Month: January 2021

Study: Climate crisis: world is at its hottest for at least 12,000 years

The Guardian: Climate crisis: world is at its hottest for at least 12,000 years – study. Scientists say temperatures globally at highest level since start of human civilization.

The planet is hotter now than it has been for at least 12,000 years, a period spanning the entire development of human civilisation, according to research.

Analysis of ocean surface temperatures shows human-driven climate change has put the world in “uncharted territory”, the scientists say. The planet may even be at its warmest for 125,000 years, although data on that far back is less certain.

The research, published in the journal Nature, reached these conclusions by solving a longstanding puzzle known as the “Holocene temperature conundrum”. Climate models have indicated continuous warming since the last ice age ended 12,000 years ago and the Holocene period began. But temperature estimates derived from fossil shells showed a peak of warming 6,000 years ago and then a cooling, until the industrial revolution sent carbon emissions soaring.

“We demonstrate that global average annual temperature has been rising over the last 12,000 years, contrary to previous results,” said Samantha Bova, at Rutgers University–New Brunswick in the US, who led the research. “This means that the modern, human-caused global warming period is accelerating a long-term increase in global temperatures, making today completely uncharted territory. It changes the baseline and emphasises just how critical it is to take our situation seriously.”

One study, published in 2017, suggested that global temperatures were last as high as today 115,000 years ago, but that was based on less data.

Lijing Cheng, at the International Centre for Climate and Environment Sciences in Beijing, China, recently led a study that showed that in 2020 the world’s oceans reached their hottest level yet in instrumental records dating back to the 1940s. More than 90% of global heating is taken up by the seas.

How the loss of Bering Sea ice is triggering cascading effects for the ecosystem — and the people and wildlife that depend on it

Arctic Today: How the loss of Bering Sea ice is triggering cascading effects for the ecosystem — and the people and wildlife that depend on it. The decline of sea ice in the Bering Sea is changing almost everything about the region. The Bering Sea region, the Pacific gateway to the Arctic Ocean, is home to ecosystems on land and in the ocean that are both abundant and fragile. It’s also changing very quickly — and those changes offer a preview of the changes in store for other parts of the Arctic. This story is part of an ArcticToday series on the changing Bering Sea — and what those transformations mean for fish, wildlife and people.

 

Green roofs, solar panels and digital monitoring: How the world’s buildings are changing

CNBC: Green roofs, solar panels and digital monitoring: How the world’s buildings are changing.

  • As governments and businesses seek to increase economic productivity and reduce their carbon footprint, the built environment will need to change.
  • Here, CNBC takes a look at key features of three buildings shortlisted for the upcoming BREEAM Awards 2021.

Is It Time for an Emergency Rollout of Carbon-Eating Machines?

Wired: Is It Time for an Emergency Rollout of Carbon-Eating Machines? Facilities that suck carbon dioxide out of the air could be powerful weapons for fighting climate change. But their deployment requires a huge wartime-style investment.

THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY demands that we dramatically and rapidly cut emissions. There’s no substitute for that, full stop. But it also demands a technological revolution to reverse years of out-of-control emissions: The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change notes that if we want to meet the Paris climate agreement’s most optimistic goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, we have to deploy some sort of negative emissions technologies.

Climate change puts pressure on failing Caribbean water supplies

DW: Climate change puts pressure on failing Caribbean water supplies. The picturesque tropical islands are surrounded by water, yet shortages are a daily reality for many. Rising temperatures and low rainfall could make matters worse.

Noreen Nunez lives in a middle-class neighborhood that rises up a hillside in Trinidad’s Tunapuna-Piarco region.

Accessed by a long, winding road bordered by trees, the houses, built in the 1970s and 1980s, are mainly painted in pastel shades. Dotted among fruit trees in their sizeable backyards are huge water tanks, mounted on concrete slabs.

The tanks are evidence that even this affluent community is not insulated from the water-stress experienced across the Caribbean.

New York Times Climate Fwd – January 27, 2021

Articles include: Biden’s Exec Orders; plight of sharks; firefighter’s toxic gear; emissions; landfills; Canada; weather

Wyoming could lead US green energy push with wind power – 2 articles

DW: Wyoming could lead US green energy push with wind power. US President Joe Biden has pledged to promote renewable energy. Wyoming, where much of America’s coal is sourced, could benefit with a new focus on wind energy. But not everyone is open to change. When Jim Clayton* still worked in a coal mine, he would head to a nearby bar to settle his accounts. The pub effectively became his office. When after 22 years in the industry he quit his job and decided to run the pub instead, it was easy to choose a new name for the place. These days, The Office has become a hangout for many of those earning a living in the coal, oil and gas industry in northeastern Wyoming.

High Country News: New wind projects power local budgets in Wyoming. As the pandemic hit the fossil fuel industry, renewable energy projects filled community coffers.

Smithfield project that converts hog waste to energy angers, worries rural NC residents

Fayetteville Observer: Smithfield project that converts hog waste to energy angers, worries rural NC residents. The Align RNG project moves forward with the approval of an air permit from NCDEQ, but leaves Sampson and Duplin County residents questioning the harmful impacts and motives.

The N.C. Division of Air Quality granted Smithfield Foods and Dominion Energy one of the permits they need to move forward in completing a controversial project to create natural gas by using hog waste in Sampson and Duplin County.

With the air quality permit, the two companies will build a gas-conditioning facility to trap biogas, or hog feces, and process it to inject the gas into a 30-mile-long pipeline that will run between Turkey and Warsaw. This is the first step in their joint Align RNG project.

Indian Farmers beat water scarcity with innovation

DW: Indian farmers beat water scarcity with innovation. After losing crops to severe drought for years, farmers in Maharashtra are seeing high yields through imaginative cultivation methods. They told DW that taking control is better than protesting government policy.

Krishna Narode, 26, from Gangapur village in India’s western Maharashtra state, is visibly excited as he surveys his four-acre farm where he cultivates an array of crops and fruits, including papaya, sugar cane, wheat and ginger.

In a few months, it will be time for harvesting and Narode knows that his efforts will pay dividends as he has relied on natural farming practices.

“I hope to earn at least 600,000 Indian rupees (€6,765, $8,190) this year from my harvest. In 2016, I earned such a small sum that I wanted to give up. But thanks to new farming methods we have learnt, it is helping our community,” Narode told DW.

Trump’s legacy leaves Arctic with fewer environmental protections and more risk of conflict, say experts

CBC: Trump’s legacy leaves Arctic with fewer environmental protections and more risk of conflict, say experts. From idea to buy Greenland to development in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Trump has left his mark.

As U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office, the Arctic is probably far from the minds of most Americans.

Yet the region, where the U.S. is one of five nations with territorial waters, has loomed surprisingly large in the waning days of his presidency.

After just four years as president, Trump’s legacy in the Arctic might be greater than many would expect. Experts say he has endangered, if not unravelled, decades of environmental regulation and careful diplomacy.