climate change – Page 70 – Desdemona Despair

GOES-17 satellite view of the largest known stratospheric smoke injection, from Australia wildfires, 2 January 2020. This photo shows the first phase (29-31 December 2019) of the Australian New Year Super Outbreak (Anyso), which had unprecedented fire and pyrocumulonimbus cloud (pyroCb) activity. this event was the first known pyroCb “super outbreak”, with 32 updrafts over ~45hrs (day and night). Previous events recorded less than 10 updrafts in less than 24 hours. Photo: CIRA

December 16, 2020

Towering pyrocumulonimbus clouds can spew as much aerosol as volcanic eruptions – The Australian 2019-2020 outbreak exceeded previously unprecedented events “on almost every level”

By Carolyn Gramling 15 December 2020 (Science News) – A massive tower of smoke generated by Australian wildfires in late 2019 set a new record for the loftiest and largest fire-spawned thunderstorms ever measured. It also may represent a new class of volcanic-scale “pyrocumulonimbus” events, scientists said in an online news conference 11 December 2020 at […]

Screenshot from a video showing Greta Thunberg commenting on the world’s climate progress nearly five years after the Paris agreement, 10 December 2020. The world is in a ‘state of complete denial’. Photo: Guardian News

December 16, 2020

Greta Thunberg: We are still in denial despite Paris climate deal – “We are still speeding in the wrong direction”

11 December 2020 (AFP) – The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has condemned the “empty words” of world leaders in a video message released ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate accord on Saturday. Since world leaders pledged to limit global temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius in 2015, “a lot has happened, […]

Map showing the age of sea ice in the Arctic at winter maximum in 2000 (left, week of March 18) and 2020 (right, week of March 21). Ice older than 5 years (white) is very rare today; only a small ribbon remains along the islands of the Canadian Arctic. Age is a stand-in for ice thickness and durability; young ice is thinner and more likely to melt in the summer. NOAA Climate.gov map, based on data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Graphic: NOAA

December 14, 2020

Sea ice loss and extreme wildfires mark another year of Arctic change – “The transformation of the Arctic to a warmer, less frozen, and biologically changed region is well underway”

8 December 2020 (NOAA) – NOAA’s 15th Arctic Report Card catalogs for 2020 the numerous ways that climate change continues to disrupt the polar region, with second-highest air temperatures and second-lowest summer sea ice driving a cascade of impacts, including the loss of snow and extraordinary wildfires in northern Russia. The Arctic Report Card is […]

Screenshot from “Honest Government Ad: Kyoto Carryover Credits” by The Juice Media. Photo: The Juice Media

December 13, 2020

Honest Government Ad: Australia’s Kyoto Carryover Credits

By Giordano Nanni 11 December 2020 (The Juice Media) – This is a special double-length Honest Government Ad, featuring our first-ever time-travel historical sequence, because there’s just so much shitfuckery to cover. Hence why it took us a little longer than usual to research, write, and make this one. I had of course heard about […]

The global COVID-19 lockdowns caused fossil carbon dioxide emissions to decline by an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes in 2020 - a record drop according to researchers at the University of East Anglia, University of Exeter and the Global Carbon Project. It means that in 2020 fossil CO2 emissions are predicted to be approximately 34 GtCO2, seven per cent lower than in 2019. Emissions from transport account for the largest share of the global decrease. Those from surface transport, such as car journeys, fell by approximately half at the peak of the COVID lockdowns. Total CO2 emissions from human activities - from fossil CO2 and land-use change - are set to be around 39 GtCO2 in 2020. Video: UEA

December 12, 2020

COVID lockdown causes record drop in carbon dioxide emissions for 2020

11 December 2020 (UEA) – The global COVID-19 lockdowns caused fossil carbon dioxide emissions to decline by an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes in 2020 – a record drop according to researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA), University of Exeter, and the Global Carbon Project. The fall is considerably larger than previous significant decreases […]

Map showing surface air temperature anomaly for November 2020 relative to the November average for the period 1981-2010. Data source: ERA5. Graphic: Copernicus Climate Change Service / ECMWF

December 7, 2020

Global November temperatures reached a record high in 2020 – Europe experienced its warmest autumn on record

7 December 2020 (Copernicus Climate Change Service) – The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Commission, announced today that global average temperatures in November 2020 were the highest recorded for the month by a clear margin in the C3S data set. Reanalysis data […]

Overall state of all natural World Heritage sites in 2014, 2017, and 2020. Graphic: IUCN

December 7, 2020

Climate change now top threat to natural World Heritage sites – Great Barrier Reef declines to “critical” status

GLAND, SWITZERLAND, 2 December 2020 (IUCN) – Climate change is now the biggest threat to natural World Heritage, according to a report [pdf] published today by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). A third (33%) of natural World Heritage sites are threatened by climate change, including the world’s largest coral reef, the Great Barrier […]

Average daily CO2 emissions from 5 February to 6 May 2020 (red area) and average of the previous years during the same period (grey area) for three European cities. The dark grey horizontal bars cover periods of official lockdown, while the light grey bars indicate periods of partial lockdown or general restrictions (for example, school closures, reductions in personal contact, mobility constraints). Data: Integrated Carbon Observation System, 2020. Graphic: WMO

December 5, 2020

Carbon dioxide levels continue at record levels, despite COVID-19 lockdown – “The COVID-19 pandemic is not a solution for climate change”

GENEVA, 23 November 2020 (WMO) – The industrial slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has not curbed record levels of greenhouse gases which are trapping heat in the atmosphere, increasing temperatures, and driving more extreme weather, ice melt, sea-level rise, and ocean acidification, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The lockdown has cut emissions […]

Record flooding caused this landslide in Haines, Alaska on 2 December 2020. Photo: Seaba Heli / Facebook

December 3, 2020

“The wettest day ever”: At least 6 people missing, homes destroyed after record-breaking Southeast Alaska rainstorm

By Jessica Flores 3 December 2020 (USA TODAY) – Evacuations and search and rescue efforts were underway Wednesday after a record-breaking rainstorm swept across Southeast Alaska, triggering mudslides and widespread flooding. Multiple precipitation records were broken Tuesday across the region, including a single-day rainfall record from 1946, according to the National Weather Service in Juneau. […]

Global map of temperature anomalies relative to the 1981-2010 long-term average from the ERA5 reanalysis for January to October 2020. Graphic: Copernicus Climate Change Service / ECMWF

December 2, 2020

WMO: 2020 on track to be one of three warmest years on record – More than 80 percent of the global ocean experienced a marine heatwave in 2020

GENEVA, 2 December 2020 (WMO) – Climate change continued its relentless march in 2020, which is on track to be one of the three warmest years on record. 2011-2020 will be the warmest decade on record, with the warmest six years all being since 2015, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Ocean heat is at […]