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  1. #6551
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    start this page off with some graphs. Seems they are a favorite to one


    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    Dr. Zeke Hausfather - A regular reminder not to read too much into short-term year-to-year temperature variability. We have not seen any meaningful "global cooling" since 2016 just like we did not see a thermageddon after 2011. Rather, we see consistent long-term warming driven by our CO2 emissions: https://twitter.com/hausfath/status/1478435521164578816



    Early data ranks 2021 as Earth's fifth warmest year




    Really_Bad_At_Names - RSS has released their December data for TLT, and it's the 4th hottest December (80°S-80°N) in recorded data set, making this the 6th hottest year, the hottest La Nina year.

    Added annual analysis and slopes; last 10 years slope, +0.361°C/decade. https://twitter.com/25_cycle/status/1479460551071780865


    Looking ahead.

    • Dr. Zeke Hausfather - With 2021 annual temperatures (nearly) in, it’s time for my first prediction of where 2022 will end up!


    I find that 2022 is most likely to be the 6th warmest on record, with a very small chance of being the warmest year on record and a small chance of below the 8th warmest. https://twitter.com/hausfath/status/1479518042702770177







    Just for fun………


    • Challenge to Biden Keystone XL revocation dismissed as moot


    A federal judge in Texas dismissed a challenge to Biden’s decision to revoke a key permit for the Keystone XL pipeline — saying that the case is moot since the project has already been canceled.

    Judge Jeffrey Brown cited a brief from pipeline owner TC Energy confirming that it was starting to remove the pipeline’s border-crossing segment and was expected to have done so by November.

    “The court takes TC Energy at its word that Keystone XL is dead. And because it is dead, any ruling this court makes on whether President Biden had the authority to revoke the permit would be advisory,” the Trump appointee wrote.

    “Thus, the court has no jurisdiction and the case must be dismissed as moot,” he added.

    On his first day in office, President Biden revoked a border crossing permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.

    The move spurred cheers from environmentalists who had long despised the project, which was slated to bring carbon-intensive tar sands oil from Canada to the U.S.

    But Biden’s move was criticized by numerous Republicans, who argued that it was an attack on fossil fuels.

    More than 20 states with Republican attorneys-general sued over the decision, but their suit was ultimately rejected on Thursday. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-en...missed-as-moot

  2. #6552
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Copernicus - December 2021 was the 6th warmest December on record



    2021 was the 5th warmest on record, but only marginally warmer than the years 2015 and 2018.



    Homepage | Copernicus




    2021 is almost complete & is close to but a little below the long-term warming, more so in S Hemisphere due to temporary cooling from La Niña https://twitter.com/TimOsbornClim/st...94915963826182



    About Tim Osborn: Timothy Osborn
    — University of East Anglia
    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

  3. #6553
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Australia has equalled its hottest day on record after a remote coastal town reported temperatures of 50.7C (123.26F).


    The temperature in Onslow, Western Australia, on Thursday matched a record set in 1962 in South Australia.


    Onslow and the surrounding areas could see records broken again with temperatures set to rise slightly on Friday.


    It comes after Western Australia reported large bushfires last month.


    One fire near Margaret River scorched through more than 6,000 hectares of land, forcing evacuations.


    The Bureau of Meteorology confirmed on Thursday that Onslow equalled the record at 14:26 local time (22:26 GMT).



    According to local media, the average temperature in Onslow at this time of year is 36.5C.
    The next post may be brought to you by my little bitch Spamdreth

  4. #6554
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    NOAA – December 2021 was the 5th warmest December recorded.



    2021 was the 6th warmest year recorded.



    National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

    • and a reminder (El Niño-Southern Oscillation ENSO)


    El Nino years/months are getting warmer. La Nina years/months are getting warmer. And Neutral years/months are getting warmer.



    • Dr. Zeke Hausfather - Remember back when everyone used to say "modern warming isn't that different from what happened in the 1930s"?


    Today we've seen twice as much warming since 1970 – and at a much faster rate – than we saw in the early 20th century. https://twitter.com/hausfath/status/1481707694637535235


    • Prof Richard Betts - The iconic @Keeling_curve graph shows the build-up of CO2 in the air has been accelerating

    1 ppm / year in 1960s - now nearly 2.5 ppm / year

    To track the IPCC scenario limiting global warming to 1.5°C long-term (SSP1-1.9) the rise needs to STOP in the early 2040s, then reverse https://twitter.com/richardabetts/st...83977889222656


    • Carbon Brief - Guest post: How the Keeling Curve will need to bend to limit global warming to 1.5C |

    @richardabetts @chrisd_jones

    Read here: Guest post: How the Keeling Curve will need to bend to limit global warming to 1.5C - Carbon Brief


    • Dr. Zeke Hausfather - Ocean heat content is our best measure of the impact of human activity on the climate; >90% of all heat trapped by greenhouse gases is absorbed by the oceans.


    In 2021, we saw the warmest ocean heat content since records began, >400 billion trillion joules higher than the 1940s. https://twitter.com/hausfath/status/1481013758113714179


    Another Record: Ocean Warming Continues through 2021 despite La Niña Conditions https://link.springer.com/article/10...376-022-1461-3



    In other news……

    • New Orleans fuel spill kills thousands of fish and other wildlife


    A diesel fuel spill that sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel into two artificial ponds just outside of New Orleans late last month has killed thousands of fish and other wildlife, according to local officials.

    A corroded pipeline operated by Collins Pipeline Co. ruptured a few hundred feet from the Mississippi near New Orleans. The spill was first discovered on Dec. 27 near a levee in St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans.

    The failed pipeline caused more than 300,000 gallons of diesel fuel to spill into the coastal wetland, contaminating soil and killing wildlife in the area.

    According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, more than 2,500 fish were killed, as well as 32 birds, 39 snakes, 18 turtles and several other animals.

    Meanwhile, officials collected close to 130 animals for cleaning and rehabilitation, including 75 alligators, 24 birds, 21 snakes and 12 turtles.

    Officials told Changing America in an email 28 animals have been rehabilitated and released into the wild, including 13 alligators, seven red eared sliders and six snakes, and more are expected to be released in the coming days.

    According to Nola.com, about 50,000 gallons of diesel has been recovered and cleanup efforts are ongoing.

    In October 2020, an inspection of the 42-year-old pipeline found external corrosion along a 22-foot section of the line in the same area where the spill occurred. The Associated Press reports repairs were delayed and the pipeline continued to be used following another inspection that determined the corrosion wasn’t severe enough to be fixed immediately. https://thehill.com/changing-america...usands-of-fish

    • Romanian president wants to add climate change curriculum to schools


    Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis wants the country’s children to learn more about the challenges of climate change and has proposed adding sections on climate change and other environmental issues to the national school curriculum to do so.

    “Education is one of the pillars of improving the response to climate change, as education leads to changes in human behavior, in the sense of a greater responsibility to protect nature and the future of society as a whole,” Iohannis said Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.

    On Tuesday, the president attended a meeting with Prime Minister Nicolae Cuica, Romania’s environment and education ministers along with nongovernmental organizations, teachers and students at the presidential palace. He also launched a public debate on the 141-page proposal, according to the outlet.

    Romania is ranked 36th on the Climate Change Performance Index, which measures the climate performance of 60 countries in the world that are responsible for over 90 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. is ranked 55th, after ranking closer to the bottom. https://thehill.com/changing-america...climate-change

  5. #6555
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Actions delivered today, not 2060.

    Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s Regular Press Conference on January 17, 2022


    "Xinhua News Agency:

    Juan Antonio Samaranch, Chairman of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, praised in an interview the steps taken to make the Beijing Winter Olympics green, saying it will be the greenest Games. Do you have any comment?

    Zhao Lijian:

    Just as Chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch said, one of the most distinctive features of this Beijing Winter Olympic Games is green and environment-friendly.

    All 26 venues in the three competition zones will be powered 100% by green energy for the first time in history, which means that Beijing will save 4.9 million tonnes of standard coal and reduce 12.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. It’s fair to say that China has fully acted on the philosophy of hosting a green Olympic Games. This is not only part of our effort to deliver on the promise of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, but also offering China’s solution, wisdom and contribution to the world on how to approach the relationship between man and nature as well as development and environmental protection. 

    Does anyone here know where the green electricity for the Winter Olympic venues comes from? (A journalist answered: Zhangbei.)

    That’s right. It’s from Zhangbei, Hubei Province. There is a folk saying in Zhangbei that “The gale blows once a year, lasting from spring to winter.”

    We have put in place the Zhangbei renewable energy flexible DC grid test and demonstration project to convert all that wind energy into clean electricity and transmit it to the three competition zones in Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou through the northern Hebei grid. Besides the Olympic venues, it also lights up numerous households in Beijing. It is a story of lighting up Beijing with Zhangbei wind power.

    The charm of a green Beijing Winter Olympics is also manifested by China’s sincere vision of “Sustainability for the Future”. I’ll give you another example. If you visit the Winter Olympic Forest Park in Zhangshanying, Yanqing district, you will see that many trees have their own QR code showing their unique identity. If you scan the codes, they will tell you that the trees were transplanted there when the competition venues were being built in Yanqing. With ex-situ conservation as a form of ecological compensation, we have kept the competition zone green and added a vivid footnote to the philosophy of hosting a green Olympics.

    In less than 20 days, the curtain will rise on the Beijing Olympics. The beautiful scroll of a green Olympics is gradually rolling out with more splendor to be revealed. Like all of you, I am looking forward to the Games with great expectation.

    Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s Regular Press Conference on January 17, 2022
    A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.

  6. #6556
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    ^Nice effort but………

    "These could be the most unsustainable Winter Olympics ever held. These mountains have virtually no natural snow."

    An evaluation of the sustainability of the Olympic Games | Nature Sustainability

    In other news…….


    • Dr. Robert Rohde - The first post-eruption satellite observations of the Tonga volcano are starting to appear.


    Still preliminary, but they suggest that too little SO₂ was released for this eruption to have a significant impact on global weather. https://twitter.com/RARohde/status/1482622634969948160

    • Jeff Masters - That plot shows a release of 62 kilotons of SO2. Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 released 20,000 kilotons; El Chicon of 1982, 7,000 tons. So the Tonga eruption needs to emit a lot more SO2 to reach the climate-cooling impact of those previous eruptions. https://twitter.com/DrJeffMasters/st...08075944505347




    Looking at 2022

    • Dr. Zeke Hausfather - Finally, we can use current conditions (and El Nino/La Nina forecasts) to estimate where temperatures will end up in 2022. Four different groups (including a new @CarbonBrief estimate) have projections for 2022, and the differ a fair bit!: https://twitter.com/hausfath


    Last edited by S Landreth; 18-01-2022 at 08:56 AM.

  7. #6557
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    • Met Office - 2021 continues warm global temperature series


    2021 was one of the seven warmest years on record, despite average global temperatures being temporarily cooled by successive La Niña events at either end of the year.

    The announcement is according to six leading international datasets consolidated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).


    The HadCRUT5 dataset is compiled by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia, with support from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research. HadCRUT5 is the most recent dataset to report its global findings for 2021. It shows that the year was 0.76 ± 0.04 °C above the 1961-1990 average, placing it joint sixth warmest (with 2018). When compared with the pre-industrial global reference period, the year was 1.1 ± 0.1 °C above the 1850-1900 average. This aligns extremely well with figures already published by other international centres.

    Dr Colin Morice, of the Met Office, said: “2021 is one of the warmest years on record, continuing a series of measurements of a world that is warming under the effects of greenhouse gas emissions.

    Prof Tim Osborn, of the University of East Anglia, said: “Each year tends to be a little below or a little above the underlying long-term global warming. Global temperature data analysed by the Met Office and UEA's Climatic Research Unit show 2021 was a little below, while 2020 had been a little above, the underlying warming trend. All years, including 2021, are consistent with long-standing predictions of warming due to human activities.”

    In other news………..





    The Peruvian government has asked for international support in responding to an oil spill off the coast of Lima that it called the city’s “worst ecological disaster” in recent history, as crude continued to wash onto beaches nearly a week after waves triggered by Tonga’s volcano eruption disrupted operations at a local refinery.

    The environment ministry estimated some 6,000 barrels of crude had spilled into a biodiverse swath of Peru’s Pacific — well above the seven gallons that the refinery’s operator, the Spanish oil company Repsol, initially reported to authorities when the disaster occurred last Saturday.

    On Thursday, the health ministry warned that 21 beaches were “a serious risk to health” and urged district authorities to restrict access to them. The government said the oil slick on the surface of the sea extended over an area of water equal to 320 football fields.

    After an outcry over a cleanup operation widely seen as inadequate, the government said on Thursday that it had asked experts at the United Nations and the U.S. National Response Team to help ensure proper remediation and compensation from the company.

    “We’re facing one of the biggest eco-cides on our coast,” President Pedro Castillo said from a polluted beach on Thursday. “The state is readying criminal, civil and administrative sanctions.”

    The environment minister said Repsol could eventually have to pay fines worth some $36 million, and accused the company of failing to notify authorities in time and failing to describe the magnitude of the spill correctly.

    Repsol said on Friday that it was carrying out an internal investigation into the spill. “We reaffirm our commitment to respond effectively and transparently to the public and the competent authorities, prioritizing people and communities,” the Spanish oil company said in a statement.

    The spill has left hundreds of fishermen in poor coastal districts without work, and threatens two protected marine reserves where rocky islets provide havens for sea otters, Humboldt penguins and red-legged cormorants.

    Peru’s Pacific waters are famously biodiverse, thanks to the cold, plankton-filled Humboldt current that runs along its coast, sustaining a chain of rich marine life, from anchovies and dolphins to marine birds whose excrement — guano — is collected and sold as organic fertilizer.

    “We’re watching the destruction of the Peruvian marine ecosystem, and the livelihoods of those who depend on it, in slow motion, and it’s really terrifying,” said Juan Carlos Rivero, a marine biologist with the environmental nonprofit Oceana Peru. “Because neither the company nor the state has the capacity to respond.”

    Repsol said the spill had happened Saturday afternoon when an oil tanker unloading crude at its refinery, Pampilla, was rocked by strong waves caused by the volcanic eruption near Tonga. The Italian shipping company that owns the tanker said an underwater pipeline at Pampilla’s terminal had suddenly ruptured during the process, and its crew had promptly turned off valves.

    On Sunday, when Repsol first publicly acknowledged the oil spill, it described it as “limited” and said it had been “contained” thanks to its contingency plan. But by Monday it was clear the company had underestimated its size and impact. Local TV showed crude lapping onto shorelines at several beaches, with dead penguins and other sea birds covered in oil.

    Repsol said on Friday that it expected to complete the cleanup of the affected beaches and the maritime area by the end of February. The company said it had deployed 840 people, as well as outside cleanup companies and consultants, to help remove polluted sand, with over 1,500 cubic meters removed as of Friday.

    Mr. Rivero, who visited affected beaches this week, called the cleanup operation “tremendously improvised.” He said he saw workers hired by Repsol trying to use dustpans, buckets, wheelbarrows and plastic bags to remove crude from beaches soaked in it.

    The government said Repsol had offered to hire local fishermen to help with the cleanup response. Volunteers have been trying to assist, but many lack proper protection and authorities said two have been hospitalized.

    “The oil is going to be in the sea for months,” said Mr. Rivero. “It’s going to affect our fauna. It’s going to affect our food, it’s going to affect our health, it’s going to affect our beaches.”




    The House Oversight and Reform Committee has issued another round of invitations to fossil fuel companies to testify about their knowledge of climate change, this time to board directors at major companies.

    Witness invites shared with The Hill confirmed that the invitees include Enrique Hernandez, a director on Chevron's board; Jane Holl Lute of the Shell board; Melody Meyer of the BP board; and Susan Avery and Alexander Karsner of the ExxonMobil board. The proposed hearing is set for Feb. 8. A spokesperson for the committee said the panel will release a full hearing advisory with further details in the weeks ahead.

    In the invites, the committee notes that the companies in question list environmental protection duties among their board committee charters. It specifically requests testimony on the companies’ efforts on pledges to reduce or offset emissions, as well as whether those efforts are consistent with reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

    “Our upcoming hearing will examine whether the industry is finally taking steps to curb its dangerous emissions, or is instead paying lip service while continuing to put our planet at risk. Boards of directors at fossil fuel companies play a key governance role in addressing the climate crisis,” Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “We invited them to testify so we can hold the fossil fuel industry accountable and ensure these companies are taking real action to combat climate change.”

  8. #6558
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    ^
    “Our upcoming hearing will examine whether the industry is finally taking steps to curb its dangerous emissions, or is instead paying lip service while continuing to put our planet at risk. Boards of directors at fossil fuel companies play a key governance role in addressing the climate crisis,”


    America’s climate alarmists have been made to look like fools
    Looking back at this hysterical prediction from 2004 is both amusing and comforting


    Gravesend is typically among the warmest towns in Britain, but even here it’s been a chilly week. Still, I suppose I shouldn’t grumble. It could be worse.

    After all, according to experts in the US, I should have been struggling through six feet of snow.

    I know this thanks to a reader, who this week emailed me a news story that the Observer published all the way back in February 2004. The newspaper boasted that, in a major exclusive, it had obtained a secret report from the Pentagon about the terrifying threat posed by climate change. And, at the time, it must have made for sobering reading. Because, according to this secret Pentagon report, Britain would be “plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020”.

    Well, it’s now 2022. The lowest temperature recorded in Britain on Thursday was 19.4F (-7C). Which is certainly nippy. But on the same day, the temperature in Oymyakon, Siberia was -61.6F (-52C). So, although the school run may have been a touch on the bracing side this week, I think it might be a little melodramatic to call it Siberian.

    Advertisement

    The report’s other forecasts weren’t much more successful. Apparently, between 2010 and 2020 Europe as a whole should have suffered an average annual drop in temperature of 6F. By the end of that decade, “catastrophic” shortages of water and energy were expected to “plunge the planet into war”. Still, I suppose the “nuclear conflicts, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting” would at least have taken our minds off the cold.

    Even the short-term forecasts were alarming. By 2007, claimed the report, “violent storms” would render “large parts of the Netherlands uninhabitable”, with “cities like the Hague… abandoned”. Thankfully, the Hague managed to avoid this fate. Indeed, since the Observer’s scoop was published, its population has increased by around 100,000 people.

    I’m not suggesting that climate change isn’t real, or that governments should do nothing to tackle it. Whenever green activists issue dire warnings about the future, however, it can be comforting to recall the dire warnings of the past.

    America’s climate alarmists have been made to look like fools

  9. #6559
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    ^another telegraph article





    Michael Deacon is a British author and political satirical journalist. Since 2010, a Daily Telegraph columnist, he made his name as its parliamentary sketch writer. Deacon was previously the Daily Telegraph's television critic

    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    America’s climate alarmists
    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post

    • Met Office - 2021 continues warm global temperature series


    2021 was one of the seven warmest years on record, despite average global temperatures being temporarily cooled by successive La Niña events at either end of the year.

    The announcement is according to six leading international datasets consolidated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

    The HadCRUT5 dataset is compiled by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia, with support from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research. HadCRUT5 is the most recent dataset to report its global findings for 2021. It shows that the year was 0.76 ± 0.04 °C above the 1961-1990 average, placing it joint sixth warmest (with 2018). When compared with the pre-industrial global reference period, the year was 1.1 ± 0.1 °C above the 1850-1900 average. This aligns extremely well with figures already published by other international centres.

    Dr Colin Morice, of the Met Office, said: “2021 is one of the warmest years on record, continuing a series of measurements of a world that is warming under the effects of greenhouse gas emissions.

    Prof Tim Osborn, of the University of East Anglia, said: “Each year tends to be a little below or a little above the underlying long-term global warming. Global temperature data analysed by the Met Office and UEA's Climatic Research Unit show 2021 was a little below, while 2020 had been a little above, the underlying warming trend. All years, including 2021, are consistent with long-standing predictions of warming due to human activities.”
    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    America’s climate alarmists


    Contact the Met Office

    Post
    Met Office
    FitzRoy Road
    Exeter
    Devon
    EX1 3PB
    United Kingdom
    Telephone: 0370 900 0100
    Last edited by S Landreth; 22-01-2022 at 03:47 PM.

  10. #6560
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    How Europeans Get Energy to Heat Their Homes

    Any doubts about Climate Change?-inf67-jpg

    How Europeans Get Energy to Heat Their Homes — Strategic Culture

  11. #6561
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    From Berkeley Earth - 2021 was nominally the 6th warmest year recorded.

    In addition, 2021 was notable for:

    New record high annual averages for 25 countries, including China, South Korea, and Nigeria
    A relatively cool year in the Arctic Ocean
    A number of extreme weather events, including a record-smashing heat wave on the Pacific coast of North America
    Nominally the 5th warmest year on land and the 7th warmest year in the oceans.



    The last seven years stand out as the seven warmest years to have been directly observed.




    • Zack Labe - Welp, I just had to extend the bottom of this graph... The ice is melting, and the oceans are rising


    Data from GRACE(-FO) satellite observations. More info on data: Ice Sheets | Vital Signs – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet
    https://twitter.com/ZLabe/status/1486533194895663104



    In other news………




    The Biden administration on Wednesday canceled a move by former president Donald Trump to renew mineral rights leases for a proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine in north-eastern Minnesota.

    Hundreds of Native Americans and other environmental activists rallied against fossil fuels on Indigenous Peoples Day in Washington.

    Trump had signed an order a month before the 2020 presidential election declaring a national emergency over the country’s reliance on imported metals used to manufacture computers, smartphones, batteries for electric cars and other items.

    The reversal by Biden on the two leases follows an October decision to move forward with a study that could lead to a 20-year ban on mining upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

    Twin Metals said in a statement that the decision was political and the company will not let it kill the project.

    “The federal government’s reversal of its position on the mineral leases that Twin Metals Minnesota and its predecessor companies have held for more than 50 years is disappointing, but not surprising given the series of actions the administration has taken to try and shut the door on copper-nickel mining in northeast Minnesota,” the company said.

    The fight over the proposed Twin Metals mine, as well as the proposed PolyMet mine, has always had political implications. Republicans have accused Democrats of sacrificing badly needed jobs in northern Minnesota, just as supply chain woes are underscoring the need for materials used in batteries and computer chips.

    Pete Stauber, a Republican congressman whose district includes the proposed mining area, tweeted that the move was “terrible news for Minnesota miners and our economy”.

    The interior secretary, Deb Haaland, said her department must be consistent in how it applies lease terms and the lease renewals violated “applicable statutes and regulations”.




    Or another headline: Australia pledges $700 million to protect tourist attraction/income

    Australian leaders on Friday pledged more than $700 million to help protect the Great Barrier Reef, as the world’s largest coral reef system has recently suffered several mass bleaching events that have killed a substantial amount of its inshore coral.

    Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled a nine-year conservation spending plan that includes the deployment of new climate adaptation technology, water quality programs and the protection of key species and habitat restoration.

    On top of the conservation efforts, Morrison emphasized the government’s commitment to protect some 64,000 jobs and the tourism industry that depends on the reef.

    “We are backing the health of the reef and the economic future of tourism operators, hospitality providers and Queensland communities that are at the heart of the reef economy,” Morrison said in a statement.

    “This is already the best managed reef in the world and today we take our commitment to a new level,” he added.

    The prime minister said the new spending package extends the government’s conservation investment under the Reef 2050 Plan to more than $2 billion.

    The move comes just days before the Australian government is due to send a report detailing the state of conservation of the vast reef to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee. The report is expected to outline protective measures the nation is taking to ensure the stretch of more than 1,400 miles of coral reef off the coast of Queensland is preserved.

    Last summer, UNESCO issued a draft decision recommending the Great Barrier Reef be placed on the list of World Heritage sites considered to be “in danger,” due to significant bleaching caused by warming ocean waters since 2016.

    “There is no possible doubt that the property is facing ascertained danger,” the report said.

    The potential downgrade of the reef’s World Heritage state threatened Australia’s tourism industry, and Australia strongly opposed the listing, arguing the nation has made major investments in conservation, and the move by the committee was a deviation from the normal process of assessing the status of World Heritage sites.

    “The Great Barrier Reef is the best managed reef in the world and this draft recommendation has been made without examining the Reef first hand, and without the latest information,” Australian Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley said in June.

    In July, the committee decided against changing the reef’s designation but requested a report on conservation efforts, due by February 2022.

    Coral bleaching, which is caused by underwater heatwaves, may very well be one of the most visible effects of climate change. The massive reef system has lost half of its coral populations in the last three decades, as the frequency and intensity of marine heatwaves that drive coral bleaching are increasing.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-60164331

  12. #6562
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    NASA – 2021 and 2018 are tied for 6th warmest years recorded.



    December 2021 was the 6th warmest December recorded.



    Data.GISS:
    GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP v4)





    The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is opening up access to more than $2 billion in federal funds, with a goal of bolstering community resilience to disasters and the impacts of climate change, the agency announced on Monday.

    “As our nation continues to grapple with disasters ranging from hurricanes to wildfires, HUD is aware of the urgent need for equitable recovery and resilience,” HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge said in a statement.

    HUD announced a set of guidelines for the use and “equitable distribution” of disaster recovery and mitigation funds in a consolidated notice on “Allocations for Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery,” published in the Federal Register on Monday.

    Alongside the notice, HUD said that the agency will “accelerate community recovery and ensure that inclusive resilience and mitigation remain central to disaster recovery,” stressing that “low-income residents and people of color often bear more of the impact when climate-related disasters strike.”

    Among the 130-page set of guidelines are specific requirements to which grant recipients must adhere, including the submission of an action plan that describes the uses of the funds, as well as how that plan will address “disaster-related impacts to infrastructure, housing, economic revitalization and mitigation in the [most impacted and distressed] areas.”

    At least 80 percent of all allocations distributed to each grantee must respond to “unmet disaster needs or mitigation activities” in such distressed areas as defined by HUD, while the remaining 20 percent can go toward disaster needs or mitigation activities identified by the grantee, the notice stated.

    The notice applies to more than $2 billion of a $5 billion total appropriated by HUD as “Community Development Block Grants” this fall, according to the department.

    HUD allocated the first $2 billion of these grants to 10 states covering 15 separate major disasters that occurred in 2020 in November, following the signing of the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act, which became law on September 30.

    The largest chunk of the $2 billion is going to Louisiana, which will receive $600 million for two disasters, while Oregon is getting $422 million for one incident, according to Monday’s notice. Alabama is receiving $312 million for two disasters, and California is receiving $231 million for two such events. Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, Puerto Rico and Tennessee are also receiving allocations.

    Among the disasters covered are hurricanes in Alabama, Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi; wildfires in Oregon and California; earthquakes and a tropical storm in Puerto Rico; and severe storms in Tennessee, Iowa and Michigan, a news release from November said.

    Monday’s announcement serves to affirm HUD’s commitment to ensuring climate and equity goals while spurring economic growth — recognizing that “equitable resilience” is a core component of its Climate Action Plan and overall departmental goals of achieving environmental justice, according to the department.

    “HUD’s consolidated notice ensures that climate justice and racial equity remain central in our work to deliver swift recovery and keep resiliency at the forefront,” Fudge said in a statement. “The department looks forward to continuing to work with communities so that they can get their disaster recovery and mitigation funds as quickly as possible.”




    The world’s coral reefs are on track for catastrophic damage from climate change, despite global efforts and commitments to reduce activities that contribute to global warming.

    New research led by the University of Leeds found that more than 90 percent of tropical coral reefs will suffer frequent heat stress — considered their No. 1 threat — even under the current Paris climate agreement warming limits.

    In 2015, the Paris climate agreement was created to incentivize countries to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible so the planet could be a climate neutral world by mid-century. It was adopted by 196 countries and required plans for climate action from every participating nation. The treaty aimed to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius.

    In the fall of 2021, world leaders gathered in Glasgow, Scotland, for the United Nations COP26 climate change conference to renew and expand upon their commitments to the Paris climate agreement, working around a new goal of keeping the Earth’s temperature from rising beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius.

    Those efforts may not be enough to save the world’s coral reefs as researchers from Leeds believe the future of coral under even 1.5 degrees Celsius of heating is worse than originally thought.

    “Our finding reinforces the stark reality that there is no safe limit of global warming for coral reefs. Following COP26 in Glasgow in which some progress was made towards the 1.5°C target, our finding shows that 1.5°C is still a substantial amount of warming for the ecosystems on the frontline of climate change,” said Adele Dixon, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Leeds, in a statement.

    Researchers found that over the past few decades, 84 percent of the world’s tropical coral reefs have had enough time to recover between heat waves, however even at 1.5 degrees Celsius they estimate only .2 percent of reefs will have gotten sufficient recovery time. About 90 percent of reefs will suffer “intolerable thermal stress.”

    Thermal refugia are areas of coral reef that maintain suitable temperatures for coral survival, even when surrounding ocean temperatures rise. Researchers found that under global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius, most refugia would be wiped out in every region of the world, except for small areas in Polynesia and the Coral Triangle. That's because those areas have lower rates of warming and where colder, deeper water is brought to the surface, which helps reduce the frequency of severe heat stress events.

    However, if the world exceeds a global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius, researchers estimated no thermal refugia would exist.

    There is still time to save the coral reefs, as researchers recommended implementing local actions that remove other stressors, like fishing, tourism and low water quality, to promote resistance and recovery of thermal refugia.

    Researchers also recommended migrating coral to more sustainable environments, but many of the efforts may only be effective in the short term.

    “Coral reefs are important for the marine creatures that live on them and for over half a billion people whose livelihoods and food security rely on coral reefs. We need to not only deliver on Paris goals - we need to exceed them, whilst also mitigating additional local stressors, if we want children born today to experience reef habitats,” said Maria Beger, research supervisor and an associate professor in conservation science at the University of Leeds.




    By 2080, around 70% of the world’s oceans could be suffocating from a lack of oxygen as a result of climate change, potentially impacting marine ecosystems worldwide, according to a new study. The new models find mid-ocean depths that support many fisheries worldwide are already losing oxygen at unnatural rates and passed a critical threshold of oxygen loss in 2021.

    Oceans carry dissolved oxygen as a gas, and just like land animals, aquatic animals need that oxygen to breathe. But as the oceans warm due to climate change, their water can hold less oxygen. Scientists have been tracking the oceans’ steady decline in oxygen for years, but the new study provides new, pressing reasons to be concerned sooner rather than later.

    The new study is the first to use climate models to predict how and when deoxygenation, which is the reduction of dissolved oxygen content in water, will occur throughout the world’s oceans outside its natural variability.

    It finds that significant, potentially irreversible deoxygenation of the ocean’s middle depths that support much of the world’s fished species began occurring in 2021, likely affecting fisheries worldwide. The new models predict that deoxygenation is expected to begin affecting all zones of the ocean by 2080.

    The results were published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences.

    The ocean’s middle depths (from about 200 to 1,000 meters deep), called mesopelagic zones, will be the first zones to lose significant amounts of oxygen due to climate change, the new study finds. Globally, the mesopelagic zone is home to many of the world’s commercially fished species, making the new finding a potential harbinger of economic hardship, seafood shortages and environmental disruption.

    https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley....9/2021GL095370

    Plain Language Summary

    Decreasing dissolved oxygen concentrations in the ocean, which degrade the marine environment and biology, have been observed in recent decades. To understand the changes in oceanic oxygen concentrations, we calculated the time at which the signal of oxygen change will exceed its natural variations using climate model simulations. The low- and high-emission simulations showed that the emergence of deoxygenation signal would occur earlier and that its spatial coverage ratio would be larger in the mesopelagic (200–1,000 m) zone than in the epipelagic (0–200 m) and bathypelagic (>1,000 m) zones. Moreover, the high-emission simulations suggest that the time at which the deoxygenation signal will exceed the internal variability is projected to be before 2080 in more than 72% of the ocean globally. By 2080, deoxygenation signals would emerge below the epipelagic zones of the western North Pacific, North Atlantic, and Southern Oceans. The trend of rapidly declining oxygen concentrations with ongoing global warming can greatly affect fisheries and other marine resources.

    Just for fun,……….


    • Revealed: The 11 slides that finally convinced Boris Johnson about global warming


    A scientific briefing that UK prime minister Boris Johnson says changed his mind about global warming has been made public for the first time, following a freedom-of-information (FOI) request by Carbon Brief.

    Last year, on the eve of the UK hosting COP26 in Glasgow, Johnson described tackling climate change as the country’s “number one international priority”. He also published a net-zero strategy and told other countries at the UN General Assembly to “grow up” when it comes to global warming.

    However, just a few years earlier, Johnson was publicly doubting established climate science. For example, in a Daily Telegraph column published in 2015 he claimed unusual winter heat had “nothing to do with global warming”. And, in 2013, he said he had an “open mind” to the idea that the Earth was heading for a mini ice-age.

    Last year, acknowledging his past climate scepticism, Johnson told journalists that he had now changed his mind, largely due to a scientific briefing he received shortly after becoming prime minister in 2019.

    Johnson admitted he had been on a “road to Damascus” when it comes to climate science:

    “I got them [government scientists] to run through it all and, if you look at the almost vertical kink upward in the temperature graph, the anthropogenic climate change, it’s very hard to dispute. That was a very important moment for me.”

    The Sunday Times later reported that this briefing had been given by Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific advisor, and, according to one of the prime minister’s close allies, it “had a huge impact”.

    Using a FOI request submitted to the UK’s Government Office for Science (“GO-Science”), Carbon Brief has now obtained the contents of this pivotal scientific briefing, which took place on 28 January 2020 inside 10 Downing Street.

    Below, Carbon Brief reveals the 11 slides that were used to “teach” Johnson about climate change, as well as the email correspondence exchanged between leading scientists and advisors as they prepared the prime minister’s briefing.

    Much more (science) in the link: https://www.carbonbrief.org/revealed...global-warming

  13. #6563
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Copernicus - January 2022 was the 6th warmest January recorded


    Globally, January 2022 was:

    0.28°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average for January
    the sixth warmest January on record
    close to 0.3°C cooler than January 2020 and 2016, the warmest Januaries

    Homepage | Copernicus




    House Democrats took aim at major oil companies’ climate pledges during an Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday after company board members declined to appear.

    The hearing replaced the committee’s initial plans to have board members from ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron and Shell testify after the committee said last week that four out of five invitees declined to appear on the scheduled date.

    Instead, the lawmakers brought in experts and advocates, who criticized the companies’ promises as insufficient as they anticipate continued use of fossil fuels.

    The lawmakers, too, criticized the companies, saying that plans to continue and in many cases expand fossil fuel production are incompatible with fighting climate change.

    According to the Environmental Protection Agency, burning fossil fuels is the biggest contributor to climate change.

    The companies have said that they want to reduce the “carbon intensity” of their fossil fuels — meaning that the fuels themselves will release less carbon dioxide into the air.

    Panel witness Michael Mann, a Pennsylvania State University atmospheric science professor, said that with increased production, doing this would be similar to eating more potato chips but selecting a lower-fat variety.

    “They love to talk about how they are going to decrease the carbon intensity of their fossil fuels. That’s sort of like your doctor telling you that you need to cut fat from your diet and so you switch to 40 percent reduced fat potato chips, but you eat twice as many of them,” Mann said.

    "That doesn’t help … and that’s effectively what fossil fuel interests are doing,” he added.

    Skip to 23:00 - Fueling the Climate Crisis: Examining Big Oil's Climate Pledges






    The U.S. Army released its first climate strategy on Tuesday, outlining plans to cut its greenhouse gas pollution in half by 2030 and achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

    Why it matters: A 2019 report from Brown University estimated that the U.S. military has emitted 1,212 million metric tons of greenhouse gases since 2001. In 2017 alone, its emissions totaled 59 million tons, more than many industrialized nations.

    Details: The strategy states that the Army will "increase capability and installations’ resiliency; prepare for new hazards and new environments; modernize processes, standards, and infrastructure; and decrease operational energy demand—all of which in turn will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions."

    Their objectives include...

    Investing in an all-electric non-tactical vehicle fleet by 2035.
    Significantly reducing operational energy and water use.
    Buying electricity from carbon-pollution-free generation sources.
    Building out ways to reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions that result from Army training by 2028.

    What they're saying: "For today's Soldiers operating in extreme temperature environments, fighting wildfires, and supporting hurricane recovery, climate change isn't a distant future, it is a reality," Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said in the document's foreword.

    "The effects of climate change have taken a toll on supply chains, damaged our infrastructure, and increased risks to Army Soldiers and families due to natural disasters and extreme weather."

    It "threatens America's security and is altering the geostrategic landscape as we know it," she noted. "The time to address climate change is now."

    Worth noting: Due to national security reasons, it's unknown how much the military actually emits.




    The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend $1 billion on projects for farmers, ranchers and forest landowners to use practices that curb climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions or capture and store carbon, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Monday.

    The investment comes after President Joe Biden called on U.S. farmers to lead the way in offsetting emissions and pledged to slash emissions from the agriculture sector in half by 2030. The sector accounts for more than 10% of U.S. emissions, according to estimates from the Environmental Protection Agency. A range of public and private entities can apply for grants from $5 million to $100 million, the agency said, including state, local and tribal governments, nonprofits, small businesses and colleges.

    For many U.S. farmers who have endured major losses from worsening floods, storms and droughts, addressing climate change has become a matter of survival. The United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change has warned that humans must change the way they produce food and use land to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

    “They’ve seen it, they feel it, and they’ve been hurt by it,” Vilsack said on Monday at Lincoln University, a historically Black land-grant university in Jefferson City, Missouri.

    The USDA’s program will focus on projects that implement climate-friendly conservation practices, such as no-till, cover crops and rotational grazing, as well as measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural operations and capture and store carbon.

    The agency defines a climate-smart commodity as an agricultural commodity produced using farming, ranching or forestry practices that slash emissions or sequester carbon.

    The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program will take money from the agency’s Commodity Credit Corporation, which provides up to $30 billion in annual funding from the the U.S. Treasury to support farm income.


    • The warming Arctic is freezing Chinese crops


    The warming Arctic is leading to cold snaps in the faraway subtropics of East Asia, disrupting plant growth, crop harvests and human social and economic life, according to a study from the University of Zurich.


    This is the same phenomenon that helped cause last month's Northeastern snowstorm and Florida freezes. A warmer Arctic means a chance for the polar vortex to wander much further from the poles, causing cooler winters elsewhere.

    In this case, such weather fluctuations are affecting one of the world's chief breadbaskets. In addition to reducing how much carbon a given landscape can hold down, this fugitive Arctic cold "also reduces the agricultural productivity of cereals, fruits, root vegetables, and legumes," first author Jin-Soo Kim said in a statement. https://thehill.com/policy/equilibri...sustainability
    Last edited by S Landreth; 10-02-2022 at 12:38 PM.

  14. #6564
    Thailand Expat
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    Feb 9th 33 degrees Celsius or 91 F. Los Angeles. Its winter, not that cold in LA but not that hot either. Daughter is having to run her air conditioning in Feb.

  15. #6565
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    One time i am very happy the UK was a laggard.

    Fracking firm Cuadrilla ordered to abandon Britain’s ‘only viable’ shale gas wells

    https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/fracking-end-uk-cuadrilla-lancashire-b2012156.html

  16. #6566
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by aging one View Post
    Feb 9th 33 degrees Celsius or 91 F. Los Angeles. Its winter, not that cold in LA but not that hot either. Daughter is having to run her air conditioning in Feb.
    Although not 2022, here are some records that were broken in 2021.

    More than 400 weather stations beat heat records in 2021

    And a visual from Dr. Robert Rohde - Animation of daily, monthly, and all-time record highs and lows set at long-term weather stations during 2021.

    Given weather variability it is normal to see both new highs and new lows, but due to global warming, new highs have become significantly more common than new lows. https://twitter.com/RARohde/status/1490991224198955009



    Quote Originally Posted by malmomike77 View Post
    Fracking firm Cuadrilla ordered to abandon Britain’s ‘only viable’ shale gas wells
    good news

  17. #6567
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    • Berkeley Earth - The following is a summary of global temperature conditions in Berkeley Earth’s analysis of January 2022.


    January 2022 was the 6th warmest January since records began in 1850.
    Warm conditions occurred over parts of Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.
    Unusually cool conditions were present in parts of North America and the equatorial Pacific.
    La Niña conditions are present and are likely to keep 2022 cooler than recent record years.
    2022 is nearly certain to be one of the top ten warmest years, but unlikely to be a new warmest year (only a ~10% chance of a new record).


    Rest of 2022

    The ongoing La Niña event makes it likely that 2022 will be cooler than recent record warm years; however, 2022 is nearly certain to remain within the top ten warmest years overall. If La Niña dissipates, the annual average might be expected to warm some during the latter half of 2022 compared to the first half of the year, but the full year is unlikely to challenge the previous record warm years.

    The statistical approach that we use, looking at conditions in January and prior months, believes that 2022 is most likely to be the 4th or 5th warmest year in the instrumental record, with about a 50% chance of one of these outcomes. There is a small chance (10%) that the remainder of 2022 warms enough to be a record warm year. It is very unlikely that 2022 will be any cooler than the 8th warmest, which means that this year is very likely to still surpass all years prior to 2015.


    Likelihood of final 2022 ranking:

    1st place (10%)
    Top 3 overall (23%)
    4th place (31%)
    5th place (22%)
    6th, 7th, or 8th place (23%)
    Top 8 overall (99%)

    January 2022 Temperature Update – Berkeley Earth

    • Dr. Zeke Hausfather - The portion of our emissions accumulating in the atmosphere is referred to as the airborne fraction. This is expected to change depending on future emissions; in scenarios where we rapidly cut emissions, less end up in the atmosphere; if emissions increase more ends up there. https://twitter.com/hausfath/status/1492601053816131586






    Ocean water along U.S. coasts will rise about one foot by 2050, scientists warn

    Sea levels along coastlines in the United States will rise about one foot by 2050, with larger increases on the East and Gulf coasts, according to a comprehensive new report by federal climate scientists.

    Oceans have already risen about one foot in the last century, as climate change melts glaciers and ice caps around the world. But the pace is accelerating, scientists warn, and the next 30 years will see the same amount of sea level rise as the previous 100.

    "It's like history is repeating itself, but in fast-forward," says William Sweet, a sea level rise expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and one of the authors of the new report.

    People living in coastal cities are already facing encroaching seas. Every extra inch of ocean water scours beaches and sea walls, exacerbates flooding during hurricanes and makes it more likely that salty water will undermine buildings, and infiltrate sewers, storm drains and drinking water reservoirs.

    The report gives the most concrete and certain sea level projections ever published for the U.S. The authors of the report are 24 top climate scientists from across the federal government and academia. And advances in computer models and real-world information about rising seas make it possible to see the future with more clarity than ever.

    "This is unique in that we're having a much clearer, confident expected outcome," Sweet says. "So folks can really plan and prepare."

    Sea level rise varies dramatically for different parts of the U.S. coast. The ocean is not like a bucket of water that rises uniformly as more liquid is added. Ocean currents push more water into some areas than others. Ice in different regions melts at different rates. In many parts of the world, sea level rise is worse because coastal land is sinking.

    The new report adds up all those factors to give regional estimates for different parts of the U.S. The authors predict about a foot and half of sea level rise for the Gulf Coast by 2050, with particular hot spots from Texas to Mississippi, where extraction of underground oil, gas and drinking water is causing the land to rapidly collapse into the rising ocean water. Sea Level Rise Technical Report: Download and FAQs

    • U.S. megadrought worst in at least 1,200 years, researchers say


    The megadrought that has gripped the southwestern United States for the past 22 years is the worst since at least 800 A.D., according to a new study that examined shifts in water availability and soil moisture over the past 12 centuries.

    The research, which suggests that the past two decades in the American Southwest have been the driest period in 1,200 years, pointed to human-caused climate change as a major reason for the current drought's severity. The findings were published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

    Jason Smerdon, one of the study's authors and a climate scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said global warming has made the megadrought more extreme because it creates a "thirstier" atmosphere that is better able to pull moisture out of forests, vegetation and soil.

    "It's a slow-motion train wreck," he said. "What we showed in the paper is that increasing temperatures in the Southwest contributed about 42 percent to the severity of this drought." https://www.nbcnews.com/science/envi...-say-rcna16202

  18. #6568
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    Climate change is the ultimate limousine liberal or chardonnay socialist pet project.

    Basically, the "Do as i say, not as i do" crowd of wealthy elitists who have the best ideas on how regular Janes and Joes can sacrifice their comforts and conveniences to help alleviate the sufferings and ills of the world while they dismiss themselves from the very things they demand of the public.

    Your basic limousine liberal is a wealthy person who feels guilty about being wealthy but doesn't want to give up his fortune or sacrifice his conveniences.

    So he'll take the "pass the buck" approach by wagging his finger at the general public for not doing their share to help with the world's problems to deflect the guilt off himself.

    But sir landreth is a chardonnay socialist.

    A Chardonnay socialist is the middle-class equivalent of a champagne socialist or limousine liberal. The distinction is significant - they are comfortable rather than rich, more likely to watch TV than be on it, and are much, much more numerous.

    Chardonnay socialists are characterised by having wonderfully admirable left-wing ideals...which they never act on. It's about feeling good, not doing good. Causes are often comfortably remote - it's easier to sit around with a glass of Church Road talking about how awful the oppression is in East Timor than it is to help your own underprivileged ten minutes down the road.

    Despite being about as useful as tits on a bull, at first look they seem basically harmless. But like anyone who chooses a credo for their own self-interest and entertainment, a chardonnay socialist's true value system may well be anything but what it appears. They are quite likely to have a case of the not-in-my-backyards: "Oh, isn't it wonderful we've accepted all those poor refugees into the country! (Just as long as they don't move into our neighbourhood)". If you're the sort of person who cares about actually getting something useful done, the idea of these people starts to look quite sinister.

    A champagne socialist is someone who talks about and identifies themselves as being someone on the left wing, for example a socialist or communist, but lives a life of indulgence in extremely trivial and material things.

    Namely, any person, be it a celebrity, musician, writer or politician (commonly), who nominally espouse the virtues of Socialism and champion the hardships of living a down-to-earth existence among the disenfranchised and down-trodden of society, yet, actually holiday half of the year on plush islands, accept honours from the Queen and rub shoulders with the affluent over horderves.

    These people are generally bleeding-heart Liberals on the outside, relishing the reflective glory of the appearance of being sympathetic to the plight of the working man, yet, when they are confronted with genuine poverty and urban degradation, choose to live far away in the country where the smell can't get to them.

  19. #6569
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Accusations of greenwashing against major oil companies that claim to be in transition to clean energy are well-founded, according to the most comprehensive study to date.

    The research, published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, examined the records of ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP, which together are responsible for more than 10% of global carbon emissions since 1965. The researchers analysed data over the 12 years up to 2020 and concluded the company claims do not align with their actions, which include increasing rather than decreasing exploration.

    The study found a sharp rise in mentions of “climate”, “low-carbon” and “transition” in annual reports in recent years, especially for Shell and BP, and increasing pledges of action in strategies. But concrete actions were rare and the researchers said: “Financial analysis reveals a continuing business model dependence on fossil fuels along with insignificant and opaque spending on clean energy.”

    Numerous previous studies have shown there are already more reserves of oil and gas and more planned production than could be burned while keeping below the internationally agreed temperature target of 1.5C. In May 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said there can be no new fossil fuel developments if the world is to reach net zero by 2050.

    Oil companies are under increasing pressure from investors to align their businesses with climate targets. But their plans have faced scepticism, prompting the researchers to conduct the new research, which they said was objective and comprehensive.

    “Until there is very concrete progress, we have every reason to be very sceptical about claims to be moving in a green direction,” said Prof Gregory Trencher, at Kyoto University in Japan, who worked with Mei Li and Jusen Asuka at Tohoku University.

    “If they were moving away from fossil fuels we would expect to see, for example, declines in exploration activity, fossil fuel production, and sales and profit from fossil fuels,” he said. “But if anything, we find evidence of the reverse happening.”

    “Recent pledges look very nice and they’re getting a lot of people excited, but we have to put these in the context of company history of actions,” Trencher said. “It’s like a very naughty schoolboy telling the teacher ‘I promise to do all my homework next week’, but the student has never worked hard.”

    The new study, published in the journal PLOS One, found mentions of climate-related keywords in annual reports rose sharply from 2009 to 2020. For example, BP’s use of “climate change” went from 22 to 326 mentions.

    But in terms of strategy and actions, the researchers found “the companies are pledging a transition to clean energy and setting targets more than they are making concrete actions”.

    Chevron and ExxonMobil were “laggards” compared to Shell and BP, the researchers said, but even the European majors’ actions appeared to contradict their pledges. For example, BP and Shell pledged to reduce investments in fossil fuel extraction projects, but both increased their acreage for new exploration in recent years, the researchers said.

    Furthermore, the analysis found Shell, BP, and Chevron increased fossil fuel production volumes over the study period. None of the companies directly releases data on their investments in clean energy, but information they provided to the Carbon Disclosure Project indicates low average levels ranging from 0.2% by ExxonMobil to 2.3% by BP of annual capital expenditure (capex). Separate analysis by the IEA indicates that investment in clean energy by oil and gas companies was about 1% of capex in 2020.

    “Until actions and investment behaviour are brought into alignment with discourse, accusations of greenwashing appear well-founded,” the researchers said.

    A spokesperson for ExxonMobil said: “The move to a lower emission future requires multiple solutions that can be implemented at scale. We plan to play a leading role in the energy transition, while retaining investment flexibility across a portfolio of evolving opportunities, including for example carbon capture, hydrogen and biofuels, to maximise shareholder returns.”

    A Chevron spokesperson said: “We are focused on lowering the carbon intensity in our operations and seeking to grow lower carbon businesses along with our traditional business lines. We are planning $10bn in lower carbon investments by 2028.”

    Shell’s spokesperson said: “Shell’s target is to become a net zero emissions energy business by 2050, in step with society. Our short, medium and long term intensity and absolute targets are consistent with the more ambitious 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement. We were also the first energy company to submit its energy transition strategy to shareholders for a vote, securing strong endorsement.”

    A spokesperson for BP said: “In 2020 BP set out our new net zero ambition, aims and strategy, and in 2021 completed the largest transformation of the company in our history to deliver these. Because this paper looks back historically over the period 2009-2020, we don’t believe it will take these developments and our progress fully into account.”

    Trencher rejected the charge that the analysis was out of date: “We included the documents that were published during 2021, so the so-called data gap is only about six months and we don’t find any evidence of any new actions that would change any of our findings.”

    “Unfortunately, the way the energy markets are structured around the world, fossil fuels still enjoy many [regulatory and tax] advantages and renewables are still disadvantaged,” he said.
    Last edited by S Landreth; 17-02-2022 at 02:06 PM.

  20. #6570
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Any doubts about Climate Change?-tmmda220220-jpg

  21. #6571
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    NOAA - January 2022 was the 6th warmest January recorded.



    National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)






    National Snow and Ice Data Center |

  22. #6572
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    NASA – January 2022 was the 6th warmest year recorded (tied with 2019)


    Data.GISS: Data and Images

    • In-depth Q&A: The IPCC’s sixth assessment on how climate change impacts the world


    The threat that climate change poses to human well-being and the health of the planet is “unequivocal”, says the latest report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

    The expansive review – which forms the second part of the IPCC’s sixth assessment report (AR6) – warns that any further delay in global action to slow climate change and adapt to its impacts “will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all”.

    The report follows the publication of the first part of AR6, released in August last year, which set out how and why the Earth’s climate is changing.

    Over the past two weeks, government delegations have been meeting during a two-week online approval session to agree on the high-level “summary for policymakers” section.

    The final report is published against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which forced some members of the Ukrainian delegation to pull out of the approval session and hide in bomb shelters. One member commented that “we will not surrender in Ukraine and we hope the world will not surrender in building a climate resilient future”.

    Focusing on the impacts of global warming and efforts to adapt to it, the report lays bare how climate change is being felt across the planet. Among the findings, the report concludes that:


    • Climate change has already caused “substantial damages and increasingly irreversible losses, in terrestrial, freshwater and coastal and open ocean marine ecosystems”.
    • It is likely that the proportion of all terrestrial and freshwater species “at very high risk of extinction will reach 9% (maximum 14%) at 1.5C”. This rises to 10% (18%) at 2C and 12% (29%) at 3C.
    • Approximately 3.3 to 3.6 billion people “live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change”.
    • Where climate change impacts intersect with areas of high vulnerability, it is “contributing to humanitarian crises” and “increasingly driving displacement in all regions, with small island states disproportionately affected”.
    • Increasing weather and climate extreme events “have exposed millions of people to acute food insecurity and reduced water security”, with the most significant impacts seen in parts of Africa, Asia, Central and South America, small islands and the Arctic.
    • Approximately 50-75% of the global population could be exposed to periods of “life-threatening climatic conditions” due to extreme heat and humidity by 2100.
    • Climate change “will increasingly put pressure on food production and access, especially in vulnerable regions, undermining food security and nutrition”.
    • Climate change and extreme weather events “will significantly increase ill health and premature deaths from the near- to long-term”.


    The report warns that if global warming passes 1.5C – even if overshooting that global average temperature temporarily before falling back again – “human and natural systems will face additional severe risks”, including some that are “irreversible”.

    Much, much more: https://www.carbonbrief.org/in-depth...acts-the-world

    • Congress is eyeing a bipartisan climate trade policy — thanks to Trump


    Republicans and Democrats are working together on plans to penalize imports of high-polluting goods, a rare bipartisan effort in Congress that could insert climate change policy into U.S. trade rules.

    The inspiration for the policy: former President Donald Trump.

    Trump was no climate activist, of course — he mocked climate science as a Chinese-inspired hoax and ordered his administration to shred the United States’ efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. But he also advanced a combative trade policy that wielded tariffs as a weapon. And that has opened the door for Republicans to consider a protectionist trade policy linked to addressing climate change, lawmakers engaged in the early discussions say.

    “What did Trump do? When you had unfair business practices that gave the other country an advantage over our businesses, he put a tariff on their product,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has been engaging with Democrats on the issue, told POLITICO. “Well, we are trying to move the world to a cleaner environment, and China, India and other countries are not doing as much, and they need to pay a price.”

    In this case, lawmakers are taking a new look at so-called border carbon adjustment fees, which would be tacked onto products from foreign companies whose carbon emissions are higher than those of their U.S. competitors. Those products are often cheaper to make abroad because of weak pollution regulations — giving them an economic advantage over more climate-friendly U.S.-based manufacturers of products such as steel.

    U.S. policymakers have examined the carbon adjustments for more than a decade, but the policy is gaining new traction as Washington grapples with issues that rose to prominence under Trump, such as reinvigorating U.S. industry and competing with China.

    It’s also taking on new urgency as the European Union prepares to implement its own carbon border adjustment mechanism, known as “CBAM,” that would apply to imports from countries that lack aggressive emissions-reduction policies. Those countries could include the U.S., where the Biden administration is struggling to pass climate legislation.

    Democrats acknowledge that the policy under discussion bears similarities to moves by the Trump administration, though with some key differences.

    “It looks and feels a lot like Trump’s tariffs on China, [except World Trade Organization] compliant and in a way that doesn’t distance us away from our allies,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told POLITICO. “That is a win for everybody. Recognizing we need new and stronger tools in our competition globally that will bring us closer to our allies and disadvantage some of our adversaries, that is a common view across a range of Republicans and Democrats.”

    Coons and Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) introduced legislation, S. 2378 and H.R. 4534, in July to establish a border carbon adjustment on polluting imports that covered steel, aluminum and cement, as well as natural gas, petroleum and coal.

    The duo pitched the plan as a way to raise revenue for Democrats’ sprawling social and climate spending agenda, and as a tool to protect U.S. industries exposed to domestic climate rules while prodding foreign polluters such as China to boost their emissions-cutting efforts.

    The bill was not included in the House-passed version of Democrats’ Build Back Better Act, H.R. 5376 , which has since stalled in the Senate. But Coons’ proposal sparked bipartisan discussions that are backed by a broad coalition of outside groups — including representatives of labor, business and environmental organizations — who are exploring how the U.S. could craft a border carbon adjustment that could pass Congress.

    “This is the place where climate, trade, and manufacturing meet up, where we could make bipartisan progress to protect American jobs as we decarbonize,” said Brad Markell, executive director of the AFL-CIO’s energy task force.

    Big snip

    “What we are talking about is creating an international market that recognizes efficiencies of the U.S. economy relative to others,” said Banks, a fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, who is advising GOP lawmakers on border carbon adjustments. “The goal is to create a carbon club that has the market leverage to draw down global emissions.” https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...trump-00009490

  23. #6573
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Copernicus – February 2022 was the 6th warmest February recorded.


    Globally, February 2022 was:

    0.23°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average for February
    the sixth warmest February on record
    between 0.27 and 0.45°C cooler than the three warmest Februaries
    within 0.1°C of five other Februaries.
    Copernicus

    • Dr. Zeke Hausfather - With two months of data available, I estimate 2022 is likely to be in the top-8 warmest years on record, with a central estimate similar to 2021, but very unlikely to be in the top-3 warmest year. These slightly cooler temperatures are influenced by a La Nina event in early 2022. https://twitter.com/hausfath/status/1501247992208130056






    President Biden’s announcement that the United States will ban imports of Russian oil caused the price of crude to surge on Tuesday morning. However, the pain that Americans are set to feel at the gas pump could eventually be offset if Congress were to pass Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, a new study finds.

    An analysis released Tuesday by the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation finds that the climate change provisions of Biden’s now-defunct proposal, such as tax credits for buying new electric vehicles, would have reduced U.S. oil consumption by 2025 by half of the roughly 200,000 barrels of crude oil from Russia per day that the U.S. imported last year. By 2027, the U.S. would have cut oil consumption by more than it was importing from Russia and by 2030, the U.S. would have cut oil consumption by more than double its Russian imports.

    “As long as long as we are dependent on an international energy commodity like oil, whose prices are based on the actions of all producers in the world, whether it's Russia or OPEC or the U.S., we're never going to be energy secure,” Robbie Orvis, senior director of energy policy design at Energy Innovation and the author of the report, told Yahoo News. “The only robust, long-term way to be energy secure is to eliminate demand for fossil fuels. The provisions on the table right now would really kind of kick-start that transition.”

    Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who co-sponsored the Green New Deal legislation, issued a statement on Tuesday calling for the Russian oil import ban to be made permanent and to pass the climate portion of Build Back Better, which would spend $555 billion over 10 years on everything from tax credits for buying solar panels, to incentives for manufacturing longer-lasting solar batteries and small modular nuclear reactors.

    “By enacting a clean energy revolution, we can break our addiction to dirty oil and gas, and permanently shut off the money pipeline to Putin and other oil oligarchs,” Markey said to Yahoo News, in a separate statement sent by his spokesperson. “We have broad agreement on the need for $555 billion in climate and clean energy investments as part of our economic and infrastructure agenda, and now is our moment to deliver on it, as we continue to work towards passing a Green New Deal.”

    Build Back Better, after being passed by the House of Representatives, has been stuck in the Senate, where unified Republican opposition and the reluctance of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., have blocked its passage since last fall. The Biden administration has not specifically tied the Russia-Ukraine war to a call to revive the package.

    In Biden’s State of the Union address last Tuesday, he avoided using the phrase “Build Back Better.” He called on Congress to pass its various components, including the clean energy spending and social spending priorities, such as subsidies for the cost of child care, but he did not tie them to the war in Ukraine. The next day, Manchin told Politico that he would support a slimmed-down version of the agenda that dropped the social spending but kept the climate change provisions.

    But the administration is rejecting the arguments of conservative politicians and pundits who say the war demonstrates the need for a long-term increase in domestic fossil fuel production, countering that it instead underscores the importance of getting off fossil fuels altogether.

    “In the long run, the way to avoid high gas prices is to speed up — not slow down — our transition to a clean energy future,” the White House wrote in a fact sheet that accompanied Tuesday’s announcement. “We cannot drill our way out of dependence on a global commodity controlled in part by foreign nations and their leaders, including [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. The only way to eliminate Putin’s and every other producing country’s ability to use oil as an economic weapon, is to reduce our dependency on oil. So, even as President Biden does everything in his power in the short term to make sure we can readily access the oil and gas necessary to protect American consumers and allied countries — including through greater U.S. domestic production that is expected to hit record highs next year — this crisis reinforces our resolve to make America truly energy independent, which means reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.”

    In response to Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, the price of Brent crude oil increased from roughly $99 per barrel on Feb. 28 to $118 on March 4, and it has continued to rise since then. On Tuesday morning, Brent crude prices shot up 7.7 percent, to $132.75, in response to Biden’s executive order banning Russian oil imports.

    Although Biden’s order applies to coal and natural gas as well, the U.S. does not import significant amounts of coal or gas from Russia. However, Energy Innovation also estimates that Biden’s Build Back Better agenda would reduce U.S. natural gas consumption by 4.7 trillion cubic feet per year by 2030, which is equivalent to 85 percent of the gas that Europe imports from Russia.

    Of course, even an accelerated transition to electric vehicles and home heating systems won’t reduce oil or gas prices in the coming months. But, Energy Innovation points out, neither will issuing permits for new oil and gas pipelines or selling new oil and gas drilling leases on federal land, as congressional Republicans and the oil and gas industry have demanded.

    “At this point, nearly all solutions being discussed are long-term solutions, including significant increased production of fossil fuels and large technological shifts,” the Energy Innovation report states. “For example, there is very limited potential to significantly increase U.S. oil supply in the near term according to the industry itself, which cites at least a two-to-three-year timeline to grow production significantly.”

    Lobbyists from environmental advocacy organizations say they hope that the oil and gas supply disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will help motivate the Senate to pass the climate provisions of Build Back Better. “I don’t think it will be called [Build Back Better], and I think it will look and be different from the House-passed bill that we strongly supported,” Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president for government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters, told Yahoo News. “But we remain cautiously optimistic that Congress will make transformative progress that will keep us on track to meet the test of cutting climate pollution in half by 2030, which is the goal that science and justice demand. I’m having a lot of conversations across the House and the Senate and the administration, and I am definitely feeling that there is a real determination to meet this moment on climate.”

    “Obviously, there’s been the devastating impacts of the climate crisis, but also Putin’s war on Ukraine shows just how dangerous it is to be dependent on dirty fossil fuels — and that we really do need to double down on clean, renewable energy,” Sittenfeld added. “So, we fervently hope and absolutely expect that Congress will get the job done.”

    “The kind of geopolitical turmoil that surrounds fossil fuels points out again the need to move away from fossil fuels,” Melinda Pierce, legislative director of the Sierra Club, told Yahoo News. “I do think the U.S. Senate could produce something in an April-May timeframe.”

    The prospects on Capitol Hill nonetheless remain unclear. Yahoo News reached out to Manchin and the other recalcitrant Senate Democrat, Kirsten Sinema of Arizona, as well as several Republican members of the Bipartisan Senate Climate Solutions Caucus, but none responded. The White House declined to comment.

    The environmental movement will meanwhile continue to argue that the oil price shocks show that the country cannot wait any longer to make its transition to cleaner sources of energy. “We've got to get going, and we should have done this yesterday,” Pierce said.

    Extra……..

    • EPA restores California waiver on vehicle greenhouse gas emissions


    EPA on Wednesday formally restored California’s authority to enforce more stringent vehicle greenhouse gas standards, undoing a Trump-era action that had stripped the state of its climate tailpipe authority.

    The move restores authority to the Golden State and other blue states that support more aggressive climate action. However, California will need a new waiver from EPA in the coming years to regulate post-2025 vehicles.

    Details: In a notice to be published in the Federal Register, Reg. EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0257, EPA rescinds the Trump-era action, restoring California’s 2013 waiver to full force, including both its greenhouse gas standards and zero-emissions vehicles sales requirements, according to the agency.

    EPA also withdrew the Trump-era legal interpretation that barred other states from adopting California’s greenhouse gas standards even if EPA had granted a waiver.

    The Trump-era action was “improper,” based on a “flawed interpretation” of the law and “misapplied facts,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan concluded in the rule. He also argued the state’s unique and long-running air quality problems necessitate greenhouse gas standards. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...sions-00015704

  24. #6574
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    One really good thing to come out of this is that a lot of Americans are realising fossil fuels are shit for more than just climactic reasons.

  25. #6575
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    It appears that OZ doesn't believe "it's for the children".

    Aussie court strikes down landmark climate ruling


    By AFP Published: Mar 15, 2022 05:22 PM'

    "An Australian court on Tuesday ruled that the country's environment minister does not have a duty to protect children from the harms of climate change, overturning a landmark ruling.

    A group of high-school students had argued Australia's environment minister, Sussan Ley, must weigh the harm that climate change will inflict on children when approving new fossil fuel projects.

    In July 2020, a judge agreed with the students, finding the minister must "avoid causing personal injury or death" to under 18s due to "emissions of carbon dioxide into the Earth's atmosphere." But the environment minister soon appealed that watershed ruling.

    On Tuesday, Australia's federal court sided with the minister, in part because of the "tiny increase in risk" from the coal mine at the center of the case - Whitehaven's Vickery coal mine.

    Anjali Sharma, 17, said the ruling had left her and her fellow students "devastated."

    "Two years ago, Australia was on fire; today, it's underwater. Burning coal makes bushfires and floods more catastrophic and more deadly. Something needs to change," she said.

    Izzy Raj-Seppings, 15, said there was "still much to celebrate" in the judgement.

    "The court accepted that young people will bear the brunt of the impacts of the climate crisis," she said, arguing that is an important step in climate litigation.

    The students' lawyers will consider whether to appeal the case to Australia's highest court.

    The Australian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment."


    Aussie court strikes down landmark climate ruling - Global Times

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