Copernicus - May 2022 tied with May 2018 and 2021 to be the 5th warmest May recorded.



Globally, May 2022 was:

0.26°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average for February
the fifth warmest May on record, jointly with 2018 and 2021
0.2°C cooler than the warmest May, which was in 2020
cooler than the Mays of 2016, 2017 and 2019.

Copernicus

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A reminder to get out and VOTE!

Trump-era rollbacks left US behind peers in climate change fight

The U.S. plummeted in international rankings of action on climate change, due predominantly to rollbacks under the Trump administration, according to a report issued Wednesday from Yale and Columbia University researchers.

For the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), researchers traced countries’ progress toward net-zero emissions, a goal nearly every nation has established. From 2010 to 2019, the U.S. ranked 20th out of 22 western democracies and 43rd overall on its trajectory toward net-zero, according to the EPI.

“This relatively low ranking reflects the rollback of environmental protections during the Trump Administration,” the report states. “In particular, its withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and weakened methane emissions rules meant the United States lost precious time to mitigate climate change while many of its peers in the developed world enacted policies to significantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.”

Britain and Denmark are the only countries on track to achieve net-zero by 2050, according to the report. Meanwhile, Namibia and Botswana would achieve the goal based on current progress but are not considered on track because projected growth in their economies is predicted to knock them off course, according to the EPI.

However, the report also found that countries high on the ranking have managed to “decouple” their emissions from economic expansion rather than having to make a choice between increased emissions or economic contraction.

The previous EPI included data through 2017, making this the first edition to incorporate data from the Trump presidency. It does not include any data from the Biden administration, and does not reflect many of Biden’s attempts to reverse Trump-era rollbacks, such as rejoining the Paris climate agreement and a temporary pause on fossil fuel leasing on public lands.

The report determined that without stronger mitigation policies, 24 countries will comprise 8 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and four countries — the U.S., China, India and Russia — will represent more than 50 percent.

Echoing other research, the EPI also found that emissions have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels after dropping in the early months of the pandemic.

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Yes, the drought really is that bad

Across the West, state leaders are bracing against the long-term impacts of aridification. In late April, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown added four additional counties to the ‘drought emergency’ tally — now, half the state is in a state of emergency. Further south, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which gets water to millions of city dwellers, restricted outdoor water use for the first time ever. In Colorado, the U.S. Department of Agriculture designated the entire state a “primary natural disaster area” due to the threat of drought — also considered an ‘unprecedented’ move. The Southwest, as a whole, has been hit hard with dry conditions: Utah and New Mexico both issued separate emergency declarations, one for water scarcity and the other for wildfire.

The political designations unlock resources and expand powers for states and counties to navigate the extreme water scarcity, making available, among other things, relief aid for the agriculture industry. Westerners will undoubtedly need it this summer, and — as the drought likely continues — future summers.

Shrinking snowpacks, parched topsoil and depleted reservoirs are symptoms of the West’s worst set of dry years since 800 A.D. There is also a significant likelihood the megadrought continues. A study published in Nature Climate Change in February predicted a 94% chance the drought stretches through 2023; the chances of it persisting through 2030 are 75%, when factoring in continued impacts of a warming climate.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, most of the West is in “moderate” to “severe drought.” Certain regions, like eastern and southwestern Oregon, California’s Central Valley, southern Nevada and eastern New Mexico are in “extreme” to “exceptional” drought.

Here are a few numbers and notable coverage to understand how the drought is impacting the West:

THE SOUTHWEST


  • Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the nation's largest reservoirs, are at record lows — 24% full and 31% full, respectively. Powell’s stored supplies have dropped to just about 5 million acre-feet, triggering emergency releases to stymie dropping levels. The lake has a capacity of 26 million acre-feet.
  • Cities, from San Diego to Las Vegas, are adapting with programs like “cash-for-grass” and water recycling, according to reporting from Yale Environment 360.
  • 98% of the Southwest is in drought this week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
  • According to NASA Earth Observatory, researchers are seeing widespread and severe low-snow and low-runoff conditions across the region. Their modeling indicates snowpack has peaked roughly a month earlier than normal in the Upper Colorado Basin.


THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST


  • According to Oregon’s Fifth Climate Assessment, the state’s annual average temperature has warmed by about 2.2˚F per century since 1895. More than a third of the state, on average, has been in drought since the year 2000.
  • 58% of Idaho is experiencing moderate to exceptional drought conditions. The state’s water resource department issued an emergency drought declaration in 34 out of its 44 counties in April.
  • Glaciers in Washington’s Olympic National Park could be gone by 2070, with permanent impacts on an important source of summer water, according to a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface.


CALIFORNIA


  • Urban water use in the state rose by nearly 19% in March. 6 million people in Southern California will face outdoor water restrictions for the first time ever this summer, as Metropolitan Water District of Southern California orders outdoor watering once a week in a few densely populated cities.
  • Water sold for $2,000 per acre foot for the first time ever.
  • In 2021 alone, the ongoing drought cost thousands of jobs and over $1 billion in the San Joaquin Valley; hundreds of wells have gone dry and more are expected to dry up this year.
  • California’s largest reservoirs, Lake Shasta and Lake Oroville, are at ‘critically’ low levels.


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Just for fun.

The best thing any one person can do to stop climate change is to vote against climate deniers.

Climate Denier Clobbered in California Primary

California Governor Primary Election Results: Newsom, Dahle advance



Democratic incumbent Gavin Newsom will face Republican state Sen. Brian Dahle in November, NBC News projects.

Under California’s system, the top two candidates, regardless of party, advance to a general election. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...vernor-results

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Climate contrarians Michael Shellenberger and Bjorn Lomborg both got airtime on Fox shows this week to attack Joe Biden’s recent climate plan and promote their new books, which similarly downplay the seriousness of the climate crisis. This claim is wrong, of course, and plays right into the hands of the right-wing media which is all too eager to use their message to delay necessary climate action.

On July 14, Environmental Progress founder Shellenberger appeared on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight to discuss Biden’s new climate plan. With his recent book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All in the background behind him, Shellenberger falsely accused renewable energy of being costly and inefficient, lamented why natural gas and nuclear power weren’t taken seriously by the Biden campaign, and accused “United Nations officials and some scientists” of wanting to “control energy and food production around the world.” https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-new...s-climate-plan



https://twitter.com/MichaelEMann/sta...23981633830912