[✔️] August 16, 2022 - Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
Richard at CredoandScreed.com
Tue Aug 16 09:22:22 EDT 2022
/*August 16, 2022*/
/[ DW news //- 24 min video report ]/
*Record drought poses serious threat to Europe's environment and
critical infrastructure | DW News*
Aug 16, 2022 Around much of the Northern Hemisphere, from Hungary to
Hawaii, from the drying Rhine River to the now-recovering Rio Grande, or
from Casablanca to California, summer droughts and high temperatures are
having a serious impact on everything from agriculture to the freight
industry.
A summer of record-breaking heat is drying up rivers across Europe.
Around half the continent is facing an unprecedented drought. Shipping
companies in Germany are preparing for the worst as the River Rhine
drops to critical levels. Authorities say many vessels will be unable to
navigate the key shipping route if the water drops much lower.
Scientists warn climate change is leading to even more frequent periods
of extreme heat and drought.
Nearly 660,000 hectares of European land have already been destroyed by
fires this year, according to EU data. The scale of the destruction this
year would be the worst since records began in 2006. If 2022 follows a
similar trajectory as 2017, Europe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eS4l40QKMA
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/[ easy-to-understand engineering video explanation ]/
*What Really Happened During the Yellowstone Park Flood?*
Aug 16, 2022 An overview of the 2022 Montana flooding and what's next
for Yellowstone National Park.
In June of 2022, many tourists and residents of the Yellowstone National
Park area found themselves at ground zero of a natural disaster.
Torrential rainfall in Wyoming and Montana brought widespread flooding
to the streams and rivers that flow through this treasured landscape and
beyond. How will the National Park Service Rebuild? Hasty engineering of
large infrastructure can be extremely damaging to natural systems like
those in Yellowstone, and you don’t want to invest millions of dollars
into repairs that might be subject to similar flooding in the future.
After all, we build parks (and roads to parks) to get closer to the
natural environment and all its wildness, and there’s almost nothing
more natural or wild than a flood.
Practical Engineering is a YouTube channel about infrastructure and the
human-made world around us. It is hosted, written, and produced by Grady
Hillhouse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH9r94NkZpE
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/[ difficult-to-understand how judgement fails us ]/
*Why Republicans Turned Against the Environment*
Aug. 15, 2022
OPINION PAUL KRUGMAN
- -
Most of the divergence is fairly recent, having taken place since around
2008. I can’t help pointing out that Republican belief that
environmental protection hurts the economy soared precisely during the
period when revolutionary technological progress in renewable energy was
making emissions reductions cheaper than ever before.
Republican voters may be taking their cues from politicians and media
figures. So why have conservative opinion leaders turned anti-environment?
It’s not about belief in free markets and opposition to government
intervention. One of the most striking aspects of recent energy disputes
is the extent to which Republicans have tried to use the power of the
state to promote polluting energy sources even when the private sector
prefers alternatives. The Trump administration tried, unsuccessfully, to
force electric utilities to keep burning coal even when other power
sources were cheaper. Currently, as The Times has reported, many
Republican state treasurers are trying to punish banks and other
companies seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- -
Even Republicans who have to know better won’t break with the party’s
anti-science position. As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney had a
decent environmental record; yet he joined every other Republican member
of Congress in voting against the I.R.A.
What this means is that those people hoping for bipartisan efforts on
climate are probably deluding themselves. Environmental protection is
now part of the culture war, and neither policy details nor rational
argument matters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/opinion/republicans-environment-climate.html
/[ BBC video from Australia ]/
*How 40 million Australian trees died of thirst - BBC News*
Aug 15, 2022 In 2015, about 10% of Australia's vast mangrove forests in
the Gulf of Carpentaria mysteriously died.
Scientists have now figured out the cause - and warn the forests may
struggle to recover in a changing climate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjxIWnUH0Fg
/[ never too late to attack a dilemma ]/
*For 110 years, climate change has been in the news. Are we finally
ready to listen?*
August 15, 2022
Linden Ashcroft - Lecturer in climate science and science communication,
The University of Melbourne
On August 14 1912, a small New Zealand newspaper published a short
article announcing global coal usage was affecting our planet’s temperature.
This piece from 110 years ago is now famous, shared across the internet
this time every year as one of the first pieces of climate science in
the media (even though it was actually a reprint of a piece published in
a New South Wales mining journal a month earlier).
https://images.theconversation.com/files/479049/original/file-20220814-56152-53xz8d.jpeg
So how did it come about? And why has it taken so long for the warnings
in the article to be heard – and acted on?
- -
This short 1912 article made the direct link between burning coal and
global temperature changes. The Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal,
National Library of Australia
The fundamental science has been understood for a long time
American scientist and women’s rights campaigner Eunice Foote is now
widely credited as being the first person to demonstrate the greenhouse
effect back in 1856, several years before United Kingdom researcher John
Tyndall published similar results.
Her rudimentary experiments showed carbon dioxide and water vapour can
absorb heat, which, scaled up, can affect the temperature of the earth.
We’ve therefore known about the relationship between greenhouse gases
and Earth’s temperature for at least 150 years.
Four decades later, Swedish scientist Svente Arrhenius did some basic
calculations to estimate how much the Earth’s temperature would change
if we doubled the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere. At the time, the CO₂
levels were around 295 parts per million molecules of air. This year,
we’ve hit 421 parts per million – more than 50% higher than
pre-industrial times.
Arrhenius estimated doubling CO₂ would produce a world 5℃ hotter. This,
thankfully, is higher than modern calculations but not too far off,
considering he wasn’t using a sophisticated computer model! At the time,
the Swede was more worried about moving into a new ice age than global
warming, but by the 1900s he was startling his classes with news the
world was slowly warming due to the burning of coal.
- -
Climate science began on the fringe
The 1912 New Zealand snippet was likely based on a four-page spread from
Popular Mechanics magazine, which drew from the work of Arrhenius and
others.
When climate advocates point to articles like this and say we knew about
climate change, this overlooks the fact Arrhenius’ ideas were generally
considered fringe, meaning not many people took them seriously. In fact,
there was backlash about how efficient carbon dioxide actually was as a
greenhouse gas.
When the first world war began, the topic lost momentum. Oil began its
rise, pushing aside promising technologies such as electric cars – which
in 1900 had a third of the fledgling US car market – in favour of
fossil-fuel technological developments and military goals. The idea
humans could affect the whole planet remained on the fringe.
The Callendar Effect
It wasn’t until the 1930s that human-induced climate change resurfaced.
UK engineer Guy Callendar put together weather observations from around
the world and found temperatures had already increased.
Not only was Callendar the first to clearly identify a warming trend and
connect it to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, he also teased
apart the importance of CO₂ compared to water vapour, another potent
greenhouse gas.
Guy Callendar’s 1938 results compared to recent global temperature trend
calculations, as published in the latest IPCC assessment report. IPCC
AR6 WG1
Just like the 1912 article, Callendar also underestimated the rate of
warming we would see in the 80 years after his first results. He
predicted the world would be only 0.39℃ hotter by the year 2000, rather
than the 1℃ we observed. However it did get the attention of
researchers, sparking intense scientific debate.
But at the end of the 1930s, the world went to war once more.
Callendar’s discoveries swiftly took a backseat to battles, and rebuilding.
Fresh hope scuttled by merchants of doubt
In 1957, scientists began the International Geophysical Year – an
intense investigation of the Earth and its poles and atmosphere. This
saw the creation of the atmospheric monitoring stations tracking our
steady increase in human-caused greenhouse gases. At the same time, oil
companies were becoming aware of the impact their business was having on
the Earth.
During these post-war decades, there was little political polarisation
over climate. Margaret Thatcher – hardly a raging leftie – saw global
warming as a clear threat during her time as UK Prime Minister. In 1988,
NASA scientist James Hansen gave his now famous address to the US
Congress claiming global warming had already arrived.
- -
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa observatory has kept track of carbon dioxide levels
since 1958, the longest observational record of greenhouse gases. Getty
Momentum was growing. Many conservationists were encouraged by the
Montreal Protocol, which more or less halted the use of ozone-depleting
substances to tackle the growing hole in the ozone layer. Surely we
could do the same to stop climate change?
As we now know, we didn’t. Phasing out a class of chemicals was one
thing. But to wean ourselves off the fossil fuels on which the modern
world was built? Much harder.
Climate change became politicised, with conservative pro-business
parties around the world adopting climate scepticism. Global media
coverage often included a sceptic in the interests of “balance”. This,
in turn, made many people believe the jury was still out – when the
science was becoming ever more certain and alarming.
With this scepticism came delays. The 1992 Kyoto Protocol aimed at
reducing greenhouse gases took until 2005 to be ratified. Science — and
scientists themselves — came under attack. Soon a vicious tussle was
underway, with loud voices – often funded by fossil fuel interests –
questioning overwhelming scientific evidence.
Sadly for us, these noisy efforts worked to slow action. People refusing
to accept the science bought the fossil fuel industry at least another
decade , even as climate change continued to increase, with supercharged
natural disasters and intensifying heatwaves.
Read more: Communicating climate change has never been so important, and
this IPCC report pulls no punches
The best time to act was 1912. The next best time is now
After decades of setbacks, climate science and social movements are now
louder than ever in calling for strong and meaningful action.
The science is beyond doubt. While the first Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change report in 1990 stated global warming “could be largely
due to natural variability”, the latest from 2021 states humans have
“unequivocally […] warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land”.
We’ve even seen a welcome change in previously sceptical media outlets.
And as we saw at May’s federal election, public opinion is on the side
of the planet.
National and international climate policies are stronger than ever, and
although there is still much more to be done, it finally seems that
government, business and public sentiment are moving in the same direction.
Let’s use the 110th anniversary of this short snippet as a reminder to
keep speaking up and pushing, finally, for the change we must have.
https://theconversation.com/for-110-years-climate-change-has-been-in-the-news-are-we-finally-ready-to-listen-188646
/[ CBS Saturday Morning -- video -- 100 years up in smoke ] /
*Western wildfires threaten carbon offsets*
Aug 13, 2022 As companies and individuals attempt to shrink their
carbon footprints by buying carbon offsets, wildfires in the U.S. West
are threatening the land set aside for such efforts. Senior national and
environmental correspondent Ben Tracy reports.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OkliqB2hz4
/[ SCIENCE ADVANCES about melting ice ]/
*Antarctic Peninsula warming triggers enhanced basal melt rates
throughout West Antarctica*
M. MAR FLEXAS
HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-2479-2079HONG
12 Aug 2022
*Abstract*
The observed acceleration of ice shelf basal melt rates throughout
West Antarctica could destabilize continental ice sheets and
markedly increase global sea level. Explanations for decadal-scale
melt intensification have focused on processes local to shelf seas
surrounding the ice shelves. A suite of process-based model
experiments, guided by CMIP6 forcing scenarios, show that freshwater
forcing from the Antarctic Peninsula, propagated between marginal
seas by a coastal boundary current, causes enhanced melting
throughout West Antarctica. The freshwater anomaly stratifies the
ocean in front of the ice shelves and modifies vertical and lateral
heat fluxes, enhancing heat transport into ice shelf cavities and
increasing basal melt. Increased glacial runoff at the Antarctic
Peninsula, one of the first signatures of a warming climate in
Antarctica, emerges as a key trigger for increased ice shelf melt
rates in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj9134
/[ Live Storms Media -- video ]/
*08-14-2022 Corpus Christi, TX - Flash flooding goes from nothing to 3
feet in minutes.*
Aug 14, 2022 -- NOT FOR BROADCAST
Contact Brett Adair with Live Storms Media to license.
brett at livestormsmedia.com
At 12:21PM NWS Corpus Christi issued a flash flood warning for Corpus
Christi as a line of heavy rain began to heads towards downtown Corpus
Christi. Several areas experienced fast rising flood waters included a
neighborhood near the area of Airline Rd and 358. By 3PM almost all
flood water on roadways had drained away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYO_PupOecM
/[The news archive - looking back]/
/*August 16, 2013*/
August 16, 2013: The climate documentary "The Politics of Power" airs
for the first, last and only time on MSNBC.
*MSNBC's 'Missing' Climate Change Documentary Finally Found! (Sort Of)*
Chris Hayes' special quietly made available 'On Demand'...
https://www.msnbc.com/all/watch-politics-power-demand-msna156701
By BRAD FRIEDMAN on 10/2/2013, 12:04pm PT
In late August, climate hawk and too-occasional BRAD BLOG
contributor D.R. Tucker reported how MSNBC's August 16th Chris Hayes
hosted documentary on climate change and the global warming denial
industry, was nowhere to be found online. Unlike previous docs from
the cable net, this one had not made available online after its
initial airing.
Despite our best efforts at the time to receive an explanation from
MSNBC or Chris Hayes or the producers of his nightly prime-time
show, All In (which produced and presented the doc during their
normal hour), as to why the special had not been posted online,
several weeks went by and we received no response.
The unexplained online "black out" of Politics of Power led Tucker
to wonder, by August 29th, if "certain entities" (such as ExxonMobil
and other fossil fuel industry corporations, global warming deniers
and other similarly big advertisers on MSNBC) "might not be happy
with the prospect of the video being widely available and, who
knows, maybe even going viral."
Well, we've still received no direct response to our queries from
Hayes or anyone at MSNBC as to the whereabouts of the "missing"
documentary, or the explanation for it. But while browsing some
video clips recently at the MSNBC website, I just happened to come
across this graphic amongst a list of video clips available on the
site...
Clicking on it brought me to a page with this explanation:
A few of our viewers have been looking for the online clips to the
documentary Politics of Power.
We’ve posted the first part of the documentary, above.
The documentary can be found in its entirety on the following cable
providers’ websites (authentication required). Search "All In with
Chris Hayes 8.16."
"A few of our viewers". :-)
The page pointing to the "On Demand" version of the special looks to
have been created on September 10, about 12 days after our initial
article and persistent questioning about where the heck the
documentary was, and almost a full month after the film had aired on
MSNBC.
Unfortunately, for me, I was in the mountains and off the grid when
it originally ran and still won't be able to see it in its entirely,
apparently. The "On Demand" providers listed (Comcast, Verizon,
Dish, Mediacom, Suddenlink) do not happen to include mine. But you
may be luckier.
In the meantime, the following clip of the first 10 minutes of
Politics of Power was posted on the page cited above. So, mystery
partially solved. But the question as to why the documentary was not
made available in full online for all at the MSNBC site --- as, for
example, Rachel Maddow's Hubris: Selling the Iraq War had been,
immediately after its first airing --- remains unanswered.
And, hey, MSNBC and/or All In With Chris Hayes, would it have killed
ya to respond to our very polite queries?
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10284
https://www.msnbc.com/all/watch-politics-power-demand-msna156701
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