[✔️] June 26 , 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
👀 Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sat Jun 26 10:25:16 EDT 2021
/*June 26, 2021*/
[Ozone danger- Puget Sound Clean Air Agency]
June 24, 2021 3:09 PM
*Ozone alert for the Cascade foothills of King and Pierce counties from
Issaquah to the east*
Along with extreme temperatures this weekend, we are expecting high
levels of ozone pollution (smog) for the Cascade foothills of King and
Pierce counties from Issaquah to the east. North Bend and Enumclaw will
be particularly affected. Ozone levels are expected to reach the
UNHEALTHY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS Saturday through Monday (June 26-28) as
the region is under the influence of the extreme heat.
Ozone can trigger a variety of health problems including chest pain,
coughing, throat irritation, and congestion. It can also worsen
bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma.
In addition to the recommendations for extreme heat, sensitive groups
should take precautions, especially infants, children, people over 65,
those that are pregnant, have heart or lung diseases (such as asthma or
COPD), respiratory infections, diabetes, stroke survivors, and those
suffering from COVID-19.
• Stay indoors when possible. If you can’t stay cool at home or are
especially sensitive to ground-level ozone, it may be best to seek
shelter elsewhere.
• Limit your activity outdoors, such as running, bicycling, physical
labor, sports, or hobbies.
• If possible, close windows in your home to keep the indoor air clean.
If you have an air conditioner, use it in recirculation mode.
• If you do not have an air conditioner, consider finding a public place
with clean, air-conditioned indoor air like a mall, public library, or
community center. Call ahead to make sure they have air conditioning.
• Check with your health care provider for more specific health
questions and concerns. As always, seek medical attention if symptoms
are serious.
We expect the ground-level ozone pollution levels to come back down to
healthy levels as temperatures decline.
https://pscleanair.gov/AlertCenter.aspx?AID=Ozone-alert-for-the-Cascade-foothills-of-28
- -
[danger beyond heat - ozone]
*It's not just the heat, it's the ozone: Hidden heat wave dangers exposed*
Date: July 19, 2013
Source: University of York
Summary: During heat waves – when ozone production rises as plants’
ozone absorption is curtailed -- more pollution is left in the air. This
resulted in the loss of an estimated 460 lives in the UK in the hot
summer of 2006.
...during extreme heat, when ozone formation from traffic fumes,
industrial processes and other sources is at its worst.
"The most vulnerable people to ozone pollution are those with existing
respiratory and cardiovascular diseases," explains Dr Emberson. "For
example, ground-level ozone can lead to lung inflammation, decreased
lung function, and an increase in asthma attacks. That is why, during
high ozone episodes, especially in urban areas, people are generally
advised not to do physical activity."
The study findings were published this week in the peer-reviewed journal
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. The research was financed by the UK
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)...
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130719083912.htm
- -
[NYTimes July 2001]
*It's Not the Heat or the Humidity; It's the Ozone*
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/25/nyregion/it-s-not-the-heat-or-the-humidity-it-s-the-ozone.html
- -
[Harvard Gazette]
*The complex relationship between heat and ozone*
April 21, 2016
"High temperatures are also accompanied by weak winds, causing the
atmosphere to stagnate. So the air just cooks and ozone levels can build
up,” said Loretta J. Mickley, a co-author of the study.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/04/the-complex-relationship-between-heat-and-ozone/
- -
[EPA information]
*Ground-level Ozone Pollution*
Tropospheric, or ground level ozone, is not emitted directly into the
air, but is created by chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen
(NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC). This happens when pollutants
emitted by cars, power plants, industrial boilers, refineries, chemical
plants, and other sources chemically react in the presence of sunlight...
Ozone is most likely to reach unhealthy levels on hot sunny days in
urban environments, but can still reach high levels during colder
months. Ozone can also be transported long distances by wind, so even
rural areas can experience high ozone levels.
https://www.epa.gov/ground-level-ozone-pollution/ground-level-ozone-basics
- -
[Heat wave]
*Northwest U.S., British Columbia brace for historic, record-melting heat*
All-time record highs may be toppled in large cities and small towns alike
by BOB HENSON - JUNE 24, 2021
- -
It’s extremely unusual for the National Weather Service to predict three
or four days in advance that all-time records could be not only
approached but exceeded. Such is the projected intensity of this heat
wave and the resounding agreement among the world’s top forecast models...
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/06/northwest-u-s-british-columbia-brace-for-historic-record-melting-heat/
[Consider how ice melts]
JUNE 25, 2021
*Antarctic lake suddenly disappears*
by University of California - San Diego
A global team of scientists including several from Scripps Institution
of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego discovered the
sudden demise of a large, deep, ice-covered lake on the surface of an
Antarctic ice shelf.
This rare event, chronicled in a study published today in the journal
Geophysical Research Letters, occurred during the 2019 Antarctic winter
on Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica, and it is estimated that 600-750
million cubic meters (21-26 billion cubic feet) of water, about twice
the volume of San Diego Bay, were lost to the ocean.
Study authors used images from a radar satellite which can "see" during
the polar night to pin the event's timing down to a week or less in
June. After drainage, in place of the lake, there was a crater-like
depression in the ice shelf surface, covering about eleven square
kilometers (4.25 square miles). This surface depression, known as an ice
"doline," contained the fractured remains of the ice cover.
"We believe the weight of water accumulated in this deep lake opened a
fissure in the ice shelf beneath the lake, a process known as
hydrofracture, causing the water to drain away to the ocean below," said
study lead author Roland Warner, a glaciologist with the Australian
Antarctic Program Partnership at the University of Tasmania.
The hydrofracture process has been implicated in the collapse of smaller
ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula, where meltwater forms on the
surface of ice shelves during austral summer, but it is not often seen
driving through ice as thick as the 1400 meters (4,590 feet) at this
location on Amery Ice Shelf.
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-antarctic-lake-suddenly.html
- -
Geophysical Research Letters
*Rapid formation of an ice doline on Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica*
First published: 23 June 2021 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091095
Abstract
Surface meltwater accumulating on Antarctic ice shelves can drive
fractures through to the ocean and potentially cause their collapse,
leading to increased ice discharge from the continent. Implications of
increasing surface melt for future ice shelf stability are inadequately
understood. The southern Amery Ice Shelf has an extensive surface
hydrological system, and we present data from satellite imagery and
ICESat-2 showing a rapid surface disruption there in winter 2019,
covering ∼60 km2. We interpret this as an ice-covered lake draining
through the ice shelf, forming an ice doline with a central depression
reaching 80 m depth amidst over 36 m uplift. Flexural rebound modelling
suggests 0.75 km3 of water was lost. We observed transient refilling of
the doline the following summer with rapid incision of a narrow
meltwater channel (20 m wide and 6 m deep). This study demonstrates how
high-resolution geodetic measurements can explore critical fine-scale
ice shelf processes.
*Plain Language Summary*
Surface melting over Antarctica's floating ice shelves is predicted to
increase significantly during coming decades, but the implications for
their stability are unknown. The Antarctic Peninsula has already seen
meltwater driven ice shelf collapses. We are still learning how
meltwater forms, flows and alters the surface, and that rapid
water-driven changes are not limited to summer. We present
high-resolution satellite data (imagery and altimetry) showing an abrupt
change on East Antarctica's Amery Ice Shelf in June 2019 (midwinter).
Meltwater stored in a deep, ice-covered lake drained through to the
ocean below, leaving a deep, uneven 11 km2 depression of fractured ice
(a “doline”) in the ice shelf surface. The reduced load on the floating
ice shelf resulted in flexure, with over 36 m of uplift centered on the
former lake. Simple flexure modeling showed that this corresponds to
about 0.75 km3 of water being lost to the ocean. ICESat-2 observations
in summer 2020 profiled a new narrow channel inside the doline as
meltwater started refilling it from a new lake created by the flexure.
ICESat-2's capacity to observe surface processes at small spatial scales
greatly improves our ability to model them, ultimately improving the
accuracy of our projections.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020GL091095
[New UN paper- video news report]
*A UN report details 30 devastating years of climate change ahead*
Jun 24, 2021
CGTN America
A leaked UN draft report warns of more widespread disease, unliveable
temperatures, rising seas, and other devastating impacts of climate
change that will be felt over the next 30 years. Environmental Analysis
professor Char Miller discusses the devastating significance of the
report and what happens next.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARlrlKfjCOc
[CNBC] SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
*‘Time is running out’: Planet on course to hit a critical temperature
limit soon*
-- That 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level is the lower
target of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement.
-- The climate accord is widely recognized as critically important to
avoid an irreversible climate crisis.
-- In 2020 — one of the three hottest years on record — the global
average temperature was 1.2 °C above the pre-industrial baseline.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/27/time-is-running-out-planet-set-to-hit-critical-temperature-limit-soon.html
[video interveiw - legal action before the building crash]
*Attorney for residents of Florida building says there were complaints
before collapse*
Jun 25, 2021
NewsNation Now
Watch NewsNation for unbiased national and international news. Get the
latest news 24/7 at newsnationnow.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKB2XDWnL0w
- -
[it can be said now.]
*Before condo collapse, rising seas have long pressured Miami coastal
properties*
Authorities and scientists say it’s too soon to say whether rising seas
played a role in the fall of Champlain Towers South
The 12-story condo tower that crashed down early Thursday near Miami
Beach was built on reclaimed wetlands and is perched on a barrier island
facing an ocean that has risen about a foot in the past century due to
climate change.
Underneath its foundation, as with Miami Beach, is sand and organic fill
— over a plateau of porous limestone — brought in from the bay after the
mangroves were deforested. The fill sinks naturally and the subsidence
worsens as the water table rises.
Investigators are just beginning to try to unravel what caused the
Champlain Towers South to collapse into a heap of rubble and leave 99
people missing. Experts on sea level rise and climate change caution
that it is too soon to speculate if rising seas helped destabilize the
oceanfront condo. The 40-year-old building was relatively new compared
with others on its stretch of beach in the town of Surfside.
But it’s already clear that South Florida has been on the front lines of
sea level rise and that the impacts of climate change on the
infrastructure of the region — from septic systems to aquifers to
shoreline erosion — will be a management problem for years to come...
- -
Miami and nearby beach communities have experienced substantial sea
level rise, up to 12 inches over the past century, according to some
estimates.
That includes nearly six inches since the mid-1990s, according to a
Capital Weather Gang analysis of federal data. That has led to a 320
percent jump in nuisance flooding in the area over the last 23 years...
- -
The porous limestone underneath Miami allows the rising seas to filter
up through the ground, causing flooding during high tides even on sunny
days. The groundwater surge threatens freshwater supplies and septic
systems, which are already failing in Miami-Dade County.
The mix of swelling groundwater and tidal cycles juiced by climate
change mean coastal buildings and their concrete foundations spend more
time in water than they did in the past, said Albert Slap, the chief
executive of RiskFootprint, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that
assesses buildings’ vulnerability to hazards such as storm surge and
flooding....
- -
Slap noted that many coastal structures built on sand that have
underground parking lots already rely on around-the-clock sump pumps to
keep out groundwater.
“The groundwater enters the pores of the concrete and ultimately weakens
it and erodes it,” he said. “So the foundations are subject to a lot of
geological forces that could compact the soil underneath; it could cause
voids. We just don’t know.”
Video from the scene of the collapse showed rescue workers in the
basement parking garage working in knee-deep water, although the source
of that water was unclear.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/06/25/rising-sea-levels-condo-collapse/
- -
[article from 2018]
*Miami is racing against time to keep up with sea-level rise*
By KEVIN LORIA | April 12, 2018
-- Miami and Miami Beach already struggle with serious flooding related
to sea-level rise — even when there is no rain.
-- The ground under the cities of South Florida is largely porous
limestone, which means water will eventually rise up through it.
-- The cities are taking flood-control measures like installing pumps,
raising roads, and restoring wetlands.
-- Coastal cities around the world face similar problems.
- -
And while there is much that Florida can learn from these other places,
no one has answers to looming threats like water rising through the
ground underneath. “The solutions that are going to be used to save
cities like Miami Beach probably haven’t been developed yet,” Mowry said...
https://www.businessinsider.com/miami-floods-sea-level-rise-solutions-2018-4
[Meanwhile - the courts are back to paying attention]
*Exxon must face Massachusetts lawsuit alleging climate change deceit*
June 23 (Reuters) -
https://www.reuters.com/business/exxon-must-face-massachusetts-lawsuit-alleging-climate-change-deceit-2021-06-23/
- -
[Boston Globe]
*Judge denies ExxonMobil requests to dismiss AG’s lawsuit*
Judge Karen F. Green refused to dismiss the case, which alleges
ExxonMobil misrepresented important facts about climate change,
exaggerated the supposed environmental benefits of some of its products,
and downplayed financial risks to the company, according to court filings.
Healey said that Green’s “rulings represent a significant step forward
for my office’s work to hold Exxon accountable for lying to
Massachusetts consumers about the climate harms of using its fossil fuel
products and to Massachusetts investors about the negative impact of
climate change on the value of its business.”
- -
ExxonMobil officials also recognized decades ago that reducing emissions
would require “sharply curtailing the use of fossil fuels,” she said.
Healey also alleged the company has hidden from investors its own
knowledge of the risk climate change has posed to the global economy and
its fossil fuel business.
Citing internal documents from 1980, Healey alleged that an expert
retained by ExxonMobil presented findings that the projected rise in
global temperatures from using fossil fuels would have “major economic
consequences” and “bring world economic growth to a halt.”
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/23/metro/judge-denies-exxonmobil-requests-dismiss-ags-lawsuit/
[The news archive - looking back]
*On this day in the history of global warming June 26, 2015*
The New York Times reports:
"From the Arabian Peninsula to northern India to California’s Central
Valley, nearly a third of the world’s 37 largest aquifers are being
drained faster than they are being replenished, according to a recent
study led by scientists at the University of California, Irvine. The
aquifers are concentrated in food-producing regions that support up to
two billion people."
*World’s Aquifers Losing Replenishment Race, Researchers Say*
By Felicity Barringer
June 25, 2015
From the Arabian Peninsula to northern India to California’s
Central Valley, nearly a third of the world’s 37 largest aquifers
are being drained faster than they are being replenished, according
to a recent study led by scientists at the University of California,
Irvine. The aquifers are concentrated in food-producing regions that
support up to two billion people.
A companion study indicates that the total amount of water in the
aquifers, and how long it will last at current depletion rates, is
still uncertain. “In most cases, we do not know how much groundwater
exists in storage” to cover unsustainable pumping, the study said.
Historical estimates, it argues, probably have unrealistically
overstated total groundwater volume.
“We’re depleting one third or more of the world’s major aquifers at
a pretty rapid clip,” said Jay S. Famiglietti, a professor of earth
system science at the University of California, Irvine, and a
leading researcher for the two studies. “And there’s not as much
water there as we think.”
Dr. Famiglietti and his colleagues found that eight to 11 of 37
major world aquifers are overstressed, meaning they are losing much
more water than man or nature returns to them.
The new studies do not come as a surprise to hydrologists like Jerad
Bales, chief scientist for water at the United States Geological
Survey. But for him and other experts, an open question is whether
the governments and individuals who control groundwater can or will
work to gain more knowledge about the extent of the resource and how
much use is sustainable.
Another question is whether those with responsibility for managing
the aquifers will act to limit groundwater use, particularly if
groundwater is essential to their livelihoods.
“We still have a ways to go in terms of learning how, and having the
willpower, to manage our groundwater systems,” Dr. Bales said. “We
need to think about it more. Water — people all over the world
think, ‘If it’s under my property, it’s my resource.’ But it affects
everybody.”
Pradeep Aggarwal, who leads the isotope hydrology division of the
International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said in an interview
that there was growing recognition of the extent of groundwater
depletion but that the problem remains “an orphan.”
Your Contribution to the California Drought
The average American consumes more than 300 gallons of California
water each week by eating food that was produced there.
“Unless the government has an alternative to provide for their
livelihoods, who is going to stop it?” Dr. Aggarwal said.
A farmer, he added, will figure that “my livelihood depends on
pumping that water — if I stop pumping it, my neighbor keeps pumping
it.” The problem of groundwater depletion, he said, cannot be solved
by individuals. “This requires action on a larger scale,” Dr.
Aggarwal said.
The stress on the most-used groundwater, measured over broad
geographies by a NASA satellite that has provided 13 years of data,
is a matter of real concern because, as the study said, “groundwater
is currently the primary source of freshwater for approximately two
billion people.”
Another scientist, Marc Bierkens, who holds a chair in earth surface
hydrology at the Department of Physical Geography at Utrecht
University in the Netherlands, estimated that about 20 percent of
the world’s population depended on crops irrigated by groundwater.
In 2012, he published a study in the journal Nature that pointed to
the same groundwater overuse reflected in the NASA data.
“Humans are overexploiting groundwater in many large aquifers that
are critical to agriculture, especially in Asia and North America,”
the Bierkens study said.
Details about individual aquifers are hard to come by. The data from
NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace)
satellites cannot show a level of detail below 150,000 square
kilometers.
Dr. Famiglietti, who is also senior water scientist at NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, said that for the managers who have some
control over the use of aquifers, the data from Grace is “too
coarse” to provide useful data for local decisions. “They are
waiting for us to do the research — we call it downscaling it to a
resolution they can use, that makes it actionable for them,” he said.
The volume of water in 11 of the 37 aquifers studied has declined
over more than a decade, according to the study, which was just
published in the journal Water Resources Research.
The researchers looked at what appeared to be the loss of
groundwater in the aquifers — many of the most stressed are in arid
or semiarid regions — and examined how the water has been used,
whether for irrigation, supplying the daily needs of large
populations or for industrial purposes.
“Quantifying our understanding of how we use water in the world is
very important, especially when the resource becomes limited,” Dr.
Famiglietti said. “It’s important to understand where the big users
are because that is key to affecting management in the future.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/26/science/worlds-aquifers-losing-replenishment-race-researchers-say.html
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