I want to sue the republican party for willful denial of scientific evidence about climate change.

[China]

Carbon emissions to soar in 2021 by second highest rate in history

 

Carbon dioxide emissions are forecast to jump this year by the second biggest annual rise in history, as global economies pour stimulus cash into fossil fuels in the recovery from the Covid-19 recession.

 

The leap will be second only to the massive rebound 10 years ago after the financial crisis, and will put climate hopes out of reach unless governments act quickly, the International Energy Agency has warned.

 

Surging use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, for electricity is largely driving the emissions rise, especially across Asia but also in the US. Coal’s rebound causes particular concern because it comes despite plunging prices for renewable energy, which is now cheaper than coal.

 

Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA, and one of the world’s leading authorities on energy and climate, said: “This is shocking and very disturbing. On the one hand, governments today are saying climate change is their priority. But on the other hand, we are seeing the second biggest emissions rise in history. It is really disappointing.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[China]

California program overestimates climate benefits of forest offsets - study

 

California's forest carbon offset program has generated tens of millions of credits that have questionable value in fighting climate change, a nonprofit group of scientists said this week.

 

CarbonPlan, a group that researches the integrity of programs designed to offset carbon emissions, said that 29% of the forest carbon offsets it analyzed in California's cap and trade program overestimated the amount of carbon emissions they were offsetting, totaling 30 million tonnes, worth about $410 million.

 

"Rather than improve forest management to store additional carbon, ecological and statistical flaws in California's offsets program create incentives to generate credits that do not reflect real climate benefits," said the analysis https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

On 4/12/2021 at 4:52 PM, China said:

 

Western states on verge of worst drought in modern history

 

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[TheGreatBuzz]

Hehe......hehe.....”Glory Hole”

[China]

39 minutes ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

Hehe......hehe.....”Glory Hole”

 

BTW, that "Glory Hole" is the same one from this meme:

 

[China]

Wyoming stands up for coal with threat to sue states that refuse to buy it

 

Republican governor says measure sends message that Wyoming is ‘prepared to bring litigation to protect her interests’

Wyoming is faced by a transition to renewable energy that’s gathering pace across America, but it has now come up with a novel and controversial plan to protect its mining industry – sue other states that refuse to take its coal.

 

A new state law has created a $1.2m fund to be used by Wyoming’s governor to take legal action against other states that opt to power themselves with clean energy such as solar and wind, in order to meet targets to tackle the climate crisis, rather than burn Wyoming’s coal.

Wyoming is America’s largest coal-producing state, digging up nearly 40% of the coal produced nationally each year. The state is heavily dependent upon revenues from mining to run basic services and as it produces 14 times more energy than it consumes, selling coal to other states is a vital source of income.

 

The measure sends a message that Wyoming is “prepared to bring litigation to protect her interests,” said a spokesman for Mark Gordon, the Republican governor of the deeply conservative state, which strongly backed Donald Trump in the last two presidential elections.

 

Trump promised, but failed, to revive a coal industry in deep decline across the US, with Wyoming’s mining sector shedding thousands of jobs in recent years as utilities switch to cheap supplies of gas and states such as California move to phase out polluting fuel sources from their power generation.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[TheGreatBuzz]

How are you going to sue just because someone doesn't want to buy your product?

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

11 minutes ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

How are you going to sue just because someone doesn't want to buy your product?

I'm sure My Pillow guy is already working on this idea...

[youngestson]

1 hour ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

How are you going to sue just because someone doesn't want to buy your product?

Jokes aside, I had the same thought. Maybe it means if states cancel contracts before the terms are settled?

[CousinsCowgirl84]

On 4/20/2021 at 2:03 PM, China said:

Carbon emissions to soar in 2021 by second highest rate in history

 

Carbon dioxide emissions are forecast to jump this year by the second biggest annual rise in history, as global economies pour stimulus cash into fossil fuels in the recovery from the Covid-19 recession.

 

The leap will be second only to the massive rebound 10 years ago after the financial crisis, and will put climate hopes out of reach unless governments act quickly, the International Energy Agency has warned.

 

Surging use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, for electricity is largely driving the emissions rise, especially across Asia but also in the US. Coal’s rebound causes particular concern because it comes despite plunging prices for renewable energy, which is now cheaper than coal.

 

Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA, and one of the world’s leading authorities on energy and climate, said: “This is shocking and very disturbing. On the one hand, governments today are saying climate change is their priority. But on the other hand, we are seeing the second biggest emissions rise in history. It is really disappointing.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

2020: Factories shut down low emissions

2021: Factories reopen: Ahhh carbon monoxide emissions growing at explosive rate
 

Disingenuous article. I’m sure the world be a better place with all those factories closed... 👀 

[Larry]

1 hour ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

I’m sure the world be a better place with all those factories closed...

.... with all those factories operating, with less CO2 emissions. 

[bearrock]

3 hours ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

How are you going to sue just because someone doesn't want to buy your product?

 

2 hours ago, youngestson said:

Jokes aside, I had the same thought. Maybe it means if states cancel contracts before the terms are settled?

 

It's an argument based on the Constitutional principle that states may not discriminate in commerce based on state of origin.  Of course the argument is shoddy in this case because declining demand for coal has to do with the product itself, not because it comes from Wyoming.  But it's not like stupid legal arguments ever stopped someone from filing a lawsuit or threatening one (e.g. - see thread title).

[CousinsCowgirl84]

1 hour ago, Larry said:

.... with all those factories operating, with less CO2 emissions. 

that’s fine of course.  But you don’t have to write a disingenuous article to make your point.  

[Larry]

1 hour ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

that’s fine of course.  But you don’t have to write a disingenuous article to make your point.  

 

Didn't your post try to make the point that people want those factories to stay shut down?  

[CousinsCowgirl84]

1 hour ago, Larry said:

 

Didn't your post try to make the point that people want those factories to stay shut down?  

not really.

 

Maybe my post was disingenuous too... 🤯

Edited May 8, 2021 by CousinsCowgirl84

[China]

A 20-Foot Sea Wall? Miami Faces the Hard Choices of Climate Change.

 

hree years ago, not long after Hurricane Irma left parts of Miami underwater, the federal government embarked on a study to find a way to protect the vulnerable South Florida coast from deadly and destructive storm surge.

 

Already, no one likes the answer.

 

Build a wall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed in its first draft of the study, now under review. Six miles of it, in fact, mostly inland, running parallel to the coast through neighborhoods — except for a 1-mile stretch right on Biscayne Bay, past the gleaming sky-rises of Brickell, the city’s financial district.

 

The dramatic, $6 billion proposal remains tentative and at least five years off. But the startling suggestion of a massive sea wall up to 20 feet high cutting across beautiful Biscayne Bay was enough to jolt some Miamians to attention. The hard choices that will be necessary to deal with the city’s many environmental challenges are here, and few people want to face them.

 

“You need to have a conversation about, culturally, what are our priorities?” said Benjamin Kirtman, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Miami. “Where do we want to invest? Where does it make sense?

 

“Those are what I refer to as generational questions,” he added. “And there is a tremendous amount of reluctance to enter into that discussion.”

 

In Miami, the U.S. metropolitan area that is perhaps most exposed to sea-level rise, the problem is not climate change denialism. Not when hurricane season, which begins this week, returns each year with more intense and frequent storms. Not when finding flood insurance has become increasingly difficult and unaffordable. Not when the nights stay so hot that leaving the house with a sweater to fend off the evening chill has become a thing of the past.

 

The trouble is that the magnitude of the interconnected obstacles the region faces can feel overwhelming, and none of the possible solutions is cheap, easy or pretty.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Ice shelf protecting Antarctic glacier is breaking up faster

 

A critical Antarctic glacier is looking more vulnerable as satellite images show the ice shelf that blocks it from collapsing into the sea is breaking up much faster than before and spawning huge icebergs, a new study says.

 

The Pine Island Glacier's ice shelf loss accelerated in 2017, causing scientists to worry that with climate change the glacier's collapse could happen quicker than the many centuries predicted. The floating ice shelf acts like a cork in a bottle for the fast-melting glacier and prevents its much larger ice mass from flowing into the ocean.

 

That ice shelf has retreated by 12 miles (20 kilometers) between 2017 and 2020, according to a study in Friday’s Science Advances. And the crumbling shelf was caught on time-lapse video from a European satellite that takes pictures every six days.

 

“You can see stuff just tearing apart," said study lead author Ian Joughin, a University of Washington glaciologist. “So it almost looks like the speed-up itself is weakening the glacier. ... And so far we’ve lost maybe 20% of the main shelf.”

 

Between 2017 and 2020, there were three large breakup events, creating icebergs more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) long and 22 miles (36 kilometers) wide, which then split into lots of littler pieces, Joughin said. There also were many smaller breakups.

 

“It’s not at all inconceivable that the whole shelf could give way and go within a few years,” Joughin said. “I’d say that’s a long shot, but not a very long shot.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

Here's a set of pictures from  the journal article cited the journal article cited in the story above.

 

[China]

LEAKED UN CLIMATE REPORT: THE APOCALYPSE IS ALMOST HERE

 

A draft climate change report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issues a dire warning that we are on the cusp of planetary destruction thanks to the myriad dangers of worsening climate change.

 

The report, which was leaked to Agence France-Presse, is 4,000 pages long but it’s central message can be summarized very clearly: Humanity has screwed up the planet, and we’ll be reaping what we’ve sown very, very soon.

 

Specifically, the report predicts even more mass extinction, dangerously high temperatures, increased disease outbreaks, rising sea levels, and the collapse of entire ecosystems within the next few decades.

 

“The worst is yet to come,” reads the report, “affecting our children’s and grandchildren’s lives much more than our own.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Oh, and there isn't going to be "planetary destruction."  The planet will be just fine.  Humans, and many other species may not survive, but the planet will go on.

[China]

Surface temperatures in Siberia heat up to a mind-boggling 118 degrees

 

It's not just the Western region of the US that's sweltering right now. Siberia in Russia is baking, and satellites are bearing witness to a brutal heat wave above the Arctic Circle. Copernicus Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B satellites captured a snapshot of land surface temperatures on June 20, and it was hot.

 

 

According to NASA, "Land surface temperature is how hot the 'surface' of the Earth would feel to the touch in a particular location." The Sentinel image shows a peak ground temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) near Verkhojansk, a small town usually known for its extreme cold temperatures.

 

The World Meteorological Organization has been tracking the rise in temperatures around the world. "The most dramatic change is in the Arctic, which is warming more than twice as fast as the global average," the agency said Monday in a statement aimed at raising awareness of the urgency to act on the climate crisis.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

 

[China]

Northwest heat wave wilts new GOP climate resolve

 

A week ago, three lawmakers from the Northwest joined dozens of their Republican colleagues in creating the new Conservative Climate Caucus to show they were serious about addressing the growing threats to the planet.

 

Then they went silent as a devastating heat wave hit the region.

 

The trio — Reps. Cliff Bentz of Oregon and Dan Newhouse and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state — have been largely invisible as the heat wave shattered temperature records, melted streetcar power cables and caused rolling blackouts, all the symptoms of a warming climate that scientists say will only become more common in the future.

 

For conservatives outside of government who are anxious to see some congressional action to combat climate change, it's simply a sign that Republicans haven't fully recognized the threat.

 

“Conservatives are learning to think differently about climate change but they don’t yet know what to think,” said Alex Flint, executive director of Alliance for Market Solutions, an organization of conservatives seeking market-friendly climate policies. “Despite this new approach, many conservatives are not yet comfortable with the scale of the policy needed to address climate change,” he added.

 

Much like past GOP responses to hurricanes, floods and other climate-linked calamities, the Northwest Republicans' lack of responses to the heat wave raise questions about whether even deadly consequences in their home districts can dislodge Republican lawmakers from their usual stances and talking points on global warming.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

1 hour ago, China said:

Much like past GOP responses to hurricanes, floods and other climate-linked calamities, the Northwest Republicans' lack of responses to the heat wave raise questions about whether even deadly consequences in their home districts can dislodge Republican lawmakers from their usual stances and talking points on global warming.

see: Sandy Hook, Gun Control. Also see: Trickle Down Economics. Evolution.  Covid, Masks. 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Larry

[China]

Exxon Lobbyist Caught On Video Talking About Undermining Biden's Climate Push

 

Indiscreet comments made by an Exxon Mobil lobbyist to undercover activists may figure prominently in upcoming congressional hearings about the role of oil companies in the battle against climate change.

 

Video clips released by the Greenpeace investigation project Unearthed show Keith McCoy, the oil giant's senior director for federal relations, talking frankly about Exxon Mobil's lobbying strategies. Channel 4 from the United Kingdom first reported the comments.

 

McCoy was tricked by the activists who said they were job recruiters. He talked about working with "shadow groups," supporting a carbon tax that he believes will never happen and influencing senators to weaken climate elements of President Biden's infrastructure plan.

 

"Joe Manchin, I talk to his office every week," McCoy bragged to the interviewer. He called the Democratic senator from West Virginia a "kingmaker" and discussed how "on the Democrat side we look for the moderates on these issues" in their efforts to stop policies that could hurt the company's business.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

‘Heat dome’ probably killed 1bn marine animals on Canada coast, experts say

 

More than 1 billion marine animals along Canada’s Pacific coast are likely to have died from last week’s record heatwave, experts warn, highlighting the vulnerability of ecosystems unaccustomed to extreme temperatures.

 

The “heat dome” that settled over western Canada and the north-western US for five days pushed temperatures in communities along the coast to 40C (104F) – shattering longstanding records and offering little respite for days.

 

The intense and unrelenting heat is believed to have killed as many as 500 people in the province of British Columbia and contributed to the hundreds of wildfires currently burning across the province.

 

But experts fear it also had a devastating impact on marine life.

 

Christopher Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, has calculated that more than a billion marine animals may have been killed by the unusual heat.

 

A walk along a Vancouver-area beach highlighted the magnitude of devastation brought on by the heatwave, he said.

 

“The shore doesn’t usually crunch when you walk on it. But there were so many empty mussel shells lying everywhere that you just couldn’t avoid stepping on dead animals while walking around,” he said.

 

Harley was struck by the smell of rotting mussels, many of which were in effect cooked by the abnormally warm water. Snails, sea stars and clams were decaying in the shallow water. “It was an overpowering, visceral experience,” he said.

 

While the air around Vancouver hovered around the high 30s (about 100F), Harley and a student used infrared cameras to record temperatures above 50C (122F) along the rocky shore.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

A town in northern Norway matches Miami's hottest temperature so far this year amid record heat.

 

The cities of Banak, Norway, and Utsjoki, Finland, are shown on a map depicting warm conditions on July 7, 2021.

Exceptional warmth has seeped well into the Arctic Circle in the northernmost parts of Norway and Finland this week -- areas that are typically locked in ice and snow for a large portion of the year.

 

Banak, Norway, reached a high of 94 F (34.3 C) on Monday. This was flanked by highs of 93 F (33.7 C) on Sunday and 89 F (31.7 C) on Tuesday.

 

Temperatures of this level are more typically seen in lower (more southern) latitudes. In fact, the high of 94 F (34.3 C) on Monday matches Miami, Florida's, highest temperature so far this year.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article