[✔️] January 18, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[👀 Richard Pauli]

/*January 18, 2022*/

/[  Another accounting of 2021 from Carbon Brief ] /
*The climate data for 2021 is now mostly in, and it has proved to be 
another noteworthy year across the oceans, atmosphere, cryosphere and 
surface temperature of the planet.*
In this article, Carbon Brief unpacks the different datasets, remarkable 
records and extreme events of last year. Use the links below to navigate 
between sections:

    *- - Ocean heat content: *It was the warmest year on record for
    ocean heat content, which increased markedly between 2020 and 2021.
    *- - Surface temperature*: It was between the fifth and seventh
    warmest year on record for surface temperature for the world as a
    whole, the fifth warmest for the world’s land regions, and the
    seventh warmest for the oceans.
    *- - Warming over land:* It was the warmest year on record in 25
    countries, and in areas where 1.8 billion people live.
    *- - Extreme weather: *2021 saw the warmest northern-hemisphere
    summer (June, July, and August) on record over the world’s land,
    along with extreme heatwaves, wildfires, and rainfall events.
    *- - Comparison with climate model data:* Observations fall well
    within the range of CMIP5 climate model projections over the past 70
    years.
    *- - Warming of the atmosphere:* It was the sixth or eighth warmest
    year in the lower troposphere – the lower part of the atmosphere –
    depending on which dataset is used.
    *- - Sea level rise:* Sea levels reached new record-highs, with
    notable acceleration over the past three decades.
    *- - Greenhouse gases:* Concentrations reached record levels for
    CO2, methane and nitrous oxide.
    *- - Sea ice extent: *Arctic sea ice was well below the long-term
    average for most of the year, though relatively few daily records
    were set. The summer Arctic sea ice minimum was the 12th lowest
    since records began in the late 1970s.
    *- - Looking ahead to 2022: *Carbon Brief predicts that global
    average temperature in 2022 will be similar to 2021...- -

https://www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-the-climate-how-the-world-warmed-in-2021


/[ An important and positive lecture based on a rich life experience - 
life requires a moral sentiment ]/
*The Universal Value of Nature*
Jan 17, 2022
Gresham College
Does nature have a universal value? Can we consider natural capital as 
equivalent to financial capital?

This lecture gives a brief history of value, exploring the similarities 
between historical arguments as to why the value of housework and nature 
are not reflected either in theory or in the system of national accounts 
and GDP. It will explore the difficulties with putting a value on 
nature, for example trying to make meaningful estimates of what 
contribution water makes to our lives.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available 
from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-an...

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, 
thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 
2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the 
opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gr
https://youtu.be/eIRlLlrnmBM



/[ future of military ]/
*Climate change is creating security threats around the world – and 
militaries are responding*
January 17, 2022
Timothy Clack - Lecturer in Archaeology and Anthropology, University of 
Oxford
- -
A range of climate scenarios have been forecast – but common to all is 
increased frequency and scale of extreme weather events, more droughts 
and floods, melting of ice caps and permafrost, rise in sea levels, and 
oceanic acidification and deoxygenation.

Both human and national security will almost certainly be affected by 
threats to agricultural regimes including increased pest and disease 
presence, spikes in food prices and shocks to food production and food 
logistics. Consequences will include the recalibration of diplomatic 
alliances, displacement and dispossession of peoples, border disputes, 
endemic famine and warfare...

https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-creating-security-threats-around-the-world-and-militaries-are-responding-173668



/[ Concrete ideas about building materials  ]/
*How Climate Change is Changing the Game for Concrete*
A new American Concrete Institute committee is assessing the affect of 
global climate change on sustainability of concrete structures, as 
more-severe salt-water intrusion and high wind loads lead to failures 
like Florida's Surfside Condos

January 17, 2022
- -
The stated goal is “to develop solutions to impede and control 
deterioration in concrete structures caused by global climate change.” 
I’ll share the ACI’s conclusions as soon as they’re made public. In the 
meantime, we do have some clues from a paper published seven years ago 
in Urban Climate by civil engineer Matthew Eckelman and a graduate 
student named Mithun Saha.

Their two key conclusions were:

Anthropogenic increases in atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) 
concentrations and resultant changes in climate will have significant 
detrimental effects to urban infrastructure, from both extreme events 
and longer-term processes.

Current concrete construction projects will experience carbonation and 
chlorination depths that exceed the current code-recommended cover 
thickness by 2077 and 2055, respectively, well within the lifetimes of 
these buildings, potentially requiring extensive repairs.

The Boston Globe later reframed Eckelman and Saha’s findings in more 
alarming terms. “It’s not rising seas that will get us first,” the Globe 
asserted. “It’s collapsing concrete.” Considering that the Surfside 
Condo fell 40 years after it was built, the researchers’ observation 
that concrete buildings won’t meet safety codes in 41 years due to 
climate change is prescient stuff. (It’s believed that the Surfside’s 
demise was accelerated by water leaks around the foundation.)

Back in September, I observed: “Concrete is an especially delicate 
material. Unbeknownst to many people, it is not only affected by extreme 
temperatures, but also by humidity levels, as well as the velocity and 
intensity of the wind. Working with concrete demands skill and patience. 
It requires both the expertise of those working with concrete, as well 
as the cooperation of environmental factors in order to produce a 
smooth, strong, properly cured structure.”

https://www.forconstructionpros.com/concrete/article/21980805/climate-change-changes-the-game-for-concrete



/[  New Yorker says last year was most serious  - ]/
*A summer that really scared scientists.*
By Bill McKibben
December 16, 2021
This year, a lot of the things we’ve come to expect with the climate 
crisis happened: there were heavy rains (New York City beat its rainfall 
record twice in eleven days); there was a big global conference (this 
one in Glasgow) with modest results; the price of renewable energy fell 
some more; and a record amount of solar power and wind power was 
produced, but not at a pace fast enough to catch up with climate change. 
Raging wildfires produced plumes of smoke that spread around the world; 
President Joe Biden tried to free up a lot of money for climate work 
and, so far, Senator Joe Manchin has prevented him from doing so.

But some unexpected things happened, too—such as December tornadoes and 
windstorms, which have devastated parts of the country, and which are 
increasingly linked to warming. The most unexpected event by far, 
though—the thing that was truly off the charts—came in June. Toward the 
end of the month, torrential rains across China created a lot of 
atmospheric moisture, which the jet stream sucked out over the Pacific. 
Meanwhile, the remnants of a heat wave in the American Southwest moved 
north. The two weather events met over the Pacific Northwest and western 
Canada, forming a giant dome of high pressure that diverted moisture to 
both the north and the south. Gradually, over a period of several days, 
the core of the high-pressure area freed itself of clouds, allowing the 
sun’s rays to blast down during the days immediately after the solstice.

The result was the most remarkable heat wave in recorded history. On 
Sunday, June 27th, Canada broke its all-time heat record, of a hundred 
and thirteen degrees Fahrenheit, when the temperature reached nearly a 
hundred and sixteen degrees in Lytton, a community of around two hundred 
and fifty residents on the Fraser River, in southern British Columbia. 
The next day, that record was broken, again in Lytton, when the 
temperature hit a hundred and eighteen degrees. On Tuesday, it was 
smashed again, when the temperature in the town soared to a hundred and 
twenty-one degrees. On Wednesday, Lytton, now parched dry, burned to the 
ground in a wildfire; only a few buildings were left standing. Breaking 
a long-standing record is hard (Canada’s old high-temperature record 
dated to 1937); surpassing it by eight degrees is, in theory, 
statistically impossible. It was hotter in Canada that day than on any 
day ever recorded in Florida, or in Europe, or in South America. “There 
has never been a national heat record in a country with an extensive 
period of record and a multitude of observation sites that was beaten by 
7°F to 8°F,” the weather historian Christopher C. Burt said.

Records of almost equally incredible magnitude came in from across the 
region. Quillayute, Washington, broke its all-time temperature high by 
eleven degrees, at a hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit, even though the 
town is just three miles from the Pacific. It was over a hundred and 
three at Fort Smith, in the Northwest Territories, beating an 
eighty-year-old record. According to Maximiliano Herrera, a weather 
historian who maintains a Web site devoted to unprecedented 
temperatures, “the number of all times records beaten by more than 5C in 
this heat wave is greater than all cases worldwide together” in the past 
eighty-five years. Jeff Masters and Bob Henson, meteorologists who blog 
for a Yale climate Web site, wrote, “Never in the century-plus history 
of world weather observation have so many all-time heat records fallen 
by such a large margin.”
https://www.newyorker.com/news/2021-in-review/the-year-in-climate?



/[  Nice images in the video, but has little to do with the title.   22 
mins]/
*What Are the Solutions to the Climate Crisis?*
Jan 17, 2022
VICE News
In this episode of ‘Planet A’, Professor of Environmental Science Garry 
Petersen explains how humans must adapt if we are to avoid the tipping 
points that are leading towards irreparable harm to the planet.

In 'Planet A', VICE World News takes viewers on a global tour of the 
ecosystems that sustain life on earth to expose the existential threats 
that reach far beyond climate change.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCMGFZ2A85o


/[  New Yorker article ] /
*How the Refrigerator Became an Agent of Climate Catastrophe*
The evolution of cooling technology helps to explain why supposed 
solutions to global warming have only made the situation worse.
By David Owen - January 15, 2022
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/how-the-refrigerator-became-an-agent-of-climate-catastrophe



/[   FOX has now taking down most video evidence of this part of it's 
broadcasting history  - from 2012 -  this describes specific content 
that no longer appears in the FOX archives.   ] /
*10 Dumbest Things Fox Said About Climate Change In 2012*

    1. Fox Reporter: “The Temperature Basically Hasn't Changed Much
    Since The Ice Age.”
    2. During Record-Breaking Heat, Fox Anchor Claims “It's Getting
    Colder.”
    3. Fox “Expert”: Carbon Dioxide “Literally Cannot Cause Global
    Warming.”
    4. Fox Reporter: “Mars Wobbles” May Be Causing Climate Change.
    5. Fox Website: “Wind Farms Cause Global Warming.
    6. Instead Of Scientists, Fox Turns To Mark Levin And A Coal Miner
    To Say “CO's What Make Plants Grow.”
    7. Fox Contributor: There Are “Hundreds Of Thousands” Of Scientists
    “On Both Sides Debating” Global Warming.
    8. Fox Reporter: Global Warming Advocates “Never” Cite A “Consensus
    Of Scientists.
    9. Fox Website: “Global Warming Means More Arctic Ice.”
    10. Fox Declares “Global Warming Over” Based On A Tabloid Report.

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-friends/10-dumbest-things-fox-said-about-climate-change-2012 





/[The news archive - looking back]/
*On this day in the history of global warming January  18,*
January 18, 2015 - The New York Times reports:

    "Before dawn one morning in October, a handful of Americans gathered
    at a lonely pier on Samso, a small Danish island about four hours
    from Copenhagen. Bundled in layers of fleece and wool, the
    Americans, mostly from islands off the Maine coast, had come to get
    a closer look at a wind farm — 10 mighty turbines spinning in the
    Kattegat strait — that has helped make Samso a symbol for a greener
    future, one powered entirely by renewable energy.

    "Among them was Marian Chioffi, the bookkeeper at the electric
    company in Monhegan, Me., whose population of about 60 swells to
    include hundreds of residents and thousands of tourists in the
    summer. They — along with generations of artists like Edward Hopper,
    Rockwell Kent and Jamie Wyeth — have been drawn by the island’s
    lost-in-time charm and picturesque setting in the Gulf of Maine.

    "Monhegan faces challenges as stark as its beauty. Foremost among
    them — and the spur for the journey to Denmark — is dependence on
    expensive, dirty fuels for heating and electricity. Even with the
    recent fall in oil prices, Monhegan residents pay among the highest
    power rates in the nation — almost six times the national average —
    and the electric company, locally owned and operated, struggles to
    keep the lights on.

    "Twenty years ago, Samso faced similar problems. Its farming and
    fishing industries were in decline, and its electricity and heating
    costs, mostly from diesel and coal, were rising. Its young people
    were leaving the island to attend high school and choosing not to
    return.

    "But in 1997, the island began a long-term transformation. It won a
    government-sponsored contest to create a model community for
    renewable energy and, through a combination of wind and solar (for
    electricity) and geothermal and plant-based energy (for heating),
    the island reached green energy independence in 2005. That means
    Samso actually generates more power from renewable sources than it
    consumes over all. Attached by a power cable to the mainland 11
    miles away, the island sells its excess electricity to the national
    utility, bringing income to the hundreds of residents who own shares
    in the island’s wind farms, both on land and at sea.

    "Samso has attracted global attention for its accomplishments. Soren
    Hermansen, 55, and his wife, Malene Lunden, 49, worked for years to
    develop the program on the island and now have created an institute,
    the Samso Energy Academy, to spread their story and methods to
    international visitors.

    "The Maine islanders, along with students from the College of the
    Atlantic in Bar Harbor, had traveled to Samso to attend the academy
    and hear the Danes’ advice. If all went well, each islander would go
    home with a team of students dedicated to solving an energy problem
    using ideas borrowed from Samso.

    "Beyond that, the planners hoped, new Maine island projects could
    become templates for broader adoption of renewable energy. Because
    of their particular geography, islands often lack the resources and
    infrastructures to meet their own needs. Fuel, like other
    necessities, is often imported — sometimes with great difficulty —
    and electric grids, when they even exist, are often underdeveloped
    or out of date, all of which leads to higher prices and less
    reliable service. With residents open to cheaper and better
    alternatives, islands are becoming seedbeds of innovation, living
    labs in which to test and refine technologies and approaches that
    are too new or expensive to establish on a mainland. And their small
    size makes the systems easier to manage and analyze."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/business/energy-environment/green-energy-inspiration-from-samso-denmark.html?ref=business 



/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/


/Archive of Daily Global Warming News 
<https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html> 
/
https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote

/To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe 
<mailto:subscribe at theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request> 
to news digest./

   Privacy and Security:*This mailing is text-only.  It does not carry 
images or attachments which may originate from remote servers.  A 
text-only message can provide greater privacy to the receiver and 
sender. This is a hobby production curated by Richard Pauli
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain cannot be used for commercial 
purposes. Messages have no tracking software.
To subscribe, email: contact at theclimate.vote 
<mailto:contact at theclimate.vote> with subject subscribe, To Unsubscribe, 
subject: unsubscribe
Also you may subscribe/unsubscribe at 
https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Pauli for 
http://TheClimate.Vote <http://TheClimate.Vote/> delivering succinct 
information for citizens and responsible governments of all levels. List 
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously restricted to 
this mailing list.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/attachments/20220118/394c0683/attachment.htm>