The researchers investigated the overlap between socio-economic development and a range of climate change risks, to try to identify the vulnerability hotspots if the global mean temperature should rise by 1.5°C, 2°C or 3°C by 2050, compared with the pre-industrial baseline.
The researchers are from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the universities of Oxford (UK) and Washington (US).
They report in the journal Environmental Research Letters that they developed 14 impact indicators in three main sectors – water, energy, and food and environment. These indicators include a water stress index, water supply seasonality, clean cooking access, heat stress events, habitat degradation, and crop yield changes.
Category: Climate Change
A NASA program that cost $10 million per year to track carbon and methane, key greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, has been cancelled, a US space agency spokesman said Thursday.
The end of the program — called the Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) — which tracked sources and sinks for carbon and made high-resolution models of the planet’s flows of carbon — was first reported by the journal Science.
“Now, President Donald Trump’s administration has quietly killed the CMS,” the report said, describing the move as the latest in a “broad attack on climate science” mounted by the White House.
via Trump kills NASA program to Track Greenhouse Gases that cause Global Heating
Pell, the Vatican’s treasurer, has previously dismissed the science linking greenhouse gas emissions with climate change, calling it “hysteric and extreme claims” and “a symptom of pagan emptiness”.
His presence at the dinner is likely to raise eyebrows in the Vatican following Pope Francis’ declaration in 2015 that the science is “clear” and climate change is a “moral issue that must be addressed in order to protect the Earth”.
via Why George Pell dined with under-fire EPA’s Scott Pruitt in secret
On Alaska’s West Coast, the feeble April sun is shining this week on a fresh spot of open water. The sea ice found there for ages every spring is gone.
Ice in the Bering Sea, the narrow body of water between Russia and Alaska, has dropped to its lowest springtime level since at least 1850. In all that time, no other year has come close. After a winter filled with unusually high temperatures, sea ice now sits at less than 10 percent of what could previously be considered “normal”.
“We’ve fallen off a cliff,” said Rick Thoman, a climatologist at the National Weather Service in Alaska, in a tweet.
via The Bering Sea’s ice has never melted this early before | Grist
Recent science indicates that with leakage rates as little as 3 per cent, emissions from gas are no better than coal fired power stations.
Fugitive measurements in Australian gas fields are poorly regulated and are currently unknown.
In the US, emissions from unconventional gas mining range from 2 per cent to 17 per cent.
The NT government report acknowledges the problem and hopes piously “that the NT and Australian governments seek to ensure that there is no net increase in the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions emitted in Australia from any onshore shale gas produced in the NT”.
This hope remains unfulfilled in any Australian gas field.
The development of NT gas will inevitably cause an increase in Australia’s domestic emissions, as it did in Queensland.
France banned fracking in 2011. President Macron brings “Planet B” to Australia soon
When cold surface water no longer sinks into the depths, a deeper layer of warm ocean water can travel across the continental shelf and reach the bases of glaciers, retaining its heat as the cold waters remain above. This warmer water then rapidly melts the glaciers and the large floating ice shelves connected to them.
The climate wars between the major political parties have cost us a host of lost business and employment opportunities, even a global leadership role, and yet we drift on without an energy policy that might provide some relief to rising power costs and some strategy to meet our commitments to reduce emissions.
The government’s most recent policy, the National Electricity Guarantee (NEG), is the fourth most effective response, only being proposed after an emissions trading scheme, an emissions intensity scheme and Finkel’s clean energy target were sequentially rejected.
ECONOMIES BATTERED BY THE WEATHER
Tukuitonga told the gathering the South Pacific countries, through climate change alone, had been taking massive losses to annual gross domestic product (GDP) – 20-30% or more — due to the effects of extreme weather events, especially cyclones.
While they are among some of the world’s poorest in dollar terms, for a bad year like 2009-10, those countries would be losing overall some $10 billion.
More figures reeled off by Dr Tukuitonga set out the pattern of relentless bad news, against which he offered some patches of light in terms of actions being taken, or which might be taken, by governments and other interests.
1)Global surface temperatures during the three years from 2014 to 2016 – each hotter than the last – boosted the total level of global warming since 1900 by 25%, according to new research.
2)A separate study has confirmed that heat extremes, too, have outpaced the global average. Maximum temperatures during the hottest heat waves have in the last 30 years risen three times faster – especially in crowded cities that are home to more than 10 million – than average temperatures as a whole.
3)And a third study warns that unless the world’s nations start to reduce carbon emissions, then within the next 17 or 18 years, planetary temperatures will be at least 1.5°C above the world average for most of human history.
And 35 to 41 years from now, these temperatures will have climbed 2°C above the level that held before the Industrial Revolution, and the arrival of fossil fuels as a global energy source.
1)Oceans act as a sink for warmth, it takes them a long time to warm or cool through their sheer volume. In 2017 they were the warmest ever recorded.
2)2017 was the second or third warmest year recorded, depending on which dataset was used. Of significance, 2017, was the warmest year recorded without the influence of an El Nino event.
3)The Arctic sea ice extent and volume have continued to decrease, the lowest extent in September was the eighth lowest ever recorded. Volume has changed downward by about 80% since 1979.
4)Antarctic is being investigated quite profusely at present, its sea ice has been at low levels. The huge 5,698 square kilometre Larson C ice sheet broke clear in July 2017. A number of major ice sheets are considered to be at risk as grounding lines are moving shorewards.
via A Fragmented Review of Climate Change – » The Australian Independent Media Network
What the scientists found is that five of the bears lost weight and four of them lost 2.9 to 5.5 pounds (1.3 to 2.5 kilograms) per day. The average polar bear studied weighed about 386 pounds (175 kilograms). One bear lost 51 pounds (23 kilograms) in just nine days.
Trump’s tweet was “troll-like”, the scientist said, showing the president “delighting in sparking outrage among [his] opponents”.
With Tony Abbott and Ian Plimer’s global activism, Australia appears to fast becoming the home of worldwide climate science denialism. Graham Readfearn reports.
AUSTRALIANS HAVE been keeping the London-based climate science denial group the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) busy in recent weeks, writes Graham Readfearn.
After former Prime Minister Tony Abbott gave the group’s annual lecture in October, it was the turn of one of Australia’s longest-serving deniers to empty another bucket of bunkum.
Professor Ian Plimer, an Australian director of multiple mining companies, is featured in a new interview with the GWPF to promote his latest subtly titled denial tome: Climate Change Delusion and the Great Energy Rip-off.
When it comes to climate change science, Plimer can be placed very firmly in the file marked “denial
Ian Plimer follows up Tony Abbott’s climate science denialism act in London
At COP23, the International Energy Agency predicts U.S. oil production is expected to grow an an unparalleled rate in the coming years—even as the majority of scientists worldwide are saying countries need to cut down on fossil fuel extraction, not accelerate it. Meanwhile, a group of 15,000 scientists have come together to issue a dire “second notice” to humanity, 25 years after a group of scientists issued the “first notice” warning the world about climate change.
That this is the best we can do — indeed that this is a relative triumph for Mr. Turnbull — illustrates just how tangled Australia’s climate politics have become. The country has taken a long, hard look at every warning about the costs of delayed climate action and ignored them all. And, subsequently, it has paid for those costs through high energy prices and curtailed investment.
via Australia Has a Climate Change Lesson for the World – The New York Times
A documentary special reveals how climate change science has been under systematic attack; the multi-million dollar campaign allowed a climate change denier to be elected president (a new version with updated content and music)
Source: TRNN SPECIAL: Trump, The Koch Brothers and Their War on Climate Science
ReachTel poll finds majority in three Liberal-held seats support carbon pricing, and more ambitious renewable policy
In fact, given the patent inaccuracy of his remarks, it’s no surprise he had fly 10,000 miles to find an audience sufficiently receptive, or adequately ignorant of Australia’s climate record, to actually listen.
Source: Tony Abbott has lost touch with reality on climate change
Puerto Rico Quick Facts
- Petroleum products fuel transportation, electricity generation, and industry in Puerto Rico, supplying three-fourths 75% of the energy consumed in the commonwealth.
- In 2016, 47% of Puerto Rico’s electricity came from petroleum, 34% from natural gas, 17% from coal, and 2% from renewable energy.
The monster storm has crippled several islands, including Puerto Rico, as it roars across the Caribbean with extreme winds and storm surge. Check back on this post for the latest on the powerful hurri
Source: Live Updates: Puerto Rico Could Be Without Power For Up To Six Months Following Maria
‘Less of an opportunity to clear the mind,’ is the verdict from Bidyadanga, where winter highs of 33C were replaced by 36C as records tumbled across the country
“When you don’t want to see, you don’t see,” the pope says while flying over the hurricane-ravaged Caribbean.
Source: Pope Francis On Climate Change Denial: ‘Man Is Stupid’ | HuffPost
The president’s dismissal of scientific research is doing nothing to protect the livelihoods of ordinary Americans
Source: Irma and Harvey lay the costs of climate change denial at Trump’s door | World news | The Guardian
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump may be provoking a big exodus of Cuban-Americans in south …
Source: GOP Mayor of Miami to Trump: ‘If this isn’t Climate Change I don’t know what is’
Hurricane Irma pounded Cuba’s northern coast on Saturday and barrelled toward Florida as authorities scrambled to complete an unprecedented evacuation of millions of residents hours before the storm would engulf the state.
Source: Hurricane Irma closes in on Florida as millions flee
Destructive force of Irma and Harvey has Trump expressing awe, but those in power should focus on the environmental causes
Source: Twin megastorms have scientists fearing this may be the new normal | World news | The Guardian
Reuters quoted a market analyst as saying, “Imports can’t make up for this. . . This is going to be the worst thing the U.S. has seen in decades from an energy standpoint.”Not only is gasoline going to be more expensive as a result, but the pollution dangers from the damaged refineries are horrific.But guess what? Texas’s wind turbines weathered Harvey. Some were pushed to the max by its powerful winds, but they just went on making electricity! Turbines shut down if the wind is 55 mph or more, but most wind farms affected by Harvey were able to keep operating. One shut down because the electrical wires were knocked down, not because the turbines stopped working!. On an average day, Texas gets 20% of its electricity from wind. That only fell to 13% the day of Harvey’s landfall.
But guess what? Texas’s wind turbines weathered Harvey. Some were pushed to the max by its powerful winds, but they just went on making electricity! Turbines shut down if the wind is 55 mph or more, but most wind farms affected by Harvey were able to keep operating. One shut down because the electrical wires were knocked down, not because the turbines stopped working!. On an average day, Texas gets 20% of its electricity from wind. That only fell to 13% the day of Harvey’s landfall.
Source: Texas Wind turbines went right on Turning under Harvey’s impact, as Refineries Shut Down
Hurricane Harvey, now weakened to a tropical depression, has caused widespread devastation along the Texas coast, including record rainfall and flooding comparable to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. Relief efforts will be costly and take years, authorities say.
Source: ‘Worst flood ever’ hits Houston in wake of Hurricane Harvey — RT America
This is not an administration, it is a rogues gallery of environmental criminals.Want to know why we’re having a once in a 500 years storm and flood in Texas?Because of Trump and his buddies on the cabinet. They are creating a situation where Hurricane Harvey becomes the new normal.They should resign.
Source: The Criminals who amplified Harvey: Trump & Cabinet must Resign
This is no time to take the high moral ground.
Source: The Link Between Hurricane Harvey And Climate Change Is Easy To Explain
