[TheClimate.Vote] October 4, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Richard Pauli richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Oct 4 11:10:08 EDT 2018


/October 4, 2018/

[Washington Post]
*Climate scientists are struggling to find the right words for very bad 
news 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/10/03/climate-scientists-are-struggling-find-right-words-very-bad-news/?utm_term=.e3b245e478be>*
A much-awaited report from the U.N.'s top climate science panel will 
show an enormous gap between where we are and where we need to be to 
prevent dangerous levels of warming.
VHris Mooney and Brady Dennis - October 3
In Incheon, South Korea, this week, representatives of over 130 
countries and about 50 scientists have packed into a large conference 
center going over every line of an all-important report: What chance 
does the planet have of keeping climate change to a moderate, 
controllable level?

When they can't agree, they form "contact groups" outside the hall, 
trying to strike an agreement and move the process along. They are 
trying to reach consensus on what it would mean -- and what it would 
take -- to limit the warming of the planet to just 1.5 degrees Celsius, 
or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, when 1 degree Celsius has already occurred 
and greenhouse gas emissions remain at record highs...
- - - -
"Half a degree doesn't sound like much til you put it in the right 
context," said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance 
and Sustainable Development. "It's 50 percent more than we have now."
The idea of letting warming approach 2 degrees Celsius increasingly 
seems disastrous in this context...
- - - -
An early draft (leaked and published by the website Climate Home News) 
suggests that future scenarios of a 1.5 C warming limit would require 
the massive deployment of technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the 
air and bury it below the ground. Such technologies do not exist at 
anything close to the scale that would be required.

"There are now very small number of pathways [to 1.5C] that don't 
involve carbon removal," said Jim Skea, chair of the IPCC's Working 
Group III and a professor at Imperial College London.
It's not clear how scientists can best give the world's governments this 
message -- or to what extent governments are up for hearing it.

An early leaked draft of the report said there was a "very high risk" 
that the world would warm more than 1.5 degrees. But a later draft, also 
leaked to Climate Home News, appeared to back off, instead saying that 
"there is no simple answer to the question of whether it is feasible to 
limit warming to 1.5 C . . . feasibility has multiple dimensions that 
need to be considered simultaneously and systematically."

None of this language is final. That's what this week in Incheon -- 
intended to get the report ready for an official release on Monday -- is 
all about.
"I think many people would be happy if we were further along than we 
are," the IPCC's Lynn said Wednesday morning in Incheon. "But in all the 
approval sessions that I've seen, I've seen five of them now, that has 
always been the case. It sort of gets there in the end."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/10/03/climate-scientists-are-struggling-find-right-words-very-bad-news/?utm_term=.e3b245e478be
- - - -
[draft report leaked]
*Leaked draft summary of UN special report on 1.5C climate goal - in 
full 
<http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/02/13/leaked-draft-summary-un-special-report-1-5c-climate-goal-full/>*
Read the draft summary for policymakers of the most important climate 
science report of the year, on the challenge of holding global warming 
to 1.5C
Climate Home News is one of the world's most trusted independent sources 
of climate politics news. Sign up for our newsletter 
<http://www.climatechangenews.com/newsletter-sign-up/>.
- - - - -
The draft report, which was publicly available on the US federal 
register over the past month, is open to review by experts and 
governments until 25 February on the IPCC website. Relevant studies 
published in journals by 15 May may be included in the final version and 
modify its conclusions.

After media reports on the summary in January, the IPCC released a 
statement.
Draft reports are provided to reviewers as working documents. They are 
not intended for public distribution, and must not be quoted or cited 
for the following reasons:

    - Firstly, the text can change substantially between the Second
    Order Draft and the final version once the report's authors have
    carefully considered every individual government and expert review
    comment. For instance, the First Order Draft of this report received
    12,895 comments from nearly 500 expert reviewers. Like any work in
    progress, it is important to respect the authors and give them the
    time and space to finish writing before making the work public.

    - Secondly, the Second Order Draft is based on scientific literature
    published or submitted for publication before 1 November 2017. Newly
    published scientific evidence highlighted by reviewers can still be
    taken into account between the Second Order Draft and the final
    version of the report, as long as it is accepted for publication in
    a journal before 15 May 2018.

Drafts of the report are, therefore, collective works in progress that 
do not necessarily represent the IPCC's final assessment of the state of 
knowledge.
The IPCC is committed to an open, robust and transparent assessment 
process. In each stage of review, the Working Groups actively seek the 
collaboration of researchers and practitioners across a broad range of 
expertise. As with the normal practice of peer review, this process is 
designed to make the report more accurate, comprehensive and objective.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/02/13/leaked-draft-summary-un-special-report-1-5c-climate-goal-full/


[study further]
*A warmer spring leads to less plant growth in summer 
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181003134507.htm>*
Date: October 3, 2018
Source: Vienna University of Technology
Summary: Due to climate change, springtime growth begins earlier each 
year. Up to now, it was thought that this phenomenon was slowing climate 
change. However, as evaluations of satellite data have now shown, the 
opposite is the case.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181003134507.htm


[Paul Beckwith video lecture 15 mins]
*Profound Climate Mayhem With NO Arctic Sea-Ice 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMra7pPFqmE>*
Paul Beckwith
Published on Oct 3, 2018
In a few years we face a world with NO Arctic sea-ice. Profound climate 
and weather changes will profoundly disrupt human societies, eg. severe 
global food shortages. In previous videos I discussed timeframes and 
trajectories for a zero sea-ice state, and a shift of the center-of-cold 
by 17 degrees latitude. Now, and next video I delve into heat capacity 
changes with spiking Arctic warming, magnified ocean waves bringing heat 
from depth, destabilizing Greenlands glaciers; also wind reversals, 
monsoon effects, and bubbling methane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMra7pPFqmE


[Desert flooding]
*Not Your Expected Climate Impact: Arizona Flooded by a Tropical Storm 
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/10/02/climate-impact-flooding-arizona-rosa/>*
By Ucilia Wang
As Tropical Storm Rosa rolls through Arizona, dousing desert towns with 
heavy rains and filling reservoirs nearly depleted by a lengthy drought, 
the storm's arrival is also a message from the sky about the impact of 
climate change: it can produce weird weather that in ancient times might 
have been attributed to angry gods.
Now, however, the unusual sight of flooded streets in Arizona can be 
explained by science.
"There's a climate change component to it and we can say that with 
confidence," said Kevin Trenberth, senior scientist at the National 
Center for Atmospheric Research.

Global warming has raised ocean temperatures and warmed the air above 
it, supercharging storms with moisture that they unleash in bigger 
rainfalls. Researchers now have enough data to connect the dots between 
increasing greenhouse gas emissions, greater moisture in the air and 
outsized rainstorms, Trenberth said.
*The air above the ocean can hold 4 percent more moisture for every 
degree Fahrenheit and scientists have found about 5-20 percent more 
moisture gathered in the air since the 1970s, T*renberth said. The 
result played out last month when Hurricane Florence doused parts of the 
Carolinas with 30 inches of rain.
"The main effects are the storms are more intense and last longer, and 
the rain is heavier. In Hurricane Florence, we have all three effects in 
play," he said...
- - --
"Hurricanes usually lose strength once they hit California. But the risk 
to the southern part of the state may increase a little bit because 
water is warmer, so hurricanes won't lose strength as quickly," 
Trenberth said.
One of the issues facing people in the path of these wetter hurricanes 
is that traditional home insurance does not cover damage from flooding, 
leaving people facing huge financial losses. Insurance experts have 
estimated that Hurricane Florence will produce insured losses of up to 
$5 billion. But according to risk modeling firm RMS, 70 percent of 
losses will be uninsured because much of the flooding happened inland, 
where people do not have flood coverage.
Florence sent tens of thousands of people into shelters across the 
Carolinas, causing major power outages and leading to the dozens of 
deaths, including 37 in North Carolina.
A computer model of Florence, based on data taken before it made 
landfall, showed that climate change was likely to boost its rainfall by 
50 percent.
Rosa began as a Category 4 hurricane but lost its power before it made 
landfall in Baja California, Mexico as a tropical storm on Monday night.
The rating system refers to wind speed and not rainfall, however, 
prompting debates over whether it can cause people to underestimate the 
true impact of a storm. Florence was downgraded from Category 4 to 
Category 1 before landfall, but the water it brought inflicted far more 
pain than the wind.
While Rosa wowed desert dwellers with rain, meteorologists pointed to 
another unusual phenomenon Tuesday: two Category 5 hurricanes 
simultaneously crossing the Pacific.

"Simultaneous Cat 5s are very rare, and this is the first time in the 
historical record that Cat 5s have existed simultaneously in the 
Northwest Pacific and Northeast Pacific," wrote Jeff Masters, co-founder 
of Weather Underground.
The rain unleashed by Rosa was creating rarely seen sights of flooded 
streets in Phoenix and other cities in central Arizona. The weather 
service said Phoenix, with 2.24 inches of rain on Tuesday, experienced 
the second wettest October day and the "ninth wettest day ever (so far)."
Flat and dry landscapes don't need much rain to create floods, Trenberth 
said, because the super dry soil of the Southwest doesn't soak up rain well.
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/10/02/climate-impact-flooding-arizona-rosa/


[Communicating Global Warming ]
*GUIDES Download Breakthrough's new short guide series. 
<https://www.breakthroughonline.org.au/guides>*
<https://www.breakthroughonline.org.au/guides>ABOUT A NEW WAY OF WORKING 
ON THE CLIMATE CRISIS
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average temperatures and ocean
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preindustrial temperatures & acidity). Safe climate restoration
https://www.breakthroughonline.org.au/guides


*This Day in Climate History - October 4, 2009 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/world/asia/04climate.html?_r=0> - 
from D.R. Tucker*
October 4, 2009: The New York Times reports on India's efforts to 
address climate change:

    "India's public stance on climate change is usually predictable --
    predictably obstinate and unwilling to compromise, at least
    according to many industrialized nations. But at the United Nations,
    India’s delegation toned down its usual criticisms of the
    industrialized world, presented new plans to reduce India’s
    emissions and sought to reposition the country, in the words of the
    environment minister, as a 'deal maker,' not a 'deal breaker.'"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/world/asia/04climate.html?_r=0


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