Climate Change News & Discussions

[weatheriscool]

Meltdown Alert: Greenland Ice Sheet Nearing the Point of No Return
By American Geophysical Union April 14, 2023
https://scitechdaily.com/meltdown-alert ... no-return/

Once we emit about 1000 gigatons of carbon, much of the massive ice sheet will melt irreversibly. We’ve emitted 500 gigatons so far.

The Greenland Ice Sheet covers 1.7 million square kilometers (660,200 square miles) in the Arctic. If it melts entirely, global sea level would rise about 7 meters (23 feet), but scientists aren’t sure how quickly the ice sheet could melt. Modeling tipping points, which are critical thresholds where a system behavior irreversibly changes, helps researchers find out when that melt might occur.

Based in part on carbon emissions, a new study using simulations identified two tipping points for the Greenland Ice Sheet: releasing 1000 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere will cause the southern portion of the ice sheet to melt; about 2500 gigatons of carbon means permanent loss of nearly the entire ice sheet.

Having emitted about 500 gigatons of carbon, we’re about halfway to the first tipping point.

“The first tipping point is not far from today’s climate conditions, so we’re in danger of crossing it,” said Dennis Höning, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research who led the study. “Once we start sliding, we will fall off this cliff and cannot climb back up.”

[weatheriscool]

Greenhouse gases continued to increase rapidly in 2022
Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide rise further into uncharted levels
https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/green ... ly-in-2022

Levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide, the three greenhouse gases emitted by human activity that are the most significant contributors to climate change, continued their historically high rates of growth in the atmosphere during 2022, according to NOAA scientists.

The global surface average for CO2 rose by 2.13 parts per million (ppm) to 417.06 ppm, roughly the same rate observed during the last decade. Atmospheric CO2 is now 50% higher than pre-industrial levels. 2022 was the 11th consecutive year CO2 increased by more than 2 ppm, the highest sustained rate of CO2 increases in the 65 years since monitoring began. Prior to 2013, three consecutive years of CO2 growth of 2 ppm or more had never been recorded.

[Time_Traveller]

Atmospheric CO2 continues to rise

15-04-2023 07:20

The climate crisis continues to worsen as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reach an all- time high at 423.01 parts per million (ppm). Greta Thunberg tweeted to comment on how terrifying it is that this has gone almost completely unnoticed.

Mauna Loa is a volcano in Hawaii, where there is the Mauna Loa observatory that takes regular CO2 readings. These readings continue to increase, causing further concern over the climate crisis. The observatory made predictions earlier this year that CO2 levels would average 419.2ppm. The global average last year was 417.2ppm.

This is more than a 50% increase from what it would’ve been in the pre-industrial era, according to the USA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This is extremely dangerous and means the Earth will continue to get warmer, causing extreme weather and the melting of ice caps.

https://northwestbylines.co.uk/environm ... s-to-rise/

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

'Devastating' melt of Greenland, Antarctic ice sheets found
Source: NBC

The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are now losing more than three times as much ice a year as they were 30 years ago, according to a new comprehensive international study.

Using 50 different satellite estimates, researchers found that Greenland’s melt has gone into hyperdrive in the last few years. Greenland’s average annual melt from 2017 to 2020 was 20% more a year than at the beginning of the decade and more than seven times higher than its annual shrinkage in the early 1990s.

The new figures “are pretty disastrous really,” said study co-author Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute. “We’re losing more and more ice from Greenland.”

Study lead author Ines Otosaka, a glaciologist at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, said speeded-up ice sheet loss is clearly caused by human-caused climate change.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna80616

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

Supreme Court deals blow to oil companies by turning away climate cases

April 24, 2023, 2:56 PM BST

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed lawsuits brought by municipalities seeking to hold energy companies accountable for climate change to move forward in a loss for business interests.

The court turned away oil company appeals in five cases involving claims brought by cities and municipalities in Colorado, Maryland, California, Hawaii and Rhode Island as part of efforts to hold businesses accountable for the effects of climate change.

The relatively narrow legal issue is whether the lawsuits should be heard in state court instead of federal court. Litigants care because of the widely held view that plaintiffs have a better chance of winning damage awards in state court.

"Big Oil companies have been desperate to avoid trials in state courts, where they will be forced to defend their climate lies in front of juries, and today the Supreme Court declined to bail them out," said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental group.

Business groups expressed disappointment in the Supreme Court's decision, with Phil Goldberg, a lawyer with the National Association of Manufacturers' legal arm, saying that climate issues should be dealt with at the national or international level.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/suprem ... -rcna49823

[weatheriscool]

I think this year will probably be a top 3 year and if this nino becomes strong then 2024 could challenge 2016 for first.

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Ocean Warming Study So Distressing, Some Scientists Didn't Even Want to Talk About It

https://www.commondreams.org/news/ocean-warming-study
"This is one of those 'sit up and read very carefully' moments," said one science journalist.
Julia Conley
Apr 25, 2023

Scientists are so alarmed by a new study on ocean warming that some declined to speak about it on the record, the BBC reported Tuesday.

"One spoke of being 'extremely worried and completely stressed,'" the outlet reported regarding a scientist who was approached about research published in the journal Earth System Science Data on April 17, as the study warned that the ocean is heating up more rapidly than experts previously realized—posing a greater risk for sea-level rise, extreme weather, and the loss of marine ecosystems.

Scientists from institutions including Mercator Ocean International in France, Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the United States, and Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research collaborated to discover that as the planet has accumulated as much heat in the past 15 years as it did in the previous 45 years, the majority of the excess heat has been absorbed by the oceans.

[caltrek]

Vanuatu: A Small Country of Great Strategic Importance in the Debate Regarding Climate Change
by Matija Šerić
April 29 , 2023

Introduction:

(Eurasia Review) The Republic of Vanuatu is a small country in Oceania that plays an important role in climate diplomacy. This is not surprising since climate change threatens to wipe the small Pacific nation off the geographical and political maps. The current president of Vanuatu, Nikenike Vurobaravu, claims that the best defense of his country is being loud in international institutions. And Vanuatu diplomats do this fantastically. Vanuatu was the country that in 1991 promoted the idea that industrialized countries should pay for the irreversible damage caused by climate change that is most affected by developing countries. In November of last year, at the climate talks of the United Nations in Egypt, after 30 years of negotiations, this happened. An agreement was reached on the establishment of a fund that would help poor countries cope with the damage caused by climate change.

Vanuatu – a leader in the fight against climate change

In September of last year, Vurobaravu used the rostrum of the UN General Assembly in New York to call for an agreement on the non-proliferation of fossil fuels for the first time. At the end of last year, Vurobarava presented Vanuatu’s most radical proposal so far. He said he wants the International Court of Justice (ICJ), based in The Hague, to rule on whether governments have “legal obligations” to protect the population from climate hazards, and more importantly, whether failure to meet those obligations can carry “legal consequences” under existing international law. In short, the court is being asked to rule on whether states can be sued for climate negligence. “As a small country that was historically unimportant,” Vurobravu said, Vanuatu has learned to innovate: “If you try to do things the way others do them, I believe we wouldn’t get very far.”

The idea of seeking a legal opinion from the International Court of Justice came from a group of law students four years ago who understand the dangers of climate change.

Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/29042023 ... analysis/


Vanuata

[caltrek]

Greenpeace Activists Scale Belgian Liquified Natural Gas Terminal to Demand End to U.S. Imports
by Julia Conley
April 29, 2023

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) Expressing solidarity with people in frontline communities where the fossil fuel industry has for decades polluted the air and water and exposed millions of people to public safety risks, nearly two dozen campaigners with Greenpeace Belgium on Saturday entered the liquefied natural gas terminal of energy infrastructure company Fluxys in Zeebrugge, to demand an end to European imports of LNG from the United States.

Ten people climbed the infrastructure and 12 people kayaked into the terminal, displaying signs that read "U.S. Gas Kills" and "Solidarity with the U.S. Gulf South."

The campaigners came from countries including Austria, France, and Germany and climbed onto platforms used for loading and unloading the tankers that transport LNG, which is gas that's been cooled and liquefied after fracking or drilling extraction process. They unfurled a large banner reading, "Gas kills."

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/gree ... g-protest

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

4°C is basically the end of organised civilisation, from what I understand. Good if you're a misanthrope, I guess. Hopefully we can reach gigaton-scale carbon removal by 2050, but I worry about the oceans' heating and whether it's too late to reverse that.

[weatheriscool]

Yep,,,,

I think this year will be a top 3 year and next year if the strong nino will likely be number 1#

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

Exclusive: India amends power policy draft to halt new coal-fired capacity

May 5, 2023
12:29 AM GMT+1

India plans to stop building new coal-fired power plants, apart from those already in the pipeline, by removing a key clause from the final draft of its National Electricity Policy (NEP), in a major boost to fight climate change, sources said.

The draft, if approved by the federal cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, would make China the only major economy open to fresh requests to add significant new coal-fired capacity.

India and China account for about 80% of all active coal projects as most developing nations wind down capacity to meet climate targets. As of January 2023, only 20 countries have more than one coal project planned, according to E3G, an independent climate think tank.

"After months of deliberations, we have arrived at a conclusion that we would not need new coal additions apart from the ones already in pipeline," one of three government sources said.

The sources declined to be identified as they are not authorised to speak to the media. India's power ministry did not respond to requests seeking comment.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 023-05-04/