[✔️] Feb 8 2024 Global Warming News | Warmest ever. Mega floods to CA, Time bombs, Time 7 ways to despair, 2015 Gov Jerry Brown

[R.Pauli]

/*February*//*8, 2024*/

/[ Analysis from the Guardian ]/
*World ‘not prepared’ for climate disasters after warmest ever January*
Jonathan Watts
Effect of El Niño phenomenon combined with human-driven global heating 
is causing increasing alarm among scientists
Tue 6 Feb 2024
 From deadly floods in California to devastating fires in Chile, 
scientists say the world is not prepared for the climate disasters that 
are hitting with increasing frequency as human-driven global heating 
continues to break records.

The hottest year in history has been followed by the warmest ever 
January. Many regions in the northern hemisphere are sweltering in 
heatwaves that would be more normal in June. Marine scientists are 
shocked by the prolonged and intense heat at the surface of the oceans.

Scientists say the extreme heat is mostly the result of human activity, 
such as the burning of oil, gas and coal and the cutting down of 
forests. This has been amplified by natural factors, particularly the El 
Niño – a phenomenon associated with Pacific Ocean warming – that started 
last year and is expected to continue until spring at the earliest.

This year has a one in three chance of being even hotter than last 
year’s record, according to the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration.

The higher the global temperature, the greater the risk of fires and 
flooding. This month alone has seen two grim records of such 
climate-related disasters...
- -
Of prime concern is what is happening to the oceans, which cover 71% of 
the planet and absorb most of the excess heat from global warming. In a 
letter published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Science last 
month, a group of scientists warned that sea surface temperatures last 
year were “off the chart”, with dire implications for atmospheric 
regulation and storm intensity.
“Warm oceans intensify atmospheric circulation and associated extreme 
events,” said Francisco Eliseu Aquino, the deputy director of Brazil’s 
Polar and Climate Centre. “The record temperature and extreme events 
observed on the planet in 2023 have not passed. The planet has not 
cooled down.”

Francesca Guglielmo, a senior scientist at the EU’s Copernicus satellite 
monitoring service, said 2024 had started as 2023 ended, with 
“exceptional temperatures and many extreme events”. She pointed to a 
recent forecast by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center that suggested 
there was a good chance that 2024 would set a new record with global 
temperatures passing 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for the first time.

Guglielmo said scientists were now considering risks that had been 
unthinkable until recently. “2023 has broken so many records that a 
number of new hypotheses, including the dawn of a new phase in the 
global warming rate, have been floated. These hypotheses were not nearly 
as prevalent a year ago.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/06/world-not-prepared-for-climate-disasters-after-warmest-ever-january



/[ Mega Flood from BBC  ]/
*Climate change will bring megafloods to California*
Feb 7, 2024
By Lucy Sherriff - Features correspondent

*Climate change is making it a matter of time before a megaflood hits 
the state.*

The Santa Barbara police car blocked access to the bridge, lights 
flashing as the thundering, swollen brown river rampaged below. The 
water was running so high in this Southern California county that it 
gushed through the railings of the bridge, and poured out onto the road.
This region is familiar with water scarcity – usually battling extreme 
heatwaves, wildfires, and drought. Now, Southern California is 
confronting an overabundance of water, in the form of torrential rain 
and life-threatening floods.

Earlier this week, around half a year's worth of rain was predicted to 
fall in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas in just one day.

The city recorded its rainiest day ever on Monday, and it wasn't better 
news for the rest of California either. A state of emergency was 
declared and evacuation orders were issued. Mudslides hit 
neighbourhoods, drivers were stranded, and half a million residents lost 
power. About 37 million residents, or 94% of the state's population, are 
under flood alerts.

The already-deadly storm is caused by an atmospheric river, a corridor 
of water vapour in Earth's lower atmosphere which is carried along by 
the wind, forming long currents – a kind of sky river. The consequences 
can be dramatic. The precipitation that falls is comparable to the rain 
brought by hurricanes making landfall on the Gulf Coast.

And experts say that the frequency and intensity of these kinds of 
events will only increase. These severe floods in California are a 
"broadly underappreciated risk", according to a 2022 paper, co-authored 
by Daniel Swain and Xingying Huang, scientists at the National Centre 
for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
"I think we're reasonably prepared for what we're seeing right now," 
says Swain. "But the kinds of events we're talking about in that paper 
are far greater – they're longer in duration, more extreme and more 
widespread. Pretty much every dimension you could add to it. […] I don't 
think that California has fully prepared to face the realities of these 
events," says Swain.

Climate change is increasing the risk of a California megaflood, Swain's 
study warns. This extreme storm scenario would produce runoffs 200-400% 
greater than anything seen before in the Sierra Nevada, the sprawling 
400-mile (650km) mountain range that traverses 24 of the 58 counties in 
California.

The last such megaflood happened in 1861, inundating a 300 mile-long 
(483km) stretch of the Central Valley and large portions of modern-day 
Los Angeles with water. It could happen again, any time. And, the 
extremity of such a flood is increased by around 10% per 1C of global 
warming, because the warmer the planet the more capacity the atmosphere 
has to hold water vapour.

"Imagine that what's unfolded over the past 48 hours [in California], 
just kept recurring for weeks. That's the kind of scenario we're talking 
about," says Swain.

It's difficult to quantify this kind of event, but one noticeable 
incident from 2023 that stands out is Tulare Lake, an ancient lake bed 
that was drained in the 1920s for agriculture. In March, the dry lake 
began to refill due to the atmospheric river storms that pummelled the 
state. Heavy farm machinery, orchards, and entire warehouses sunk 
beneath the water, a kind of modern-day farmyard Atlantis.

The intense rainfall in 2023 also caused landslides and floods that 
devastated entire communities, killed at least 22 people, and caused 
billions in damage. These kinds of extreme weather events 
disproportionately impact people of colour and low-economic status, like 
those in Pajaro, a community in Monterey County, which was flooded after 
a levee, a type of flood wall, failed.

The flooding in Southern California that occurred in January 2024 
reiterated the vulnerability of these groups.

"San Diego flooding two weeks ago showed again that disadvantaged 
communities bear the brunt of flood impacts when infrastructure is 
overtopped," says Brett Sanders, professor of civil and environmental 
engineering at the University of California, Irvine. "If this storm ends 
up causing mainstem flood channels to overtop, then once again there 
will be low-income communities impacted, leaving people scrambling to 
salvage their belongings and find a place to live while not losing their 
job from missed work."

What California has experienced so far though, is nothing compared to 
what might be in store for the region. "I don't think we can point to 
recent events as a good indicator of the impacts to come," says Swain, 
"because these events will be far, far greater – larger, higher impact 
and more dangerous than what we're seeing now."

The state is beginning to experience what scientists are calling 
"hydroclimate whiplash" – essentially the climate veering wildly between 
extreme dryness, and extreme wetness. The swings of the pendulum will 
become greater as the climate warms, increasing these kinds of weather 
events – meaning Californians will need to adapt to both a drier, and 
wetter, world.

https://bbc.com/future/article/20240207-climate-change-will-bring-a-megaflood-to-california

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240207-climate-change-will-bring-a-megaflood-to-california

- -

/[ Mega Flood report from 2013 Scientific American ]/
*The Coming Megafloods*
Huge flows of vapor in the atmosphere,
dubbed “atmospheric rivers,” have unleashed massive floods
every 200 years, and climate change could bring more of them
By Michael D. Dettinger and B. Lynn Ingram
https://cw3e.ucsd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Dettinger_Ingram_sciam13.pdf



/[ important for anyone living near a drilling site - DW production]/
*Ticking time bombs - What risk do abandoned oil and gas wells pose? | 
DW Documentary
*DW Documentary
Jan 31, 2024  #dwdocumentary #documentary
The extraction of gas and oil poses a greater threat than previously 
thought. Leaks at disused drilling sites can trigger an environmental 
disaster at any time. If toxic substances escape, human lives are at risk.

Oil companies invest little in securing the former boreholes. 
Environmental activists are among the few on the lookout for this 
invisible danger: Of the 20 to 30 million former drilling sites 
worldwide, only a few are regularly and carefully monitored. From the 
North Sea to the Alsace region in France to the USA, abandoned 
extraction sites can be silently causing significant harm to both the 
environment and human health.

Take Bradford, USA: Here, several residents fell ill with mysterious 
symptoms including hair loss and nosebleeds. Eventually, medical doctor 
Jeffrey Nordella discovered they were all suffering from chronic benzene 
exposure caused by methane and crude oil. The substances had escaped 
over a long period of time from a disused borehole. Elsewhere, gas 
explosions from leaking production facilities cause enormous damage.

In many countries, oil and gas companies are legally obliged to seal 
abandoned wells immediately. However, the implementation and monitoring 
of these regulations is sporadic. Activists and whistleblowers are 
constantly trying to draw attention to this abuse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PicwnxJgd_k



/[Time magazine comes to the rescue ]/
*7 Ways to Deal With Climate Despair*
Forget climate anxiety: many people are in flat-out climate despair. 
About two-thirds of Americans (65%) report being worried about global 
warming, according to a January report from the Yale Program for Climate 
Communication. One in 10 say they've recently felt depressed over their 
concerns for the planet, and a similar percentage describe feeling on 
edge or like they’re unable to stop worrying about global warming.

No wonder more people are seeking care from climate-aware therapists. 
Some go to therapy to figure out whether they should have kids in the 
age of rapid climate change. Others are dealing with post-traumatic 
stress disorder from natural disasters or are burned out from advocacy work.
But if the threat is existential, is there value in sorting out how you 
feel about it? “The very first step is full validation,” says Leslie 
Davenport, a climate psychology educator and author of books including 
Emotional Resiliency in the Era of Climate Change: A Clinician's Guide. 
“Things like, ‘This makes so much sense, I hear you, I understand, let’s 
talk about this more.’” Understand that it's not irrational to be full 
of worry, rage, fear, guilt, or grief when the planet's on fire.

Here, climate-aware therapists share their most effective coping 
strategies for going from overwhelmed to empowered.

*Talk about it.*

Climate change tends to get the religion-and-politics treatment—people 
avoid talking about it, says Carol Bartels, a therapist based in Long 
Beach, Calif. “But we need to talk about it,” she adds. “We need to know 
that other people are feeling the same.”

Join a climate café—discussion spaces, both online and in-person, where 
people can talk freely about their fears and other feelings related to 
climate change. Or try the Good Grief Network, a peer-support group that 
follows a 10-step approach to help people process any type of grieving, 
including for the planet.

*Use your connections.*

Research suggests that the lonelier and more socially isolated someone 
feels, the higher their levels of climate distress. Finding your people 
can help. Join local land-restoration efforts, get involved with 
community gardening, or stop by your favorite park’s clean-up day. “A 
lot of the messaging we get is very individualist, like, ‘Stop driving 
so much,’” says Jenni Silverstein, a licensed clinical social worker 
based in Santa Rosa, Calif., an area that’s been ravaged by wildfires. 
“Those actions are valuable, but this is a collective situation, and 
collective responses are where we have power.” We accomplish more with 
others than we do by ourselves, she adds.

If you’re struggling to find a like-minded community, think about where 
you already have a foot in the door. If you work in the medical field, 
for example, ask your colleagues if they want to help start an 
initiative for reduced waste, Davenport suggests, or your department 
could oversee a new rooftop garden. “You have some influence—you’re 
already part of a community,” she says. “If each of us engaged in the 
places where we’re already active, it would make a huge difference.”

*Analyze your carbon footprint.*

Some people cope with climate distress by distancing themselves from the 
problem—they ignore it, hoping it will go away, says Dr. Lise Van 
Susteren, a psychiatrist in Washington, D.C., who co-founded the Climate 
Psychiatry Alliance. It’s more effective to “take the energy of all 
those emotions and redirect them into constructive action,” she says, 
and that starts with analyzing your own carbon footprint. Online 
calculators can help you determine the total amount of greenhouse gases 
generated by your actions. It can also be helpful to simply take 
inventory of your habits, Van Susteren points out: Could you walk or 
bike instead of driving to work? What about cutting CO2 emissions by 
taking the train instead of an airplane? “Be honest with yourself so you 
can understand both the opportunities and challenges,” she advises.

*Share your views.*

This is no time for humility. Make sure everyone around you knows what 
you’re doing to combat climate change, says Van Susteren. “What 
motivates people is not our independence—we follow the crowd." Someone 
might not make green choices in the interest of future generations, but 
will do it if everyone else is. So post about your advocacy work or the 
trees you planted on Facebook, and tell whoever you’re standing next to 
at parties.
If you’re surrounded by people who don’t appear to prioritize the 
environment as much as you do, lead by example rather than trying to 
change their minds, Bartels advises. She grows fruits and vegetables and 
shares them with her neighbors, for example—even the ones who don't care 
about climate-friendly lifestyles. If they ask about her garden, she 
explains how to get started. “Getting angry with people does zero good,” 
she says. “It’s important to keep the dialogue open. When we make 
enemies out of people who could be our allies, we’re making a grave 
mistake.”
*Make it a family affair.*

Some research suggests that climate change is especially affecting young 
people’s mental health. If your kids are coming to you with concerns, 
listen to and validate them, Van Susteren says. Then get imaginative 
about how your whole family can take action together. If your kids are 
young, “you’re not going to talk about climate tipping points, but you 
can say, ‘Let’s plant a garden, let’s clean up a park. Let’s show Mother 
Earth that we care about her.’”

Middle-schoolers like to do things with their community, she adds, so 
consider banding together to raise money to install solar panels at the 
school. Older teens might like to start or join climate clubs; if they 
express interest in going to a protest, ask if they’d like you to tag 
along, or if you can help them get there. “You can also have family 
meetings and say, ‘We’ve taken your feelings seriously, and we’ve 
decided as a family that these are some of the things we can do,’” Van 
Susteren suggests. For example, “‘That’s why we’re not going to fly off 
here or fly out there; we’re going to get a hybrid instead and drive 
through the Shenandoah and camp out and look at the stars.’” Brainstorm 
activities or changes that will help you all feel like you’re making a 
difference.

*Get artsy.*

Making art can help people regulate and work through their emotions, 
says Ariella Cook-Shonkoff, a psychotherapist based in Berkeley, Calif., 
who specializes in art therapy and eco-therapy. “You’re doing patterned, 
repetitive movements and getting into a flow state," she says. "It’s 
calming.” Try it in the natural world—by sketching in front of the ocean 
or on a bench in the woods, for example.

She often challenges clients to use colors, shapes, and lines to express 
how they’re feeling at that moment. You might be surprised at what comes 
out on the paper; art is a way of tapping into thoughts you didn’t even 
realize you had, Cook-Shonkoff says. As you study your finished work and 
try to make sense of its meaning, you might gain a deeper understanding 
of how you’re really feeling. “You can start to distill those emotions 
and be able to communicate them with other people,” she says. “There’s a 
lot of dialogue that can happen.”

*Savor time outside.*

Spending time outside in green spaces benefits well-being—though 
Davenport acknowledges it can be complex. You go to your favorite lake, 
but it’s closed because there’s toxic algae growth caused by warm water. 
A hike in the woods in the dead of winter is lovely, but the 
unseasonable warmth unnerves you. “Love and grief are two sides of the 
same coin,” she says. It’s worth pushing through the challenging 
feelings, she says, “because doing so can renew your sense of why it’s 
important to fight for this.”

https://time.com/6589649/climate-despair-how-to-cope/


/[The news archive -  ]/
/*February 8, 2015 */
February 8, 2015:
The Los Angeles Times reports:

    "State lawmakers are preparing a sweeping package of bills that
    would fulfill several of Gov. Jerry Brown's climate change
    objectives by increasing California's reliance on renewable energy
    and alternative transportation fuels.

    "The proposals would also require state pension funds, the two
    largest public systems in the country, to divest from coal
    companies. And they would create an advisory committee aimed at
    turning energy policies into new jobs.

    "The introduction of the bills on Tuesday will kick-start months of
    contentious negotiations among lawmakers, oil companies, utilities,
    environmental advocates and the governor. If the measures pass,
    California will embark on a 15-year mission to spur investment in
    clean technology, slash the amount of gasoline used on state roads
    and boost energy efficiency in thousands of aging buildings.

    "Overall, the legislative package largely reflects environmental
    targets detailed by Brown in his inaugural address last month."

http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-climate-change-20150208-story.html 




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