A question about climate change/global warming.

*sigh*

Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah, we did it!!!

The highest temperature ever reliably recorded was reached today, with Death Valley in California hitting 130°F (54.4444°C). In July 2018, the Valley's average temperature of 108.1 degrees represented the hottest month ever measured on the planet.

"The Trump administration on Monday authorized a sweeping plan to sell drilling rights and spur oil development in Alaska’s rugged Arctic refuge, setting up a possible auction by the end of 2020 and a political clash if the president loses the November election."

average temperature of 108.1 degrees

in case it wasn't obvious an average temperature includes both high and low temps, not just high temps.

Studies in the last decade have suggested that global warming is exacerbating the effects of El Niño and La Niña events.

Today the Bureau of Meterology announced Australia is facing three-times the normal threat level of deadly rain and cyclones to end 2020.

VOTE DADDY / MOMMY 2020

https://earther.gizmodo.com/democrats-quietly-cut-opposition-to-fossil-fuel-subsidi-1844768172

There are at least 367 wildfires active across California today.

Since the state relies on slave labour for firefighters, one single COVID-19 outbreak at a Lassen Country prison means that only 30 of California's 77 wildfire crews (17 prisoners per team) are available.

Still, nice to know you have options of what hideous lung damage you can endure for $2 an hour pay (plus $1 while actively in a fire).

Today the Bureau of Meterology announced Australia is facing three-times the normal threat level of deadly rain and cyclones to end 2020.

Time to place your bets! Will the rain put out, or will the cyclones spread, the bushfires? 702 fires have been fought in Australia's third-smallest state since July 1st, and the latest is so large that the official fire season is being brought up to start September 1, the first day of spring.

The Greenland ice sheet lost one million tonnes per minute in 2019.

As of yesterday, two of the fires in California ranked as the seventh- and tenth-worst in the state's history.

By sun-up today, those two ranked second and fourth.

VOTE DADDY / MOMMY 2020

https://earther.gizmodo.com/democrats-quietly-cut-opposition-to-fossil-fuel-subsidi-1844768172

Even before the primaries, the Sunrise Movement rated Biden an F-

on "preserving a livable planet" -related policies

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/05/sanders-scores-highest-mark-sunrise-movements-climate-report-card-while-biden-told#

good news, guys! California is to ban fracking and to nationalise the for-profit company that just emerged from bankruptcy after being held responsible for the 2017-18 wildfires

California fires in 2019:
- 4,927 fires
- 118k acres burned.

California fires in 2020 (so far):
- 7,606 fires
- 2.3 million acres burned.

CLIMATE. CHANGE. IS. REAL.

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 8, 2020

wait no

the governor will do a second, firm tweet though

average population drop of 68% across all animals since 1970

https://livingplanet.panda.org/en-gb/

😬

🤔 pic.twitter.com/4q7Ers10B6

— Waleed Shahid (@_waleedshahid) September 10, 2020

you've granted 48 fracking permits since April https://t.co/EyZDoRbMLr

— Anna Bahr (@anna_bahr) September 11, 2020

Fuck Newsom sucks so hard. Thank god he’s probably too much of a weasel to be President.

Spectacularly awful anti XR piece in today’s age reprinted from the Daily Telegarph. It’s all fine nothing to see here the free market has fixed climate change.

https://www.theage.com.au/business/the-economy/the-problems-climate-activists-still-worry-about-are-already-solved-20200911-p55ulc.html

they could have saved us all some time by deleting the article and pasting thisisfine.jpg underneath the headline instead

https://rosaluxnycblog.org/california-fires/amp/?

As is this extract from Davis' book:

https://longreads.com/2018/12/04/the-case-for-letting-malibu-burn/amp/

This seems like the right thread, for some reason:

https://doggielawn.com

Australian PM Scott Morrison has said, of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, that the country is "doing it in a canter."

The government's own projections show them doing it by... 2303.

This is really good on the UK's efforts:

https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/uk-climate-just-transition/tnamp/?

Great article and a particularly good middle section on exporting emissions, particularly important right now as both the Australian liberals and labour are trying to set Australia up as an even more massive importer of emissions through natural gas to hydrogen programmes.

hmm

at a guess, this timeline for fusion power is super-optimistic, but might be achieved if it had Manhattan Project-scale state backing https://t.co/fg0Yz1qKZV

— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) September 29, 2020

thing is, there are also a lot of clean energy tech that already works well, and which are also expected to improve over time. a Manhattan/Apollo Program-scale effort, for clean energy, would achieve many of the same goals as nuclear fusion, but would be much, much more likely to succeed

sounds like socialism

but fusion was one of those things i thought was really cool when i was 12 so there's that

reminds me of 12-year-old elon musk, dreaming about building single-car tunnels

Figuring out grid-scale longer term power storage seems a way bigger priority than the never ending jobs program for Physics PhDs that fusion research has been for the past 60+ years. Even for nuclear engineers, modular fission reactors, thorium reactors, and travelling wave breeders have way better prospects of making a dent.

I don’t care I’m with map it was cool when I first learned what “torus” meant and I want it to happen.

i was being mostly sarcastic ftr but yes there is a small, sweet and silly part of me that thinks it would be cool if fusion happened before the planet becomes completely inhospitable and i'm truly sorry

Grid scale longer term energy storage doesn't need figuring out, it needs building, but more important than that is connecting disparate grids to take advantage of geographical diversity to minimise the need for storage.

Also renewables don't need a Manhattan project, they are bankable, and much cheaper than fossil alternatives. If you want to spend money, spend money on the grid infrastructure to connect them and move the energy around (see above).

Xps:

I'm still there for the aesthetic of multi=billion dollar fusion reactors. Just not for the practicality.

https://fusion.bsc.es/wp-content/uploads/jet_in-e1583947675875.jpg

I don’t care I’m with map it was cool when I first learned what “torus” meant and I want it to happen.

same but with tokamak

Australia's Bureau of Meterology has reported the highest minimum September temperatures on record, at 2.49 degrees above the 1961-90 average. The second-hottest recorded since 1910 at 2.63 degrees above the average max temp, beaten only by 2013's 3.43 degree blip.

It’s all fine nothing to see here the free market has fixed climate change.

wait, maybe:

China reportedly orders halt to imports of Australian coal

Industry news sources report that Beijing has told several state-owned steelmakers and power plants to stop imports with immediate effect

The move comes amid ongoing tensions in the relationship between China and Australia and reportedly affects both thermal and coking coal.

75 ways Trump made America dirtier and the planet warmer, listicle in the Graun

"his administration...has spent nearly four years systematically dismantling core environmental protections, some of which stretch back decades."

The Australian government: climate change isn't real. you're not on fire. farms don't need water. I'm not coming back from Hawaii. shut the fuck up.

Also The Australian Government: rushes legislation through Parliament to enforce martial law in reaction to climate disasters

I’ve been worried about this ever since I first heard about methane hydrates but this feels like the end game now. This is one of the stronger feedback loops.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/27/sleeping-giant-arctic-methane-deposits-starting-to-release-scientists-find

In other news the fat blonde prick in charge of the UK schooled the fat blonde prick in charge of Australia on climate change.

Keep hoping that the titles of the two climate threads are changed to reflect that this is the one about mostly Australian climate politics. But since the Siberian seas have been mentioned, this is an extraordinary year for both sea ice extent and temperature anomalies.

https://i.redd.it/6wrioa41ftu51.jpghttp://www.karstenhaustein.com/reanalysis/gfs0p5/ANOM2m_arctic/ANOM2m_f00_arctic.png

http://www.karstenhaustein.com/reanalysis/gfs0p5/ANOM2m_arctic/ANOM2m_f00_arctic.png

Third try:
https://i.imgur.com/wZtwvZi.jpg

I can see them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpGDM7T7sMA

The Trump administration recently appointed a climate-skeptic non-scientist to head the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), the nation’s premier scientific agency.

Craig McLean, the agency’s acting chief scientist... had sent some of the new political appointees a message that asked them to acknowledge the agency’s scientific integrity policy, which prohibits manipulating research or presenting ideologically driven findings.

The request prompted a sharp response from Dr. Noble. “Respectfully, by what authority are you sending this to me?” he wrote, according to a person who received a copy of the exchange after it was circulated within NOAA.

Mr. McLean answered that his role as acting chief scientist made him responsible for ensuring that the agency’s rules on scientific integrity were followed.

The following morning, Dr. Noble responded. “You no longer serve as the acting chief scientist for NOAA,” he informed Mr. McLean, adding that a new chief scientist had already been appointed. “Thank you for your service.”

Replacing Mr. McLean, who remains at the agency, was Ryan Maue, a former researcher for the libertarian Cato Institute who has criticized climate scientists for what he has called unnecessarily dire predictions.

Dr. Maue, a research meteorologist, and Dr. Noble were joined at NOAA by David Legates, a professor at the University of Delaware’s geography department who has questioned human-caused global warming. Dr. Legates was appointed to the position of deputy assistant secretary, a role that did not previously exist.

Neil Jacobs, the NOAA administrator, was not involved in the hirings, according to two people familiar with the selection process.

what... the everloving fuck

Forgot the link, sorry: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/climate/trump-election-climate-noaa.html

(Dr Noble was previously a White House policy adviser).

Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus.

oh wait that's just the regular slanderous fraud by the energy minister, still being ignored by the cops. Meanwhile, an open letter to the PM sees 700 out of 700 medical specialists declaring that Angus is harming the health of the country and the planet.

The last time my name was printed in The Australian it was in the context of them trying to get me sacked. Great to see it again, alongside many people I am proud to call colleagues and friends. The #ClimateCrisis is a health crisis pic.twitter.com/fiknHM3w4q

— Amy C🍩🍩pes (@coopesdetat) November 1, 2020

While we're here, let's see the results of the Royal Commission into last season's bushfires.

A 600 page document, offering 78 recommendations in total.

Importantly, it clarifies that the climate *risk* involves 3 factors: climate variability, global socioeconomic development & resulting emissions + aerosols, & regional climate responses to these. Over the next 20 yrs, our climate path is essentially locked in regardless of mitigation actions.

The Commission says it heard evidence the climate is 'virtually certain' to get warmer, with ongoing drying of the southeast likely, and other threats including ongoing sea level rise & increased extreme weather events like flash floods.

The report cites figures from insurance companies estimating disasters already cost Australia $18.2bn per year, on average in the decade 2007-17.

"Sea levels are also projected to continue to rise. Tropical cyclones are projected to decrease in number, but increase in intensity. Floods and bushfires are expected to become more frequent and more intense."

"Over 3,000 homes were destroyed. Estimates of the national financial impacts are over $10 billion. Nearly three billion animals were killed or displaced and many threatened species and other ecological communities were extensively harmed."

the Commission says there is concern around air quality mitigation guidance (eg masks, purifiers) and levels of evidence. There needs to be a priority to standardise national messaging, Smoke Plans, etc around these issues before the next air quality crisis. Guess it's lucky that hardly anyone in Australia is wearing masks to prevent COVID transmission, so that doesn't have to be factored in!

The impact is not limited to fires, noting people affected by 2011 Brisbane floods were 5.3x more likely to experience worse overall health, and 2.3x more likely worse respiratory health vs the general population. Also noting that many already-vulnerable groups live in exposed areas.

Etc!

Anyway, the ostensibly left-wing opposition party has already signed off on the government's plan to achieve COVID recovery by increasing fossil fuel extraction, so that's probably going to make all these recommendations out of date by the next fire disaster. Might as well not bother reading them, eh?