[✔️] July 19, 2023- Global Warming News Digest | James Hansen persists. "Damned fools", Jason Box on Greenland rains, DW on heatwaves, End Haber Bosch, Decarbonizing Ammonia, about the future, Green ammonia, First Dog Cartoon, Ice, 2001 when wish is the father to thought.

Wed Jul 19 08:22:25 EDT 2023

/*July*//*19, 2023*/

/[ James Hansen is the first responsible voice.  And the most persistent 
- the Guardian ]/
*‘We are damned fools’: scientist who sounded climate alarm in 80s warns 
of worse to come*
JamOliver Milman
@olliemilman
Wed 19 Jul 2023
The world is shifting towards a superheated climate not seen in the past 
1m years, prior to human existence, because “we are damned fools” for 
not acting upon warnings over the climate crisis, according to James 
Hansen, the US scientist who alerted the world to the greenhouse effect 
in the 1980s.

Hansen, whose testimony to the US Senate in 1988 is cited as the first 
high-profile revelation of global heating, warned in a statement with 
two other scientists that the world was moving towards a “new climate 
frontier” with temperatures higher than at any point over the past 
million years, bringing impacts such as stronger storms, heatwaves and 
droughts.
The world has already warmed by about 1.2C since mass industrialization, 
causing a 20% chance of having the sort of extreme summer temperatures 
currently seen in many parts of the northern hemisphere, up from a 1% 
chance 50 years ago, Hansen said.

“There’s a lot more in the pipeline, unless we reduce the greenhouse gas 
amounts,” Hansen, who is 82, told the Guardian. “These superstorms are a 
taste of the storms of my grandchildren. We are headed wittingly into 
the new reality – we knew it was coming.”

Hansen was a Nasa climate scientist when he warned lawmakers of growing 
global heating and has since taken part in protests alongside activists 
to decry the lack of action to reduce planet-heating emissions in the 
decades since.
He said the record heatwaves that have roiled the US, Europe, China and 
elsewhere in recent weeks have heightened “a sense of disappointment 
that we scientists did not communicate more clearly and that we did not 
elect leaders capable of a more intelligent response”.

“It means we are damned fools,” Hansen said of humanity’s ponderous 
response to the climate crisis. “We have to taste it to believe it.”

This year looks likely to be the hottest ever recorded globally, with 
the summer already seeing the hottest June and, possibly, hottest week 
ever reliably measured. Conversely, 2023 may in time be considered an 
average or even mild year, as temperatures continue to climb. “Things 
will get worse before they get better,” Hansen said.

“This does not mean that the extreme heat at a particular place this 
year will recur and grow each year. Weather fluctuations move things 
around. But the global average temperature will go up and the climate 
dice will be more and more loaded, including more extreme events.”
Hansen has argued in a new research paper, which has yet to be 
peer-reviewed, that the rate of global heating is accelerating, even 
when natural variations, such as the current El Niño climatic event that 
periodically raises temperatures, are accounted for. This is due to what 
he said was an “unprecedented” imbalance in the amount of energy coming 
into the planet from the sun versus the energy reflected away from Earth.

While global temperatures are undoubtably climbing due to the burning of 
fossil fuels, scientists are divided over whether this rate is 
accelerating. “We see no evidence of what Jim is claiming,” said Michael 
Mann, a University of Pennsylvania climate scientist who added that the 
heating of the climate system had been “remarkably steady”. Others said 
the idea was plausible, although more data was required to be certain.

“It’s maybe premature to say the warming is accelerating, but it’s not 
decreasing, for sure. We still have our foot on the gas,” said Matthew 
Huber, an expert in paleoclimatology at Purdue University.

Scientists have estimated, through reconstructions based on evidence 
gathered via ice cores, tree rings and sediment deposits, that the 
current surge in heating has already brought global temperatures to 
levels not seen on Earth since about 125,000 years ago, before the last 
ice age.
“We quite possibly are already living in a climate that no human has 
lived through before and we are certainly living in a climate that no 
human has lived in since before the birth of agriculture,” said Bob 
Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University.

Should global temperatures rise by a further 1C or more, which is widely 
predicted to happen by the end of the century barring a drastic 
reduction in emissions, Huber said Hansen was “broadly correct” that the 
world will be plunged into the sort of warmth not seen since 1-3m years 
ago, a period of time called the Pliocene.

“That is a radically different world,” said Huber of an epoch in which 
it was warm enough for beech trees to grow near the south pole and sea 
levels were about 20 meters higher than now, which would today drown 
most coastal cities.
“We are pushing temperatures up to Pliocene levels, which is outside the 
realm of human experience; it’s such a massive change that most things 
on Earth haven’t had to deal with it,” Huber said. “It’s basically an 
experiment on humans and ecosystems to see how they respond. Nothing is 
adapted to this.”

Previous shifts in the climate, spurred by greenhouse gases or changes 
in the Earth’s orbit, have caused changes to unfold over thousands of 
years. But as heatwaves strafe populations unused to extreme 
temperatures, forests burn and marine life struggles to cope with 
soaring ocean heat, the current upward spike is occurring at a pace not 
seen since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65m years ago.

“It’s not just the magnitude of change, it’s the rate of change that’s 
an issue,” said Ellen Thomas, a Yale University scientist who studies 
climate over geologic timescales. “We have highways and railroads that 
are set in place, our infrastructure can’t move. Almost all my 
colleagues have said that, in hindsight, we have underestimated the 
consequences. Things are moving faster than we thought, which is not good.”

This summer’s searing heat has fully revealed to the world a message 
that Hansen attempted to deliver 35 years ago and scientists have 
strived to convey since, according to Huber. “We have been staring this 
in the face as scientists for decades, but now the world is going 
through that same process, which is like the five stages of grief,” he 
said. “It’s painful to watch people go through it.

“But we can’t simply give up because the situation is dire,” Huber 
added. “We need to say ‘Here is where we need to invest and make changes 
and innovate’ and not give up. We can’t just write off billions of people.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/19/climate-crisis-james-hansen-scientist-warning

/[Ice scientist Jason Box has a video and a new research 
paper////showing that rain is not falling evenly, not flat. Rainfall is 
an atmospheric river - like any river has areas that are swift moving 
currents -- and even rapids.   T//hese rainfall rapids have delivered 
over a foot per day.  Such melt on Greenland ice makes for very fast 
changes. W//e should revise estimates for how fast Greenland will 
melt.   No longer centuries.] /
*insane flooding rain to Greenland - rapids in an atmospheric river*
Jason Box
Jul 16, 2023
It’s not just flooding in Vermont, Japan, Mexico, new study documents 
deluge rains to Greenland
Article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/met.2134
We add a new term to the atmospheric river vocabulary, “rapids”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tua4p9ns2JY

- -

/[ Research Paper ]/
*Greenland ice sheet rainfall climatology, extremes and atmospheric 
river rapids*
Jason E. Box, Kristian P. Nielsen, Xiaohua Yang, Masashi Niwano, Adrien 
Wehrlé, Dirk van As, Xavier Fettweis, Morten A. Ø. Køltzow, Bolli 
Palmason, Robert S. Fausto … See all authors
First published: 11 July 2023 https://doi.org/10.1002/met.2134

    Abstract
    Greenland rainfall has come into focus as a climate change indicator
    and from a variety of emerging cryospheric impacts. This study first
    evaluates rainfall in five state-of-the-art numerical prediction
    systems (NPSs) (CARRA, ERA5, NHM-SMAP, RACMO, MAR) using in situ
    rainfall data from two regions spanning from land onto the ice
    sheet. The new EU Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Arctic
    Regional ReAnalysis (CARRA), with a relatively fine (2.5 km)
    horizontal grid spacing and extensive within-model-domain
    observational initialization, has the lowest average bias and
    highest explained variance relative to the field data. ERA5 inland
    wet bias versus CARRA is consistent with the field data and other
    research and is presumably due to more ERA5 topographic smoothing. A
    CARRA climatology 1991–2021 has rainfall increasing by more than
    one-third for the ice sheet and its peripheral ice masses. CARRA and
    in situ data illuminate extreme (above 300 mm per day) local
    rainfall episodes. A detailed examination CARRA data reveals the
    interplay of mass conservation that splits flow around southern
    Greenland and condensational buoyancy generation that maintains
    along-flow updraft ‘rapids’ 2 km above sea level, which produce rain
    bands within an atmospheric river interacting with Greenland. CARRA
    resolves gravity wave oscillations that initiate as a result of
    buoyancy offshore, which then amplify from terrain-forced uplift. In
    a detailed case study, CARRA resolves orographic intensification of
    rainfall by up to a factor of four, which is consistent with the
    field data.

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/met.2134

/[ DW is German public broadcast -- Heatwave makes for larger fires in 
Greece - and stresses in Arizona ]/
*Europe braces for record heat as wildfires hit Greece | DW News*
DW News
Jul 18, 2023  #heatwave #wildfires #Greece
Greece has been especially hard hit by wildfires. The normal summertime 
dangers are being made worse by a heat wave. Firefighting services are 
now trying to fight the flames in several different regions while 
keeping residents and visitors at a safe distance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR8ARuCC29M

/[Very positive and highly geeky --  one man delivers a scientific rant 
-- with specifics for a good future ]/
*The End of Haber Bosch*
Reactions
Jun 21, 2023  #AmericanChemicalSociety
Correction: 7:20 The electrons in this equation should have a "-" 
indicating negative charge.
Billions of people rely on a single, hundred-year-old chemical reaction 
every day: nitrogen gas + hydrogen gas → ammonia. This simple, short 
reaction is a hidden monster: it consumes 1% of the world’s TOTAL energy 
supply and releases 2% of the world’s TOTAL carbon dioxide emissions. 
Join George on a quest to discover whether the Haber-Bosch reaction’s 
time is finally up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFcaEUj43OY

--

/[ From a year ago ]/
*Decarbonising AMMONIA production. Could a revolutionary new process be 
the key?*
Just Have a Think
  Feb 6, 2022
Ammonia is produced in large volumes each year and is in constant use in 
industries like agriculture, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. But it 
also has great potential as a fuel source, if only a way could be found 
to produce it without the huge carbon dioxide emissions it currently 
creates. Now a team at Monash University say they've found an 
economically viable way to do just that...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkfpvajgM_w

- -

/[ more about the process ]/
*Is Ammonia the Future of Energy?*
Climate Club
Feb 8, 2023  #climatechange #energy #hydrogen
Small pronunciation mistake! Nitrous oxides are produced when 
fertilisers such as ammonia urea are oxidised. N2O (nitrous oxide) is a 
potent GHG and has worse effects on the ozone layer than nitrogen oxides 
(nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide) which aren't exactly GHG but cause 
other issues such as air pollution. In the video I said nitrous oxides 
but meant nitric oxide.

Can ammonia be the energy source of the future?
At the moment, the replacement of fossil fuels is mainly being done 
through electrification and the development of renewable energies that 
produce electrical energy. Renewable sources of energy face significant 
issues such as solving the problem of storage due to intermittency, 
long-distance transmission and being used in certain industries such as 
jet-liners or large ships, which cannot be easily electrified. One of 
the promising solutions seems to be hydrogen as a fuel. However hydrogen 
also faces issues when it comes to storage and transportation. Although, 
probably not the fuel of the future, many businesses and researchers 
agree that ammonia has great potential.

Ammonia has some major issues though such as toxicity which need to be 
overcome. But it clearly has potential.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrleP4_qKtE

- -

/[ more on the background of this idea ]/
*Green ammonia by Alfa Laval, Topsoe & Copenhagen Atomics*
Copenhagen Atomics
May 16, 2022
This video summarize the learnings from a joint research project by Alfa 
Laval, Topsoe and Copenhagen Atomics in 2021. Conclusion was that green 
ammonia production based on Copenhagen Atomics thorium molten salt 
reactors as the electricity and heat source can generate very low cost 
green ammonia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjqYbeT0IaM

/[ First Dog on the Moon is a comic appearing in the Guardian ]/
*The northern hemisphere is on fire! The temperature records being 
broken are record-breaking!*
First Dog on the Moon
Wed 19 Jul 2023  -[ click link to see ]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/19/the-northern-hemisphere-is-on-fire-the-temperature-records-being-broken-are-record-breaking

/[ all about ice ]/
*74,963 Kinds of Ice*
Jan 10, 2023  #chemistry #hydrogenbonds
Correction: 6:33 Dipole moments are typically represented going positive 
to negative, rather than negative to positive.
There are somewhere between 20 and 74,963 kinds of ice. Water can do all 
kinds of weird stuff when it freezes. So far scientists have 
experimentally shown crystal structures for 19 kinds of ice. Or maybe 
20, depending on who you ask. We’re going to charge through as many as 
we can in ten minutes or so.
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UmcO-qtdlM

/[The news archive - looking back]/
/*July 19, 2001*/
July 19, 2001: Proving that the wish is the father to the thought, White 
House adviser Karen Hughes tells CNN, "The whole issue of global climate 
change is something our administration is serious about."

http://web.archive.org/web/20140427081627/http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/07/19/hughes.access.cnna/

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