[✔️] September 15, 2023- Global Warming News Digest | Hansen speaks, reviewing summer wildfires, Planetary boundaries, Beyond 6 of 9, Creating the Alternative, Planet wreckers, 2002 history of denial

Fri Sep 15 06:13:18 EDT 2023

/*September 15*//*, 2023*/

/[ Assailing NASA,  Dr James Hansen, the most trusted voice on climate 
science - latest paper https://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/ ] /
*Global Warming is Accelerating. Why?  Will We Fly Blind?*
14 September 2023
James Hansen, Makiko Sato, Reto Ruedy, and Leon Simons

    *Abstract. *Global temperature in the current El Nino exceeds
    temperature in the prior (2015-16) El
    Nino by more than the expected warming (0.14°C in 8 years) for the
    global warming rate since
    1970 (0.18°C/decade). Proximate cause of accelerated warming is an
    increase of Earth’s Energy
    Imbalance (EEI), but what caused that? Indirect evidence points to a
    decline in the cooling effect of
    human-made aerosols. Failure to measure aerosol climate forcing is
    partly compensated by precise
    monitoring of EEI details. However, there are no adequate plans to
    continue even this vital EEI
    monitoring – which will become even more important as humanity
    realizes its predicament and the
    fact that we must cool the planet to avoid disastrous consequences
    and restore a bright future for
    young people – let alone plans for adequate aerosol monitoring.

- -
*“This is crazy,” you must be saying,* “why don’t you measure the 
aerosol climate forcing, instead
of this round-about inference via detailed effect on EEI and absorbed 
solar energy?” Good question.

*The short answer *is that we (the first author and others) tried, but, 
in career-long failure could not
persuade NASA to fly a small satellite with the two instruments (a high 
precision polarimeter and
an infrared spectrometer) needed to monitor the aerosol and cloud 
microphysics that define the
aerosol climate forcing.

*The short explanation *is that NASA preferred large, slow, multi-billion
dollar missions as needed to support the budgets of the large NASA Centers.

Throw in a climatedenier NASA Administrator, who, in angry response to 
our persistence, struck out the first line of
the NASA Mission Statement “To Understand and Protect the Home Planet.”

It's still worth pursuing aerosol and cloud monitoring of the required 
precision, but the most urgent
task is assuring continuation of the CERES or CERES-like monitoring of 
Earth’s radiation balance.
As yet there are no firm adequate plans for long-term continuation of 
these observations. NASA
tends to think of itself as an agency that develops scientific and 
instrumental techniques,

while longterm observations should be carried on by others. However, 
long-term observations are the climate
science. It is crucial that NASA make plans to continue these essential 
measurements

Measurements in the ocean are equally essential. The Argo program that 
distributed about 4,000
autonomous, deep-diving floats around the world ocean needs to be 
continued and enhanced. More
measurements are needed especially in the polar regions where some of 
the most significant climate
changes are beginning to occur, changes that will affect the entire 
planet. The U.S. National
Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) has provided a large 
fraction of the Argo floats,
but many other nations contribute; the programs should continue their 
development.

*Without such data*, we will be flying blind into a future fraught with 
dangers. At the very least, we
owe young people the knowledge of what we are getting them into.

https://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/
https://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2023/FlyingBlind.14September2023.pdf

- -

/[ More Hansen report from the Guardian a month ago  ]/
*‘We are damned fools’: scientist who sounded climate alarm in 80s warns 
of worse to come*
James Hansen, who testified to Congress on global heating in 1988, says 
world is approaching a ‘new climate frontier’
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/19/climate-crisis-james-hansen-scientist-warning

/[ reviewing the summer wildfires]/
*How Canada’s record-breaking wildfires are intensifying climate change*
CBC News: The National
  Sep 4, 2023  #wildfires #climatechange #news
Canada’s record-breaking wildfire season is pumping more CO2 into the 
atmosphere than all other emission sources in the country combined. 
CBC’s international climate correspondent Susan Ormistion goes deep into 
the Boreal forest for a first-hand look at the impact on the climate 
crisis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo-Dr-83YMs

[ Opinion ]
*The Guardian view on planetary boundaries: the Earth has limits and 
governments must act on them*
Editorial
The latest warning from climate experts points to the urgency of a 
fossil fuel phase-out

Thu 14 Sep 2023
he climate is changing more quickly now than it has done for tens of 
millions of years. This was the blunt conclusion to the BBC’s recent 
Earth series, which sought to convey to viewers how cataclysmic the 
disruption caused by global heating could be. Chris Packham, its 
presenter, described the tipping points that were reached 56m years ago, 
when, over the course of a few thousand years, temperatures climbed by 
5C. Fossil records from this period are one resource that modern 
scientists use when trying to predict the consequences of the much 
faster heating that is now under way.

Planetary boundaries, about which scientists this week issued an updated 
warning, are another tool for thinking about the environment. These are 
a set of parameters defined at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, led by 
Prof Johan Rockström, in 2009. They are limits within which changes to 
the Earth’s life support systems, which have been relatively stable for 
10,000 years, can be considered manageable. Once the boundaries are 
breached, however, everything becomes much more extreme, unstable and 
threatening. As well as an attempt at quantifying the disruption that 
natural systems can withstand, the nine boundaries represented an 
attempt to broaden understanding of the risks. One key message was that 
global heating caused by greenhouse gases trapped in the atmosphere is 
not the only threat.

The latest assessment, that six out of the nine boundaries have been 
broken, is yet another wake-up call. For the first time, scientists 
assessed the situation across the whole world and are particularly 
concerned about their findings with regard to biodiversity, freshwater 
and land use. Along with phasing out fossil fuels, they argue that 
ending destructive farming practices – which cause deforestation, 
habitat loss and pollution on a massive scale – is now the most urgent 
priority.

Prof Simon Lewis describes the boundaries framework as a “heroic attempt 
to simplify the world”. As such, it has something in common with Kate 
Raworth’s doughnut economics. But, however valuable such concepts are, 
ultimately they will be judged on whether they can help prompt the 
imposition of actual limits on fossil fuel production, and other 
damaging activity, that can only be imposed by governments.

The phasing out of coal, oil and gas was dropped from last year’s Cop27 
climate summit. This week, Fatih Birol, who heads the International 
Energy Agency, said that it must be back on the agenda at Cop28, which 
opens in Dubai in two months. Confidence in the UN climate process was 
damaged by the appointment of Sultan Al Jaber as this year’s president. 
He also heads the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Currently, the UAE is 
planning a massive expansion of oil and gas.

But opposition to the UAE’s plans, and those of Saudi Arabia and western 
oil businesses, is growing. Rishi Sunak is expected to miss a climate 
ambition summit hosted by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, 
next week. His enthusiasm for new oil and gas investments may have 
disqualified him from attending. But other leaders will be urged to 
seize the chance to set the world on a path to a transformed energy 
system. With evidence of the suffering caused by global heating 
continuing to accumulate, alongside alarming assessments from experts, 
the need for governments to formally acknowledge the planet’s 
boundaries, and act accordingly, has never been greater..

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/14/the-guardian-view-on-planetary-boundaries-the-earth-has-limits-and-governments-must-act-on-them

- -

/[ Ooops... Another Overshoot!  ]/
*Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries*
KATHERINE RICHARDSON , WILL STEFFEN, WOLFGANG LUCHT, JØRGEN BENDTSEN , 
SARAH E. CORNELL, JONATHAN F. DONGES, MARKUS DRÜKE, INGO FETZER , 
GOVINDASAMY BALA, [...], AND JOHAN ROCKSTRÖM
SCIENCE ADVANCES
13 Sep 2023
Vol 9, Issue 37
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh2458

    Abstract
    This planetary boundaries framework update finds that six of the
    nine boundaries are transgressed, suggesting that Earth is now well
    outside of the safe operating space for humanity. Ocean
    acidification is close to being breached, while aerosol loading
    regionally exceeds the boundary. Stratospheric ozone levels have
    slightly recovered. The transgression level has increased for all
    boundaries earlier identified as overstepped. As primary production
    drives Earth system biosphere functions, human appropriation of net
    primary production is proposed as a control variable for functional
    biosphere integrity. This boundary is also transgressed. Earth
    system modeling of different levels of the transgression of the
    climate and land system change boundaries illustrates that these
    anthropogenic impacts on Earth system must be considered in a
    systemic context

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adh2458

/[ very adult, interesting discussions at Planet Critical 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N88F5kvWa1Y ]/
*Creating The Alternative | Pat Kane*
Planet: Critical
Sep 13, 2023  #climatecrisis #politicalcrisis #culture
Imagine is a world beyond our wildest dreams...

“A life beyond your wildest dreams” is promised to those entering 
Narcotics Anonymous, a decentralised, collectively-run program for 
sobriety in which fellow addicts help one another get and stay clean. 
The promise doesn’t make sense when you first hear it—it’s only after 
months, even years, of becoming someone different that you realise how 
limited your imagination was made by addiction.

I think of our global relationship to capitalism very similarly. It’s 
difficult to imagine life without it, and thus a better world, but that 
doesn’t mean such a world isn’t possible. So how do we unleash our 
imaginations and creativity to create a culture and a world beyond our 
wildest dreams, one in which we look after one another and the 
more-than-human world? How do we code for care?

This is what Pat Kane joins me to discuss. Pat is a writer and musician, 
an activist, and a futurist. He writes a column for The National in 
Scotland and is also the co-founder of The Alternative, a media 
organisation embedded into community resilience and imagining 
alternative ways of organising. Pat to join me to discuss culture—how to 
understand it, how to code it, how to change it. We explore the 
possibility of the internet as emergent collective consciousness and a 
tool for creativity, resilience and connection. We discuss the 
importance of play: the psychology of play, the impact of play, and how 
play as resistance reveals the absurdity of the human systems that we 
are forced to interact with. We meander through this and more on love, 
truth, cosmology, resilience, difficulty and imagination.
https://youtu.be/N88F5kvWa1Y?si=vSnPLjxotMFQU8b_

/[Assigning blame ]/*
**Planet Wreckers: How 20 Countries’ Oil and Gas Extraction Plans Risk 
Locking in Climate Chaos*
SEPTEMBER 12, 2023BY NICOLEFEATURED, REPORTS, RESEARCH & OPINIONS
Published by Oil Change International
SEPTEMBER 2023

Download the report 
https://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2023/09/OCI-Planet-Wreckers-Report-Final.pdf

Read the press release https://wp.me/paO9Ct-b38

Only 20 countries, led overwhelmingly by the United States, are 
responsible for nearly 90 percent of the carbon-dioxide (CO2) pollution 
threatened by new oil and gas fields and fracking wells planned between 
2023 and 2050. If this oil and gas expansion is allowed to proceed, it 
would lock in climate chaos and an unlivable future.

This new report, titled Planet Wreckers: How 20 Countries’ Oil and Gas 
Extraction Plans Risk Locking in Climate Chaos, is released days ahead 
of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ Climate Ambition 
Summit in New York City. Guterres has called for countries to show up 
with commitments to stop oil and gas expansion and plan a phase out of 
existing production in line with the 1.5°C limit.

The report shows that:

    Only 20 Planet Wrecker countries are responsible for nearly 90
    percent of the carbon-dioxide (CO2) pollution from new oil and gas
    fields and fracking wells planned between 2023 and 2050.
    If these 20 Planet Wreckers said “no” to their planned new oil and
    gas production, as the UN Secretary General is urging them to, 173
    billion tonnes (Gt) of carbon pollution would be kept in the ground.
    That is equivalent to the lifetime pollution of nearly 1,100 new
    coal plants, or more than 30 years of annual U.S. carbon emissions.
    Oil and gas expansion by the 20 Planet Wrecker countries would make
    it impossible to hold temperature rise to 1.5°C. Even extracting
    just the fossil fuels from existing sites globally would result in
    140 percent more carbon pollution than the allowed budget for 1.5°C.
    If these countries proceed with their new extraction, committed
    carbon pollution will be 190 percent over the 1.5°C budget, risking
    locking in more than a dangerous 2°C of warming.
    Stopping new oil and gas would put the world closer to a 1.5°C
    aligned emissions trajectory but would not be enough. Without any
    new oil and gas fields or licenses anywhere, global oil and gas
    production would decline by two percent per year to 2030 and by five
    percent per year from 2030 to 2050. However, limiting heating to
    1.5°C requires governments to go further by closing down already
    producing fields.
    The United States is Planet Wrecker In Chief, accounting for more
    than one-third of planned global oil and gas expansion through 2050,
    followed by Canada and Russia. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is
    also set to be one of the largest expanders of oil and gas
    production despite pledging to use its COP presidency to “keep 1.5°C
    alive.”
    Five global north countries with the greatest economic means to
    rapidly phase out production are responsible for a majority (51
    percent) of planned expansion from new oil and gas fields through
    2050: the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway, and the United
    Kingdom. New drilling in countries with high incomes, diversified
    economies and outsized historical responsibility for causing the
    climate crisis, while claiming to be climate leaders, is
    inexcusable. These countries must not only stop expansion
    immediately but also move first and fastest to phase out their
    production and pay their fair share to fund a just global energy
    transition.

https://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2023/09/OCI-Planet-Wreckers-Report-Final.pdf

/[The news archive - looking back]/
/*September 15, 2002 */
September 15, 2002: The New York Times reports:

"For the first time in six years, the annual federal report on air 
pollution trends has no section on global warming, though President Bush 
has said that slowing the growth of emissions linked to warming is a 
priority for his administration.

"The decision to delete the chapter on climate change was made by top 
officials at the Environmental Protection Agency with White House 
approval, White House officials said."

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/us/with-white-house-approval-epa-pollution-report-omits-global-warming-section.html

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