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<font size="+2"><i><b>December 1, 2021</b></i></font><br>
<br>
<i>[ Old shape idea is new ] </i><br>
<b>Spherical Solar Cells - doubling the power output of flat PV
panels!</b><br>
Nov 28, 2021<br>
Just Have a Think<br>
Solar panels are highly sensitive to what you might call
'sub-optimal' conditions...wrong angle of the sun, scattered
sunlight, dust & sand, too much heat - all these things diminish
the panels ability to generate power. But now a research team reckon
they've overcome all those problems by creating a spherical version
of the common solar PV panel. So, is this a practical proposition
for the real world?<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuDLfW3-DT4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuDLfW3-DT4</a><br>
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<i>[ The rain in Spain - moves north </i><i> ]</i><br>
<b>Rain to replace snow in the Arctic as climate heats, study finds</b><br>
Climate models show switch will happen decades faster than
previously thought, with ‘profound’ implications<br>
Damian Carrington Environment editor<br>
@dpcarrington<br>
30 Nov 2021<br>
- -<br>
Even if the global temperature rise is kept to 1.5C or 2C, the
Greenland and Norwegian Sea areas will still become rain dominated.
Scientists were shocked in August when rain fell on the summit of
Greenland’s huge ice cap for the first time on record.<br>
<br>
The research used the latest climate models, which showed the switch
from snow to rain will happen decades faster than previously
estimated, with autumn showing the most dramatic seasonal changes.
For example, it found the central Arctic will become rain dominated
in autumn by 2060 or 2070 if carbon emissions are not cut, instead
of by 2090 as predicted by earlier models.<br>
<br>
The implications of a switchover were “profound”, the researchers
said, from accelerating global heating and sea level rise to melting
permafrost, sinking roads, and mass starvation of reindeer and
caribou in the region. Scientists think the rapid heating in the
Arctic may also be increasing extreme weather events such as floods
and heatwaves in Europe, Asia and North America by changing the jet
stream...<br>
- -<br>
In the central Arctic, where you would imagine there should be
snowfall in the whole of the autumn period, we’re actually seeing an
earlier transition to rainfall. That will have huge implications.
The Arctic having very strong snowfall is really important for
everything in that region and also for the global climate, because
it reflects a lot of sunlight.”<br>
<br>
Prof James Screen of the University of Exeter in the UK, who was
part of the research team, said: “The new models couldn’t be clearer
that unless global warming is stopped, the future Arctic will be
wetter, once-frozen seas will be open water, rain will replace
snow.”...<br>
- -<br>
Prof Richard Allan, at the University of Reading in the UK, who was
not involved in the research, said: “Exploiting a state-of-the-art
set of complex computer simulations, this new study paints a
worrying picture of future Arctic climate change that is more rapid
and substantial than previously thought. This research rings alarm
bells for the Arctic and beyond.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/30/rain-replace-snow-arctic-climate-heats-study">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/30/rain-replace-snow-arctic-climate-heats-study</a><br>
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[ Opinion in Slate ] <br>
<b>The U.S. Government Is Wasting Billions on Wildfire Policy That
Doesn’t Work</b><br>
BY AARON LABAREE - NOV 30, 2021<br>
“There’s this war metaphor in fire,” says Stephen J. Pyne, former
MacArthur fellow and author of more than 30 books on fire (as well
as several pieces for Slate on fire policy). According to Pyne, the
metaphor is tragically apt. “If this is a war, we’re gonna spend a
lot of money, we’re gonna take a lot of casualties, and we’re gonna
lose.”...<br>
- -<br>
The costs of running a fire camp, however, pale in comparison to
those of fire aviation. One payload of fire retardant from a DC-10
costs almost $60,000 to deliver. During a major fire, these planes
can make several drops a day. The Type 1 helicopters used by Cal
Fire and the Forest Service run more than $3,000 an hour. The costs
are not just financial. Aviation is probably the most dangerous
aspect of firefighting: Six of the 10 deaths on wildland fires in
2020 were the result of air crashes. Phos-Chek, the most commonly
used type of chemical fire retardant, has been shown to be toxic to
fish when dropped in streams and rivers. And despite the enormous
efforts on the air and ground, most megafires barely respond to
human intervention. “All the lines and all the aerial support for
fire lines, during the Dixie and Caldor fires, failed to stop fire
spread,” says Pyne. But when a fire is burning thousands of acres a
day and choking cities with smoke, politicians feel they have little
choice but to call in air support.<br>
<br>
“The alternative, to kind of stand around and watch it go, is not
very palatable,” says Jim Furnish, who served as deputy chief of the
Forest Service from 1999 to 2002. “It’s not a good look for the
agency. You have to at least give some impression that you’re doing
everything you can. But the sad truth is that sometimes doing
everything you can is having little or no effect on the outcome.”...<br>
- -<br>
With more public investment in these protections, says Furnish, we
can have a less apocalyptic relationship with fire.<br>
"If you could combine Firewise with wildland-urban interface
investments,” he says, “that is the menu to try to manage your way
through this. You’re gonna have to live with the phenomenon of a lot
of fire on the landscape. But you’re gonna reduce the damage.”<br>
<br>
It will be hard to commit to this approach unless society takes a
different attitude toward fire.<br>
<br>
“Most Americans live in urban environments where fire is not wanted
and only appears as a disaster,” says Pyne. “And they project that
over the countryside. But living with fire means it’s going to be
there, it needs to be there.”<br>
<br>
In the meantime, fire services will continue to throw money,
equipment, and even lives into fighting unfightable blazes. One
firefighter who worked at fire camps for nearly 20 years remembers
the frustration.<br>
<br>
“I’d see these signs that said ‘Thank you heroes,’ and it didn’t
feel heroic to me,” he says. “People are making really desperate
choices, deciding to do a firing operation or to use air tankers,
and a lot of that stuff is Hail Marys because nothing’s working.
There’s a huge amount of waste. We’re spending billions of dollars,
and it’s too late.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://slate.com/technology/2021/11/fire-industrial-complex-wildfire-policy-suppression.html">https://slate.com/technology/2021/11/fire-industrial-complex-wildfire-policy-suppression.html</a><br>
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<i>[ examining the hot regions -- 60° C = 140° F ]</i><br>
<b>What Does 60˚ C Mean for the Middle East?</b><br>
Hitting temperatures close to 60˚C over the coming decades would be
disastrous for the region.<br>
Global warming is an established ongoing threat, and the Middle East
is warming at twice the global average. This summer, Oman, the UAE,
Saudi Arabia and Iraq have experienced temperatures surging above
50˚C. It is quite plausible that temperatures could rise closer to
60˚C over the coming decades. This would be truly disastrous for the
region, translating into more heatwaves along with extreme drought
or extreme precipitation in some areas as well as rising sea levels
or wildfires...<br>
- -<br>
One sector in the economy that would struggle the most is
agriculture. Exposure to high temperatures could cause losses to
agricultural production as heat stress negatively affects plant
growth and animal productivity. Over time, heat stress is likely to
increase vulnerability to disease and reduce dairy output. According
to a 2018 UNDP report, crop production in the Middle East region is
expected to drop by 30% in case of 1.5˚C-2˚C warming by 2025.
Additionally, extremely high temperatures might aggravate an already
bad situation in this sector...<br>
- -<br>
Similarly, the tourism sector in the Middle East would lose a
significant share of the market due to climate change. In 2018,
tourism contributed $270 billion to the region’s GDP, or around 9%
of the economy. In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, as
of 2020, the tourism sector had, on average, a 13% share of the GDP.
Although the pandemic has slowed down travel, the sector is now
attempting to recover.<br>
<br>
The impact of climate change on the sector could be irreversible. In
Jordan, the Dead Sea, which used to attract some 1.5 million
visitors every year, now welcomes just a few thousand after it had
shrunk by almost a third due to low rainfall and high temperatures.
Alexandria, in Egypt, home of one of the Seven Wonders of the World
as well as a storied library, faces flooding, building collapse and
loss of life as a result of sea-level rise...<br>
- -<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.fairobserver.com/region/middle_east_north_africa/dr-saad-shannak-60c-temperature-rise-middle-east-global-warming-climate-change-adaptation-economy-news-99182/">https://www.fairobserver.com/region/middle_east_north_africa/dr-saad-shannak-60c-temperature-rise-middle-east-global-warming-climate-change-adaptation-economy-news-99182/</a>
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<i>[ Cut the stinger off first, add lots of butter, tastes a bit
like crab ]</i><br>
<b>Nobody Mentioned Scorpions: Global Warming’s Secondary Effects
Sting</b><br>
Climate change doesn’t just mean calamity. It also means endless
hassles<br>
By Leslie Kaufman <br>
November 30, 2021...<br>
“It is not just the event that is going on but the event that
preceded it,” said Jeff Masters, a former hurricane scientist who
now is an author for Yale Climate Connections... But humans and the
systems they create are intricately interconnected and we are
beginning to acutely feel downstream effects of climate change.<br>
- -<br>
Let us not forget the scorpions. It seemed almost biblical when a
rare storm caused sudden floods in Egypt in mid-November and forced
the tiny stinging insects en masse from their burrows. The result
was hundreds of stings in the city of Aswan... <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-30/climate-change-brings-insect-plagues-and-christmas-shortages">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-30/climate-change-brings-insect-plagues-and-christmas-shortages</a><br>
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[ an ancient city of modern flooding ]<br>
<b>COP26: Flooding lessons from Hull, a city below sea level</b><br>
By Tom Airey<br>
BBC News<br>
Published 12 November<br>
As COP26 ends and world leaders sign off on big picture promises,
speakers from the city of Hull were among those having their say at
the climate conference. One of several global cities deemed at
severe risk from flooding, it was there to share the innovative
measures it is using in the hope of keeping its head above water.<br>
<br>
Paul Tempest was among thousands of people who had to flee their
homes when Hull was hit by almost biblical floods in 2007.<br>
<br>
"We saw the water rising in the garden, then while trying to
barricade the doors with sandbags the carpet in the hallway started
to rise beneath your feet," he says.<br>
<br>
"Water was coming through the air bricks, filling the void and the
floorboards. Then everything started to rise."<br>
<br>
He was unable to return to his house in the Cottingham area for a
year. Thankfully, his home has not been flooded since. But after a
storm surge battered the city in 2013, the threat of further misery
from rising water levels is an ever-present worry for many in
Hull...<br>
- -<br>
The first came in 2007 during the UK's wettest summer on record.
Surface water and river flooding affected more than 55,000 homes and
businesses across the country.<br>
<br>
About one-fifth of those were in Hull.<br>
<br>
Thousands were evacuated from their homes on 25 June when the city's
drainage systems were overwhelmed by the deluge. Michael Barnett,
28, died from hypothermia after he became trapped in a storm drain.
Nearly all of the city's 98 schools were damaged, with total flood
repair costs across Hull put at more than £40m...<br>
- -<br>
Six years later, in 2013, Hull was hit by a different type of flood,
when a storm surge combined with high spring tides to create record
water levels along coastlines and in tidal rivers.<br>
<br>
The 5 December surge caused 400 properties to flood, with the River
Hull's tidal surge barrier - which prevents water moving upstream
from the Humber Estuary - coming within 0.40m (1ft 4ins) of being
overwhelmed.<br>
<br>
Something more needed to be done. Over the course of 10 years after
the 2007 flood, "different agencies spent hundreds of millions of
pounds on pumping, drainage, flood defence," says Lee Pitcher, from
the Living With Water partnership. But Hull remained the second most
at-risk place in the country...<br>
- -<br>
The Shorelines Project, a group which commissions climate
change-related murals across the city, says their often provocative
pieces may help people consider not only their own lives but those
of generations to come.<br>
<br>
"It's about sparking a discussion but it's also about being hopeful,
it's about making decisions that believe in future generations
having a future," says project director Naomi Luhde-Thompson.<br>
<br>
Prof Parsons says: "It's not about a 'Venice of the north' type
narrative, there are ways we can manage the risk that are
sustainable and lead to a long, prosperous future for Hull but we
need to embrace the solutions and bring the communities with us."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-59208096">https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-59208096</a><br>
<p>- -<br>
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[ from nature geoscience ]<br>
Published: 29 November 2021<br>
<b>Marsh resilience to sea-level rise reduced by storm-surge
barriers in the Venice Lagoon</b><br>
Davide Tognin, Andrea D’Alpaos, Marco Marani & Luca Carniello <br>
Nature Geoscience (2021)Cite this article<br>
<br>
Abstract<br>
<blockquote>Salt marshes are important coastal habitats and provide
ecosystem services to surrounding communities. They are, however,
threatened by accelerating sea-level rise and sediment deprivation
due to human activity within upstream catchments, which result in
their drowning and a reduction in their extent. Rising seas are
also leading to an expansion of coastal flooding protection
infrastructures, which might also represent another serious if
poorly understood threat to salt marshes due to effects on the
resuspension and accumulation of sediment during storms. Here, we
use observations from the Venice Lagoon (Italy), a back-barrier
system with no fluvial sediment input recently protected by
storm-surge barriers, to show that most of the salt-marsh
sedimentation (more than 70% in this case) occurs due to sediment
reworking during storm surges. We also prove that the large, yet
episodic storm-driven sediment supply is seriously reduced by
operations of storm-surge barriers, revealing a critical
competition between the objectives of protection against coastal
flooding and preservation of natural ecosystems. Without
complementary interventions and management policies that reduce
barrier activations, the survival of coastal wetlands is even more
uncertain.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00853-7">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00853-7</a><br>
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[ UK climate refugees - text and video ]<br>
<b>‘A human catastrophe’: The UK’s first climate refugees refuse to
leave</b><br>
By Ben Anthony Horton with AP - 29/11/2021 - <br>
Like many who come to Fairbourne, Stuart Eves knew this coastal
village in northern Wales was home for life when he moved here 26
years ago.<br>
<br>
He soon fell in love with the slow pace of life in the 700-strong
community, nestled between the rugged mountains of Snowdonia and the
Irish Sea.<br>
<br>
That changed suddenly in 2014, when authorities identified
Fairbourne as the first coastal community in the United Kingdom to
be at high risk of flooding due to climate change.<br>
<br>
Anticipating both rising sea levels and extreme storms, the
government said it could only afford to keep defending the village
for another 40 years.<br>
<br>
By 2054, officials say it will no longer be safe to live in
Fairbourne at all.<br>
<br>
Since the announcement, villagers have been encouraged to comply
with a process of ‘managed realignment’ - a fancy term for
abandoning the village to the encroaching sea.<br>
<br>
House prices have nosedived drastically and villagers have become
inundated with unwelcome media attention.<br>
<br>
Seven years on, most of their questions about the future remain
unanswered.<br>
"When they first told us that the village was going to flood, it was
rather devastating news because it means that everything you worked
for you're going to lose," says Stuart, who owns a caravan park in
Fairbourne.<br>
<br>
"Most people when they buy a property, they expect to see it mature
and grow in money. For the people of the village of Fairbourne,
everything they have bought they're going to watch demise and end up
being worthless."<br>
<br>
Why is the village so vulnerable to climate change?<br>
The Welsh village is particularly susceptible to climate change
because it faces multiple sources of flooding, according to Natural
Resources Wales, the government-sponsored organisation responsible
for sea defences in Fairbourne.<br>
<br>
Built in the 1850s on low-lying saltmarsh, Fairbourne already lies
beneath sea level at high spring tide. During storms, the tidal
level can reach more than 1.5m above the village.<br>
<br>
Scientists estimate that sea levels have risen by ten centimeters in
the past century. As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise,
these levels could exceed one metre by the year 2100.<br>
<br>
"With climate change happening and sea levels rising, it means that
we would have to add an extra level of protection continuously in
order to maintain the level of risk as it is at the moment,” says
Sian Williams, head of operations for Natural Resources Wales's
northwest division.<br>
<br>
"As time goes forward that becomes much more expensive to do and
there will be a point where the cost of maintaining [the village]
becomes higher than the cost of what is protected by the defences
there."<br>
Despite these alarming figures, many villagers in the tight-knit
community are refusing to budge.<br>
<br>
"I'll be staying here,” says Alan Jones, owner of the local fish and
chip shop.<br>
<br>
“The fryers will be on and that will be it. Until water actually
comes in here and we physically can't work, we'll carry on.”<br>
<br>
Becky Offland recently took on the lease of the Glan Y Mor Hotel.
Like many other residents, she remains hopeful that the authorities
will continue to pay for flood defences beyond 2054.<br>
<br>
"It'll bring a lot more financial support to our village and the
businesses here, so there won't be any reason to close us down. We
will stay, we will."<br>
<br>
Stuart is less optimistic.<br>
<br>
"If they want us out by 2054, then they've got to have the
accommodation to put us in,” says the caravan park owner.<br>
<br>
"What you have here is a human catastrophe albeit on a small scale.
It's just emotional and people are going to lose what they've worked
all their life for."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/11/29/a-human-catastrophe-the-uk-s-first-climate-refugees-refuse-to-leave">https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/11/29/a-human-catastrophe-the-uk-s-first-climate-refugees-refuse-to-leave</a><br>
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[ Woman travels by bicycle, collecting stories ]<br>
<b>New book tells 1,001 firsthand stories of climate change from
around the world</b><br>
‘1,001 Voices on Climate Change’ aims to humanize the issue and
inspire action.<br>
by YCC TEAM<br>
NOVEMBER 30, 2021<br>
Evidence of climate change is all around us. But when presented in
data and graphs, it can feel disconnected from real life.<br>
<br>
“It’s hard to understand exactly what a degree of temperature change
or a few millimeters of sea-level rise might mean to someone’s lived
experience,” says journalist Devi Lockwood.<br>
<br>
So she spent five years traveling the world, talking to people about
how rising seas and extreme weather affect their lives.<br>
<br>
An elder in the Arctic Canadian community of Igloolik told Lockwood
that melting sea ice makes it harder to hunt walrus and seal.<br>
<br>
A mother on the island of Tuvalu described how, during a drought,
she had to choose between using her water rations for drinking or
bathing her baby.<br>
<br>
And the son of farmers in Thailand explained that he moved to the
city to find work because erratic rainfall has made rice farming
less reliable.<br>
<br>
Lockwood collected these and other stories in her new book, “1,001
Voices on Climate Change.”<br>
<br>
“My hope is that reading this book makes people feel more connected
to the issues and better able to understand how climate change is
impacting people’s daily lives around the world,” she says.<br>
<br>
And she hopes that humanizing the issue can help inspire people to
get engaged and take action.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/11/1001-firsthand-stories-of-climate-change-from-around-the-world/">https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/11/1001-firsthand-stories-of-climate-change-from-around-the-world/</a><br>
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<br>
<p><i>[ areas of the state are flooding ] </i><br>
</p>
<p><b>Why some lawmakers are pushing for a Virginia flood board</b><br>
Increased flooding and an influx of carbon market dollars driving
legislative push<br>
BY: SARAH VOGELSONG - NOVEMBER 29, 2021 <br>
</p>
<p>With sea level rise and more frequent intense rainstorms putting
pressure on communities statewide, some Virginia officials are
again pushing for the creation of a state flood board. <br>
<br>
“People may dispute the cause, but I don’t think there’s any
dispute along party lines about what’s happening on the ground
across the commonwealth,” said Sen. Lynwood Lewis, D-Accomack. “So
the question is, ‘What are we going to do about it to deal with
it?’” <br>
<br>
Lewis, as well as a commission representing 17 local governments
in the flood-beset Hampton Roads region, is backing a proposal for
the 2022 General Assembly session to create a Commonwealth Flood
Board that they say would be akin to the Commonwealth
Transportation Board that regulates and funds state transportation
projects. Drafting of the legislation is already underway, said
Lewis. <br>
<br>
“We see this as very much of a bipartisan or nonpartisan issue and
something that’s definitely affecting the entire state, rural as
well as urban Virginia from severe southwest, Bristol, to Hampton
Roads to Alexandria,” Norfolk City Councilor Andria McClellan told
the state’s Joint Subcommittee on Coastal Flooding Nov. 22. <br>
<br>
Another subcommittee member, engineer Chris Stone, said a
technical advisory committee on coastal resilience convened by
Gov. Ralph Northam last November also intends to recommend that a
flood board be created. <br>
<br>
The idea isn’t new. Lewis sponsored a similar proposal during the
2021 legislative session but withdrew it from consideration
because he said “some of the advocates for it felt the idea wasn’t
ready for primetime.” A separate proposal for a statewide
hurricane and flood risk protection authority from Del. Jason
Miyares, R-Virginia Beach — soon to become Virginia’s next
attorney general — also failed to make it out of committee. <br>
<br>
This year could be different, say advocates...<br>
- -<br>
Between federal infrastructure dollars and funding from the
Federal Emergency Management Administration and U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, resiliency spending is expected to ramp up in the
coming years as climate change’s impacts become more visible and
pervasive. Virginia will be an attractive candidate for funding:
flooding increasingly plagues the state’s coast, and the Hampton
Roads region is experiencing what scientists say is the fastest
rate of sea level rise on the East Coast. <br>
<br>
“All of these funding buckets are coming down and we just need a
coordinated effort,” said McClellan. “And that’s the goal of a
commonwealth flood board.” <br>
<br>
Both she and Lewis said legislation could also bring some of DCR’s
current functions such as dam safety under the proposed board’s
purview. <br>
<br>
With Republicans prepared to take control of the executive branch
and the House of Delegates this January, any flood board proposal
will need to gain bipartisan support. <br>
<br>
Republicans largely opposed Virginia’s participation in the RGGI
market, blocking Democratic efforts through the budget process in
2019 and voting against authorizing language in 2020. While House
Republican spokesperson Garren Shipley did not return a call about
whether that chamber would seek to roll back the program, the
effort would face an uphill climb: RGGI is already funnelling
millions to flooding and energy efficiency projects statewide, and
the Democrat-controlled Senate is unlikely to support repeal. A
small handful of Republicans, including Sen. Jill Vogel of
Fauquier, also broke party ranks in 2020 to vote in favor of RGGI
participation. <br>
<br>
Del. Keith Hodges, R-Urbanna, said Tuesday that “at this time I
don’t know what the future of RGGI would be in Virginia.” ...<br>
- -<br>
“I think we can craft some bipartisan support on the House side,”
said Lewis. “Certainly anyone in Hampton Roads should be sort of
reticent or reluctant to go against any flooding projects.”<br>
</p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/11/29/general-assembly-expected-to-again-consider-state-flood-board-proposal/">https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/11/29/general-assembly-expected-to-again-consider-state-flood-board-proposal/</a><br>
</p>
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<br>
<i>[ finite fresh water here -- where I live ]</i><br>
<b>Cascades heading toward a future with little to no snowpack, new
analysis suggests</b><br>
By Bradley W. Parks (OPB)<br>
Bend, Ore. Nov. 3, 2021 5 a.m.<br>
The Pacific Northwest could see little to no annual snowpack by the
2070s, according to a new analysis of scientific research.<br>
Annual snowpack will no longer be a guarantee in the Pacific
Northwest if global warming continues unchecked.<br>
<br>
Peak annual snowpack in the Cascade Mountains could decline by
nearly a quarter by 2050 and up to nearly three-quarters by the end
of the century, according to a new analysis from the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory.<br>
<br>
Research scientist and co-author Alan Rhoades said the lab hopes to
elevate snowpack loss as one of the American West’s foremost climate
issues alongside things like sea level rise and the worsening
wildfire season.<br>
<br>
“This is one of the grand challenges both scientifically and
societally for the Western U.S. in the coming decades,” Rhoades
said. “And it has large implications for water management and also
just mountain ecosystems.”<br>
<br>
In the Northwest, snow accumulates in the mountains from late fall
through early spring to form snowpack. In the best of times, that
snow melts slowly and evenly over the course of the summer,
providing water to drink, grow food, temper wildfires, and sustain
plant and animal life before the cycle repeats the following winter.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.opb.org/article/2021/11/03/snowpack-cascades-climate-change/">https://www.opb.org/article/2021/11/03/snowpack-cascades-climate-change/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<i>[ Too far into the future - but important to notice ] </i><br>
<b>A low-to-no snow future and its impacts on water resources in the
western United States</b><br>
Erica R. Siirila-Woodburn, Alan M. Rhoades, Benjamin J. Hatchett,
Laurie S. Huning, Julia Szinai, Christina Tague, Peter S. Nico,
Daniel R. Feldman, Andrew D. Jones, William D. Collins & Laurna
Kaatz <br>
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 2, pages800–819
(2021)Cite this article<br>
Abstract<br>
<blockquote>Anthropogenic climate change is decreasing seasonal
snowpacks globally, with potentially catastrophic consequences on
water resources, given the long-held reliance on snowpack in water
management. In this Review, we examine the changes and
trickle-down impacts of snow loss in the western United States
(WUS). Across the WUS, snow water equivalent declines of ~25% are
expected by 2050, with losses comparable with contemporary
historical trends. There is less consensus on the time horizon of
snow disappearance, but model projections combined with a new
low-to-no snow definition suggest ~35–60 years before low-to-no
snow becomes persistent if greenhouse gas emissions continue
unabated. Diminished and more ephemeral snowpacks that melt
earlier will alter groundwater and streamflow dynamics. The
direction of these changes are difficult to constrain given
competing factors such as higher evapotranspiration, altered
vegetation composition and changes in wildfire behaviour in a
warmer world. These changes undermine conventional WUS water
management practices, but through proactive implementation of soft
and hard adaptation strategies, there is potential to build
resilience to extreme, episodic and, eventually, persistent
low-to-no snow conditions. Federal investments offer a timely
opportunity to address these vulnerabilities, but they require a
concerted portfolio of activities that cross historically siloed
physical and disciplinary boundaries.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-021-00219-y">https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-021-00219-y</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[The news archive - looking back]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming
December 1, 1987</b></font><br>
<p>December 1, 1987: During a Democratic presidential debate on NBC,
Rep. Richard Gephardt states that the US must work with the Soviet
Union on addressing international environmental issues such as the
ozone layer and greenhouse gas emissions, noting, “The problem
we’ve had with these issues is not that we don’t know what to talk
about; the problem we’ve had is that America hasn’t been a
leader.”<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?20-1/Presidential">http://www.c-span.org/video/?20-1/Presidential</a> (25:10—26:03)<br>
</p>
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