[✔️] July 7, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
👀 Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Jul 7 09:38:42 EDT 2021
/*July 7, 2021*/
[Start preparing]
*Another intense heat wave to roast Western U.S., southwest Canada*
Temperatures 20 degrees above normal could bring record-challenging heat
to the West once again
Now, southwest Canada and much of the western United States are bracing
for another bout of exceptional heat amid a pattern that could once
again place records in jeopardy. Death Valley, Calif., might spike to
130 degrees.
Temperatures up to 25 degrees above average could dominate most of the
West this weekend into next week, with little relief in sight for quite
some time. Odds favor anomalously hot and dry conditions to prevail into
the fall.
On Tuesday, weather models were hinting that a building ridge of high
pressure over the West, colloquially known as a summertime “heat dome,”
would become established over the Four Corners region later in the week.
By Saturday, it will be reinforced by a secondary such system passing
through west central Canada, the two systems’ synergy resulting in
widespread unusual to record temperatures...
- -
Drought, spurred in large part by the rising temperatures, is playing a
role too. The parched landscape and ceaselessly dry conditions
desiccating the West have made it easier for temperatures to overachieve
too. That in turn evaporates more moisture from the environment, leading
to a seemingly inescapable cycle.
It also portends a potentially devastating wildfire season ahead.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/07/06/california-west-heat-wave/
[breaking records every month]
*Analysts dissect historic Pacific Northwest ‘heat dome’*
Jul 6, 2021
YaleClimateConnections
Record-breaking consecutive 100-degree-plus days left the region
staggering: Experts explain the phenomenon and prospects for more of
the same in coming years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkOlUZr1tNY
[important philosophical discussion of climate change]
*Martin Bunzl | Thinking While Walking*
July 6, 2021
Nick Breeze
Visit the main site at https://genn.cc
In this episode, I speak to the philosopher, Martin Bunzl, about his new
book, Thinking While Walking, Reflections on the Pacific Crest Trail.
As Martin traverses the 2650 mile trail from the Mexican-US border to
the US-Canada border, questions emerge around our own relationship with
what we call the natural world.
If humanity has curated the landscape for thousands of years, both
for-profit and pleasure, what are the impasses and delusions that we are
to face in solving the huge ecological and climate problems that
currently block our road to the future?
These ideas have been discussed before in terms of man versus nature but
Martin gives concrete examples of where our romantic view of nature has
already shaped the world around us.
Thinking While Walking is a fascinating book that considers many of the
entrenched positions that many of us hold when we think or speak about
action on climate change.
Thank you for listening to Shaping The Future. There are many more
episodes on the way, so please consider subscribing via our podcast or
Youtube channels. You can also support my work by backing it at
patreon.com/genncc.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro by Nick Breeze
01:21 Role of philosophy in responding to climate challenges.
05:00 Tension between stemming energy and stemming population among
global poorest.
07:00 Our relationship with nature. “We forget that human beings
started changing nature at least ten thousand years before the
Christian era.”
11:20 Manmade versus nature-based solutions.
13:50 We need to remove 8 billion tonnes of CO2 for every part per
million of carbon dioxide that we want to remove from the atmosphere.
16:15 Does the precautionary principle as a term oversimplify the
reality of the climate predicament or is it an apt term given there
are so many vulnerable people?
20:30 Manmade interventions that create winners and losers.
25:40: Genetical engineering for greenhouse gas removal that could
see 40% of our emissions removed by agriculture. Is the potential
risk too unpalatable?
31:02 Are we saving the world or creating an idea of nature that
fits our anthropocentric interest?
Visit the main site at https://genn.cc
More on https://climateseries.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4e2hdEp96w
[thanks DM - great article ]
*Wildlife, air quality at risk as Great Salt Lake nears low*
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST - July 5, 2012
- -
The lake’s levels are expected to hit a 170-year low this year. It comes
as the drought has the U.S. West bracing for a brutal wildfire season
and coping with already low reservoirs. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a
Republican, has begged people to cut back on lawn watering and “pray for
rain.”
For the Great Salt Lake, though, it is only the latest challenge. People
for years have been diverting water from rivers that flow into the lake
to water crops and supply homes. Because the lake is shallow — about 35
feet (11 meters) at its deepest point — less water quickly translates to
receding shorelines.
The water that remains stretches across a chunk of northern Utah, with
highways on one end and remote land on the other. A resort — long since
closed — once drew sunbathers who would float like corks in the extra
salty waters. Picnic tables once a quick stroll from the shore are now a
10-minute walk away...
- -
The waves have been replaced by dry, gravelly lakebed that’s grown to
750 square miles (1,942 square kilometers). Winds can whip up dust from
the dry lakebed that is laced with naturally occurring arsenic, said
Kevin Perry, a University of Utah atmospheric scientist.
It blows through a region that already has some of the dirtiest
wintertime air in the country because of seasonal geographic conditions
that trap pollution between the mountains...
- -
Perry warns of what happened at California’s Owens Lake, which was
pumped dry to feed thirsty Los Angeles and created a dust bowl that cost
millions of dollars to tamp down. The Great Salt Lake is much larger and
closer to a populated area, Perry said.
Luckily, much of the bed of Utah’s giant lake has a crust that makes it
tougher for dust to blow. Perry is researching how long the protective
crust will last and how dangerous the soil’s arsenic might be to people...
- -
But the falling lake levels have exposed a land bridge to the island,
allowing foxes and coyotes to come across and hunt for rodents and other
food. The activity frightens the shy birds accustomed to a quiet place
to raise their young, so they flee the nests, leaving the eggs and baby
birds to be eaten by gulls.
Pelicans aren’t the only birds dependent on the lake. It’s a stopover
for many species to feed on their journey south.
A study from Utah State University says that to maintain lake levels,
diverting water from rivers that flow into it would have to decrease by
30%. But for the state with the nation’s fastest-growing population,
addressing the problem will require a major shift in how water is
allocated and perceptions of the lake, which has a strong odor in some
places caused treated wastewater and is home to billions of brine flies.
“There’s a lot of people who believe that every drop that goes into the
Great Salt Lake is wasted,” Perry said. “That’s the perspective I’m
trying to change. The lake has needs, too. And they’re not being met.”
https://apnews.com/article/great-salt-lake-air-quality-lakes-wildlife-lifestyle-1adae582035c7f1b03f2a5cb57c0dda8
- -
[see the video]
*VIDEO: Drought could drop Great Salt Lake to historic low*
https://apnews.com/article/videos-519688467650
[popular video commentary]
*Global decarbonisation : Lies, damn lies, and statistics?*
Jul 4, 2021
Just Have a Think
-
Decarbonisation is the only way out of our climate emergency. The
quicker we do it the less damage we will incur. But just about every
mainstream agency and organisation around the world is advising
policymakers not to move too quickly away from fossil fuels for fear of
disrupting economies and societies. The real world statistics tell a
very different story though, and now new research is suggesting we
should actually be far bolder in our move towards renewable power.
-
Video Transcripts available at our website
http://www.justhaveathink.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Lz1IACBf0
https://www.justhaveathink.com/decarbonisation-deception/
[video summary of climate news]
*Does climate action (or inaction) have bipartisan support?*
Jul 5, 2021
Beckisphere
Hey y'all! Let's keep the conversation going in the comment section
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ba5DZFrwuM
[Read of the here and now]
*Climate Change Disaster Isn’t a Future Threat — It’s Already Here*
BY CHRIS SALTMARSH
From the historic heat wave tearing through the Pacific Northwest to
temperatures "too hot for humanity" in Pakistan, the consequences of
climate change are no longer a far-off threat — they're here right now.
ish Columbia, Canada, reaches so far into the north of our globe that I
once saw the northern lights close to its border with the Yukon.
Canada’s geography perhaps makes it all the more stark that its recent
heat wave has seen approximately three hundred excess deaths amid
temperature highs of 49.5°C (121.3°F).
Many of the dead were elderly and living alone in unventilated homes.
Shocking moments like this, now a more than annual occurrence, can jolt
us into a renewed sense of urgency to do something about climate change.
Undoubtedly, Canada’s heat wave has garnered such attention in the
Global North because it is a major economy, predominantly
English-speaking, and largely white. We must not ignore the realities of
extreme heat in parts of the world even more vulnerable to climate
change’s impacts...
- -
In the Middle East earlier in June, countries reaching highs of 50°C
(122°F) included Oman, Kuwait, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. We
are on a trajectory where parts of the region will likely become
uninhabitable within our lifetimes, and even faster than expected.
This planetary crisis of extreme weather is not in the distant or even
near future. It is already here, and it will only intensify year after
year. Overall, we are not on track to reverse this trend — and we are
not prepared to live safely with its consequences...
- -
*The Green New Deal*
This context makes the recent surge in support among government,
corporations, and NGOs for decarbonization targets of “net-zero by 2050”
look pathetic. These targets reliably grab a cheap green headline, but,
more seriously, they expose their proponents’ shared ambivalence about
the scale and pace of action needed. Supporting net-zero 2050 is tacit
admission that you’re happy to let the death toll carry on rising while
delaying the elimination of emissions by three decades.
In 2019, Labour for a Green New Deal campaigned for the UK Labour Party
to adopt a target of zero emissions by 2030. The debate around that aim
focused on feasibility and implications for the UK, but our proposal to
decarbonize within just one decade was led principally by a commitment
to global justice. The UK has a responsibility to eliminate emissions
faster because of its disproportionate historic contributions: one
report puts the UK’s fair share of emissions reductions at 200 percent
by 2030. That’s cutting our own to zero while financing equivalent
reductions internationally.
- -
Are our emergency services well funded to respond to disasters? Do we
have robust health care systems prepared to expand capacity when
required? Do we have evacuation plans including safe conditions for
those displaced? Are there contingency plans for the distribution of
food during shortages? Have we invested in our buildings to withstand
storms or flooding and to cool during extreme heat? Do we have a
socialized insurance system capable of providing sufficient cover for
loss and damage to homes or businesses, regardless of cost? Do we have
employment rights fit for an era where work will be made impossible by
new conditions?
In too many places, the answer to most or all of these questions is a
resounding no. Capitalism prohibits action to effectively decarbonize
for the same reasons it limits investment in measures to live with the
consequences of climate change: short-term profits are more important
than safety and justice.
That’s why we cannot abide the false choice between mitigation and
adaptation. The same measures of transforming the economy by expanding
the public sector, increasing state capacity, mobilizing investment, and
promoting economic democracy give us the tools to decarbonize and adapt
at the same time, while meeting basic needs for all.
We should not accept from the ruling class a future where we live with
the extreme weather of climate change — but we must prepare to do so.
The Left and the climate movement should of course prioritize leveraging
the state to meet those needs through a Green New Deal, but we cannot
put all our eggs in the basket of political success. We need to prepare
for multiple possibilities, including that we do not capture state power
in the necessary timeframe, and the inevitability that capitalist states
will not step up to the mark at the eleventh hour.
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the beginnings of our capacity to
build networks of solidarity and mutual aid in our communities in
response to the state abdicating its social responsibilities during a
crisis. Such organizing must be made more resilient and long-lasting,
and always keep political transformation at the core of its mission. It
may well prove a more permanent feature of our efforts if we are to
defend ourselves from the extreme effects of climate change, and of the
cruelty of the rich.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/07/climate-change-extreme-heat-british-columbia-pakistan-madagascar-green-new-deal
[National Parks not immune]
JULY 3, 2021*
**Climate Change Is Driving Jarring Changes at Yellowstone National Park*
Temperatures are likely the warmest they’ve been in 800,000 years.
ADAM POPESCU
This story was originally published by Yale E360 and is reproduced here
as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
In 1872, when Yellowstone was designated as the first national park in
the United States, Congress decreed that it be “reserved and withdrawn
from settlement, occupancy, and sale and … set apart as a public park or
pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” Yet
today, Yellowstone—which stretches 3,472 square miles across Montana,
Wyoming and Idaho—is facing a threat that no national park designation
can protect against: rising temperatures.
Since 1950, the iconic park has experienced a host of changes caused by
human-driven global warming, including decreased snowpack, shorter
winters and longer summers, and a growing risk of wildfires. These
changes, as well as projected changes as the planet continues to warm
this century, are laid out in a just-released climate assessment that
was years in the making. The report examines the impacts of climate
change not only in the park, but also in the Greater Yellowstone
Ecosystem—an area 10 times the size of the park itself.
The climate assessment says that temperatures in the park are now as
high or higher as during any period in the last 20,000 years and are
very likely the warmest in the past 800,000 years. Since 1950,
Yellowstone has experienced an average temperature increase of 2.3
degrees Fahrenheit, with the most pronounced warming taking place at
elevations above 5,000 feet.
The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. NASA Earth Observatory map by Joshua
Stevens, using data from the National Park Service and the US Fish and
Wildlife Service
Today, the report says, Yellowstone’s spring thaw starts several weeks
sooner, and peak annual stream runoff is eight days earlier than in
1950. The region’s agricultural growing season is nearly two weeks
longer than it was 70 years ago. Since 1950, snowfall has declined in
the Greater Yellowstone Area in January and March by 53 percent and 43
percent respectively, and snowfall in September has virtually
disappeared, dropping by 96 percent. Annual snowfall has declined by
nearly two feet since 1950.
Because of steady warming, precipitation that once fell as snow now
increasingly comes as rain. Annual precipitation could increase by 9 to
15 percent by the end of the century, the assessment says. But with
snowpack decreasing and temperatures and evaporation increasing, future
conditions are expected to be drier, stressing vegetation and increasing
the risk of wildfires. Extreme weather is already more common, and
blazes like Yellowstone’s massive 1988 fires—which burned 800,000
acres—are a growing seasonal worry.
The assessment’s future projections are even bleaker. If heat-trapping
emissions are not reduced, towns and cities in the Greater Yellowstone
Area—including Bozeman, Montana and Jackson, Pinedale, and Cody,
Wyoming—could experience 40 to 60 more days per year when temperatures
exceed 90 degrees F. And under current greenhouse gas emissions
scenarios, temperatures in the Greater Yellowstone Area could increase
by 5 to 10 degrees F by 2100, causing upheaval in the ecosystem,
including shifts in forest composition.
At the heart of the issues facing the Greater Yellowstone Area is water,
and the report warns that communities around the park—including
ranchers, farmers, businesses and homeowners— must devise plans to deal
with the growing prospect of drought, declining snowpack and seasonal
shifts in water availability.
Some national parks in the American West may soon lose the natural
features they were named for.
“Climate is going to challenge our economies and the health of all
people who live here,” said Cathy Whitlock, a Montana State University
paleoclimatologist and co-author of the report. She hopes “to engage
residents and political leaders about local consequences and develop
lists of habitats most at-risk and the specific indicators of human
health that need to be studied,” like the connection between the
increase in wildfires and respiratory illness. Sounding the alarm isn’t
new, but the authors of the Yellowstone report hope their approach, and
the body of evidence presented, will convince those skeptical about
climate change to accept that it’s real and intensifying.
The report describes a scenario that is now all too common across the
American West and in the region’s renowned national parks, from Grand
Canyon in Arizona, to Zion in Utah, to Olympic in Washington state.
Record warming and extreme drought mean there is not enough fall and
winter moisture, leading to steadily declining mountain snowpack. Many
iconic venues may soon lose the very features they were named for. Most
striking is Glacier National Park in Montana, where, since the late 19th
century, the number of the park’s glaciers has declined from 150 to 26.
The remaining glaciers are expected to disappear this century.
Swaths of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado have suffered massive
die-offs of white pine and spruce as warming-related bark-beetle
infestations have killed an estimated 834 million trees across the
state. And in Yosemite National Park in California, the rate of warming
has doubled since 1950 to 3.4 degrees F per century. Yosemite is
experiencing 88 more frost-free days than it did in 1907. The park’s
snowpack is dwindling. Its remnant glaciers are fast disappearing. And
wildfires are becoming more common. In 2018, the park was closed for
several weeks because of dense smoke from a fire on its border. The
National Park Service says that temperatures could soar by 6.7 to 10.3
degrees F from 2000 to 2100, with profound impacts on the Yosemite
ecosystem.
Yellowstone River. Snowpack in the Yellowstone area is melting earlier,
leading to a decline in summer streamflows. Jacob W. Frank/National Park
Service
The Yellowstone assessment paints a detailed portrait of the past,
present and future impacts of climate-related changes.
“This is one of the first ecosystem-scale climate assessments of its
kind,” said co-author Charles Drimal, water program coordinator for the
Greater Yellowstone Coalition. “It sets a benchmark for how the climate
has changed since the 1950s and what we are likely to experience 40 to
60 years from now in terms of temperature, precipitation, stream flow,
growing season and snowpack.” Researchers from the US Geological Survey,
Montana State University and the University of Wyoming were the lead
scientists on the report.
The report’s study of snowpack and its link to water offer the biggest
takeaways for Westerners who might question how or why they’re impacted.
Rocky Mountain snowmelt provides between 60 to 80 percent of streamflow
in the West, and hotter temperatures mean reduced snowfall and less
water for cities as far afield as Los Angeles. For the millions of
people living in cities across the West, many of whom are reliant on
runoff from the snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, these trends jeopardize
already insufficient supplies. The dangers are starkly evident this
summer, as years of drought and soaring temperatures have left the West
facing a perilous wildfire season and water shortages, from Colorado to
California.
“All that snow becomes water that goes into the three major watersheds
of the West—some of it goes as far as L.A.—and that comes together in
the southern edge of Yellowstone National Park,” said Bryan Shuman, a
report co-author and geologist at the University of Wyoming. “Looking at
projections going forward, that snowpack disappears.”
The Yellowstone, Snake and Green rivers all have headwaters in the
Greater Yellowstone Area, feeding major tributaries for the Missouri,
Columbia and Colorado rivers that are vital for agriculture, recreation,
energy production and homes. Regional agriculture—potatoes, hay,
alfalfa—and cattle ranching depend on late-season irrigation, and less
snow and more rain equals less water in hot summer months.
“If you add just a few degrees, you fundamentally alter things,” says
one geologist.
Then there are the rapidly growing tourism and hospitality industries
that rely on Yellowstone’s world-class rivers and ski areas for angling
and black diamond runs. Fishing is now regularly restricted because of
high water temperatures that stress fish.
“Even mineral and energy resource extraction need to be part of this
discussion,” said Whitlock, referring to Wyoming’s oil and gas industry,
heavily reliant on large amounts of water. Industry may be the slowest
to evolve, but it’s among the most at-risk, she said.
- -
As the West experiences a growth surge, Cam Sholly, Yellowstone National
Park’s superintendent, writes in the report that “the strength of local
and regional economies” hangs in the balance if no steps are taken to
rein in global warming.
Said Whitlock of Montana State, “When you think about the temperature
curve that looks like a hockey stick, my parents pretty much lived on
the flat part of the curve, I’m on the base, and my grandkids are going
to be on the steep part. Our trajectory depends on what we do about
greenhouse gases now. By 2040, 2050, we can flatten the curve. But the
business-as-usual trajectory, 10 to 11 degrees of warming in Yellowstone
and much of the West—what we do in the next decade is critical.”
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2021/07/warming-climate-change-yellowstone-national-park/
[The news archive - looking back]
*On this day in the history of global warming July 7, 2010*
CNN reports on the exoneration of the climate scientists falsely accused
of fraud in late-2009.
London, England (CNN) -- An independent report released Wednesday
into the leaked "Climategate" e-mails found no evidence to question
the "rigor and honesty" of scientists involved.
The scandal fueled skepticism about the case for global warming just
weeks before world leaders met to agree a global deal on climate
change at a United Nations conference in Copenhagen last December.
The seven-month review, led by Muir Russell, found scientists at the
University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) did not
unduly influence reports detailing the scale of the threat of global
warming produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC).
"We went through this very carefully and we concluded that these
behaviors did not damage our judgment of the integrity, the honesty,
the rigor with which they had operated as scientists," Russell said.
The 160-page report did however find that the CRU scientists had
failed to display "the proper degree of openness" when it came to
dealing with public requests for information.
"They had not shown sufficient openness in the way in which they
responded to requests for information about what they were doing,
about the data that they were processing, about the stations that
they were analyzing, so on," he said.
In November 2009, the integrity of the CRU and its research were
called into question after the publication of more than 1,000
emails, dating back to 1996, to and from scientists employed there.
Particular attention focused on one e-mail from the unit's head,
Professor Phil Jones, which referred to a "trick" being used on data
submitted to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1999.
Jones wrote: "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in
the real temps to each series for the last 20 years ... to hide the
decline."...
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/07/07/climategate.email.review/
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