CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING

[Stanley]

See THIS report from California of record temperature yesterday of 121F, beating the previous 2006 record and making the current crop of wildfires much worse.
Evidence of changing climate? Surely not...

[Stanley]

High winds in California are exacerbating t\he wildfires.
See THIS report about more trouble further south with the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica. Researchers have found deep channels that are allowing relatively warm water to attack the base of the glacier which already is responsible for 5% of global sea level rise.
This is bad news for tidal cities like New York and London but will it stop development?

[Tizer]

A brief video showing the scale of the California wildfires..
`California wildfires: This is how mind-bogglingly huge they are' LINK

[Stanley]

Good link Peter. I saw what the Santa Anna winds could do in isolated canyon fires in the 1980s when I was in California. A friend of mine lost his home and a thirty year archive in them. They were a pin prick compared with what we are seeing now but I remember at the time it frightened me to death and I wanted to get back to the coast. And I was only a tourist...

[Tizer]

Some towns have been wiped out and at least the governor of California acknowledges the role of climate change in making the wildfires much worse. How long before the whole west coast of America decides to leave America, especially if Trump gets re-elected?
`US wildfires fuelled by climate change, California governor says' LINK

[Stanley]

'Apocalyptic' isn't too strong a word. I was listening to a man talking about sea level rise and migration yesterday and he made the very good point that we are obsessed at the moment by the 'influx' of migrants but haven't accepted that it will get worse and further, the really big problem isn't going to be foreigners but internal migration as people waken up and start to move inland. Places like Barlick 500ft above sea level are going to become very attractive!
This 'internal migration' is happening now on the West Coast of the US and Canada. At the moment it's temporary but how long before it becomes permanent?

[Tizer]

`US election 2020: What is Trump's record on the environment?' LINK
In reference to China, India and Russia, Trump says `We're just a small speck. They make up a big preponderance of the pollution.' But the USA puts out twice as much CO2 as China and three times as much as Russia; and in greenhouse gas emissions per capita it's much higher than any of the three named countries.

[Stanley]

That's why Scientific American endorsed Biden yesterday in an editorial. First time in 175 years they have done such a thing. I told Martha yesterday and she hadn't heard about it.

[Tizer]

An interesting video from BBC Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg shows the local effects of thawing permafrost...
`Siberia landscape scarred by climate change' LINK
`Scientists are warning that, across Siberia, vast swathes of ground - normally frozen all year round - are thawing - with potentially devastating consequences for the climate. As it thaws, the earth is believed to be releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases, accentuating the problem of global warming. BBC Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg has been to the remote Yakutia region to look at how thawing permafrost is affecting not just the climate, but the landscape and livelihoods in Siberia.'

And from the same man...
`Why forest fires in Siberia, Russia threaten us all' LINK
`Wildfires in Siberia have been releasing record amounts of greenhouse gases, scientists say, contributing to global warming. The fires, fuelled by abnormally high temperatures, have been burning as far north as the Arctic Circle. BBC Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg travelled to the remote Yakutia region, in northeastern Russia, to gauge the effects of climate change, both on local communities and on the planet.'

A year ago I read a book about the eruption of Krakatoa in the 1880s and it went into detail about the negative effects worldwide. This year, just as the pandemic began, I was reading a similar book about the eruption of Tambora in 1815. That was much greater than Krakatoa and the global effects were, literally, far-reaching and lasted for decades. Millions of people died through famine and disease due to the resulting climate disruption and the dramatic drop in solar heat and light. The effects of present climate change are creeping up on us but could last much longer than those of the volcanoes.

[Stanley]

I heard that report also Peter. The bloke trying to insulate the sink hole next to the house he is building....
"The effects of present climate change are creeping up on us but could last much longer than those of the volcanoes."
That's the big problem isn't it. I listen to commentators glibly talking about 'reversing climate change' and wonder if they really appreciate what is happening. You can no more reverse it than you can the tide. K'nut taught us that! I believe that it's too late, we are over the tipping point and we are going to have to learn to live with it. The great eruptions were bad but what's happening now is far worse in the long run.
Bit like people talking about 'After Covid', it's not going to happen, it's with us like small pox was and can only be stopped by the same methods, total vaccination and gradual eradication.
The difference is that there is no vaccination against climate change.

[Tizer]

I love this, it should wind up Trump no end!
`Climate change: China aims for 'carbon neutrality by 2060'' LINK

[Stanley]

Interesting link Peter and my first thought is that all right, it's partly political and part of the battle with the US but it's still significant.
The second thing that comes to mind is that when China does start cutting back on the use of fossil fuel, one of the first countries to suffer will be Australia. Their economy relies heavily on exports of coal and other natural resources. The mines in Australia are some of the largest operations in the world. Perhaps the indigenous peoples will get the Pilbara back again....

[Tizer]

The Australian coal mine owners, like oil companies, have known for 40 years or more that burning coal was endangering the climate so they've had plenty of time to adjust but instead tried to con us all into believing it wasn't dangerous. Coincidentally, this article appeared on the BBC web site a few days ago...
`How the oil industry made us doubt climate change' LINK

It's based on a recent radio programme of 10 episodes. You might have listened to them: `How they made us doubt everything' Podcasts

[Stanley]

Yes, I listened to all of them. It reminded me of the Book 'Magic Mineral to Killer Dust' which exposed the lies Turner Brothers told for decades about the dangers from Asbestos. Worth seeking out and reading. Also look up Acre Mill near Hebden Bridge. (LINK)

[Tizer]

`Global warming driving California wildfire trends - study' LINK
`The new review covers more than 100 studies published since 2013, and shows that extreme fires occur when natural variability in the climate is superimposed on increasingly warm and dry background conditions resulting from global warming. "In terms of the trends we're seeing, in terms of the extent of wildfires, and which have increased eight to ten-fold in the past four decades, that trend is driven by climate change," said Dr Matthew Jones from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, who led the review. "Climate change ultimately means that those forests, whatever state they're in, are becoming warmer and drier more frequently," he told BBC News. "And that's what's really driving the kind of scale and impact of the fires that we're seeing today." In the 40 years from 1979 to 2019, fire weather conditions have increased by a total of eight days on average across the world. However, in California the number of autumn days with extreme wildfire conditions has doubled in that period. The authors of the review conclude that "climate change is bringing hotter, drier weather to the western US and the region is fundamentally more exposed to fire risks than it was before humans began to alter the global climate".'

[Stanley]

Good link Peter. Just one more in depth study that confirms what we have been talking about for years. Only the deniers like Trump can't accept this because It's an uncomfortable truth and demands long term fundamental action which is not politically attractive. Exactly the same syndrome as the one I referred to in Politics Corner re the current UK situation..
The weight and urgency of these uncomfortable truths increases and the question is not what can we do about it but how do we adapt to cope with what looks to me like a certainty. This requires a completely different setting of policy and priorities. That's why 'they' will not do it!

[Tizer]

We may be planting more dark-leaved trees in future to protect ourselves from UV and heat. There are plenty of ornamental varieties that grow well in the UK, plum varieties as well as maple. Perhaps there'll be one in every garden in the future!
`Maple trees offer most protection from harmful UV' LINK

[Stanley]

Is it a coincidence that, as a species, Maple have the greatest Autumn colour change?

[Stanley]

I've just been listening to 'Science in Action' on World service. A very compelling account from a lady scientist there which brought home the deterioration this year and the widespread belief that this is climate change in action. The main problem in areas not directly threatened by the fires themselves is the deterioration in air quality due to the smoke, a cloud of particulates actually that blankets the cities, especially San Francisco. The population is now convinced that the climate is changing and the 'normal' fire season hasn't even started yet.

[Tizer]

Don't forget, they're now seeing as well as inhaling the California smoke in New York.

[Stanley]

Is that right Peter? Has it reached so far? Amazing and shows how big the California fires are. I wonder how Australia will fare this year....
Meanwhile in the Amazon and other parts of South America the fires rage on, many started deliberately by farmers.

[Tizer]

Yes, the BBC's Jon Sopel reported it. The smoke has got so high in the atmosphere it will be carried vast distances and then some of it will be brought down to ground level by down draughts, rain and convection currents.

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

See THIS report on the mega drought in Chile. It's a month old but I heard a report yesterday on World service. A drought in a normally dry country like Chile doesn't make the headlines but is just as devastating but the point that was made yesterday in the report is that it is worsening and most of S America is having the same problem.
These problems are multiplying world wide and are a clear warning to the world that we are approaching a crisis.

[Tizer]

Interesting fact....Parts of the Atacama Desert have remained unchanged for many millions of years. Scientists can use optically-stimulated fluorescence to show when a pebble or sand last saw `the light of day'. You can pick up a piece of rock in those parts of the desert and show that it has lain there unturned for all that time.