Monday, 17 August 2020

Climate Change will bring more severe storms.


"Although scientists are uncertain whether climate change will lead to an increase in the number of hurricanes, warmer ocean temperatures and higher sea levels are expected to intensify their impacts."
 https://www.c2es.org/content/hurricanes-and-climate-change/











Queensland: Cyclone Debbie caused massive damage to crops.



How can we prepare for more severe storms? 






"How to Build Resilience

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one way to reduce the risk of the strongest storms in the future. Communities can also bolster their resilience to the impacts of hurricanes by:
  • Preserving coastal wetlands, dunes, and reefs to absorb storm surges.
  • Replenishing beaches and improve infrastructure that affords coastal protection, such as seawalls.
  • Elevating vulnerable buildings to reduce flood damage.
  • Designing structures to be resilient to high winds and flying debris.
  • Enacting policies that discourage development in vulnerable areas.
  • Preparing prior to a storm’s arrival by boarding windows, clearing property of potential flying debris, and having an evacuation plan."    https://www.c2es.org/content/hurricanes-and-climate-change/

For Government::

• strengthen regulations to prevent further development and new infrastructure on susceptible coastlines

• ensure emergency services are well prepared and supported financially

• support people in developing emergency plans




• ensure the vulnerable can access support

• financially support smaller nations unable to prepare sufficiently for storms






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Sunday, 16 August 2020

If you thought July was hot, you were right: It was one of Earth's hottest months ever recorded (excerpt): USA Today

Last month was a scorcher worldwide
Heat is dangerous
"Story Highlights
  • July 2020 tied with July 2016 as the second-hottest month ever recorded for the planet Earth.
  • July 2020 also marked the 427th-consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average
  • Experts say this is a sure sign of human-caused climate change.
Last month was a scorcher worldwide. 

July 2020 tied with July 2016 as the second-hottest month ever recorded for the planet Earth, according to a report released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Only July 2019 was hotter, and only by a fraction of a degree. 

"The July 2020 global land and ocean surface temperature was 1.66
a sure sign of human-caused climate change
Heatwaves kill
degrees above the 20th-century average of 60.4 degrees, tying with 2016 as the second-highest temperature in the 141-year record," NOAA said. "Last month was only 0.02 of a degree F shy of tying the record-hot July of 2019."

July 2020 also marked the 44th-consecutive July and the 427th-consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average, according to NOAA.

Heat kills
Experts say this is a sure sign of human-caused climate change

"The trend of record heat continues – a trend which we’ve shown in past publications can only be explained by the warming impact of fossil fuel burning," said Penn State University meteorologist Michael Mann."

by Doyle Rice
USA TODAY

Related: World's three hottest Julys happened in the last five years: Reuters (excerpt)

#carbon, #climatechange, #fossilfuelcompanies, #heatwaves, #jailclimatecriminals, 

Saturday, 15 August 2020

Why COVID deniers and climate skeptics paint scientists as alarmist (excerpt): Grist


people trying to obstruct action deny the severity of the predicament
Climate Change Denial Tactics
In an interview with Fox News last month, President Donald Trump called Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, an “alarmist,” using a pejorative straight from the playbook of those who deny the science behind climate change. Fauci rejected the characterization, describing himself as a “realist.”

For anyone paying attention to arguments about climate change over recent decades, Trump’s comment sounded awfully familiar: Scientists are alarmists, everything’s a hoax, and hysteria abounds.

 Michael Mann, a climatologist at Penn State University, wrote an op-ed for Newsweek this week drawing parallels between his experience and Fauci’s during COVID-19. Science deniers have lobbied attacks on the two public figures, he explained, sending death threats, calling them names, and questioning their expertise.
So what do terms like alarmist and hysteria really mean, where did they come from, and how can people respond to such accusations?"

"The strategies used to dismiss the threats of climate change and coronavirus follow a similar pattern, and they’re employed by many of the same people. It starts with denying the problem exists, as Naomi Oreskes, a professor of history at Harvard who studies disinformation, has explained. Then, people trying to obstruct action deny the severity of the predicament, say it’s too hard or too expensive to fix, and complain that their freedom is under threat. Denying the science requires dismissing what scientists are saying, and the easiest way to do that is by questioning their motives, impartiality, and rationality.

“If we don’t trust scientists or medical experts because we see them as alarmist or hysterical or as contributing overreaction, then we don’t trust the info they’re giving us,” said Emma Frances Bloomfield, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas."

Read the complete Grist article by Kate Yoder

See also:

'Two global health emergencies': doctors group backs green stimulus: The Age


climate deniers, Trump, COVID-19, #cambio-climatico, #climatecrisis, #climatecriminals, #corporations, #criminales-climáticos-de-la-cárcel, #


The Green New Deal Is Cheap, Actually (excerpt): Rolling Stone

The price of not acting on climate change is staggering.
Green New Deal: Rolling Stone

By Tim Dickinson  April 6 2020

Decarbonizing will cost trillions of dollars, but it’s an investment that will have big return — for the economy and the environment

Opposition to the Green New Deal is often framed as a matter of cost. President Trump’s re-election campaign blasted the “radical” plan, claiming it would “cost trillions of dollars, wreck our economy, and decimate millions of energy jobs.” 

But science shows that the costs of unchecked global temperature rise are far higher than transitioning to clean energy — which will, in fact, boost the economy. 

“Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, you have to spend a huge amount of money,’” says Mark Jacobson, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Stanford University. “Well, yeah, there’s an upfront cost, but this is something that pays itself back.”

The coronavirus crisis is changing the world’s comfort levels with massive expenditures. Fresh on the heels of a $2.2 trillion economic rescue package, President Trump has begun calling for another $2 trillion infrastructure package to create jobs. Across the political spectrum, politicians are anticipating that the economy will need something approximating a New Deal to spring back to life after the pandemic subsides. And climate advocates are making the case that we can use this disaster response to invest in renewable energy, to ward off an even more dangerous crisis down the line.



The price of not acting on climate change is staggering. 

'Two global health emergencies': doctors group backs green stimulus: The Age

Air pollution kills  #jailclimatecriminals
Air Pollution from wildfires
"Peak medical groups representing about 75 per cent of Australia’s 90,000 doctors have written to the prime minister to ask him to make a response to climate change central to the government’s post-coronavirus economic stimulus plans.

The groups, which include bodies such as the Australian Medical Association and the College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand, have called on the government to redirect funds from fossil fuel subsidies in stimulus efforts to renewable energy projects and infrastructure to promote walking, cycling and public transport.

The letter comes after a similar appeal sent on Monday by finance and industry heavyweights, including the big four banks and major corporations, also urging the government to make “sustainable investments” in areas such as health, education, clean energy and urban infrastructure as it helps rebuild the economy."



 #wildfire, #climateaction, #cambio-climatico, #climatecriminals, #climaterefugees, #economy, #corporations, #extinction, #climateemergency, 

Friday, 14 August 2020

Sea Level Rise Effect on Mumbai of 1.5m rise

Mumbai, land at risk from 1.5m sea rise
 • We are looking more and more unlikely to prevent global heating.

• Scientists are predicting the melting of the ice covering Greenland with a subsequent sea level rise of 7m.

• This rise does not factor in sea rise from the melting of Antarctica and other ice.

• Already many properties are likely to flood when a high tide is combined with high local rainfall. 
 

What were a hundred year rainfall events are now ten year events.


Mumbai, land at risk with 1.0m sea rise
 
• The frequency of high rainfall events will increase with global heating and more and more severe hurricanes are predicted because of warmer seas.



• Low coastal areas will be subjected to severe storm surges.

• Would you buy a property likely to be inundated in twenty years, fifty years, a hundred years? Many wouldn't. Even the perception of possible inundation will greatly affect property values. Some properties will become more expensive to insure or become impossible to insure

• When certain properties are in less demand their value falls.

• Would you buy a property with a value that is likely to fall?

•  The view of Mumbai above shows areas likely to be inundated by a 1.5m and a 1.0m sea level rise.

• Property above a 10m rise will become highly sought after and will greatly increase in value.

Learn more about how sea rise inundation will affect India's property, indeed any property, at climatecentral.org




Related:

Greenland shed ice at unprecedented rate in 2019; Antarctica continues to lose mass: EurekAlert

 

Melbourne: predicted flooding with a conservative sea level rise of only 1.5m




#sea level rise, #Greenland ice melt, #sea ice, #climateaction, #climatechange, #jailclimatecriminals, #cambio-climatico,