Climate Change News & Discussions

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Ocean temperatures are off the charts right now, and scientists are alarmed

(CNN) Ocean surface heat is at record-breaking levels. Temperatures began climbing in mid-March and skyrocketed over the course of several weeks, leaving scientists scrambling to figure out exactly why.

Temperatures have fallen since their peak in April – as they naturally do in the spring – but they are still higher than they have ever been on record for this time of year.

“It is remarkable,” said Gregory C. Johnson, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which calculates the ocean surface temperature using a network of ships, buoys, satellites and floats.

Although it’s still preliminary data, if it holds up, he said, “this is another milestone.”

The record may not seem huge – it’s nearly two-tenths of a degree higher than the previous record in 2016 – but given how much heat is needed to warm up this huge body of water, “it’s a massive amount of energy,” Matthew England, professor of ocean and climate dynamics at the University of New South Wales, Australia, told CNN. ...............(more)

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/05/world/oc ... index.html

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[weatheriscool]

Australian bushfires likely contributed to multiyear La Niña
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-australia ... ar-la.html
by National Center for Atmospheric Research

The catastrophic Australian bushfires in 2019–2020 contributed to ocean cooling thousands of miles away, ultimately nudging the Tropical Pacific into a rare multi-year La Niña event that dissipated only recently.

The research was led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and is published in Science Advances.

La Niña events tend to impact the winter climate over North America, causing drier and warmer than average conditions in the southwest U.S., wetter weather in the Pacific Northwest, and colder temperatures in Canada and the northern U.S. Because the emergence of La Niña can often be predicted months in advance, it's an important phenomenon for seasonal climate forecasts.

"Many people quickly forgot about the Australian fires, especially as the COVID pandemic exploded, but the Earth system has a long memory, and the impacts of the fires lingered for years," said NCAR scientist John Fasullo, lead author of the study.

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The usual torrent of denialist imbecility in the comment section of this article –

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65602293

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Oil companies owe the world trillions in climate reparations. This study calculates the exact cost

05-19-23

When a climate disaster hits, the people who pay the biggest price often had the least to do with causing the problem. Take, for example, the devastating heat wave this spring in South Asia—made 30 times worse by climate change—followed by a cyclone that tore through refugee camps in Bangladesh and Myanmar. Myanmar’s historical emissions are a tiny fraction of the emissions from the United States.

In some cases, insurance companies help foot the bill for damages, and taxpayers also pay via disaster recovery agencies. Last year, wealthy countries finally agreed to support a “loss and damage” fund for climate impacts in lower-income nations. But some argue that fossil fuel companies, responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions, should be shouldering a large part of the burden. A new study published in the journal One Earth suggests how to calculate exactly how much they owe.

Between 2025 and 2050, based on a survey of hundreds of climate economists, the total economic damages from climate change is estimated at a staggering $99 trillion; nearly $70 trillion of that can be attributed to fossil fuel emissions. “We’re probably underestimating likely damages,” says study coauthor Richard Heede, director of the Climate Accountability Institute.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90898704/oi ... eparations

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More and more of these climate blockades in London.

I think somebody's going to lose their life soon. And if things seem tense now, imagine the sort of protests in 2030, 2040...

[Time_Traveller]

More and more of these climate blockades in London.

I think somebody's going to lose their life soon. And if things seem tense now, imagine the sort of protests in 2030, 2040...

I saw a similar one on a group that got suggested for me which appeared on Facebook of a man that shuffed them around on the floor etc.

[caltrek]

^^^The danger is that future protests will be right-wing in orientation. That is that the root cause of climate change will be ignored, and that opportunistic elements on the right will instead use deteriorating conditions as a justification for seizing power from more "moderate" regimes. "Moderates" need to realize the extent of the crisis and stop dismissing political movements that are further to the left as being "too radical." Their ill-thought-out form of centrism is actually quite extremist and unrealistic in nature. At least over the long term, and the long term is becoming NOW.

What I came here to post:

Nearly 2 Billion at Risk From "Unprecedented" Climate Conditions
by Andreew Freedman
May 23, 2023

Introduction:

(Axios) Absent new, more ambitious climate policies, the world is headed for a magnitude of climate change that would put about 2 billion people at risk of extreme heat by the end of the century, a new study finds.

Why it matters: Limiting global warming to the Paris Agreement's target of 1.5°C (2.7°F) above preindustrial levels would yield a five-fold reduction in the population exposed to unprecedented heat by the end of this century.

• The nearly 1.2°C (2.16°F) increase in global average surface temperatures to date has already knocked more than 600 million people out of the "human climate niche" in which society has historically thrived.

• The researchers of the study, published Monday in Nature Sustainability, define that niche by looking at how human population density varies with temperature and precipitation.

Read more here: https://www.axios.com/2023/05/23/clima ... ous-heat

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