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

[China]

Climate change: UAE names oil chief to lead COP28 talks

 

The head of one of the world's biggest oil companies has been named to lead the COP28 global climate talks in Dubai, later this year.

 

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is currently the chief executive officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

 

He is also the minister for industry and advanced technology for the COP28 hosts, the United Arab Emirates.

 

Campaigners say he must stand down from his oil business role while president as it is a clear conflict of interest.

 

They believe someone steeped in the oil industry may not push countries to rapidly reduce their production and use of fossil fuel, which scientists say is critical to avoiding dangerous climate change.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Revealed: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s

 

The oil giant Exxon privately “predicted global warming correctly and skilfully” only to then spend decades publicly rubbishing such science in order to protect its core business, new research has found.

 

A trove of internal documents and research papers has previously established that Exxon knew of the dangers of global heating from at least the 1970s, with other oil industry bodies knowing of the risk even earlier, from around the 1950s. They forcefully and successfully mobilized against the science to stymie any action to reduce fossil fuel use.

 

A new study, however, has made clear that Exxon’s scientists were uncannily accurate in their projections from the 1970s onwards, predicting an upward curve of global temperatures and carbon dioxide emissions that is close to matching what actually occurred as the world heated up at a pace not seen in millions of years.

 

Exxon scientists predicted there would be global heating of about 0.2C a decade due to the emissions of planet-heating gases from the burning of oil, coal and other fossil fuels. The new analysis, published in Science, finds that Exxon’s science was highly adept and the “projections were also consistent with, and at least as skillful as, those of independent academic and government models”.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[TradeTheBeal!]

@Captain Wiggleshad himself a sweet gig over the weekend!

 

 

[China]

Earth to Hit Critical Warming Threshold by Early 2030s, Climate Panel Says

 

Earth is likely to cross a critical threshold for global warming within the next decade, and nations will need to make an immediate and drastic shift away from fossil fuels to prevent the planet from overheating dangerously beyond that level, according to a major new report released on Monday.

 

The report, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the United Nations, offers the most comprehensive understanding to date of ways in which the planet is changing. It says that global average temperatures are estimated to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels sometime around “the first half of the 2030s,” as humans continue to burn coal, oil and natural gas.

 

That number holds a special significance in global climate politics: Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, virtually every nation agreed to “pursue efforts” to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Beyond that point, scientists say, the impacts of catastrophic heat waves, flooding, drought, crop failures and species extinction become significantly harder for humanity to handle.

 

But Earth has already warmed an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius since the industrial age, and, with global fossil-fuel emissions setting records last year, that goal is quickly slipping out of reach.

 

There is still one last chance to shift course, the new report says. But it would require industrialized nations to join together immediately to slash greenhouse gases roughly in half by 2030 and then stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere altogether by the early 2050s. If those two steps were taken, the world would have about a 50 percent chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

 

Delays of even a few years would most likely make that goal unattainable, guaranteeing a hotter, more perilous future.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[The Evil Genius]

 

[JCB]

Dude could at least toss out a roll of paper towels, amiright?

[China]

Beyond the poles: How melting ice affects everyone

 

The planet’s massive ice sheets are melting as temperatures rise. Scientists are finding that melt is having surprising and far-reaching effects.

 

Two-thirds of the planet’s fresh water is frozen.

 

Most people live far from the glaciers and ice caps that hold it. But as the climate gets hotter, the ice is melting.

 

That’s setting off a cascade of changes that reach far across the globe.

 

Can you guess how disappearing ice is linked to these four impacts?

 

Click on the link for the quiz

[China]

What an ignorant asshole:

 

Republican Senator Says Climate Change Only Sucks If You’re in Africa

 

Ron Johnson believes the globe heating up is actually good, well, unless you’re in Africa.

 

“You’re concerned if you’re in the really hot region of Africa, but in terms of the United States, and most of Europe, we’re in pretty good shape,” the Wisconsin senator said.

 

Johnson’s broader point was supposedly about excess death mitigation. During his questioning, Johnson cited a Lancet study that found about 4.6 million worldwide cold-related excess deaths, and 500,000 heat-related ones—so a rapidly warming globe must be good for us.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Montana vs. meddling kids

 

Montanans were treated yesterday to the novel sight of state bureaucrats defending their constitutional right to permit fossil fuel projects.

 

The case, Held v. Montana, is the first of its kind to make it to trial in the United States and could serve as a bellwether for other efforts to hold governments and industries to account for their role in warming the planet, as Lesley Clark reports for POLITICO’s E&E News.

 

Monday’s oral arguments were Montana officials’ chance to push back on a week of testimonyfrom young plaintiffs who argue that the state’s constitution requires agencies to take climate change into account.

 

Enacted in 1972 amid a national wave of environmental awareness, the document puts the right to a “clean and healthful environment” right at the top — ahead of freedom of religion and speech.

 

Officials argued Monday that they’re just following the law, including a new one that bars them from considering the effects of climate change on projects. They said the Montana Environmental Policy Act that the youth are challenging doesn’t have the regulatory teeth that would allow the state to reject projects under it.

“We have no right ... not to follow the law,” said Chris Dorrington, director of the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, adding that his department “does not have the authority to not permit something that fully complies with the law.”

 

State officials got a little testy at the plaintiffs’ assertion that Montana has never turned down a fossil fuel project.

 

“I do take some offense at an insinuation that the folks at DEQ are simply putting their stamp of approval on any application that rolls in the door,” said Sonja Nowakowski, the state’s air, energy and mining division administrator. “These are very robust permitting processes. These people thrive on poking holes in applications and making sure they meet the letter of the law.”

 

The mere fact that the trial is happening is the real news here. State lawmakers have insulated regulators pretty well from it, via the law they passed this spring barring consideration of climate change in evaluating projects. (The activists say it was aimed at weakening their case.)

 

Still, legal experts are closely watching the two-week trial and say a decision on behalf of the young people could provide compelling precedent for future lawsuits that seek to prod governments to do more about climate change.

 

Click on the link for the full article 

[China]

Other Views: Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall bemoans ‘climate demagogues’ but seeks farm aid in ‘historic drought’

 

Last week, Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall called those who want to mitigate the already catastrophic effects of our global environmental crisis “climate demagogues.”

 

“If Biden thinks he can send his climate demagogues to Kansas & tell us which cars we can drive, he’s in for a rude awakening,” he tweeted. “The Preserving Choice in Vehicles Act will protect consumer choice & free market competition that drives down costs.”

 

We were going to point out that he only needs to consult Kansas farmers to learn how serious climate change is, right here and right now.

 

But a few day later, Marshall inadvertently made that point himself, and then said Washington should come to the rescue.

 

“The 1,200-year drought across the West has hit wheat farmers in Kansas especially hard,” he tweeted, in support of his bill, introduced with Democratic Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, to strengthen crop insurance. “The historic drought has the forecast for wheat yields looking very bleak. While this bill can’t make it rain, it does provide flexibility to wheat farmers who need all the help they can.”

 

Hey, Senator: Do you seriously not see the connection here? Also, you are wrong about the Preserving Choice in Vehicles Act.

 

Click on the link for the rest

[China]

US climate data pinpoints Monday as hottest recorded day on Earth

 

Monday was the hottest day recorded on Earth, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  

 

On July 3, the average global air temperature 2 meters above the planet’s surface reached 62.62 degrees Fahrenheit or 17.01 degrees Celsius, according to the data analyzed by the University of Maine.  

 

Robert Rohde, of the University of California, Berkeley, said the extreme heat was the result of both climate change, as well as the El Niño weather pattern, which can cause parts of the northern U.S. and Canada to become warmer and dryer than usual.

 

Meanwhile, the effect can make Gulf Coast and the Southeastern U.S. wetter, according to NOAA.  

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Califan007 The Constipated]

I think if you take the last three words off the thread title, it will make more sense...

[China]

1 million Florida buildings will be overrun by sea-level rise by 2100, study shows

 

Storms that ride in on seas rising due to global warming will displace millions of Floridians in low-lying areas by century's end, according to a new analysis by a flood-risk research group.

Well before then, a higher ocean will force many to elevate their homes, similar to stilted homes on North Carolina's Outer Banks, or else endure deadly surging floodwaters and sky-high insurance costs.

 

The lure of living beachside has long been Florida's biggest draw. But with sea levels expected to rise one foot by 2030 and another three feet by the end of the century, many dream homes could become nightmares.

 

"If nobody acts, if nothing changes, by the end of the century there are approximately 1 million buildings that will be inundated in Florida," said Adrian Santiago Tate, CEO/cofounder of HighTide Intelligence, a flood-risk data company that spun out of a research group at Stanford University. About 90% of those buildings are single-family homes. "We wanted to make this abstract idea of flooding mean something to people."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

‘Double agents’: fossil-fuel lobbyists work for US groups trying to fight climate crisis

 

More than 1,500 lobbyists in the US are working on behalf of fossil-fuel companies while at the same time representing hundreds of liberal-run cities, universities, technology companies and environmental groups that say they are tackling the climate crisis, the Guardian can reveal.

 

Lobbyists for oil, gas and coal interests are also employed by a vast sweep of institutions, ranging from the city governments of Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia; tech giants such as Apple and Google; more than 150 universities; some of the country’s leading environmental groups – and even ski resorts seeing their snow melted by global heating.

 

The breadth of fossil-fuel lobbyists’ work for other clients is captured in a new database of their lobbying interests which was published online on Wednesday.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

We’re experiencing Earth’s hottest weather in 120,000 years, and it’s just getting started

 

It’s quite the claim: This week, Earth broke an unofficial record for its hottest day in 120,000 years. Actually, the Earth broke that record three times — on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer.

 

El Niño (a natural cycle) is just getting started. As it gets stronger, and adds more heat to Earth’s system, this summer will continue to set new all-time global records for hot days. And along with that, many other records will be shattered as well.

 

But no matter how hot it gets, the summer of 2023 will soon be considered a “cool” summer in a couple of decades amid the steady drumbeat of human-caused climate heating.

 

How can experts be so confident of these bold assertions? As a climate specialist, I’ll do my best to explain. It’s all fairly simple — and fully expected — by the climate science community.

 

First, researchers know using observations that temperatures over the past decade have been warmer than any ever seen since record-keeping began in the 1800s. Since then, Earth has warmed by 1.2 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit).

 

Scientists also know through sophisticated methods of examining copious climate clues in proxy data like tree rings, ice cores, ocean sediments, etc. that Earth’s average temperature has not been this warm since the ice age ended 20,000 years ago.

 

The message is quite simple and stark, when seen on the visual below. Earth’s temperature has skyrocketed since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and it’s projected to keep climbing.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

 

[China]

Florida in hot water as ocean temperatures rise along with the humidity

 

Record global ocean heating has invaded Florida with a vengeance.

 

Water temperatures in the mid-90s (mid-30s Celsius) are threatening delicate coral reefs, depriving swimmers of cooling dips and adding a bit more ick to the Sunshine State’s already oppressive summer weather. Forecasters are warning of temperatures that with humidity will feel like 110 degrees (43 degrees Celsius) by week’s end.

 

If that’s not enough, Florida is about to get a dose of dust from Africa’s Saharan desert that’s likely to hurt air quality.

 

The globe is coming off a week of heat not seen in modern measurements, the World Meteorological Organization said Monday, using data from Japan’s weather agency to confirm unofficial records reported nearly daily last week by the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer. Japan reported the global average temperature on Friday was half a degree (0.3 degrees Celsius) warmer than its past record hottest day in August 2016.

 

Global sea surface temperatures have been record high since April and the North Atlantic has been off-the-charts hot since mid-March, meteorologists report as climate change is linked to more extremeand deadly events.

 

“We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall,” said WMO director of climate services Christopher Hewitt. “This is worrying news for the planet.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

Texas power struggle: How the nation’s top wind power state turned against renewable energy.

 

Quote

The about-face by Texas elected officials came after renewable energy got so big that it threatened coal- and gas-fueled power in the country’s biggest oil and gas state. Cheap electricity from wind turbines and solar panels provided about 26% of electricity in Texas last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, up from 0.7% in 2002. 

 

At the same time, renewable energy has become intensely politicized. Texas Republicans condemned the federal Green New Deal pushed in 2019 by Democrats because it aimed to end the burning of fossil fuels for electricity. Politicians here rarely discuss the need for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, though the state suffers from climate change and the hotter summers, stronger hurricanes and heavier rains it has brought. 

 

In 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott and other state leaders ramped up their criticism of renewables — and gave fossil fuel power plants a strong endorsement — after a devastating winter storm knocked out power for millions of Texans and killed hundreds of people. 

 

It was a deeply embarrassing political episode. Oklahoma and Louisiana, neighboring states that are part of one of the nation’s two major power grids, dealt with similar freezing weather during the storm without the same disastrous results. (Most of Texas is served by a separate grid that has limited connections to the two large national grids.)

 

[EmirOfShmo]

Meet the TV Meteorologist Who Quit After Facing Death Threats for Explaining Climate Crisis on Air

 

 

Chris Gloninger resigned from his position as chief meteorologist for KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday after receiving death threats as a direct result of reporting on climate change. One man behind the emails has pleaded guilty to harassment. We speak with Gloninger, now a senior climate scientist at the Woods Hole Group, about the difficulties scientists and journalists face when reporting on the climate crisis. “Meteorologists need to be doing this more, not less,” says Gloninger.

 

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/7/11/chris_gloninger_meteorologist_death_threats

[China]

Earth Could Hit Its Highest Temperature in Modern History in Death Valley This Weekend

 

Death Valley, California, is notorious for it's extreme heat, but it's possible the desert preserve may cross a new atmospheric threshold this weekend to reach the highest recorded temperature on Earth in modern history.

 

As an oppressive heat wave continues to grip the Southwest, forecasts from the National Weather Service show the area around Furnace Creek in the national park is expected to hit a high near 128 degrees on Saturday, dropping to a low of only 99 degrees at night.

 

And on Sunday, temperatures are anticipated to soar even higher, with a high of 130 degrees, before dropping to around 100 later that evening.

 

One hundred thirty degrees would tie the highest reliable records, set in Death Valley in 2020 and 2021.

 

The designation of the all-time hottest day ever recorded on Earth is up for debate, however.

 

A record 134 degrees set at Death Valley on July 10, 1913 is technically considered the current record, and is recognized by the National Parks Service as the highest temperature ever reached at Furnace Creek and on the planet, period.

 

But meteorologists have come to dispute the reliability of that reading, especially as other record highs from the early 1900s have come under question.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

 

[China]

On 7/14/2023 at 2:48 PM, China said:

Earth Could Hit Its Highest Temperature in Modern History in Death Valley This Weekend

 

Death Valley, California, is notorious for it's extreme heat, but it's possible the desert preserve may cross a new atmospheric threshold this weekend to reach the highest recorded temperature on Earth in modern history.

 

As an oppressive heat wave continues to grip the Southwest, forecasts from the National Weather Service show the area around Furnace Creek in the national park is expected to hit a high near 128 degrees on Saturday, dropping to a low of only 99 degrees at night.

 

And on Sunday, temperatures are anticipated to soar even higher, with a high of 130 degrees, before dropping to around 100 later that evening.

 

One hundred thirty degrees would tie the highest reliable records, set in Death Valley in 2020 and 2021.

 

The designation of the all-time hottest day ever recorded on Earth is up for debate, however.

 

A record 134 degrees set at Death Valley on July 10, 1913 is technically considered the current record, and is recognized by the National Parks Service as the highest temperature ever reached at Furnace Creek and on the planet, period.

 

But meteorologists have come to dispute the reliability of that reading, especially as other record highs from the early 1900s have come under question.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Tourists flock to Death Valley to experience possible world-record heat of 55C degrees

 

It’s the ultimate tourist hotspot.

 

Some people seek refuge from the heat, while others want to steam in it — including tourists flocking to Death Valley National Park for an expected mind-melting world heat record that could be set this weekend.

 

The park straddling California and Nevada is well known for its torrid temps, but sweat aficionados want to experience what’s in store at Furnace Creek, where the visitor centre is located, Forbes reported.

 

The heat is expected to hit a high of 55C on Sunday, setting a world record for the hottest temperature ever reliably recorded, the National Weather Service told the news outlet.

 

Earlier this week, German tourist Daniel Jusehus snapped a photo of the famed thermometer at the visitor centre after challenging himself to a run in the sweltering heat.

 

“I was really noticing, you know, I didn’t feel so hot, but my body was working really hard to cool myself,” said the avid runner whose photo showed the thermometer reading 48C degrees – well below the expected record.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Evil Genius]

When it's only 118° and you expected 131°. 😬

 

Morons. 

Edited July 17, 2023 by The Evil Genius

[China]

House Republicans propose planting a trillion trees as they move away from climate change denial

 

As Speaker Kevin McCarthy visited a natural gas drilling site in northeast Ohio to promote House Republicans' plan to sharply increase domestic production of energy from fossil fuels last month, the signs of rising global temperatures could not be ignored. Smoke from Canadian wildfires hung in the air.

 

When the speaker was asked about climate change and forest fires, he was ready with a response: Plant a trillion trees.

 

The idea — simple yet massively ambitious — revealed recent Republican thinking on how to address climate change. The party is no longer denying that global warming exists, yet is searching for a response to sweltering summers, weather disasters and rising sea levels that doesn't involve abandoning their enthusiastic support for American-produced energy from burning oil, coal and gas.

 

“We need to manage our forests better so our environment can be stronger," McCarthy said, adding, “Let's replace Russian natural gas with American natural gas and let's not only have a cleaner world, let's have a safer world.”

 

The Biden administration has also boosted exports of liquefied natural gas to Europe after Russia, one of the continent's largest suppliers of energy, invaded Ukraine. The Democratic president has also said that coal, oil and gas will be part of America’s energy supply for years to come.

 

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that heat-trapping gases released from the combustion of fossil fuels are pushing up global temperatures, upending weather patterns around the globe and endangering animal species. But the solution long touted by Democrats and environmental advocates — government action to force emissions reductions — remains a non-starter with most Republicans.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Scientists say Florida Keys coral reefs are already bleaching as water temperatures hit record highs

 

Some Florida Keys coral reefs are losing their color weeks earlier than normal this summer because of record-high water temperatures, meaning they are under stress and their health is potentially endangered, federal scientists said.

 

The corals should be vibrant and colorful this time of year, but are swiftly going white, said Katey Lesneski, research and monitoring coordinator for Mission: Iconic Reefs, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration launched to protect Florida coral reefs.

 

“The corals are pale, it looks like the color’s draining out,” said Lesneski, who has spent several days on the reefs over the last two weeks. “And some individuals are stark white. And we still have more to come.”

 

Scientists with NOAA this week raised their coral bleaching warning system to Alert Level 2 for the Keys, their highest heat stress level out of five. That level is reached when the average water surface temperature is about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) above the normal maximum for eight straight weeks.

 

Surface temperatures around the Keys have been averaging about 91 degrees (33 Celsius), well above the normal mid-July average of 85 degrees (29.5 Celsius), said Jacqueline De La Cour, operations manager for NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program. Previous Alert Level 2s were reached in August, she said.

 

Click on the link for the full article