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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>November 2, 2020</b></font></i></p>
[makes hurricanes bigger]<br>
<b>'Moderate to strong' La Nina weather event develops in the
Pacific</b><br>
By Matt McGrath - Environment correspondent<br>
A moderate to strong La Nina weather event has developed in the
Pacific Ocean, according to the World Meteorological Organization
(WMO).<br>
<br>
The naturally occurring phenomenon results in the large scale
cooling of ocean surface temperature,<br>
<br>
This La Nina, which is set to last through the first quarter of
2021, will likely have a cooling effect on global temperatures.<br>
<br>
But it won't prevent 2020 from being one of the warmest years on
record.<br>
La Nina is described as one of the three phases of the weather
occurrence known as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).<br>
<br>
This includes the warm phase called El Nino, the cooler La Nina and
a neutral phase.<br>
- - <br>
One important aspect of La Nina is the effect it could have on the
remainder of the Atlantic hurricane season.<br>
<br>
A La Nina event reduces wind shear, which is the change in winds
between the surface and the upper levels of the atmosphere. This
allows hurricanes to grow.<br>
<br>
The hurricane season ends on 30 November and so far there have been
27 named storms. This is more than the 25 predicted by the US
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) earlier this
year.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54725970">https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54725970</a><br>
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</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Axios summary]<br>
<b>The fall of an empire</b><br>
Felix Salmon, author of Capital<br>
The decline of ExxonMobil has been remarkable in its magnitude and
unexpectedness.<br>
<br>
<b>Why it matters:</b> While all major oil companies are facing
troubles, Exxon has fallen the farthest, in large part because it
has made the biggest bets on oil and gas — and the smallest bets on
renewable energy.<br>
<br>
<b>- While rival BP</b> has recently promised to get to zero net
emissions by 2050, Exxon has been doubling down on fossil fuels with
moves like a spectacularly ill-timed $41 billion acquisition of XTO
energy in 2009 and its major expansion in the Permian Basin in 2017.<br>
<b>Driving the news:</b> Exxon reported a loss of $680 million in
the third quarter of this year, bringing its losses for 2020 as a
whole up to $2.37 billion. (In 2008, by contrast, it made a profit
of $46 billion.)<br>
<br>
<b>- The company</b> also announced it would shed up to 15% of its
workforce over the next two years, including roughly 1,900 U.S.
layoffs, mostly at its Houston HQ.<br>
<b>- By the numbers:</b> Exxon and Mobil combined had 390,000
employees in 1980. By 2017, that number had shrunk to less than
70,000.<br>
<b>Losses and layoffs</b> notwithstanding, Exxon is still spending
roughly $15 billion on sending a $3.48-per-share dividend to
shareholders this year.<br>
<br>
<b>- Few if any analysts</b> believe such a payout is sustainable.
"We have doubts about the sanctity of the dividend longer-term,"
Edward Jones analyst Jennifer Rowland told Reuters.<br>
<b>Flashback: </b>The oil giant was the largest company in the
world, measured by market value, as recently as 2013.<br>
<br>
<b>- A 700-page corporate biography</b> by Columbia University
journalism dean Steve Coll was entitled "Private Empire" and
compared the company's power and reach to that of the United States
itself.<br>
<b>- When CEO Rex Tillerson</b> became U.S. Secretary of State in
2017, it was not obvious that he was gaining power or influence.<br>
The big picture: Today, ExxonMobil is not even in the top 40 most
valuable companies in America. It's losing money, cutting staff, and
stretching to maintain an unsustainable dividend.<br>
<br>
<b>- The oil giant's market capitalization</b> of $137 billion makes
it smaller than Zoom ($139 billion), and only about a third of the
size of electricity-powered Tesla ($385 billion).<br>
<b>- NextEra Energy</b>, a power company with huge renewables
assets, is also worth more than ExxonMobil.<br>
<b>- The most valuable company</b>, Apple, is worth roughly 14
ExxonMobils.<br>
<b>Exxon has lost 54% of its value</b> this year alone. That's some
$163 billion. By contrast, Chevron is down 42%, or $95 billion,
while NextEra is up 23%, or $26 billion.<br>
<br>
<b>My thought bubble: </b>A decade ago, ExxonMobil was making
strategic decisions on a timescale of 50 years or more. Today, it
has been reduced to desperate short-term attempts to prop up the
share price by paying a multi-billion-dollar dividend even when it's
losing money.<br>
<br>
<b>- Analysts aren't convinced</b> that tactic is working. "Every
time you pay a dividend you can't afford," said Doug Leggate,
Merrill Lynch's head of U.S. oil and gas, on Friday's earnings call,
"your share price is going down."<br>
<b>The bottom line:</b> As King George III so memorably put it in
the musical Hamilton, "Oceans rise, empires fall."<br>
<br>
- ExxonMobil might be the first empire to fall as a result of global
climate change. It won't be the last.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.axios.com/the-fall-of-an-empire-56b9a744-aef6-4f33-b6d3-3d774bbd5c86.html">https://www.axios.com/the-fall-of-an-empire-56b9a744-aef6-4f33-b6d3-3d774bbd5c86.html</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Up around from Down Under]<br>
<b>Smoke cloud from Australia's wildfires was three times larger
than anything previously recorded</b><br>
Bill Gabbert - November 1, 2020<br>
Smoke from the summer of 2019-2020 blocked sunlight from reaching
Earth to an extent never before recorded from wildfires<br>
graph -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/SAOD-perturbation-686x900.jpgResearchers">https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/SAOD-perturbation-686x900.jpgResearchers</a>
with the University of <br>
Saskatchewan's Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies are part
of a global team that has found that the smoke cloud pushed into the
stratosphere by last winter's Australian wildfires was three times
larger than anything previously recorded.<br>
The cloud, which measured 1,000 kilometers across, remained intact
for three months, travelled 66,000 kilometers, and soared to a
height of 35 kilometers above Earth. The findings were published in
Communications Earth & Environment, part of the prestigious
Nature family of research journals.<br>
<br>
"When I saw the satellite measurement of the smoke plume at 35
kilometers, it was jaw dropping. I never would have expected that,"
said Adam Bourassa, professor of physics and engineering physics,
who led the USask group which played a key role in analyzing NASA
satellite data...<br>
- -<br>
The measurement technique, proven by Canadian scientists including
Bourassa over a decade ago, measures the sunlight scattered from the
atmosphere back to the satellite, generating a detailed, image of
layers in the atmosphere.<br>
<br>
The stratosphere is typically a "pretty pristine, naturally clean,
stable part of atmosphere," Bourassa said. However, when
aerosols–such as smoke from wildfires or sulphuric acid from a
volcanic eruption–are forced up into the stratosphere, they can
remain aloft for many months, blocking sunlight from passing
through, which in turns changes the balance of the climate system.<br>
<br>
While researchers have a general understanding of how these smoke
clouds form and why they rise high into the stratosphere, Bourassa
said more work needs to be done to understand the underlying
mechanisms.<br>
<br>
Researchers will also be comparing their findings from Australian
wildfires with satellite data captured from California wildfires
this past summer and fall.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/11/01/smoke-cloud-from-australias-wildfires-was-three-times-larger-than-anything-previously-recorded/">https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/11/01/smoke-cloud-from-australias-wildfires-was-three-times-larger-than-anything-previously-recorded/</a>
<p>- - </p>
[Source]<br>
<b>The 2019/20 Australian wildfires generated a persistent
smoke-charged vortex rising up to 35 km altitude</b><br>
Communications Earth & Environment volume 1<br>
<b>Abstract</b><br>
<blockquote>The Australian bushfires around the turn of the year
2020 generated an unprecedented perturbation of stratospheric
composition, dynamical circulation and radiative balance. Here we
show from satellite observations that the resulting
planetary-scale blocking of solar radiation by the smoke is larger
than any previously documented wildfires and of the same order as
the radiative forcing produced by moderate volcanic eruptions. A
striking effect of the solar heating of an intense smoke patch was
the generation of a self-maintained anticyclonic vortex measuring
1000 km in diameter and featuring its own ozone hole. The highly
stable vortex persisted in the stratosphere for over 13 weeks,
travelled 66,000 km and lifted a confined bubble of smoke and
moisture to 35 km altitude. Its evolution was tracked by several
satellite-based sensors and was successfully resolved by the
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts operational
system, primarily based on satellite data. Because wildfires are
expected to increase in frequency and strength in a changing
climate, we suggest that extraordinary events of this type may
contribute significantly to the global stratospheric composition
in the coming decades.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-00022-5">https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-00022-5</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
November 2, 2009 </b></font><br>
<p>Katie Couric interviews Al Gore for her CBSNews.com program
"@KatieCouric."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/rDmY2jXYOag">http://youtu.be/rDmY2jXYOag</a><br>
</p>
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