Author: vandy

In today’s Washington Post, an article says that researchers are virtually certain that warming from human greenhouse gas emissions played a pivotal role in recent fatalities.

“The system was overwhelmed,” said Mary Tanski, chair of OHSU’s department of emergency medicine, of the towering heat dome that toppled temperature records across the Northwest this week.

Some patients didn’t survive. In Oregon, Washington, and western Canada, authorities are investigating more than 800 deaths potentially linked to the punishing heat.

The heat dome was just one of a barrage of climate catastrophes that struck the world in recent weeks. Western wildfires are off to a scorching start, with firefighters actively battling 44 large blazes that have burned nearly 700,000 acres. Parts of Florida and the Caribbean are bracing for the landfall of Hurricane Elsa, the Atlantic’s fifth named storm in what is one of the most active starts to hurricane season on record. Nearly half a million people in Madagascar are at risk of starvation as the country grapples with dust storms, locusts, and its worst drought in decades. In Verkhoyansk, Siberia — usually one of the coldest inhabited places on the planet — the land surface temperature was 118 degrees.

“It did not have to be this way,” Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California said. “We have known enough to take action for 20 years. And if we had taken action 20 years ago, it would be a lot easier.”

“But there’s no ‘I told you so,’ ” he continued. “I just feel bad. Just bad. I really wish we had been wrong. But we weren’t.”

The only comfort, said Hayhoe, is in knowing that action can still be taken. Though the world could exceed 1.5 degrees of warming within this decade, scientists say we can avoid crossing that threshold if we cut global greenhouse gas emissions by about 7.6 percent per year.

Such cuts would require an unprecedented transformation of human society. But look at the alternative, Hayhoe said.

“We have choices to make, she said. “And the quicker we make those choices, the better off we will all be. The future is in our hands.”

Read the full article at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/07/03/climate-change-heat-dome-death/

America’s forests and grasslands are integral to global efforts to address current and future impacts of climate change. Healthy forest and grassland ecosystems are vital to the well-being and livelihoods of all Americans. These ecosystems provide drinking water for millions of people, influence the global carbon balance, supply food, support rural and urban jobs, provide places to recreate, and are home to diverse fish and wildlife populations. Climate change is already having substantial impacts on these systems, which are increasingly stressed by severe wildfires, invasive species, diseases, drought, and other climate-driven disturbances.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Research and Development (R&D) helps the Department and the Nation move closer to achieving its climate and carbon goals. Specifically, Forest Service R&D contributes in the following areas:

Investing in Natural Climate Solutions on Working Lands. Carbon sequestration by forests
is a vital mitigation tool. The most cost-effective way to boost carbon storage is to enhance
reforestation efforts, which can increase carbon storage by as much as 20 percent. Forest Service research is the Nation’s authoritative source on practices for increasing and tracking forest and grassland carbon sequestration.

Wildfire Decision Support. Climate change has altered fire regimes, increasing the frequency and severity of wildfire. Forest Service R&D is a world leader in wildfire research. Scientists have pioneered fire behavior and prediction technology, improved firefighter safety, developed novel spatial planning and risk management tools, and worked with communities to improve protections against catastrophic fire.

Managing for Forest and Grassland Resilience to Climate Change. As the climate changes, many forests and grasslands are expected to shift in composition. Forest Service research identifies the key attributes of resilient natural systems that can withstand and recover from climate-caused disturbances. From landscape-scale experiments like the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change Project, to forecasting drought and floods, to providing the scientific basis for fuels management and prescribed fires, Forest Service researchers are generating knowledge and solutions for managing and restoring climate-impacted landscapes.

Innovation in Science and Science Delivery. Over the last decade, Forest Service R&D assembled interdisciplinary teams to respond to the expected, accelerated, and unprecedented changes associated with climate change. As active leaders and participants in the USDA Climate Hubs, Forest Service researchers help create and deliver proactive, practical climate-informed knowledge and tools. Forest Service R&D wood products research delivers groundbreaking technologies and solutions for using forest-based products, such as cross-laminated timber, nanotechnology, biocomposites, biochar, and bioenergy.

Read the full paper at https://www.fs.fed.us/research/publications/fs/fs_1175.pdf

From The Washington Post:

The amount of heat Earth traps has roughly doubled since 2005, contributing to more rapidly warming oceans, air and land, according to new research from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“The magnitude of the increase is unprecedented,” said Norman Loeb, a NASA scientist and lead author of the study, which was published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “The Earth is warming faster than expected.”

Using satellite data, researchers measured what is known as Earth’s energy imbalance — the difference between how much energy the planet absorbs from the sun, and how much it’s able to shed or radiate back out into space.

That imbalance roughly doubled between 2005 and 2019, the study found. “It is a massive amount of energy,” said Gregory Johnson, an oceanographer for NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and co-author of the study. Johnson said the energy increase is equivalent to four detonations per second of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, or every person on Earth using 20 electric tea kettles at once. “It’s such a hard number to get your mind around.”

Read more about it

The Washington Post The amount of heat the Earth traps has doubled since 2005, NASA says – The Washington Post

NASA Research Letter Satellite and Ocean Data Reveal Marked Increase in Earth’s Heating Rate – Loeb – – Geophysical Research Letters – Wiley Online Library

Wildfires are bigger, and starting earlier in the year. Heat waves are more frequent. Seas are warmer, and flooding is more common. The air is getting hotter. Even ragweed pollen season is beginning sooner.

Climate change is already happening around the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday. And in many cases, that change is speeding up.

“There is no small town, big city or rural community that is unaffected by the climate crisis,” Michael S. Regan, the E.P.A. administrator, said on Wednesday. “Americans are seeing and feeling the impacts up close, with increasing regularity.”

Scientists say the world needs to prevent average global temperatures from rising more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial levels to avoid irreversible damage to the planet.

As surface temperatures have risen, heat waves have become more common. Since the 1960s, the frequency of heat waves in large U.S. cities has tripled, according to the new data, to six each year from two. And nights are becoming hotter, making it harder for plants, animals and people to cool down.

Rising temperatures are affecting ice levels as well. The new data notes that the extent of Arctic sea ice cover in 2020 was the second-smallest on record. At the same time, oceans are becoming warmer, reaching a record in 2020.

That combination of melting polar ice and rising water temperatures is causing sea levels to rise along the East Coast and Gulf Coast. In some places, the sea level relative to the land rose more than eight inches between 1960 and 2020.

As seas rise, flooding is becoming more common. The number of days when water has inundated communities along the East and Gulf Coasts has increased and the rate of that flooding is quickening, the data show. At many locations, “floods are now at least five times more common than they were in the 1950s,” according to the E.P.A.

Read more about it at the EPA site: Climate Change Indicators in the United States | US EPA

Or the New York Times: Climate Change Is Making Big Problems Bigger – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Or the Washington Post: Revamped EPA website shows increased climate change risks – The Washington Post

“The planting of a tree shows faith in the future”

Happy Arbor Day! Peanuts is working with @arborday to plant up to 100,000 trees! Help take care of the Earth 🌎 by posting a picture of a tree with #ArborDay. For every post on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter from now until 11:59pm CT 1 tree will be planted!🌲 #TakeCareWithSnoopy pic.twitter.com/3mrRjeZ3wk

— PEANUTS (@Snoopy) April 30, 2021

A study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, calculated that a full-scale push using existing technologies could cut methane emissions in half by 2030. Such reductions could have a crucial impact in the global effort to limit warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) compared to preindustrial levels — a central aim of the Paris climate accord.

It follows new data that showed that both carbon dioxide and methane levels in the atmosphere reached record highs last year, even as the coronavirus pandemic brought much of the global economy to a halt. The report also comes as a growing body of scientific evidence has shown that releases of methane from oil and gas production, one of the biggest sources of methane linked to human activity, may be larger than earlier estimates.

While cutting back on carbon dioxide emissions will remain urgent, “it’s going to be next to impossible to remove enough carbon dioxide to get any real benefits for the climate in the first half of the century,” said Drew Shindell, the study’s lead author and a professor of earth science at Duke University. “But if we can make a big enough cut in methane in the next decade, we’ll see public health benefits within the decade, and climate benefits within two decades,” he said.

Read more about it:

Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/04/27/cut-methane-emissions-30-percent/

New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/climate/methane-leaks-united-nations.html

NASA spends much of its time studying our home planet. In 2014 they produced a series of very short videos explaining climate change. Watch these fun whiteboard animations below.

Certainly, there are things you can do personally to help stop climate change: plant trees, waste less, drive an electric vehicle, power your home or business with wind and solar.

Project Drawdown has many solutions that are ready now. Read more at https://drawdown.org/ They offer a free video series on climate solutions at https://drawdown.org/climate-solutions-101

Unfortunately at the current rate of emissions, just changing your personal habits will not be enough to avoid a crisis. We need global change.

The most important tool you have is your voice. Talk to your friends and family. Talk to your local, state, and federal representatives about the importance of fighting climate change. Ask them to support laws that limit greenhouse gas emissions. Vote for candidates that support efforts to address the threat of climate change, ensuring that they are part of our nation’s energy and environmental policy.

Do you want more tools? Sign up for the free Climate Reality Leadership Corps training.

Learn more about training here: https://www.climaterealityproject.org/training/

If we all act together we can stop this crisis.

Earth Day is April 22. Thousands of events are planned around the world including a global climate summit hosted by President Biden.

The Summit will reconvene the U.S.-led Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which brings together 17 countries responsible for approximately 80 percent of global emissions and global GDP.  The President also invited the heads of other countries that are demonstrating strong climate leadership, are especially vulnerable to climate impacts, or are charting innovative pathways to a net-zero economy.  A small number of business and civil society leaders will also participate in the Summit.

Key themes of the Summit will include:

• Galvanizing efforts by the world’s major economies to reduce emissions during this critical decade to keep a limit to warming of 1.5 degree Celsius within reach.
• Mobilizing public and private sector finance to drive the net-zero transition and to help vulnerable countries cope with climate impacts. 
• The economic benefits of climate action, with a strong emphasis on job creation, and the importance of ensuring all communities and workers benefit from the transition to a new clean energy economy.
• Spurring transformational technologies that can help reduce emissions and adapt to climate change, while also creating enormous new economic opportunities and building the industries of the future.
• Showcasing subnational and non-state actors that are committed to green recovery and an equitable vision for limiting warming to 1.5 degree Celsius, and are working closely with national governments to advance ambition and resilience.
• Discussing opportunities to strengthen capacity to protect lives and livelihoods from the impacts of climate change, address the global security challenges posed by climate change and the impact on readiness, and address the role of nature-based solutions in achieving net zero by 2050 goals. 

Further details on the Summit agenda, additional participants, media access, and public viewing will be provided in the coming weeks.

The President invited the following leaders to participate in the Summit:

• Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Antigua and Barbuda
• President Alberto Fernandez, Argentina 
• Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Australia    
• Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh
• Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, Bhutan
• President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil    
• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada          
• President Sebastián Piñera, Chile 
• President Xi Jinping, People’s Republic of China    
• President Iván Duque Márquez, Colombia    
• President Félix Tshisekedi, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Denmark 
• President Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission
• President Charles Michel, European Council
• President Emmanuel Macron, France        
• President Ali Bongo Ondimba, Gabon        
• Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany 
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India    
• President Joko Widodo, Indonesia      
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel
• Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Italy    
• Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Jamaica
• Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Japan  
• President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya      
• President David Kabua, Republic of the Marshall Islands
• President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico  
• Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand
• President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria        
• Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Norway 
• President Andrzej Duda, Poland  
• President Moon Jae-in, Republic of Korea     
• President Vladimir Putin, The Russian Federation  
• King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore
• President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa 
• Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Spain
• President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey
• President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, United Arab Emirates
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson, United Kingdom
• President Nguyễn Phú Trọng, Vietnam    

To participate in a live or virtual event visit https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2021/ to find an event near you.