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I wonder: As the earth's temperature continues to rise, will the orange color of Donald Trump's skin become more intense? He won't notice, though. He'll be too busy getting coal miners back to work.
Major climate report describes strong risk of crisis as early as 2040
The New York Times, Oct 7 2018
A landmark report from the United Nations' scientific panel on climate change paints a far more dire picture of the immediate consequences of climate change than previously thought and says that avoiding the damage requires transforming the world economy at a speed and scale that has "no documented historic precedent."
The report, issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders, describes a world of worsening food shortages and wildfires and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040 — a period well within the lifetime of much of the global population.
The report "is quite a shock and quite concerning," said Bill Hare, an author of previous IPCC reports and a physicist with Climate Analytics, a nonprofit organization. "We were not aware of this just a few years ago." The report was the first to be commissioned by world leaders under the Paris agreement, the 2015 pact by nations to fight global warming.
The authors found that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, the atmosphere will warm up by as much as 2.7° Fahrenheit (1.5° Celsius) above preindustrial levels by 2040, inundating coastlines and intensifying droughts and poverty. Previous work had focused on estimating the damage if average temperatures were to rise by a larger number, 3.6° Fahrenheit (2° Celsius), because that was the threshold scientists previously considered for the most severe effects of climate change. The new report, however, shows that many of those effects will come much sooner, at the 2.7° mark.
Avoiding the most serious damage requires transforming the world economy within just a few years, said the authors, who estimate that the damage would come at a cost of $54 trillion. But while they conclude that it is technically possible to achieve the rapid changes required to avoid 2.7° of warming, they concede that it may be politically unlikely.
President Trump, who has mocked the science of human-caused climate change, has vowed to increase the burning of coal and said he intends to withdraw from the Paris agreement. And today in Brazil, the world’s seventh-largest emitter of greenhouse gas, voters appeared on track to elect a new president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has said he also plans to withdraw from the accord.
The report was written and edited by 91 scientists from 40 countries who analyzed more than 6,000 scientific studies. The Paris agreement set out to prevent warming of more than 3.6° above preindustrial levels — long considered a threshold for the most severe social and economic damage from climate change. But the heads of small island nations, fearful of rising sea levels, had also asked scientists to examine the effects of 2.7° of warming.
Absent aggressive action, many effects once expected only several decades in the future will arrive by 2040. The report concludes that the world is already more than halfway to the 2.7° mark. Human activities have caused warming of about 1.8° since about the 1850s, the beginning of large-scale industrial coal burning.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/to...5m5y?ocid=AMZN
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Extreme heat could kill millions of people in the next 20 years. Here is today's Scripture: "The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God." -- Revelation 16:8-9, New International Version
Global warming: How you can help the environment right now
CBS News, Oct 9 2018 7:28 AM
Scientists say climate change is getting worse and there could be "life-or-death" consequences for our planet in the next 20 years. The new report from the UN predicts that at the current warming rate, millions more people will die from extreme heat by the year 2040. There will also be substantial loss of coral reefs and a rise of sea levels that could wipe out small island nations like the Bahamas and the Maldives. Ninety-one scientists from 40 countries in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change wrote the 728-page report.
So are there practical ways we can help limit the warming? According to New York Times international climate reporter Somini Sengupta, the answer is yes: Drive less and try to carpool or use public transit instead. Buy less clothing, as apparel and footwear industries contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, or buy vintage and clothes made from recycled fabric. Replace air conditioners and refrigerators with ones that save energy and reduce hydrofluorocarbons. Have less demand for products that lead to deforestation, including meat, timber, soy and palm oil.
The report highlights how the world needs "rapid and far-reaching" changes in energy systems, land use, city and industrial design, transportation and building use. It also suggests shifting away from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/global-...an-do-to-help/
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Climate change provided high-octane fuel for Hurricane Michael
CBS News, Oct 13 2018 2:59 PM
Sometimes connecting climate change to a specific weather event is difficult. With Hurricane Michael, it's not. The science is easy: Earth's waters are getting warmer due to an increasing global temperature, and warmer waters fuel hurricanes.
Water temperatures in the far northern Gulf of Mexico were 3 to 5 degrees higher than normal for this time of year. Instead of water temperatures being near 80, they were in the mid-80s as Michael moved over the gulf and approached the Florida coast. That's a huge difference. Even a small temperature bump in the ocean causes a tremendous addition of energetic heat and water vapor to a storm, meaning higher wind speeds and more storm surge. All other things being equal, a storm hovering above 85-degree water will become much stronger than a storm hovering above 80-degree water.
Ocean heat has been accumulating due to global warming. In fact, the latest United Nations Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change report said 93% of the excess heat produced by human-caused global warming is now stored in our oceans. As a result, Michael -- a powerful Category 4 storm -- shattered late-season records. Hurricane Michael is the strongest storm on record to make US landfall in October. It was also the strongest landfall on record for the Florida Panhandle.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate...icane-michael/
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it's getting increasingly difficult -- and politically risky -- for Republican Congressmen to continue supporting and defending the Trump administration. Witness:
Senators concerned as Trump official disputes UN climate change warning
https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-...s-reverberates
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This case is supposed to go to trial October 29. If the Supreme Court doesn't halt it and the kids win, Donald Trump's goal of putting all the coal miners back to work could be in jeopardy. What's more important, having clean air to breathe or returning our nation to a dependency on coal?
Justice Department asks Supreme Court to toss kids' climate change lawsuit
The suit was filed in 2015 by a group of young people who said the government violated their right to 'a climate system capable of sustaining life.'
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...awsuit-n921786
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When I first read the headline about "sucking carbon dioxide out of the air," I pictured everyone on earth standing outside sucking on straws. Carbon dioxide prevents heat from leaving the atmosphere. Reducing CO² emissions will not reverse the damage that's already been done. To reverse the damage, "direct air capture" facilities are sucking carbon dioxide out of the air. It can then be stored, buried or used in the manufacture of fuel, plastics and other products. Four of these plants are already in operation (in Italy, Canada, Switzerland and Iceland) and more facilities will be built -- so we can all put our straws away.
We're altering the climate so severely that we'll soon face apocalyptic repercussions. Sucking carbon dioxide out of the air could save us.
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-...apture-2018-10
CO²-sucking factories could anchor a new, clean economy
https://www.fastcompany.com/90255654...-clean-economy
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Rising ocean temperatures accelerate the melting of glaciers and sea ice, accelerate the bleaching of coral reefs and greatly intensify hurricanes and tropical cyclones. That's the bad news. Here is worse news:
Oceans have absorbed more heat than previously thought, study finds
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oceans-...t-study-finds/
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This lawsuit was filed during Obama's Presidency and the Trump administration is trying to block it. Today the tilted-toward-Trump Supreme Court refused to block the lawsuit but suggested, hey, maybe the 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals will block it. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the federal government, by doing nothing about climate change, is causing children and youth to suffer "irreparable harm which worsens as each day passes with more carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere and oceans."
Supreme Court won't block children's climate change lawsuit
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/02/polit...urt/index.html
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Amy Martin, founder and executive producer of Public Radio International's Threshold program, calls the tiny village of Shishmaref, which sits on an island, "ground zero for climate change in the Arctic." Storms, erosion and receding sea ice are causing the island to shrink. Many Arctic communities face similar danger. In 2016, Obama established a program to help them deal with the effects of global warming. When Trump -- who ignores all the evidence and insists global warming is a hoax -- took office, he abolished Obama's program. All Trump needs now is a goofy "Make Alaska Melt" cap.
An Alaskan village is falling into the sea. Washington is looking the other way.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/an...Jxs5?ocid=AMZN
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Human-caused greenhouse gases trap heat in our atmosphere. As much as 90% of that heat is absorbed by oceans -- and ocean temperatures in 2018 are at an all-time high. The extra heat leads to more poweful hurricanes and an accelerated melting of sea ice. In turn, the sea level is gradually rising. Prepare for Jackson, Montgomery, Richmond, Atlanta and Sacramento to be coastal cities some day.
Three reports sound the alarm on warming oceans
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/3-repor...arming-oceans/
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Santa Claus may have to get his summer clothes out of storage.
Lack of snow in Lapland, Santa's official home, triggers holiday woe
CNN, Nov 22 2018
As thousands of families prepare to take their children on a magical journey to meet Santa Claus in his Lapland home, some holidaymakers are concerned that the winter wonderland may be missing a crucial element: snow. Unseasonably high temperatures have struck Finland's far north, and the region's main tourist attraction -- Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, near the Arctic Circle -- has seen just a few centimeters of patchy snowfall.
Northern Lapland typically receives 20 to 30 centimeters of snow by the end of November and it is usually snow-covered for around 175 days a year. But concerns are mounting that rising temperatures may wreak havoc on the region's critical winter tourism industry -- the annual "Santa season." Several British tour operators have already canceled excursions or entire flights, offering customers refunds or alternative dates
The unusual conditions are causing concern for officials, as the region witnessed its warmest day on record in July this year, reaching 32.2° Celsius.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/new...YUa1?ocid=AMZN
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Contrary to popular belief (and a speech in the movie Chinatown), the city of Los Angeles was not built in a desert. Los Angeles County is semi-arid and has a Meditteranean climate, as per the Köppen Climate Classification system. An editorial in today's Los Angeles Times, however, notes that the effects of climate change -- droughts, wildfires and dwindling lakes and rivers -- could gradually turn L.A. into a desert.
L.A. wasn't built in the desert but the desert may be coming to us
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/edit...123-story.html
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Climate change, which the President of the United States of America dismisses as a "hoax," is causing droughts, flooding and stronger hurricanes. It is causing an increase in allergic illnesses and food-borne and water-borne diseases. It is harming food production and water resources. It is putting ocean and marine species at risk. It is extending the range of disease-carrying insects. Climate change is not a hoax. Our own government (with the exception of Donald Trump) says so.
New government report reveals staggering economic and health toll of climate change
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate...ge-2018-11-23/
National Climate Assessment 2018
https://nca2018.globalchange.gov
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Two days ago, Trump (who is a chronic capital-letter abuser) tweeted: "Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS - Whatever happened to Global Warming?" Chad Myers, a meteorologist who worked at WXYZ-Channel 7 in Detroit before joining CNN in 1999, set him straight:
Meteorologist: Climate is long-term, not one-day
After President Donald Trump tweet incorrectly suggested cold temperatures discredited global warming,
CNN meteorologist Chad Myers shows one cold mass does not have a global reach.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/...k-in-politics/
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Perhaps we could relocate all our nation's lighthouses to Omaha, Nebraska, where they would be safe from rising seas -- at least for a few years.
Rising sea levels are threatening historic lighthouses
The Associated Press, Nov 22 2018
Rising seas and erosion are threatening lighthouses around the US and the world, including those in low-lying areas being inundated by water as well as those on bluffs or cliffs being eroded by storms and rising sea levels. "It's happening faster than anybody had predicted," said Jeff Gales, executive director of the US Lighthouse Society in Hansville, Washington.
While some of the lighthouses continue to be relied upon for navigation, others have been supplanted by more modern technology and are treasured more for historical and tourism purposes. Climate change hastened by manmade greenhouse gases is not only melting polar ice, adding to sea levels, but the warmer waters are expanding and some land formations sinking. Rising seas have already forced the relocation of several lighthouses. Others were lost to storms or rising seas.
https://www.apnews.com/eb546214d3794f83b7230cc0ece730d1
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rewind
Millions of Americans are feeling blue and seeing red because of what the President with the orange skin did on Black Friday:
Al Gore, environmental groups, activists blast Trump administration for trying to 'bury' climate change report by releasing it on Black Friday
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate...rt-2018-11-23/
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The Atlantic just published an essay about the 2018 Climate Assessment. Why, they ask, was the report not published as soon as it was completed? Obviously, someone in our government knew the report had to be released but delayed the release until today, when he thought it wouldn't draw so much attention. Now who could that person be? Hmm. Here is an excerpt from the story:
A grave climate warning, buried on Black Friday
The Atlantic, Nov 23 2018
On Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, the federal government published a massive and dire new report on climate change. The report warns, repeatedly and directly, that climate change could soon imperil the American way of life, transforming every region of the country, imposing frustrating costs on the economy and harming the health of virtually every citizen.
Most significantly, the National Climate Assessment, which is endorsed by NASA, NOAA, the Department of Defense and 10 other federal scientific agencies, contradicts nearly every position taken on the issue by President Donald Trump.
Where the President has insisted that fighting global warming will harm the economy, the report responds: Climate change, if left unchecked, could eventually cost the economy hundreds of billions of dollars per year and kill thousands of Americans to boot. Where the President has said the climate will "probably change back," the report replies: Many consequences of climate change will last for millennia and some (such as the extinction of plant and animal species) will be permanent.
The report is a huge achievement for American science. It represents cumulative decades of work from more than 300 authors. Since 2015, scientists from across the US government, state universities and businesses have read thousands of studies, summarizing and collating them into this document. By law, a National Climate Assessment like this must be published every four years.
Why was this report dumped on the public on Black Friday, when most Americans care more about recovering from Thanksgiving dinner than they do about adapting to the grave conclusions of climate science? Indeed, who ordered the report to come out today? It’s a good question.
The report is blunt: Climate change is happening now, and humans are causing it. "Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities," declares its first sentence. Since 1901, the United States has warmed 1.8°. Heat waves now arrive earlier in the year and abate later than they did in the 1960s. Mountain snowpack in the West has shrunk dramatically in the past half century. Sixteen of the warmest 17 years on record have occurred since 2000.
This trend "can only be explained by the effects that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, have had on the climate," the report says.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/...friday/576589/
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Ice cider is a fermented beverage made from the juice of frozen apples that are harvested in winter. Frozen apples have a higher concentration of sugar and thus the cider has a higher alcohol content than cider made the traditional way. Global warming may eventually cause the demise of Canada's ice cider industry, eh?
Ice cider revived Canada's apple industry. It could soon disappear because of global warming.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-cid...lobal-warming/
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A few people still refuse to believe climate change is real. Those people don't know beans!
Illinois soybean farmer witnesses effects of climate change in ruined crops
CBS News, Nov 26 2018
At his soybean farm in Versailles, Illinois, Jim Benham says 20 acres of crops have been ruined this year by excessive rain – a casualty of climate change. "It's like chewing gum; they're just too wet," he said of the soybeans too soggy to harvest — they'd turn to paste if he tried. The 67-year-old farmer says he doesn't need a PhD to know things have changed. "When we have a rain event, we're not getting an inch; we're getting two and three and four inches," Benham said. "It doesn't take a scientist to know you have a problem. It's what I'm experiencing."
Scientists agree. A new government report says manmade climate change is already wreaking havoc on the US and it will only get worse in the coming decades. In the Fourth National Climate Assessment, issued Friday, 13 federal agencies warn that climate change "will reduce Midwest agricultural productivity to levels of the 1980s." The report also warns of more destructive Western wildfires, longer heat waves in the Southeast and more powerful Atlantic hurricanes. It says climate change could shrink the US economy by hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/illinoi...-ruined-crops/
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Our Ignoramus-In-Chief will never accept that climate change is real unless Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte or Mohammed bin Salman tell him it's real. He won't believe anything his own government tells him but he trusts the world's dictators 100%.
Trump buried a climate change report because 'I don't believe it'
CNN, Nov 26 2018 4:04 PM ET
President Donald Trump today dismissed a study produced by his own administration, involving 13 federal agencies and more than 300 leading climate scientists, warning of the potentially catastrophic impact of climate change. Why, you ask? "I don't believe it," Trump told reporters, adding that he had read "some" of the report.
This shouldn't be surprising. Trump's views on climate change at this point are very, very well established. Eight years ago, he tweeted this: "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive." In 2014, he penned this tweet: "It's late in July and it is really cold outside in New York. Where the hell is GLOBAL WARMING??? We need some fast! It's now CLIMATE CHANGE." Trump has repeatedly dismissed the idea of global warming and/or climate change.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/polit...nge/index.html
