technogenic disaster – Page 96

Projected geographical shift of the human temperature niche. (Top) Geographical position of the human temperature niche projected on the current situation (A) and the RCP8.5 projected 2070 climate (B). Those maps represent relative human distributions (summed to unity) for the imaginary situation that humans would be distributed over temperatures following the stylized double Gaussian model fitted to the modern data (the blue dashed curve in Fig. 2A). (C) Difference between the maps, visualizing potential source (orange) and sink (green) areas for the coming decades if humans were to be relocated in a way that would maintain this historically stable distribution with respect to temperature. The dashed line in A and B indicates the 5% percentile of the probability distribution. Graphic: Xu, et al., 2020 / PNAS

December 17, 2020

Broken societies put people and planet on a collision course, says UNDP – “No country in the world has yet achieved very high human development without putting immense strain on the planet”

NEW YORK, 15 December 2020 (HDRO) – The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest crisis facing the world, but unless humans release their grip on nature, it won’t be the last, according to a new report [pdf] by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which includes a new experimental index on human progress that takes into account countries’ […]

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 […]

Biomass and anthropogenic mass estimates since the beginning of the twentieth century on a dry-mass basis. The green line shows the total weight of thebiomass (dashed green lines, ±1 s.d.). Anthropogenic mass weight is plotted as an area chart, where the heights of the coloured areas represent the mass of the corresponding category accumulated until that year. The anthropogenic mass presented here is grouped into six major categories. The year 2020±6 marks the time at which biomass is exceeded by anthropogenic mass. Anthropogenic mass data since 1900 were obtained from ref. 22, at a single-year resolution. The current biomass value is based on ref. 11, which for plants relies on the estimate of ref. 10, which updates earlier, mostly higher estimates. The uncertainty of the year of intersection was derived using a Monte Carlo simulation, with 10,000 repeats. Data were extrapolated for the years 2015–2025 (lighter area). Graphic: Elhacham, et al., 2020 / Nature

December 10, 2020

The mass of human-made materials now equals the planet’s biomass – “Anthropogenic” mass is doubling every twenty years

9 December 2020 (Weizmann Institute of Science) – Earth circa 2020: The mass of all human-produced materials – concrete, steel, asphalt, etc. – has grown to equal the mass of all life on the planet, its biomass. According to a new study at the Weizmann Institute of Science, we are right at this tipping point, […]

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 […]

Cumulative change in U.S. jobs since before the pandemic, 6 December 2020. Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Graphic: Ella Koeze / The New York Times

December 6, 2020

U.S. job market slowed further in November 2020 – “We’re going to have a few of the toughest months of this pandemic, and there will be a lot of scars left to heal”

6 December 2020 (The New York Times) – The American economic recovery continues to slow, stranding millions who have yet to find a new job after being thrown out of work by the coronavirus pandemic. The latest evidence came Friday when the Labor Department reported that employers added 245,000 jobs in November, the fifth month in a […]

Desdemona Despair

Category: technogenic disaster