[✔️] April 17, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sat Apr 17 08:38:17 EDT 2021
/*April 17, 2021*/
[ultimatum opinion]
*‘This is it. If we don’t amp up, we’re goners’: the last chance to
confront the climate crisis?*
Jeff Goodell - Fri 16 Apr 2021...
Now, our luck is running out. The industrialized nations of the world
are dumping 34bn tons or so of carbon into the atmosphere every year,
which is roughly 10 times faster than Mother Nature ever did on her own,
even during past mass extinction events. As a result, global
temperatures have risen 1.2C since we began burning coal, and the past
seven years have been the warmest seven years on record. The Earth’s
temperature is rising faster today than at any time since the end of the
last ice age, 11,300 years ago. We are pushing ourselves out of a
Goldilocks climate and into something entirely different...
- -
As a recent paper in Nature pointed out: “On current trends, the
probability of staying below 2C of warming is only five percent.”
The great danger is not climate denial. The great danger is climate delay.
What’s needed is action now. As climate envoy John Kerry put it at the
World Sustainable Development Summit in February: “We have to now phase
out coal five times faster than we have been. We have to increase tree
cover five times faster than we have been. We have to ramp up renewable
energy six times faster than we are. We have to transition to [electric
vehicles] 22 times faster.”
Demanding action now will also require shutting down the international
financing schemes that support fossil fuels. China, Japan, and South
Korea all claim to be doing their part in making carbon reductions at
home, while at the same time they are financing 70,000 megawatts of coal
power in places like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia.
The goal of net-zero emissions is also problematic. “Net zero” is not
the same thing as zero. It means that carbon pollution is either
eliminated or offset by other processes that remove carbon from the
atmosphere, such as forests or machines that capture CO2. Some of these
offsets and technologies are more legit than others, opening the door to
scams that claim to eliminate more carbon than they do.
- -
If political leaders don’t take the climate crisis seriously now, with
all they know, with all they have been through already, will they ever?
“Climate advocates keep saying, ‘This is it, this is it, this is it,’ ”
warns Podesta. “But this really is it. If we don’t amp up and accelerate
the energy transformation in this decade, we’re goners – really goners.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/16/climate-crisis-last-chance-emergency
[Fleet of electric airplanes]
*Cold weather perfect to pioneer electric aviation says Finnair and
signs intention to purchase 20 battery planes*
The Swedish-developed 19-seater ES-19 electric aircraft for short-haul
routes could be ready for take-off with passengers by 2026.
ByThomas Nilsen - March 30, 2021
With zero-emissions, low-noise and possible to operate on 750-meter
runways, the first generation electric planes will be perfect for
commuter flights between small airports close to city centers. Such
airports are numerous in the Nordic countries.
In mid-March, Norwegian-based regional airliner Widerøe announced its
intention to be launch-operator of the Rolls-Royce and Tecnam developed
P-Volt passenger aircraft.
Now, Finland’s flag carrier Finnair says it has signed a letter of
interest with pioneering Swedish aviation company Heart Aerospace and
intends to buy up to 20 of its ES-19 battery-powered aircraft.
Heart Aerospace says it will deliver the first ES-19 certified for
commercial flights by 2026.
Finnair’s Head of Sustainability, Anne Larilahti says cold weather in
the Nordic region makes it a perfect place to pioneer electric aviation
technology.
“Our cold climate has an impact on batteries and operating a light
plane. If we know how to do it here, it’s easier to do it elsewhere,”
Larilahti says.
CEO and founder of Heart Aerospace, Anders Forslund, says it makes sense
to bring electric planes to the Nordic market first.
- -
Every airport will need a charger.
The ES-19 plane, currently under development, can be fully charged 1,000
times over its lifetime and the plane’s batteries will need to be topped
up every time they land.
Up north, battery-powered transportation is nothing new. Norway has for
years been leading the electrification of cars. Electric vehicles now
count for more than half of all new sales, and the charging
infrastructure in the northernmost regions assures for no range
limitations even mid-winter in minus 30 degrees Celsius.
The world’s northernmost battery-powered commercial bus routes are
operated in Luleå, Sweden and in northern Norway, even a whale-watching
cruise boat is hybrid-powered. Another will sail towards Svalbard to
serve tourism in a post-pandemic world.
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/travel/2021/03/cold-weather-perfect-pioneer-electric-aviation-says-finnair-and-signs-intention
[We're gonna need darker glasses]
*Whitest-ever paint could help cool heating Earth, study shows*
New paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat
into space, reducing need for air conditioning
Damian Carrington -- Environment editor -- 15 Apr 2021
The whitest-ever paint has been produced by academic researchers, with
the aim of boosting the cooling of buildings and tackling the climate
crisis.
The new paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared
heat through the atmosphere into space. In tests, it cooled surfaces by
4.5C below the ambient temperature, even in strong sunlight. The
researchers said the paint could be on the market in one or two years.
White-painted roofs have been used to cool buildings for centuries. As
global heating pushes temperatures up, the technique is also being used
on modern city buildings, such as in Ahmedabad in India and New York
City in the US.
Currently available reflective white paints are far better than dark
roofing materials, but only reflect 80-90% of sunlight and absorb UV
light. This means they cannot cool surfaces below ambient temperatures.
The new paint does this, leading to less need for air conditioning and
the carbon emissions they produce, which are rising rapidly.
“Our paint can help fight against global warming by helping to cool the
Earth – that’s the cool point,” said Prof Xiulin Ruan at Purdue
University in the US. “Producing the whitest white means the paint can
reflect the maximum amount of sunlight back to space.”...
- -
Three factors are responsible for the paint’s cooling performance.
First, barium sulphate was used as the pigment which, unlike
conventional titanium dioxide pigment, does not absorb UV light. Second,
a high concentration of pigment was used – 60%...
Third, the pigment particles were of varied size. The amount of light
scattered by a particle depends on its size, so using a range scatters
more of the light spectrum from the sun.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/15/whitest-ever-paint-could-help-cool-heating-earth-study-shows
[Beckwith lecture on mesoscale weather]
*Linking Mid-Latitude Extreme Weather Events to Arctic Amplification;
Complexities Abound: 1 of 2*
Apr 16, 2021
Paul Beckwith
One of the obvious consequences of abrupt climate system change is the
large increase we have experienced in the frequency, severity, and
duration of extreme weather events. In addition, these events are
happening in regions where they did not happen before, for example, we
have had large, previously unheard of snowfalls in some of the driest
deserts in the world.
The top down, elevator pitch that I have used for many years is based on
the fundamental physics of why the Jet Stream exists in the first place,
which is due to the cold Arctic - warmer lower latitudes temperature
difference creating a pressure difference driving the high altitude
winds (jet streams) along with the Coriolis force effects deflecting
winds to the right in the Northern Hemisphere. As the Arctic warms at
much greater rates than lower latitudes, the lower temperature gradient
(thus pressure gradient) means the jet streams must slow, and thus they
become much wavier in the North-South direction. Under the ridges of the
Jet stream waves (Rossby Waves) there is high pressure and heat that has
moved northward, while in the troughs of the waves cold dry air spills
southward. If the wave locations are persistent (blocked) we can get
long duration anomalously hot conditions under the ridges, and long
duration storms, torrential rainfall, and flooding in the troughs.
This explains why the tremendously rapid Arctic warming is leading to
increases in the frequency, severity, and duration of extreme weather
events, from a top-down viewpoint.
Bottom-up is more difficult, and the devil is always in the details. In
the latter section of my Part 1 video, and in all of my Part 2 video, I
discuss a new peer reviewed scientific paper called “How do
intermittency and simultaneous processes obfuscate the Arctic influence
on midlatitude winter extreme weather events?”.
Since extreme weather events are presently affecting billions of people
around the planet, getting at the details is vitally important, in fact
it was mentioned that there were 146 recent papers looking into the
details of these connections. There is a lot of complexity and
confusion, and the connections vary critically depending on the season,
for example late fall/early winter the lack of Arctic sea ice in the
Barent-Kara Sea, the Chuckhi-Beaufort Sea, and Baffin Bay have been
connected to extreme winter cold and snowfall in Eurasia, extreme
weather conditions in North America, etc... In late winter, the
Stratospheric Polar Vortex often radically undergoes Sudden
Stratospheric Warming, leading to large outbreaks of cold Arctic air
infiltrating into much lower latitudes in North America and Eurasia.
Clearly, we still have a lot to learn, but it seems impossible to me
that rapid Arctic changes can occur without having profound effects on
lower latitude weather extremes. I think these connections will become
more obvious and resolved as we get closer and closer to complete loss
of Arctic sea ice within the next few years.
Please donate to my blog http://paulbeckwith.net to support my research
and videos as I bring you the latest science connecting the dots on
abrupt climate system change and it’s consequences to humanity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0F4EGxyuyc
[big names, big brains - free video - worth hearing]
*Daniel Kahneman and Yuval Noah Harari: 'Global Trends Shaping Humankind'*
Apr 12, 2021
Yuval Noah Harari
Daniel Kahneman and Yuval Noah Harari in: 'Global Trends Shaping
Humankind', a conversation moderated by Kara Swisher.
This session was a part of the 2021 Nexus Online Summit, organized by
the American Friends of The Hebrew University.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yhg7NmTeVg
[Extinction Rebellion activism - contempt of court - video statement]
*'I am Acting out of Radical Love' | Stefania Morosi | Disobey the Dock
| Extinction Rebellion UK*
Apr 16, 2021
Extinction Rebellion
Livestreamed court video
here:https://twitter.com/XRebellionUK/status/1383069093054545927
Stefania Morosi, an XR Rebel in court today extending non-cooperation
at the City of London
- -
[Tweet]
Extinction Rebellion UK 🌍
@XRebellionUK
·
*BREAKING: Stefania Morosi, XR, has been arrested live-streaming from
City of London Magistrates' Court. * Stefania is a mother of two small
children, and is the 11th rebel to commit contempt of court. She is
likely to be sentenced to up to three weeks in prison. #ClimateAction
https://twitter.com/XRebellionUK/status/1383069093054545927
[Yale talks future planning]
*Sustainable Development on an Urbanizing Planet*
Apr 16, 2021
YaleUniversity
Human density has often been presented as a problem – from
mid-twentieth-century fears of a “population explosion” inhibiting
development, to contemporary alarm that urban growth is driving the
climate crisis. However, both historical and contemporary examples show
us that cities can be spaces of biodiversity and provisioning, places
where density mitigates sprawl and reduces carbon emissions. In any
search for “green” solutions to poverty, cities must play a large role.
The sixth Yale Development Dialogue focused on the features of cities
that are most conducive to sustainable development, and on those that
are not. Panelists: Sunil Amrith, Kate Brown, Edward Glaeser, and Rory
Stewart. Moderator: Catherine Cheney.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhDXG8haf8o
[an important new book by Julia Galef]
*The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
Hardcover – April 13, 2021*
by Julia Galef (Author)
"...an engaging and enlightening account from which we all can
benefit."—The Wall Street Journal
A better way to combat knee-jerk biases and make smarter decisions, from
Julia Galef, the acclaimed expert on rational decision-making.
When it comes to what we believe, humans see what they want to see. In
other words, we have what Julia Galef calls a "soldier" mindset. From
tribalism and wishful thinking, to rationalizing in our personal lives
and everything in between, we are driven to defend the ideas we most
want to believe—and shoot down those we don't.
But if we want to get things right more often, argues Galef, we should
train ourselves to have a "scout" mindset. Unlike the soldier, a scout's
goal isn't to defend one side over the other. It's to go out, survey the
territory, and come back with as accurate a map as possible. Regardless
of what they hope to be the case, above all, the scout wants to know
what's actually true.
In The Scout Mindset, Galef shows that what makes scouts better at
getting things right isn't that they're smarter or more knowledgeable
than everyone else. It's a handful of emotional skills, habits, and ways
of looking at the world—which anyone can learn. With fascinating
examples ranging from how to survive being stranded in the middle of the
ocean, to how Jeff Bezos avoids overconfidence, to how superforecasters
outperform CIA operatives, to Reddit threads and modern partisan
politics, Galef explores why our brains deceive us and what we can do to
change the way we think.
https://www.amazon.com/Scout-Mindset-Perils-Defensive-Thinking/dp/0735217556/ref=sr_1_2
- -
[videos with Julia Galef]
*Julia Galef Discusses Intellectual Honesty*
Sep 12, 2019
South Park Commons
Julia Galef visited South Park Commons on August 14 to share insights
from her upcoming book on intellectual honesty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_E9-7t8QMI
[already, globally cut]
*Climate change has cut food production by 20 percent*
This is how badly climate change has hurt food production
A new study shows more than a fifth of global food output growth has
been lost to climate change since the 1960s, while an estimated 34
million people live on the brink of famine.
Bloomberg.com, April, 2021
Climate change has been holding back food production for decades, with a
new study showing that about 21% of growth for agricultural output was
lost since the 1960s.
That’s equal to losing the last seven years of productivity growth,
according to research led by Cornell University and published in the
journal Nature Climate Change. The study was funded by a unit of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The revelation comes as the United Nations’ World Food Programme warns
of a “looming catastrophe” with about 34 million people globally on the
brink of famine. The group has cited climate change as a major factor
contributing to the sharp increase in hunger around the world. Food
inflation is also on the rise as farmers deal with the impact of extreme
weather at a time of robust demand.
This is the first study to look at how climate change has historically
affected agricultural production on a global scale, using econometrics
and climate models to figure out how much of the sector’s total
productivity has been affected, across crops and livestock.
The loss of productivity comes even as billions has been poured into
improving agricultural production through the development of new seeds,
sophisticated farm machinery and other technological advances.
“Even though globally agriculture is more productive, that greater
productivity on average doesn’t translate into more climate resilience,”
said Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, an author of the paper and associate professor
at Cornell’s Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.
The damages to productivity growth aren’t evenly spread across regions.
Warmer areas — especially those in the tropics — are more detrimentally
affected. Ortiz-Bobea said that coincides with many countries where
agriculture makes up a bigger share of the economy.
He was also warned that current research into improving production may
not enough consider the pace of climate change.
“I worry that we’re breeding or preparing ourselves for the climate
we’re in now, not what is coming up in the next couple of decades.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/4/2/this-is-how-badly-climate-change-has-hurt-food-production
[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - April 17, 2008 *
• Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection releases a commercial
featuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, and former House
Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican, calling for a bipartisan effort to
address human-caused climate change. Gingrich is rhetorically flogged by
right-wing bloggers for participating in the commercial, and later
disavows it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi6n_-wB154
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1COYhkzEXPI
• TIME magazine releases its April 28, 2008 issue, with the cover story:
"How to Win the War on Global Warming."
http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20080428,00.html
http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/printout/0,29239,1730759_1731383_1731363,00.html
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