Topic: Climate Emergency is already here. How much worse it gets is still up to us (?)

[Shankly998]

We're stuffed.

Covid is a relative storm in a tea cup compared with what is coming and much sooner than most think.


Anyway more bad news on this subject

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55561536

Biden will reverse it beside its very uneconomical to drill there doesn't make much sense from a business POV

[Red Raw]

I know 2020 has been an awful year but I can't help fearing that we're going to have many worse years to come, in the reasonably near future. Those methane pockets are melting.

I have probably posted stuff like this before but here is another incidence:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/19/oil-alaska-arctic-global-heating-local-cooling

Essentially climate change thaws permafrost (where all the methane lives) which makes the ground unstable for various bits of oil exploration infrastructure (roads, piplelines, buildings etc.) so the oil companies install thermosiphons, passive devices which suck heat out of the ground, to keep it frozen.  This helps to extend the drilling season and get more/larger equipment on site.

Couldn't make it up.

[Red-Soldier]

We're stuffed.

Covid is a relative storm in a tea cup compared with what is coming and much sooner than most think.


Anyway more bad news on this subject

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55561536

I agree.

It's quite poignent (and a reflection on wider society I might guess) that the thread on Covid has over 1100 pages, whilst the Climate Change thread has just 66.

The fact that Covid-19 has been brought about by our wanton destruction/disturbance of the Earth's natural systems has been lost by many.



Climate crisis: 2020 was joint hottest year ever recorded

Global heating continued unabated despite Covid lockdowns, with record Arctic wildfires and Atlantic tropical storms

The climate crisis continued unabated in 2020, with the the joint highest global temperatures on record, alarming heat and record wildfires in the Arctic, and a record 29 tropical storms in the Atlantic.

Despite a 7% fall in fossil fuel burning due to coronavirus lockdowns, heat-trapping carbon dioxide continued to build up in the atmosphere, also setting a new record. The average surface temperature across the planet in 2020 was 1.25C higher than in the pre-industrial period of 1850-1900, dangerously close to the 1.5C target set by the world’s nations to avoid the worst impacts.

Only 2016 matched the heat in 2020, but that year saw a natural El Niño climate event which boosts temperatures. Without that it is likely 2020 would have been the outright hottest year. Scientists have warned that without urgent action the future for many millions of people “looks black”.

The temperature data released by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) showed that the past six years have been the hottest six on record. They also showed that Europe saw its hottest year on record, 1.6C above the long-term average, with a searing heatwave hitting western Europe in late July and early August.

The Arctic and northern Siberia saw particularly extreme average temperatures in 2020, with a large region 3C higher than the long-term average and some locations more than 6C higher. This resulted in extensive wildfires, with a record 244m tonnes of CO2 released within the Arctic Circle. Arctic sea ice was also significantly lower, with July and October seeing the smallest extent on record for those months.

“[The year] 2020 stands out for its exceptional warmth in the Arctic,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S. “It is no surprise that the last decade was the warmest on record, and is yet another reminder of the urgency of ambitious emissions reductions to prevent adverse climate impacts.”

“The extraordinary climate events of 2020 show us we have no time to lose,” said Matthias Petschke, at the European commission. “It will be difficult, but the cost of inaction is too great.

“Despite the absence of the cyclical boost of El Niño to global temperatures [we are] getting dangerously close to the 1.5C limit,” said Prof Dave Reay, at the University of Edinburgh. “Covid lockdowns around the world may have caused a slight dip in emissions, but the CO2 accumulating in the atmosphere is still going up fast. Unless the global economic recovery from the nightmares of 2020 is a green one, the future of many millions of people around the world looks black indeed.”

The level of CO2 in the atmosphere reached a new record in 2020, with the cut in emissions due to Covid lockdowns described as a “tiny blip” by the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation. Vincent-Henri Peuch, director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, said: “Until the net global emissions reduce to zero, CO2 will continue to accumulate in the atmosphere and drive further climate change.”

The UK Met Office issued a forecast on Friday that CO2 levels will pass a new milestone in 2021 – being 50% higher than before the Industrial Revolution. Its scientists said CO2 will exceed 417 parts per million (ppm) for several weeks from April to June, which is 50% higher than the 278 ppm in the late 18th century when industrial activity began.

This is despite the expectation that weather conditions brought by the counterpart of El Niño, La Niña, will see higher natural growth in tropical forests that will soak up some of humanity’s emissions.

“The human-caused buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere is accelerating,” said Prof Richard Betts at the Met Office. “It took over 200 years for levels to increase by 25%, but now just over 30 years later we are approaching a 50% increase. Global emissions will need to be brought down to net zero within about the next 30 years if global warming is to be limited to 1.5C.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/08/climate-crisis-experts-2020-joint-hottest-year-ever-recorded?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco

[Red-Soldier]

Global shark and ray population crashed more than 70% in past 50 years – study

Increase in fishing since the 1970s has ravaged abundance of sharks and rays in oceans[/b]

The global population of sharks and rays has crashed by more than 70% in the past 50 years, researchers have determined for the first time, with massive ongoing losses pushing many species towards extinction.

A huge increase in fishing since 1970 has ravaged the abundance of sharks and rays in our oceans, with previously widespread species such as hammerhead sharks now facing the threat of being wiped out, the study found. Half of the world’s 31 oceanic shark species are now listed as either endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The giant manta ray is also endangered.

“The decline isn’t stopping, which is a problem,” said Nathan Pacoureau, a researcher at Simon Fraser University in Canada who was lead author of the study, published in Nature. “Everything in our oceans is so depleted now. We need proactive measures to prevent total collapse, this should be a wake up call for policy makers.”

Using a raft of previous studies and catch data, the researchers compiled the first global census for shark and ray species, finding there has been an overall 71% decline since 1970. The losses could be even deeper in reality, with insufficient data to chart population trends back to the 1950s, when the explosion in mass industrialized fishing started.

While sharks and rays can be affected by ship strikes, oil and gas drilling and, increasingly, the climate crisis, the researchers said that overfishing was the primary cause of decline. It has been previously estimated that 100 million sharks are killed by humans every year, overwhelming their slow reproductive capacity to replenish numbers.

Sharks are often killed unintentionally by fishers using nets to catch other marine creatures but are also targeted for purposes such as making shark fin soup, which involves sharks having their fins hacked off before their helpless bodies are discarded back into the ocean.

“Ongoing declines show that we are not protecting a vital part of our ocean ecosystems from overfishing, and this will lead to continued decline in the health of our oceans until we do something about it,” said Dr Cassandra Rigby, a biologist at James Cook University in Australia and study co-author.

The research highlights the patchwork quality of fisheries management around the world. Steep declines in shark and ray numbers in the Atlantic Ocean began to stabilize somewhat after 2000 amid conservation measures, while the rate of loss has also slowed in the Pacific Ocean. But in the Indian Ocean, shark and ray abundance had plummeted continually since 1970, with an estimated drop of 84% in overall population in this time.

Many species of shark are migratory, meaning their protection requires the cooperation of different countries, while much of the harmful fishing occurs in the largely ungoverned high seas. Previous international efforts to stem losses have had limited impact, although overfishing is set to be raised at a virtual oceans and climate summit this week featuring John Kerry, the US’s new climate envoy.

Governments need to enforce “science-based catch limits” on a domestic and regional basis to ensure sharks continue their vital roles as ecosystem predators and protein source for poorer communities, Rigby said. Mariah Pfleger, marine scientist at Oceana, added that countries should also ban the sale and trade of shark fins. The ocean conservation group is pushing for the US to adopt such a ban, as Canada enacted in 2019.

“The findings of this paper are horrifying but ultimately not that surprising,” Pfleger said. “We have long known that many species of sharks and rays cannot withstand extensive commercial fishing pressure.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/27/sharks-rays-global-population-crashed-study

[Red-Soldier]

Economics' failure over destruction of nature presents ‘extreme risks’

New measures of success needed to avoid catastrophic breakdown, landmark review finds

The world is being put at “extreme risk” by the failure of economics to take account of the rapid depletion of the natural world and needs to find new measures of success to avoid a catastrophic breakdown, a landmark review has concluded.

Prosperity was coming at a “devastating cost” to the ecosystems that provide humanity with food, water and clean air, said Prof Sir Partha Dasgupta, the Cambridge University economist who conducted the review. Radical global changes to production, consumption, finance and education were urgently needed, he said.

The 600-page review was commissioned by the UK Treasury, the first time a national finance ministry has authorised a full assessment of the economic importance of nature. A similar Treasury-sponsored review in 2006 by Nicholas Stern is credited with transforming economic understanding of the climate crisis.

The review said that two UN conferences this year – on biodiversity and climate change – provided opportunities for the international community to rethink an approach that has seen a 40% plunge in the stocks of natural capital per head between 1992 and 2014.

“Nature is our home. Good economics demands we manage it better,” said Dasgupta. “Truly sustainable economic growth and development means recognising that our long-term prosperity relies on rebalancing our demand of nature’s goods and services with its capacity to supply them. It also means accounting fully for the impact of our interactions with nature. Covid-19 has shown us what can happen when we don’t do this.”

Sir David Attenborough said the review was “immensely important”. In a foreword, he said: “If we continue this damage, whole ecosystems will collapse. That is now a real risk. The review at last puts biodiversity at the core [of economics]. It shows how we can help save the natural world at what may be the last minute, and in doing so, save ourselves.”

The British prime minister, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, who will host the UN climate summit in Glasgow in November, said: “This year is critical in determining whether we can stop and reverse the concerning trend of fast-declining biodiversity. I welcome the review, which makes clear that protecting and enhancing nature needs more than good intentions – it requires concerted, coordinated action.”

Humanity’s impact on the natural world is stark, with animal populations having dropped by an average of 68% since 1970 and forest destruction continuing at pace – some scientists think a sixth mass extinction of life is under way and accelerating. Today, just 4% of the world’s mammals are wild, hugely outweighed by humans and their livestock.

The Dasgupta review urged the world’s governments to come up with a different form of national accounting from GDP and use one that includes the depletion of natural resources. It would like to see an understanding of nature given as prominent a place in education as the “three Rs”, to end people’s distance from nature.

Dasgupta also called for new supranational institutions to protect global public goods such as the rainforests and oceans. Poorer countries should be paid to protect ecosystems, while charges for the use of non-territorial waters should be levied to prevent overfishing.

The report said almost all governments were exacerbating the biodiversity crisis by paying people more to exploit nature than to protect it. A conservative estimate of the global cost of subsidies that damage nature was about $4tn-$6tn (£2.9-£4.4tn) a year, it said. “Humanity faces an urgent choice. Continuing down our current path presents extreme risks and uncertainty for our economies.” the review said.

“The Dasgupta review shows we are running down our natural capital fast, and we will pay the price,” said Lord Stern, a professor at the London School of Economics. “Reversing these trends requires action now, and as the review stresses, to do so would be significantly less costly than delay. Crucially, it would [also] help us to reduce poverty.”

A comprehensive UN global assessment of biodiversity in 2019 concluded that human society is in jeopardy from the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems, with about half of wild places lost and a million species at risk of extinction.

Prof Bob Watson, who led the UN assessment, said: “The most important thing is that the Dasgupta review was commissioned by the UK Treasury ministry, not the environment department. Hopefully this will mean that finance ministries around the world will acknowledge that the loss of nature is an economic issue, not simply an environmental issue.”

Jennifer Morris, head of the Nature Conservancy, said: “In the same way the Stern review proved transformational in raising awareness of climate risk for business and financial markets, the Dasgupta review is likely to represent a watershed moment for how we value the contributions made by nature across nearly every aspect of our lives.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/02/economics-failure-over-destruction-of-nature-presents-extreme-risks

[Red-Soldier]

Top climate scientist warns PM over 'contemptuous' Cumbria coalmine plan

Exclusive: James Hansen calls on Johnson to stop support for fossil fuels in letter ahead of UN climate summit

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson’s decision to press ahead with a new coalmine in Cumbria shows “contemptuous disregard for the future of young people” and will lead to “ignominy and humiliation”, one of the world’s foremost climate voices has warned, in a stark message to the prime minister ahead of the UN Cop26 climate summit later this year in Glasgow.

James Hansen, the former Nasa scientist who has been called the “godfather of climate change”, has written to the UK prime minister calling on him to stop all support for fossil fuels and “earn a special place in history” for tackling the climate crisis.

He wrote: “In leading the UK, as host to the Cop, you have a chance to change the course of our climate trajectory – or you can stick with business-almost-as-usual and be vilified in the streets of Glasgow, London and around the world.”

Pointing to the recent decision to allow the UK’s first new deep coalmine for three decades, Hansen went on: “It would be easy to achieve this latter ignominy and humiliation. Just continue with the plan to open a new coalmine in Cumbria and continue to invest funds of the British public in fossil fuel projects overseas, in contemptuous disregard of the future of young people and nature.”

Hansen is one of the most respected figures in global climate science. As an expert at Nasa, he testified to the US Congress in 1988 – including then-senators Joe Biden and John Kerry – of the dangers of climate change. That landmark warning helped pave the way to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, parent treaty to the 2015 Paris accord.

Hansen’s letter to Johnson is copied to Kerry, now special climate envoy to Biden, who has made climate action a top priority for his presidency, and who will hold a global climate summit on 22 April as a precursor to Cop26, scheduled for November.

Tim Crosland, director of the climate litigation charity Plan B, said: “Since the US election, there’s a new dynamic in play. Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson can no longer get away with his climate hypocrisy, talking the talk of climate leadership while opening a new coalmine and permitting ongoing financial support for fossil fuel interests in the UK and around the world. If he does, it’s clear there will be no way back for him with the new US administration. We must trust he has the political pragmatism to act on Dr Hansen’s warning.”

Hansen is concerned that going ahead with the Cumbrian mine will be seized on by supporters of fossil fuels around the world, as the UK prepares to host the Cop26 summit in Glasgow this November.

“It shows they [the government] are really not serious,” Hansen told the Guardian in an interview. “We don’t need new mines. This shows that leaders will say the right words but in fact fossil fuels are still winning.”

Young people in particular would feel betrayed, he warned. “That’s why I’m trying to encourage Johnson to think this through – he is going to really get hammered. But he could be heroic, if he would just point the way to a path that would work.”

Companies profiting from fossil fuels must be faced down, according to Hansen. “The great obstacle you must overcome – where others have failed – is that posed by the special financial interests that have bribed our governments and trashed our planet,” he wrote, in the letter sent to Johnson on Wednesday and seen by the Guardian.

He said that developing countries would see the UK’s actions in opening a new coalmine as an encouragement to continue using coal. “Developed countries have to work with emerging economies to help them – otherwise, they are going to use coal,” he said.

The Committee on Climate Change, the government’s statutory advisers on achieving the UK’s goal of net zero emissions by 2050, has also warned ministers on the Cumbrian mine. In a letter published last Friday, the chairman of the committee, Lord Deben, urged the planning secretary Robert Jenrick to consider the impacts, as the mine – permission for which has been granted up to 2049, the year before the government must achieve net zero emissions – would increase global greenhouse gas emissions.

Deben wrote: “it is also important to note that this decision gives a negative impression of the UK’s climate priorities in the year of Cop26.”

Kwasi Kwarteng, business secretary, told MPs who questioned the Cumbrian decision that the mine should be allowed because it would provide coking coal, which was needed for industrial processes, such as making steel, rather than coal for power generation.

Hansen rejected this argument. “We have to replace the old ways of doing things – there are alternatives,” he said. “This is possible and we have to do it, because science tells us we can’t continue business as usual.”

Johnson pledged late last year to halt UK government investments in fossil fuel overseas. However, campaigners are concerned at loopholes in these plans.

A No 10 spokesperson said: “The UK continues to lead the fight against climate change, cutting emissions by more than any major economy so far – at the fastest rate – and putting the prime minister’s bold 10 point plan for a green Industrial Revolution by 2030 into action.

“We have already committed to ending the use of coal for electricity by 2025 and ending direct government support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas.

“As we go further and faster to build back greener this year, we will continue to urge countries to drive clean economic recoveries too, as hosts of Cop26 and president of the G7. The UK co-hosted Climate Ambition Summit helped see 75 leaders set out new commitments to climate action.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/feb/04/top-climate-scientist-warns-pm-over-contemptuous-cumbria-coalmine-plan

[BarryCrocker]

Even GM knows the writing is on the wall for petroleum.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/mdsPvbSpB2Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/mdsPvbSpB2Y</a>

[Red-Soldier]

Human destruction of nature is 'senseless and suicidal', warns UN chief

UN report offers bedrock for hope for broken planet, says António Guterres

Humanity is waging a “senseless and suicidal” war on nature that is causing human suffering and enormous economic losses while accelerating the destruction of life on Earth, the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has said.

Guterres’s starkest warning to date came at the launch of a UN report setting out the triple emergency the world is in: the climate crisis, the devastation of wildlife and nature, and the pollution that causes many millions of early deaths every year.

Making peace with nature was the defining task of the coming decades, he said, and the key to a prosperous and sustainable future for all people. The report combines recent major UN assessments with the latest research and the solutions available, representing an authoritative scientific blueprint of how to repair the planet.

The report says societies and economies must be transformed by policies such as replacing GDP as an economic measure with one that reflects the true value of nature, as recommended this month by a study commissioned by the UK Treasury.

Carbon emissions need to be taxed, and trillions of dollars of “perverse” subsidies for fossil fuels and destructive farming must be diverted to green energy and food production, the report says. As well as systemic changes, people in rich nations can act too, it says, by cutting meat consumption and wasting less energy and water.

“Humanity is waging war on nature. This is senseless and suicidal,” said Guterres. “The consequences of our recklessness are already apparent in human suffering, towering economic losses, and the accelerating erosion of life on Earth.”

The triple emergency threatened our viability as a species, he said. But ending the war would not mean poorer living standards or an end to poverty reduction. “On the contrary, making peace with nature, securing its health and building on the critical and undervalued benefits that it provides are key to a prosperous and sustainable future for all.”

“This report provides the bedrock for hope,” he said. “It makes clear our war on nature has left the planet broken. But it also guides us to a safer place by providing a peace plan and a postwar rebuilding programme.”

Inger Andersen, the head of the UN Environment Programme (Unep), said: “We need to look no further than the global pandemic caused by Covid-19, a disease transmitted from animals to humans, to know that the finely tuned system of the natural world has been disrupted.” Unep and the World Health Organization have said the root cause of pandemics is the destruction of the natural world, with worse outbreaks to come unless action is taken.

The report says the fivefold growth of the global economy in the last 50 years was largely fuelled by a huge increase in the extraction of fossil fuels and other resources, and has come at massive cost to the environment. The world population has doubled since 1970 and while average prosperity has also doubled, 1.3 billion people remain in poverty and 700 million are hungry.

It says current measures to tackle the environmental crises are far short of what is needed: the world remains on track for catastrophic warming of 3C above pre-industrial levels, a million species face extinction and 90% of people live with dirty air.

“We use three-quarters of the land and two-thirds of the oceans – we are completely dominating the Earth,” said Ivar Baste of the Norwegian Environment Agency, a lead author of the report.

Prof Sir Robert Watson, who has led UN scientific assessments on climate and biodiversity and is the other lead author of the report, said: “We have got a triple emergency and these three issues are all interrelated and have to be dealt with together. They’re no longer just environmental issues – they are economic issues, development issues, security issues, social, moral and ethical issues.

“Of all the things we have to do, we have to really rethink our economic and financial systems. Fundamentally, GDP doesn’t take nature into account. We need to get rid of these perverse subsidies, they are $5-7tn a year. If you could move some of these towards low-carbon technology and investing in nature, then the money is there.”

This meant taking on companies and countries with vested interests in fossil fuels, he said: “There are a lot of people that really like these perverse subsidies. They love the status quo. So governments have to have the guts to act”.

Financial institutions could play a huge role, Watson said, by ending funding for fossil fuels, the razing of forests and large-scale monoculture agriculture. Companies should act too, he said: “Proactive companies see that if they can be sustainable, they can be first movers and make a profit. But in some cases, regulation will almost certainly be needed for those companies that don’t care.”

Pollution was included in the report because despite improvements in some wealthy nations, toxic air, water, soils and workplaces cause at least 9 million deaths a year, one in six of all deaths. “This is still a huge issue,” said Baste.

The world’s nations will gather at two crucial UN summits in 2021 on the climate and biodiversity crises. “We know we failed miserably on the biodiversity targets [set in 2010],” said Watson. “I’ll be very disappointed if at these summits all they talk about is targets and goals. They’ve got to talk about actions – that’s really what’s crucial.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/18/human-destruction-of-nature-is-senseless-and-suicidal-warns-un-chief



The three biggest threats facing us today: Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Environmental Pollution.

[24/7]

Hmmmmm............my friends at Fridays For Future sent me this.............

https://fb.watch/3TR3rtBxUN/

[Red-Soldier]

Are you a twat that drives an SUV?


SUVs and extra traffic cancelling out electric car gains in Britain

Auditors say emissions down just 1% since 2011 and target of zero emissions by 2050 is a long way off

Carbon emissions from passenger cars across Britain have fallen by just 1% since 2011, despite a steep rise in the sale of electric and hybrid vehicles, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has said.

The National Audit Office said the popularity of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and an increase in road traffic were among factors that have cancelled out expected reductions from low-emission car sales.

Its report concludes that the government has a long way to go to achieve its target for almost all cars to emit no carbon by 2050.

Ministers have announced plans to restrict the sale of new cars that are powered solely by petrol or diesel by 2030 in an effort to cut emissions from the 67.9m tonnes of CO2 equivalent emitted by cars in 2018 – nearly a fifth of the UK’s total emissions. From 2035, only zero-emission cars will be sold.

In a 2013 strategy paper, the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) forecast that carbon emissions from cars would fall by 10 million tonnes between 2010 and 2020.

Auditors examined data from the Department for Transport and found that average emissions from new cars fell by 13% between 2011 and 2016 but increased by 6% between 2016 and 2019.

“The recent increase has been ascribed to several factors, which have cancelled out the reductions from ultra-low-emission cars. These include a rise in the sale of sports utility vehicles, increased road traffic and travel by car, and revised methods for estimating carbon emissions,” the report says.

OZEV provides grants and subsidies to fund the installation of charge points, and spent £1bn on the plug-in car grant, which reduces the upfront purchase cost of qualifying cars.

Auditors said the government had contributed towards more than 140,000 car charge points, but most of them were on private driveways.

“OZEV informed the NAO that it initially focused on supporting people with off-street parking or with an ability to charge at work. It has not yet focused sufficiently on charge point availability for people who do not have a driveway,” the report says.

Meg Hillier, the chair of the public accounts committee, expressed concern at the findings and said the government must help to make electric cars an affordable and practical option for most people.

“The vast majority of charging points are for private off-street parking. Not everyone has a driveway to charge their car. And reducing emissions shouldn’t be a luxury reserved for the middle classes,” she said. “This can’t be a pie in the sky ambition – government must urgently develop a real plan.”

Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said: “Meeting the government’s ambitious targets to phase out new petrol and diesel cars in less than a decade still requires a major transition for consumers, carmakers and those responsible for charging infrastructure.

“Government now has the opportunity to reflect on what has gone well and better target its interventions and spending to secure this fundamental change and deliver the carbon reduction required.”

A Department for Transport spokeswoman said: “This government is going further and faster to decarbonise transport by phasing out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030.

“Ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs) now represent nearly 11% of the new car market. Alongside the billions we are investing to support industry and consumers to make the switch to cleaner vehicles, we are proud to be a global leader in the development and manufacture of ULEVs.

“We will set out a plan later this year on how we will deliver these new ambitious phase out dates.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/26/suvs-and-extra-traffic-cancelling-out-electric-car-gains-in-britain

[Red-Soldier]

Airbus reveals planes sold in last two years will emit over 1bn tonnes of CO2

Landmark emissions disclosures cover 22-year lifetime of 1,429 aircraft sold in 2019 and 2020

Planes sold by Airbus in 2019 and 2020 will produce well over 1bn tonnes of carbon dioxide during their lifetimes, according to landmark first estimates of the aerospace manufacturer’s emissions.

Airbus sold a record 863 planes in 2019, which would translate to 740m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over a 22-year period, according to figures seen by the Guardian. It sold 566 planes last year, for which lifetime emissions would be 440m tonnes.

The figures highlight the scale of the challenge of decarbonisation for the plane-making duopoly of Airbus and its US rival Boeing. Aviation accounts for about 1.9% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but its share is expected to rise rapidly after coronavirus restrictions ease and as more people in poorer nations are able to afford to fly.

The emissions intensity of Airbus products fell from 66.6g of CO2 equivalent per passenger-kilometre in 2019 to 63.5g in 2020. Airbus said this reflected more efficient planes even as the pandemic caused sales to fall.

Julie Kitcher, a member of Airbus’s executive committee who oversees sustainability and communications, said: “Despite the crisis, we’re accelerating the roadmap to decarbonising aviation.”

She said the disclosures were a worst-case view of potential emissions, because sustainable fuels could cut the planes’ true net emissions.

The independently audited disclosures mark the first time that Airbus has published an estimate of the carbon emissions its commercial planes will generate. These are part of what are known as scope 3 emissions, as opposed to direct emissions from company machinery (scope 1) or emissions embedded in purchased energy (scope 2).

The scope 3 disclosures come as scrutiny of company emissions by the public, governments and investors increases. They will put pressure on Boeing to reveal its emissions.

Emissions disclosure is seen as an important first step in the long journey toward a net-zero economy, but Airbus said it had not yet set a science-based target for cutting its carbon emissions.

The aviation industry has a non-binding target to reach net zero between 2060 and 2065, long after the 2050 deadline required to limit global heating to only 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Airbus, Boeing, and engine manufacturers such as the UK’s Rolls-Royce are working on zero-emissions propulsion, as is a crowd of much smaller rivals. Some smaller electric planes are nearing production, and Airbus is hoping to launch its first hydrogen-powered planes by 2035. Zero-emissions technology for long-haul flights is far off.

Kitcher acknowledged that Airbus’s plans to cut emissions will depend heavily on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), synthesised kerosene produced from replenishable resources. SAF would still emit similar amounts of CO2, but would theoretically cause net-zero emissions over its lifecycle.

About half of Airbus’s plan for net-zero emissions by 2050 depends on SAF, 42% from new technologies and the rest from more efficient management of planes.

Andrew Murphy, the aviation director at the campaign group Transport & Environment, welcomed the prospect of better aviation emissions disclosure. He said, however, that non-CO2 heating effects such as those caused by aircraft contrails should also be reported. Non-CO2 effects heat the planet more than carbon, according to EU analysis.

He also said SAF was potentially viable, but that it would take concerted action by governments and industry over the next decade to scale it sustainably to anywhere neat the levels required.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/26/airbus-reveals-planes-sold-in-last-two-years-will-emit-over-1bn-tonnes-of-co2

[Red-Soldier]

UK has broken air pollution limits for a decade, EU court finds

Levels of nitrogen dioxide, mostly from diesel vehicles, remain illegally high in 75% of urban areas

The UK has “systematically and persistently” broken legal limits on toxic air pollution for a decade, the court of justice of the EU (CJEU) has ruled.

Levels of nitrogen dioxide, mostly from diesel vehicles, remain illegally high in 75% of urban areas and on Thursday the court said the UK had failed to tackle the problem in the shortest possible time, as required by law.

The case began before the UK left the EU and the legal limits remain in UK law. The UK could face financial penalties if it still fails to take action to comply. The court also ordered the UK to pay the legal costs incurred by the European commission. UK ministers had already been defeated three times in British courts by environmental lawyers ClientEarth.

Dirty air causes 40,000 early deaths every year in the UK and scientists think the pollution is likely to be damaging every organ in the body. A landmark coroner’s report in December found that illegal levels of air pollution had contributed to the death of nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah.

“The government has been dragging its feet for too long on the air pollution crisis, downplaying the problem and passing the buck to local authorities,” said Katie Nield, of ClientEarth. The government’s own research shows that clean air zones, where charges are used to deter the most polluting vehicles from urban centres, are by far the most effective action. But only one has been implemented, in London, with others put on hold, delayed or rejected.

“It’s up to the UK government to work with local leaders to make sure these schemes are put in place as quickly as possible, alongside support for people and businesses to move to cleaner forms of transport,” Nield said. “While authorities dither and delay, people’s lives are being ruined by toxic air.”

A proposed Office for Environmental Protection will be the new domestic institution holding the UK government to account. But Nield said: “There are big question marks as to whether the OEP will have the independence, authority and resources [it needs].”

A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We are considering this judgment from the CJEU. We continue to work at pace to deliver our ambitious NO2 plan and our 2019 clean air strategy, which was praised by the WHO as an example for the rest of the world to follow.”

She said the government’s 2017 NO2 plan and its 2018 supplement went further than before in requiring local authorities to assess how to bring down air pollution levels in the shortest possible time.

If the UK fails to end illegal levels of pollution within a reasonable period, the European commission could issue a formal letter requiring the UK to remedy the situation. If the UK fails to do that, the commission could seek the imposition of financial penalties by the CJEU, although it is uncertain whether it will have the power or the inclination to do this, now the UK is no longer an EU member.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/04/uk-has-broken-air-pollution-limits-for-a-decade-eu-court-finds

[BarryCrocker]

Literally keeping themselves out in the political wilderness.

Canadian Conservative party votes not to recognize climate crisis as real
>Delegates vote 54%-46% against policy change request
>Leader O’Toole has sought ambitious climate change agenda

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.

The rejected motion included the willingness to act against climate risks and to make highly polluting businesses take more responsibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

On Friday, the Conservative leader, Erin O’Toole, urged party members to rally around an ambitious climate agenda, in order to avoid a defeat at the hands of Liberals.

He asked members to be open to new ideas if they were serious about toppling the Liberals in the next election, even if that went against the party’s conventional thinking.

He did not want Conservative candidates to be branded as “climate change deniers”, he said.

On Saturday, Conservative delegates rejected the policy shift by 54% to 46%.

Climate change was a polarizing issue in the last election campaign. While Justin Trudeau stresses that the environment is a priority, Canada has failed to meet any of its climate pledges amid resistance from politicians who say the targets threaten the oil industry.

Canada is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer and one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gases on a per capita basis. The prime minister’s Liberal supporters rank it among their top concerns.

Joe Biden’s aggressive climate policies are expected to galvanize Canada to march in step with Washington’s tough measures to avoid being disadvantaged.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/20/canada-conservative-party-climate-change-real

[Red-Soldier]

'Never seen anything like it': locals watch helplessly as floodwaters rise across NSW

With the mid north coast facing a once-in-a-century flood, residents are bracing for the worst as the rain keeps falling

As floodwaters inundate the New South Wales mid north coast, residents are scrambling to take stock of the damage and prepare for the rising tide.

Horses and livestock were seen floating along rivers and washing up on beaches on Sunday, as the region faced a once in a lifetime deluge.

Greg Cox, who lives in Raymond Terrace north of Newcastle, was watching the water slowly rise around his property on Sunday morning.

“Once the water comes through … we just have to grin and bear it,” he said.

“The only thing we can do is to lift everything high off the ground, especially the more valuable stuff. We’ve put stuff on top of my ute, and on top of the beds, but that’s all we can really do.”

“At this stage, I would say we’re going to have water coming through the downstairs part of the house by this afternoon, when the tide comes in.”

The rain has battered the region for days, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning that another 100mm of rain could fall on Sunday.

The Bom has already issued 14 flood warnings across the state, including a major flood warning at the Hawkesbury River at North Richmond, and the State Emergency Services have responded to thousands of callouts as floodwaters continue to surge.

Cox said he had to walk through water to get to his car so he could drive into town and buy some supplies.

“I think it could get a whole lot worse before it gets any better,” he said. “It’s pouring rain here now, and it’s predicted to keep that up in the next 48 hours.

“It’s devastating. Our whole backyard is underwater, I’ve never ever seen anything like this, and I was speaking to my landlord today and he also said he’d never seen anything like this before.”

Alistair Flower, a businessman and hotelier from Port Macquarie, told Guardian Australia he and his staff had been working hard to protect one of his venues.

“We’ve seen that the water is rising, and unfortunately the flooding has gotten into the basement and the bottle shop at our premise,” he said.

“We’ve had great work from the SES and my staff, who’ve been able to pump some water out, but it felt like a bit of a losing battle at times.”

Flower owns the Hastings Hotel in Wauchope, which is near the centre of town, and he said he never thought he’d see the water rise above the intersection.

“Talking to a lot of regulars, they tell us this has surpassed the last great flood in the 60s. I think this has surpassed everything.”

Flower, whose home is on the Hastings River, said he saw a cow come floating through, saved only by his neighbour’s infinity pool.

“I went out to our jetty, and looked back on our neighbour, and it looked like a cow had floated down the river.

“Thankfully, they had an infinity pool, which doesn’t have a fence line in front of it, allowing the cow to come in.

“I think that cow was one of the lucky ones, unfortunately there’s been quite a bit of loss of livestock recently.”

The loss of livestock has been so great that a Facebook group has been established to help people find their lost animals.

The Mid North Coast horse/livestock flood recovery! group current has over 2,000 members, with people posting images of floating livestock and rescue stories amid the deluge.

The admins on the page hope it will be be “a place to post any livestock dead or alive to help owners locate or have peace of mind”.

Flower said he believed he knew who the cow belonged to, but because they were isolated and struggling with the flooding some council rangers were working to take it home.

Flower said the community had been taken by surprise by the intensity and speed of the rain and flooding, and that they weren’t as prepared as they could’ve been.

“We were very surprised. Just like everybody else, we weren’t expecting to see a once-in-100-year storm, and the biggest flood of our time. And I think the whole community was surprised by this – the rains really came very quickly.

“One thing about the Port Macquarie community is that their support and engagement is second to none. And everybody’s rallying together, as we’ll see over the next couple of weeks.”

For Sarah Soars and Joshua Edge, the flooding and rain came on a day they were hoping to always remember, but it was a day they’ll never forget it for more tragic reasons.

They had to watch their home, with their pets inside, being swept away by flood waters on the day they had planned to wed.

The couple, who are currently separated in Taree and Tinonee respectively, told Channel Nine’s Today Show they were devastated by their loss.

“Watching our home float past was devastating, we lost everything. Our little dog was in the house,” Edge said “We loved all our animals, the pain that they had to go through, I don’t want to think about it. She [the dog] would have been so scared.”

“The force of that river was unbelievable, to lift our home, it’s just unbelievable.

“We’ve got nothing, my brother has given me clothes.

“All I wanted to do was get married to Sarah.”

Soars said their home was lost in only a “matter of minutes” and that she could hardly believe it had happened.

“Not even ten minutes and it was out of our sight,” she said on the Today show.

“I’m lost for words, I don’t even know what to say, everything we own everything we’ve worked hard for: gone.”

Edge’s brother, Lyle, has set up an online fundraiser for the couple, which surpassed its target of $30,000 in only a matter of hours.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/21/never-seen-anything-like-it-locals-watch-helplessly-as-floodwaters-rise-across-nsw

[GreatEx]

Once in a century fires last year, one in a century floods this year, but you can't PROVE either are linked to climate change can you, so there? Nor will next year's once in a millennium locust plague prove anything, so don't get any ideas.

I sure am enjoying tarping up the house and bailing out the laundry several times a day, though!

[BarryCrocker]

Once in a century fires last year, one in a century floods this year, but you can't PROVE either are linked to climate change can you, so there? Nor will next year's once in a millennium locust plague prove anything, so don't get any ideas.

I sure am enjoying tarping up the house and bailing out the laundry several times a day, though!

'You can't escape the smell': mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia

Locals who have endured months of mice and rats getting into their houses, stores and cars are praying heavy rain will help wipe them out

Warning: graphic images may disturb some readers

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/19/you-cant-escape-the-smell-mouse-plague-grows-to-biblical-proportions-across-eastern-australia

[leroy]

I dont normally link Murdoch garbage but it's an interesting case study.


For once you see a half decent article from them on how crazy this summer has been: https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/troubling-detail-in-aussie-weather-data/news-story/fdcd982802506f6a7356433b77c8fd14#bottom-share

But check out the comments.  These are the morons repeatedly voting in these LNP scumbags.  The Nationals have betrayed their constituents for decades and yet they keep voting them in.  Just mind boggling

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Can you c&p it,I'm not clicking on any link to one of that c*nts sites mate.

[Red-Soldier]

Once in a century fires last year, one in a century floods this year, but you can't PROVE either are linked to climate change can you, so there? Nor will next year's once in a millennium locust plague prove anything, so don't get any ideas.

I sure am enjoying tarping up the house and bailing out the laundry several times a day, though!

I know you're down under mate.  As an ecologist, my scientific assessment of your country is that it is in serious trouble.

Human acitivity / pollution continues to decimate the Great Barrier Reef, and wildfires, droughts and floods will continue ravage other parts.  Yet, your government is still firmly on the coal power bandwagon.

[BarryCrocker]

I know you're down under mate.  As an ecologist, my scientific assessment of your country is that it is in serious trouble.

Human acitivity / pollution continues to decimate the Great Barrier Reef, and wildfires, droughts and floods will continue ravage other parts.  Yet, your government is still firmy on the coal power bandwagon.

Politicians in Australia tend to think along these lines.

Jobs mate. Voters want jobs. Mining companies want jobs. You know who doesn't care about jobs? Kids. Kids want to play, and in order from them to have all the toys they want their parents need jobs.

There are only 40k people working in coal mining while there's about 740k in tourism in Australia. When the borders eventually open back up were going to get smashed with hordes of people wanting to come visit as tourists. All this, while the mining industry introduces automation to remove people from the process.

[24/7]

The Emperor Has No Clothes.


This is what my friends at Fridays For Future have put together. Please sign....


https://fridaysforfuture.org/nomoreemptysummits/#cut-the-bullshit

[Indomitable_Carp]

The Emperor Has No Clothes.


This is what my friends at Fridays For Future have put together. Please sign....


https://fridaysforfuture.org/nomoreemptysummits/#cut-the-bullshit

Signed.

[Jiminy Cricket]

Can you c&p it,I'm not clicking on any link to one of that c*nts sites mate.

https://archive.is/1ABFS

[butchersdog]

I wondered in the first lockdown whether Covid might change peoples perspectives and we might see some real change with regard to climate change and living sustainably, but the longer things have gone on, the more I think the aviation industry, peoples desire for ‘normal’ and government/business’ desire to get people commuting daily again won’t be denied.

[Nobby Reserve]

I wondered in the first lockdown whether Covid might change peoples perspectives and we might see some real change with regard to climate change and living sustainably, but the longer things have gone on, the more I think the aviation industry, peoples desire for ‘normal’ and government/business’ desire to get people commuting daily again won’t be denied.

This is the crux.

Watch pressure to return to city offices full time ramp-up when Covid restrictions are lifted, because the level of investment by the super-rich in office-space buildings is enormous.

[24/7]

This is the crux.

Watch pressure to return to city offices full time ramp-up when Covid restrictions are lifted, because the level of investment by the super-rich in office-space buildings is enormous.

Watch them double-down and try to ramp up twice as quickly and exceed previous activity. We're sleepwalking into oblivion, people.

[Red Raw]

I saw the BBC reality check misreport emissions from Johnson's G7 fight to Cornwall as 97 kgCO₂ (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/57429106). It was also brought up in the politics thread (https://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=344128.msg17796534#msg17796534) so I did some sums on the emissions for different modes of transport. If anyone is interested here is what I came up with.

You need to make a number of assumptions, which may or may not be right, but this should give a ballpark figure, or at least an order of magnitude (OoM) understanding of the differences. OoM calculations are still useful becauase in general our carbon intuition is not very well developed.

Anyway I assumed the following:

• Johnson has an entourage of 50
• Cars are of the luxury variety (Jags, Range Rovers etc.) but have 4 passengers each.
• Coach and rail are occupied at 50% capacity to give extra space for Johnson's crew so there is room to work and the time can still be productive
  ( i.e. 2 x 50 seater coaches, ~30% of a single train - average passengers per train to/from London is 345 (64% of total capacity)).
• The A321 (~220 seats) was chartered, not a commercial flight, so all the emissions are attributed to the entourage.
  Radiative forcing (the effect of non-CO2 greenhouse gases at altitude) is not normally included in domestic flights.

Using government emissions factors (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greenhouse-gas-reporting-conversion-factors-2020), and including upstream (well-to-tank) as well as combustion emissions, I get the following emissions for transporting the whole entourage one-way, over a distance of 399 km.

• Car     -   1314 kgCO₂e
• Coach -   1329 kgCO₂e
• Rail    -   1709 kgCO₂e
• Plane  - 23945 kgCO₂e
  _{(CO2e or CO2 equivalent includes the warming effect of non-CO2 gases like methane and nitrogen dioxide)}

Comments
 - The car figure decreases if 5/6 seaters or less luxurious vehicles are used for 'less important' folk.
 - The coaches figure is reasonably stable as one coach could be more heavily occupied than the other and still give space for the 'important' folk.
 - The train figure would fall substantially (to 1139 kgCO₂e) if the half the less important folk were in standard rather than first class type seating.
 - The plane figure is what it is.

It is easy to pick at the assumptions and quibble about some of the numbers but it is clear that the plane emissions were at least an order of magnitude, and probably about 20 times greater than any of the alternatives.

It is also easy to argue that other leaders travelled further, that it is a small proportion ofthe total emissions for th G7 as a whole etc. The main point is that where perfectly reasonable alternatives are available we need to start taking them.

[reddebs]

Or better still use every other means available to conduct the conference without everyone needing to be in the same room/building/country/continent.

Isn't that what technology is for?

[Jiminy Cricket]

Or better still use every other means available to conduct the conference without everyone needing to be in the same room/building/country/continent.

Isn't that what technology is for?

In the main, I think that's correct. But, in such a high stakes environment (international diplomacy), face to face meetings help engender trust or for your interlocutor to better understand your position. For example, it seems that Biden made himself (and position of the US) very clear to Putin in their meeting, possibly in way which would not have occurred through usual diplomatic channels.

[reddebs]

In the main, I think that's correct. But, in such a high stakes environment (international diplomacy), face to face meetings help engender trust or for your interlocutor to better understand your position. For example, it seems that Biden made himself (and position of the US) very clear to Putin in their meeting, possibly in way which would not have occurred through usual diplomatic channels.

And these are the same lying, corrupt twats that caused the mistrust in the first place.

Leaders should lead. 

No point holding all these fancy conferences to touch skin with their counterparts then expect the general plebs to turn lights off or share bath water to save the environment.

There's millions of people across all continents who've managed to keep the world going during the last 16 months by working from home, using technology and being trusted to do their job properly working from home, yet world leaders need to be face to face to do theirs is just an excuse for a few days out at our expense.

[Jiminy Cricket]

And these are the same lying, corrupt twats that caused the mistrust in the first place.

Leaders should lead. 

No point holding all these fancy conferences to touch skin with their counterparts then expect the general plebs to turn lights off or share bath water to save the environment.

There's millions of people across all continents who've managed to keep the world going during the last 16 months by working from home, using technology and being trusted to do their job properly working from home, yet world leaders need to be face to face to do theirs is just an excuse for a few days out at our expense.

How many "high stakes" meetings do you have in a typical year?

In the main, I think that's correct. But, in such a high stakes environment (international diplomacy), face to face meetings help engender trust or for your interlocutor to better understand your position. For example, it seems that Biden made himself (and position of the US) very clear to Putin in their meeting, possibly in way which would not have occurred through usual diplomatic channels.

[BarryCrocker]

Nothing to see here folks.

Seattle breaks 100 year-old record ‘twice in two days’ as climate crisis intensifies extreme weather

Just 44% of Seattle homes have air-conditioning compared to nationwide average of 91%

In Portland on Sunday, temperatures hit a new record of 112 degrees F (44.5). In Seattle, it was 104 degrees F, surpassing a 2009 record of 103 degrees. Monday was shaping up to be even hotter in both cities, and would be the third consecutive days of temperatures above 100F.

Indeed, just before 3pm it was reported Seattle had hit 106 F, making it the hottest day on record, breaking Sunday’s previous of 104.

It's the hottest day in Seattle on record.

The reason? People sitting outside Seattle’s Macrina Bakery and Coffee Shop, were in little doubt.

“There have only been three days this hot in the last century, or something like that,” said Dean Sagafi, a 25-year-old data analyst who said he had tried to stay cool the night before by putting his bedsheets in the freezer. “And now we’re having three of those days in a single weekend?”

He added: “I am not a scientist but I would put at least some of this down to climate change.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/seattle-heatwave-weather-climate-crisis-b1874390.html

[Buggy Eyes Alfredo]

Nothing to see here folks.

In Portland on Sunday, temperatures hit a new record of 112 degrees F (44.5).

Oh, I got to experience it!

50 degrees today in my kitchen at work. The air conditioner broke and I have been reassured it will be fixed "this winter."

[Snail]

Nothing to see here folks.

Seattle breaks 100 year-old record ‘twice in two days’ as climate crisis intensifies extreme weather

Just 44% of Seattle homes have air-conditioning compared to nationwide average of 91%

In Portland on Sunday, temperatures hit a new record of 112 degrees F (44.5). In Seattle, it was 104 degrees F, surpassing a 2009 record of 103 degrees. Monday was shaping up to be even hotter in both cities, and would be the third consecutive days of temperatures above 100F.

Indeed, just before 3pm it was reported Seattle had hit 106 F, making it the hottest day on record, breaking Sunday’s previous of 104.

It's the hottest day in Seattle on record.

The reason? People sitting outside Seattle’s Macrina Bakery and Coffee Shop, were in little doubt.

“There have only been three days this hot in the last century, or something like that,” said Dean Sagafi, a 25-year-old data analyst who said he had tried to stay cool the night before by putting his bedsheets in the freezer. “And now we’re having three of those days in a single weekend?”

He added: “I am not a scientist but I would put at least some of this down to climate change.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/seattle-heatwave-weather-climate-crisis-b1874390.html

We're fucked.

On the plus side, it makes me worry less about whether or not I'll ever be able to afford a home or retire, because in a decade or two I'll have much bigger problems.

[Red Viper]

Nothing to see here folks.

Seattle breaks 100 year-old record ‘twice in two days’ as climate crisis intensifies extreme weather

Just 44% of Seattle homes have air-conditioning compared to nationwide average of 91%

In Portland on Sunday, temperatures hit a new record of 112 degrees F (44.5). In Seattle, it was 104 degrees F, surpassing a 2009 record of 103 degrees. Monday was shaping up to be even hotter in both cities, and would be the third consecutive days of temperatures above 100F.

Indeed, just before 3pm it was reported Seattle had hit 106 F, making it the hottest day on record, breaking Sunday’s previous of 104.

It's the hottest day in Seattle on record.

The reason? People sitting outside Seattle’s Macrina Bakery and Coffee Shop, were in little doubt.

“There have only been three days this hot in the last century, or something like that,” said Dean Sagafi, a 25-year-old data analyst who said he had tried to stay cool the night before by putting his bedsheets in the freezer. “And now we’re having three of those days in a single weekend?”

He added: “I am not a scientist but I would put at least some of this down to climate change.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/seattle-heatwave-weather-climate-crisis-b1874390.html

Bodes well. Isn't Seattle normally just a wetter, colder version of the UK?

[24/7]

46.6 in British Columbia? Even the BBC declares it a climate emergency........

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57634700

[Red Beret]

We're fucked.

On the plus side, it makes me worry less about whether or not I'll ever be able to afford a home or retire, because in a decade or two I'll have much bigger problems.

I posted in the political thread a couple of weeks back about how human society goes through spasms of collapse and reconstruction. Often, a society will rot from the inside, as decadence creeps in and people can't be arsed to maintain what has been progressively built over the previous centuries.

But a key trigger to such collapses can often be changes to the climate, or a natural disaster.  The rains fail, or there's a flood, or it progressively becomes colder or hotter over several decades. And people can't just upsticks en masse and move several hundred miles to a new location anymore, not with borders now so rigidly defined.

I wonder if I'll live to see the worst of it. Then I wonder if I want to.

[Snail]

I wonder if I'll live to see the worst of it. Then I wonder if I want to.

There's a pretty good chance a lot of us will be alive to see things get pretty bad. Honestly makes me wonder about having kids, as much as I'd like to.

[Red-Soldier]

I posted in the political thread a couple of weeks back about how human society goes through spasms of collapse and reconstruction. Often, a society will rot from the inside, as decadence creeps in and people can't be arsed to maintain what has been progressively built over the previous centuries.

But a key trigger to such collapses can often be changes to the climate, or a natural disaster.  The rains fail, or there's a flood, or it progressively becomes colder or hotter over several decades. And people can't just upsticks en masse and move several hundred miles to a new location anymore, not with borders now so rigidly defined.

I wonder if I'll live to see the worst of it. Then I wonder if I want to.

Climate change mitigation is part of my work.  Nowehere near enough is being proposed by policy makers currently.  The longer we leave it, the fewer choices we will have.  Every moment during this decade is absolutely crucial in determining global climate change resilience.

I have serious doubts we'll achieve anything credible.

I recently attened a CC webinar, and it was just business as usual, plus electric cars etc..

[Snail]

Climate change mitigation is part of my work.  Nowehere near enough is being proposed by policy makers currently.  The longer we leave it, the fewer choices we will have.  Every moment during this decade is absolutely crucial in determining global climate change resilience.

I have serious doubts we'll achieve anything credible.

I recently attened a CC webinar, and it was just business as usual, plus electric cars etc..

Even if corporations, businesses and individuals stopped today and completely changed the way they operate (therefore completely changing our lives), it wouldn't be enough. It's too late, it has been for quite some time.