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Author Topic: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️  (Read 116553 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #735 on: December 15, 2016, 10:51:36 pm »
Local extinctions are increasing as the warming progresses

Surprising Number of Species Going Extinct in Their Usual Homes, Study Says

InsideClimateNews.org, Dec. 2016

As species struggle to move to adapt to climate change, many are disappearing from the warmest parts of their usual range, research shows.

Hundreds of species around the world—plants, animals, marine life—are experiencing local extinctions due to climate change, according to a new study. Researchers say it's likely to be just the beginning.

As the climate warms, these species, which range from types of chipmunks to grasses to sea snails, are no longer showing up in the places they used to call home. The phenomenon isn't isolated to one particular geographical region or temperature zone, the study found.

Of the 976 species analyzed in the study, which was published Thursday in the journal PLoS Biology, nearly 50 percent have already become extinct along the "warm edge" of their range. It's a reflection of a known process, by which species are moving poleward and to higher altitudes to escape changes to their habitats as the climate warms. The study's author, John J. Wiens, said local extinctions are inherent in range shifts.

The species being impacted can't exactly say, "'Oh, it's too hot here, I'm heading north,'" said Wiens, who is an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona.

Quote
The species have three choices: Adapt to the changing temperature, emigrate or die.

Wiens analyzed other research that assessed range shifts for other species, looking for patterns. What he found surprised him.

"The overall striking pattern is how similar it is," he said, pointing out that it's not just 50 percent of tropical amphibians, or 50 percent of temperate marine species that are going locally extinct. "It's about 50 percent all over the world and for all these different groups of organisms."

Since 1880, the world's climate has warmed 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA. But that hardly compares to what's in store. The National Climate Assessment outlines a best-case scenario for global warming that raises temperatures 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above the average from 1901-1960 by the end of the century, and that can only be accomplished with aggressive policies and regulations. The business-as-usual scenario results in 8 degrees of warming by the end of the century, and it could go as high as 11 degrees.

Though species have adapted throughout history as the climate has shifted, the difference now is the pace of change. It's happening so quickly, species don't have enough time to change along with their changing habitats.

"We do a lot of work that's projecting into the future," said Chad Wilsey, the director of conservation science for the National Audubon Society. "But climate change has been going on certainly in the last 40 years, and we can already document those impacts."

Wilsey, who has studied climate-driven species range shifts among birds and other species, reviewed Wiens' study internally for Audubon. Wilsey said it was an important overview, but cautioned that his small sample size makes any sweeping conclusions difficult. That said, Wilsey said he expects that science will reaffirm Wiens' work. "I think over time we will have more evidence that confirms this initial review of studies," he said. "I actually think that a pattern exists. It's real."

Jennifer Sunday, a climate change ecologist at the University of British Columbia, also said that the small sample size is limiting. "Some of these data, once he breaks them down, some categories have just one study touching on it," she said. "It might be a little early to be teasing out some of these comparisons."

Sunday did find Wiens' methods compelling. To find the studies to include in his survey, Wiens searched for work that dealt with range contractions, rather than seeking out studies that dealt specifically with the term "local extinction." That allowed him to cast a wider net and hopefully avoid publication bias.

Though the study found that local extinctions were happening worldwide and across species, it did find a higher rate of local extinction among species in tropical and subtropical zones. Wiens explained this by highlighting a study that contrasted elevations in Costa Rica and Colorado. In Colorado, it's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Thus, species are more able to adapt, because they have evolved to do so. In the tropics, however, temperatures do not vary much between seasons, so species are less prepared to adapt to changes. "That's bad news when climate changes rapidly," said Wiens.

"There have been a lot of predictions about extinctions. What I take away from this is that those are already happening. They're already really widespread all over the world, but the amount of climate change that has happened is actually really small relative to what we're expecting."

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09122016/species-extinction-climate-change

 
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AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #736 on: December 16, 2016, 10:28:24 pm »
NASA Produces First 3D Animation of Global Carbon Emissions

Carbon Brief

By Leo Hickman

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. space agency, has released an "eye-popping" three-dimensional animation showing carbon dioxide emissions moving through the Earth's atmosphere over the course of a year.

It says the 3-D visualization is "one of the most realistic views yet" of the "complex patterns in which carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases, decreases and moves around the globe."

The data used to produce the visualization was collected by NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite from September 2014 to September 2015. The data was then modeled and visualized by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

View animation at article link:
http://www.ecowatch.com/nasa-carbon-emissions-climate-change-2147029807.html

Carbon Brief emailed some questions to NASA about the visualization, which it says is the first of its kind. The answers below are provided by Dr. Lesley E. Ott, a carbon cycle scientist at Goddard's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office and Gregory W. Shirah, who leads the development of Earth science-related scientific visualizations at Goddard.

Carbon Brief: How was the visualization "made"?

Dr. Lesley E. Ott: The carbon dioxide field was produced by combining information from our GEOS modeling system with OCO-2 observations using a technique called data assimilation. In this merged view, the model helps fill in gaps where OCO-2 can't observe and also provides more information about the 3D structure of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is quite complex but can't be observed directly from the satellite. Meanwhile, the data helps correct errors in the model's emissions and transport patterns. This carbon dioxide analysis provides one of the most complete, data-driven views of atmospheric carbon dioxide to date.

Gregory W. Shirah:
To make the actual visualization (ie, paint the pixels), we use Pixar's Renderman to render the images. We use Autodesk's Maya to set up the 3D environment and we used IDL to process the data. My colleague and I actually just gave a talk at Pixar today and showed this movie to them.

Carbon Brief: Specifically, what questions are you hoping it will help to answer?

Dr. Lesley E. Ott: The main goal of OCO-2 and most carbon cycle modeling is to better understand the processes that control carbon sources and sinks. About 50 percent of human emissions are absorbed by plants on land and in the oceans, but scientists don't have a good understanding of how or even where this is happening. We start by running the model with a 'first guess' of sources and sinks, and the data assimilation allows us to quantify how and where the model differs from the observations. Eventually, we'll be able to use these techniques to create more accurate maps of source and sinks, and from there we can improve climate models to better predict changes in the natural carbon cycle. This analysis product is something of a mid-point. We still have a lot of work left to do to understand the carbon cycle more fully, but developing these modeling and data assimilation tools is an important advance that will help us get where we need to be.

Carbon Brief: Why are these questions so important to answer?

Dr. Lesley E. Ott: Understanding the natural land and ocean carbon sinks is critical to understanding and predicting the trajectory of climate over the coming decades. If the land and ocean can't continue to sequester carbon at the current rate, we could see carbon dioxide accumulate in the atmosphere more quickly than we're expecting, leading to more rapid climate change.

Carbon Brief: The CO2 seems to be largely concentrated in the Northern hemisphere. Beyond this being where the majority of human-caused emissions are released, please can you explain the processes driving this and what the implications might be?

Dr. Lesley E. Ott:The highest carbon dioxide mixing ratios are seen in the Northern hemisphere during winter months. Most of the human emissions originate from this region, but it also holds the majority of the world's land masses and vegetation stocks, which decompose and release carbon during the winter. When plants start to grow again in the spring, you see massive amounts of carbon drawn out of the atmosphere, but not quite enough to balance out the increase from human emissions. If we ran the visualization for a longer time period, you would see the carbon dioxide released in the north mix with southern hemisphere air, but that inter-hemispheric mixing can take about a year. So even though that mixing is going on here, what really jumps out is the seasonal cycle of carbon dioxide.

Carbon Brief: How is this new visualization an advance on ones produced before?

Dr. Lesley E. Ott: Before OCO-2, we had a satellite called AIRS [Atmospheric Infrared Sounder] providing information about CO2. There's an example of what that data looks like here.


Carbon Brief: How is this new visualization an advance on ones produced before?

Dr. Lesley E. Ott: Before OCO-2, we had a satellite called AIRS [Atmospheric Infrared Sounder] providing information about CO2. There's an example of what that data looks like here.



AIRS was designed to study temperature and moisture, primarily, but did give information about carbon dioxide in the mid- and upper troposphere. Since it has very little information near the surface to tell us about sources and sinks, it hasn't been as widely used as the datasets from GOSAT and OCO-2.

Looking at the OCO-2 data alone is also interesting—take a look at this.

and this.


The first animation shows the observations with minimal averaging at first and then switches to a view of the data averaged over larger areas to fill in the map. This is nice for giving a sense of what OCO-2 can and can't do. It's a huge advance over AIRS, both in terms of near surface sensitivity and accuracy. At 0.25 percent (or 1 parts per million, ppm), OCO-2 gives us one of the most accurate atmospheric composition measurements ever made from space. But the trade-off is that we can't make OCO-2 observations in cloudy regions or areas with high aerosol loadings. And because the measurement technique uses reflected sunlight, there are no measurements during night or polar night. OCO-2 also has a fairly narrow swath as you see early in the first video meaning that we can only observe a subset of the world every day, even under ideal conditions. When we try to average the measurements to cover some of these gaps, you can see that we get a sense of where CO2 is being taken up and released, but we still have large gaps in coverage in high-latitude regions and that sense of how CO2 moves through the atmosphere really isn't there.


As highlighted in the new animations, the alternative method of creating CO2 maps from observations through assimilation into a weather model (compared to the OCO-2 averaging shown above), preserves much more detail about the atmospheric transport. The model brings in information in areas without observations, but it also brings all the vertical information since the OCO-2 measurement is column only. This animation is also new and produced from the same dataset.

That really shows you how the data assimilation technique is working. Early on as the movie is going fairly slowly, there are some nice examples of how the model is helping us interpret what the observations are capturing. In the observations, we can see transitions between high and low CO2, but the merged product underlay helps us understand that those are due to the movement of weather fronts or plumes of fire emissions off of Africa. We chose to highlight the 3D visualization which is flashier, but this one is also quite informative.

Gregory W. Shirah: We have created some 3D (volumetric) visualizations in the past—I think of CO2 from AIRS—but they were very limited. For example, relatively small/regional areas, like Southern California or single snapshots in time from a swath of satellite data. To my knowledge, this is the first time a global, time-varying CO2 model has been shown this way. I'm not even sure if any global model has been shown this way.

http://www.ecowatch.com/nasa-carbon-emissions-climate-change-2147029807.html
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AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #737 on: December 17, 2016, 04:18:47 pm »
Gov. Brown to Trump: 'We’ve got Scientists, We’ve Got Lawyers and We’re Ready to Fight'

SNIPPET:
By Sydney Robinson

Though Donald Trump's reign of terror includes the promise to revoke all progress made on the climate change front, certain elected officials are not willing to take his destructive refusal to accept basic scientific facts lying down.

California Gov. Jerry Brown responded to indications from the Trump campaign to end the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's climate change research with a declaration that California intends to continue carrying out climate research no matter what the POTUS orders.



FULL ARTICLE with added video:

http://www.ecowatch.com/brown-trump-climate-change-nasa-2151171091.html
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AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #738 on: December 17, 2016, 05:55:17 pm »
El Faro Container Ship sank October 1, 2015 in a hurricane.

El Faro, Top 10 Failures Of The NTSB Investigation – gLive E21

December 16, 2016 by gCaptain

Agelbert NOTE: For full background info on the following video, see the post after the video. The full transcript shows that massive waves were striking the El Faro over an hour before it sank. Beyond some talk about "seas near Alaska", the crew never estimates the size of those waves.

Cargo ship severely listing as El Faro did shortly before sinking in a hurricane.

A wave that hit the ship causing a list of over 38 degrees is mentioned as a historical occurrence but at no time does the crew, or the NTSB that heard the full transcript, (except with "uhhhh" and "are you okay?" and "do you want a chair? - to the helmsman") directly mention wave height as a clear and present danger.

Admittedly, it was dark until the last hour or so, so they had no way of visual measurement. But as experienced mariners, they should have intuited wave height from the pounding.

When the ship was hulled, obviously it was caused by a powerful wave.

I do not understand why the NTSB doesn't not want to talk about wage height and damage unless they were told NOT to mention it because of the link between climate change and increasingly dangerous destructive waves. In the following video, the fact that the fuel is stored inside a double hull is pointed at as a major fault in the ship design. The containers are stored two hulls away from the sea. BUT, the fuel is only ONE hull from the sea.

SO, if the outer hull is pierced, the fuel gets contaminated and you lose power. This is a potential death sentence in rough seas. This happened to the El Faro.

But anyone reading/listening to the transcript of the last few hours will note the massive hits they (low frequency sounds recorded and helmsman difficulties) got BEFORE they lost power.

In fact, the ship was hulled BEFORE it lost power. So the wave height should be considered as the primary cause of the eventual sinking instead of the admittedly faulty design of storing fuel in between hulls (a stupidity born of crude oil tanker design documented by an MIT graduated expert in a book he wrote - mentioned in the video).

https://gcaptain.com/el-faro-top-10-failures-ntsb-investigation-glive-e21/


NTSB Releases El Faro VDR Bridge Audio Transcript; Opens Investigation Docket

December 13, 2016 by gCaptain

http://gcaptain.com/ntsb-releases-el-faro-vdr-bridge-audio-transcript/

Agelbert NOTE: EVERYTHING said on the bridge during the last several harrowing hours is posted. The crew did all they could, but the storm was too strong.

Climate Change will make the oceans more and more hostile to shipping as the years go by. Yes, giant waves making shipping difficult to impossible have been predicted by Climate Scientists to increase, in frequency, size and duration, as a Climate Change consequence of Global Warming.

Here's my three part article that contains a lot of info on shipping that you may be interested in reading, as well as the references to recent, peer reviewed scientific studies predicting giant waves:

Climate Change, Blue Water Cargo Shipping and Predicted Ocean Wave Activity: Three Part Article

Climate Change, Blue Water Cargo Shipping and Predicted Ocean Wave Activity: PART TWO

Climate Change, Blue Water Cargo Shipping and Predicted Ocean Wave Activity: PART THREE
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AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #739 on: December 18, 2016, 07:29:11 pm »

WE GET TO BE HERE AT THE END
GUY McPHERSON

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AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #740 on: December 18, 2016, 08:56:13 pm »
Death Valley and Climate Change
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #741 on: December 21, 2016, 07:54:32 pm »
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE that the climate models have been UNDER-predicting the rapidity of Climate Change.  :o

Not only is the ice going faster than predicted, but the release of soil carbon and methane (not even in the models!) is accelerating the RATE of global warming! 

Watch and learn how the Gulfstream Current is definitely slowing down thanks to the continued suicidal stupidity of burning fossil fuels.  >:(


He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #742 on: December 22, 2016, 05:26:06 pm »
A message from Bill:     
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AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #743 on: December 23, 2016, 06:01:21 pm »
Environment

31 Times We Helped Fight Climate Change in 2016

By Joe McCarthy| Dec. 14, 2016

It took a while, but the consensus is now clear: climate change is a real and is a serious threat to the planet. Even better than this recognition, countries are finally doing something meaningful about it.

In the past, the stranglehold of fossil fuels proved too hard to break. But now renewable energy, combined with a renewed sense of purpose on the global stage, is making solutions appear more viable than ever. 

Part of this urgency stems from the endless parade of horrible environmental news: 2016 was the hottest year in recorded history, pollution is making life unlivable in cities across the world, oceans and forests are dying, and species are plummeting. Despite this narrative of darkness, 2016 had many environmental wins that show climate change can be reined in. 

Here are 31 wins from the past year.


Global Wins



The Fight Against Climate Change Is Now Law


COP21_DSC7501.jpg

This is the biggest victory of the year. Countries finally see eye-to-eye on climate change and are striving to work together. The historic Paris Agreement binds countries around the world to robust climate change strategies. Read More. 


170 Countries Agree to Ban HFCs



Rwanda Climate Meeting to ban HFCs, greenhouse gas found in air conditions and refrigerators
Image: AP Photo/Desmond Boylan, File

This is another big global win. Back in 1989, the world acted swiftly to ban chlorofluorocarbons. Twenty-seven years later, the world acted swiftly to ban hydrofluorocarbons, another ozone-eating emission. Read More. 


This Global Treaty Could Save the World's Fish


Caribbean reef shark surrounded by jacks
Image: Wikipedia Commons / Andrejs Jegorovs

The oceans are a bulwark against climate change because they absorb a substantial amount of carbon dioxide. While saving fish might seem tangential to climate change, any globally coordinated effort to regulate the oceans is useful because it provides a framework for future deals. Read More.


The Ozone Hole Is Shrinking


 
Ozone layer
Image: NASA

With the ozone recovering, the fight against climate change just got a little easier. Read More.


China's Message to US: Take Climate Change Seriously


US President Barack Obama with Chinese President Xi Jinping at G20 Summit
Image: AP

Historically, the US struggled to get China to set limits on emissions. So it’s good to see China — the biggest emitter in the world — taking on more of a leadership role. Read More.


India Steps Up Environmental Commitments


Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at ratification of Paris Agreement on Climate Change with the UN
Image: AP Photo/Manish Swarup

As the third-biggest emitter and the fastest growing economy in the world, India's embrace of renewable energy is absolutely critical to any global climate strategy. In 2016, they made some bold commitments. Read More. 


Renewable Energy



India Turns On World's Largest Solar Power Plant


Indian girl holding solar panel.jpg
Image: Flickr: DFID

Solar technology is improving each year and the costs of installation and upkeep are dropping fast. Few countries are investing in the sun’s power as much as India and earlier this year, the country unveiled the largest solar power plant ever created. For India, this is just the beginning. Read More.


UK Goes Record 6 Days Without Burning Coal — 1st Time Since 1881


Embed from Getty Images

Any day without coal — the dirtiest possible energy source — is a good day. The UK, the original industrial power, managed to pull off this streak. Read More.


Vietnam Throws Out Coal Plans


Coal plant
Image: Flickr: Senor Codo

At this point, coal is unnecessary and needs to be abandoned. Countries like Vietnam are showing that this can be done. Read More. 


Scotland Goes Coal-Free


scotland-closes-longannet-last-coal-energy-plant- Hero.jpg
Image:  Flickr: Graeme Maclean

Vietnam canceled future plans for coal plants, but Scotland got rid of coal entirely. Read More.


Solar Roads in France Will Provide Power to Over 5 million people



solar-roads-in-france-will-provide-power-to-over-5 Hero.jpg
Image:  Flickr: Activ Solar

This awesome project is called “Wattaway.” In the future, all roads could generate solar power. Read More.


Enormous Solar Plant Switches on in the Sahara


Solor Power in Sahara-HERO.jpg
Image: Flickr: GW Solar Institute

This enormous solar farm will be able to power 1.1 million homes when it’s fully completed in 2018. It's already visible from space. Read Now. 


The UK Will Officially Enshrine Zero-Carbon Target in Law

Wind Farm off the coast of Britain
Image: AP Photo/Harry Hamburg

Bold moves, even if they’re rhetorical, can help move the needle on climate change. Even though Britain offered no timeline, this promise acts as a sort of commitment device — clearly stating that a zero-carbon future is possible can quiet all the doubters who stand in the way. Read More. 


California Takes Lead on US Climate Action


california-leads-the-way-as-the-first-state-to-ban

Even though President-elect Donald Trump might stand in the way of federal climate action, a lot can still be done on the state level. California is showing that it wants to be a leader on this front. Read More.


Barcelona Plans to Ban Cars From 60% of Streets


Barcelona street fair
Image: Flickr: Moya Brenn

The world is still dominated by cars and the number of cars in use is rapidly rising as poor countries make middle class living more accessible. With that in mind, it’s good to see some major cities make an effort to move beyond cars, because a future with less cars is better for the planet. Read More. 


The World Can Now Use More ‘Clean’ Energy Than ‘Dirty’ Energy


solar panel.jpg
Image:  Jonathan Potts/Flickr

The world recently passed a major milestone — more money is being invested in renewable energy than dirty energy sources. Read More.


Costa Rica Is Trying to Go a Year Without Fossil Fuels

Costa Rica.jpg
Image: Flickr: trishhartmann

Costa Rica has an abudance of powerful rivers that fuel some mighty hydroelectric plants. While hydropower remains controversial, it's better for the environment than fossil fuels. Read More.


Corporate Sustainability



Patagonia's Black Friday Scheme Just Raised $10M for the Planet


Patagonia.jpg
Image: Flickr | Mike Boruta

The problem of climate change can’t be solved without the private sector. That’s why it’s so encouraging to see a fashion giant like Patagonia campaign so forcefully for the planet. Read More. 


Adidas Shoes Made From Ocean Plastic Are Finally Here


adidas-1.png

Another win for corporate sustainability — Adidas partnered with ___ to cull plastic from the oceans to make these cool shoes. While not directly related to climate change, the massive problem of ocean pollution is in the same environmental matrix. Read More.


Conservation


Obama Protects ‘Fragile and Unique’ Arctic Ocean From Offshore Drilling


US approves Arctic oil exploration plan.jpg
Image: Flickr: wsquared photography and creative

Obama isn’t sitting around during his final year in office. He’s cementing his legacy and tying up loose ends. One area that he’s been particularly active in is conservation. Future generations will undoubtedly thank him for protecting fragile spaces like the Arctic Ocean. Read More. 


Obama Creates First US National Monument in Atlantic Ocean


Atlantic Ocean, cartwheel
Image: Flickr: Hammonton Photography

Oceans take up more than 70% of Earth. When they’re healthy, the rest of the planet is healthy. That’s why the creation of this massive marine sanctuary was so important. Read More. 


To Protect Hawaii’s Waters, Obama Creates World’s Largest Marine Reserve

Marine reserve in Hawaii designated by Obama
Image: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research/AP

The waters around Hawaii are biologically rich but they’re also fragile. Now a huge swath will remain protected. Read More.


Obama Ends Drilling Plans in Atlantic



Embed from Getty Images


This is another last-minute victory by Obama. Read More.


Norway Commits to Zero Deforestation


09-11-2015Forests_FAO.jpg
Image: FAO

Deforestation and climate change go hand-in-hand — the more trees there are, the more carbon is absorbed. Good job, Norway. Read More.


New Zealand Grants Personhood to River and Park


new zealand land personhood ny times.jpg
Image: The New York Times

This might seem silly, but with legal protections, wildlife is a lot safer from destruction. And if corporations can be considered people, why not actual living organisms? Read More.


People Power


These Kids Are Suing the Government Over Climate Change


Earth Guardians, kids sue government on climate change
Image: Youtube/Alliance for Climate Education

Twenty kids aged 8 to 20 are tired of watching politicians equivocate on climate change and are saying that the status quo of fossil fuels is legitimately criminal. Go youth! Read More.


Standing Rock Protests Halt Dakota Access Pipeline


Standing Rock Veterans.jpg
Image: Facebook/Veterans for Standing Rock/Wes Clark Jr.

The fight to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline achieved a major victory earlier this month when the Army Corps of Engineers announced plans to look for a new route. While this isn't the end of the saga, it showed that environmental protest can be effective. Read More.

4,000,000 Pounds of Trash Cleared in World’s Largest Beach Cleanup


4562714370_f20caeabf2_z.jpg
Image:  Omar Sharif

This is a great example of how regular people can make a big difference. Read More.


Leonardo DiCaprio Uses Oscar Win to Call for Climate Change Action

Embed from Getty Images

If you combine his influence and passion, DiCaprio might be the world’s biggest environmental champion. When he won his first Oscar earlier this year, he used the occasion to call for climate action. Read More. 


Indian Woman Brings Global Attention to Massive Forest Fires

IndianForestFireHero.jpg
Image:  Anup Sah Photography

Droughts are becoming more common as climate change intensifies. In some places, this drying out is causing devastating forest fires that get worse each year. This woman was tired of the sense of complacency surrounding the burning of a forest in India. So she decided to act. Read More.


Pope Gets 3,500 UK Churches to Switch to Renewable Energy

pope francis has chance to raise environmental concerns 2.jpg
Image: Flickr: Catholic Church (England and Wales)

Pope Francis has emerged as a fierce defender of the environment. As one of the most influential people on the planet, his words carry a lot of weight. Read More. 


Topics|Environment, Climate change, 2016, End of the Year

Written by Joe McCarthy

Joe McCarthy is a Content Creator at Global Citizen. He believes apathy is the biggest threat to creating a more just world and tries his hardest to stay open-minded and curious. Living in New York keeps him aware of how interconnected our world is, how every action has ripples.

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/31-environmental-victories-of-2017-climate-change/
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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #744 on: December 26, 2016, 03:13:58 pm »
Agelbert NOTE: The Term "Christian Climate Scientist" is NOT an oxymoron. Climate Scientist Katharine Hayhoe's life work is evidence that you do not need to be a left wing treehugger to understand, and work to ameliorate, Catastrophic Climate Change.

Katharine Hayhoe: Why Climate Change Should Matter to You

Katharine Hayhoe

SNIPPET:
Quote
Climate change isn't a niche issue that only matters to people who think or act or vote a certain way. Each of us, exactly who we are, with exactly the values we already have, already have every reason we need to care.



FULL excellent article:

http://www.ecowatch.com/hayhoe-climate-change-2117925528.html
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #745 on: December 28, 2016, 01:49:15 pm »
Paul Hawken: 'Best Video Ever Made on Climate Change'

Associated Article:
http://www.ecowatch.com/greenpeace-arctic-glacier-video-2167189282.html
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #746 on: December 28, 2016, 04:30:47 pm »
2016: Wild Weather Year For The U.S.

December 28, 2016

By WeatherBug Meteorologists, Chad Merrill and Alexa Maines

The U.S. had wild swings in the weather this year. Crippling snow, extreme floods and record warmth topped headlines for the first half of 2016.

January: Blizzard Cripples East Coast


 The fourth largest winter storm since 1900 shut down much of the East Coast not too long after the start of the New Year. More than 20 inches of snow fell on 21 million people in the Northeast by the January 22-24 blizzard conclusion. A state of emergency was declared for 11 states and Washington, D.C. The storm left the East Coast at a standstill with more than 13,000 flights being cancelled. Travel bans were implemented for New York City and Newark, N.J.

 The blizzard blew through the record books along Interstate 95. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Airport in New York City was buried under 30.5 inches, breaking the former all-time snowfall record of 26 inches set in 2003. La Guardia Airport in New York City barely surpassed its all-time snowfall record from the January 1996 blizzard by 0.1 inches, ending up with 27.9 inches. Other all-time snowfall records set from this storm included Newark, N.J., with 27.9 inches, Baltimore with 29.2 inches, Harrisburg, Pa., with 30.2 inches and Allentown, Pa., with 31.9 inches.

 More than 40 people died in the blizzard and a quarter of a million people were without power in the height of the storm.

February: Record Warmth Invades U.S.


 The final month of meteorological winter was a warm one for the U.S. and concluded a record warm season. The average temperature in the U.S. for the second month of the year was 39.5 degrees, making it the seventh warmest on record. Alaska had its warmest February on record. The second month of the year helped push the U.S.’s average winter temperature to 36.8 degrees, making it the warmest winter on record.

 NOAA reports temperature-related energy demand for the month was the ninth lowest on record. The warmth in February contributed to lack of snow cover. NOAA indicates snow coverage in the U.S. was 1.05 million square miles, making it the 13th smallest since records began 50 years ago. California had its 14th driest February, seeing only 30 percent of average precipitation.

 California’s largest reservoir, the Shasta Dam, saw 2.99 inches of rain, making it the 15th driest February since records began in 1943. While most El Nino winters tend to bring soggy weather to California, the Pacific jet stream shifted a bit farther north than usual this winter, leaving central and southern California drier than usual.

March: Rain Floods Lower Mississippi Valley

 As winter turned into spring, Mother Nature unleashed heavy rain on the Lower Mississippi Valley. So much rain fell that records were shattered and significant flooding occurred. Little Rock, Ark., and Memphis, Tenn., had their wettest March on record with 12.33 inches and 16.20 inches respectively. Louisiana had its second wettest March, Arkansas had its third wettest March while Mississippi had its fourth wettest March since records began in 1895.

 Four people were killed and 300 homes in the Mississippi delta were flooded. The Sabine River, which borders Louisiana and Texas, crested at 33.24 feet March 15, flooding more than 400 homes.

April: Deadly Flooding Grips Houston

 A large low pressure pushed into the Central U.S. during the middle of the month producing heavy rain in the Houston area. In less than 24 -hours on April 18, up to 15 inches soaked Houston with rain falling at the rate of 4 inches per hour at times. The Houston Hobby Airport got drenched with a record 5.16 inches April 18. Eight people died in the flooding while 1,200 people were rescued from their homes. More than 100,000 people were left without power and damage was estimated at $5 -billion. The flooding resulted in more than 600 flight cancellations and delays.

May: More Downpours Soak Waterlogged Texas

 As if eastern Texas didn’t have its share of rain in April, a separate storm system dumped more flooding rain in late May. Houston saw more than 4 inches of rain May 26-27, with a daily rainfall record of 2.64 inches falling May 27. At least six people died in the flooding. The Brazos River crested at a record 54 feet on the last day of the month, demolishing the former record by 3 feet. About 2,600 inmates from two prisons near the Brazos River had to be evacuated due to the rising water. Houston Continental Airport saw almost two feet of rain April into May compared to the average of 8.40 inches for both months combined.

June: Deadly Flooding Socks West Virginia

 By June, attention turned from the flooding in the southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley to the Mid-Atlantic. Intense thunderstorms dropped 8 to 10 inches of rain June 23 on southern West Virginia, producing the third deadliest flooding in the state’s history. Twenty-three people died, more than 1,200 homes were destroyed by the rising water and the Elk River reached a record crest of 33.37 feet. Officials had to rescue more than 60 people by boat. To make matters worse, only two percent of residents impacted by the flooding had flood insurance.

 As 2016 continued, more flooding, an active hurricane season, drought and an Arctic invasion made headlines for the year’s second half.

July: Flooding Devastates Ellicott City, Md.

 Localized heavy rain pushed through the Mid-Atlantic at the end of July, resulting in devastating flooding. On July 30, more than 6 inches of rain swamped the suburban city of Ellicott City, Md., in just a couple of hours. Since Ellicott City is settled in a deep valley, a flash flood devastated the historic downtown area. Two people died and the flooding produced at least $22.4-million dollars in damages. Emergency officials responded to 120 water rescues. Ellicott City was declared a disaster. More than 100 homes were destroyed and more than 170 cars damaged from the flooding.

August: Heavy Rain Floods Louisiana

 A stationary storm system caused relentless rain to fall over southern Louisiana the week of August 8. Up to 30 inches of rain walloped Baton Rouge within just a few days. The Red Cross said this was the worst disaster to hit the United States since Hurricane Sandy. Thirteen people died and the flooding produced more than $10-billion in damages. More than 60,000 homes were damaged or destroyed and the entire state was put under a declaration of emergency. Not to be outdone, 20,000 people and more than 1,000 pets had to be rescued from the high water.

September: Hurricane Hermine Wreaks Havoc on Florida

 What started as a tame hurricane season quickly ramped up in September. Hurricane Hermine formed in the Gulf of Mexico on August 28, and made landfall on the Florida Panhandle September 2. It was the first hurricane to make landfall in Florida since Hurricane Wilma in 2005. Category 1 Hermine wreaked havoc on the Southeast during Labor Day Weekend, creating many vacation and travel problems. The Dominican Republic and Cuba saw the worst of Hermine, with up to 5 inches of rain falling in one day.

 The storm damaged 200 homes in the Dominican Republic before producing $800-million in damage in the U.S. The storm left more than a quarter of a million people in the dark along Florida’s Gulf Coast and two people in Florida died as a result of the storm.

October: Hurricane Matthew Punishes East Coast

 Deadly  Hurricane Matthew formed in the Atlantic September 27 and rapidly intensified as it passed through the warm Caribbean. In just 24-hours from early afternoon Thursday, September 29 to early Friday afternoon, September 30, Matthew intensified from a Category 1 hurricane to a major Category 3 hurricane, with winds increasing from 75 mph to 120 mph. After wreaking havoc on Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba, Matthew made a beeline for the Florida’s Atlantic Coast, where it brought strong storm surge, intense wind gusts and torrential rain to the Southeast Coast. Matthew finally made landfall on October 8 in McClellanville, S.C., and quickly dissipated as it swept out to sea.

 The storm produced more than $6-billion in damages in the U.S. and left more than one million people without power. Emergency officials responded to more than 880 flood rescues in North Carolina. Matthew put a big wrinkle in the U.S. transportation system, with more than 3,500 flights cancelled. In total, Matthew was responsible for more than 49 deaths in the Southeast.
 
November: Southeast Drought Helps Ignite Big Wildfires

 The second largest number of wildfires ever recorded in the U.S. occurred in November. A total of 8,560 wildfires burned more than 275,000 acres. One of those wildfires, fueled by the intense Southeast drought, burned 17, 860 acres in the Great Smoky Mountains. Strong winds ahead of a storm system allowed the fire to grow out of control and sweep through Gatlinburg, Tenn. More than 100 people were hurt, 14 people died and more than 1,400 buildings were damaged or destroyed during the November 28 event. Mother Nature finally came to the rescue and produced more than 4 inches of rain less than 24-hours after the deadly wildfire, helping to squelch the flames.

December: Arctic Outbreak Chills Northern Tier

 The U.S. quickly jumped into meteorological winter head first. Multiple Arctic plunges produced several daily cold weather records in December. Denver’s record low for December 17 of minus-13 degrees was shattered by two degrees. Denver’s high temperature of 3 degrees that same day blew away the former coldest high temperature for December 17 of 7 degrees set in 1884.

 Several Montana cities also felt the Arctic chill. Belgrade Field, Dunkirt, Ennis and Valentine all set new cold high temperature records, staying at least 31 degrees below zero for a high temperature.

 The cold weather helped unleash a snowy month across the northern tier. On December 5, Chicago got slammed with 6.4 inches of snow, breaking the former daily snow record of 5.1 inches set just 6 years ago. The Twin Cities just clinched the daily snow record December 10 by getting coated with 2 inches. The former record of 1.8 inches set December 10, 2013 was therefore wiped off the board.

2016 Recap

 Even so, 2016 will likely end up as one of the top 5 warmest years on record. Through the end of November, the U.S.’s average temperature was just 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit shy of the warmest year on record (2012). Alaska, Georgia, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia all had their warmest year so far.

 While precipitation was 1.37 inches above average in the U.S., most of this occurred in the northern tier. Wisconsin had its second wettest year-to-date, Minnesota its third wettest and Washington its eighth wettest year so far. On the contrary, Georgia, Connecticut and Massachusetts ranked in the top 10 for driest years on record.

http://weather.weatherbug.com/news/2016-Wild-Weather-Year-For-The-U-S

Agelbert NOTE: Trump voters are not impressed by the alarmist (i.e. reality based) reporting of weather evidencing Catastrophic Climate Change CAUSED by the burning of fossil fuels claims by 97% of those deluded climate scientists.


Trump supporters heard Trump say he likes clean air and water, so that's all they need to hear. Here's a nice picture of a Trump supporter below:


Have a nice day.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #747 on: December 30, 2016, 05:25:40 pm »
2017: An Ice Free Summer in the North Pole plus the End of Liberty in the USA

Agelbert NOTE: I await 2017 with trepidation. In 2012 I predicted that the North Pole would have an Ice Free summer in 2017.  I expect that, also in 2017, the last remaining bit of Liberty we have in the USA will be TRUMPED. I may be off by a couple of years with the North Pole, but unfortunately the TRUMPING of our remaining Liberty is already in the final stages.   








« Last Edit: December 30, 2016, 07:52:02 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #748 on: January 01, 2017, 03:27:36 pm »
JENNIFER HYNES INTERVIEW WITH PETER WADHAMS

Published on Dec 31, 2016

DEC 2016 INTERVIEW ON EXTINCTION RADIO .NET


He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #749 on: January 04, 2017, 09:00:33 pm »
 

2016 Weather Makes a Pricey Year For Insurers

Natural disasters cost insurers nearly $50 billion in payouts in 2016 - double the $27 billion paid in 2015, according to a new analysis by global research firm Munich Re.

The analysis shows $10.2 billion in overall losses in North America, which saw more natural disasters in 2016 than in any year since 1980.

Munich Re researcher Peter Hoppe emphasized to USA Today that while specific weather events cannot be directly attributed to climate change, "there are now many indications that certain events – such as persistent weather systems or storms bringing torrential rain and hail – are more likely to occur in certain regions as a result of climate change." (Reuters, USAToday)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-disaster-insurance-idUSKBN14O0XG
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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