the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change in March prompted the UN’s Secretary
General to argue developed countries should push the date to
2040.
Guilbeault argued the federal government could be more
aggressive without political pushback.
"What would greatly help our capacity to accelerate our fight
against climate change in Canada is if I didn't have to fight
with certain jurisdictions all the time on doing the bare
minimum to fight climate change, if I wouldn’t have to fight the
Conservative Party of Canada," he said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre this week threatened to
block the federal government's budget implementation bill in
part if Liberals did not agree to stop increases to the carbon
tax. Tories argue, backed by a report from the Parliamentary
Budget Officer, that the carbon tax rebate does not cover the
cost to Canadians and the tax is therefore punitive. The
government disputes the PBO's findings because they don't
account for the cost of the effects of climate change.
[/quote]
The conservative party of Canada should change its name to the
conservative communist party of Canada.
#Post#: 20307--------------------------------------------------
Re: Climate, Weather, and Climate Effects, 2020 and Beyond
By: guest98 Date: June 12, 2023, 3:38 pm
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HTML https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-premier-danielle-smith-wildfires-climate-change-1.6870875
It's OK for delusion to be "white". It's still OK for climate
change to be "white".
Alberta premier downplays link between wildfires and climate
change, commits to arson investigations
[quote]
Premier Danielle Smith says the government is bringing in arson
investigators from outside the province to trace the cause of
some wildfires during an unprecedented season in Alberta.
In an interview on Real Talk Ryan Jespersen, the host asked
Smith how she reconciles her government's energy policies with
experts linking this year's extreme fire season to climate
change.
"It's a real-life metaphor happening in front of us with a
historic wildfire season," Jespersen said to Smith during
Thursday's show.
"Every expert that we talk to indicates the significant factor
that climate change is playing on our susceptibility to wildfire
and on the conditions that lead to these massive blazes that are
happening earlier and earlier in the season."
Smith responded that she's concerned about arson being the cause
in some of the fires.
Scientists have said fires are larger and more intense, due to
climate change.
Jespersen followed up with Smith during Thursday's interview,
noting that the hot and dry conditions that allow fires to grow
are connected to climate change.
Smith again didn't acknowledge his comment, instead suggesting
the Alberta government needs to do a better job building
fireguards around communities.
Other conservative politicians have also tried to downplay the
link between climate change and the hundreds of wildfires
burning across Canada, which led to air quality alerts in U.S.
cities such as New York and Washington, D.C. this week.
On Wednesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford suggested the issue was
being politicized when he was asked by the opposition parties to
go on the record to connect this year's fire season to climate
change.
Maxime Bernier, leader of the People's Party, accused Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau of lying on social media after Trudeau
tweeted that Canada is seeing more fires due to climate change.
[/quote]
We have democracies to thank for bringing in the same type of
worthlessness into power time and time again.
#Post#: 20361--------------------------------------------------
Re: Climate, Weather, and Climate Effects, 2020 and Beyond
By: 2ThaSun Date: June 14, 2023, 9:24 pm
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It's OK for orange skies to be "white"... ;)
Orange skies are the future. Prepare yourself.
[quote]As climate change drives an increase in wildfires, we’re
seeing more smoke lofted into the upper atmosphere each fire
season. Depending on wind and weather, this smoke can spread
hundreds or thousands of miles from its source—as we saw in
early June on the U.S. East Coast.
And we’re likely to continue seeing it increase in severity,
frequency, and longevity as the planet warms. As a photographer
who has photographed over 125 wildfires in California over the
last decade, I’ve gleaned some helpful tips and best practices
for how to reduce exposure to harmful air once it reaches a town
near you.
First, why is it getting worse?
In the U.S., the 10 worst wildfire seasons for acres burned have
all occurred since 2004. Records are set and then re-broken each
year in acreage, homes destroyed, or lives lost. There is no
winner in breaking records for these categories. The conditions
for “smoke events” impacting major population centers become
more frequent and likely each year, as climate change drives
conditions—such as heat, drought, and the increasingly important
vapor pressure deficit—that promote large wildfire
growth...[/quote]
Entire article:
HTML https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/orange-skies-are-the-future-prepare-yourself/ar-AA1clVai
[img]
HTML https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1clSJu.img?w=768&h=512&m=6[/img]<br
/>
#Post#: 20411--------------------------------------------------
Re: Climate, Weather, and Climate Effects, 2020 and Beyond
By: guest98 Date: June 16, 2023, 2:16 pm
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HTML https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/climate-copernicus-heat-1.6879019
Global temperatures hit a key threshold this June. Scientists
say it's a sign of things to come
[quote]
Worldwide temperatures briefly exceeded a key warming threshold
earlier this month, a hint of heat and its harms to come,
scientists worry.
The mercury has since dipped again, but experts say the short
surge marked a new global heat record for June and indicates
more extremes ahead as the planet enters an El Niño phase that
could last years.
Researchers at the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change
Service said Thursday that the start of June saw global surface
air temperatures rise 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial
levels for the first time. That is the threshold governments
said they would try to stay within at a 2015 summit in Paris.
"Just because we've temporarily gone over 1.5 degrees doesn't
mean we've breached the Paris Agreement limit," cautioned
Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus program. For
that to happen the globe needs to exceed that threshold for a
much longer time period, such as a couple of decades instead of
a couple of weeks.
Still, the 11 days spent at the 1.5-degree threshold shows how
important it is for scientists to keep a close watch on the
planet's health, not least because previous spikes above 1.5
have all happened during winter or spring in the northern
hemisphere, she said. "It's really critical to monitor the
situation, to understand what implications this has for the
summer to come."
"As a climate scientist I feel like I am watching a global train
wreck in slow motion. It's quite frustrating," said University
of Victoria's Andrew Weaver, who wasn't part of the
measurements.
"We know as well the warmer the global climate is, the more
likely we are to have extreme events and the more severe those
extreme events may be," she said. "So there's a direct
correlation between the degree of global warming and the
frequency and intensity of extreme events."
"But sometime in the next few years we will shatter global
temperature records," he said.
[/quote]
HTML https://apnews.com/article/climate-talks-un-uae-guterres-fossil-fuel-9cadf724c9545c7032522b10eaf33d22
UN chief says fossil fuels ‘incompatible with human survival,’
calls for credible exit strategy
[quote]
The head of the United Nations launched a tirade against fossil
fuel companies Thursday, accusing them of betraying future
generations and undermining efforts to phase out a product he
called “incompatible with human survival.”
Secretary-General António Guterres also dismissed suggestions by
some oil executives — including the man tapped to chair this
year’s international climate talks in Dubai — that fossil fuel
firms can keep up production if they find a way to capture
planet-warming carbon emissions. He warned that this would just
make them “more efficient planet-wreckers.”
It’s not the first time the U.N. chief has called out Big Oil
over its role in causing global warming, but the blunt attack
reflects growing frustration at the industry’s recent profit
bonanza despite warnings from scientists that burning fossil
fuels will push the world far beyond any safe climate threshold.
“Last year, the oil and gas industry reaped a record $4 trillion
windfall in net income,” Guterres said after a meeting with
civil society groups. “Yet for every dollar it spends on oil and
gas drilling and exploration, only 4 cents went to clean energy
and carbon capture — combined.”
“Trading the future for thirty pieces of silver is immoral,” he
said.
Guterres called on the industry to put forward a credible plan
for shifting to clean energy “and away from a product
incompatible with human survival.”
“The problem is not simply fossil fuel emissions,” Guterres
said, a nod to recent comments made by Sultan al-Jaber, the
United Arab Emirates official who will lead the next U.N.
climate summit. “It’s fossil fuels – period.”
Al-Jaber, who is also the UAE’s minister of industry and chief
executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, has come under
fire from environmentalists and Western lawmakers for his close
ties to the fossil fuel industry. He was chosen by the UAE to
lead the COP28 talks and any criticism by the U.N. chief —
albeit veiled — is highly unusual.
Guterres echoed their concerns, warning that fossil fuel
companies are undermining climate measures and said they must
“cease and desist influence-peddling and legal threats designed
to kneecap progress.”
[/quote]
#Post#: 20533--------------------------------------------------
Re: Climate, Weather, and Climate Effects, 2020 and Beyond
By: guest98 Date: June 20, 2023, 3:53 pm
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HTML https://abcnews.go.com/International/europe-fastest-warming-continent-planet-new-report/story?id=100193627
Europe is fastest-warming continent on planet, according to new
report
[quote]
Climate change is taking a major human, economic and
environmental toll in Europe, which has now been dubbed the
fastest warming continent of the world, according to a new
report.
Europe has been warming twice as much as the global average
since the 1980s, the report, released Monday by Copernicus, the
European Union's climate change service, and the World
Meteorological Organization, states.
Summer 2022 in Europe was characterized by rolling heatwaves,
record-breaking temperatures and more than 1,100 heat-related
deaths in a single event.
Several countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland,
Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K. had
their warmest year on record in 2022, according to the report.
Europe's 2022 annual average temperature was between the second
and fourth-highest on record, with an anomaly of about 0.79
degrees Celsius above the average between 1991 and 2020.
Summers with extreme heat will likely be "frequent and more
intense across the region" in the future, Copernicus Director
Carlo Buontempo said in a statement.
"The record-breaking heat stress that Europeans experienced in
2022 was one of the main drivers of weather-related excess
deaths in Europe," Buontempo said. "Unfortunately, this cannot
be considered a one-off occurrence or an oddity of the climate."
Meteorological, hydrological and climate-related hazards in
Europe in 2022 resulted in 16,365 reported fatalities (many of
them due to heat stress, the No. 1 weather-related killer in the
world.
[/quote]
#Post#: 20534--------------------------------------------------
Re: Climate, Weather, and Climate Effects, 2020 and Beyond
By: guest98 Date: June 20, 2023, 4:07 pm
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HTML https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/20/canada-wildfires-big-oil
Canada is on fire, and big oil is the arsonist
[quote]
Canada is on fire from coast to coast to coast. Thousands have
been evacuated, millions exposed to air pollution, New York a
doom orange and even the titans of Wall Street choking.
Catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, back-to-back cyclones in the
Pacific islands and droughts in Africa haven’t been enough to
create a tipping point for action. Now that climate impacts have
hit the economic capital of western power, will it spur
governments in the global north to get serious?
We know exactly which fossil fuel companies are robbing us of
clean air and a secure future. We can now measure which oil
companies are responsible for wildfires (13 operate in Canada),
but oil executives are still calling the shots.
Internationally, big oil has been flooding the climate talks for
decades. The result? The Paris agreement doesn’t even include
the words fossil fuels, oil, gas or coal. And today we are on
track to produce 110% more oil, gas and coal by 2030 than the
world can ever burn, or it will burn us. If we are going to
manage the decline of fossil-fuel production in an equitable and
fair way we need our governments to stand up to big oil and
start negotiating a new international agreement on fossil fuels
to complement the Paris agreement.
Back at home, as the smoke rolled in, the prime minister, Justin
Trudeau, promised to do whatever it takes to keep people safe.
But Ottawa just backed another loan guarantee for the Trans
Mountain Pipeline. “Whatever it takes” – except tackling the
industries stoking the flames.
Trudeau is not alone in refusing to acknowledge the need to stop
expansion of oil and gas. That same attitude – “we must act on
climate change but my expansion of fossil fuels is OK” – is
alive and well south of our border where Biden has recently
approved the Willow project and more.
These are scary times. Global leaders declare a climate
emergency while approving projects to expand oil and gas. In
Canada and around the world, fossil fuel proponents are still
being elected. Alberta’s premier, Danielle Smith, used her
victory speech to rally her constituents against the federal
government’s plan to clean the grid as her province burns.
For more than five decades, oil and gas companies have muddled
the truth and blocked progress. They’ve spent millions on PR
campaigns to convince the public that expanding fossil fuels is
safe, reasonable and unavoidable and that the alternatives are
problematic and unreliable. It’s working. Canadians are alarmed
about climate change yet are largely unaware that most of
Canada’s carbon pollution comes from fossil fuels like oil and
gas.
Canada subsidises oil and gas more than any other G20 nation,
averaging $14bn annually between 2018 and 2020. Now big oil is
getting tax breaks for carbon capture and storage – an unproven
technology that won’t change the fact that Canada needs to phase
out fossil fuels.
Fossil fuel companies and their executives don’t need our money.
In fact, they use it against us. Take the Koch brothers, who
have funded anti-climate and anti-clean energy campaigns. Or the
fossil fuel industry’s Pathway Alliance in Canada that is
running “Let’s Clear the Air” misinformation ads to an audience
coughing and choking on their product.
Fossil fuel companies’ net-zero pledges are meaningless and we
need to stop pretending we can negotiate with them. We need to
start regulating them.
[/quote]
In democracies rich corporations wield more power than the state
itself. It's time for politicians to grow some spine and do the
right thing for the sake of the planet.
#Post#: 20538--------------------------------------------------
Re: Climate, Weather, and Climate Effects, 2020 and Beyond
By: 2ThaSun Date: June 20, 2023, 4:42 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Himalayan glaciers on track to lose up to 75% of ice by 2100,
report says
[quote]Glacier loss was as much as 65% faster in 2010s compared
with 2000s
30% to 50% of glacial ice will be lost by 2100 at 1.5C of
warming
Region expected to hit 'peak water' by mid-century, followed by
shortages[/quote]
[quote]June 20 (Reuters) - Glaciers in Asia’s Hindu Kush
Himalaya could lose up to 75% of their volume by century’s end
due to global warming, causing both dangerous flooding and water
shortages for the 240 million people who live in the mountainous
region, according to a new report.
A team of international scientists has found that ice loss in
the region, home to the famous peaks of Everest and K2, is
speeding up. During the 2010s, the glaciers shed ice as much as
65% faster than they had in the preceding decade, according to
the assessment by the Kathmandu-based International Centre for
Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an intergovernmental
scientific authority on the region.[/quote]
[quote]...
But where glaciers will melt most depends on location. At 3C of
warming — what the world is roughly on track for under current
climate policies — glaciers in the Eastern Himalaya, which
includes Nepal and Bhutan, will lose up to 75% of their ice. At
4C of warming, that ticks up to 80%.
...[/quote]
Entire article:
HTML https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/himalayan-glaciers-track-lose-up-75-ice-by-2100-report-2023-06-20/
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