Another decade is over,

A new decade is begun,

So what have we done...?


Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'
wrote:

Human activity is changing the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways, a major UN scientific report has said.

The landmark study warns of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding, and a key temperature limit being broken in just over a decade. The report "is a code red for humanity", says the UN chief.

But scientists say a catastrophe can be avoided if the world acts fast...

Climate change: Five things we have learned from the IPCC report
wrote:

Climate change is widespread, rapid and intensifying - and it's down to us

... the dangers of warming our planet are no longer something distant, impacting people in faraway places.

"Climate change is not a problem of the future, it's here and now and affecting every region in the world,"...

COP26: Minister says summit must be a turning point
wrote:

... today's report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "makes appalling reading".

Its release comes less than three months before a key global climate summit in Glasgow known as COP26...

... The environment minister told the BBC the IPCC report "adds to the urgency and importance of making this COP a turning point...

... the OBR added that climate targets will cost the government less over the next 30 years than the price of battling the Covid-19 pandemic - if it acts quickly.

What’s more, it said, the costs of tackling climate change will be less than the costs of paying for damages from climate change...

Climate change: Make coal history says PM after climate warning
wrote:

Coal needs to be consigned to history to limit global warming, says PM Boris Johnson, describing a UN report on climate change as "sobering"...

... "The biggest threat we now face is not climate denial but climate delay," he said. "Those who, like our prime minister, acknowledge there is a problem, but simply don't have the scale of ambition required to match the moment. "Our communities and planet can no longer afford the [political] inaction..."

... "Let's hope our political leaders, as they gear up to COP26 in Glasgow this November, take heed."...

Why China's climate policy matters to us all
wrote:

China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change...

... China's per-person emissions are about half those of the US, but its huge 1.4 billion population and explosive economic growth have pushed it way ahead of any other country in its overall emissions. China became the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2006 and is now responsible for more than a quarter of the world's overall greenhouse gas emissions...

... Coal has been the country's main source of energy for decades, and its use is increasing...

... China first embraced green technologies as a means to tackle air pollution, a serious problem for many cities. But the government also believes they have enormous economic potential, providing jobs and income for millions of Chinese, as well as reducing China's dependence on foreign oil and gas.

"China is already leading the global energy transition," says Yue Cao of the Overseas Development Institute. "One of the reasons we are able to deploy cheaper and cheaper green technology is China."..

... Increasing the area of land covered in vegetation will help, as plants absorb carbon dioxide. Here again, there is encouraging news. China is getting greener at a faster rate than any other country, largely as a result of its forestry programmes designed to reduce soil erosion and pollution...

... The world needs China to succeed. [in quickly going 'green']...

What is climate change? A really simple guide
wrote:

... Human activities have increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, driving up temperatures. Extreme weather and melting polar ice are among the possible effects...

... The Earth is now in a period of rapid climate change, with global temperatures rising because of human activities, such as the burning of coal, oil and gas...

Mauna Loa carbon dioxide forecast for 2021
wrote:

Carbon dioxide will continue to build up in the atmosphere in 2021 due to ongoing emissions from fossil fuel burning, land use change and cement production. This year's annual rise is predicted to be smaller than most recent years, due to a temporary strengthening of the land carbon sink associated with the current La Niña conditions. Nevertheless, atmospheric CO2 will reach levels 50% higher than pre-industrial concentrations, this year...

... This 50% increase above [the 1750CE pre-industrial level] is of symbolic importance because it represents half-way towards "doubled CO2", a standard level of climate forcing used for quantifying the response of global temperatures to human-caused increases in greenhouse gases. Although "halfway to doubled CO2" is not of any physical significance, it can nevertheless be considered a milestone that highlights how much humans have already altered the composition of the global atmosphere and increased the amount of a gas that warms the global climate...

This follows on from our previous thread in our long running series...

How long do we need?!

Too long...?


All on our only one planet...
Martin

---

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For an immediate example:


Weather warning as thunderstorms cause severe flooding
wrote:

Heavy showers and thunderstorms are causing severe flooding and travel disruption across Scotland...

We do seem to be getting very much more of that, almost each month recently as opposed to what was more of a rarity...

More heat, more atmospheric moisture, leading to a bigger deluge...

[Edit] See: Extreme weather: How it is connected to climate change? [/Edit]


All on our only one planet,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
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https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/09/opinions/climate-crisis-ipcc-report-john-sutter/index.html

For decades, fossil-fuel companies and politicians have pushed a false narrative that if we change our habits -- drive electric cars, fly less, cut beef from our diets -- that they won't need to make wholesale changes to the economy. Individual actions matter in that they can reduce emissions, and they do connect each of us to a massive global crisis. All of that's good. But, alone, it is nowhere near enough to battle the climate crisis on the scale that's required.

That hydrogen, if it is extracted from natural gas is a very dirty green fuel.
How green is blue hydrogen?

Abstract

Hydrogen is often viewed as an important energy carrier in a future decarbonized world. Currently, most hydrogen is produced by steam reforming of methane in natural gas (“gray hydrogen”), with high carbon dioxide emissions. Increasingly, many propose using carbon capture and storage to reduce these emissions, producing so-called “blue hydrogen,” frequently promoted as low emissions. We undertake the first effort in a peer-reviewed paper to examine the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of blue hydrogen accounting for emissions of both carbon dioxide and unburned fugitive methane. Far from being low carbon, greenhouse gas emissions from the production of blue hydrogen are quite high, particularly due to the release of fugitive methane. For our default assumptions (3.5% emission rate of methane from natural gas and a 20-year global warming potential), total carbon dioxide equivalent emissions for blue hydrogen are only 9%-12% less than for gray hydrogen. While carbon dioxide emissions are lower, fugitive methane emissions for blue hydrogen are higher than for gray hydrogen because of an increased use of natural gas to power the carbon capture. Perhaps surprisingly, the greenhouse gas footprint of blue hydrogen is more than 20% greater than burning natural gas or coal for heat and some 60% greater than burning diesel oil for heat, again with our default assumptions. In a sensitivity analysis in which the methane emission rate from natural gas is reduced to a low value of 1.54%, greenhouse gas emissions from blue hydrogen are still greater than from simply burning natural gas, and are only 18%-25% less than for gray hydrogen. Our analysis assumes that captured carbon dioxide can be stored indefinitely, an optimistic and unproven assumption. Even if true though, the use of blue hydrogen appears difficult to justify on climate grounds.

Thanks for that.

As always, can we overcome the fiendishly lucrative corruption that surrounds the 'game' of fossil fuels?...

Meanwhile, our planet is Damned ever further towards the fires of Hell and Damnation...



All on our only one planet...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
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Yet another ongoing example:


Images show decline of California's 'life source'


Highly graphic. Deny that?!


All on our only one planet,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
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Deny this?...


Europe’s July floods: So rare and extreme, they’re hard to study
wrote:

One river basin might have seen a 1-in-15,000-year event...

... The weather pattern that produced the rain wasn't particularly exceptional, and it consisted of a low-pressure system that parked over Europe for a couple of days. The warm, moisture-rich air this drew from the Mediterranean ended up rotating around the low pressure. The Mediterranean air crossed a number of ranges of low hills in northwestern Europe, which caused the sort of atmospheric disruptions that trigger rainfall for a couple of days.

That rainfall turned out to be unusually intense...

... [The] floods that occurred greatly exceeded the warnings and are unprecedented in historic records.

This is the sort of event where we'd expect climate change to have an influence. Warmer air can hold more moisture, and so we'd expect it to enhance precipitation, which it has. But the data indicates that we're not seeing more rainy days; instead, we're seeing more intense rain on those days when it does rain...

All on our only one planet...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
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Is Earth a Water World? Wat 70%.

It Rains.

And Water seeks a Level.

There is No 'Extreme or Exceptional' when it Comes to Rain.

Disappear HuWoManKind and All Existing Human Structures and it Will Continue to Rain.

Lightly and Heavy and In-Between.

And Something Not Human will be durin' da BACKSTROKE BABY!!!!!

Yep

Oh Yeah - DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDNied!!!!!

---

May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

Try explaining that to those people who suffered their homes being washed away in those areas?

Try explaining that away to those in New Orleans now? (Hurricane Ida... The hurricane that didn't subside upon landfall...!)

Try explaining away the recent anomalous first rainfall in Greenland! (That region should always be at below freezing...)


And our climate vital Gulf Stream becomes ever more strangled and stifled for dire consequences... Explain that?...


All in our only one world of denial...
Martin

---

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It Has Been Explained.

Earth is a WATER World.

Been Raining fO Billions of Years.

In All dA Ways it Rains Now and Ways it Rained then.

Lightly and DOWN POURs Lasting for Days Weeks Months.

HuWomanKind LIves and Puts Structures in dA Way of WATER Seeking Its Level.

Water HAS to GO where It Needs to Go - To Level

This Has Been Known fo Quite Awhile.

LIVE and BUILD Structures and NOT ACCOUNT For This and SUFFER CONSEQUENCEs.

Or Build KNOWING What Water Will Do and Your LIVEs and STRUCTUREs Will Be SAVED

HuWomanKind Complaining and DYING 'bout Their WRONG Actions.

CRY ME A RIVER.

Or BRAIN UP BABY!!!!!

Yep

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May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

E5 or E10 - That is the question
The answer is:

Those with incompatible vehicles will have to use E5 super unleaded instead, which the RAC says can cost 12p a litre more than standard unleaded.

Musthava profit speaks.

E5 or E10 - That is the question
The answer is:

Those with incompatible vehicles will have to use E5 super unleaded instead, which the RAC says can cost 12p a litre more than standard unleaded.

Musthava profit speaks.

E10 has been widely available down under since the 1990's (we never had E5 here) and vehicles sold here from 1988 that don't require premium grade fuel are quite safe with E10 which my old '95 girl has been drinking for over 20yrs.

'Efficiency' or costs?... It certainly ain't anything to do with the proportion of CO2 pollution produced:


UK fires up coal power plant as gas prices soar
wrote:

... Warm, still autumn weather has meant wind farms have not generated as much power as normal, while soaring prices have made it too costly to rely on gas.

As a result, National Grid ESO - which is responsible for balancing the UK's electricity supply - confirmed coal was providing 3% of national power.

It said it asked EDF to fire up West Burton A, which had been on standby...

... Last year, coal contributed 1.6% of the country's electricity mix. That was down from 25% five years ago. Both the government and National Grid ESO have committed to phasing out coal power completely by 2024 to cut carbon emissions. However, coal is currently still used when it is better value than gas...

... A National Grid spokesman said: "In balancing the electricity system, we take actions in economical order and not on the basis of generation type...

There is good practical sense and good economic sense to keep some existing coal power alive and available as 'emergency reserve' capacity.

However... We need to rejig the Markets to go truly clean.

• Step one: Remove the subsidies for the dirty old fossils. See how long they can stay profitable then?
  
  
• Step two: Incur a realistic charge for the damage that polluters cause. For fossils that would mean instant death.
  

All on our only one world...
Martin

---

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As has been the same story repeated over how many years?


To limit warming to 1.5°C, huge amounts of fossil fuels need to go unused
wrote:

Nearly 60 percent of oil, 90 percent of coal should stay in the ground...

... [Yet,] The necessary emission cuts have yet to materialize. For example, a 2019 UN report stated that the world’s governments expect to produce 120 percent more fossil fuels by 2030. “[T]he current and indicated fossil fuel trajectories globally are moving us in the wrong direction,”...

... These changes would be a hard pill to swallow for countries that produce or rely on oil and coal and the companies that extract and sell them, as limiting warming to 1.5ºC could involve moratoriums on production and carbon pricing...

... There is some hope, however. The price of renewables—particularly wind and solar—is decreasing, and electric vehicles are becoming more viable. James Pryce, a UCL research associate and co-author of the paper, said that achieving the goal of limiting warming to 1.5ºC is possible from a technical perspective. “It really is a case of having the political will to resist the temptation of extracting every last bit of fossil fuel,”...

And each year, those numbers get more extreme and urgent.

Can good sense, and political will, overcome the planet destroying greed of the dirty old fossils industry?


All on our only one planet,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
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Meanwhile here down under our denialist federal government has been involved in more environmental chicanery.

Morrison Government pushed for removal of Paris Agreement targets in UK free trade deal.

SloMo and his bunch of environmental terrorists just won't learn to do the right thing. :-(

For some very sobering reading, for an ancient belch of CO2 dumped into our atmosphere:

Mass extinction likely caused by lethal temperatures due to volcanic CO2 venting
wrote:

The Permian extinction, also called Permian-Triassic extinction or end-Permian extinction is the most severe biodiversity loss in Earth's history. According to Britannica, this extinction was characterized by the elimination of over 95 percent of marine and 70 percent of terrestrial species.

"For a period of time the whole planet was overheated and that quite likely contributed to this major killing of life on our planet,"...

This time around, we don't have the volcanic activity. Instead, we have the mighty pollution of human industry and human farming...


All on our only one planet...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
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YES!

The Australian Government can undo their political short term blind greed and greatly benefit ALL of Australia and the world...

This is how:


Yes, it is entirely possible for Australia to phase out thermal coal within a decade
wrote:

... if the world doesn't boost climate action urgently, Australia can expect more frequent and severe climate disasters such as droughts, heatwaves, fires and floods.

Meanwhile, markets for coal seem to be sending the opposite message...

... It's entirely feasible for Australia to phase out thermal coal by 2030—we just need political will...

... "Decarbonisation of the global economy is quickly gathering pace. And there are huge opportunities to create more jobs, better health, and a stronger and fairer economy for those countries and companies that move first and fastest."...

... [Note:] Australia is among the hardest hit by the climate crisis, w/ bushfires, droughts, sea-level rise & flooding to get worse...

... Given a modest amount of political will, or just the end of obstructionism from the federal government, Australia could easily replace coal-fired electricity generation with a combination of solar and wind, backed by storage.

Most of Australia's coal-fired power plants were commissioned in the 20th century with obsolete sub-critical technology, and would be approaching the end of their operational lives even in the absence of climate change concerns ... The Bluewater [coal fired] plant in Western Australia has already been written off as worthless because of competition from solar and wind power...

... Managing the transition for the coal workforce would be more challenging, but still entirely feasible, as countries such as Spain and Germany have shown. ... Australia could successfully transition the workforce with a mixture of measures including early retirement, retraining, and investments in renewable energy targeted at coal-dependent regions. The cost of this would be around A$50 million a year, over ten years. That's less than the estimated cost of a week of COVID lockdown in Sydney...

... a commitment to reduce and ultimately eliminate exports of thermal coal would not, as some have suggested, condemn these and other developing countries to poverty. Rather, it would strengthen the hand of advocates of clean energy against the established interest groups that defend coal.

Way to go!

All on our only one planet,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
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Yet another leader has recognized the ever increasing costs of continued human industrialized climate pollution:


On thin ice: Near North Pole, a warning on climate change
wrote:

A massive icebreaker cuts its way through the frozen waters of the Arctic Ocean, clearing a path to the North Pole...

... the Arctic ice cover is now five to seven times thinner than in the 1980s, and in the summer months the waters are becoming increasingly free of ice...

... Long a sceptic of climate change, President Vladimir Putin has changed course in recent years, ordering his government to develop a plan to cut carbon emissions to below the level of the European Union by 2050.

As wildfires raged in Siberia this summer, Putin said he was alarmed by a series of "absolutely unprecedented" natural disasters in Russia...

Here's hoping other leaders take positive action before ever worsening disasters take over our world...


All on our only one planet,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

From a reckless pollution scandalous disaster that still poisons the Gulf of Mexico:

We're About to Lose One of Our Best Tools to Study the BP Oil Spill's Fallout
wrote:

BP’s Deepwater Horizon platform exploded 10 years ago today, but the Gulf of Mexico may never be the same...

... That’s because the main source of funding for a major research initiative is set to expire by the end of this year, essentially leaving researchers in the dark about what deep sea recovery looks like in the wake of the worst oil spill in American history...

All a very convenient cover-up to ignore and forget the continuing poison of the most disastrous oil spill the world has ever suffered?...

Continued and ongoing:


Tissue abnormalities found in oysters years after Deepwater Horizon oil spill

... resulting in the world's worst oil spill in history with more than 4 million barrels of oil released into the Gulf of Mexico. Though the short-term impact of the oil spill on local wildlife was widely researched among scientists and discussed in the media, there has been relatively little research on the long-term effects of the disaster...

... Eastern oysters from the Gulf Coast have significantly higher rates of metaplasia—a condition that can cause debilitating tissue abnormalities—than those from a region unaffected by the [Deepwater Horizon] oil spill, even several years after the event, raising concerns about the health of the economically and ecologically important species.

"It's worrying to find such a high incidence...

... "As long as we continue extracting petroleum from our planet's oceans, we will continue to expose coastal ecosystems to contamination," curator Peter Roopnarine says. "Hopefully this study and its samples—which are now stored in the Academy's scientific collections for future researchers to use—will lead to a better understanding of how oil spills are directly impacting those communities."

All on our only one planet,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)