[✔️] Jan 4, 2024 Global Warming News | Use AI, Luke, Whiplash, Wikipedia, Too much happiness, 20 Cities most and least, Best & worse, 2 doomsters talking, End of Suburbs, 1996 we knew.

Thu Jan 4 09:34:18 EST 2024

/*January*//*4, 2024*/

/[ "Use the force (of AI), Luke"  -- audio report ]/
*4 ways AI can help with climate change, from detecting methane to 
preventing fires*
JANUARY 2, 2024
By Julia Simon
Lots of industries have embraced artificial intelligence as a tool this 
past year, including climate solutions companies. From detecting 
pollution to wildfires, companies are finding AI can help translate vast 
amounts of climate-related data faster and more efficiently, says Sasha 
Luccioni, climate lead for AI company Hugging Face.Luccioni notes it's 
important to be cautious about whether AI is always necessary. 
Generative AI, which makes new content, can use large amounts of energy 
and have a big carbon footprint. But she says there are many 
applications for AI in the green transition.Here are four ways 
companies, researchers and governments are using AI for climate solutions.

*Using AI to detect planet-heating methane*
Methane emissions, the second biggest contributor to global warming 
after carbon dioxide, are climbing. The highly potent pollutant - the 
main ingredient in natural gas - gets released by the energy sector, as 
well as agriculture, and decomposing material in landfills.
Now researchers and companies are using AI to interpret huge quantities 
of satellite images to track global methane emissions on a daily basis.

"Before we could mine satellite information with AI, we had no idea 
where methane was coming from," says Antoine Halff, co-founder and chief 
analyst at Kayrros, a climate analytics firm, "We understood the climate 
risk that this represented. But there was no understanding of the sources."

When Kayrros began in 2016, Halff says the world knew about only a 
handful of occurrences of large methane leaks and other releases. He 
says now his team can detect dozens of them every week and thousands per 
year. "For methane," Halff says, "AI really reveals things that could 
not be known."

Kayrros's AI-fueled data is being used by the United Nations to verify 
that companies' reports on methane emissions are accurate. Other 
governments are gearing up for more methane monitoring: the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency and the European Union recently passed 
new methane regulations...
Because methane is so potent, targeting it through AI makes strategic 
sense, Halff says. "If you eliminate methane emissions today," he says, 
"you can very quickly have an impact on the curve of global warming."

*Using AI for early detection of forest fires*
Climate change is driving more frequent and intense wildfires, and those 
burns are making up an increasing share of planet-heating pollution.

Now a Berlin-based startup is using AI with sensors in forests to find 
small burns before they spread into megafires. Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO 
of Dryad, uses AI to train sensors to detect the specific gasses that 
get released when organic material burns.

"They're basically like an electronic nose that we embed in the forest," 
Brinkschulte says.
The nose-like sensors can detect the fires early in the smoldering 
stage, "when it's still easy or relatively easy to extinguish the fire," 
he says.

The company has 50 sensor installations from the Middle East to 
California. Last month in Lebanon sensors reacted to a small fire within 
30 minutes, Brinkschulte says.

*Using AI to prevent new wildfires*
Another way to stop megafires is to set "controlled burns" outside of 
fire season to remove the excess brush and vegetation that become fuel 
for fires.

Typically, so-called burn managers–who are people from utilities, the 
federal forest service or other entities–deploy teams to designated 
areas to set controlled burns. (Native tribes have a long history of 
making these controlled burns.)

But to do the work safely, burn managers need lots of information to 
know how the fire might behave so it doesn't spin out of control. They 
need to know things like the wind conditions and amount of moisture in 
the vegetation, says Yolanda Gil, director for strategic AI and data 
science initiatives at the Information Sciences Institute at the 
University of Southern California.
After interviewing fire scientists, Gil and their team used AI to create 
a so-called intelligent or smart assistant – like Apple's Siri or 
Amazon's Alexa – that can access vast data sets and complex models. Burn 
managers can use these Siri-like assistants to decide where and when to 
make controlled burns. "It's kind of like Siri, but for burn managers," 
Gil says.

Gil says burn managers can ask the smart assistant about a particular 
area. The assistant can take information about the topography, the 
vegetation, weather patterns and recommend a potential burn model – a 
way to make a safe controlled burn, Gil says. The goal, they say, is to 
make these assistants widely available for utilities, the forest service 
and others doing controlled burns to make them more safe and plentiful.

They plan to send out the first prototypes of the smart assistants in 
the coming months.

*Using AI in green tech mining*
Climate solutions from solar panels to electric vehicles require immense 
amounts of minerals like cobalt, lithium, and copper. But current 
supplies are not enough to meet growing demand. By 2030, projected 
lithium demand will be five times the current global supply, according 
to the International Energy Agency.

Now governments, researchers and companies are using AI to explore for 
critical minerals. Colin Williams, mineral resources program coordinator 
for the U.S. Geological Survey writes in an email that his team is using 
AI to analyze data to figure out which areas in the U.S. have the best 
potential for mining critical metals. He adds that using AI means 
"dramatic time savings."

There is a lot of data out there about what it looks like under the 
surface of the earth. Using AI to sift through all this data helps 
minimize uncertainty, Williams says. Because mining operations spend 
billions of dollars trying to find profitable areas to exploit, 
companies say using AI can help save a lot of time and money in locating 
minerals.
Companies all over the world – from Australian SensOre to 
California-based KoBold Metals – are now using AI to explore for 
minerals on several continents.
https://www.npr.org/2024/01/02/1218677963/ai-climate-change-solutions-fires-lithium-methane

/[ A new phrase for our language - a Weather Whiplash  ]/
*Increase in Weather Whiplashing Across the North Atlantic Ocean from 
Greenland to Europe*
Paul Beckwith
Jan 1, 2024
Many moons ago, I first coined the phrase “weather whiplashing” to 
describe wrenching changes from one weather extreme to another, and then 
often a return to the original state. Time scales for these shifts can 
be one year to the next, or one month to another, or even shorter.

For example, one summer we can have torrential rains over the 
Mississippi River regions leading to record flood levels and disruption 
of shipping and breaches of flood walls leading to extensive regional 
flooding. The next summer, we then have record setting widespread 
drought, and river levels so low that the US Army Corps of Engineers 
blasts rocks on the river floor to keep some commercial barge traffic 
operating. The third year, we again have torrential rains leading to new 
record high river levels and massive flooding exceeding that of the 
previous record flooding. That’s weather whiplashing on a year-to-year 
timeframe.

Alternately, we can have a record heat wave in early Spring causing all 
the buds to come out on plants. Then, a record cold snap can occur, 
killing all the buds. Rinse and repeat.

These weather whiplashing events are very destructive and cause huge 
economic losses to societies, and they are occurring more and more often.

A few years ago, Jennifer Francis and her colleagues studied what they 
called Weather Whiplashing Events (WWEs) over North America.

In this new paper that I chat about, they examine WWEs spanning between 
Greenland, the North Atlantic Ocean, and Europe.

As global warming continues to accelerate, the scientific analysis 
clearly shows associated increases in frequency and severity of Weather 
Whiplashing Events...

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

- -

/[ A new weather phrase for your TV forecaster -- Wikipedia article for 
Weather Whiplash ]/
*Weather whiplash*
- -
Weather whiplash was observed amid the 2022 European heat waves, which 
parched France in one of its worst ever recorded droughts and caused the 
driest July for decades in England, then broke with heavy rain and 
flooding,[6] and rains the same summer during the Southwestern North 
American megadrought.[3] In late 2022 and early 2023, the phenomenon 
again struck North America as record cold around Christmas receded into 
record heat in January,[7] which in early February became even more 
extreme cold across the Northeastern United States.[8] In the US state 
of California weather events swung from an extreme drought to flooding 
caused by atmospheric rivers.[1]

Weather whiplash can also bring false springs, or winter warm spells 
that conceal a freeze following them, and freak snowstorms early in the 
season; both can disrupt agriculture and the electrical grid.[9][10]

A study in 2018 found a likelihood both extremes of precipitation would 
increase in California, increasing the chances of very wet years 
following very dry years and vice versa.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_whiplash

/[ Where is happiness now?   Big question.  Audio lecture includes 
Harvard's Professor Dan Gilbert  ]/
*Why Our Brains Don't Fear Climate Change Enough | The Happiness Lab | 
Dr. Laurie Santos*
Dr. Laurie Santos
Jan 2, 2024  The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos
Humans are great at reacting to mortal danger... but only sometimes. 
Unfortunately, some risks to our safety and wellbeing don't set off 
alarm bells in our brains. Climate change falls into that category. Why 
is that?

Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert explains how some dangers trigger us, 
and some don't. In discussion with Dr Laurie Santos, he also outlines 
ways in which we can be made to care more about threats to the planet 
and maybe react to them in more positive, happiness-inducing ways.
#podcast #happiness #howtobehappy #climatechange

ABOUT DR. LAURIE SANTOS
Dr. Laurie Santos is Professor of Psychology and Head of Silliman 
College at Yale University. Professor and podcast host Dr. Laurie Santos 
is an expert on human cognition and the cognitive biases that impede 
better choices. Her course, “Psychology and the Good Life,” teaches 
students what the science of psychology says about how to make wiser 
choices and live a life that’s happier and more fulfilling. The class is 
Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years and has been adapted into a 
free Coursera program that has been taken by over 3.3 million people to 
date. Dr. Santos has been featured in numerous news outlets including 
the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, 
NPR, GQ Magazine, Slate, CNN and O, The Oprah Magazine. Dr. Santos is a 
winner of numerous awards both for her science and teaching from 
institutions such as Yale and the American Psychological Association. 
She has been featured as one of Popular Science’s “Brilliant 10” young 
minds and was named TIME’s “Leading Campus Celebrity.” Dr. Laurie Santos 
is the podcast host for The Happiness Lab, which launched in 2019 has 
over 35 million downloads.

ABOUT THE HAPPINESS LAB PODCAST
You might think you know what it takes to lead a happier life… more 
money, a better job, or Instagram-worthy vacations. You’re dead wrong. 
Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos has studied the science of happiness 
and found that many of us do the exact opposite of what will truly make 
our lives better. Based on the psychology course she teaches at Yale — 
the most popular class in the university’s 300-year history — The 
Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos will take you through the latest 
scientific research and share some surprising and inspiring stories that 
will change the way you think about happiness.

ABOUT PUSHKIN INDUSTRIES
Pushkin Industries is an audio production company dedicated to creating 
premium content in a collaborative environment. Co-founded by Malcolm 
Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg in 2018, Pushkin has launched seven new 
shows into the top 10 on Apple Podcasts (Against the Rules, The 
Happiness Lab, Solvable, Cautionary Tales, Deep Cover, The Last Archive, 
and Lost Hills), in addition to producing the hugely successful 
Revisionist History. Pushkin’s growing audiobook catalogue includes 
includes the innovative works from Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Lewis, 
Florence Williams, Michael Specter, Noah Feldman, Joshua Cohen, and 
more. Pushkin is dedicated to producing audio in any format that 
challenges listeners and inspires curiosity and joy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_MApcLUB8w

/[ List gathered by Planetizen ]/
*20 Major US Cities Most and Least Threatened by Climate Change*
By 2050, climate change will have the biggest negative impact on urban 
areas located in the Sun Belt.

January 1, 2024

By Mary Hammon
Online insurance marketplace Policygenius evaluated the 50 largest U.S. 
cities to determine which will be most and least impacted by climate 
change by 2050. The factors analyzed included heat and humidity, 
flooding and sea level rise, air quality, and frequency of natural 
disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, social 
vulnerability, and community resilience.
*Least Impacted:*

    San Francisco, California
    Seattle, Washington
    Columbus, Ohio
    Minneapolis, Minnesota
    Baltimore, Maryland
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    Portland, Oregon
    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    Richmond, Virginia
    Denver, Colorado

*Most Impacted:*

    Houson, Texas
    Miami, Florida
    Tampa, Florida
    Jacksonville, Florida
    Orlando, Florida
    New Orleans, Louisiana
    Los Angeles, California
    Memphis, Tennessee
    Riverside, California
    Virginia Beach, Virginia

Of the cities ranked most at risk, all are located in the Sunbelt, which 
often tops lists of the best places to move or retire. Eight of those 
are located in the South, which was the only region that drew net new 
residents from other states in 2023, according to data from the U.S. 
Census Bureau. Experts are concerned this trend will leave an increasing 
number of people, particularly Black communities and communities of 
color, vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change.
https://www.planetizen.com/news/2024/01/126892-20-major-us-cities-most-and-least-threatened-climate-change

- -
[ FULL STORY: Best & worst cities for climate change ]
*Best & worst cities for climate change*
The climate is changing, and it’s happening faster and with more 
dangerous consequences in some cities.
https://www.policygenius.com/homeowners-insurance/best-and-worst-cities-climate-change/#methodology

[ 2 popular doomerists in video conversation -- start about 25 min in ]
*Collapse Chronicles 2024 Kicks Off With a Conversation Between Eliot 
Jacobson and Sam Mitchell*
Collapse Chronicles
Jan 1, 2024  SANTA BARBARA
Ahhh, it's so great to be back in the Doomer saddle again after spending 
a few weeks in Never Never Lan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbB6m9RL-dI

/[ A classic documentary ]/
*The End of Suburbia - 52 minute documentary on peak oil*
endofsuburbia
Oct 26, 2006
"We're literally stuck up a cul-de-sac in a cement SUV without a 
fill-up" - James Howard Kunstler

Global oil peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us 
now,  Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of the future?   
This is a short version of "The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the 
Collapse of The American Dream", a documentary about the end of the age 
of cheap oil.

The complete 78-minute version of The End of Suburbia is available on 
DVD at www.endofsuburbia.com.  If you own the DVD, you are welcome to 
screen it to live audiences without permission, as long as it is not for 
profit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3uvzcY2Xug

/[The news archive - pretty smart for 1966 ]/
/*January 4, 1996 */
January 4, 1996: The New York Times reports:
"The earth's average surface temperature climbed to a record high last 
year, according to preliminary figures, bolstering scientists' sense 
that the burning of fossil fuels is warming the climate.

"Spells of cold, snow and ice like the ones this winter in the 
northeastern United States come and go in one region or another, as do 
periods of unusual warmth. But the net result globally made 1995 the 
warmest year since records first were kept in 1856, says a provisional 
report issued by the British Meteorological Office and the University of 
East Anglia.

"The average temperature was 58.72 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the 
British data, seven-hundredths of a degree higher than the previous 
record, established in 1990.

"The British figures, based on land and sea measurements around the 
world, are one of two sets of long-term data by which surface 
temperature trends are being tracked.

"The other, maintained by the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies 
in New York, shows the average 1995 temperature at 59.7 degrees, 
slightly ahead of 1990 as the warmest year since record-keeping began in 
1866. But the difference is within the margin of sampling error, and the 
two years essentially finished neck and neck.

"The preliminary Goddard figures differ from the British ones because 
they are based on a somewhat different combination of observations 
around the world.

"One year does not a trend make, but the British figures show the years 
1991 through 1995 to be warmer than any similar five-year period, 
including the two half-decades of the 1980's, the warmest decade on record.

"This is so even though a sun-reflecting haze cast aloft by the 1991 
eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines cooled the earth 
substantially for about two years. Despite the post-Pinatubo cooling, 
the Goddard data show the early 1990's to have been nearly as warm as 
the late 1980's, which Goddard says was the warmest half-decade on record.

"Dr. James E. Hansen, the director of the Goddard center, predicted last 
year that a new global record would be reached before 2000, and 
yesterday he said he now expected that 'we will still get at least a 
couple more' by then.

"Dr. Hansen has been one of only a few scientists to maintain 
steadfastly that a century-long global warming trend is being caused 
mostly by human influence, a belief he reiterated yesterday."

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/04/world/95-is-hottest-year-on-record-as-the-global-trend-resumes.html?pagewanted=print

=== Other climate news sources ===========================================
**Inside Climate News*
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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
=================================
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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 
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pick of the key studies published in the peer-reviewed journals.
more at https://www.getrevue.co/publisher/carbon-brief
==================================
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