Climate Crisis

A non-partisan website is available for updates on atmospheric global carbon dioxide levels:

You can check CO2 levels in this web page too: http://co2.earth . Todays levels May 24 2019 are: 414.78 ppm, May 24 2018’s leves were: 411.44 ppm

http://co2.earth

Here is the Project Drawdown introduction of their new Director, Jonathan Foley, PhD:

https://www.drawdown.org/staff/jonathan-foley

Climate change: UK government to commit to 2050 target (BBC)

Greenhouse gas emissions in the UK will be cut to almost zero by 2050, under the terms of a new government plan to tackle climate change.

Prime Minister Theresa May said there was a "moral duty to leave this world in a better condition than what we inherited".

Cutting emissions would benefit public health and cut NHS costs, she said.

Britain is the first major nation to propose this target - and it has been widely praised by green groups.

But some say the phase-out is too late to protect the climate, and others fear that the task is impossible...

The Pentagon emits more greenhouse gases than Portugal (Guardian)

Pentagon released 59m metric tons of carbon dioxide and other warming gases in 2017

Drought in Africa leaves 45 million in need across 14 countries (The New Humanitarian)

We have a Silverado to tow and haul stuff. My shame comes more from attempting to park the thing in public!
I did, however, give up my car now that we're retired. Guilt did factor... I miss my freedom, but it's not a huge sacrifice.

Luxury Holidays and SUVs Are Badges of Shame Now
Chris Bryant | June 21, 2019

Climate protesters have realized there’s great mileage in making people feel ashamed of their consumer choices. The car and air industries should worry.

The windshields of large cars parked in my Berlin neighborhood were plastered this week with angry messages on lurid orange stickers. The owners were told that: “Driving an SUV causes serious climate damage,” “SUVs harm your unborn child,” and “Driving an SUV causes impotence.” That last one may have been a joke...

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-06-21/climate-change-luxury-holi...

>6 margd:

In UK SUVs are nicknamed "Chelsea tractors". The implication is that they are used mainly in places like Chelsea (a very upmarket part of London) and are also reputed used only for taking the children to the local school. They never see the off-road areas for which they were supposedly designed, although I did read somewhere once that you can buy spray-on fake mud to make it look as if you have been in the countryside over the weekend.

I confess I do drive a large diesel-engined 4WD Land Rover, but where I live in the bush it is a necessity rather than a status symbol. At the moment I am not aware of anything greener which could do the job within my price range and circumstances. A conversion kit to create an electrically-powered Land Rover is being developed and is apparently in use on some vehicles in national parks (where its silence makes it easier to get close to wild animals) but its range and charging requirements are still a problem for normal usage. In the meantime I definitely do not need spray-on mud as I have more of the real thing than I could possibly wish for, and I do my bit for the community by rescuing passing cars and trucks which get stuck during the wet season.

Mike Pence repeatedly refuses to say climate crisis is a threat to US (Guardian)

‘Climate apartheid’: UN expert says human rights may not survive (Guardian)

The world is increasingly at risk of “climate apartheid”, where the rich pay to escape heat and hunger caused by the escalating climate crisis while the rest of the world suffers, a report from a UN human rights expert has said.

Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said the impacts of global heating are likely to undermine not only basic rights to life, water, food, and housing for hundreds of millions of people, but also democracy and the rule of law...

The churches trying to save Ethiopia's trees (BBC)

In northern Ethiopia, churches are fighting to protect their sacred forests.

In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, it's believed that these forests provide protective 'clothing' for their sacred spaces. They can also offer the only shade for miles.

But encroaching farmland is putting these ancient trees at risk - and livestock is thwarting attempts to rejuvenate the forests with new saplings...

Oh, well done, churches in Ethiopia. Thousands of years ago, the Buddha told his followers in India to start planting one tree every five years.

Amazon fires are 'true apocalypse', says Brazilian archbishop (Guardian)

The fires in the Amazon are a “true apocalypse”, according to a Brazilian archbishop who expects next month’s papal synod at the Vatican to strongly denounce the destruction of the rainforest.

The comments by Erwin Kräutler will put fresh pressure on the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, following criticism from G7 leaders last month over the surge of deforestation in the world’s biggest terrestrial carbon sink.

The archbishop’s words also highlight a widening division between the Catholic church and the Pentecostal movement. Pope Francis has championed a more harmonious relationship with the natural world for the sake of future generations, in contrast to the fast-growing new-world Pentecostalists who form the support base for the ramped-up resource exploitation advocated by Bolsonaro and Donald Trump.

The gathering of bishops would condemn all forms of Amazon destruction and advocate a new view of ecology based on Christian faith in God as the creator of a “common home”...

>12 John5918: I'm surprised, but glad, that a Church representative is willing to use the word 'apocalypse.' I look around, and yes, that is what is beginning.

'Americans are waking up': two thirds say climate crisis must be addressed (Guardian)

Two-thirds of Americans believe climate change is either a crisis or a serious problem, with a majority wanting immediate action to address global heating and its damaging consequences, major new polling has found...

If this statistic is accurate then I suppose it is a belated step in the right direction...

Climate crisis justified removal of Macron portrait, judge rules (Guardian)

Two climate crisis protesters who removed Emmanuel Macron's portrait from an official building were justified in doing so because of the severity of the environmental emergency, a judge has said. ...

"Climate change is a constant that seriously affects the future of humanity by provoking natural catastrophes that poorer countries don't have the means to protect themselves against," he said. "If France has undertaken internally ... to respect objectives as the government has, objectives that are probably insufficient but are at least necessary, the documents produced by the defence testify that these objectives will not be reached." He added that the group's "intrusion" into the town hall had caused only a limited disturbance to public order and the protesters' actions were a "legitimate call on the president".

Climate crisis seen as 'most important issue' by public, poll shows (Guardian)

Eight-country poll shows people view climate crisis as priority over migration and terrorism...

The poll surveyed more than 1,000 people in the UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, Brazil, France, Poland and the US...

Jeff Bezos unveils sweeping plan to tackle climate change

(me: Despite how nice it sounds, his retail model just doesn't add up to efficient use of transportation. Neither does it encourage using less all the way around.)

Global climate strikes: Don’t say you’re sorry. We need people who can take action to TAKE ACTUAL ACTION (Guardian)

As seen by First Dog on the Moon

Two from BBC:

Climate change: Impacts 'accelerating' as leaders gather for UN talks

The signs and impacts of global heating are speeding up, the latest science on climate change, published ahead of key UN talks in New York, says...

Pizol glacier: Swiss hold funeral for ice lost to global warming

A Swiss glacier lost to global warming has been commemorated at a memorial service in the Alps.

Dozens of people took part in Sunday's "funeral march" to mark the disappearance of the Pizol glacier.

The glacier, in the Glarus Alps of northeastern Switzerland, has shrunk to a tiny fraction of its original size.

Scientists say the glacier has lost at least 80% of its volume just since 2006...

And a humorous video which I have posted elsewhere in response to a post by Barney:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOmdkN6MOwU&feature=youtu.be

>19 John5918: good video!

THE GRETA THUNBERG PROBLEM, so many men freaking out about the tiny Swedish climate demon (Guardian)

First Dog on the Moon cartoon

>21 John5918: Luckily help is at hand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x49P_ZGeWq8

>22 mart1n:

Great! Thanks!

>22 mart1n: very good!

Greta Thunberg calls out the 'haters' (BBC)

Greta Thunberg is angry, and not just about climate change.

"The haters are as active as ever", the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist posted on social media on Thursday, "going after me, my looks, my clothes, my behaviour and my differences". Anything, she says, rather than talk about the climate crisis...

>25 John5918: Nice... Good for her!

Why we're rethinking the images we use for our climate journalism (Guardian)

Guardian picture editor Fiona Shields explains why we are going to be using fewer polar bears and more people to illustrate our coverage of the climate emergency

England, despite all its other problems, seems a very "woke" society on the climate problems. Do we thank David Attenborough for that?

Anyway, NYT posts a story about the Extinction Rebellion movement:

Extinction Rebellion Is Creating a New Narrative of the Climate Crisis

In 2008, watching a series of “peak oil” documentary films, I had what writer Rob Hopkins calls “The End of Suburbia” moment. I woke up to see that everything, including the toothbrush I used and the clothes I wore, was made of oil. I realized I knew nothing about energy extraction, financial markets or industrial agriculture. I had only learned a narrow history of civilization, not the consequences it brought in its wake, nor the mechanics beneath its glamorous surface. I began to document the community grass-roots projects around Britain that were taking steps to transition to a low-carbon economy, from repair cafes to urban farms.

But it wasn’t until I encountered the Uncivilisation festival, a gathering that explored creative responses to systemic collapse, hosted by Dark Mountain Project, that I knew what was missing from any positive narrative about climate change I might write. The talk around the fire was not about climate data and behavior change, but about an existential crisis — a crisis that made space for people to turn away from the myths of progress, human centrality and our separation from “nature” and, instead, become humbler, more imaginative creatures.
...
How we extricate ourselves is the challenge at hand. Extinction Rebellion’s demands take a step beyond the Paris Agreement; they insist that Britain reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025. And their creative actions have captured the attention of the public, bringing many more voices into play.

“We need to go through the path of ashes,” Simon Bramwell, one of the group’s co-founders, told me. “This is not a hero’s journey.”

If you ask people why they have sat down in the road, why vicars, teachers, nurses, ex-policemen, electricians, a former stock trader, elderly men and young mothers allowed themselves to be arrested, they will tell you that they have done everything they can on their own: signed petitions, made lifestyle changes. None of it worked.

But when you find yourself among others who know that our boat is leaking, you can play a role in an ensemble act. Nonviolent direct action is effective because you are showing that you are willing to put your body and your liberty on the line. You are standing by your words. Who you are matters, what you say matters. And you are not alone in saying it.

We live and die by the stories we tell each other — and that story on the streets of London is changing.

Fracking banned in UK as government makes major U-turn (Guardian)

Victory for green groups follows damning scientific study and criticism from spending watchdog

Africa poised to lead way in global green revolution, says report (Guardian)

Continent is set for massive urbanisation but can avoid relying on fossil fuels, says IEA

Climate change deniers’ new battle front attacked (Guardian)

‘Pernicious’ campaign is unfair on well-meaning people who want to help – expert

The battle between climate change deniers and the environment movement has entered a new, pernicious phase. That is the stark warning of one of the world’s leading climate experts, Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University.

Mann told the Observer that although flat rejection of global warming was becoming increasingly hard to maintain in the face of mounting evidence, this did not mean climate change deniers were giving up the fight.

“First of all, there is an attempt being made by them to deflect attention away from finding policy solutions to global warming towards promoting individual behaviour changes that affect people’s diets, travel choices and other personal behaviour,” said Mann. “This is a deflection campaign and a lot of well-meaning people have been taken in by it.”

Mann stressed that individual actions – eating less meat or avoiding air travel – were important in the battle against global warming. However, they should be seen as additional ways to combat global warming rather than as a substitute for policy reform.

“We should also be aware how the forces of denial are exploiting the lifestyle change movement to get their supporters to argue with each other. It takes pressure off attempts to regulate the fossil fuel industry. This approach is a softer form of denial and in many ways it is more pernicious”...

Weather and war: How climate shocks are compounding Somalia’s problems (The New Humanitarian)

The failure of seasonal rains earlier this year in Somalia threatened more than two million people with hunger as their crops shrivelled in the fields and livestock died from the lack of water and pasture.

It was one of the driest rainy seasons in decades, and the UN issued an urgent call in May for $710 million in aid to help prevent the country tipping into starvation.

Now, it’s the reverse. Torrential rain pounded central Somalia last month, causing flash floods that have affected more than 547,000 people, forcing 370,000 from their homes.

Farmland and roads have been washed away in what is the country’s worst flooding in recent history, and diseases like malaria and diarrhoea are on the rise in the hardest-hit areas.

Somalia’s two rainy seasons – the Gu’ from April to June, and the Deyr from October to December – have dictated the lives of farmers and pastoralists for centuries.

But extremes, like the failure of the Gu’ and the exceptionally heavy Deyr, no longer seem so abnormal, and point to the growing impact of climate change in a country that, due to almost three decades of conflict, is already one of the world’s most vulnerable...

Sudan: One of 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change (Al Jazeera)

Sudan has been named by the Red Cross as one of the 10 countries most vulnerable to global climate change...

‘Climate Change Is Real’: MTA Fills Brooklyn Subway Stop With Water To Test New Flood Gate (24 sec)
CBS NY | November 20, 2019 at 10:30 pm
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/11/20/climate-change-mta-subway-flood/

Climate crisis topping UK election agenda is ‘unprecedented’ change (Guardian)

The climate emergency has risen to the top of the UK’s election agenda in a way that would have been “unthinkable” even five years ago, leading environmentalists have said, predicting that it augurs a permanent change in British politics.

On Wednesday, Labour took the unprecedented move of putting green issues as the top section of its manifesto, the first time one of the UK’s two major parties has done so...

Jeremy Clarkson finally recognises climate crisis during Asia trip (Guardian)

Jeremy Clarkson has made what could be the biggest reversal of his 30-year career. The anti-environmental columnist has, for the first time, accepted the existence of global heating after seeing the impact for himself...

Jeremy Clarkson is sexist, racist, homophobic and violent and, despite being a celebrity, he was sacked by the BBC for punching a fellow employee. He has been an ardent and vocal climate change denier. This complete U-turn by him has some significance as he still has a following amongst petrolheads and right wingers.

Climate emergency: world 'may have crossed tipping points’ (Guardian)

The world may already have crossed a series of climate tipping points, according to a stark warning from scientists. This risk is “an existential threat to civilisation”, they say, meaning “we are in a state of planetary emergency”.

Tipping points are reached when particular impacts of global heating become unstoppable, such as the runaway loss of ice sheets or forests. In the past, extreme heating of 5C was thought necessary to pass tipping points, but the latest evidence suggests this could happen between 1C and 2C.

The planet has already heated by 1C and the temperature is certain to rise further, due to past emissions and because greenhouse gas levels are still rising. The scientists further warn that one tipping point, such as the release of methane from thawing permafrost, may fuel others, leading to a cascade...

'Our house is on fire': EU parliament declares climate emergency (Guardian)

The European parliament has declared a global “climate and environmental emergency” as it urged all EU countries to commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050...

Tackling climate crisis is what we should be doing, says new IMF boss (Guardian)

Kristalina Georgieva tells why global heating is as big a threat to economic stability as another financial crash

John Kerry launches coalition to fight climate crisis: ‘We are way behind’ (Guardian)

Former US secretary of state and Democratic senator John Kerry has launched a new coalition of power-brokers, including top politicians, military leaders, and Hollywood celebrities, to fight for addressing the climate crisis. This coalition – named World War Zero, in reference to the national security danger presented by global heating – aims to convince people that rapid mobilization is required to halt the increase in carbon emissions within 30 years... The US and China are the top polluters in the world. While other countries are working to bolster the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate, Donald Trump has withdrawn the US from the pact...

Poor nations pay price as millions flee 'climate chaos': Oxfam (Al Jazeera)

Countries struggling the most with increasingly erratic weather have few resources to fight it, Oxfam said.

Meanwhile, the rich and powerful establishment pushes back:

Fossil fuel lobbyists push to dilute EU anti-greenwash plan (Guardian)

Energy industry in particularly fights back against planned new rules on green labelling

The online site Vox has an illuminating chart on what countries are responsible for the climate crisis:

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/4/24/18512804/climate-change-uni...

Climate models have accurately predicted global heating, study finds (Guardian)

Findings confirm reliability of projections of temperature changes over last 50 years

Edited to add: Even 50 Years Ago, Climate Models Were Way More Accurate Than Deniers Claim (Science Alert)

It's a common refrain from those who question mainstream climate science findings: The computer models scientists use to project future global warming are inaccurate and shouldn't be trusted to help policymakers decide whether to take potentially expensive steps to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.

A new study effectively snuffs out that argument by looking at how climate models published between 1970 - before such models were the supercomputer-dependent behemoths of physical equations covering glaciers, ocean pH and vegetation, as they are today - and 2007.

The study, published Wednesday in Geophysical Research Letters, finds that most of the models examined were uncannily accurate in projecting how much the world would warm in response to increasing amounts of planet-warming greenhouse gases. Such gases, chiefly the main long-lived greenhouse gas pollutant, carbon dioxide, hit record highs this year, according to a new UN report out Tuesday.

They are now higher than at any other time in human history...

Victoria Falls dries to a trickle after worst drought in a century (Guardian)

One of southern Africa’s biggest tourist attractions has seen an unprecedented decline this dry season, fuelling climate change fears

“Do justice to creation, it keeps shouting at us”: African Cardinal to Pilgrims in CAR (ACI Africa)

During the concluding Mass of the Annual National Pilgrimage in the Central African Republic (CAR) Saturday, December 7, the Archbishop of Bangui, Dieudonné Cardinal Nzapalainga called on the congregation of close to 25,000 pilgrims to make every effort to care for creation and have a sense of responsibility... “We should show respect for creation because it keeps shouting at us, given the way we despise it”...

World's oceans are losing oxygen at a dangerous, unprecedented rate as temperatures rise, study finds

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released the largest report of its kind — combining the efforts of 67 scientists from 17 countries — at the global climate summit in Madrid on Saturday. It found that the oxygen level of the ocean has declined by about 2% since the 1950s, and the volume of water completely depleted of oxygen has quadrupled since the 1960s.

Sixty years ago, only 45 ocean sites suffered from low oxygen levels. That number skyrocketed to 700 in 2011. According to the study, about 50% of oxygen loss in the upper part of the ocean is a result of temperature increase.
…
"This is perhaps the ultimate wake-up call from the uncontrolled experiment humanity is unleashing on the world's ocean as carbon emissions continue to increase," said Dan Laffoley, Senior Advisor Marine Science and Conservation in IUCN's Global Marine and Polar Program and a co-editor of the report.

Researchers named 2 major causes of deoxygenation

Ocean warming from burning fossil fuels: Warmer oceans hold less oxygen and are more buoyant than cooler water. This makes it difficult for oxygen to make its way to deeper waters and raises the oxygen demands of sea creatures.
2.Excessive growth of algae (eutrophication): Plant life is rapidly growing due to fertilizer run-off into waterways, sewage, animal waste, aquaculture and nitrogen deposition from the burning of fossil fuels. The increased plant life leads to a lack of oxygen and higher animal mortality rates.

Ocean deoxygenation has a wide range of consequences on marine biodiversity and the everyday functioning of ocean ecosystems.

Climate change: Methane pulse detected from South Sudan wetlands (BBC)

Scientists think they can now explain at least part of the recent growth in methane (CH4) levels in the atmosphere. Researchers... say their studies point to a big jump in emissions coming from just the wetlands of South Sudan. Satellite data indicates the region received a large surge of water from East African lakes, including Victoria. This would have boosted CH4 from the wetlands, accounting for a significant part of the rise in global methane. Perhaps even up to a third of the growth seen in the period 2010-2016, when considered with East Africa as a whole...

CH4 (methane) is now climbing rapidly and today stands at just over 1,860 parts per billion by volume. There's currently a debate about the likely sources, with emissions from human activities such as agriculture and fossil-fuel use undoubtedly in the mix. But there is a large natural component as well, and a lot of current research is centred on contributions from the tropics...

Believing the region called the Sudd could be the culprit (soil microbes in wetlands are known to produce a lot of methane), the team started looking through other satellite data-sets to make the link. Land surface temperature observations supported the idea that soils in the region had become wetter; gravity measurements across East Africa also detected an increase in the weight of water held in the ground; and satellite altimeters had tracked changes in the height of lakes and rivers to the south...

South Sudan's devastating floods: why they happen and why they need a coherent national policy (Sudd Institute {an independent South Sudanese think tank})

Publication Summary

This year’s flood is one of the worst in South Sudan’s history. It has affected about one million people from 142,783 households in 8 of the former 10 states, compared to only 344,618 people in 2013. People lost homes, livelihoods, and shelter and got exposed to deadly diseases. Schools, roads, health centers and other useful forms of infrastructure have been destroyed.

This year’s flood emanated from an Indian Ocean climate event known as the Indian Ocean Dipole, which caused an increase of temperatures of Western India Ocean by 2 degrees Celsius. While the Indian Ocean Dipole is part of a regular climate variability, its effects have been worsened by global warming, a greenhouse gas induced situation that leads to temperature increase. Because of global warming, the climate is changing. Floods are becoming more frequent and severer than before. Therefore, South Sudan needs a coherent national adaptation and mitigation policy to protect lives, property and infrastructure against climate disasters.

How Africa will be affected by climate change (BBC)

The African continent will be hardest hit by climate change.

There are four key reasons for this:

- First, African society is very closely coupled with the climate system; hundreds of millions of people depend on rainfall to grow their food
- Second, the African climate system is controlled by an extremely complex mix of large-scale weather systems, many from distant parts of the planet and, in comparison with almost all other inhabited regions, is vastly understudied. It is therefore capable of all sorts of surprises
- Third, the degree of expected climate change is large. The two most extensive land-based end-of-century projected decreases in rainfall anywhere on the planet occur over Africa; one over North Africa and the other over southern Africa
- Finally, the capacity for adaptation to climate change is low; poverty equates to reduced choice at the individual level while governance generally fails to prioritise and act on climate change...

London has spent billions, but no one can escape climate change (CNN)

The stark reality of climate change is that even the cities that seem best defended against rising sea levels face the potential of catastrophic flooding. Take London, capital of the UK. It's in a strong position: Wealthy, with a government that recognizes the danger of climate change, and a river that can -- for now -- be shut off from dangerous tidal and storm surges.

And yet, no city or person is immune from climate change. At least 1 million Londoners live in the estuary's natural floodplain and 16% of the city's properties -- 84,000 -- are considered to be at "significant or moderate risk." Humans have already put so much greenhouse gas into the earth's atmosphere that some amount of sea level rise is inevitable. "Even if we reduce our emissions to negative now, we will see at least a meter of sea level rise," the oceanographer Ivan Haigh told CNN. Clearly, quitting all emissions immediately is off the table. So how soon will we have a meter of sea level rise? And how much higher will it go?...

Somewhere here I posted link to photo of an old stone building in Scotland. Projected on its side is a line of light where water will be in some decades hence. An arresting image. Cities like London and Miami and Boston would be smart I think to forego Christmas lights and instead mark Earth Day by projecting future water levels on famous structures and along waters edge. THAT would be a worthwhile expenditure of electricity IMHO!

Russia announces plan to ‘use the advantages’ of climate change (Guardian)

Russia has published a plan to adapt its economy and population to climate change, aiming to mitigate damage but also “use the advantages” of warmer temperatures.

The document, published on the government’s website on Saturday, outlines a plan of action and acknowledges changes to the climate are having a “prominent and increasing effect” on socioeconomic development, people’s lives, health and industry.

Russia is warming 2.5 times faster than the planet as a whole, on average, and the two-year “first stage” plan is an indication the government officially recognises this as a problem, even though Vladimir Putin denies human activity is the cause.

It lists preventive measures such as dam building or switching to more drought-resistant crops, as well as crisis preparations including emergency vaccinations or evacuations in case of a disaster.

The plan says climate change poses risks to public health, endangers permafrost, and increases the likelihood of infections and natural disasters. It also can lead to species being pushed out of their usual habitats.

Possible “positive” effects are decreased energy use in cold regions, expanding agricultural areas and navigational opportunities in the Arctic Ocean...

Our WV Agricultural publications are approaching from a similar perspective - touting the longer growing season. Ooo-kay! Collapse of ecosystems seems not too much of a worry.

Outstanding graphic aid from Jonathan Foley, PhD, Director at Project Drawdown, on global sources of greenhouse gases:

https://twitter.com/GlobalEcoGuy/status/1213179150057402369/photo/1

It's actually a 2-part graphic.

Twin inconvenient truths: nuclear arms and climate change (National Catholic Reporter)

At a time when major nuclear arms' treaties are being orphaned and climate disruption is ballooning, many are asking if there are connections between these twin threats to Creation. The answer is an obvious and uncomfortable yes...

Trends in winter temperatures around the Earth:

https://climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-temperature-december-2019

New Zealand schools to teach students about climate crisis, activism and 'eco anxiety' (Guardian)

Changes to the curriculum will put the country at the forefront of climate crisis education worldwide

The female face of Southern Africa’s climate crisis (The New Humanitarian)

Women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate change. We must be relentless in our collective fight against inequality and patriarchy.

The global climate crisis is not gender neutral. Around the world, women and girls are on the front line of changing weather patterns – disproportionately shouldering the costs and burdens...

Sir David Attenborough warns of climate 'crisis moment' (BBC)

"The moment of crisis has come" in efforts to tackle climate change, Sir David Attenborough has warned.

According to the renowned naturalist and broadcaster, "we have been putting things off for year after year".

"As I speak, south east Australia is on fire. Why? Because the temperatures of the Earth are increasing," he said.

Sir David's comments came in a BBC News interview to launch a year of special coverage on the subject of climate change.

He told me it was "palpable nonsense" for some politicians and commentators to suggest that the Australian fires were nothing to do with the world becoming warmer.

"We know perfectly well," he said, that human activity is behind the heating of the planet...

Why we should be wary of blaming ‘overpopulation’ for the climate crisis (The Conversation)

In reality, the global human population is not increasing exponentially, but is in fact slowing and predicted to stabilise at around 11 billion by 2100. More importantly, focusing on human numbers obscures the true driver of many of our ecological woes. That is, the waste and inequality generated by modern capitalism and its focus on endless growth and profit accumulation.

The industrial revolution that first married economic growth with burning fossil fuels occurred in 18th-century Britain. The explosion of economic activity that marked the post-war period known as the “Great Acceleration” caused emissions to soar, and it largely took place in the Global North. That’s why richer countries such as the US and UK, which industrialised earlier, bear a bigger burden of responsibility for historical emissions.

In 2018 the planet’s top emitters – North America and China – accounted for nearly half of global CO₂ emissions. In fact, the comparatively high rates of consumption in these regions generate so much more CO₂ than their counterparts in low-income countries that an additional three to four billion people in the latter would hardly make a dent on global emissions.

There’s also the disproportionate impact of corporations to consider. It is suggested that just 20 fossil fuel companies have contributed to one-third of all modern CO₂ emissions, despite industry executives knowing about the science of climate change as early as 1977.

Inequalities in power, wealth and access to resources – not mere numbers – are key drivers of environmental degradation. The consumption of the world’s wealthiest 10% produces up to 50% of the planet’s consumption-based CO₂ emissions, while the poorest half of humanity contributes only 10%...

Issues of ecological and social justice cannot be separated from one another. Blaming human population growth – often in poorer regions – risks fuelling a racist backlash and displaces blame from the powerful industries that continue to pollute the atmosphere. Developing regions in Africa, Asia and Latin America often bear the brunt of climate and ecological catastrophes, despite having contributed the least to them.

The problem is extreme inequality, the excessive consumption of the world’s ultra-rich, and a system that prioritises profits over social and ecological well-being. This is where where we should be devoting our attention.

Scientists Warn Multiple Overlapping Crises Could Trigger 'Global Systemic Collapse' (Science Alert)

Overlapping environmental crises could tip the planet into "global systemic collapse," more than 200 top scientists warned Wednesday. Climate change, extreme weather events from hurricanes to heatwaves, the decline of life-sustaining ecosystems, food security and dwindling stores of fresh water – each poses a monumental challenge to humanity in the 21st century... In combination, they "have the potential to impact and amplify one another in ways that might cascade to create global systemic collapse"...

The February 15th issue of The Economist weekly magazine calls attention to a press release from the International Energy Agency, an affiliate of the United Nations. The latest numbers on global CO2 emissions have paused, for a number of reasons. Link: https://www.iea.org/news/defying-expectations-of-a-rise-global-carbon-dioxide-em...

Vox posted an informative slide show presentation :

These 3 supertrees can protect us from climate collapse

Featuring the Brazil nut tree in the Amazon, the stilt mangrove in Indonesia, and the African teak tree in the Congo.

"When it comes to the crises of global warming, extreme weather, and biodiversity loss, it really does matter if the Amazon reaches the tipping point, if a stretch of Bornean mangrove gets razed to build a shrimp farm, or if a tall yellow giant in Congo goes extinct. It’s not just losing a pretty tree 12,000 miles away — it’s cascading ecosystem collapse with long-range effects. We may not feel those effects yet, but we will feel them in our lifetimes. ️"

Paper That Blames The Sun For Climate Change Was Just Retracted From Major Journal (Science Alert)

A paper published last year that claimed global warming was all to do with the Sun has been retracted. Nature Publishing Group-owned Scientific Reports has found that the paper's conclusion was based on a flawed assumption.

The decision comes after sharp criticism from the scientific community prompted the journal's editors to undertake a further review of the study.

The paper, titled "Oscillations of the baseline of solar magnetic field and solar irradiance on a millennial timescale," led by mathematician Valentina Zharkova of Northumbria University in the UK, was published in June 2019.

It claimed that human activity was not to blame for the roughly one degree rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution, and therefore we can avoid culpability for the shockingly fast upward trend of global temperatures having devastating effects on communities and ecosystems around the world.

Instead, the paper claimed that rising temperatures were due to the changing distance between Earth and the Sun, because of the way the Sun moves around...

Ecosystems the size of Amazon 'can collapse within decades (Guardian)

Even large ecosystems the size of the Amazon rainforest can collapse in a few decades, according to a study that shows bigger biomes break up relatively faster than small ones.

The research reveals that once a tipping point has been passed, breakdowns do not occur gradually like an unravelling thread, but rapidly like a stack of Jenga bricks after a keystone piece has been dislodged...

I had to look up Jenga bricks...

Climate Change Is Shaping the Future of Conflict (International Climate Group)

There is one overriding political message we should take from COVID-19, which is that without prompt global, collective action, climate change could prove to be the slow-moving version of the coronavirus outbreak, reshaping economic, political and security conditions around the world...

Full report is at this link in Spanish, French and English versions.

Affluence is killing the planet, warn scientists (phys.org)

affluence trashes our planetary life support systems. What's more, it also obstructs the necessary transformation towards sustainability by driving power relations and consumption norms. To put it bluntly: the rich do more harm than good...

Deadly under-the-radar heatwaves ravaging Africa (phys.org)

The impacts of extreme heatwaves amplified by climate change are going unrecorded in sub-Saharan Africa, making it nearly impossible to detect patterns and set up early warning systems, researchers said Monday.

While detailed records of hot spells and their aftermath exist for the world's wealthier regions, in Africa scientists and governments are mostly flying blind in assessing the damage to human health and economies, the researchers reported in the journal Nature Climate Change.

"Both real-world observations and climate modelling show Sub-Saharan Africa as a hotspot for heatwave activity," said lead author Luke Harrington, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute.

"But the consequences of these heatwaves are not being recorded," he told AFP. "It is as if they haven't happened, but we know they have"...

Slash CO2, Then Wait—and Wait—for Temperatures to Drop (Scientific American)

Climate action taken by the world today wouldn't be noticed for decades to come, according to researchers who say warming on Earth won't start to slow down for at least 20 years. And that's probably an optimistic scenario...

21st century weather trends in South Africa:

https://globalchange.mit.edu/publication/17483

Multi-agency report highlights the current and future state of the climate in Africa (World Meteorological Organisation)

Climate change increasingly threatens human health, food and water security and socio-economic development in Africa...

Just a note to mark that COP26 ought to have started today in Glasgow, Scotland. It was to have been held 9-20 Nov. 2020, but was postponed in March until 2021 because of the pandemic.

The only upside to the situation is that the USA will have rejoined the Paris accords in time for Glasgow.

Global heating pushes tropical regions towards limits of human livability (Guardian)

The climate crisis is pushing the planet’s tropical regions towards the limits of human livability, with rising heat and humidity threatening to plunge much of the world’s population into potentially lethal conditions, new research has found. Should governments fail to curb global heating to 1.5C above the pre-industrial era, areas in the tropical band that stretches either side of the equator risk changing into a new environment that will hit “the limit of human adaptation”, the study warns. Humans’ ability to regulate their body heat is dependent upon the temperature and humidity of the surrounding air. We have a core body temperature that stays relatively stable at 37C (98.6F), while our skin is cooler to allow heat to flow away from the inner body. But should the wet-bulb temperature – a measure of air temperature and humidity – pass 35C, high skin temperature means the body is unable to cool itself, with potentially deadly consequences...

Wildfires in north America, Australia and parts of Europe (even Scandinavia) made headlines last year, but wildfires in Africa are under-reported (as with most things in Africa). Recently a Catholic bishop in South Sudan has drawn attention to a large wildfire in his part of the country, an area of rainforest which would normally be too wet to support large fires. He calls on the local community to be careful with fire in order to avoid starting more such fires.

Wild Fire is an Eminent Danger to Human Life and Property in Western Equatoria State (RuruGene)

Canadian Conservative party votes not to recognize climate crisis as real (Guardian)

Canada’s main opposition Conservative Party members have voted down a proposal to recognize the climate crisis as real, in a blow to their new leader’s efforts to embrace environmentally friendly policies before a likely federal election this year...

>72 John5918: Conservatives may just give PM Trudeau's troubled Liberals another term if they don't come up with climate alternatives acceptable to voters. It's discouraging how again and again conservatives reject their preferred actions when libs adopt them, e.g., carbon tax, ACA in US.

Currently, Canadian politicians are riled by US Pres. Biden's cancellation of XL pipeline (Alberta south to US refineries). Alternatives would link to Arctic, Pacific and/or Atlantic Oceans, also with potential environmental issues and local/indigenous opposition. Alberta will not easily give up its oil aspirations--I remember learning about it eons ago as a young teenager in Manitoba.

In addition, in May, Michigan Gov Whitmer is shutting down Enbridge pipeline under the strait between L Huron & Michigan that carries Alberta oil to refineries in southern Ontario (and natural gas to MI's Upper Peninsula, https://apnews.com/article/michigan-gretchen-whitmer-traverse-city-ecabd75efae50... ). A tunnel is proposed, but it won't even have permits before Michigan shuts down underwater pipeline in May. Calgary-based Enbridge has not been dependable partner for Michigan, but southern Ontario will pay, as will some Michiganders who depend on its natural gas--and the Great Lakes environment if spill-prone trucks and trains fill the void before/if tunnel built.

Ontario is not exactly a fossil-fuel hog, BTW: "In 2018, about 96% of electricity in Ontario is produced from zero-carbon emitting sources" https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/energy-markets/provincial-territorial....

For those who are truly interested in what's driving Canadian energy politics these days, map of Canada's electricity capacity and primary fuel sources is illustrative: https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/energy-markets/provincial-territorial...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

O'Toole declares 'the debate is over' on climate change, but his party's grassroots disagree
Brian Platt | Mar 20, 2021

The rejection of the resolution shows the challenge O'Toole faces from within as he promises to broaden the party's appeal beyond its power bases

...During a question-and-answer session with delegates on Saturday afternoon, (national Conservative leader Erin) O’Toole was asked to respond to the resolution failing.

“It’s an important question,” O’Toole said. “The debate is over, climate change is real. And the Conservatives, we will have a serious and comprehensive plan on climate change to reduce emissions in the next election. It’s important to me as a father of young children, as a Member of Parliament. Climate change and fighting it is important to the Conservative Party of Canada.”

O’Toole has not said what exactly his environmental plan will be, though he has promised to scrap the federal carbon tax put in place by Trudeau. In his leadership platform, O’Toole pledged to target large industrial emitters, saying he would make “industry pay rather than taxing ordinary Canadians by forging a national industrial regulatory and pricing regime across the country.”

During the debate on the environment motion at the convention, there weren’t any delegates who declared climate change is false...

https://www.thewhig.com/news/politics/otoole-declares-the-debate-is-over-on-clim...

>72 John5918: Completely backwards! Ugh! (And I'm in Alberta... but I hate the politics here!) But hey, they are probably just following the lead of Alberta's (also backwards) UCP. Not that the UCP have overtly come out and said the climate crisis is not real, but if they don't think it, they think their supporters do, so will continue in that vein.

Uganda climate change: The people under threat from a melting glacier (BBC)

Climate change is affecting the Rwenzori Mountains in different ways.

The most visible is the rapid loss of the ice field, which shrunk from 6.5 sq km in 1906 to less than one sq km in 2003, and could completely disappear before the end of this decade, research shows.

In 2012, forest fires reached altitudes above 4,000m, which would have been inconceivable in the past, devastating vegetation that controlled the flow of the rivers downstream.

Since then, the communities living at the foot of the Rwenzori have suffered some of the most destructive floods the area has ever seen, coupled with a pattern of less frequent but heavier rainfall...

This one feels personal as I climbed the Rwenzori Mountains in 1976 and spent a couple of nights at the foot of the ice field, and one memorable night on the glacier itself sheltering in a hole in the snow.

Tide announced its latest climate initiative; with all news sources just printing the release without comment.

https://sustainablebrands.com/read/product-service-design-innovation/tide-aiming...

It mostly consists of convincing consumers to use cold water instead of hot water washing clothes. Lame!

The scientists hired by big oil who predicted the climate crisis long ago (Guardian)

Experts’ discoveries lie at the heart of two dozen lawsuits that hope to hold the industry accountable for devastating damage...

As early as 1958, the oil industry was hiring scientists and engineers to research the role that burning fossil fuels plays in global warming. The goal at the time was to help the major oil conglomerates understand how changes in the Earth’s atmosphere may affect the industry – and their bottom line. But what top executives gained was an early preview of the climate crisis, decades before the issue reached public consciousness. What those scientists discovered – and what the oil companies did with that information – is at the heart of two dozen lawsuits attempting to hold the fossil fuel industry responsible for their role in climate change. Many of those cases hinge on the industry’s own internal documents that show how, 40 years ago, researchers predicted the rising global temperatures with stunning accuracy. Some researchers later testified before Congress, using their insider knowledge to highlight the ways in which the oil industry misled the public...

Similar to the tobacco industry knowing about cancer but deliberately misleading the public...

Artist Banksy ‘hijacked’ a painting of Mount Rainier to make a point, and now it’s worth millions (Seattle Times)

A 2009 work of creative vandalism from British artist and agitator Banksy, “Subject to Availability,” was sold at Christie’s King Street in London Wednesday. The painting’s subject is a beloved feature of the Northwest: Mount Rainier... To create “Subject to Availability,” Banksy “hijacked” an 1890 painting by artist Albert Bierstadt... Bierstadt was a member of the Hudson River School, a group of painters who “railed against the industrial revolution’s destruction of nature.” Banksy built upon that commentary by adding an asterisk and a tiny bit of corporate-speak to the painting’s bottom right-hand corner: “*Subject to availability for a limited period only”...

>78 John5918: Wow! And yeah, first thing I thought (before seeing your last comment) was like the tobacco industry...

Sixty years of climate change warnings: the signs that were missed (and ignored) (Guardian)

In August 1974, the CIA produced a study on “climatological research as it pertains to intelligence problems”. The diagnosis was dramatic. It warned of the emergence of a new era of weird weather, leading to political unrest and mass migration (which, in turn, would cause more unrest). The new era the agency imagined wasn’t necessarily one of hotter temperatures; the CIA had heard from scientists warning of global cooling as well as warming. But the direction in which the thermometer was travelling wasn’t their immediate concern; it was the political impact. They knew that the so-called “little ice age”, a series of cold snaps between, roughly, 1350 and 1850, had brought not only drought and famine, but also war – and so could these new climatic changes.

“The climate change began in 1960,” the report’s first page informs us, “but no one, including the climatologists, recognised it”...

1970s paper predicting we’ll hit societal collapse is right on schedule (Independent)

Upward trajectories for economic and population growth, combined with environmental damage, provide early warning... A decades-old scientific paper predicting the collapse of society by 2050 appears to be right on schedule, according to a new study with stark warnings for continued economic and population growth...

Scientists understood physics of climate change in the 1800s – thanks to a woman named Eunice Foote (The Conversation)

Long before the current political divide over climate change, and even before the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), an American scientist named Eunice Foote documented the underlying cause of today’s climate change crisis. The year was 1856. Foote’s brief scientific paper was the first to describe the extraordinary power of carbon dioxide gas to absorb heat – the driving force of global warming...

Dubai makes its own RAIN to tackle 122F heat: Drones blast clouds with electrical charge to produce downpours
Rachael Bunyan | 21 July 2021

The rain is formed using drone technology that gives clouds an electric shock to 'cajole them' into clumping together and producing precipitation

The UAE is one of the most arid countries on Earth and the technique helps to increase its meagre annual rainfall

Video shows it is working with monsoon-like downpours across the country...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9809529/Dubai-creates-RAIN-tackle-122F-...

>84 margd: Look at the stupid mess they’re making of it! Put some vegetation down on all that bare ground before you flood it!!

IPCC report shows ‘possible loss of entire countries within the century’ (Guardian)

Global heating above 1.5C will be “catastrophic” for Pacific island nations and could lead to the loss of entire countries due to sea level rise within the century, experts have warned...

The IPCC delivers its starkest warning about the world’s climate (Economist)

Observations of changes now taking place make the science more accurate, but not more reassuring...

Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity' (BBC)

Human activity is changing the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways, a major UN scientific report has said. The landmark study warns of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding, and a key temperature limit being broken in just over a decade. The report "is a code red for humanity", says the UN chief. But scientists say a catastrophe can be avoided if the world acts fast...

A clip article from 1912 in both Australia and New Zealand papers predicted global warming.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/100645214

Snopes confirms this is true.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/1912-article-global-warming/

Sydney suburb orders residents to paint roofs white and plant a tree in every garden to tackle climate change.

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/sydney-roofs-white-climate-cha...

Sydney regularly suffers intense bursts of heat during the summer months, with temperatures rising as high as 50C. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released this month warned that Australia’s land areas had warmed by 1.4C since 2010.
…
Mattheos Santamouris, professor of high performance architecture at the University of New South Wales, told the Sydney Morning Herald that “cool roofs” could decrease the energy consumption of uninsulated buildings in western Sydney by up to 50 per cent.

(Me: No mention of help to insulate?)

Sydney is not the first city to put forward a “cool roofing” policy to reduce temperatures. In 2017, more than 3,000 rooftops in the city of Ahmedabad City in western India, where the mercury can rise as high as 50C, were painted using white lime and a special reflective coating.

New York City has also painted some 9.2 million square metres of its roofs white in a bid to reduce the internal temperatures of buildings.
…
But the plans in Sydney have been drawn criticism from some experts. Stephen McMahon, New South Wales branch president of the Urban Development Institute of Australia, branded the cool roofs policy “ill conceived and unworkable”
It will result in bureaucratically imposed blandness for new communities and will bring negligible improvement in thermal performance.”

>89 2wonderY: Our Ontario neighbours installed white roof on a cream-coloured house. Looks good, but I wonder what the tradeoffs are in cold months.

Snow is white, but it insulates?

Dark-coloured roofs would warm the house in daytime, if no snow or insulation?

I remember shopping for a utility trailer on a sunny fall day--quite a difference between white and black, the latter being much hotter. (We went with beige, so as not to blind the neighbours.)

Ditto the temp difference on a hot, sunny day patting my sons' black hair v. their blonde classmates--wonder why people in warm climes have dark hair. Aboriginals are fair-haired in childhood--why?

>90 margd: I can tell you that my black metal roof does allow the heat inside in summer, but in winter allows the cold in just as readily. The thermal properties of the material outweigh those of the color it is. It acts as a radiator.

I added insulation in the rafters, which helped. I’ve been wondering if painting it a lighter color would be cost effective to reduce summer heat gain.

Nobel Prize in physics awarded to scientists whose work warned the world of climate change (CNN)

The Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to scientists Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi, whose groundbreaking work over the past 60 years predicted climate change and decoded complex physical systems. Manabe, 90, and Hasselmann, 89, were jointly honored for "the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming," according to the news release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Both men carried out pioneering work in the 1960s and 1970s that sounded an early alarm on human-made climate change.

Italian physicist Parisi, 73, claimed the other half of the award, for "the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales"...

China floods

China floods: Nearly 2 million displaced in Shanxi province https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-58866854

Thousands of passengers left stranded at Euston Station after train journeys suspended (Evening Standard)

Thousands of passengers have been left stranded at Euston Station after train journeys were suspended due to a fallen tree. Travellers heading to the Cop26 summit have acknowledged the irony of being delayed by extreme weather and said it is both “inconvenient” and a reminder of the impacts of climate change...

Four ways Mozambique is adapting to the climate crisis (The New Humanitarian)

As changing weather patterns linked to climate change trigger more intense floods and cyclones in Mozambique – the country fifth most affected by extreme weather in the world over the past two decades, according to the 2021 Global Climate Risk Index – the government and its donors are trying to shift their response. Instead of picking up the pieces after each disaster strikes, they want to prevent the worst from happening in the first place.

There have been some notable initiatives: new infrastructure projects have reduced flooding in major cities; an improved early warning system alerts residents to impending disasters; and thousands of people have been resettled from low-lying, flood-prone areas to supposedly safer locations on higher ground. But many of the initiatives come with catches and compromises, other projects need further investment, and rebuilding efforts are still limited in scope, leaving residents like António unable to adapt to future threats – something organisers of COP26 have called for urgent action on as the UN climate change conference gets underway this week...

A COP26 reading list: Ten humanitarian takes on the climate crisis (The New Humanitarian)

From adaptation efforts in Mozambique to the women leading Fiji’s disaster response, a collection of recent reports...

Meanwhile, the Rift Valley Institute, a well-respected East African think tank of which I am a Fellow (full disclosure!) is holding a webinar entitled "Thinking about the future: Climate change and its impacts in eastern and central Africa" on 11 November 2021 from 2:00pm to 4:00pm East Africa Time. Details and registration here

The rising cost of the climate crisis in flooded South Sudan – in pictures (Guardian)

Families facing severe hunger are wading through crocodile-infested waters in search of water lilies to eat. Susan Martinez and photographer Peter Caton return with Action Against Hunger to find that the dire situation they reported on in March has only worsened...

More photos in an NPR story.

I recently bumped into the parish priest of the area in these photos who was visiting Juba, the capital of South Sudan, and he told me 80% of his parish is under water. My wife manages humanitarian programmes in another part of South Sudan and was up to her knees in water when she was visiting that area last month. She's going back again this week. You won't find many climate change deniers in Africa.

I'm not trying to minimize the plight of the people involved, but isn't this area in the Sudd, the marsh on the White Nile? Wikipedia says it averages 12,000 sq miles, and in the wet season can expand to 50,000 sq miles (= the area of England or Alabama). I can imagine the war between Sudan and South Sudan pushed people into marginal areas, including the Sudd. (Darfur didn't even look marginal).

But surely, other than in places like "Old Fangak, one of the few areas on higher ground", there's no future in trying to live in the permanent marshland. And thankfully the Egypt/Sudan Jonglei Canal project to drain the Sudd appears to have been abandoned.

Are these newly occupied marginal areas that are being affected, or long-occupied areas?

These are not newly occupied areas. Indeed it is in the sudd, which does double in size during the wet season, but this level of flooding is not the norm. These are areas which would not normally flood during the rainy season. I lived in the sudd for years and generally one knew which areas would be underwater and which ones would remain dry, which is why people chose to build their permanent villages on the "few areas of higher ground".

The world's newest nation is both drying up and drowning (CNN)

Now, South Sudan is dealing with biblical floods that began as early as June and were made worse by the climate crisis, which it had little hand in creating... This deluge, which is the worst in 60 years according to the UN, has swallowed not only the very roads that people here need to escape, but also their farms, homes and markets. For years, South Sudan has been experiencing wetter-than-normal wet seasons, while its dry seasons are becoming even drier. The rainy season has ended, yet the water that has accumulated over months has yet to recede. South Sudan is one of many places in the world struggling with this twin problem of drought followed by extreme rainfall, which together create prime conditions for devastating floods...

South Sudan is no stranger to seasonal flooding, but officials in Unity State say they haven't seen anything on this scale since the early 1960s. Ninety percent of the state's land has been affected by the flooding, and the next rainy season is only five months away. Officials in Bentiu say they are worried the situation will only get worse... Scientists are now able to calculate how much the climate crisis may have played a role in most extreme weather events. But in this part of the world, it is notoriously difficult to measure with certainty because it has such huge variations in its natural climate to begin with... the more the Earth warms, the more the Horn of Africa and its surrounding countries will experience extreme rainfall, making it more susceptible to flooding. That's largely because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, which triggers more rain...

To those dealing with this problem in South Sudan, the climate crisis is clearly here already and offers the rest of the world a glimpse of what complications it could bring. "We are feeling climate change. We are feeling it," said John Payai Manyok, the country's Deputy Director for Climate Change. "We are feeling droughts, we are feeling floods. And this is becoming a crisis. It's leading to food insecurity, it's leading to more conflict within the area because people are competing for the little resources that are available." While droughts and floods may seem like polar opposites, they have more of a relationship than is obvious. "After you've had a long period of drought, soil may be hardened, may be very dry, and so you're going to get more (rainwater) runoff, and that will exacerbate the risk of flooding," said Caroline Wainwright, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, who studies the East African region. "And all this potentially aids bigger storms too, and more intense rainfall. That's something we might expect to see more of -- periods of drying and these really intense storms"...

Russia vetoes UN security council resolution linking climate crisis to international peace (Guardian)

Russia has vetoed a first-of-its-kind UN security council resolution casting the climate crisis as a threat to international peace and security – a vote that sank a years-long effort to make global heating more central to decision-making in the UN’s most powerful body. Spearheaded by Ireland and Niger, the proposal called for “incorporating information on the security implications of climate change” into the council’s strategies for managing conflicts and into peacekeeping operations and political missions, at least sometimes. The measure also asked the UN secretary-general to make climate-related security risks “a central component” of conflict prevention efforts and to report on how to address those risks in specific hotspots...

'Maladaptation': how not to cope with climate change (Phys.Org)

Whether it is sustainable farming or bioengineered crops to boost food security; restoring mangrove forests or building sea dams to buffer rising oceans; urban green corridors or air conditioning to temper killer heatwaves—the search for ways to cope with the fallout of global heating has become urgent... At the same time, however, the 3,650-page IPCC report raises red flags about how schemes to deal with climate impacts can go wrong. There's even a word for it: "maladaptation". "We're finding that there are many cases in which adaptation projects don't work," said Clark University professor Ed Carr, lead author of a chapter in the IPCC report on climate resilient development. "Some have actually made things worse"...

South African floods claim 341 lives, several thousands affected (MSN | Reuters)

Africa's southeastern coast is on the front line of sea-borne weather systems that scientists believe are worsening because of global warming. They expect the situation to get far worse in the decades to come.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who visited the province on Wednesday, described the disaster as "a catastrophe of enormous proportions," adding that it was "obviously part of climate change".

"We no longer can postpone what we need to do, the measures we need to take to deal with climate change. Our disaster management capability needs to be at a higher level," Ramaphosa told a crowd in Ntuzuma township in Durban, without elaborating.

From Thomas L. Friedman’s NYT opinion piece today, unintended consequences of the Ukrainian war:

“you are going to see a massive shift in investment by mutual funds and industry into electric vehicles, grid enhancements, transmission lines and long-duration storage that could tip the whole market away from reliance on fossil fuels toward renewables,” said Tom Burke, director of E3G, Third Generation Environmentalism, the climate research group. “The Ukraine war is already forcing every country and company to dramatically advance their plans for decarbonization.”

Paywall
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/opinion/ukraine-putin.html?referringSource=ar...

French climate activists have filled golf course holes with cement in protest against a water ban exemption on greens across the country during a historic drought.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-14/french-climate-activists-fill-golf-course...

Nothing will change on climate until death toll rises in west, says Gabonese minister (Guardian)

The world will only take meaningful action on the climate crisis once people in rich countries start dying in greater numbers from its effects, Gabon’s environment minister has said, while warning that broken promises on billions of dollars of adaptation finance have left a “sense of betrayal” before Cop27...

>105 John5918: Unfortunately, I have to agree with Lee White, the Gabonese minister. And my guess is that it will probably be a killing wet-bulb temperature event (sustained hours over 32 degrees C / 90 degrees F, with 100% humidity), probably on Mexico's Gulf coast if it's to grab the USA's attention.

On a lighter note, I was surprised to see that White was from Manchester, down to his red paper poppy at COP26 last November. I thought Gabon was in the francosphere, and the chances of them appointing someone from Lancashire to anything, let alone government minister, would be incroyable.

Through the Flood: How Conflict and Climate Change are Converging in South Sudan (World Relief)

The climate is already collapsing in Africa – but its nations have a plan (Guardian) by Emmanuel Macron, Macky Sall and Mark Rutte

Africa is the continent most vulnerable to the climate crisis, but with the right support at Cop27 it can build a stronger, greener future...

Emmanuel Macron is the president of France; Macky Sall is the president of Senegal and chair of the African Union; Mark Rutte is the prime minister of the Netherlands

Just to let members here know about a smaller group where I will be posting more:

https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/18306/Climate-Change-Caf%C3%A9

I've moved from WV to KY and am involved with a core group trying to get climate activism ramped up in my new community.
I'm trying to encourage other members of the group to use LibraryThing for gathering and organizing materials and resources.

A vague promise from Jeff Bezos

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63619512

The businessman told news network CNN he would donate his wealth to fighting climate change and reducing inequality.
…

He declined to provide details on where he would spend or donate the money, but said: "The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way."

The multi-billionaire previously pledged $10bn to the Bezos Earth Fund, which he launched in 2020 to help fight climate change.

Al Gore at Davos this week:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nfv7sIL2uK0

Why we need new words for life in the Anthropocene (BBC)

The Bureau of Linguistical Reality is assembling a new lexicon for people's experience of climate change and environmental upheaval...

The article begins by pointing out that this is not a new thing, with "smog", a portmanteau of smoke and fog, being coined over a century ago to describe an environmental phenomenon that appeared much earlier in the industrial revolution.

'Uncharted territory': South Sudan's four years of flooding (Daily Nation)

It had not rained properly for months but the floods kept coming, inching up the mud-earth fortifications that stood between Bentiu's marooned and starving people and the endless water beyond. Four straight years of flooding, an unprecedented phenomenon linked to climate change, has swamped two-thirds of South Sudan but nowhere more dramatically than Bentiu, a northern city besieged by water. Hundreds of thousands of people are trapped beneath the water line, protected only by earthen dykes that must be constantly checked and reinforced to avoid a catastrophic breach...

Ironically in neighbouring Kenya we have had a four year drought, although where I live we did get a few showers this past week.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

https://www.ipcc.ch/

March 2023 report summary:
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SPM.pdf

https://www.instagram.com/p/Crx_aNbIklw/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Don’t know if Reddit will copy here, but daughter sent this to me. The comments are generally good. I too hope the aliens come to save us, because we aren’t doing enough.

https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/149kbew/far_off_chart_anomaly_both_in...

Re-greening initiative JustDiggIt. Teaches water catchment by building EarthSmiles.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CfBPGW2o45z/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Climate change and conflict in South Sudan: Community perceptions and implications for conflict-sensitive aid (Conflict Sensitivity Resource Facility)

This report explores how climate change can intersect with conflict in South Sudan. Using case studies of Kapoeta and the Mangala-Bor corridor, the report finds that climatic events, such as drought and flooding, remain key contributors to migration and violence, including gender-based violence. To mitigate the effects of climate change on conflict, the report provides conflict-sensitive recommendations for aid agencies and donors operating in both drought and flood-hit areas across the country.

New report predicts a troubling way that Earth’s trees could start hurting us: ‘We forgot how important they are’

https://news.yahoo.com/report-predicts-troubling-way-earth-180000320.html

Not only are they losing their ability to store carbon, but as they die, forests start to release the carbon they’ve been storing back into the atmosphere.

Climate Patrol reports that forests have removed an estimated 2 billion metric tons of harmful carbon pollution from the atmosphere every year for the past 20-plus years. When forests are cut down or burned, the carbon stored is released into the atmosphere.

The USDA report predicts that at the rate we’re going, forests could emit up to 100 million metric tons of carbon a year — contributing to the overheating of our planet rather than reducing it — as their emissions from dying trees exceed their carbon absorption.

Kisiki hai in Tanzania:

https://www.footprintmag.net/how-an-indigenous-pruning-technique-is-bringing-bac...

Some believe that trees, once cut down, are lost forever. But luckily, below the earth’s surface, the root systems of many living tree stumps can still reach the fertile part of the soil. The stumps can grow little stems of which none will ever grow to be a tree unless we give them a hand.
By cutting away most of the stems and leaving only a few strong ones, we reduce food competition, and speed up the growth of the selected stems. In essence, with Kisiki Hai we channel the energy upwards and help the trees flourish.

How criminalisation is being used to silence climate activists across the world (Guardian)

Guardian investigation finds growing number of countries passing anti-protest laws as part of playbook of tactics to intimidate people peacefully raising the alarm...

EXEMPTED! THE US MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS (Oakland Institute)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for “no exceptions” and “no compromises” at COP28, taking place in Dubai in December 2023. Yet, one glaring exception surrounds military emissions, which continue to be excluded from international reporting requirements although they account for an estimated five and a half percent of global emissions... The primary beneficiary of this exemption is the United States, by far the largest military spender and historically the largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The US government is the largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels, and, thus, the world’s single largest emitter. 70 percent of these emissions come from the military... This exemption has real impact. Without comprehensive reporting requirements, a majority of military emissions go uncounted, while the global community falls further behind on its climate goals and vulnerable communities suffer the consequences...

It also came to my attention that a country’s exports of fossil fuels don’t count against them. There is a big push and counter-push going on now about liquid natural gas processing plants looking for DOE approval all along the Gulf of Mexico.

https://www.nrdc.org/bio/jamie-lee/wake-call-political-and-financial-enablers-gl...

Counted as far as countries pledges to reduce their usage? The usage of fossil fuels is counted where it's used and not where it was produced. That makes sense otherwise you'd be counting it twice.

Scientists outline a bold solution to climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice (phys.org)

An international team of scientists led by Oregon State University researchers has used a novel 500-year dataset to frame a "restorative" pathway through which humanity can avoid the worst ecological and social outcomes of climate change. In addition to charting a possible new course for society, the researchers say their "paradigm shifting" plan can support climate modeling and discussion by providing a set of actions that strongly emphasize social and economic justice as well as environmental sustainability... their scenario should be included in climate models along with the five "shared socioeconomic pathways," or SSPs, that are used by the U.N."s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change... "We're arguing for radical incrementalism: achieving massive change through small, short-term steps. And we're offering a much-needed contrast to many other climate scenarios, which may be more aligned with the status quo, which isn't working"...