The Climate Change Thread

[Tiffany]

-3C is pretty cold with frost and some snow in areas! We've had torrential rain for the past two days; cold and damp weather. A break today and then threatening weather comes back Monday and Tuesday. I'd rather be on a beach.

 

[Retro]

Hey, global warming is warming globally again!

UK weather: Temperatures jump by 15 degrees as heavy rain predicted

The cold snap ends with warnings of rain and possible flooding, ahead of the Christmas getaway.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Tiffany]

Hey, global warming is warming globally again!

UK weather: Temperatures jump by 15 degrees as heavy rain predicted

The cold snap ends with warnings of rain and possible flooding, ahead of the Christmas getaway.

www.bbc.co.uk

So many issues with your weather changing from super cold to rainy, possibility of pipes breaking and flooding. I hope none of these predictions happen this week.

We are going in the opposite direction this week. Severely cold weather for several days in a row (9F) with the threat of power outages.

 

[Retro]

Among all the environmental doom and gloom we keep talking about, it's important to realise that there's quite a few success stories out there as well too, to help keep us optimistic.

Read over 100 positive environmental stories from 2022

We're going to be regularly updating this page with good news about our planet in an effort to combat climate anxiety.

www.euronews.com

And here's a bonus story to wow you too.

World’s largest plant: 180km long seagrass discovered in Australia

Scientists have called for 'serious climate action' to help protect the newly-discovered world's largest plant

www.euronews.com

 

[Tiffany]

Nice to have some hope and a green website dedicated to posting all of the good and positive changes developing in our environment.

 

[Retro]

We tend to take the free availability of fresh drinking water for granted in first world countries, but we really shouldn't. Only 3% of the world's water is fresh and actually available for drinking, bathing and irrigation and it's becoming increasingly scarce with global warming. However, there's now a proposed solution to this problem.

There's not enough fresh water to go around on planet Earth, and it's a problem that's expected to only worsen in the coming years.

To meet growing demand, recycling and restricting our water will only get us so far. Scientists will need to find new sources of this life-sustaining liquid to meet our needs.

One currently untapped source is the water vapor above the oceans, which is almost limitless as far as supplies go. A new study outlines how harvesting structures could be used to convert this vapor into drinkable water.

"Eventually, we will need to find a way to increase the supply of fresh water as conservation and recycled water from existing sources, albeit essential, will not be sufficient to meet human needs," says civil and environmental engineer Praveen Kumar, from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

"We think our newly proposed method can do that at large scales."

New Technology Could Tap Into a Virtually Limitless Supply of Fresh Water

There's not enough fresh water to go around on planet Earth, and it's a problem that's expected to only worsen in the coming years.

www.sciencealert.com

 

[Retro]

Top climate stories of 2022.

Devastating disasters and flickers of hope: These are the top climate and weather stories of 2022 | CNN

The planet experienced a dizzying number of climate and extreme weather disasters in 2022.

edition.cnn.com

 

[Tiffany]

Great article in review of 2022's weather and disaster events.

This morning in scanning the news, I stumbled upon a geoengineering company; Making Sunsets Company. In looking into this company and what they are doing, I haven't glanced at a write up about the company yet that is not without bias, so I hesitate in sharing from any news outlet until I can learn more, however, since this company is attempting to purposely change the climate through geoengineering, I thought it worth mentioning.

 

[Retro]

For once, this awful government does something right. No more gluing themselves to motorways or similar stunts all in the name of "save the planet".

Extinction Rebellion announces move away from disruptive tactics

Climate protest group says temporary shift will ‘prioritise relationships over roadblocks’

www.theguardian.com

 

[Tiffany]

That's good news for people that have to work bypassing these protestors and travel on the roads. It can be really dangerous when these groups block major intersections and block highway traffic.

 

[Arantor]

this awful government does something right

The Policing Bill wasn't put in place to deal with XR but to quell dissension from the ranks. This is entirely by accident that it has this effect.

The Policing Bill is some next level Orwellian crap, btw. It needs to go.

 

[Retro]

Oh I know. It's just for once their actions have done the right thing, even if by accident.

It's indeed an awful bill.

 

[Retro]

This makes the crime of man made climate change so much more damning.

I'm surprised that they had the technology to process all this data back then though as computer power was so many orders of magnitude less than today.

ExxonMobil: Oil giant predicted climate change in 1970s - scientists

Researchers claim to put a number on what Exxon knew about temperature rise as early as the 1970s.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Retro]

This is all we need. As if the killer 40C heat from last year wasn't enough, it's gonna be even worse this year. I'm actually fearing the summer now, for the first time ever.

Warning of unprecedented heatwaves as El Niño set to return in 2023

Scientists say phenomenon coupled with growing climate crisis likely to push global temperatures ‘off the chart’

www.theguardian.com

 

[Arantor]

But cLiMaTe ChAnGe IsN’t ReAl!

 

[Tiffany]

Well, that article just gives me PTSD thinking of an unbearable hot summer again. The interesting part is the author didn't mention that we've been in a "triple-dip la Nina", though Prof Hansen does mention a fourth year in the La Nina pattern.

Prof James Hansen, at Columbia University, in New York, and colleagues said recently: “We suggest that 2024 is likely to be off the chart as the warmest year on record. It is unlikely that the current La Niña will continue a fourth year. Even a little futz of an El Niño should be sufficient for record global temperature.” Declining air pollution in China, which blocks the sun, was also increasing heating, he said.

How a 'Triple Dip' La Nina will impact the US this winter

A "triple dip" La Niña is a multiyear cooling of the surface temperature of the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

abcnews.go.com

I think when El Nino is confirmed, the month and season it's activated will determine the extremes. For example, hurricane seasons with an El Nino pattern are generally milder because EL Nino causes a lot of volatile trade winds going across the western Pacific, through the Gulf of Mexico, passing through the Caribbean towards the Atlantic. Tropical storms have a hard time staying formed and becoming hurricane strength when there's strong winds. Also during an El Nino, there's more drought (US) because there's often a high pressure ridge blocking any moisture from coming in to the states from the Gulf of Mexico.

 

[Retro]

But of course, it's all a con and a scam in the name of vast profits. It's reasons like this that the planet is being ruined.

Revealed: more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest provider are worthless, analysis shows

Investigation into Verra carbon standard finds most are ‘phantom credits’ and may worsen global heating

www.theguardian.com

 

[Retro]

But of course they're scaling back their climate change targets lest it dent those massive profits, tsk. One can run a small country on money like that and that's just the profits.

BP scales back climate targets as profits hit record

It is the latest energy giant to report record annual profits after oil and gas prices soared last year.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Tiffany]

The 90% of rain forest carbon offsets article was a bit mind boggling, disappointing that major corporations are messing with their numbers to keep an emission credit level standard.

On BP.... big companies and lobbyist together setting up a quid pro quo. Tsk!

Climate campaign group Greenpeace, whose voice the BBC has included because of the impact of oil and gas production on the environment, said BP's new strategy "seems to have been strongly undermined by pressure from investors and governments to make even more dirty money out of oil and gas".

 

[Arantor]

Renationalise BP!

 

[Retro]

I can't see this hare-brained idea ending well.

A solution to the climate crisis: mining the moon, researchers say

Astrophysicists propose geoengineering solution to climate warming, although skeptics still urge ‘massive’ fossil fuel cutbacks

www.theguardian.com

 

[Tiffany]

I can't see this hare-brained idea ending well.

A solution to the climate crisis: mining the moon, researchers say

Astrophysicists propose geoengineering solution to climate warming, although skeptics still urge ‘massive’ fossil fuel cutbacks

www.theguardian.com

I can't imagine would unseen weather disasters could occur with this type of maneuver with moon dust. OMG!

Proponents of a “moonshot” idea to deal with global heating have been handed a new, very literal, interpretation by researchers who have proposed firing plumes of moon dust from a gun into space in order to deflect the sun’s rays away from Earth.

 

[Retro]

This strategy shows promise, but will have to be done on a worldwide scale with all countries pulling together for it to be effective. There's hope yet that we'll avoid a climate catastrophe.

Climate change: New idea for sucking up CO2 from air shows promise

A new way of removing carbon from the air is up to three times more effective than current technology.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Tiffany]

This is a pic from your article. Wind generators are huge! OMG!!

On your article, I can't even imagine what it would take to "vacuum" CO2 and not even sure how it turns to stone when it's injected into the earth? Interesting process.

 

[Retro]

Bloody hell, those guys really have a head for heights. Thing is a big gust could really blow them off. Crazy.