Ocean News

4 big names in finance just vowed to fight climate change | VICE News

AXA, the French insurance and financial services giant, dropped its insurance policies on U.S. pipelines, reduced its investment in coal-related industries, and committed to increase its investments in renewables fourfold by 2020.

The World Bank, which had already committed not to issue credit for new coal production, also pledged at the One Planet Summit not to fund new oil and gas production.

Exxon-Mobile has promised to explain to their investors the energy demand sensitivities, implications of 2 degree Celsius scenarios, and positioning for a lower-carbon future.

Moody, one of the major credit ratings agencies, announced their credit ratings will tighten for states and municipalities that don’t adequately prepare for climate change. A lower credit rating from Moody’s means cities or states can’t borrow money as easily, which could mean higher taxes on the people who live there.

 

Global warming will weaken wind power, study predicts | The Guardian

Wind farms are key to tackling climate change but warming will significantly cut the power of the wind across northern mid-latitudes, including the US, the UK and the Mediterranean, according to new research published in the journal Nature Geoscience. However, some places, including eastern Australia, will see winds pick up.

 

Climate change could increase volcanic eruptions | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Glaciers melting from climate change threaten to reactivate Iceland’s sleeping volcanoes, according to research published in the journal Geology. Researchers found that climate change causes ice to rapidly melt in many volcanically-active regions, including Iceland. And when a glacier grows or shrinks, it changes the amount of pressure on the Earth’s crust and the top part of its mantle—causing the pressure on underground chambers full of magma to shift, which in turn affects the chances of eruption. Even small changes in surface pressure can affect the likelihood of eruptions at ice-covered volcanoes.

 

A gift idea for someone you love.

You can pay $900 for a robot that won’t admit climate change is real | The Verge

I thought it was about artificial intelligence, not artificial stupidity​

There are a lot of questions that should yield very straightforward yes or no answers, no matter what conspiracy theorists say. Is the world flat? No. Is the Moon made of cheese? No. Is climate change real? Yes. Unfortunately, just like people, robots sometimes don’t like to give yes or no answers, even if the subject matter is a scientific truth that’s very hard to deny. One of these robots is Jibo.

Jibo is touted as the “world’s first social robot” capable of holding a conversation and recognizing familiar faces. You can now have Jibo on your kitchen counter (for $899), but as you try to chitchat with it, don’t ask whether climate change is real, because it’ll reply in its boyish voice: “I’ve heard that’s a complicated topic,” and add nothing else...

 

Sea levels rose in bursts during past global warming | Futurity

During the period of global warming at the close of the last ice age, Earth’s sea level did not rise steadily but rather in sharp, punctuated bursts when the planet’s glaciers melted. Fossil reefs offshore of Texas show that sea level rose in several bursts ranging in length from a few decades to one century.

Sea level has risen steadily in contemporary time, but these findings show that sea-level rise could be considerably faster than anything yet observed, and because of this situation, coastal communities need to be prepared for potential inundation. Given that more than half a billion people live within a few meters of modern sea level, punctuated sea-level rise poses a particular risk to those communities that are not prepared for future inundation.

The study was reported in Nature Communications.

A 3D representation of Dream Bank, a long-dead reef offshore South Texas.
The vertical scale of the image has been increased to clearly illustrate the terrace structures
that form due to rising sea levels via a process known as backstepping. (Credit: P. Khanna/Rice)​

 

Big Business fighting industry climate priorities

"Australia’s biggest miner, BHP, has put the Minerals Council of Australia on notice, threatening to cancel its almost $2m yearly membership if it does not cease campaigning on climate and energy issues. ......
BHP also notes the MCA has argued energy reliability and affordability ought to be prioritised over and above emissions goals."
BHP could end $2m membership of minerals council over policy differences https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/19/bhp-could-end-2m-membership-of-minerals-council-over-policy-differences

 

Scientists just presented a sweeping new estimate of how much humans have transformed the planet | Washington Post

 

The Water Will Come | Weather Underground

A book review:

The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World—the title of Jeff Goodell’s new must-read book on sea level rise—says volumes. Goodell, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and the author of the excellent 2011 book How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth’s Climate, argues that there is little we can do to stop the inexorable rise of the world’s oceans due to human-caused global warming--though we may be able to slow the rate of sea level rise later in the century. As one of the experts he interviews puts it, “Sea-level rise is like aging. You can’t stop it. You can only do it better or worse.”

Six areas are highlighted --

• Miami, Florida
• Venice, Italy
• New York City
• Small Pacific Islands
• Nigeria
• Norfolk, Virginia

Tidal flooding on the corner of Dade Blvd and Purdy Ave in Miami Beach in 2010
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Here’s what Miami could look like in 2100

Includes a number of interactive renditions (slide the center bar, at the above link).

 

Haysoos Cripes, Christmas Eve (Merry Christmas everyone) and we have the air conditioner on. It's the opposite of Game Of Thrones....summer is coming.

 

Carbon Dioxide Could Reach Levels Unseen in 50 Million Years | Live Science

If carbon emissions continue on their current trajectory, research published in Nature Communications show that by mid-century the atmosphere could reach a state unseen since the Eocene, 50 million years ago. Back then, temperatures were up to 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) warmer, ice was almost nowhere to be seen and oceans were dramatically higher than they are now. Even if we reach those carbon dioxide levels by mid-century, crocodiles won't suddenly appear in the Arctic. But because carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for centuries, climate change will continue to reshape the planet even if humans magically cut emissions to zero after hitting that peak.

If humans ignore the warning in Royer's study, however, they could put the planet into a state unheard of in nearly half a billion years. Stretching current carbon dioxide emissions trends into the more distant future means the planet could hit 2,000 ppm by 2250.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could reach a level unseen in 50 million years by the 2050s.
If they continue rising into the 2200s, they'll create a climate that likely has no precedent in at
least 420 million years. Credit: Foster, et al., 2017​

 

Best run the AC on wind and/or solar power then. - Joyeux Noël (= Merry Christmas) to you, and all others, too . . - ← X-mas sunglasses since summer is coming.

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Alaska’s Permafrost Is Thawing | New York Times

The loss of frozen ground in Arctic regions is a striking result of climate change. And it is also a cause of more warming to come.[/SIZE]

The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as other parts of the planet, and even here in sub-Arctic Alaska the rate of warming is high. Sea ice and wildlife habitat are disappearing; higher sea levels threaten coastal native villages. But to the scientists from Woods Hole Research Center who have come here to study the effects of climate change, the most urgent is the fate of permafrost, the always-frozen ground that underlies much of the state.

 

Climate Change Has Doubled Snowfall in Alaska | Scientific American

Snowfall in south-central Alaska has dramatically increased over the last 150 years because of climate change, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. Summer snowfall has risen by about 49 percent since the mid-19th century, and winter snowfall has increased by a whopping 117 percent. With global temperatures rising, this may sound counterintuitive, but warmer air can hold more moisture, allowing for greater amounts of precipitation, including snow.

 

Yes, the good old deniers have jumped on "extra snowfall" for Alaska AND Greenland,

The problem is, that more snow is still not covering the deficit of melting.

 

Species may appear deceptively resilient to climate change | PHYS.org

A study, published in the journal Ecology Letters, found that natural habitats play a vital role in helping other marine plants and animals resist heat stresses ramping up with climate change—at least until the species they depend on to form those habitats become imperiled.

"For creatures that live in mussel beds and seaweed beds, it's like having a house with air conditioning at low tide. You can tolerate a lot of what goes on outside if you have air conditioning. But if you're looking at a future with more intense heat waves, and you don't have air conditioning anymore, you wonder, 'Where can I go?' For these species, they could make a big move north, but it won't help—they still need these habitats to keep the heat in a tolerable range."