• Copernicus – September 2021 was the 2nd warmest September recorded




Globally, the latest three Septembers are the warmest three in the data record. September 2021 was:

0.40°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average for September.

estimated to be the second warmest September, after September 2020, but only limited significance can be attached to the rankings of the four warmest Septembers (which include 2016 and 2019) as the four differ by less than 0.08°C in global average temperature.

Copernicus

In other news




This Nobel honors three pioneers in using physics to design increasingly sophisticated computer models used to simulate and project global warming.

Manabe, 90, for example, paved the way for the current generation of computer models run at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) in Princeton, New Jersey. While the Nobel Peace Prize has gone to climate scientists before, namely the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007, this is a different level of recognition.

The big picture: Hasselmann, 89, created a model that links together weather and climate and helped answer why climate models can be reliable despite weather being changeable and chaotic.

Parisi, 73, conducted research that makes it possible to understand and describe many different and apparently entirely random phenomena in physics and other scientific fields.




A major oil spill reached Huntington Beach in Southern California on Saturday, causing an emergency response to protect the region's ecology.

Huntington Beach spokesperson Jennifer Carey said the oil spill is believed to have originated from a pipeline that has dumped 126,000 gallons into the waters.

“We classify this as a major spill, and it is a high priority to us to mitigate any environmental concerns,” Carey was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times. “It’s all hands on deck.”

Workers moved to shut down the pipeline and retrieve as much of the oil as possible soon after the spill occurred, the Times noted.

As of Sunday morning, the ongoing spill had already surpassed the 2007 oil spill that affected San Francisco Bay when a cargo ship struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and 58,000 gallons leaked.

There were "significant ecological impacts" in Huntington Beach, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley tweeted.

"We’ve started to find dead birds & fish washing up on the shore," Foley tweeted, sharing photos of oil washing onto the beach.




The planet lost about 14% of its coral reefs between 2009 and 2018, a startling figure that reflects the dire threats to the iconic creatures as climate change continues to ravage sensitive ecosystems around the globe.

A new report, released Monday by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, found mass coral bleaching events linked to warmer temperatures remained the greatest threat to sensitive reefs. The study is the largest analysis of global coral reef health ever done, and includes observations along reefs in more than 70 countries over the last 40 years.

That 14% figure is staggering. Effectively, the loss amounts to about 4,500 square miles of reef, or more than all of the living coral off the coast of Australia, including the iconic Great Barrier Reef.




  • Which countries are historically responsible for climate change?





  • This is a big deal


Homeowners face new risks and costs

Property owners are now seeing the real, personal cost of climate change, as some homes are in danger of becoming increasingly expensive to insure — forcing property values to plummet and turning interested buyers away.

Starting this month, new National Flood Insurance Program policies will no longer include subsidized plans that for decades helped prop up home values in some of the most dangerous flood zones.

Existing policies may start to see changes in premiums in six months.

Why it matters: Housing development and population density patterns will change as parts of the country become virtually uninsurable due to more frequent extreme weather events and rising sea levels.

Catch up quick: Lower-valued homes have been paying more than their share of the risk than higher-valued homes, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency says it can now "equitably distribute premiums" based on individual property flood risk and home value.

In the past premiums were essentially based on just two numbers — the elevation of the home and the elevation of a 100-year-flood event, which is the height of water during a flood that has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year.

FEMA’s "Risk Rating 2.0," announced in April, incorporates more risk variables than previous methodologies, including flood frequency, flood types, distance to water sources, elevation and costs to rebuild.

The result: Older homes owned by less affluent people will be more likely to see premiums that are much higher compared to home values, says Rob Moore, director of the water and climate team at the Natural Resources Defense Council.: https://www.axios.com/climate-change...d7340da26.html


  • White House proposes reversing parts of Trump rewrite of bedrock environmental law implementation


The White House said in a statement that it would propose reversing parts of the Trump administration’s rollback of the implementation of a law called the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

NEPA requires the government to consider environmental impacts of major projects, and governs the construction of things like airports, highways, buildings and pipelines.

The changes announced Wednesday by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) are considered to be “Phase 1” and will restore provisions that had been in place for decades.

Specifically, it would seek to ensure that additional environmental implications are considered and give more flexibility to government agencies to consider project alternatives.: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-en...ite-of-bedrock