Category: Climate Change

As Climate Change Worsens, Deadly Prison Heat is Increasingly an Everywhere Problem

As Climate Change Worsens, Deadly Prison Heat is Increasingly an Everywhere Problem

There’s only One Issue in the 2024 Election: The Survival of a Habitable Earth

In mid-July, Nature Climate Change published a global survey of over 9,000 scientists. Its findings should be like the sirens […]

There’s only One Issue in the 2024 Election: The Survival of a Habitable Earth

Climate Crisis

Fossil fuel industry propaganda blamed as record heat scorches planet

Aerial view oil and gas tank with oil refinery background at night, Glitter lighting of petrochemical plant with night, Manufacturing of petroleum, Products tank in petrochemical plant.

“We need to tackle the root cause and get serious about reducing record levels of greenhouse gas emissions,”…

Fossil fuel industry propaganda blamed as record heat scorches planet

Climate, Environment, Politics

By Jessica Corbett

Aug 12, 2024

Global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C warming for a full year. What does this mean for the Paris Agreement?


“1.5°C is bad. 2°C would be significantly worse. 3°C would be catastrophic. Every extra increment matters, and every action to reduce emissions reduces the risk of dangerous climate change.”

Global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C warming for a full year.

Sunday was earth’s hottest day on record

“We are now in truly uncharted territory and as the climate keeps warming, we are bound to see new records being broken in future months and years,” one expert said.

Sunday was earth’s hottest day on record

How Climate Change is Heating up

Extreme Heat Waves Broiling the US in 2024 aren’t Normal: How Climate Change is Heating up the World

Extreme Heat Waves Broiling the US in 2024 aren’t Normal: How Climate Change is Heating up the World

Is Beryl the Tipping Point?

As Hurricane Beryl barreled toward Jamaica on Tuesday after killing at least four people in the Caribbean’s Windward Islands, climate scientists warned the record-breaking Category 5 storm is a present-tense example of what’s to come on a rapidly heating planet.

‘Historic’ Category 5 Hurricane Beryl Offers Terrifying View of Future

‘An intergenerational crime against humanity’: what will it take for political leaders to start taking climate change seriously?

Source: ‘An intergenerational crime against humanity’: what will it take for political leaders to start taking climate change seriously?

Government heat map ‘wake up call’ to stop burning fossil fuels – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Climate Media Centre

Advocacy groups have welcomed the release of the Federal Government’s announcement of a heat mapping tool to assist affected communities deal with the worst of extreme heat, but have called on government to do more to address the root cause, climate change caused by the continued use of fossil fuels.

Source: Government heat map ‘wake up call’ to stop burning fossil fuels – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Hit New Record Levels

refinery

“As these numbers show, we still have a lot of work to do to make meaningful progress in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere,” said one NOAA scientist.

Source: Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Hit New Record Levels

Just 57 companies linked to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions since 2016 | Greenhouse gas emissions | The Guardian

A pump jack operates in front of a drilling rig at sunset in an oil field in Texas, US.

A mere 57 oil, gas, coal and cement producers are directly linked to 80% of the world’s global fossil CO2 emissions since the 2016 Paris climate agreement, a study has shown.

Saudi Aramco, Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom, and state-owned producer Coal India were at the top of the list. Carbon Majors has been keeping track of which companies are contributing the most to the climate crisis since 2013.

The Carbon Majors database finds that most state- and investor-owned companies have expanded their production operations since the Paris Agreement. 58 out of the 100 companies were linked to higher emissions in the seven years after the Paris Agreement than in the same period before. This increase is most pronounced in Asia, where 13 out of 15 (87%) assessed companies are connected to higher emissions in 2016–2022 than in 2009–2015, and in the Middle East, where this number is 7 out of 10 companies (70%). In Europe, 13 of 23 companies (57%), in South America, 3 of 5 (60%) companies, and in Australia, 3 out of 4 (75%) companies were linked to increased emissions, as were 3 of 6 (50%) African companies. North America is the only region where a minority of companies, 16 of 37 (43%), were linked to rising emissions.

Source: Just 57 companies linked to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions since 2016 | Greenhouse gas emissions | The Guardian

No wind power, no solar farms. Let’s go NUCLEAR! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

I would think that if the Marriage Equality plebiscite were, as he sates, a human rights issue, the law that was changed would have been one which denied a human right and therefore needed changing. Which then leads onto the proposed plebiscite to gain endorsement for a change to the law which would allow nuclear power plants to operate in Australia sometime in the next twenty years or so since that is how long it will take according to the various commentators on this topic, coal fired plants will have to keep operating and CO2 emissions will keep rising as renewable energy sources are rejected.

Source: No wind power, no solar farms. Let’s go NUCLEAR! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

As World Saw Hottest Year on Record, Corporate News Cut Coverage

A journalist reports from the Santa Ana wind-driven Bond Fire

media matters graf of big three coverage

Source: As World Saw Hottest Year on Record, Corporate News Cut Coverage

America’s Red Snow: Hottest Winter on Record, Largest Wildfires in Texas History

This finding is yet another indication that global heating is proceeding at least as fast as climate scientists projected at the beginning of our century, and in many cases much faster. Climate risks becoming chaotic if we heat up the earth’s surface more than 2.7° F. (1.5° C.) above the preindustrial average. We’ve already heated it up to around 2.1° F. higher than that 18th century average, by spewing billions of metric tons of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas, into the atmosphere. We’re wrecking the earth by burning coal for heat and electricity, or fossil gas, or by burning petroleum in automobiles and trucks. We still aren’t reducing the amount of CO2 we put into the atmosphere annually, though its increase has leveled off. We have to cut it out. Now.

Source: America’s Red Snow: Hottest Winter on Record, Largest Wildfires in Texas History

Capital cities to swelter through twice as many days above 35°C unless stronger climate action is taken – » The Australian Independent Media Network

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL CITIES are set to swelter through twice as many days above 35°C by the end of the century, a detailed analysis from the Climate Council has found.

Source: Capital cities to swelter through twice as many days above 35°C unless stronger climate action is taken – » The Australian Independent Media Network

How Renewable Energy Innovation Makes us Richer while Saving the Planet

(The Conversation) – As the climate crisis escalates, there are urgent and difficult choices that need to be made to drastically reduce our carbon emissions before more irreparable damage is done. Many have argued the energy industry needs to change to reduce carbon emissions, but one concern that remains is the consequence this will have on economic prosperity. Discussions vary across interest groups. Do we need to outright replace the fossil fuel industry with the renewable energy industry as soon as possible? Should we slowly phase out fossil fuels while making

Source: How Renewable Energy Innovation Makes us Richer while Saving the Planet

‘A deeply troubling discovery’: Earth may have already passed the crucial 1.5°C warming limit

‘A deeply troubling discovery’: Earth may have already passed the crucial 1.5°C warming limitPublished: February 6, 2024

Global temperatures have already exceeded 1.5°C warming and may pass 2°C later this decade, according to a world-first study I led. The worrying findings, based on temperature records contained in sea sponge skeletons, suggest global climate change has progressed much further than previously thought.

Source: ‘A deeply troubling discovery’: Earth may have already passed the crucial 1.5°C warming limit

1 billion people left dangerously exposed to heat stress by gaps in climate monitoring

Source: 1 billion people left dangerously exposed to heat stress by gaps in climate monitoring

We are exhuming the teeming Dead – Pearls and Irritations

Hand flipping wooden cube blocks to UP and Down arrow symbol with CO2 (Carbon dioxide) text on table background. Free Carbon, alternative energy and global climate change concepts

Can we stop them? Yes. But only if the 8 billion citizens of this planet are willing to give up their deadly addiction. First, like all addicts, we have to understand clearly the damage it is causing. And this, the fossil fuels industry with its pet politicians and multi-billion dollar propaganda machine built to mislead us, are determined we shall never do.

There is, unfortunately no other path open to us. We can wait for fossil fuels people to recover their sanity and altruism – but this seems improbable. Or we can leave them behind, in our quest for a world which our children can inhabit, safely.

Source: We are exhuming the teeming Dead – Pearls and Irritations

Victoria, SA and southern NSW brace for flooding rain

The storms are expected to develop in Victoria’s west on Sunday morning, before moving through central, north central and eastern parts of the state during the day and into Monday.

Source: Victoria, SA and southern NSW brace for flooding rain

Put up or shut up – » The Australian Independent Media Network

There may be really good arguments for alternatives to renewable energy – but O’Brien hasn’t given us one yet and Rinehart frankly should have pulled her funding if the IPA can’t do far better than the drivel they have presented as ‘research’ on this occasion. It’s time to put up or shut up.

Source: Put up or shut up – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In First, Britain Likely Generated more Electricity from Wind/Water/Hydro than Fossil Fuels in 2023

By Grant Wilson, University of Birmingham; Joseph Day, University of Birmingham; and Katarina Pegg | – There are many milestones to pass in the transition from a high to low-carbon sustainable energy system. There is the first hour without coal, or oil, or gas generation (or all of them together) and the point when the last coal, oil or gas power plant (or all of them together) are finally retired. Another milestone that feels important is the first year when renewables generate more electricity than fossil fuels. For the past three months we have been tracking the data for Great

Source: In First, Britain Likely Generated more Electricity from Wind/Water/Hydro than Fossil Fuels in 2023

Cop28 finished with a whimper, while 2023 will be the hottest year on record. What gives? – Michael West

Cop28 finished with a whimper, while 2023 will be the hottest year on record. What gives?

Politicians, activists and UN emissaries haggle with fossil fuel chiefs at the Cop28 conference in Dubai, the world keeps getting hotter.

Source: Cop28 finished with a whimper, while 2023 will be the hottest year on record. What gives? – Michael West

East Africa’s floods decimate almost entire rainy season harvest leaving over four million people with no food or income – » The Australian Independent Media Network

“At this year’s COP28, rich polluting nations – largely responsible for the climate crisis – must honour their obligation to provide climate finance for adaptation and loss and damage, so that East African countries can free up resources to support impacted communities adapt, recover and rebuild their lives,” added N’zi-Hassane.

Source: East Africa’s floods decimate almost entire rainy season harvest leaving over four million people with no food or income – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Nations clash over COP28 fossil fuels phase-out

COP28 delegates are still negotiating the agreed language around moving away from fossil fuels.

Observers in the negotiations said Saudi Arabia and Russia were among several countries insisting that the conference in Dubai focus only on reducing climate pollution — and not on targeting the fossil fuels causing it.

Source: Nations clash over COP28 fossil fuels phase-out

COP28: Where Fossil Fuel Industries Go to Gloat – » The Australian Independent Media Network

With the figures of science essentially excluded from these hot air gatherings in favour of industries that see them as troubling nuisances best ignored, the prospect for local and domestic reform through informed activism becomes the only sensible approach. There are even heartening studies suggesting that climate protest can warm frigid public opinion, the only measure that really interests the vote getting politician. Unfortunate that this seems a last throw for much of humanity and the earth’s ecosystem.

Source: COP28: Where Fossil Fuel Industries Go to Gloat – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Carbon emissions at a record high, new report finds – » The Australian Independent Media Network

World War 3

Total fossil carbon dioxide emissions are projected to be at a record high of 36.8 billion tonnes in 2023, as outlined in the annual Global Carbon Budget released at the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai.

Source: Carbon emissions at a record high, new report finds – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Rapid decarbonisation can steer Australia to Net Zero before 2050 – » The Australian Independent Media Network

To lag behind international decarbonisation would be a competitive disadvantage for Australia as other nations increasingly adopt low emissions technologies and trade barriers towards high emitting nations.

Source: Rapid decarbonisation can steer Australia to Net Zero before 2050 – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Call to join forces as China sets pace on clean energy – Michael West

China is fighting WW3 Climate Change

Demand for Australian coal from the nation’s biggest customer is heading for long-term decline as China changes course on energy investment, research shows.

Source: Call to join forces as China sets pace on clean energy – Michael West

A Slow-Motion Gaza | The Smirking Chimp

whatever the horrors and damage done, there hasn’t been another world war, there has been and continues to be a war on the world, a slow-motion global Gaza that will only grow worse unless we put our energy into moving ever faster to transition from coal, natural gas, and oil to alternative energy sources. In truth, that is the war we should all be fighting, not the ones that distract us from the worst dangers we face.

In fact, it’s past time to start talking about World War III, even if this time it’s a war on the planet itself.

Source: A Slow-Motion Gaza | The Smirking Chimp

Climate on track to warm by nearly 3C: UN report

Scientists say the loss of Antarctic sea-ice is close to a tipping point, with unstoppable impacts.

The world is facing drastic rises in temperature, the head of the United Nations Environment Programme predicts.

The annual Emissions Gap report, which assesses countries’ promises to tackle climate change compared with what is needed, says the world faces between 2.5C and 2.9C of warming above pre-industrial levels if governments do not boost climate action.

At 3C of warming, scientists predict the world could pass several catastrophic points of no return, from the runaway melting of ice sheets to the Amazon rainforest drying out.

“Present trends are racing our planet down a dead-end 3C temperature rise,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

“The emissions gap is more like an emissions canyon.”

Source: Climate on track to warm by nearly 3C: UN report

Super-Rich 1% Match Carbon Emissions of the Poorest 5 Billion People, Oxfam Report Reveals – scheerpost.com

Talking RESPONSIBILITY

“In 2022, Oxfam undertook an analysis of 125 billionaires and found that, on average, they emitted 3m tonnes of CO2e a year through their investments – over a million times more than the average for someone in the bottom 90% of humanity.”

Source: Super-Rich 1% Match Carbon Emissions of the Poorest 5 Billion People, Oxfam Report Reveals – scheerpost.com

Human-caused climate change cost US $67 bn., produced hottest 12 months for 125,000 years – Pearls and Irritations

Planet Earth - ecology concept, global warming concept, the effect of environment climate change.

The non-profit collective of high-powered scientists, Climate Central, has released a new report demonstrating that the past 12 months have been the hottest on record, and inferring that they are the hottest in 125,000 years.

Source: Human-caused climate change cost US $67 bn., produced hottest 12 months for 125,000 years – Pearls and Irritations

Climate con: Australia is playing a deceptive and dangerous game

The basic choice every country must make about climate change is whether to pay for it from the budget or pass the cost on to consumers.

Source: Climate con: Australia is playing a deceptive and dangerous game

Human-Caused Climate Change cost US $67 bn., Produced Hottest 12 Months for 125,000 years

Source: Human-Caused Climate Change cost US $67 bn., Produced Hottest 12 Months for 125,000 years

How Global Warming shakes the Earth: Data show Storms and Waves gaining Strength as the Planet warms

Source: How Global Warming shakes the Earth: Data show Storms and Waves gaining Strength as the Planet warms

Winter Sea Ice in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean is in Disturbing Decline: 200 Scientists Sound Alarm

By Andrew J Constable, University of Tasmania and Jess Melbourne-Thomas, CSIRO | – (The Conversation) – While the Southern Ocean around Antarctica has been warming for decades, the annual extent of winter sea ice seemed relatively stable – compared to the Arctic. In some areas Antarctic sea ice was even increasing. That was until 2016, when everything changed.

Source: Winter Sea Ice in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean is in Disturbing Decline: 200 Scientists Sound Alarm

Goodbye Acapulco: 205 mph Winds destroy 80% of Infrastructure, do $18 bn of Damage in Climate Change Warning

Gaza City is not the only place that has been reduced to rubble in the past week. Dan Stillman at WaPo points out that Hurricane Otis hit Acapulco on October 25 with 205 mph winds, “among the strongest ever measured.”

Source: Goodbye Acapulco: 205 mph Winds destroy 80% of Infrastructure, do $18 bn of Damage in Climate Change Warning

5 Climate Change Facts to Scare You Into Action This Halloween | The Smirking Chimp

Source: 5 Climate Change Facts to Scare You Into Action This Halloween | The Smirking Chimp

When Idiot Savants Do Climate Economics

NEW HAVEN, CT - OCTOBER 08: Yale Professor William Nordhaus speaks during a press conference after winning the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences at Yale University on October 8, 2018 in New Haven, Connecticut.  Professor Nordhaus' research has been focused on the economics of climate change, economic growth and natural resources. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)

 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has assumed Nordhaus is to be trusted. The integrated assessment models used at the IPCC are based on Nordhausian visions of adaptation to warming that only marginally reduces global gross domestic product. If future GDP is barely affected by rising temperatures, there’s less incentive for world governments to act now to reduce emissions.

Andrew Glikson, who teaches at Australian National University in Canberra and advises the IPCC, has written about the coming era of mass human death, what he calls the Plutocene, the natural successor to the Anthropocene. Global governments, he charges, are “criminals” for ushering in the Plutocene in pursuit of short-term political and economic gain. I first reached out to him during the black summer of bushfires that raged across Australia in 2020. Glikson’s mood was foul then, and it has not gotten better since.

“The governing classes have given up on the survival of numerous species and future generations,” he told me, “and their inaction constitutes the ultimate crime against life on Earth.” Part of the reason for inaction is the false cheer that Nordhaus has spread with his math-genius, climate-idiot models.

Source: When Idiot Savants Do Climate Economics

Climate Data Says Summer Of 2023 Was The Hottest On Record | Crooks and Liars

Climate Data Says Summer Of 2023 Was The Hottest On Record

Andrew Bolt never apologized for telling Australia the planet was cooling for 10 years. He just ignored it and moved on in the 24/7 news cycle and turned to Blomborg was his name was the guy Tony Abbott wanted to gift into an Australian University to legitimize his cooling planet Woke movement.

July 2023 remains the hottest month ever recorded, while August’s record makes the northern hemisphere’s summer the hottest since records began in 1940.

Last month was the also the hottest August on record globally, the third straight month in a row to set such a record following the hottest ever June and July, the EU said on Wednesday.

Source: Climate Data Says Summer Of 2023 Was The Hottest On Record | Crooks and Liars

Frankenstein’s Monster of a Climate Emergency: Dangerous Global September Heat Spike

The data from scientific institutions around the world is pouring in here in the beginning of October, regarding September, 2023, and the consensus is that it was freakishly hot, unprecedentedly torrid, off-the-charts sweltering. It was the Frankenstein’s monster of months.

Source: Frankenstein’s Monster of a Climate Emergency: Dangerous Global September Heat Spike

Crash and Burn – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The longer the burning of fossil fuels goes on, the worse the problem will become. The cost of extracting oil will continue to increase as accessible reserves decrease. When we stop burning oil, all that will be left in the oilfields will be the expensive dregs to extract for making our soap. The sensible approach now would be to encourage the death spiral as quickly as possible. Force the end of fossil fuels for power and preserve as much of our reserves for the rest of society to use. But governments are generally not in the business of forcing huge industries to collapse.

Source: Crash and Burn – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Deluges in Climate Change Floods: Greece and Libya Dwarf Germany’s 2021 Disaster, Must Spur Action say Climate Researchers

The record rainfalls triggering deadly floods in Libya and Greece dwarf the precipitation that caused Germany’s 2021 flood catastrophe, and are a grim reminder of the need to act on and adapt to climate change, said German climate researcher Mojib Latif in an interview with public broadcaster BR.

Source: Deluges in Climate Change Floods: Greece and Libya Dwarf Germany’s 2021 Disaster, Must Spur Action say Climate Researchers

Demanding an End to ‘Deadly Fossil Fuels,’ Tens of Thousands Take the Streets in NYC

March to End Fossil Fuels

“It’s time for Biden to declare a climate emergency and phase out the fossil fuels killing people and wildlife around the world.”

Source: Demanding an End to ‘Deadly Fossil Fuels,’ Tens of Thousands Take the Streets in NYC

Climate change sparks earth’s hottest three-month span

So far, this year is the second-warmest on record behind 2016, when global temperatures soared during an El Nino event.

Source: Climate change sparks earth’s hottest three-month span

Summer 2023’s Climate-Driven Record-Breaking heat is not ‘The New Normal,’ since the abnormalities will Keep on Coming

Scott Denning, Colorado State University | – Summer 2023 has been the hottest on record by a huge margin. Hundreds of millions of people suffered as heat waves cooked Europe, Japan, Texas and the Southwestern U.S. Phoenix hit 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) for a record 54 days, including a 31-day streak in July. Large parts of Canada were on fire. Lahaina, Hawaii, burned to the ground. As an atmospheric scientist, I get asked at least once a week if the wild weather we’ve been having is “caused” by climate change. This question reflects a misunderstanding of the difference

Source: Summer 2023’s Climate-Driven Record-Breaking heat is not ‘The New Normal,’ since the abnormalities will Keep on Coming

Yes or No or Neutral? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

When an Individual’s voice reflects and admits to Reality. This is a Climate Change that is Necessary

Eight generations ago, my dirt-poor Celtic ancestors were colonisers. They logged trees, eroded the land. They brutalised animals. They farmed, fought, bred and built for themselves.

They probably also abused Aboriginal women or stockmen and participated in genocide. The evidence is well hidden but pops up in hints such as Aboriginal families bearing my surname across the rural area where my great-grandfather worked.

This has been minimised by subsequent generations determined to steep their identity in middle-class suburban “niceness”. They claimed to be “self-made” bankers. Land ownership has been an obsession for all of them.

The same Aborigines who were told by my forebears that they didn’t polish the silver properly could not have any level of dominion over their own lives. They were only given the vote in 1967. “Money spent on them was wasted,” said the same patriarchs who stole their wages.

Source: Yes or No or Neutral? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

A Global Maui Moment – CounterPunch.org

Meanwhile, the global war of terror, which only becomes more destructive by the month, has already put September 11th to shame in Lahaina and elsewhere on this increasingly beleaguered planet of ours. And sadly enough, in that war of nature, we humans are the terrorists and those fossil-fuel company CEOs are our very own Osama bin Ladens.

Source: A Global Maui Moment – CounterPunch.org

2023 on track to be world’s hottest year on record, temperatures exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for first time – ABC News

June to August temperatures

Science proves Rowan Dean, Chris Kenny, and Andrew Bolt among others to be morons and Australia’s Kings of Disinformation.

This year is now almost certain to become Earth’s warmest on record after a hot July and August saw global temperatures reach the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the first time.

Source: 2023 on track to be world’s hottest year on record, temperatures exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for first time – ABC News