Climate Change News & Discussions

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Brutal heatwaves and submerged cities: what a 3C world would look like

Sat 11 May 2024 05.00 BST

Global heating is likely to soar past internationally agreed limits, according to a Guardian survey of hundreds of leading climate experts, bringing catastrophic heatwaves, floods and storms.

Only 6% of the respondents thought the 1.5C limit could be achieved, and this would require extraordinarily fast, radical action to halt and reverse the world’s rising emissions from fossil fuel burning.

However, the experts were clear that giving up was not an option, and that 1.5C was not a cliff-edge leading to a significant change in climate damage. Instead, the climate crisis increases incrementally, meaning every tonne of CO2 avoided reduces people’s suffering.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -look-like

[Time_Traveller]

Last summer hottest in 2,000 years, ancient trees reveal

1 hour ago

Clues hidden deep in the trunks of ancient trees have revealed that last summer was the northern hemisphere's hottest in 2,000 years.

Last year had already been confirmed as the world's warmest on record by a large margin, at least since 1850, due to climate change.

But tree rings, which record temperature information far further back than even Victorian scientific records, now show just how unprecedented last year's scorching temperatures were.

Researchers say that temperatures last June, July and August were nearly 4C warmer than the coldest summer two millennia ago.

Climate scientists have repeatedly shown that global temperatures have been rising rapidly in recent decades. According to the UN's climate body, the last time the world was consistently this warm may have been more than 100,000 years ago, external.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c72pp3yqzjyo

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DeSantis signs bill wiping climate change references from Florida law

14 hours ago

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) declared on X Wednesday that a bill he signed that removes climate change as a priority in state energy policy would restore "sanity" and reject "the agenda of the radical green zealots."

Why it matters: The bill that would also ban offshore wind turbines and bolster natural gas expansion after taking effect on July 1 comes as climate change's effects are already impacting Florida — notably a dangerous heat wave threatening the state's south this week that's already broken temperature records.

https://www.axios.com/2024/05/16/desant ... change-law

[Time_Traveller]

A second Trump presidency would target IEA's green focus, advisers say

May 16, 20245:15 PM GMT+1

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - Donald Trump would likely push to replace the head of the International Energy Agency if he wins the U.S. presidential election to shift the energy watchdog's focus back to maximizing fossil fuel output instead of fighting climate change, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Paris-based IEA has provided research and data to industrialized governments for more than half a century to help guide policy around energy security, supply and investment. The United States provides around a quarter of the group's funding.

In recent years, the organization has broadened its focus beyond oil and gas supply to include clean energy, as member governments seek input on meeting their goals under the Paris climate agreement and accelerate a transition away from fossil fuel reliance.

That shift gathered pace during President Joe Biden's tenure – resulting in prescriptions on energy policy that angered global oil producers including Saudi Arabia, and which clash with Trump's self-described ‘drill, baby, drill’ energy agenda aimed at boosting the traditional oil and gas industries.

Reuters spoke with five people familiar with Trump's thinking on energy, including donors, policy experts and former Trump administration officials, all of whom said Biden's predecessor would likely pressure the IEA to bring it in line with his pro-fossil fuel policies if he was re-elected in November.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 024-05-16/

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https://twitter.com/JohnMoralesTV/status/1791435796878102739

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Record low Antarctic sea ice 'extremely unlikely' without climate change, says scientists
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-antarctic ... imate.html
by British Antarctic Survey

Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have found that the record-low levels of sea ice around Antarctica in 2023 were extremely unlikely to happen without the influence of climate change. This low was a one-in-a-2000-year event without climate change and four times more likely under its effects. The results are published (20 May) in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, in a paper titled "CMIP6 models rarely simulate Antarctic winter sea-ice anomalies as large as observed in 2023."

In 2023, Antarctic sea ice reached historically low levels, with over 2 million square kilometers less ice than usual during winter—equivalent to about ten times the size of the UK. This drastic reduction followed decades of steady growth in sea ice up to 2015, making the sudden decline even more surprising.

Using a large climate dataset called CMIP6, BAS researchers investigated this unprecedented sea ice loss. They analyzed data from 18 different climate models to understand the probability of such a significant reduction in sea ice and its connection to climate change.