[✔️] February 6, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[👀 Richard Pauli]

/*February 6, 2022*/

/[  PBS-TV, brings a fascinating, visually stunning, methane movie -  
NOVA 53 min video - very recent science - YouTube ] /
*Arctic Sinkholes*
In the Arctic, enormous releases of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, 
threaten the climate.
PREMIERED: 2/2/22
Colossal explosions shake a remote corner of the Siberian tundra, 
leaving behind massive craters. In Alaska, a huge lake erupts with 
bubbles of inflammable gas. Scientists are discovering that these 
mystifying phenomena add up to a ticking time bomb, as long-frozen 
permafrost melts and releases vast amounts of methane, a potent 
greenhouse gas. What are the implications of these dramatic developments 
in the Arctic? Scientists and local communities alike are struggling to 
grasp the scale of the methane threat and what it means for our climate 
future.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/arctic-sinkholes/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvKpnaXYUPU

- -

/[ conjecture is that lightning triggered the explosion that made the 
sink-hole]/



/[ clips from Inside Climate News ]/
*One Year Later: The Texas Freeze Revealed a Fragile Energy System and 
Inspired Lasting Misinformation*
Power outages in February 2021 were largely a failure of the natural gas 
system, a reality that state officials don’t acknowledge, blaming wind 
energy instead.
By Dan Gearino
February 5, 2022
Texas is recovering from this week’s winter storm, nearly a year after a 
much more severe set of storms led to a devastating failure of the 
electricity system and about 250 deaths. The February 2021 storms showed 
the fragility of the grid at a time when climate change is contributing 
to an increase in extreme weather.

But the most enduring legacy of the 2021 blackouts may be the spread of 
a falsehood: the idea that the crisis was mainly due to the failure of 
renewable energy.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, invoked this idea in December, when 
he announced he was voting against President Joe Biden’s climate and 
social spending bill, saying that a rapid transition to clean energy 
“will have catastrophic consequences for the American people like we 
have seen in both Texas and California in the last two years.”
Fossil-fuel industry groups and elected officials across the country 
have made similar claims, part of a trail of distorted facts that has 
helped to obscure the true story of the Texas power crisis. That story, 
as told in a succession of reports by outside experts, is that the most 
consequential failures were in the natural gas industry and at gas-fired 
power plants.

Yet many Texas officials have responded as if they believed the warped 
version of events, choosing not to engage with what really happened.

“The idea that wind and solar were the problem, when our grid is 
dominated by fossil fuels, doesn’t add up in any way,” said Michael 
Webber, an energy resources professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
- -
Wind energy also performed poorly, starting with ice accumulation that 
led to some wind farms needing to shut down early in the crisis. Wind 
power outages peaked at about 9 gigawatts, a number that takes into 
account wind levels on those days, according to the UT Austin report.

Solar power is rapidly growing in Texas, but it remains a tiny share of 
the state’s electricity supply and had little effect, positive or 
negative, during the crisis.

“It’s not like wind is blameless, but (the power crisis) wasn’t caused 
by wind failure,” said Webber. To say otherwise is “at best misleading, 
at worst an outright lie.”
About 4.5 million Texans lost power, many of them living in homes that 
were not built to withstand frigid temperatures. At least 246 people 
died of causes related to the storm and power outages, according to the 
Texas Department of State Health Services...
- -
Hot Air Blames Wind, but Cold Facts Implicate Gas
During the crisis, when many Texans were still without power, Abbott 
said on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show that failures in wind and solar 
“thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power [on] a 
statewide basis.”

This framing was widely repeated across Fox News’ schedule. On the Fox & 
Friends morning show, images from the state were shown above a chyron 
saying, “Frozen wind turbines cause blackouts in Texas.”

Fossil-fuel industry groups and sympathetic think tanks also trumpeted 
this message.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05022022/texas-storms-extreme-weather-renewable-energy/



/[ VOA is the Voice of America ]/
*Oceans Are Warmer Than Ever, Creating Chaotic Global Weather*
February 5, 2022
WASHINGTON — Deborah Block
The oceans got even warmer last year than the year before, supercharging 
already extreme weather patterns worldwide, according to a recent report 
published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

Twenty-three international scientists analyzed thousands of ocean 
temperature measurements. Since 2018, when the group first began 
publishing their findings, they have found that ocean temperatures are 
rising each year.

But the warming isn't consistent around the planet.

In 2021, the researchers discovered that because of wind patterns and 
currents, some parts of the Atlantic, Indian and northern Pacific oceans 
warmed more quickly.

"The motion of water in the world's oceans distributes the heat in a 
nonuniform way, so some areas get more heat and others less, meaning 
certain parts of the oceans warm faster than others," said John Abraham, 
a co-author of the study and climate scientist at the University of St. 
Thomas in Minnesota.

Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases from human activities are 
making the oceans too hot, Abraham told VOA.

"Last year, the oceans absorbed heat the equivalent of seven Hiroshima 
bombs being detonated in the ocean every second of every day, 365 days 
each year," he said.

But even a slight rise in the temperature of the oceans can be devastating.

"The overall warming now is more than 1 degree Celsius," said Michael 
Mann, professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University 
and a contributor to the report. "And while that might sound like a 
small amount of warming, even modest changes in temperature can have a 
huge impact on the climate system," which can cause fish populations to 
decline and ice sheets to collapse in Antarctica.

Only a small amount of heat from greenhouse gases actually gets trapped 
in the atmosphere. Most of it gets absorbed by the oceans.

"The oceans store 90% of global warming heat and are a robust indicator 
of climate change. Now, our oceans are warming at an exceptional rate 
that has serious consequences," said Lijing Cheng, lead author of the 
study and an associate professor with the Institute of Atmospheric 
Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"Sea level rise makes coastal communities more susceptible to storm 
surges that threaten coastal infrastructure," Cheng told VOA.

Warming oceans are creating havoc on the Earth's weather systems.

"The oceans drive the weather," Abraham said. "Warmer oceans are making 
our weather wilder — going from one extreme to another more rapidly," he 
said. "The oceans are heating and moistening the atmosphere, which is 
creating more intense storms."

Tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and even snowstorms "are all connected to 
warming oceans," said Alexey Mishonov, another co-author and an 
associate research scientist at the University of Maryland's Earth 
System Science Interdisciplinary Center.

Mann said greenhouse gases need to be significantly curbed soon or the 
environmental consequences will become even worse.

"We've got to bring carbon emissions down by 50% within this decade," he 
said. "We need governments to provide incentives to move the energy and 
transportation industries away from fossil fuels and towards renewable 
energy."
[ 
https://www.voanews.com/a/oceans-are-warmer-than-ever-creating-chaotic-global-weather/6426307.html]



/[  The worst seemed to have nefarious, villainous connections ] /
*The Story Behind “The Worst Energy Policy In The United States”*
By Haley Zaremba - Feb 4, 2022
-- Ohio’s House Bill 6 was widely regarded as the worst energy policy in 
the United States.
-- The passage of House Bill 6 was so odorous of underlying offense and 
scandal that it helped to spark an FBI investigation into Rep Larry
-- Householder’s activity.
-- While Ohio repealed parts of the bill as it became embroiled in 
scandal in March of last year, HB6 still largely favors fossil fuels 
over renewables.
- -
The passage of House Bill 6 was apparently so odorous of underlying 
offense and scandal that it helped to spark an FBI investigation into 
Householder’s activity in the Ohio government and whether there were any 
behind-the-scenes puppet masters pulling strings in favor of the fossil 
fuel industry. The four-year investigation involved phone taps, 
informants, and tracing the movements of huge amounts of money to and 
from Householder and local utilities. As it turns out, Householder was 
indeed involved in a “grand conspiracy” which involved hefty bribes from 
three Ohio electric utilities: FirstEnergy, its former subsidiary Energy 
Harbor, and American Electric Power.
According to Federal Prosecutors, these companies gave Householder a $60 
million slush fund to recruit other fossil-fuel-happy politicians into 
the Ohio legislature. As part of the deal, “Householder helped steer 
billions of dollars in subsidies their way” according to reporting from 
Grist. And then there was their magnum opus: HB6. The bill allowed 
utilities to use about half of the renewable energy than they had 
previously been required to put in their mixes, got rid of energy 
efficiency laws entirely, and handed billions of dollars to nuclear and 
coal plants to keep their operations running.

Householder and his partners argued that the bill was essentially a 
nuclear bill, which could then be spun to be a clean energy bill since 
nuclear energy emits no greenhouse gases. Critics saw this as 
greenwashing at best and outright dishonesty at worst. “House Bill 6 was 
really a coal bailout wrapped in a clean energy and nuclear argument,” 
said Vox writer Stokes, who also wrote about the scandal in her book 
Short Circuiting Energy Policy...
- -
As for Householder, he’s still awaiting a trial that has been postponed 
due to Covid-19. While the evidence against him and the orchestration of 
HB6 is condemning to say the least, the legacy of the bill lives on...
- -
While his hubris and greed was unusually unbounded and obvious, it seems 
unlikely that Larry Householder is an isolated case. Unfortunately, 
utilities that have already sunk money into fossil fuels are highly 
incentivized to find a way to keep renewables at bay. “For regulated 
utilities, profits are determined by how much political influence you 
wield,” Dave Anderson, communications and policy manager of the Energy 
and Policy Institute, was quoted by Grist. “It’s really just all about 
the money and driving as much profit as they can for their shareholders.”

On the other hand, the scandal is indicative of a wider issue: there is 
an ongoing struggle to find balance between renewable uptake and fossil 
fuel phaseout in the global green energy transition. Fossil fuels simply 
can’t be discarded overnight, and renewable energy is a long way away 
from being able to replace that kind of energy capacity. In the 
meantime, finding the path toward a smooth energy transition with as few 
energy crunches as possible requires a delicate balance between 
investing more heavily in renewables without leaving oil and gas in the 
lurch. The complications of this tightrope walk have left many industry 
insiders in a new and unprecedented state of uncertainty and fear, 
leaving the door open for the Householders of the world to take 
advantage of a sticky situation.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Story-Behind-The-Worst-Energy-Policy-In-The-United-States.html



/[   Exponential economics  video ] /
*Day 9 - William E. Rees: The Enigma of Climate Inaction – On the Human 
Nature of Policy Failure*
Oct 5, 2021
Institut des sciences cognitives - UQAM
ISC 2021 Summer School – Cognitive Challenges of Climate Change 
(https://sites.grenadine.uqam.ca/sites...)

Day 9
Talk by William E. Rees: The Enigma of Climate Inaction – On the Human 
Nature of Policy Failure
MC: Alexia Ostrolenk, Ph.D Candidate in Psychiatric Science (UdeM); 
Science Communicator (ComScicon-QC, BrainReach)

Abstract:
H. sapiens is a self-described intelligent species, yet seems committed 
to destroying its own habitat. Human-induced climate change, driven by 
carbon-dioxide and other GHG emissions, is one of several well-known 
threats to global civilization. Nevertheless, 34 climate conferences and 
half a dozen major international agreements in the past 50 years have 
failed to produce even a ripple in the curve of exponentially increasing 
atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Climate change is accelerating. This 
presentation: 1) examines some of the evolutionary, behavioural and 
cognitive impediments to effective corrective action by governments and 
international agencies and; 2) advances some ideological, political and 
organizational changes that must be implemented at all levels of society 
to avoid global climate catastrophe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDWhjSUu8UY



/[  Oops, where did it go?   Text and video ] /
*'There's nothing here': Oregon's southernmost glacier has completely 
melted*
Anders Carlson, president of the Oregon Glaciers Institute, said Lathrop 
Glacier likely disappeared sometime in the last decade.
Author: Keely Chalmers (KGW)
  Jan 7, 2022
In a shock to researchers, the Lathrop Glacier, a glacier in Southern 
Oregon that has been there for as long as anyone can remember, has 
disappeared. It was Oregon's southernmost glacier, located in the 
Cascade Range in Douglas County.

"It was documented in 1966," said Anders Carlson, president of the 
Oregon Glaciers Institute. "It's been then there probably for hundreds, 
if not thousands, of years."
When Carlson went to check on the glacier in August 2020, it was gone.

"I was shocked by how many glaciers have retreated and disappeared," he 
said. "And this one was the first one we really saw and were just like, 
'Wow, there's nothing here.'"

What was a sheet of ice and snow was just bare bedrock. Carlson said the 
glacier likely disappeared sometime in the last decade.

A researcher at Portland State University (PSU) said that because of 
climate change, seeing the Lathrop Glacier disappear, isn't surprising.

"I don't think this is particularly unusual, well, unusual because of 
climate warming, this is kind of what we expect. The small vulnerable 
ones, like the Lathrop, are the ones that would go first," said Andrew 
Fountain, a glacier expert at PSU.

There are about 200 glaciers in Oregon. According to Fountain, they're 
all about a quarter smaller than they were in the 1980s.

"With continued climate warming — and we're on track to continue warming 
for the rest of the century — they're going to be losing their area even 
faster." Fountain said. "In some areas, we expect them to disappear 
completely."

That includes the glaciers on Mt. Hood.

The shrinking is not just the result of warmer temperatures in the 
summer but also warmer temperatures in the winter.

It will impact recreation on the mountain and the agriculture below it, 
which depends on those glaciers.

Researchers say the only way to help minimize glacier melt is to 
dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and cool our climate.

"It's pretty simple," Carlson said. "If we just cool down the climate a 
bit, it doesn't have to be a one-way street if we turn around and reduce 
our greenhouse gases."
https://www.kgw.com/article/tech/science/climate-change/theres-nothing-here-oregons-southernmost-glacier-has-completely-melted/283-5da2a0c3-47c8-4d2e-9988-50fc5e84e31e

- -

/[ Check with Google Maps --- see only a little patch of snow ]/
*Mt Thielsen, Lathrop Glacier*
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lathrop+Glacier/@43.1517191,-122.0618155,3342m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x54c64e7ac897b325:0x911ed096eb570157!8m2!3d43.154167!4d-122.067222


/[ Beckwith erupts over the methane problem- video 15 min ]/
*What’s Up With Methane?? A Lot.*
Jan 27, 2022
Paul Beckwith
Methane concentrations in the atmosphere are on a tear. As many people 
on Social Media have pointed out, methane concentrations lately around 
the planet are at much higher levels that ever before, and continuing to 
rise rapidly, almost in real-time.

I use many different, near-realtime data sources to show the spatial 
distribution of methane, both around the planet, and at various 
elevations from the surface up to the lower stratosphere. I also show 
how the concentrations have increased substantially over time, and most 
noticeably in the last year.

I also chat about the methane global warming potential, about sources 
and sinks of methane in the atmosphere, and also about a review paper on 
ways to remove methane faster from the atmosphere. My favourite methane 
removal method is known as ISA (Iron Salt Aerosols) and I touch on a 
recent paper that delves into the details of this method (I will go into 
the nitty gritty of this method in a future video).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re_pYlTGskM



/[The news archive - looking back]/
*On this day in the history of global warming February 6, 2005*
February 6, 2005: Chris Mooney points out the numerous falsehoods in
the recently released Michael Crichton novel "State of Fear."

*Checking Crichton's footnotes*
By Chris Mooney
February 6, 2005

MICHAEL CRICHTON'S latest novel, ''State of Fear'' (HarperCollins), 
arrived with near-perfect timing. Even as real-world tsunamis slammed 
coasts across the Indian Ocean, here was a book in which radical 
eco-terrorists plot to douse California with fake ones--all to convince 
the public to worry about global warming and the disasters it can 
cause.  {Globe subscription require to see archive}

http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/02/06/checking_crichtons_footnotes/

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/02/06/checking_crichtons_footnotes



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