Your Weather, Our Weather (1 Viewer)

[Huntn]

Since June we (East Texas) have been running mid 90s to low 100sF (32-40C) with with hear indexes about 110F, lows of 85F (29C) at night. A high pressure dome of heat parked over the Central US bringing no rain (at least to Texas) for several weeks and high temps. Comparing F to C. I prefer the spread of F over C, but consider I grew up with F. A recent trip to Corpus Christi we saw large large fields of immature brown/dead corn.
An alarming report is that the Oceans are turning green (more plant matter growing) due to the rise of temps, sharks are reported as dying. Another report said that El Niño usually causes a reduction of Atlantic hurricane activity, but with oceans heating up, that may change.

I never thought I would be living in such a transitional period for the Earth. We have been warned for 40 years, yet as a species, we just blunder along until we are smacked upside the head.

 

[coldseat]

It's like we're going into the dark ages at warp speed. This will get people killed.

They're actively trying to destroy science and education in this country. The results will catastrophic.

 

[Optimus Prime]

For the first time in more than a decade, climate change has been left out of the U.S. intelligence community’s annual assessment of threats to the nation.

The reason why remains unclear, but the change is notably line with the priorities of the Trump administration. The administration has been working to systematically omit climate change from its vocabulary across multiple federal agencies………

Climate change taken off US global threat list for the first time in over a decade

The reason for the switch remains unclear as climate change continues to increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather events

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Huntn]

For the first time in more than a decade, climate change has been left out of the U.S. intelligence community’s annual assessment of threats to the nation.

The reason why remains unclear, but the change is notably line with the priorities of the Trump administration. The administration has been working to systematically omit climate change from its vocabulary across multiple federal agencies………

Climate change taken off US global threat list for the first time in over a decade

The reason for the switch remains unclear as climate change continues to increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather events

www.independent.co.uk

Manipulators who don’t want the morons worrying about the coming end times.

 

[Dragon]

Manipulators who don’t want the morons worrying about the coming end times.

Don't look up... Nothing to see here...

 

[Optimus Prime]

Oil and gas barons who donated millions of dollars to the Trump campaign are on the cusp of cashing in on the administration’s support for energy-guzzling data centers – and a slew of unprecedented environmental rollbacks.

Energy Transfer, the oil and gas transport company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, has received requests to power 70 new data centers – a 75% rise since Trump took office, according to a new investigation by the advocacy nonprofit Oil Change International (OCI) and the Guardian.

The fossil-fuel gold rush threatens to unleash massive amounts of pollution and greenhouse gases while undermining the renewable energy industry.


“Given Energy Transfer’s extensive natural gas infrastructure, we continue to believe that we are in the best position to capitalize on the anticipated rise in natural gas demand,” the company told investors in February.

The positive shareholder forecast came as Energy Transfer’s legal team were in a North Dakota court suing Greenpeace, claiming the environmental group had orchestrated the Standing Rock Indigenous-led protests – in what has been widely condemned as an attack on free speech by advocates and experts.………

Revealed: Trump’s fossil-fuel donors to profit from data-center boom and green rollbacks

Energy Transfer, a top backer of US president, has received requests to power even more energy-guzzling data centers

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Chevron has been ordered to pay more than $744m in damages for destroying parts of south-east Louisiana’s coastal wetlands over the years.

The ruling, which came in the form of a civil jury verdict on Friday, marks the conclusion of the first trial among 42 lawsuits filed about 12 years earlier which alleged that the company’s oil and gas projects have led to the degradation of the region’s wetlands. Among other things, the wetlands play a key role in offering the area a measure of protection from hurricanes.

The jury found that the oil brand Texaco, which is owned by Chevron, violated state regulations surrounding coastal resources by contributing to the disappearing coastline through dredging canals, drilling wells and dumping massive amounts of wastewater into the marsh.

The verdict could prompt other companies to settle the other separate but similar lawsuits. Nonetheless, Chevron’s attorney, Mike Phillips, said that the oil company intends to appeal the verdict.


According to the US Geological Survey, Louisiana’s coastal wetlands are among the most critically endangered environments across the country as they experience more wetland loss than all other states in the continental US combined.……

Jury orders Chevron to pay more than $744m for destroying Louisiana wetlands

Verdict marks end of the first trial of 42 lawsuits filed about 12 years ago, alleging firm’s projects destroyed the regions

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

As a lifelong scientist, I have always believed that if something is possible, we can find a way to achieve it. And yet, one of the starkest realities we now face is that the world is failing to meet its climate goals.

Last year marked a historic and deeply troubling threshold: for the first time, global temperatures exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Without drastic and immediate climate action, this breach will not be temporary.

The consequences – rising sea levels, extreme weather and devastating loss of biodiversity – are no longer projections for the distant future. They are happening now, affecting millions of lives, and likely to cause trillions in damages in decades to come.

But we must think beyond our immediate horizons. When I read The Iliad, I am reminded that it was written 2,800 years ago. I often wonder: in another 2,800 years, what will people – if humanity as we know it still exists – read about our time? Will they see us as the generation that failed to act or one that made the choices necessary to safeguard the planet for the future?

We must act with this longterm perspective in mind. Scientists agree we need to bring greenhouse gas levels down to below 350 parts per million by the end of this century to ensure a liveable planet for future generations. Achieving this will require a four-pronged approach: reduce, remove, repair and resilience.


Reduction – cutting emissions rapidly and deeply – of course remains a critical priority. But we must also pursue the removal of excess carbon, explore repair techniques to stabilise key ecosystems and build resilience against the escalating impacts we are already experiencing.

One of the greatest challenges of climate science today is that many of the necessary levers to regain control are uncomfortable, even controversial.

Ideas such as thickening sea ice to prevent collapse or brightening marine clouds to reflect sunlight may once have seemed extreme. Yet, as we contend with an escalating crisis, we must at least explore these possibilities.

We do not have the luxury of rejecting solutions outright before we have thoroughly investigated their risks, trade-offs and feasibility.

As scientists, we must never advocate for deploying unproven interventions. Any repair or removal techniques must undergo rigorous research and assessment before we evaluate full-scale suitability.

However, we must also be clear: these investigations must happen with urgency.

The longer we delay, the fewer options remain on the table and the more likely that deployment will happen without the proper due diligence at a point of desperation.………

We passed the 1.5C climate threshhold. We must now explore extreme options | Sir David King

We do not have the luxury of rejecting solutions before we have thoroughly investigated their risks, trade-offs and feasibility

www.theguardian.com

 

[Sendai]

 

[MT15]

What’s your point, Sendai? When you don’t comment, you leave it up to us to try to determine what you are trying to illustrate with that graph. It’s a terrible graph, btw, and doesn’t prove anything about our current predicament, just in case you thought it did.

Here’s the best critique of that graph that I found in a few seconds of looking through the comments on that graph on Reddit

“OPs graph is waaay too zoomed out and their “zero” doesn’t effectively demonstrate what human society can realistically tolerate. If the earth was as hot as it was during the Cretaceous period, we’re forked. To show how forked the time scale is on this graph, that was the second to last local max. The one before that where it says “equatorial Pangea too hot for peat swamps” is literally before dinosaurs existed in the late Paleozoic. You’re looking at trilobites, squid, and early fish and amphibians.”

So, yeah the earth was warmer before it was supporting mammalian life forms. I repeat - what is your point?

And yes, I’m pretty cranky these days. It’s no fun watching morons destroy our economy as well as our planet.

Also relevant:

Earth Temperature Timeline

xkcd.com

 

[Sendai]

What’s your point, Sendai? When you don’t comment, you leave it up to us to try to determine what you are trying to illustrate with that graph. It’s a terrible graph, btw, and doesn’t prove anything about our current predicament, just in case you thought it did.

Here’s the best critique of that graph that I found in a few seconds of looking through the comments on that graph on Reddit

“OPs graph is waaay too zoomed out and their “zero” doesn’t effectively demonstrate what human society can realistically tolerate. If the earth was as hot as it was during the Cretaceous period, we’re forked. To show how forked the time scale is on this graph, that was the second to last local max. The one before that where it says “equatorial Pangea too hot for peat swamps” is literally before dinosaurs existed in the late Paleozoic. You’re looking at trilobites, squid, and early fish and amphibians.”

So, yeah the earth was warmer before it was supporting mammalian life forms. I repeat - what is your point?

And yes, I’m pretty cranky these days. It’s no fun watching morons destroy our economy as well as our planet.

Also relevant:

Earth Temperature Timeline

xkcd.com

Maybe this will help

https://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/survey-notes/glad-you-asked/ice-ages-what-are-they-and-what-causes-them/

The Last Interglacial was one of the warmest periods of the last 800,000 years, with temperatures comparable to and at times warmer (by up to on average 2 degrees Celsius) than the contemporary Holocene interglacial,[4][5] with the maximum sea level being up to 6 to 9 metres higher than at present, with global ice volume likely also being smaller than the Holocene interglacial.[6]

Last Interglacial - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

We may not have the influence that some might think.

 

[MT15]

Maybe this will help

https://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/survey-notes/glad-you-asked/ice-ages-what-are-they-and-what-causes-them/

The Last Interglacial was one of the warmest periods of the last 800,000 years, with temperatures comparable to and at times warmer (by up to on average 2 degrees Celsius) than the contemporary Holocene interglacial,[4][5] with the maximum sea level being up to 6 to 9 metres higher than at present, with global ice volume likely also being smaller than the Holocene interglacial.[6]

Last Interglacial - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

We may not have the influence that some might think.

That flies in the face of all the available evidence that we are warming far more rapidly in the present than has ever happened before.

So why take a chance, when it’s possible to do both - prepare for warmer temps AND develop ways to reduce CO2? Temperature is only one effect from greenhouse gases. We need to do both.

 

[Sendai]

That flies in the face of all the available evidence that we are warming far more rapidly in the present than has ever happened before.

So why take a chance, when it’s possible to do both - prepare for warmer temps AND develop ways to reduce CO2? Temperature is only one effect from greenhouse gases. We need to do both.

I’m not talking about taking a chance. Simply pointing out that there is a very strong indication that it is going to get naturally warmer and sea levels rise 18-30 feet no matter what we do. And thousands of years down the road a real strong chance that a glacial expansion period will drive a whole lot of folks south. Fortunately area like Florida expand about 800 miles to accommodate them.

For about 270 million years, prior to the current ice age that started 3 million years ago, the dinosaurs lived comfortably in a climate that averaged in the 70’s. Maybe all the dinosaur farts contributed to global warming.

 

[MT15]

I’m not talking about taking a chance. Simply pointing out that there is a very strong indication that it is going to get naturally warmer and sea levels rise 18-30 feet no matter what we do. And thousands of years down the road a real strong chance that a glacial expansion period will drive a whole lot of folks south. Fortunately area like Florida expand about 800 miles to accommodate them.

For about 270 million years, prior to the current ice age that started 3 million years ago, the dinosaurs lived comfortably in a climate that averaged in the 70’s. Maybe all the dinosaur farts contributed to global warming.

But you know that climate change deniers will take speculation like this and use it to justify the return to burning fossil fuels at previous levels or use it as an excuse to end any research into alternative forms of energy.

It’s irresponsible to ignore what we know is happening and why, to speculate like this - especially when this administration is going to reverse every green energy project they can.

 

[UriUT]

[edit: Jules from Pulp fiction revelation that I may be the evil man.....]

Evidence - NASA Science

Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of

science.nasa.gov

Ok....

So the idea is that CO2 is a greenhouse gas. I wouldn't know the physics behind it but it absorbs heat and when sunlight hits, it emits infrared radiation. Do we have examples of this? Why yes. Scientists have learned that Venus, with an orbit closer to earth than mars, has a runaway greenhouse atmosphere heavy in CO2. Closer proximity to the sun doesn't explain how Venus can reach vastly high temperatures that can melt lead. So with that established, scientists via various methods have measured the levels of CO2 in our atmosphere. The one I'm most aware of is drilling in the Antarctica glaciers and measuring the CO2 levels in the ice.

And based on the link above from NASA, it's pretty clear that we have a man made rise in CO2 levels with a dramatic rise in average atmospheric temperature.

My goodness. 99% of scientists agree with this theory. It's a matter of how much our sea levels will rise is the dispute.

 

[longtime lurker]

Trump signs orders to boost coal production, citing electricity demand from artificial intelligence

The Trump administration wants to expand electricity output by 25%, said Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

www.cnbc.com

 

[bird]

Trump signs orders to boost coal production, citing electricity demand from artificial intelligence

The Trump administration wants to expand electricity output by 25%, said Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

www.cnbc.com

Trump is a forking idiot. Coal fired plants have been closed and torn down. Building new ones will take years.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The Trump administration said Tuesday it would pull funding from Princeton University over climate-related programs that go “against” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) current program objectives.

A release from the Department of Commerce, which houses the NOAA program, highlighted three of the school’s research awards that clash with the administration’s policies.

The programs include the Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System, Climate Risks and Interactive Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Predictability, and Advancing Prediction.

Under the direction of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the Department eliminated the first program from federal funding, citing its promotion of “exaggerated” and “implausible” climate threats.

“Its focus is on alarming climate scenarios fosters fear rather than rational, balanced discussion,” the release said of Princeton’s Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System.…..

https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5239388-trump-admin-pulling-nearly-4-million-in-funding-from-princeton-over-climate-related-programs/

 

[Dragon]

The Trump administration said Tuesday it would pull funding from Princeton University over climate-related programs that go “against” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) current program objectives.

A release from the Department of Commerce, which houses the NOAA program, highlighted three of the school’s research awards that clash with the administration’s policies.

The programs include the Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System, Climate Risks and Interactive Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Predictability, and Advancing Prediction.

Under the direction of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the Department eliminated the first program from federal funding, citing its promotion of “exaggerated” and “implausible” climate threats.

“Its focus is on alarming climate scenarios fosters fear rather than rational, balanced discussion,” the release said of Princeton’s Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System.…..

https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5239388-trump-admin-pulling-nearly-4-million-in-funding-from-princeton-over-climate-related-programs/

So fear trumps ( no pun intended) facts.. This is "Don't look up" for real