[✔️] July 12, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*July 12, 2022*/

/[ more heat to existing waters means...] /
*Lake Evaporation on the Rise*
Earth is truly an ocean planet. Only 3 percent of Earth’s water is 
fresh, most of which is locked up in ice. Of the fraction of remaining 
fresh water, more than 87 percent resides in lakes. The amount of water 
lost from lakes by evaporation is a critical component of Earth’s water 
and energy budgets. (About 75 percent of the energy, or heat, in the 
global atmosphere is transferred through the evaporation of water from 
the Earth’s surface.)

Now, researchers have found that the amount of water evaporating from 
lakes is significantly more than previously thought, and that reservoirs 
may play an outsized role in the process, according to a new NASA-funded 
study published in Nature Communications...
- -
Additionally, the team found that the rate of water loss accelerated by 
3.12 cubic kilometers per year between 1985 and 2018. The increasing 
volume loss was driven by three factors, all influenced by climate 
warming: an increase in the evaporation rate, a decrease in ice cover, 
and an increase in lake surface area. The latter includes the 
construction of new reservoirs, which have increased the amount of open 
water by more than 500 square kilometers per year over the 34-year study 
period.

“Both climate change and the construction of new reservoirs have 
contributed to increased lake surface area,” Gao said. “For instance, 
the lake area in the Tibetan Plateau has been increasing due to glacier 
melt and increasing precipitation.”

The researchers also highlighted the data on reservoirs. While 
reservoirs account for only 5 percent of the volume, and 10 percent of 
the surface area, of all lakes, they contribute 16 percent of the 
evaporative loss. Additionally, while evaporation is increasing from 
lakes overall at a rate of 2.1 percent per decade, the rate of 
evaporation from reservoirs is increasing at a rate of 5.4 percent per 
decade.

“From a global perspective,” Zhao said, “the total reservoir evaporation 
can be larger than the combined use of domestic and industrial water,” 
not including agriculture, the largest user of water. “This suggests 
that reservoir evaporation is an indispensable factor in water 
management, especially in times of drought and global warming.”

The global lake evaporation volume (GLEV) dataset is the first 
long-term, monthly time series with data on such a large number of 
individual lakes. It is publicly available as an Earth Engine App.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150067/lake-evaporation-on-the-rise 


- -

/[ research study ]/
Published: 28 June 2022
*Evaporative water loss of 1.42 million global lakes*
Gang Zhao, Yao Li, Liming Zhou & Huilin Gao
Nature Communications volume 13, Article number: 3686 (2022)
*Abstract*
The evaporative loss from global lakes (natural and artificial) is a 
critical component of the terrestrial water and energy balance. However, 
the evaporation volume of these water bodies—from the spatial 
distribution to the long-term trend—is as of yet unknown. Here, using 
satellite observations and modeling tools, we quantified the evaporation 
volume from 1.42 million global lakes from 1985 to 2018. We find that 
the long-term average lake evaporation is 1500 ± 150 km3 year−1 and it 
has increased at a rate of 3.12 km3 year−1. The trend attributions 
include an increasing evaporation rate (58%), decreasing lake ice 
coverage (23%), and increasing lake surface area (19%). While only 
accounting for 5% of the global lake storage capacity, artificial lakes 
(i.e., reservoirs) contribute 16% to the evaporation volume. Our results 
underline the importance of using evaporation volume, rather than 
evaporation rate, as the primary index for assessing climatic impacts on 
lake systems.

*Introduction*
Covering about 5 million km2 of the Earth’s land area, lakes (natural 
and artificial) are key components of global ecological and hydrological 
systems1,2,3,4. Lakes support aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity, and 
are an important water resource for humans5,6. Due to their large open 
water areas—and the strong vapor pressure gradient at the 
water-atmosphere interface—lakes can lose a massive volume of water 
through evaporation (i.e., latent heat flux)7,8. The dynamics of lake 
evaporative water loss depend on water area and evaporation rate, both 
of which vary by geographical location and are sensitive to the 
manifestations of a complex changing environment9. For instance, 
evaporation rate can be altered by warming temperatures10,11 and by 
elevated solar radiation8, while open water areas can increase from 
shrinking lake ice cover12 or decrease from extreme drought 
conditions13. Thus, it is crucial to understand the spatiotemporal 
changes and drivers of evaporative water loss from lakes for better 
aquatic ecosystem and water resources management.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31125-6



/[  Climate Scientist post a serious scientific explanation  ] /
*A new entry titled ‘The CO2 problem in six easy steps (2022 Update)’ 
has been posted to RealClimate.*
You can view it from this link :
https://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2022/07/the-cos2-problem-in-six-easy-steps-2022-update/



/[  the conclusion to this article says it all  (Thanks JN)  ]
/*How One Restaurateur Transformed America’s Energy Industry*
Charif Souki’s longshot bet on liquid natural gas, or L.N.G., paid off 
handsomely — and turned the United States into a leading fossil-fuel 
exporter.
/- - [ concluding paragraphs  ]/
“All of a sudden, Europe has put all of its climate aspiration on the 
back burner,” he told me, reviewing the early events of the war. 
Countries like the Czech Republic, Italy and Romania were warning that 
they might have to reactivate their shuttered coal plants or extend the 
life spans of those that had been scheduled to close. “We’re going to 
need gas,” he said, “especially if you’re serious about climate issues.”

He was quick to clarify that this wasn’t his concern. “As a company, I 
couldn’t care less about the climate,” he said. “Of course I care, OK? 
But my responsibility is not to care about the climate. My job is to 
make a product that people need and sell it to them at the cheapest 
possible price to me.” This was not going to be very difficult, provided 
Souki could finish his new facility. By the summer, gas prices in Europe 
were six times as high as in the United States; once Souki’s terminal 
was up and running, he would be able to reap the entirety of that price 
differential, a jaw-dropping arbitrage. Yet again, he would have proved 
everyone wrong.

Still, the facility in Louisiana would need to export gas for years to 
pay itself off, which meant that Tellurian would need to keep fracking 
more gas to supply it, and that people around the world would need to 
keep buying and burning that gas, dumping more methane and carbon 
dioxide into the atmosphere. Souki’s gamble depended on the energy 
transition moving at a very specific pace, neither too fast nor too slow 
— his customers were countries that wanted to move away from the 
dirtiest fuels but weren’t ready or willing to shift toward altogether 
clean energy. For as long as the transition moved at this halting pace, 
it would be gamblers and tycoons like him who set the course of global 
climate policy, selling people the fuels they wanted for as long as they 
wanted them. Souki himself might have an exit strategy, but the industry 
he created would outlast him, spraying flames into the night sky for 
decades to come.

I asked Souki what he thought the long-term trajectory of the L.N.G. 
boom might be. The fuel might be necessary right now, but what about in 
20, 30, 40 years? He was betting that the world wasn’t ready to give up 
fossil fuels. But someday it would, and the facilities he built would be 
effectively useless. What would happen then?

He smirked and waved his hand, as if to swat the question away.

“I’ll be dead,” he said, “so it won’t matter.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/magazine/us-export-liquid-natural-gas.html

- -

/[ important quote from Harvard Business Review]/
*"If we choose to enrich our lives in the present at the cost of the 
quality of life of future generations, that is a choice of values that 
we rarely like to make explicitly. We have to be willing to look in the 
mirror and say that we are willing to live our lives selfishly, without 
regard to the lives of our children and grandchildren. And if we are not 
willing to own that selfish value, then we have to make a change in our 
behavior today." * Art Markman, PhD,  in Harvard Business Review 2018



/[  something different -  reaching into the future ] /
*War Virtually: Can Military Attempts to “Predict the Future” Have 
Crossover to Climate Predictions*
Jul 10, 2022  Within the Pentagon and US Department of Defence Agencies, 
there is an ongoing quest to automate conflict, militarize data, and 
predict the future.

A new book (2022) called “War Virtually” by Anthropologist Roberto J. 
Gonzalez delves into this mostly secretive quest.

I was wondering whether the “predict the future” part examined abrupt 
climate system change as the core for these predictions, and was very 
surprised to find out that climate was hardly considered, if at all.

I discuss the details of what is actually considered, and really wonder 
what is going on and why climate change is hardly even mentioned.

As you probably already know, I always have multiple books on the go. As 
well as War Virtually, I highly recommend the fiction by Clive Cussler 
called “Arctic Drift” published in 2008; it is chock full of Arctic and 
Canadian settings, and covers Arctic sea ice and science quite well. I 
also recommend Erik Larson’s 2020 non-fiction called “The Splendid and 
the Vile” covering Sir Winston Churchill WWII leadership and the darkest 
days for Britain in 1939 and 1940 as they stood alone and withstood the 
German Blitzkrieg and Luftwaffe military might. Another great read, and 
great insights into the true leadership of Churchill. Very sad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-jdNQed8pM




/[The news archive - looking back]/
/*July 12, 2013*/
July 12, 2013: USA Today reports:

    "U.S. energy supplies will likely face more severe disruptions
    because of climate change and extreme weather, which have already
    caused blackouts and lowered production at power plants, a
    government report warned Thursday.

    "What's driving these vulnerabilities? Rising temperatures, up 1.5
    degrees Fahrenheit in the last century, and the resulting sea level
    rise, which are accompanied by drought, heat waves, storms and
    wildfires, according to the U.S. Department of Energy."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/11/climate-change-energy-disruptions/2508789/


=======================================

*Mass media is lacking, here are a few daily summariesof global warming 
news - email delivered*

=========================================================
**Inside Climate News*
Newsletters
We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or 
once a week, our original stories and digest of the web’s top headlines 
deliver the full story, for free.
https://insideclimatenews.org/
---------------------------------------
**Climate Nexus* https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/*
Delivered straight to your inbox every morning, Hot News summarizes the 
most important climate and energy news of the day, delivering an 
unmatched aggregation of timely, relevant reporting. It also provides 
original reporting and commentary on climate denial and pro-polluter 
activity that would otherwise remain largely unexposed.    5 weekday
=================================
*Carbon Brief Daily https://www.carbonbrief.org/newsletter-sign-up*
Every weekday morning, in time for your morning coffee, Carbon Brief 
sends out a free email known as the “Daily Briefing” to thousands of 
subscribers around the world. The email is a digest of the past 24 hours 
of media coverage related to climate change and energy, as well as our 
pick of the key studies published in the peer-reviewed journals.
more at https://www.getrevue.co/publisher/carbon-brief
==================================
*T*he Daily Climate *Subscribe https://ehsciences.activehosted.com/f/61*
Get The Daily Climate in your inbox - FREE! Top news on climate impacts, 
solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered week days. Better than coffee.
Other newsletters  at https://www.dailyclimate.org/originals/

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

/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.