A question about climate change/global warming.

Good article - also apparently your college friends live a couple miles away from me.

And me!

The price of solar electricity has dropped 89% in 10 years

In 2009, building a new solar farm was 223% more expensive than building a new coal plant. Now, it’s flipped.

then again

CHEVRON OIL SPILL: State emergency officials say a pipeline containing a mixture of oil and gasoline is leaking 5 gallons a minute into the San Francisco Bay. #oilspill https://t.co/B3osX1POEN pic.twitter.com/pkJ5W90dzM

— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) February 10, 2021

not good, of course. was just looking up BP Horizon, and i believe it came out to around 1000 gallons per second, for the 5 months before the leak was first sealed.

sorry 1000 gallons/minute, i meant, not per second. but yeah, it's crazy to look at what 5 gallons/minute does and imagine the scale of BP Deep Horizon

love 2 be in the little poo-colored river that is "normal temps"

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EuXj0cYXcAYwAaI?format=jpg&name=small

A gas tanker & icebreaker made it from China to Yamal in the 1st transit of the Northern Sea Route in February, "confirming that year-round safe navigation is possible," Russia says. There's no multi-year ice left there. @BarentsNews https://t.co/57fCekHYZL pic.twitter.com/PgO45fjN9V

— Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) February 21, 2021

Reminder that oil companies have been preparing for this moment, redesigning tankers, drilling equipment, and offshore platforms for a melting Arctic since the 1970s. A quick thread of their patents: https://t.co/qMX2Vls7BI

— Amy Westervelt (@amywestervelt) February 21, 2021

finding a lot of stuff about a "new cold war" with china and maybe russia over these resources... all expansion / extraction already being justified because the other guys are doing it anyway and we can't be outcompeted (i can imagine environmental or human rights arguments being brought in for audiences less receptive to that cynicism)

not as much stuff about this as colonialism although some pro-exploitaion types are explicitly calling it a frontier

so when is that massive wave of ecoterrorism they were fearmongering about for decades going to kick in, because it will but it's very late

Australia has adjusted emissions records to reflect (some of) the greater warming impact of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. It added the equivalent of an extra six months' worth of national CO2 emissions to the accounts overnight. https://t.co/lsCSG8GSc5

— Adam Morton (@adamlmorton) February 26, 2021

https://everestpipkin.medium.com/but-the-environmental-issues-with-cryptoart-1128ef72e6a3

lol we're all going to die

The gulf stream might.... be in trouble. One of those very cool+snazzy web articles from the NYTimes here:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/02/climate/atlantic-ocean-climate-change.html

You know that free-floating sense that multinational corporations are above the law, able to buy their way out of consequences for even the most blatant, heinous crimes?

There's a (nearly) unbelievable, highly concrete example of it underway right at this moment.

1/ pic.twitter.com/KnIhSsTuwc

— Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) March 19, 2021

that story deserves to be told loudly and repeatedly to the entire country

the judge (appointed by Bill Clinton in 1994) should be removed

season 5 of Drilled gets into Ecuador vs. Chevron. Worth a listen if you've been reading this thread.
https://www.criticalfrequency.org/drilled

September 2019 - March 2020: much of the east coast of Australia is on fire, including the worst bushfire in NSW's history

March 20, 2021: The east coast is hit with heavy rains, NSW experiences the worst floods in 50 years.

March 21, 2021: The east coast is hit with heavy rains, NSW experiences the worst floods in 60 years.

A warmer atmosphere can hold approx 7% more water for every degree of warming, so maybe if the government appoints coal and gas CEOs to manage the recovery efforts again, we can stop having to wait around so long between these records.

To be fair the coal and gas CEOs are pretty busy right now lobbying the EU to accept nuclear, CCS and gas as sustainable options. There’s only so much they can do.

season 5 of Drilled gets into Ecuador vs. Chevron. Worth a listen if you've been reading this thread.
https://www.criticalfrequency.org/drilled

The recommendation is appreciated, any other seasons or episodes you could highlight?

Australian billionaires doubled their wealth during Covid-19

Andrew Forrest, chair of Fortescue Metals Group, came in second. He also more than doubled his wealth, from $13.06 billion to $29.61 billion.

Yerman here acknowledged in 2011 that his company had never paid tax, while successfully campaigning to have a mining-specific Minerals Resource Rent Tax struck down on the grounds that it was "a mad dog's breakfast."

Then came Clive Palmer, whose company Mineralogy is big in iron ore. The miner’s net worth increased in similar proportion to that of Rinehart and Forrest, from $4.5 billion to $9.76 billion.

That’s about 60 times what Palmer spent on the 2019 election. After that election Palmer claimed – credibly – that his intervention ensured the return of the Morrison government, and he pronounced his $83 million investment in the political process money well spent. It was, after all, less than a week’s income for him.

This dude previously got himself elected as an MP for one term (by 53 votes, after accusing the entire electoral system of being corrupt, calling a recount when he'd lost by 7, and filing legal challenges against votes received by his opponent). He only attended Parliament about 25 days a year, went seven months without visiting the electorate he claimed to live in, and largely spent his term tweeting his own improvised poems and complaints about being on a diet.

A new report highlights that even if the world’s governments meet their current Paris pledges on time, Earth is likely to reach average global surface temperatures of 3°C above the pre-industrial period during this century, with catastrophic consequences.

The Great Barrier Reef is all but doomed, with between 70 and 99 per cent of corals set for destruction unless immediate “transformative action” is taken to reverse global warming..

The Australian Academy of Science says the more ambitious target of the Paris Climate Agreement of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees has now slipped out of reach and is “virtually impossible”.

.@VP Kamala Harris: "For years and generations, wars have been fought over oil. In a short matter of time, they will be fought over water." pic.twitter.com/88pWzvbmeA

— The Hill (@thehill) April 7, 2021

But jobs!

https://newrepublic.com/article/161575/climate-change-effects-hurtling-toward-global-suicide?fbclid=IwAR0ULhY8TOIU5yaiLS8qM1XIOoyCK_YgFwHeK9oF0EffOEuU_1Evz1vI5iE

Sorry, sic

luv 2 link to news stories about how climate change is going to kill us all by monetising the link on behalf of the most pervasive publisher of climate change denial

luv 2 'overhaul' the Climate Change Authority to reassess the country's emissions reduction policy, by appointing as leader a coal and gas executive so aggressive about fossil fuels that four years ago, investors in the largest mining company in the world had him removed from the board six months after his appointment

The first two parts of a four-part series from a nightly Australian current affairs programme, viewable online and transcript embedded:

https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/climate-change-part-1:-how-climate-change-is/13309038

For generations, Indigenous Australians have thrived on the islands in the Torres Strait but rising sea levels, more extreme weather and coastal erosion are devouring some of the 17 inhabited islands in the region and threatening their way of life

https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/climate-change-part-2:-how-climate-change-will/13310690

The Black Summer bushfires gave us a taste of what we can expect if the world warms 1.5 degrees. The science tells us that every fraction of a degree that global temperatures rise will make future cyclones, floods and bushfires more severe.

Former defence chief Chris Barrie says the black summer bushfires exposed weaknesses in how we prepare for climate-related disasters: “It would seem to me a surprise that it took so long for the ADF to be out there helping our communities who are clearly in need.”

“On many occasions we were instructed ‘don’t call it climate change’ because that’s politically unacceptable, which to me was one of the most abhorrent things I encountered in the public service.” – Cheryl Durrant from the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group

“You’re much more likely to be kneecapped by your own party before you even have a chance to go out and argue your climate change credentials to the electorate.” – Rebecca Huntley, social researcher

The Climate Solution Actually Adding Millions of Tons of CO2 Into the Atmosphere

New research shows that California’s climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits (one-third of the entire program) that aren’t achieving real carbon savings. But companies can buy these forest offsets to justify polluting more anyway.

May 17th:

Australian government commit commit $2.3 billion in subsidies.3 billion in subsidies to two petrol companies to keep their oil refineries open.

May 18th:

Even the International Energy Agency Thinks It’s Time to Stop Drilling New Oil Wells

A bombshell new 227-page report from the International Energy Agency on paths to avoiding climate catastrophe doesn’t mince words: 'Beyond projects already committed as of 2021,' its authors write, 'there are no new oil and gas fields approved for development in our pathway, and no new coal mines or mine extensions are required.' Put simply, the Paris-based intergovernmental organization declares—in big, bold text—what for American politicians is unthinkable: 'There is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply.' Drillers, the IEA suggests, will have to rely on 'existing assets.'

This isn’t a group of lefty climate activists making the case for a rapid phaseout of fossil fuels but a body founded by Henry Kissinger to provide a geopolitical counterweight to OPEC.

https://newrepublic.com/article/162432/international-energy-agency-iea-fossil-fuels

May 19th:

The Australian government announces a $600 million spend on a new gas-fired power plant, against the advice of three separate expert boards that it has established to advise itself on energy policy, and protests by existing energy companies.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-18/federal-government-commits-600m-for-kurri-kurri-gas-plant/100147956]
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/government-at-odds-with-industry-over-power-plant-plans-20210504-p57ops

This is largely in spite because the actual energy retailers see issues with Morrison (and his millions-$ fossil-fuel-billionaire-led panel)'s notion that them mining natural gas and selling it to citizens will drive prices down and therefore repair the COVID-generated recession.

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/morrison-steps-on-the-gas-20200914-p55val

Average Household Carbon Footprint by Zip Code: The suburbs are killing us

Here's the eastern seaboard pic.twitter.com/sc5cbYpEzI

— Carl Gershenson 🏘️ (@cgershenson) May 18, 2021

So, the heat wave in Canada was so strong that it created extreme wildfire conditions, and when the fires started the heat plumes were so strong they created severe thunderstorms, which are so strong they're creating lightning that's sparking new fires https://t.co/fXBIGSZhtW

— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) July 1, 2021

Senior Exxon lobbyist captured on video names 11 senators "crucial" to company: Capito, Manchin, Sinema, Tester, Hassan, Barrasso, Cornyn, Daines, Coons, Kelly and Rubio.

Calls Manchin "Kingmaker" and says speaks with office weekly. https://t.co/c3TOGaICgi

— Anthony Adragna (@AnthonyAdragna) June 30, 2021

The fire feedback loop is scary stuff.

There was one map I saw, can’t find it now, but it appeared to show temperatures close to 40 C even near the Arctic Ocean. For one thing, that would also mean this is causing melting of the permafrost. That could lead to amplifying feedback loops involving the albedo effect, as well as methane emissions.

This is getting speculative but I wonder if it’s possible that localized increased methane concentrations in arctic Canada could have played a role in causing the heat wave there too. (Methane is significantly more powerful of a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, although methane has a much shorter lifespan in the atmosphere. There has already been a significant amount released from melting permafrost and sea ice from previous years.)

Like I said that last part is speculative so don’t hesitate to call me out if it seems like I’m way off base.

Up to 90% of Lytton, BC, burned after authorities order evacuation

Lytton Mayor Jan Polderman signed an official evacuation order at 6 pm local time on Wednesday as “the whole town is on fire,” he told CBC News. “It took, like, a whole 15 minutes from the first sign of smoke to, all of a sudden, there being fire everywhere,” he added. According to the town's MP Brad Vis, 90% of Lytton has been destroyed by the fire, affecting 1,200 to 1,500 residents. Earlier this week, Lytton set a record-high temperature in Canada amid a heatwave that started last weekend.

if only BC was closer to California, where Dianne Feinstein solved climate change already

"Really horrifying": Fire clouds spark 710,117 lightning strikes in western Canada in 15 hours

Definitely feels like climate change is entering a new phase of acceleration.

if only anyone had forecast this

Biden said it’s getting real, and iirc even Pelosi admits it’s happening, so maybe in a few decades we’ll be ready to take some effective action to mitigate the worst effects.

Thank you for providing me with the space for this brief rant.

i just wish someone would have told me

The polar bears tried, but they’re all dead now.

I should clarify my remarks: Pelosi does not in fact control the weather in Canada. Shit, did I let it slip?

no one told me lightning can cause forest fires! if i had known that, i would have been against fossil fuel emissions the entire time!!!!!

Absolutely mind-blowing wildfire behavior in British Columbia.

Incredible & massive storm-producing pyrocumulonimbus plumes. pic.twitter.com/kH39IuX1ez

— Dakota Smith (@weatherdak) July 1, 2021

Ugh

anyone else having a lot of bad dreams involving climate change? it's fun haha

did you dream this one

The ocean is on fire in the Gulf of Mexico after a pipeline ruptured. Good system.

pic.twitter.com/5HK6VVfxOP

— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) July 2, 2021

literal hellfire, cool

I beg your pardon Madame Bison, but it is decidedly uncool 🔥

Looks like Aimless was otm about the climate crisis leveling up.

Not sure if redundant to post from the Graun here but:

…the intensity of the heat in the north-west Americas this year and Siberia last year has taken many scientists by surprise and suggested extra factors may be involved in northern latitudes.

One theory is that the recent temperature spike might have been caused not just by global heating, but by slowing weather systems that get stuck in one place for an extended period, which gives them time to intensify and cause more damage…

Experts believe the rapid heating in the Arctic and decline of sea ice is making the jet stream wiggle in large, meandering patterns, so-called Rossby resonance waves, trapping high- and low-pressure weather systems in one location for a longer time.

This theory remains contested, but Michael Mann of Penn State said this week’s unexpectedly fierce heat at Lytton and elsewhere should prompt climatologists to consider additional impacts of human activity.

“We should take this event very seriously,” he wrote in an email.

“The temperature-sensing pandemic robot is malfunctioning because of climate change” is the most dystopian thing I’ve ever written. https://t.co/uxJgnfLWHy

— Tamara Hinz (@hinz_tamara) July 2, 2021

is this good

VIDEO: Large explosion in the Umid gas field in Caspian Sea. Cause currently unknown. - @Liveuamappic.twitter.com/uGtIhMzCQn

— Conflict News (@Conflicts) July 4, 2021