Desdemona Despair – Page 11 – Blogging the End of the World™

Diagrams showing parameters for the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). (A) The AMOC strength at 1000 m and 26°N, where the yellow shading indicates observed ranges (60, 61). The cyan-colored lines indicate the magnitude of FH. The red arrow indicates the AMOC tipping point (model year 1758; fig. S1, A and B), and the blue sections indicate the 50-year periods used in (B) to (D). Inset: The hosing experiment where fresh water is added to the ocean surface between 20°N and 50°N in the Atlantic Ocean (+FH) and is compensated over the remaining ocean surface (−FH). The black sections indicate the 26°N and 34°S latitudes over which the AMOC strength and freshwater transport (FovS) are determined, respectively. (B to D) AMOC streamfunction (Ψ) and Atlantic meridional heat transport (MHT; see also fig. S2) for model years 1 to 50, 1701 to 1750, and 2151 to 2200. The contours indicate the isolines of Ψ for different values. Graphic: Van Westen, et al., 2024 / Science Advances

May 27, 2024

Marker for the collapse of key Atlantic current discovered – “We are approaching the tipping point”

By Stephanie Pappas 9 February 2024 (Live Science) – Scientists have discovered a key warning sign before a crucial Atlantic current collapses and plunges the Northern Hemisphere into climate chaos. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) carries warm water north from the Southern Hemisphere, where it releases heat and freezes. The freezing process concentrates salt […]

Map showing April 2024 mean temperature in South Asia. The blue outline shows the region with the most extreme heat. Graphic: World Weather Attribution

May 27, 2024

Sweltering heat across Asia in 2024 was 45 times more likely because of climate change, study finds – “Heat is now among the foremost risks in terms of personal health for millions across the world as well as nations’ economic development”

By Sibi Arasu 14 May 2024 BENGALURU, India (AP) – Sizzling heat across Asia and the Middle East in late April that echoed last year’s destructive swelter was made 45 times more likely in some parts of the continent because of human-caused climate change, a study Tuesday found. Scorching temperatures were felt across large swaths of Asia, […]

Responses of 380 climate experts to the question, “How high above pre-industrial levels do you think average global temperature will rise between now and 2100? Almost 80 percent of the respondents, all from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), foresee at least 2.5°C of global heating, while almost half anticipate at least 3°C (5.4°F). Only 6 percent thought the internationally agreed 1.5°C (2.7°F) limit would be met. Graphic: The Guardian

May 27, 2024

World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target – “I could not feel greater despair over the future”

By Damian Carrington 8 May 2024 (The Guardian) – Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) above preindustrial levels this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed. Almost 80% of the […]

A man wades through an area flooded by heavy rains, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, 3 May 2024. Photo: Carlos Macedo / AP Photo

May 27, 2024

From flooding in Brazil and Houston to brutal heat in Asia, extreme weather seems nearly everywhere in 2024 – “We’re departing the climate of the 20th century right now and we just can’t handle these events”

By Seth Borenstein, Suman Naishadham, Sibi Arasu, and Fabiano Maisonnave 7 May 2024 (AP News) – In sweltering Brazil, flooding killed dozens of people and paralyzed a city of about 4 million people. Voters and politicians in India, amid national elections, are fainting in heat that hit as high as 115 degrees (46.3 degrees Celsius). […]

Research into Southern California’s history of ocean dumping was spurred by the discovery of mysterious and corroded barrels dumped off the coast of Los Angeles. Photo: David Valentine / ROV Jason

May 27, 2024

DDT found in deep-sea fish raises troubling concerns for food web – “Nothing is untouched”

By Rosanna Xia 6 May 2024 (Los Angeles Times) – For several years now, one question has held the key to understanding just how much we should worry about the hundreds of tons of DDT that had been dumped off the coast of Los Angeles: How, exactly, has this decades-old pesticide — a toxic chemical spread across […]

Measles cases in the UK (top) and Russian Federation (bottom), Jan 2020 - Feb 2024. Graphic: WHO

May 27, 2024

Global measles cases nearly doubled in one year, researchers say – “A crisis among many crises”

By Katherine Dillinger 27 April 2024 (CNN) – The number of measles cases around the world nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023, researchers say, presenting a challenge to efforts to achieve and maintain elimination status in many countries. There were 171,153 cases globally in 2022, according to Dr. Patrick O’Connor of the World Health Organization, […]

Emissions offset credits awarded to Shell by the Albertan government (Mt CO2e), 2015-2022. Shell was awarded more than 5.7 million unearned carbon offset credits over 8 years. Data: Alberta Carbon Registries. Graphic: Financial Times

May 27, 2024

Shell plant reported millions of “phantom” carbon credits – “Selling emissions credits for reductions that never happened literally makes climate change worse”

By Kenza Bryan and Clara Murray 4 May 2024 LONDON (Financial Times) – A Shell-operated plant reported millions of carbon credits tied to CO₂ removal that never took place but were used by Canada’s largest oil sands companies, raising new doubts about a technology seen as crucial to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. As part of […]

Graph showing reconstructed and observed annual temperature data for the Northern Hemisphere’s summer months (June, July, and August) at 30 and 90 degrees north latitude. Anomalies indicate how the average temperature of each year’s summer compared with the average reconstructed temperature from the baseline period of 1850-1900. The summer of 2023 was clearly the hottest in the past 2,000 years, with a temperature that proved to be at least 0.5 degree C above that of C.E.246—a time that was the hottest summer before direct measurements began and long before human-caused warming emerged. Data: Jan Esper, et al., 2024 / Nature. Graphic: Amanda Montañez / Scientific American

May 27, 2024

2023 was the hottest summer in two thousand years – “When you look at the long sweep of history, you can see just how dramatic recent global warming is”

By Sarah Collins 14 May 2024 (University of Cambridge) – Researchers have found that 2023 was the hottest summer in the Northern Hemisphere in the past two thousand years, almost four degrees warmer than the coldest summer during the same period. Although 2023 has been reported as the hottest year on record, the instrumental evidence […]

Screenshot of a Twitter (X) post showing a photo of Gov. Ron DeSantis signing legislation that erases the words “climate change” from state statutes on 15 May 2024. Photo: Ron DeSantis / UPI

May 27, 2024

Gov. Ron DeSantis signs law erasing “climate change” from Florida policy – “This purposeful act of cognitive dissonance is proof that the governor and the state legislature are not acting in the best interests of Floridians, but rather to protect profits for the fossil fuel industry”

By Sheri Walsh 16 May 2024 (UPI) – With summer’s extreme heat and this year’s hurricane season rolling into Florida next month, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Wednesday that will erase climate change from state policy effective 1 July 2024. The new law will erase the words “climate change” from state statutes and make energy […]

Low water levels at the Miguel Aleman dam in May 2024. Photo: Luis Antonio Rojas / The Washington Post

May 27, 2024

Mexico City’s water “Day Zero” may come even for the wealthiest residents – “No one could have foreseen this would happen in the city”

By Kasha Patel 25 May 2024 MEXICO CITY (The Washington Post) – Raquel Campos’ water issues started in January, when her condo building’s manager sent residents a message saying that the city hadn’t delivered water to its cistern. Four days later, taps in the upscale residence went dry. Campos has lived in the wealthy Polanco […]