[✔️] May 3, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Tue May 3 10:26:37 EDT 2022

/*May 3, 2022*/

/[  Hot New Mexico ] /
*Calf Canyon / Hermits Peak Fire grows to more than 120,000 acres*
Bill Gabbert  May 2, 2022
23 miles east of Santa Fe, New Mexico
Winds gusting to 30 mph Sunday caused the Calf Canyon / Hermits Peak 
Fire to spread significantly Sunday prompting additional evacuations. 
The wind direction recorded at a portable weather station north of the 
fire was not consistent, out of the southeast in the morning then from 
the southwest in the afternoon before becoming variable after 11 p.m. 
out of the south, west, and northwest. Combined with single-digit 
humidity, the winds pushed the fire to the north, northeast, and east.
The blaze has burned 120,653 acres 23 miles east of Santa Fe, New Mexico 
and as of 3 a.m. Monday was just a few miles northwest of Las Vegas, New 
Mexico.
https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Calf-Canyon-Hermits-Peak-Fire-May-29-2022.-Photo-by-firefighter-Will-Harris.jpg
https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Evacuation-Calf-Hermits-Fire-6-a.m.-5-2-2020.jpg
https://wildfiretoday.com/tag/calf-canyon-fire/

/[ ironic that you must first $ubscribe to read this story ]/
*Financial Times Republicans try to prove they are not the party of 
climate denial*
https://www.ft.com/content/6089c82b-4cb7-462e-84fa-5fe5312d842e

/[ Dangerous in India ]/
*India heat wave: Climate change-fueled event topples monthly records*
Andrew Freedman
The heat wave still gripping parts of India and Pakistan set all-time 
monthly records this weekend and has yet to fully abate.

Why it matters: At least a billion people suffered through temperatures 
of 104°F (40°C) or higher from Thursday through Sunday, with many seeing 
highs of 110°F (43°C) and above.

Heat waves are becoming more common, severe and longer as the world 
warms in response to human emissions of greenhouse gases.
By the numbers: According to Maximiliano Herrera, an expert on global 
temperature extremes, several monthly records fell in India and Pakistan 
on April 30 and May 1, while Pakistan likely experienced its hottest 
April on record.

Banda, in Uttar Pradesh, reached 117.4°F (47.2°C) on Friday, setting an 
April record. Other such records were set Saturday in Gurgaon, 
Chandigarh and Dharamshala.
On May 1, the temperature climbed further, to 121.1°F (49.5°C) at 
Nawabshah, Pakistan, which is likely the hottest temperature on record 
in the Northern Hemisphere so far this year.
Jacobabad in Pakistan hit a punishing 120.2F (49.0°C) on April 30.
Delhi saw temperatures exceed 110°F (43.3°C) for several days...
https://www.axios.com/india-pakistan-heat-wave-climate-change-records-a59a1070-e367-43ba-aedc-296670267294.html

- -

/[ Yes, true. ]/
*Climate Injustice: Those Who Face Record Heat Wave in India & Pakistan 
Did Not Create the Crisis*
https://www.democracynow.org/2022/5/2/april_heat_wave_breaks_records_india

/[ a hike in the desert lets our feet learn ] /
*A Climate-Driven Decline of Tiny Dryland Lichens Could Have Big Global 
Impacts*
A study at Canyonlands National Park shows threats to soil crusts that 
hold the desert in place. When they crumble, it speeds erosion, 
diminishes snowpack and spreads disease.
By Bob Berwyn

Lichens that help hold together soil crusts in arid lands around the 
world are dying off as the climate warms, new research shows. That would 
lead deserts to expand and also would affect areas far from the 
drylands, as crumbling crusts fill winds with dust that can speed 
snowmelt and increase the incidence of respiratory diseases...
- -
Some strains of lichen, which are communities of fungi and algae in 
symbiotic relationships, survived the planet’s last three mass 
extinction events, but a study published last week in the Proceedings of 
the National Academies of Sciences shows global warming is likely 
causing a decline of lichens that are key components of biological soil 
crusts. If the organisms die and crusts crumble, deserts will expand and 
soils in arid regions will dry up and potentially blow away as dust in 
the wind.

The airborne dust can also increase aridity far from the soil crusts 
when it settles on distant snow-covered mountains, where studies show 
that it can change the snowmelt cycle, often reducing river flows. More 
intense and frequent dust storms are also projected to increase cases of 
respiratory diseases, such as valley fever, in the Southwest...
- -
Biocrusts are key to maintaining soil stability in global drylands, said 
Carrie Havrilla, a dryland researcher at Colorado State University who 
was not involved in the new study. Some research projects global 
biocrust cover could decline up to 40 percent in the next half century, 
she added.

“Biocrust organisms “glue” soils together and prevent soil losses via 
wind and water erosion,” she said. “As such, biocrust cover losses can 
result in soil destabilization, and increased erosion rates and dust 
storm activity. Mounting evidence suggests biocrust cover and 
functioning will be negatively impacted by climate change and that these 
responses may be even more dramatic than those of vascular plants in 
drylands.”
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02052022/lichens-climate-change/

- -

/[ Check with the most trusted science with the IPCC report ]/
*SPECIAL REPORT: SPECIAL REPORT ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND LAND*
*Desertification*
Executive Summary
Desertification is land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry 
sub-humid areas, collectively known as drylands, resulting from many 
factors, including human activities and climatic variations. The range 
and intensity of desertification have increased in some dryland areas 
over the past several decades (high confidence). Drylands currently 
cover about 46.2% (±0.8%) of the global land area and are home to 3 
billion people. The multiplicity and complexity of the processes of 
desertification make its quantification difficult. ..
- -
*Risks from desertification are projected to increase due to climate 
change */(high confidence).../*
*
*Desertification and climate change, both individually and in 
combination, will reduce the provision of dryland ecosystem services and 
lower ecosystem health, including losses in biodiversity*/(high 
confidence)/*...*

*Site and regionally-specific technological solutions, based both on new 
scientific innovations and indigenous and local knowledge (ILK), are 
available to avoid, reduce and reverse desertification, simultaneously 
contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation* /(high 
confidence)./..

*Investments into SLM, land restoration and rehabilitation in dryland 
areas have positive economic returns* /(high confidence). ../

*Policy frameworks promoting the adoption of SLM solutions contribute to 
addressing desertification as well as mitigating and adapting to climate 
change, with co-benefits for poverty eradication and food security among 
dryland populations (high confidence). Implementation of Land 
Degradation Neutrality policies allows populations to avoid, reduce and 
reverse desertification, thus contributing to climate change adaptation 
with mitigation co-benefits* /(high confidence)/. ..

*The knowledge on limits of adaptation to the combined effects of 
climate change and desertification is insufficient. However, the 
potential for residual risks and maladaptive outcomes is high */(high 
confidence). ../
https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/chapter-3/

- -

[see also]
*Exploring the impacts of a warming and drying climate on sensitive 
ecosystems*
https://rebeccafingerhiggens.weebly.com/

/[ WBUR reports about Mount Washington - audio and text  - recorded 
arrival data ]/
*Climate change is coming for New England's highest peak*
May 02, 2022
Hannah Chanatry
- -
The study is the first comprehensive analysis of the records collected 
at the observatory and at Pinkham Notch in 15 years, including data from 
1935 to 2018. It found the annual average temperatures went up 1.5 
degrees Fahrenheit at Mount Washington during that time period, and 2.1 
degrees at Pinkham Notch.

That means over a period of 84 years, the two locations lost more than 
two weeks of frost conditions, and saw an increasing amount of thaw days 
— when the minimum temperature of the day is above 0 degrees celsius.

Snowfall has also declined dramatically. The research found Pinkham 
Notch lost several inches of snow during each decade of study compared 
to the decade before, ending in a loss of 68 inches of snowfall over the 
study period. The maximum depth (essentially, how deep the accumulation 
gets) also dropped by 38 inches.

The study did not find a significant difference in snow at the Mount 
Washington summit, in large part because the high winds there blow the 
snow off the peak.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/05/02/mt-washington-new-england-climate-change

/[ from //3 years ago - //Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonpartisan reporting 
on the biggest crisis facing our planet. -- widely ignored then - 
repeated here below ]/
*Climate Tipping Points Are Closer Than We Think, Scientists Warn*
 From melting ice caps to dying forests and thawing permafrost, the risk 
of ‘abrupt and irreversible changes’ is much higher than thought just a 
few years ago.
By Bob Berwyn - November 27, 2019
Humans are playing Russian roulette with Earth’s climate by ignoring the 
growing risk of tipping points that, if passed, could jolt the climate 
system into “a new, less habitable ‘hothouse’ climate state,” scientists 
are warning ahead of the annual UN climate summit.

Research now shows that there is a higher risk that “abrupt and 
irreversible changes” to the climate system could be triggered at 
smaller global temperature increases than thought just a few years ago. 
There are also indictations that exceeding tipping points in one system, 
such as the loss of Arctic sea ice, can increase the risk of crossing 
tipping points in others, a group of top scientists wrote Wednesday in 
the scientific journal Nature.

“What we’re talking about is a point of no return, when we might 
actually lose control of this system, and there is a significant risk 
that we’re going to do this,” said Will Steffen, a climate researcher 
with the Australian National University and co-author of the commentary. 
“It’s not going to be the same conditions with just a bit more heat or a 
bit more rainfall. It’s a cascading process that gets out of control.”...
The scientists focused on nine parts of the climate system susceptible 
to tipping points, some of them interconnected:

    *Arctic sea ice*, which is critical for reflecting the sun’s energy
    back into space but is disappearing as the planet warms.
    *The Greenland Ice Sheet*, which could raise sea level 20 feet if it
    melts.
    *Boreal forests,* which would release more carbon dioxide (CO2) than
    they absorb if they die and decay or burn.
    *Permafrost,* which releases methane and other greenhouse gases as
    it thaws.
    *The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, *a key ocean
    current, which would shift global weather patterns if it slowed down
    or stopped.
    *The Amazon rainforest,* which could flip from a net absorber of
    greenhouse gases to a major emitter.
    *Warm-water corals,* which will die on a large scale as the ocean
    warms, affecting commercial and subsistence fisheries.
    *The West Antarctic Ice Sheet*, which would raise sea level by at
    least 10 feet if it melted entirely and is already threatened by
    warming from above and below.
    *Parts of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet* that would also raise sea
    level significantly if they melted...
    - -

If multiple tipping points are reached, it’s questionable whether 
emissions reductions will be enough to stabilize the climate system, she 
said.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27112019/climate-tipping-points-permafrost-forests-ice-antarctica-greenland-amazon-nature/

/[The news archive - looking back]/
/*May 3, 1999*/
May 3, 1999: Bob Somerby of the Daily Howler debunks an April 15, 1999 
column by  Washington Times columnist Ben Wattenberg falsely suggesting 
that NASA scientist James Hansen viewed Vice President Al Gore as an 
alarmist on climate change. In addition, Somerby notes:

    "Of course, if spinners like Wattenberg get their way--and the
    larger press corps never speaks up--those common sense steps [to
    reduce carbon pollution] may never be taken. And reasoned debate, in
    the coming campaign, could give way to a lot of hot air. So that’s
    why we offer a global *warning*, against believing facile spin from
    these types. There’s a whole lot of hoo-hah floating around
    concerning Gore and [his views on] global warming. And we hope that
    the press corps will get off its duffs, and bring some clarity to
    the whole sorry mess."

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h050399_1.shtml

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