The currently strengthening El Nino enters the record books for Spring heat even as it throws off an extreme surge of tropical cyclone activity in the Western Pacific…
* * * *
For a swath of ocean from the Date Line to 120 degrees West Longitude (Nino 3.4) it’s been a rather hot spring. Sea surface temperatures for the benchmark zone hit 4th highest in the regional climate measure (starting in 1950) for the period. With almost every climate model predicting continued El Nino strengthening through Fall, this early benchmark would be some cause for concern. Averages for the region hit a positive anomaly of +0.85 C, just behind record holder 1992 at +1 C. But even more disconcerting was the extreme warming through another marker zone just to the west. A heat build-up which shattered all previous seasonal records for the period. For the Nino 4 region stretching from 160 East to 150 West Longitude, the April to June time frame for 2015 was the hottest ever seen:
(Nino 4 hits new record hot temperatures for Spring of 2015, crushing all previous record holders. Data Source: NOAA El Nino Monitoring. Image source: Eric Blake.)
Hotter, in fact, by a long shot — crushing the previous all-time positive anomaly record of +0.65 as it surged to +1 C above the regional average. For an El Nino that is still ramping up against the climatological trend for Summer to Fall cooling, these early markers may well serve as an indicator for future intensity.
The new record also came before the most recent surge in thunderstorm activity over the Western Pacific set off a major burst of westerly winds. A powerful atmospheric back-blast that will likely generate a third warm Kelvin Wave and further tip the Eastern Pacific into ever more extreme high temperature values. An extraordinary burst of storms in its own right powered by record levels of moisture bleeding off this zone in the Pacific and an amazing temperature gradient that is now starting to form from the higher temperature deltas along and near the Equator.
(West Pacific a sea of storms on July 8 as El Nino continues to show signs of intensification. Image source: LANCE MODIS.)
By earlier this week these storms had coalesced into three powerful tropical cyclones — Linfa, Chan-hom, and Nangka. Two of which — Chan-hom and Nangka — now rate as super typhoons on the Hong Kong intensity scale (100 knots or greater maximum sustained wind speed).
Chan-Hom is predicted to plow into the China coastline near Shanghai over the next 36-48 hours as a 115 knot (132 mph) major cyclone. On the satellite shot, this beast clearly displays a substantial footprint. Joint Typhoon Warning Center reports show an extensive tropical storm force wind field stretching out up to 145 nautical miles from the storm’s center with hurricane force winds extending out 35 nautical miles. Linfa is also predicted to interact with land over the next two days — skirting Taiwan as a moderate strength tropical storm before retrograding southward into the Northern Philippines. Nangka is expected to skirt Guam, then remain over open ocean through the 13th of July.
All together, these ocean heat and moisture fueled storms represent an extraordinary accumulated cyclone energy anomaly for the region. One that is forecast to hit nearly nine times the mean value for the Western Pacific for the seven day period of July 6 through July 12. Yet another off-the charts weather reading coming from the still strengthening and global warming amplified 2015 El Nino:
(ECMWF forecast model shows extreme cyclone accumulated energy potentials for Central and Western Pacific. Image source: ECMWF.)
In context, we can add this intense Western Pacific cyclonic outburst to a long list of related 2015 El Nino and global warming influenced events (more on this in a future post). These include widespread South American drought, the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge and associated North American Wildfires, Western North American droughts, Arctic Sea Ice impacts, The Central US Floods of May and June, a delayed Monsoon and deadly heatwave switching to extreme floods in India, a mass casualty heatwave in Pakistan, and floods in Thailand and China (among others).
By later this Fall, if the strong to monstrously strong El Nino predicted in the model runs does emerge, other significant El Nino related impacts may manifest due to a related strengthening of the Pacific storm track. As a result, we could see a switch from epic drought to epic deluge for the US West Coast. It’s a narrative that has become all too common as human forced global warming in the range of 0.8 to 1 C above 1880s values continues to enable far more extreme hydrological weather events than we are used to (drought and flood). El Nino’s hand in increasing evaporation over the Equatorial Pacific, when combined with the broader impact of human forced warming, is one that generates a still higher risk for these kinds of extreme events. And with El Nino forecast to be strong to absolutely monstrous, it is highly advised that US West Coasters keep a weather watch out for the coming Fall.
Links:
NOAA El Nino Monitoring (Please support publicly funded, non special interest based science.)
Winds Blow Toward Extreme El Nino
NOAA’s Michelle L’Heureux On Weekly Nino Temperature Changes
Hat tip to Colorado Bob
Hat tip to climatehawk
Jeremy
/ July 8, 2015Hot off the British press.
Latest Gov. announcement in today’s new budget.
Green car incentives to be scrapped – money saved to be spent on massive new road building spree.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/budget-2015-greener-car-discounts-to-be-removed-to-pay-for-new-roadbuilding-fund-10375574.html
Our goose is cooked – literally:-((
robertscribbler
/ July 8, 2015The criminally insane have better decision-making facilities than these fools.
Dana Pearson, aka Vastman
/ July 9, 2015Agreed… Btw you and Paul Beckwith are equally astute and eloquent in exploring and communicating interrelationships, the big picture, and possible ramifications.
Thanks for all you do
Jeremy
/ July 9, 2015Fools?
Steady on now Robert.
Cameron and Osborne both went to Oxford University. Purportedly the finest educational establishment in the world.
These are our best and brightest.
We are truly screwed!
Greg
/ July 9, 2015Speaking of criminally insane. This just got me this morning. They argue it will improve things because less natural gas will be used but the largest solar project in the world, 1 GW, expected to be used to extract the last crude down there.
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/GlassPoint-is-Building-the-Worlds-Largest-Solar-Project-in-an-Omani-Oilfie
james cole
/ July 9, 2015Cameron’s government will be a disaster for green house gases. His love for fracking is well known, only a falling oil price will prevent large tracts of the UK being fracked.
Jeremy
/ July 9, 2015You’re quite right James.
The budget also slashed green energy subsidies!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget/11727378/Budget-2015-Green-energy-companies-hit-as-Chancellor-slashes-renewables-subsidies.html
DRAX shares were down 28% on the news – although how burning wood pellets imported from the U.S. is considered green I’ll never know.
Wind energy will take a huge hit too!
Spike
/ July 9, 2015Osborne is being touted as next PM as well !! That would give Tony Abbott some serious competition in the global idiot challenge.
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015And that’s why the conservatives are going after wind, solar and EVs. These technologies drive down the price of oil, making fracking less attractive.
Spike
/ July 9, 2015Also extended their climate change levy to renewables – wind farms will lose 6% of income accordingly and sector again knocked back by investor uncertainty.As someone said it’s like extending an alcohol tax to apple juice. Oil and gas in North Sea got new tax breaks.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/08/clean-energy-switch-uk-falling-behind
climatehawk1
/ July 8, 2015Tweet scheduled, redline sent.
robertscribbler
/ July 8, 2015Cheers. Did you hit ‘show changes?’ I can’t see them in the mark up.
climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ July 9, 2015Yeah, but there were only a couple, down near the end, and nothing critical.
labmonkery2
/ July 8, 2015And just now, depression 4-E is forming East of HI, but is not expected to impact as it may turn North. Lots of energy in the West, Central, and Eastern Pacific. If these rains do come in to SoCal – I’ll be ready. My four rain water-wall storage units just arrived. Now to re-duct my gutter & reap the benefits.
Mother Nature – please be gentle and not deluge us.
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015There’s two substantial depressions developing in EPAC. Given the heat at depth, cool water upwelling as a limiting factor is basically out of the question. Also, CPAC is showing not one but four systems of interest. The Pacific is just exploding.
Detong Choyin
/ July 8, 2015Sorry, the last sentence is my comment, not part of the quote from your page: The storm moving towards China at this time is Chan-hom.
robertscribbler
/ July 8, 2015Thanks for the fact check, Detong. With regards to the dating of posts, look at the bottom of each page. The format makes top post dating look pretty much like an eyesore. I work with the format I have.
rustj2015
/ July 8, 2015A good return:
EPA SLAMS HOUSE REPUBLICANS FOR TRYING TO GUT ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS
http://app.mx3.americanprogressaction.org/e/er?s=785&lid=174235&elq=5f05ce10e0f845d2bd84adb29d3945eb&elqaid=26263&elqat=1&elqTrackId=1709e170f1c2407481decc12028a217e
robertscribbler
/ July 8, 2015Good for the EPA. Honestly I don’t know what’s taken them so long. The republicans have decided that coal profits are more important than human health, jobs, and the prevention of our children and grandchildren suffering and dying in a human-caused hothouse. That money, to them, is worth children getting sick now and a proliferation of lethal heat waves, sea level rise and crop crushing weather as time moves forward. The complicity with processes that cause harm is astounding. How do these monstrous buffoons even hold the honor of US office?
Mark from New England
/ July 9, 2015“How do these monstrous buffoons even hold the honor of US office?” – seemingly the anti-intellectual bent of American life combined with the (deliberate?) dumbing down of the populace, combined with the cognitive defects of humans in general so well documented by George Marshall.
Excellent recent series of posts, BTW.
Griffin
/ July 8, 2015Fantastic images of all that action in the Pacific from the brand new Japanese Himawari-8 satellite can be found here.
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/18804
robertscribbler
/ July 8, 2015Wow Griff, these are gorgeous.
Griffin
/ July 8, 2015The way this El Nino is shaping up, this extreme California rainfall scenario from the USGS is perhaps not such a far flung possibility. I guess we have to wait and see if the storm track even favors rain but this report is fascinating in that both the meteorological setup, and the infrastructure impacts of an extreme rain event, were studied in depth.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1312/
robertscribbler
/ July 8, 2015The pattern in many regions has been drought, drought, extreme deluge. It’s a risk we need to consider as this abnormal El Niño continues to ramp up. Or to put it another way — what kind of storm system would be necessary to take out a feature like the RRR? Because so far, that thing hasn’t budged one iota.
Phil
/ July 9, 2015Robert, enjoyed reading your last couple of posts. Plenty of things happening at the moment. Will be interesting to see if the El Nino brings in a new higher regime as suggested by one of the scientists in the attached press link:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2015/jul/08/liberals-attack-on-climate-science-is-groundless-ignorant-and-embarrassing-say-scientists
Trenberth has suggested something similar with possibility of step-changes in temperature as/if the PDO swings permanently into its next warm phase.
Will also be in interesting to see the impact on arctic sea ice metrics over the next week or so as melt favourable weather patterns seem to be taking hold at the moment..
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015It’s that avenue of research, led by Trenberth, which fed my own work on the subject of a potential extreme El Niño, related extreme weather, and substantial new global temperature records as PDO swung hard to the hot side over the past year and a half.
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015RE recent posts — Greenland melt has Jacobshavn releasing a great deal of ice and there’s a polynya developing north of the CAA (hundreds of miles long and 10-15 miles wide at this point.
climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ July 9, 2015For those who may just be reading the link itself, note that this is Australia, where the “Liberals” are equivalent to U.S. Republicans or Canadian Conservatives.
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015Liberal as in neo-liberal. The kind that voraciously pursue profits and wealth transfer to the top at all costs.
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015ABILENE, Texas (AP) — A West Texas city has had its wettest day since forecasters began keeping rainfall records for the area in 1886.
The National Weather Service says Abilene on Tuesday received 8.26 inches of rain, leading to street flooding and high-water rescues. Abilene remained under a flash flood watch until Wednesday afternoon, with a 50 percent chance of showers.
Forecaster Jim Wingenroth (WING’-en-rahth) says a frontal boundary stalled over the area Tuesday, at times dumping 2-3 inches of rain per hour.
He says the previous daily rainfall record for Abilene was set on May 11, 1928, with 6.54 inches. The prior record rainfall for July 7 in Abilene happened in 1905, with 2.47 inches of rain.
http://newsok.com/abilene-drenched-with-more-than-8-inches-of-record-rainfall/article/feed/860781
Spike
/ July 9, 2015Record-breaking heavy rainfall events increased under global warming – saw this yesterday from Potsdam Institute
https://www.pik-potsdam.de/news/press-releases/record-breaking-heavy-rainfall-events-increased-under-global-warming
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 20153.1 million acres have burned in Alaska this year
http://www.wsbt.com/news/nationworld/31-million-acres-have-burned-in-alaska-this-year/34055950
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015Make that 3.24 million acres per the most recent update. We are well ahead of 2004 at this point. http://fire.ak.blm.gov/content/aicc/sitreport/current.pdf
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, email says – but it funded deniers for 27 more years
A newly unearthed missive from Lenny Bernstein, a climate expert with the oil firm for 30 years, shows concerns over high presence of carbon dioxide in enormous gas field in south-east Asia factored into decision not to tap it
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/08/exxon-climate-change-1981-climate-denier-funding
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015They need to stop tapping them period. Time to close the company down if they can’t figure out how to make money on something other than destroying the Earth for habitation.
Andy in San Diego
/ July 9, 2015Question:
These Typhoons that are racking up and taking aim in the Pacific. Are they pulling heat out of the ocean or is it neutral? I’m just curious as to their impact to the impending El Nino’s intensity (not like I am thinking “oh crap, not again…”).
Also, just a thought about an image show the El Nino zones (ie: El Nino 1-2 is this area, 2-3 is this area etc…). That may help folks visualize the values / data.
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015Tropical cyclones typically result in ocean surface water cooling and transfer of heat away from the equatorial zone. The surface water cooling mechanism is primarily through Ekman type pumping. Cooler waters are drawn up from below due to the cyclonic action of the storm. As is, we have quite a lot of heat at depth. So the cooling action of cyclones would be abated. In addition, there’s so much heat potential right now that the initial impact of cyclones is unlikely to significantly abate the current El Nino. Finally, multiplication of storms along the equator is a positive feedback for El Nino as the westerlies transfer hot WPAC water eastward and prevent the atmosphere to ocean heat transfer mechanism of the trades from cooling the ocean surface. As such, the location of these storms could better be described as a positive feedback to El Nino.
We’re in for months and months of increased storms out of this thing. So hold on to your hats!
Griffin
/ July 9, 2015If anyone’s interest was peaked by your zone map comment, this is a great reference resource.
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/why-are-there-so-many-enso-indexes-instead-just-one
Andy in San Diego
/ July 9, 2015Thanks Griffin,
Anyone who does not know the zones or needs further background should read that. It helped me a lot.
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015Record-breaking heavy rainfall events increased under global warming
Heavy rainfall events setting ever new records have been increasing strikingly in the past thirty years. While before 1980, multi-decadal fluctuations in extreme rainfall events are explained by natural variability, a team of scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research detected a clear upward trend in the past few decades towards more unprecedented daily rainfall events.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-07-record-breaking-heavy-rainfall-events-global.html#jCp
Planet In Distress
/ July 9, 2015Robert, I just wanted to compliment you, blogger to blogger, on the platform you have built. I strongly suggested to my readers that they read your last exemplary post and, somehow, that link was recorded at the very end of your comments section. And even though it was an obscure link at the very end of comments, enough of your readers found it and clicked through to rock my stats. I figure that well below 1% of your readers clicked through and you still rocked my stats. Wow.
You have important things to say. Congrats on the platform you’ve built to speak from.
Scott
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015Early on, I liked the notion of enabling back-links. There’s a web spider that finds a blog linking to my post and links back through comments. I’ve always like the cooperation implied.
Thanks for the kind words in any case. She’s a trim little ship and holds up amazingly well, even in adverse conditions.
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015Large volcanic eruptions were responsible for cold temperature extremes recorded since early Roman times
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-07-large-volcanic-eruptions-responsible-cold.html#jCp
Dan Taylor
/ July 9, 2015Thank you for all your hard work. I recommend your blog to a lot of people. Many Canadians are unaware of the dangers they face. Our prime minister harper is a climate denier and I would like to see him put on trial for crimes against humanity. Hopefully the people I recommend your site to actually read it. Your site makes it easy to follow what is happening and hopefully they will vote harper out of office in 2015.
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015Thanks for the kind words, Dan. The money-political power link of fossil fuel based interests to conservative (neo-liberal) parties around the world is very strong. If you are going to change that, you need to go after the political party supporting FF interests and the money flows of their corporate backers. Anyone using an EV, a solar array, using wind power, anyone cutting their consumption of meat, anyone divesting in fossil fuels, anyone riding a bike, anyone with a home garden, anyone protesting pipelines or coal and gas plants, anyone reducing purchases of goods from large, multinational corporations, anyone pointing out the influence of fossil fuel funded think tanks (like Heartland in America) and anyone getting out the vote against the fossil fuel interests helps. The action on the part of individuals from personal change to pushes for policy changes that remove preferential treatment of the fossil fuel industry and makes permanent preferential treatment of non carbon based energy sources is most helpful if it is comprehensive and coordinated across broad segments. And anyone with wide visibility speaking out against the fossil fuel narrative and alerting people to the trouble that continued fossil fuel burning is causing can be a huge help indeed. It’s an all hands on deck moment from here on out with those fighting against responses basically fighting to impose extraordinary harm on pretty much everyone from human beings to the innocent creatures with whom we share our world. And yes, I think the word crime is entirely appropriate, when the action of leaders imposes such suffering on a mass scale, what else is it but an amoral and criminal manifestation of government that has abandoned the well being of its people in order to serve an industry with no future.
Dan Taylor
/ July 10, 2015I do much of what you suggest including community gardens, growing trees, geothermal and political work. thanks for your encouragement and I will not give up.
Playamart - Zeebra Designs
/ July 12, 2015What a great reply. You list many easy choices, and this list deserves its own post. Add my ‘thanks’ to all of the above. Btw, my son wrote from n. Misssissippi to say that they received a 12-inch rain last week. Usually in July, they’re happy for half an inch to break the July drought.
Z
robertscribbler
/ July 12, 2015Huge moisture loading to say the least…
Thanks for the kind words. I hope more people act. We are each a stone, all together we are an avalanche.
Playamart - Zeebra Designs
/ July 12, 2015Oh, you are so right.
Here on the equator toay I was sharing what I’ve learned (from you) with my friends here on the front line (beach)… Those staring the dragon in the face need no convincing, and I remain baffled at the highly-intelligent people who are in stubborn denial.
Thanks again
John
/ July 9, 2015Reblogged this on jpratt27.
Ouse M.D.
/ July 9, 2015Remember, it is 3 minutes to midnight
http://thebulletin.org/
Tom
/ July 9, 2015The clock has been broken or deliberately set back for years. Fukushima (after the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico) all by itself brings us to zero hour or midnight. Add in methane release, abrupt climate change, the die-off in the worlds oceans (not to mention pollinators, birds, butterflies, etc), food and potable water shortages and disease (i’ll stop here for brevity) and we’re WELL PAST 12.
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015Considering thermal-viscous collapse of the Greenland ice sheet
Abstract
We explore potential changes in Greenland ice sheet form and flow associated with increasing ice temperatures and relaxing effective ice viscosities. We define “thermal-viscous collapse” as a transition from the polythermal ice sheet temperature distribution characteristic of the Holocene to temperate ice at the pressure melting point and associated lower viscosities. The conceptual model of thermal-viscous collapse we present is dependent on: (1) sufficient energy available in future meltwater runoff, (2) routing of meltwater to the bed of the ice sheet interior, and (3) efficient energy transfer from meltwater to the ice. Although we do not attempt to constrain the probability of thermal-viscous collapse, it appears thermodynamically plausible to warm the deepest 15% of the ice sheet, where the majority of deformational shear occurs, to the pressure melting point within four centuries. First-order numerical modeling of an end-member scenario, in which prescribed ice temperatures are warmed at an imposed rate of 0.05 K/a, infers a decrease in ice sheet volume of 5 ± 2% within five centuries of initiating collapse. This is equivalent to a cumulative sea-level rise contribution of 33 ± 18 cm. The vast majority of the sea-level rise contribution associated with thermal-viscous collapse, however, would likely be realized over subsequent millennia.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015EF000301/full
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015We’ll be very lucky to just see 33 cm of melt from Greenland this Century at current rates of warming…
dtlange
/ July 9, 2015I like that term, “thermal-viscous collapse”. It’s right on target. The past, and the future, in motion. It’s got action.
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015The term does have a certain ring to it… Human hothouse. Monster El Nino. Thermal Viscous Collapse. Although I’d call it viciously viscous ;).
climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ July 9, 2015I think you do too. I tagged the tweet on this, btw, as “The Great Bonfire.” Line is stolen from the late Randy Udall, a talented writer and speaker on energy issues who passed away unexpectedly a couple of years ago. He used it to refer to the gargantuan combustion of fossil fuels our society has carried out, but it looks as though it may apply equally well to the Northern Boreal Forest.
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015From Dr, Masters site –
276. StormTrackerScott
2:16 AM GMT on July 09, 2015
if you are a paid member for the Euro then please go visit the Euro Enso plume as it is historic. Never seen a forecast put out by the Euro as drastic as this. Damm! Again go look if you have access.
Ben Noll@BenNollWeather
44 of the 51 (86%) #ECMWF ensemble members from today’s seasonal run show the strongest #ElNino in modern history coming this winter.
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015Yeah. That Euro ENSO plume is hitting well above 3 C. The Euro model has just gone nuts.
wili
/ July 9, 2015And don’t they generally have some of the most accurate forecasts? Where they the ones who forecast Sandy’s trajectory and force so much more accurately than the American models?
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015Absolutely. The Euro model was an outlier predicting the Sandy event a week before it happened. It took some time for the other models to start to agree. The Euro is one of the best system models out there and has nailed some major events with uncanny accuracy. Definitely something to keep an eye on.
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015A very good interview-
Q&A: Antarctica – our big icy threat
Scientists are watching the dramatic death throes of the huge Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica, which is giving way after 10,000 years. And in only the last six years, glaciers along the Southern Antarctic Peninsula have shed 14 trillion tonnes of water.
What’s going on in the big frozen continent below us? Dr Nancy Bertler of GNS Science and Victoria University, a plenary speaker in the 2015 Antarctic Science Conference opening in Christchurch tomorrow, answered these questions from the Herald.
Link
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015Research Highlight: Sea Currents and Wind Patterns in the Pacific Ocean Linked to Climate Change
A new study about ocean circulation in the Pacific Ocean region concludes that currents in the Pacific and Indian oceans may be altered by climate change.
New research shows that ozone depletion and greater levels of atmospheric CO2 has caused changes in wind patterns, intensifying high-latitude westward winds and weakening mid-latitude trade winds. Changes in wind patterns and currents may have contributed to more severe monsoons and droughts in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia.
Climate change has caused ocean temperatures along the path of subtropical western boundary currents to increase two to three times greater than the global average, contributing to shifts in wind and currents in the region.
Link
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015Catastrophic Chinese floods triggered by air pollution
What atmospheric scientist Jiwen Fan saw on her television in July 2013 appalled her. The worst flooding to hit China in 50 years was happening in Sichuan province, in the same place that had been devastated by a massive earthquake just 5 years earlier. Over the course of 5 days, 73 centimeters of rain pounded the mountains, peaking at 29 centimeters in a single day. Rivers burst their banks and poured through city streets, washing away homes, factories, and bridges. Steep valley slopes collapsed in deadly landslides. About 200 people died, and a further 300,000 were displaced.
http://news.sciencemag.org/asiapacific/2015/07/catastrophic-chinese-floods-triggered-air-pollution
dnem
/ July 9, 2015NPR did a long story yesterday about Pacific ocean temps and the negative impact on the Dungeness crab fishery. NOT ONE MENTION of climate change in any way whatsoever. The only mention of climate at all was with respect to el nino potentially providing drought relief to CA. Criminal.
Tom
/ July 9, 2015As i’m sure you know, NPR is headed by corporate lackeys (not to mention its sponsors):
http://12bytes.org/articles/exposed/npr-national-public-radio-or-national-propaganda-radio
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015And NPR is a far better source than the clown show that is Fox. In this case we have myopic NPR failing to report on climate change and blind, deaf, dumb and greedy Fox just basically running what amounts to a constant right wing, oil funded political cartoon.
The choices, in this case, are not all that great (NPR) and worse.
The blanket hush over anything climate change in the daily news is one of the major enablers to failure to act. The fact that this pervades the media leaves much of the public very ill informed on a present and growing danger to general welfare.
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015Global warming skeptics cite personal weather observations as the key reason for their views
The number of Americans who believe there is evidence of global warming rose to 63 percent after a memorable winter that included record cold and snow in the Northeast and historic warmth and drought in the West, according to a University of Michigan survey.
A new report from the National Surveys on Energy and Environment showed an 8 percentage point increase in the belief in global warming from Spring 2014 and a 3 percentage point increase from last fall.
Read more at: Link
robertscribbler
/ July 9, 2015Add in the broad failure of the media to report on climate change except as special features. This is the most important story of our time and the media refuses to address it. Terrorism is far, far less a threat and one that has root causes in climate change itself. The media is only looking at symptoms, and hardly ever at causes. Basically, this is something that everyone should be aware of and concerned about at this time.
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job
Among many climate scientists, gloom has set in. Things are worse than we think, but they can’t really talk about it.
In the photo: Glaciologist Jason Box, left, at work on the Petermann Glacier on Greenland’s northwest coast, which has lost mass at an accelerated pace in recent years. Box and his family left Ohio State for Europe a couple years ago, and he is relieved to have escaped America’s culture of climate-change denial.
Link
Tom
/ July 9, 2015Thanks for that link CO Bob; if I put it here I’d be banned from the site for being a doomer.
Greg
/ July 9, 2015Thank you CB. Kept crashing Firefox but worked in Explorer. In the end what does a despairing climate scientist do? He soldiers on. “It’s not enough to understand the changes that are coming. We have to find a way to live with them.”
rustj2015
/ July 9, 2015The combination of the report linked by Griffin of the ARKstorm Scenario
and this Esquire article are stunning, so far only in imagination — and denial is powerful, even in scientists’ minds.
The potential of disaster realized might be a more concentrated move away from the maelstrom to come (Witsendnj…)
“But let’s get real, [Dr. Box] says, fossil fuels are the dominant industry on earth, and you can’t expect meaningful political change with them in control. “There’s a growing consensus that there must be a shock to the system.”
So the darker hopes arise—maybe a particularly furious El Niño…”
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015Record heat, drought a fatal combination for fish across the West
GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Drought and record hot weather are producing lethal conditions for salmon and trout in rivers across the West.
A recent survey of the lower reaches of 54 rivers in Oregon, California and Washington by the conservation group Wild Fish Conservancy showed nearly three-quarters had temperatures higher than 70 degrees, considered potentially deadly for salmon and trout.
Low river flows from the record low winter snowpack, which normally feeds rivers through the summer, combined with record hot weather have created a “perfect storm” of bad conditions for salmon and trout, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supervisory fisheries biologist Rich Johnson.
“It’s unprecedented, I’d say,” Johnson said.
Link
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015Wisconsin Energy Corp. CEO, Gale Klappa, President of Global Warming Misinformation Campaign Earlier In His Career
The Union of Concerned Scientists has released a new report today titled, “The Climate Deception Dossiers.” The report details internal fossil fuel industry memos totaling more than 330 pages, and reveals the tactics used by company executives to deliberately manufacture uncertainty about the scientific evidence on global warming. Using documents collected over the years by various organizations including Greenpeace, Climate Investigations Center, and Climate Accountability Institute, this report highlights seven collections that “provides an illuminating inside look at this coordinated campaign of deception” manufactured by fossil fuel corporations around the world.
Link
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015Atmospheric CO2 for June 2015
402,80 ppm
Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015Colorado Bob
/ July 9, 2015Fires and smoke in northern Canada
Aqua/MODIS
2015/189
07/08/2015
19:25 UTC
Link
Greg
/ July 9, 2015For a little distraction, a little hope about difficult if not impossible journeys. NASA just released a video of 11 years of travels for the Mars rover Opportunity, which just completed its record setting Marathon, over 24 miles of travel. It includes sound, based on the vibrations of the terrain underfoot.
Greg
/ July 9, 2015It reminds me to appreciate what an utterly unique and impossibly rare planet we have under our feet.
rustj2015
/ July 9, 2015Yes, as Gail says in Witsendnj:
I should add – dance, dance, dance, and sing. Kiss the sky. Hug your loved ones. Bear witness to the fleeting beauty that still lingers on our blistered planet. Spare some time to admire the trees, being choked and poisoned by atmospheric toxins.
Spike
/ July 9, 2015Some spectacular photos coming out of Canada on Twitter. The fact that troops are involved, and firefighters being flown in from Australia and NZ speaks for itself about the situation. Abbott went AWOL during Australia’s fires I seem to remember, and I’ve not heard anything from Harper. The technique seems to be concentrate on the firefighting, keep your head down, and if pushed say the time isn’t appropriate to look at the underlying causes. Of course that time never arrives, other issues conveniently occupying attention.