climate

I opened the first IPCC report, released in 1990, and copied their scenario graph for CO2 emissions.

I marked the latest data with a red dot. Carbon dioxide emissions in 2023 were 40.7 GtCO2 (= 11.09 GtC).

Whatever you think about the IPCC you must admit their business-as-usual calculations were pretty robust.

Edit: previous version of this post also talked about methane, but here story is not as clear, see down below: https://mas.to/@jackofalltrades/111731258956894444

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Climate #IPCC

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Tech giants are building massive data centers around the world that require a ton of water and energy. The AI boom will only accelerate it, but local opposition is growing.

I spoke to @slehuede about a group in Chile that fought a Google data center and why the tech industry’s plans must be challenged.

https://disconnect.blog/how-to-stop-a-data-center/

#tech #ai #datacenter #energy #climate

What human industry has done since 1990, pumping nearly a *trillion* tons of CO2 into the air, has no precedent. Never before in Earth’s history has so much carbon dioxide been added to the atmosphere over such a short period of time.

Now our planet is heating up fast, thanks to all these greenhouse gases in the air. That extra heat is not good for people, and it's ALSO not good for trees...
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Trees are struggling to sequester heat-trapping carbon dioxide in warmer, drier climates, meaning that they may no longer serve as a solution for offsetting humanity's carbon footprint as the planet continues to warm, according to a new study.

"We found that trees in warmer, drier climates are essentially coughing instead of breathing," said Max Lloyd, assistant research professor of geosciences at Penn State. "They are sending CO2 right back into the atmosphere far more than trees in cooler, wetter conditions."

Through the process of photosynthesis, trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere to produce new growth. Yet, under stressful conditions, trees release CO2 back to the atmosphere, a process called photorespiration. With an analysis of a global dataset of tree tissue, the research team demonstrated that the rate of photorespiration is up to two times higher in warmer climates, especially when water is limited.

They found the threshold for this response in subtropical climates begins to be crossed when average daytime temperatures exceed roughly 68 degrees Fahrenheit [20.3C] and worsens as temperatures rise further.

The results complicate a widespread belief about the role of plants in helping to draw down carbon from the atmosphere, providing new insight into how plants could adapt to climate change. Importantly, the researchers noted that as the climate warms, their findings demonstrate that plants could be less able to draw CO2 out of the atmosphere and assimilate the carbon necessary to help the planet cool down.

"We have knocked this essential cycle off balance," Lloyd said. "Plants and climate are inextricably linked. The biggest draw-down of CO2 from our atmosphere is photosynthesizing organisms. It's a big knob on the composition of the atmosphere, so that means small changes have a large impact."

Plants currently absorb an estimated 25% of the CO2 emitted by human activities each year, but this percentage is likely to decrease in the future as the climate warms, Lloyd explained, especially if water is scarcer.
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So, that's very bad. We used to think extra CO2 might make trees grow faster and absorb more CO2, but it turns that notion is wrong. It doesn't work that way.

And guess what — it also turns out that pumping a trillion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in only a few decades was a terrible idea.

FULL STORY -- https://phys.org/news/2024-01-trees-struggle-climate.html

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Just found a new (to me) psychology phrase: "pluralistic ignorance". It refers to people holding one view but mistakenly assuming that the majority of others hold a different view, so they keep quiet. Very relevant for climate change action, where lots want action but think they're in the minority.

#climate #science #action

"Americans bought 21 percent more heat pumps in 2023 than the next-most popular heating appliance, fossil gas furnaces." Quietly, the way we heat our homes is changing - and it has the potential to make a big impact. #Climate https://grist.org/energy/heat-pumps-outsold-gas-furnaces-again-last-year-and-the-gap-is-growing/?utm_source=werd.io&utm_campaign=mastodon&utm_channel=mastodon

In all of recorded human history — and probably for at least the last 100,000 years — our planet has never been as hot in the month of February as it is right now.
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February is on course to break a record number of heat records, meteorologists say. A little over halfway into the shortest month of the year, the heating spike has become so pronounced that climate charts are entering new territory, particularly for sea-surface temperatures that have persisted and accelerated to the point where expert observers are struggling to explain how the change is happening.

“The planet is warming at an accelerating rate. We are seeing rapid temperature increases in the ocean, the climate’s largest reservoir of heat,” said Dr Joel Hirschi, of the UK National Oceanography Centre. “The amplitude by which previous sea surface temperatures records were beaten in 2023 and now 2024 exceed expectations, though understanding why this is, is the subject of ongoing research.”

Humanity is on a trajectory to experience the hottest February in recorded history, after a record January, December, November, October, September, August, July, June, and May, according to Berkeley Earth scientist Zeke Hausfather.
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FULL STORY -- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/17/february-on-course-to-break-unprecedented-number-of-heat-records

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

ALT

A Native American tribe is building a $1B solar farm in Colorado.

The collection field is eight miles long and a mile wide, producing over 900 megawatts, 1000 construction jobs, and 10 to 50 ongoing jobs.

“We, as the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, had been a fossil fuel tribe with oil and gas for a long time, probably over 50 years. Today, with #climate change, you can see the impact of what’s happening to our world. So renewables is the new future right now.”

https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/native-american-ute-mountain-ute-tribe-solar-farm-colorado/

#UK’s only #trans #judge #quits due to #hostile #climate

"I’m #political every time I choose where to #pee", adding that her personal #dignity is at stake, The Times reported.

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #UK #Tories #TERFS #Hate #Bigotry #Violence #Genocide #Discrimination #Homophobia #Transphobia #TERFIsland

https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/02/27/uks-only-trans-judge-quits-due-to-hostile-climate-im-political-every-time-i-choose-where-to-pee/

It's not parody. It's not The Onion.

This is the actual world we live in now...
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"Mystery Billionaire Buys Apocalypse-Ready Bunker Surrounded By Fire Moat"

In a dystopic but perhaps unsurprising turn, the ultra-wealthy are investing in fortified shelters like never before. Mark Zuckerberg’s purchase of a 5,000-square-foot bunker beneath his Kauai ranch has set off something of a buying frenzy, with the global elite seeking refuge from future threats like armed conflict, cyberattacks, and climate change.

But it’s far worse than just bunkers: Al Corbi, president of Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments, is overseeing the creation of custom designs for the uber-rich that go far beyond traditional shelters. His most ambitious project to date is an island fortress with a 30-foot-deep lake surrounded by a flammable liquid moat, water cannons for aerial threats, and a whole lot more, set to be completed in 2025.
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FULL STORY -- https://www.dmarge.com/mystery-billionaire-buys-apocalypse-ready-bunker

#Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism

This *should* be front-page headline news every day, leading every TV newscast.

But it's not. Why? Because if it was, that might deter us from accepting the perpetuation of Business As Usual.
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If global temperatures increase by 1° Celsius or more above their current levels, billions of people will face wet-bulb temperatures every year so intense that their bodies will not be able to naturally cool themselves.

Indeed, if global temperatures exceed 2° above pre-industrial levels, four billion people will encounter intolerable heat and humidity on a yearly basis, often in regions where air conditioning and other forms of relief are not widely available. That could include more than two billion people in Pakistan and India, one billion in eastern China, and 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Once global temperatures rise 3° above pre-industrial levels, much of the U.S. Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest will also regularly experience unlivable wet-bulb temperatures.

There is no universe in which this development will not lead to millions of deaths. "It is important to understand that wet-bulb temperatures of 95°F (35°C) are not conditions we can just get used to," said Dr. Peter Reiners, a professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona. "Human bodies have fundamental physiological limits; our planet's perturbed, angry climate doesn't care about them."
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We're already at, or close to, 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures. And 2°C is not far away.

At the rate we're going, BILLIONS of people soon will be at grave risk of death from climate chaos.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.salon.com/2023/10/16/heat-is-making-our-planet-uninhabitable-why-isnt-this-the-top-news-story-around-the-world/

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

There are massive differences in the GHG emissions of different foods & "local" isn't always best for the environment.

This chart continues to be a great reference I return to in my work. Source: https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local #science #climate #food

ALT

A few days ago, we focused on the fraudulent scheme of plastic recycling. It does not work, it never has worked, and it never will.

The oil industry, which produces millions of tons of plastics every year and makes HUGE profits from it, has known all along that recycling doesn't do any good — yet they continue promoting the idea.

So should we just quit? That's the question asked by a new article at Salon.

"Plastic experts say recycling is a scam. Should we even do it anymore?"
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Erica Cirino, communications manager at the Plastic Pollution Coalition, says, "Plastic recycling rates vary widely from region to region around the world. In the U.S., plastic recycling rates are currently below 6 percent."

Yet even those numbers are deceptive, Cirino warned, as they incorrectly imply that at least the plastic which does get 'recycled' is handled in ways that help the environment.

"Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter where or how you set out your plastic for recycling collection, whether at the end of your driveway, at your local recycling center, or in a municipal recycling bin: Most plastic items collected as recycling are not actually recycled," Cirino explained. "Surprisingly, plastic is not designed to be recycled — despite industries and governments telling the public that we should recycle plastic."

Instead the plastics that people think get 'recycled' are often instead shipped from the Global North to the Global South, with waste haulers often dumping and openly burning plastic without regard to environmental laws, Cirino explained. People who live near the sites where these things happen face a lifetime of health risks, to say nothing of living in a degraded environment.

Indeed, a compelling question arises from the fact that the crusade to recycle plastic is more corporate propaganda than true Earth-saving measure: Should we recycle plastic at all?

"No," Cirino told Salon. "Even if plastic recycling rates were higher, recycling alone could never come close to solving the serious and wide-ranging health, justice, socio-economic, and environmental crises caused by industries’ continued plastic production and plastic pollution, which go hand in hand." Cirino argued that, given how plastic production has grown exponentially and its pollution problems have likewise worsened, emphasizing recycling over meaningful solutions is at best irresponsible.

"It’s clear recycling is not enough to solve the plastic pollution crisis," Cirino concluded. "The fossil fuel industry, governments, and corporations really need to turn off the plastic tap. Ultimately, our world must decide what it values: money or life."
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.salon.com/2024/02/23/plastic-experts-say-recycling-is-a-scam-should-we-even-do-it-anymore/

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Pollution

Thunberg and climate protesters acquitted because new laws are ‘too broad’ and ‘unworkable’ | Vox Political
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2024/02/21/thunberg-and-climate-protesters-acquitted-because-new-laws-are-too-broad-and-unworkable/

#Greta Thunberg #climate #protest #acquit #court #protest #law #broad #unworkable #Mike Sivier #Vox #Political

2023 was by far the hottest year in human history. 🥵 January 2024 was even hotter than that. It looks like February probably will break records too.

The past 12 months combined are OVER the stated goal of the celebrated 2015 Paris agreement, aiming to keep the global temperature increase under 1.5° Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline.

We're beyond 1.5C now, and although it's still possible that average temperatures will dip down slightly later this year, it's also possible they will not. At any rate, that 1.5C target is clearly out of reach. It's dead. Our best hope now is to stay below 2° of warming — which seems very unlikely without radical action.

Here's the news...
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The average global temperature has for the first time breached the critical benchmark of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels over a 12-month period, according to data from the European earth observation agency showing that last month was the hottest January on record.

As countries contend with bouts of extreme weather events, including floods and wildfires, the Brussels-based Copernicus Climate Change Service said the global mean temperature for February 2023 to January 2024 was the highest ever at 15.02C, 1.52C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period.

January marked the eighth month in a row that temperatures were the warmest on record, as heatwaves, wildfires and flooding devastated many regions. Last year was the hottest on record.

January’s average surface air temperature was 1.66C warmer than an estimate of the January average for 1850-1900.
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FULL STORY -- https://archive.is/BBkxE
ALTERNATE LINK -- https://www.ft.com/content/8927424e-2828-4414-86b7-f3a991214288

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

ALT

I'm 70 years old. Many of my followers here are seniors, like me, or are at least middle-aged. Most of us are angry and probably grief-stricken about what capitalist industry is doing to the biosphere.

But what must it feel like to be a young person in your teens or in your twenties and be looking toward a future of near-certain disaster, the collapse of society, the destruction of everything you hold dear? I can't imagine the pain.

It would be understandable if they reacted by simply giving up. Or perhaps by lashing out in anger. But some of them, showing incredible courage and determination, have formed movements to change what they can and to save at least a vestige of the civilization they are inheriting.

I stand in awe of these selfless, dedicated young people.

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice

ALT

HEADLINE: "Oil Industry Deceived Public on Plastics Recycling for More Than 50 Years"

Is anyone surprised by this? Of course they lied. That's what capitalists do. They ALWAYS put profits ahead of truthfulness, ahead of human rights, ahead of a healthy biosphere.

Here's more...
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The plastics industry has ‘sold’ plastic recycling to the American public to sell plastic, according to a report by the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), a nonprofit organization that advocates for legal action to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable.

Petrochemical companies and the plastics industry have known of the technical and economic limitations that make plastics unrecyclable for more than half a century, and “have failed to overcome them,” the report states. “Despite this knowledge, the plastics industry has continued to increase plastic production, while carrying out a well-coordinated campaign to deceive consumers, policymakers, and regulators about plastic recycling.”

“This evidence shows that many of the same fossil fuel companies that knew and lied for decades about how their products cause climate change have also known and lied to the public about plastic recycling,” Richard Wiles, CCI’s president, said in a press release. “The oil industry’s lies are at the heart of the two most catastrophic pollution crises in human history.”

Plastics manufacturers and industry groups, including some of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, have spent more than 50 years funding and pushing plastics recycling in order to stave off regulatory action – all while knowing that only a small fraction of plastic waste could ever be recycled.
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FULL STORY -- https://www.desmog.com/2024/02/15/recycling-plastic-center-for-climate-integrity-report-fraud/
REPORT SOURCE -- https://climateintegrity.org/plastics-fraud

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #Greenwashing

ALT

OMFG. "Exxon CEO blames the public for failure to fix #climate change."

Could there be a more stunning example of hypocrisy?

Humanity has *never* experienced a February like this one before. And if such weather extremes are shocking to you, imagine the disruption to plants, to insects, to birds and to other animals who have no way to understand what's happening, and who can't possibly adapt fast enough.

Capitalist industry is murdering our only biosphere.
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"Historic winter heat wave smashes records across U.S."

The modern winter climate history of the Central U.S. was rewritten this week, as more than 130 monthly high temperature records were set from Texas to Michigan. Veteran Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore noted that 132 cities and towns set monthly records, calling the feat "insane."
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LINK -- https://www.axios.com/2024/02/28/heat-wave-temperatures-records-us-2024-winter

The worst thing about all this (not mentioned in the article) is that it’s part of a vicious cycle, a self-reinforcing feedback loop.

These unprecedented heat waves bake the soil and dry out vegetation, releasing carbon into the atmosphere. They also make wildfires and forest fires far more likely, which again release even more carbon into the atmosphere. That increased concentration of greenhouse gases raises global temperatures, which causes more and more of these searing heat waves… and the cycle repeats and repeats and repeats.

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

Electric cars, carbon capture, planting trees; all these climate actions feel like fighting a wildfire while an arsonist is setting more fires.

Don't get me wrong - we *need* people fighting the fires (even if some of them are more effective than others).

But more urgently, someone needs to stop the arsonist.

#Climate #ClimateCrisis

Good news for #climate:

One of the IRA’s most potentially transformative programs is close to being finalized & now we've a window into how it could take shape.

States are vying for a share of a historic $7B in fed funding to help low-income families access clean solar power. This program, Solar for All, is poised to benefit >700K low-income HHs across the nation.

#Solar #Renewables #ClimateCrisis

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/low-income-communities-will-soon-get-7-billion-for-local-solar

1 Million Acres Burned and Counting as Texas Offers ‘Terrifying’ Glimpse of Climate Future

Experts say the Smokehouse Creek fire is a vision of what the climate crisis has in store for the world

https://www.commondreams.org/news/1-million-acres-texas-smokehousefire

#Texas #USA #US #MassExtinction #pollution #ecology #environment #climate

Have you ever tried snorkeling or scuba diving around coral reefs? I did that several times when I was younger and loved it. The beauty is almost indescribable.

Losing these reefs – as now seems all but unavoidable – is a tragedy in so many ways. It crushes biodiversity, threatens to disrupt the ocean food chain, and leaves us bereft of some of nature's most glorious wonders.
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For the fifth time in just the past eight summers – 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022, and now 2024 – huge swathes of the Great Barrier Reef are experiencing extreme heat stress that has triggered yet another episode of mass coral bleaching.

The most conspicuous impact of unusually high temperatures on tropical and subtropical reefs is wide-scale coral bleaching and death. Sharp spikes in temperature can destroy coral tissue directly even before bleaching unfolds. Consequently, if temperatures exceed 2°C above the normal summer maximum, heat-sensitive corals die very quickly.

Given the near-record levels of heat stress this summer, we can expect heavy losses of corals to occur on hundreds of individual reefs over the next few months.

This latest, still-unfolding event was entirely predictable, as ocean temperatures continue to rise due to global heating.

The only long-term way to protect corals on the Great Barrier Reef and elsewhere is to rapidly reduce global greenhouse emissions.
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://theconversation.com/the-great-barrier-reefs-latest-bout-of-bleaching-is-the-fifth-in-eight-summers-the-corals-now-have-almost-no-reprieve-225348

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Climate change is a killer.

Not only does it bring extreme weather events that threaten human populations, but also a complete breakdown of nature’s normal patterns, putting potentially millions of plant and animal species at risk of extinction.
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The seasons aren’t what they used to be.

People who live in Earth’s middle latitudes are accustomed to a spring, summer, autumn, and winter. But if you’re in the northern hemisphere, you may have noticed plants flowering earlier than usual.

It’s not your imagination.

Since 1986, plants in the UK now greet spring 26 days earlier, on average. This relatively rapid shift has severed an arrangement plants and animals have negotiated over thousands of years.

Climate change won’t simply usher in seasons where everything happens a month earlier or a month later. Some species will delay hibernation and emerge in spring sooner, but others will stick to their original schedule, taking their cues from day length rather than temperature.

The result will be chaos, says Charlie Gardner, a lecturer in conservation biology at the University of Kent: “If we are to have any chance of preserving the living planet and avoiding the extinction of a million species, then we need to do more than stop climate breakdown. We need to invest in conservation too, to help wild plants and animals adapt to the changes we’ve already locked in. Not doing so would be bad news for all of us.”
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-warping-the-seasons-221893

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

"Your city is a scab on the landscape: sidewalks, roads, parking lots, rooftops—the built environment repels water into sewers & then into the environment. Urban planners have been doing it for centuries, treating stormwater as a nuisance to be diverted away as quickly as possible to avoid flooding. Not only is that a waste of free water, it’s an increasingly precarious strategy, as #climate change worsens #droughts but also supercharges storms, dumping ever more #rainfall on impervious cities.

#Urban areas in the United States generate an estimated 59.5 million acre-feet of stormwater runoff / year on average—equal to 53 billion gallons / day. Over the course of the year, that equates to 93% of total municipal & industrial water use. American urban areas couldn’t feasibly capture all of that bountiful runoff, but a combination of smarter stormwater infrastructure & “#SpongeCity” techniques would make urban areas far more sustainable."
#permaculture #wetlands
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2024/03/us-cities-could-capture-billions-gallons-rain-water-conservation-drought/

I have just discovered that those odd waste/recycling bins that are all over the oldest bits of Bergen, Norway, link to an UNDERGROUND PNEUMATIC WASTE TRANSPORT SYSTEM. The waste collects for a bit and then WHOOSH... it's off to the recycling centre. All underground. No bin lorries (garbage trucks), fewer road vehicles, less noise... amazing. @davidho says that my (considerable) excitement about this is entirely unreasonable. I disagree.
https://www.envacgroup.com/how-it-works/the-envac-system/

#climate #waste #Norway