CLIMATE CRISIS…
Here’s what the hottest summer on Earth looked like
September 5, 2024
As floodwaters coursed through Texas and Taiwan, as mosquito-borne viruses spread across the Americas, as tornadoes rampaged through Iowa, even into the capitol city of Des Moines for the first time in history, the world’s average temperature this summer soared to the highest level in recorded history. The consequences were felt by people on every continent, from world-class athletes competing in the Paris Olympics to refugees fleeing from wars. The Atlantic Ocean saw its earliest Category 5 hurricane on record.
Global temperatures between June and August were 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above the preindustrial average, just edging out the previous record set last summer. The sweltering season reached its apex in late July with the four hottest days ever recorded, making 2024 the hottest year known to science.
This is very different from what we have seen in the past. Even climate scientists are puzzled by the extent and rapidity of the decline. One climate scientist told The Washington Post that the planet was probably the warmest it has been since the last ice age began more than 100,000 years ago.
To Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the onslaught of broken records is sobering but not surprising. Humanity continues to burn fossil fuels at an ever-increasing pace, and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than the world has seen in roughly 3 million years.
So, think of 2024 as not the warmest year in the last 100 years, but the coolest in the next 100 years. We are inevitably in for a rough ride.
Source: “Here’s what the hottest summer on Earth looked like,” by Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post, Sept. 5, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/09/05/hottest-summer-record-heatwave-global-temperature/
2023 officially the hottest year on record
January 11, 2024
Scientists knew it would make history, but not by this much.
Data released by Europe’s top climate agency confirms 2023 was the hottest year in recorded human history, shattering the previous global temperature record by almost two-tenths of a degree—the largest jump scientists have ever observed. Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, called the anomalies “on the edge of what was plausible…There were simply no cities, no books, agriculture or domesticated animals on this planet the last time the temperature was so high,” he said.
Month after month global temperatures didn’t just break records, they surpassed them by far. This year could be even warmer.
Averaged across last year, temperatures worldwide were 2.66 degrees Fahrenheit higher than they were in the second half of the 19th century. That is warmer by a sizable margin than 2016, the previous hottest year.
To climate scientists, it comes as no surprise that unabated emissions of greenhouse gases caused global warming to reach new highs. What researchers are still trying to understand is whether 2023 foretells many more years in which heat records are not merely broken, but smashed.
Sources: The Washington Post, Jan. 9, 2024; The New York Times, Jan. 9, 2024.
One Lawsuit That Explains the Climate Crisis
September 5, 2023
A new lawsuit in Puerto Rico explains a lot about the battle over climate change. It may even hold some of the world’s worst polluters accountable.
A group of Puerto Rican municipalities is suing some of the biggest fossil fuel companies in the world, including Exxon, Chevron and Shell, arguing that they are partly to blame for thousands of deaths and more than $100 billion worth of damages caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
According to an article in The New York Times, the lawsuit manages to tell the story of the climate crisis: How the rampant burning of fossil fuels heated the planet, how oil and gas companies caused much of the damage but downplayed the dangers, and how we are all now suffering the consequences in the form of more extreme weather.
Legal experts say that if the companies are found liable, the potential damages could run into the hundreds of billions of dollars.
And that’s the good news.
Source: The New York Times, Climate Forward, by David Gelles. July 19, 2023.
Stop Dirty Banks
March 25, 2023
The urgency of halting climate change that threatens all species on the planet, including humankind, has never been greater. And the fossil fuel industry is to blame. On March 20th, a dire report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that nations must rapidly shift their economies away from fossil fuels to prevent the most catastrophic consequences of climate change, including several feet of sea level rise, the extinction of hundreds of species, and the migration of millions of people from places where they can no longer survive.
What can you do about it? Remove any money you have in the country’s four largest banks—Chase, Bank of America, Citi, and Wells Fargo. Since the 2015 adoption of the Paris Climate Accord, these four banks together have poured a combined $1.2 trillion in lending and underwriting to companies building new coal plants, natural gas pipelines, and other fossil fuel infrastructure.
“In certain ways, if we can get the banks to shift, that would probably have more global impact than getting Congress to shift,” declared Bill McKibben, author and climate activist who launched Third Act in 2021. “Washington doesn’t really run the world anymore,” he said. “But Wall Street kind of does.”
There you have it. One important action you can take now. Today.
Join Third Act
March 25, 2023
On March 21st something pretty incredible occurred in front of the country’s four largest banks—Chase, Bank of America, Citi, and Wells Fargo. Across the country, senior citizens sitting in rocking chairs blocked entrances to these four banks, part of a national campaign to pressure them to stop financing fossil fuels and heed warnings from leading scientists about the need to rapidly phase out oil, gas, and coal to avert the worse effects of climate change.
Rocking chairs are the brainchild of Third Act, a group seeking to engage Americans 60 and older—those in their “third act of life”—in environmental activism. But demonstrations have drawn attendees of all ages in 100 cities across 29 states. The protests add to mounting environmental pressures on Wall Street from politicians of both parties to cut ties with the fossil fuel industry.
“If you’re 65 now, you’ve been on this planet for something like 80 percent of the carbon dioxide that’s ever been emitted. There’s a debt to be paid, and there are ways to pay it,” declared Bill McKibben, the author and climate activist who launched Third Act in 2021.
For more info, check out https://thirdact.org.
Sources: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/third-act-climate-activists-protest-banks-that-for-investing-in-fossil-fu/; https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/03/21/climate-banks-protest-fossil-fuels/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_climatecoach&wpisrc=nl_climatecoach
We Can’t Address Climate Change Before Addressing the Problem of Fossil Fuels
January 26, 2023
The oil and gas sector is one the largest and fastest-growing sources of carbon emissions, so we can’t address climate change without it.
Because of how deep the industry’s pockets are, it can lobby government constantly and flood the airwaves, billboards, bus shelter ads, social media and on-line advertising to mislead the public, media and governments into believing that oil and gas is clean, ethical, necessary and good for the economy. This is not true!
In this classic David and Goliath scenario, our power is in numbers. We need hundreds of people to help counter the lies by writing a letter to the editor of your local news outlet to set the record straight. We must begin to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels to meet the 2030 and 2050 climate targets necessary for a livable planet.
Please, spread the word. Write your local news outlet today.
Natural Gas is NOT Green
February 1, 2023
In Ohio, natural gas is now legally labeled as “green.” When Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed legislation this month to redefine natural gas as a source of “green energy,” supporters characterized it as a grass-roots effort to recognize the state’s largest energy source. But, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, the effort was far from home-grown. Dark money in the form of lobbyists with ties to the gas industry helped push the narrative that the fuel is green. Critics have called the legislation “Orwellian.”
Natural gas has often been mistaken as “green” simply because it isn’t as hazardous to the environment as coal. Large gas companies sometimes use that distinction to market their product as “green” when in fact it is not. For example, just this week Royal Dutch Shell Co. was accused of “greenwashing” for marketing it’s gas as green.
Make no mistake about it—natural gas is a fossil fuel. Unlike renewable energy sources like wind and solar energy, fossil fuels emit significant amounts of greenhouse gases, leading contributors to climate change. To avoid confusion, “natural gas” should be called “methane gas.”
Source: The Washington Post, Jan. 17, 2023. Climate 202.
10 steps you can take to lower your carbon footprint
Small changes alone won’t stop climate change, but your actions are still worthwhile
Sept. 21, 2022
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/02/22/climate-change-actions-carbon-footprint/
Gas stoves pose a greater risk to the planet than previously thought
February 9, 2022
A study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology (January 27, 2022) revealed that gas stoves release more methane, a potent greenhouse gas, than the Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Gas stoves also emit significant amounts of nitrogen dioxide, an air pollutant that can trigger asthma and other respiratory conditions.
These findings come as scientists and climate advocates increasingly urge homeowners to switch to all-electric stoves, water boilers, and other appliances.
Methane, the main component of natural gas, is the second-largest contributor to climate change among greenhouse gases. Although it dissipates more quickly then carbon dioxide, it is more than 80 times as powerful in the first 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere.
“If you have the financial ability to swap out a gas stovetop for an electric induction cooktop, it’s a good idea,” said Rob Jackson, co-author of the study and a professor at Stanford. “It’s a good idea for the planet and for air quality.”
The American Gas Association, a trade group representing more than 200 companies, defends the industry’s efforts to reduce its climate impact.
With Ford’s New F-150 Pickup Truck, “Green Energy” Set to Become Mainstream
May 30, 2021
Thanks to Ford Motor Company’s groundbreaking innovation, its iconic F-150 pickup truck, the best-selling vehicle on Planet Earth, is poised to become the first all-electric pickup truck on the market. If produced and purchased at scale, trucks such as this one could revolutionize car culture and eventually shrink the country’s carbon footprint. Ford’s F-series is in a league of its own, with about 800,000 trucks sold last year.
Called the F-150 Lightning, it looks as good or superior to its traditional combustion-engine cousin in almost every way. The F-150 Lightning can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 4.4 seconds. It can tow up to 10,000 pounds. Its battery can be used as a backup power source, which could power a house for up to three days, according to Ford, or charge a full set of power tools. Its standard-range battery is expected to travel 230 miles on a full charge, while the extended-range battery reaches an additional 300 miles. Not as far as the range on a gas-powered truck, but still pretty good.
Then there’s the price. The base model starts at $40,000. When tax incentives for electric vehicles are factored in (such as a $7,500 federal tax credit), the Lightning is expected to be one of the least expensive full-size pickups on the market, gas or electric, when it hits the road in 2022.
It’s revolutionary
By Linda Mason Hunter
Wow! I am so out-of-this-world impressed. I just watched a YouTube video about the new Ford F-150 Lightning, the all-electric version due to roll off the factory for the 2022 season. Watch the video yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2npVg9ONFo.
You could live out of this vehicle. Because it doesn’t have a gas-powered motor, the front trunk holds two sets of golf clubs; fill it with ice and it becomes a refrigerator. It even has a drain for water. small flat table that pops up when the gear shift retracts, creating a desk for a laptop or for keeping accounts. (Something I have ALWAYS wanted for long road trips.) There are more power outlets to charge electronic devices than most people would use. Perhaps best of all, in case of a power outage, this truck can power your entire house for three days! And it doesn’t hurt for oomph, either. True to its name, the Ford F-150 Lightning can go from zero to 60 in 4.4 seconds and travels 300 miles on a full charge.
Designers have thought of everything. No wonder Ford-150s are the most popular vehicle in the world, selling 800,000 trucks a year. It’s smart, ahead of the curve, and promises to revolutionize the battle for clean energy.
Kudos.
Coast-to-Coast Crises Waiting to Happen
March 6, 2021
Excerpt from the New York Times
Last month, when extreme weather knocked out power and water in Texas, it represented a profound warning for the rest of the country: The nation’s vital infrastructure remains fundamentally unprepared for the shocks of climate change.
Experts said the problem isn’t just under investment, but the assumption that it’s good enough to design and build infrastructure to meet the environmental conditions of the past. Climate change is upending that assumption.
What’s at stake is everything that underpins modern life, including roads and railways, dams, drinking water and sewer systems, power plants, industrial waste sites and even our homes. A lot of our infrastructure systems have a tipping point, and the tipping point could be an inch.
“A lot of our infrastructure systems have a tipping point, and the tipping point could be an inch,” Jennifer M. Jacobs, a professor civil and environmental engineering at the University of New Hampshire, told The New York Times.
Prepare yourself for an unprecedented environmental event. Here in Iowa, I have a solar backup battery, candles, a battery-operated radio and clock, and a generator purchased after the state’s fluke Derecho last August. I’ve got to figure out a way to stockpile water. I was doing it for a while in large containers housed in the basement, but you’re supposed to change the water every six months, and that became a nuisance for me. I have a couple of rain barrels that provide water in summer, so that helps.
Source: “Coast-to-coast crises waiting to happen,” by Christopher Fiavelle; New York Times, Feb. 24, 2021.
The World’s Rich Need to Cut Their Carbon Footprint By a Factor of 30 To Slow Climate Change
December 9, 2020
Despite a sharp drop in greenhouse gas emissions during the pandemic, the world remains on pace for catastrophic warming in coming decades. Humankind, particularly the rich among us, needs to drastically alter its policies and behavior, according to new findings published by the United Nations and reported in The Washington Post.
Currently, emissions attributable to the richest 1% of the global population account for more than double those of the poorest 50%. Shifting that balance will require swift and substantial lifestyle changes, including decreases in air travel, a rapid embrace of renewable energy and electric vehicles, and better public planning to encourage walking, bicycle riding, and public transit.
In addition, nations need to “roughly triple” their current emissions-cutting pledges to limit the Earth’s warming to “well below” 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the preindustrial average — a central aim of the Paris climate agreement. That goal would require rapid and profound changes in how societies travel, produce electricity, and eat.
“We’d better make these shifts, because while Covid has been bad, there is hope at the end of the tunnel with a vaccine,” the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program said. “But there is no vaccine for the planet.”
Solar Energy Now the Cheapest Electricity in History
October, 2020
Many things in the world aren’t going well, to put it mildly. But in October the fight against climate change got some excellent news. According to The Atlantic magazine, “The International Energy Agency announced, in its enormously influential annual report, that solar energy is now the ‘cheapest electricity in history.’ At the same time, it substantially downgraded its forecast for coal, saying that coal will soon enter a prolonged and irreversible decline. That means global carbon pollution could peak in the next several years—though, without further policy, it will not decline as rapidly as needed to avoid catastrophic global warming.
“But in the past few years the outlook has brightened—even as the disastrous consequences of climatic upheaval have gotten worse. For years, the goal of climate policy was to make renewable energy cost-competitive with fossil fuels. Now that’s a reality.”
To Combat Climate Change We Need Sufficiency Before Efficiency
February, 2020
Thoughtful leaders of the environmental movement tell us four radical changes of habit are needed for the climate revolution—Radical Efficiency, Radical Decarbonization, Radical Sufficiency, and Radical Simplicity. Of these, Radical Sufficiency must come first, argues Adrian Hiel in a discussion of the Green New Deal being proposed in Europe.
He starts with the classic example of the clothes dryer, where people are paying more for more efficient and complex condensing and heat pump dryers that will save terawatts electricity, as much as it takes to run the Island of Malta. But Hiel notes: “These are astonishing figures and a massive victory in the fight for efficiency. They are also, however, a failure in terms of combatting climate change. How much energy would have been saved, how many emissions avoided, had we simply given everyone clothes drying racks? Clothes drying racks are not about efficiency, they are about sufficiency.”
Another example is the idea of replacing internal combustion cars with electric vehicles. There’s no question they are more energy efficient. But we need sufficiency first, where we replace cars with walking, cycling and public transport.
Once place the environmental movement has gone wrong is with its emphasis on energy efficiency. We will never hit our carbon targets if we just keep trying to make stuff more efficient. We have to figure out what we really need, not what we really want. We must move beyond efficiency. It is the only way of delivering the daunting cuts in emissions that we have to deliver in order to slow down the devastating effects of climate change.
Source: “Why We Need Sufficiency First,” by Lloyd Alter, treehugger.com, January 23, 2020. https://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/why-we-need-sufficiency-first.htmlTo
Climate Change: A Health Challenge
May 1, 2019
It’s not a pretty outlook, but one we should prepare for. Experts say mounting environmental pressures will make people sicker, and that the health-care system will play a major role in averting disaster.
A major report published in the journal The Lancet provides predictions of how climate change is degrading human health. The report, sponsored by 27 academic institutions, a collection of intergovernmental agencies, and the UN, lists three main ways in which a warming world will affect our health.
For one, the heat itself and the increased intensity and duration of heat waves will make people sick with dehydration and heat stroke, along with exacerbating existing conditions and reducing the productivity of workers. Children and seniors are the most vulnerable.
Second, the rising severity and frequency of extreme weather events will elevate threats to health, as well as threats to health systems—think PTSD and a growing number of climate refugees.
Third, warmer seasons and warmer water mean the range for illnesses carried by ticks and mosquitoes will expand, putting more Americans in the crosshairs of diseases such as Lyme disease, West Nile virus, the growth of bacteria and food-borne illnesses.
The report points to evidence already indicating links between hotter temperatures and mental health and cognitive issues; increases in kidney diseases, preterm births, and respiratory diseases; heat exhaustion, and the advance of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. One estimate cited in the report finds that more than 3,000 additional people across the country will die prematurely because of higher temperatures by 2050.
Our health care system needs to address these issues, keeping people as safe as possible. Think about this when it comes to who to vote for in the next election.
Source: “How Climate Change Is Challenging American Health Care,” by Vann R. Newkirk II. The Atlantic, Dec. 6, 2018.
interesting reading
April 27, 2019
Falter, a new book by Bill McKibbin, asks if the human game has begun to play itself out. It’s a depressing yet convincing read. Here’s an interview with McKibbin which recently aired on “Democracy Now.” https://www.democracynow.org/2019/4/15/falter_in_new_book_bill_mckibben?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=3ed1525095-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-3ed1525095-19185591
When did the era of human-fueled climate change officially start? Some scientists pinpoint the date as 1950, 69 years ago, the date when human influence over the environment reached a tipping point, some are calling it the year a new geological era began on Earth.
A recent article in The Atlantic magazine discusses this theory.
“Portrait of a Planet on the Verge of Climate Catastrophe?” by Robin McKie. The Guardian, Dec. 2, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/02/world-verge-climate-catastophe?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwAR3iwoLLI-QCSgB3Gt4Q_11fI9ZDUIUuLzme84BA-MUB2VEP76NgxWIOyZw
“We Are Not Prepared to Die: Ex-Maldives President Warns of Catastrophic Climate Change.” Democracy Now, December 14, 2018. https://www.democracynow.org/2018/12/14/we_are_not_prepared_to_die?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=2a5b7ed16c-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-2a5b7ed16c-191855917
“The Oil Industry’s Covert Campaign to Rewrite American Car Emissions Rules,” by Hiroko Tabuchi, Dec. 13, 2018. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/climate/cafe-emissions-rollback-oil-industry.html?emc=edit_clim_20181213&nl=climate-fwd&nlid=6897910120181213&te=1
Make Your Voice Heard
April 28, 2019
It’s happening, folks. Buckle up. We’re only at the wee small beginning of the havoc climate change will bring. Expect weather-related curve balls for quite a few years to come. Believe me.
* Despite a polar vortez that dumped record cold on us, 2018 was the fourth-warmest year on record, with the five hottest years occurring in the past five years.
* A huge hole in one of the largest glaciers in Antarctica is causing accelerated melting there, while across that continent, large lakes of meltwater are bending, buckling and threatening to collapse these vast ice sheets — all leading to rapidly increasing global sea level rise.
* A recent review of scientific data concludes that 40% of the world’s insects are on the brink of extinction, evidence that the planet is experiencing what has been called “the sixth great extinction.”
It’s hard to find hope in such doom and gloom, but there is light on the horizon. A new crop of young representatives in Congress have submitted a resolution to Congress recognizing “the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal.” The proposal is facing stiff opposition, but the suggestion has already been made public. That’s progress of a sort. Now it’s up to we the people to make our voices heard, to stand up for the rights of our children, to be an advocate for our planet.
Five Radical Steps
October, 2018
Scared by the new report on climate change? Issued this month by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (composed of 91 scientists from around the world), the massive study reports we have just 12 years to limit civilization-altering catastrophe. Believe it! We’re already seeing the effects of global warming in an increase in wildfires, flooding, drought, massive hurricanes, food shortages, rapid ice melt in the arctic.
It’s really hard to be optimistic when you read the panel’s dire predictions--destruction of whole eco-systems, the disappearance of some island nations, unpredictable changes to weather patterns, millions of climate refugees. The report offers a best case scenario, laying out humanity’s last best hope for managing climate change. But it does so against a backdrop of generational failure.
Burning carbon is the problem. It causes carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to build up in the atmosphere, warming the planet. According to the World Resources Institute, the biggest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions are transportation and residential buildings. Next are chemicals (mostly plastics) and methane from agriculture, mostly meat (which alone is responsible for 30% of carbon emissions).
It’s clear that federal and state governments aren’t going to do much about all this. It’s up to cities and individuals, like you and me. Here's what you can do to help:
• Eat less meat (especially beef), or none at all.
• Swap your car or plane ride for a bus or train. Bike. Walk.
• Make energy efficiency a priority. First, change every lightbulb to LED. Then upgrade to more efficient appliances. Retrofit your house to be as energy efficient as possible. If you can’t add more insulation or seal another crack or hole, consider installing a smart thermostat.
Change your life. A good article by Lloyd Alter in treehugger.com lays out a five-step philosophy we should all incorporate into our daily lives, starting today. The five steps are: Radical simplicity. Radical efficiency. Radical frugality. Radical decarbonization. And, lastly, but immensely important: Vote.
Step 1: Radical Simplicity. How much do you really need? Think about it. Since the 1950s America’s economy has been based on consumerism. But we’ve gone too far. Our landfills are overflowing; 99% of the stuff we harvest, mine, process, transport, and consume is trash within six months (Annie Leonard, “The Story of Stuff”). That should make you stop and think.
Start a program of radical simplicity today. Scale back. Buy only what you need. Use only simple, appropriate technology. Remember, the pace of nature is medium to slow. Embrace mindfulness. Declutter your surroundings. Edit your wardrobe. Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
Step 2:Radical Efficiency. First, change every lightbulb to LED. That’s easy. Then upgrade to more efficient appliances. Retrofit your house to be as energy efficient as possible. If you can’t add more insulation or seal another crack or hole, consider installing a smart thermostat.
Be wary of what passes for “smart technology.” Most “smart home” devices are complicated, break down, don’t get support, or people don’t know how to use them. Keep it simple.
Step 3: Radical Frugality. It’s a no-brainer. Buy less stuff. Use it up-Wear it out-Make do. Almost everything you buy has embodied carbon. Even buying something made with recycled aluminum increases demand for virgin aluminum, and plastics are basically solid fossil fuels. Consumption may keep the economy spinning, but there is a huge price in carbon. Ultimately, environmentalism stems from acts of doing less: less consumption, fewer carbon emissions, less wastefulness, less carelessness.
Step 4: Radical Decarbonization—Electrify Everything. We have to cut back on our use of fossil fuels to the point that the oil and gas companies are forced to leave it in the ground because there is so little demand. According to treehugger.com, that means getting our homes off gas, switching to induction ranges for cooking, mini heat pumps for heating and cooling. Switch to walking, bikes, e-bikes, scooters, transit, electric cars.
In our buildings, we have to use less concrete and more wood. We have to fix and renovate instead of building new. We have to stop using foamed plastic insulations and get rid of PVC.
Step 5:VOTE! In the end this is the only thing that will save us. It’s up to you and me to turn this around. Vote for people who care about climate change and are willing to fight for change.
Sources: “How to understand the U.N.’s dire new climate report,” by Robinson Meyer. The Atlantic, October 9, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/how-to-understand-the-uns-dire-new-climate-report/572356/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20181019&silverid-ref=MzMzMTY0OTY4NTgzS0
“Climate catastrophe seen just 12 years away,” by Justin Worland, Time Magazine, Oct. 22, 2018, page 12.
“Five radical steps you can take to combat climate change,” by Lloyd Alter; treehugger.com, October 10, 2018. https://www.treehugger.com/climate-change/five-radical-steps-we-can-take-fight-climate-change.htm
One of the most potent greenhouse gases is rising faster than ever
September 20, 2024
Methane emissions from fossil fuels, farms and landfills will make it impossible for the world to maintain a safe climate, scientists say.
Emissions of methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — are rising at the fastest rate in recorded history, scientists said Tuesday, defying global pledges to limit the gas and putting the Earth on a path toward perilous temperature rise.
Source: The Washington Post, By Sarah Kaplan, Sept. 20, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/09/10/methane-emissions-increase-climate/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert
2024 Sets Record for Number of Tornadoes in Iowa
By Chris Gloninger
October, 2024
On April 26th a major tornado outbreak ripped through western Iowa. There were 44 confirmed tornadoes that day. While the record number of tornadoes on a given day is still 70, back in December, 2021, the year 2024 holds the record for the greatest number of twisters in a year. As of mid-September, 131 twisters had touched down across the state, at least three of them considered strong, an EF2 or greater.
Recent research indicates that multiple tornadoes occurring in a concentrated period of time are becoming more frequent, especially the most extreme ones. Why is this happening?
According to a study published in Climate and Atmospheric Science, while the overall annual frequency of tornadoes has remained relatively stable, there have been changes in where and when tornadoes are most likely to occur. Specifically, the Great Plains—traditionally known as “Tornado Alley”—has seen a decline in tornado activity, while the Midwest and Southeast have experienced an increase. This eastward shift in tornado activity aligns with the observed eastward movement of the 100th meridian, which traditionally marks the boundary between the more arid western United States and the more humid eastern regions, suggesting that climate change could be acting as a threat multiplier, making extreme weather events more severe or more frequent.
Warmer temperatures can lead to more moisture in the atmosphere, which in turn can fuel more intense storms. Additionally, changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, influenced by a warming climate, could be contributing to the shifting geographic distribution of tornadoes.
As we continue to navigate a warming world, it is crucial to stay informed and prepared. Understanding the evolving nature of tornado risks will be essential for building resilient communities and mitigating the impacts of these devastating storms.
Source: “Iowa’s Tornado Surge: Exploring the Links Between Climate Change and Increasing Weather,” by Chris Gloninger, Weathering Climate Change, Iowa Writers Collaborative Roundup.
A Summer to Remember
August 2, 2023
If you don’t think we’re burning up the planet, look around: Maui got toasted as people jumped into the ocean to flee the fire. LA does not get hurricanes, but now it does. Entire towns in Canada were evacuated as people fled from wildfires. The smoke gaged the Midwest.
On the East Coast torrential rains caused extensive flooding from Philadelphia to Vermont, disrupting summer camps and vacation plans.
From June 30 to July 30 citizens in Phoenix, Arizona endured 110+ degree heat every day for 31 days, shattering the record of 18 days set in 1974. Daytime temperatures in July soared as high as 119 degrees.
On the Aegean Coast of Turkey, two straight months of unbearable heat and humidity combined to create a sea literally steaming with evaporation and winds moving the moisture to land.
Dozens of people died amid unusally heavy downpours that pummeled the northern part of India causing widespread damage.
Extreme temperatures in Spain, Italy, and Greece forced the closure of major tourist sites, including the Acropolis in Athens.
Summers in Australia have become overshadowed by fears of extreme heat and out-of-controlled wildfires.
It’s not hard to imagine a future where summer no longer conjures up innocent visions of ice cream, sunbathing, and swimming. And the future looks even hotter as humankind’s emission of heat-trapping gases are compounded by the recurring climate pattern known as El Nino, which is just getting started.
Buckle up folks. Climate change is no longer a myth. Now we must reap what we have sown.
It’s Time to Change Your Laundry Routine
January 25, 2023
Washing can be the most significant thing you do to your clothes. It can cause your clothes to shrink, become misshapen, fade, or pill. It also shortens the life of your clothes, causing you to buy more clothes. And don’t forget about energy, water, and detergents used in the process, which can release microplastics into waterways and exacerbate the problem of microplastic pollution. It’s a double whammy.
Dryers are environmental culprits, as well. They’re energy gobblers, and when combined with machine washing can quickly wear out your clothes. Making simple changes to your laundry routine can go a long way to helping you reduce emissions, save money, and take better care of your clothes.
Choosing more efficient washers and dryers is a good first step. Energy Star certified washing machines generally use 25% less energy and 33% less water than regular models. Certified dryers are 20% more efficient.
But even if you have high efficient machines, it’s still important to cut down on the laundry loads you’re doing. Every time you put a garment in the washing machine some of it goes down the drain. We lose another piece of it in the dryer, in the lint trap. So we’re disintegrating our clothes.
Here are a few good tips:
· Wash your clothes in cold water, and don’t wash them so much.
· Don’t use single use detergent pods.
· Hand wash delicate fabrics, like wool and silk.
· When the weather cooperates, dry them outdoors on a clothesline in the sunshine where they’re exposed to UV rays. Or inside on a drying rack.
· Dry clothes back-to-back in the dryer to make use of residual heat.
· Hang up your clothes in the bathroom while you’re showering or use an at-home steamer to de-wrinkle and refresh them.
Protecting older trees is a simple climate solution
February 21, 2022
While policymakers look to shiny new technologies to solve the climate crisis, advocates say that safeguarding trees has long been a simple way to store carbon dioxide, preventing the potent greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere and warming the planet. This is often called the climate solution you don’t have to invent. Trees are literally standing right there in front of us.
Right now there isn’t anything that protects old-growth trees in our national forests, so several environmental agencies are looking to put those protections in place. U.S. forests stored about 58.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020, according to the Congressional Research Service. While data was not broken down by the age of the forests, expert say that older trees store more carbon than younger trees. Old growth forests can also prevent erosion, protect drinking water, and provide habitat for fish and wildlife.
So, if you’re looking for something you can do to protect our environment, a contribution to one of these environmental organizations would be a good place to start. They are the Sierra Club, Environment America, Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Wild Heritage.
Innovations Like These May Save Us
September 9, 2021
new eco-city in the desert
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/telosa-marc-lore-blake-ingels-new-city/index.html
artificial glaciers store water
https://mashable.com/video/artificial-glaciers-fresh-water-desert-himalayas
icelandic plant captures co2 from the atmosphere
Big Changes Afoot for Oil and Gas
May 26, 2021
It all happened one day in May. One after another, the three main oil and gas companies in the world took a giant step toward for “green energy.” This is huge news given that the fossil fuel industry is the biggest lobbying industry in the world, effecting major political decisions and causing wars. All that may be about to change, heralding a new era for Planet Earth.
All in the course of one day—May 26, 2021--a Dutch court issued a ruling and court order that requires a massive oil company, Royal Dutch Shell (the biggest oil company in the world outside of China) to cut its emissions by 45 percent by the end of this decade.
Then, right after that, Boom! It happens to Chevron. A shareholders meeting and an overwhelming vote by Chevron shareholders requiring Chevron to radically cut its emissions, too.
And then boom, another one all in the same day. A huge one, Exxon, the flagship American oil and gas giant, which has led the way for so long in promoting climate denial and conspiracy theories. Exxon, against its will, had its shareholders dump some of its board of directors and install new ones, who are going to make Exxon do a U-turn on climate, including specifically its plans to keep expanding its drilling operations.
And it all happened in the span of a few hours -- Shell, Chevron, Exxon.
Source: Heather Cox Richardson, May 26, 2021.
Despite pandemic, level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hits historic levels
"If we want to avoid catastrophic climate change, the highest priority must be to reduce CO2 pollution to zero at the earliest possible date,” one top scientist says.
June 7, 2021
Economies worldwide nearly ground to a halt over the 15 months of the coronavirus pandemic, leading to a startling drop in global greenhouse gas emissions. But that did little to slow the steady accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which reached the highest levels since accurate measurements began 63 years ago, scientists said June 7th.
“Fossil fuel burning is really at the heart of this. If we don’t tackle fossil fuel burning, the problem is not going to go away,” Ralph Keeling, a geochemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said in an interview with The Washington Post, adding that the world ultimately will have to make emissions cuts that are “much larger and sustained” than anything that happened during the pandemic.
Scientists from Scripps and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide peaked in May, reaching a monthly average of nearly 419 parts per million. That represents an increase from the May 2020 mean of 417 parts per million, and it marks the highest level since measurements began 63 years ago at the NOAA observatory in Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Twice in 2021, daily levels recorded at the observatory have exceeded 420 parts per million, researchers said.
It's not significant in the sense that we are surprised. It was fully expected,” Pieter Tans, a senior scientist with NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory, said in an interview. “It’s significant in that it shows are are still fully on the wrong track.” Tans noted that humans continue to add about 40 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution to the atmosphere each year, and that avoiding catastrophic changes to the climate will require reducing that number to zero as quickly as possible.
Source: The Washington Post, June 7, 2021
Our Natural World is Out of Balance
By Linda Mason Hunter
March 6, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has completely disrupted our status quo. This is clear evidence that our relationship with the natural world is out of balance. We now find ourselves in a time of great humbling. As a global society, we are being reminded that:
* Nature is the true bottom line.
* Science and knowledge are essential to our survival.
* We are all connected — what happens on one side of Earth affects us all.
* We have agency; our actions matter! What each of us chooses to do (like staying home and washing our hands!) has a great impact on others.
These are powerful teachings that the world has reawakened to today. These truths are also pillars of The Green Zone philosophy. We are uniquely positioned to serve as an amplifier of the work our country needs to do now to advance climate solutions, maintain ecosystems where nature is thriving again, and create sustainable communities.
I’m passionate about healing our human relationship with Earth, but how we relate to each other as a human family is important. We will not find a sustainable way of being without respect for each other, regardless of race, gender, or political persuasion. Thank you for being on this journey, for the protection of nature’s diversity, and the well-being of all life, now and for the future.
Next Time You Buy a Car, Make It Electric
May 31, 2021
Here’s a fun fact: The transportation sector is the biggest source of planet-warming emissions in the United States.
Here’s another: The majority of those emissions come from cars and light-duty trucks — the vehicles people drive to work, school, the grocery store, and grandma’s house.
This means one of the most powerful individual actions people can take against climate change is to change the way they get around.
One way to achieve that is to buy an electric vehicle, which produces about a third as much carbon dioxide per as a gasoline-powered car. If you’re able to charge your car from completely renewable sources — say, solar panels on the roof of your garage — you can drive as long as you want without generating any emissions at all.
Traditional vehicles aren’t just bad for the environment — they’re wasteful. As little as 12 percent of the energy from a car’s gasoline fuel goes toward making it move. Most internal combustion engine cars are so inefficient that the vast majority of energy produced by burning gas gets lost as heat or wasted overcoming friction from the air and road. Ultimately, all that carbon winds up in the sky, where it helps drive up the average temperature of the planet.
By contrast, battery electric vehicles are between 60 and 100 percent efficient. Even if the electricity that powers them comes from fossil fuel sources, they’re using a lot less of it, so their emissions are far lower.
Cost of a new electric vehicle can be expensive—between $30,000 and $40,000--but as more are produced that cost is expected to come down. Electric vehicles also tend to have lower fuel and maintenance costs, making them cheaper over the course of their lifetime. Many states offer rebates which can lower the cost, as well, sometimes by as much as $8,000.
Source: U.S. EPA, https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions.
Pay Attention to Climate Change
December, 2018
Climate change is a scientific fact. It’s not something you “believe” in, like ghosts. If you deny the theory of gravity, you’ll still fall to earth if you jump from an airplane. That’s how it is with climate change. Just because you don’t believe in it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It does, and it’s going to change your life, if it hasn’t already.
What to tell the nay-sayers? Those who believe current brutal winters with record low temperatures cannot be a sign of global warming? Tell them there’s a difference between weather on one hand and climate on the other. Climate is a long-term trend. You can’t prove climate change by one warm winter or disprove it by a cold day. You have to look at long-term trends, and what we are seeing now is really clear. It’s about averages.
Remember 2012? We had a heat wave in the U.S. that cost us $35 billion in crops. The average temperature that year was a couple degrees above normal. Can you imagine when it’s 7 degrees? Ten degrees? In 30 years—by 2050—the average temperature is predicted to rise by at least seven degrees. By the end of the century it will be an entirely different world. Best to prepare for it as best you can.
Two New Reports
In September, a report issued by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, written by 91 scientists (many of whom are Nobel Prize winners), stated we have 12 years to radically reduce our use of fossil fuels before climate change starts to effect entire civilizations, including human, animal, and plant kingdoms. If left unchecked, as it is now, what we perceive as a slight rise in average temperature, humidity, and precipitation will have profound impacts on agriculture and forestry, among other things, costing the economy hundreds of billions of dollars per year, and killing thousands of Americans. Many consequences of climate change will last for millennia, and some (such as the extinction of plant and animal species) will be permanent.
Another recent report, the National Climate Assessment issued by the United States—including 13 federal agencies and 300 scientists—is the most comprehensive climate change report to date, representing decades of research; a huge achievement for American science. By law, a National Climate Assessment like this must be published every four years. Issued the day after Thanksgiving, 2018, the massive report begins with this blunt assessment. “Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities. The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”
The report tells this story, laying simple fact on simple fact. “Since 1901, the United States has warmed 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat waves now arrive earlier in the year and abate later than they did in the 1960s. Mountain snowpack in the West has shrunk dramatically in the past half century. Sixteen of the warmest 17 years on record have occurred since 2000.”
This trend “can only be explained by the effects that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, have had on the climate.” It warns that if humans wish to avoid 3.6 degrees of warming, they must dramatically cut this kind of pollution by 2040. On the other hand, if greenhouse-gas emissions continue to rise, then the Earth could warm by as much as 9 degrees by 2100. That will not only change eco-systems, it will change human civilizations.
The report warns, repeatedly and directly, that climate change could soon imperil the American way of life, transforming every region of the country, imposing frustrating costs on the economy, and harming the health of virtually every citizen.
At this point, such an idea might be common wisdom—but this does not make it any less shocking, or less correct. For centuries, humans have lived near the ocean, assuming that the sea will not often move from its fixed location. They have planted wheat at its time, and corn at its time, assuming that the harvest will not often falter. They have delighted in December snow, and looked forward to springtime blossoms, assuming that the seasons will not shift from their course. Now, the sea is lifting above its shore, the harvest is faltering, and the seasons arrive and depart in disorder.
Changes in the U.S.
The new federal report presents a dire scenario for each region of the country, describing the local upheavals wrought by a global transformation. Across the Southeast, massive wildfires—like those seen in California—could soon become a regular occurrence, smothering Atlanta and other cities in toxic smog. In New England and the mid-Atlantic, oceanfront barrier islands could erode and narrow. And in the Midwest, plunging yields of corn, soybeans, wheat, and rice.
If carbon pollution continues to rise, a huge swath of the Atlantic coast—from North Carolina to Maine—will see sea-level rise of five feet by 2100. New Orleans, Houston, and the Gulf Coast could also face five feet of rising seas. Even Los Angeles and San Francisco could see the Pacific Ocean rise by three feet. Even if humanity were to reduce the burning of fossil fuels, the report forecasts that New Orleans could still see five feet of sea-level rise by 2100.
Andrew Light, one of the authors of the report, said that although the report cannot make policy recommendations, it might be read as an endorsement of the Paris Agreement on climate change.“If the United States were to try and achieve the targets in the Paris Agreement, then things will be bad, but we can manage,” he said. “But if we don’t meet them, then we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of lives every year that are at risk because of climate change. And hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Specifically, the report is grim for the Midwest and its industries over the next 100 years. Trends toward a warmer, wetter, and more humid climate will continue to negatively impact agriculture, manufacturing, ecosystems, and everyday life.
The number of frost-free days in Iowa is predicted to grow by ten over the next 30 years; by mid-century the number of frost-free days will grow by 20, and possibly grow by a whole month at the end of the 21st century. This means Iowa will have a climate more like Arkansas and northern Texas—warmer winters, hot simmering summers, more desert-like conditions.
It’s not that we care about a one-degree increase in global temperature in the abstract. We care about water, we care about food, we care about the economy—and every single one of those is affected by climate change.
Sources: “A Grave Climate Warning, Buried on Black Friday,” by Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, Nov. 23, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/national-climate-assessment-black-friday/576589/
“The Three Most Chilling Conclusions from the Climate Report,” by Rachel Gutman, The Atlantic, Nov. 26, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/most-chilling-parts-2018-climate-assessment/576598/.
“How to Understand the UN’s Dire New Climate Report,” by Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic. October 9, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/how-to-understand-the-uns-dire-new-climate-report/572356/
MAKE YOUR REGULAR CAR MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY
Even if you can’t afford an electric car, there are several things you can do to convert your traditional vehicle to a more eco-friendly one. Some of these are as simple as using different oil, while others involve changes to your driving habits. Here are some of the easiest things to make your vehicle more environmentally friendly:
Drive the speed limit and don’t rapidly accelerate. This helps save on gas.
Use synthetic oil and high-flow air filters.
Replace the spark plugs regularly.
Use cruise control to maintain your speed and reduce acceleration.
Perform regular car maintenance.
Turn off the car if you expect to idle for longer than 30 seconds.
Remove any excess weight from your vehicle.
Keep your tired properly inflated.
Use car covers to keep your vehicles safe when you’re not driving them or overnight.
You can also actually convert your car to something more friendly to the environment. Converting a standard engine to one that uses natural gas can be done with a CNG conversion kit. You can also change diesel engines to run on straight vegetable oil or on highly concentrated ethanol. You can even change your hybrid into a pure electric car, although these conversions are more expensive.
