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What are some effective ways we can reduce our carbon footprint to slow down climate change?

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Wildlife

The government and EPA that make the rules and regulations

Companies that are affected by EPA regulations

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Climate change isn't distributed evenly around the world

Not only rising temps but rising sea levels, changes in weather patterns, and loss of biodiversity play a role

Deforestation

Burning fossil fuels

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climate.nasa.gov Nasa has a website and organization that uses facts to educate people about climate change.

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skepticalscience.com uses their platform to debunk "climate change myths" and explain the facts of climate change.

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The administration's assault on science includes attempting to cast doubt on climate change, limiting and eliminating access to scientific information, and preventing federal scientists from publicly communicating their research.

In the Silencing Science Tracker, a public database we maintain with Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, we catalog government efforts to restrict, censor, undermine, and misrepresent science. We've defined these actions as those that aim to restrict or prohibit scientific research, education, or discussion, or the publication or use of scientific information.

Our analysis of Tracker data reveals where and how the Trump administration is focusing its efforts to silence science. The largest number of entries pertain to actions taken at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), constituting 23 percent of federal entries and the Department of Interior (DOI) at 18 percent.

But other agencies are not immune to attacks on science. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Department of Commerce (DOC)-the parent agency of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA)-are also well-represented in the Tracker.

This is a continuation of the trend we reported in January 2019, with different agencies represented at roughly the same rates as they were earlier in the year. It is worth noting actions to silence science are increasingly spread across a variety of smaller agencies or agencies typically less focused on scientific research, such as the Department of Transportation and the Federal Communications Commission.

Climate science also remains the type of science most under attack, at 72 percent of Tracker entries. Other types of science affected include nutrition research, children's health research, and endangered species listings.

Posted on 31 October 2019 by John Mason

Ynyslas, on the Cardigan Bay coast of Wales, is a place well-known for its extensive, shingle spit-fronted sand-dunes, its hinterland of estuarine saltmarsh-flats and, seaward, its golden sandy beach, complete with a several thousand year-old submerged forest. The place gets some 250,000 visitors a year. Taking all of those factors into account, and that Ynyslas is also a direct product of actual climatic changes that occurred in the geologically-recent past, its tale was ripe for the telling, so that's just what I did. I wrote a book about it.

The Making of Ynyslas is a climate science book with a difference. It is an account of how climate change brought one well-loved modern landscape into existence, but in doing so, destroyed another. Covering the last 25,000 years, since around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, the story involves the details of deglaciation as the world's great ice-caps retreated polewards and seas rose, sometimes gradually and sometimes rapidly, by some 125 metres. In doing so, large areas of land were drowned: on a human time-scale, the changes would be permanent. On a geological time-scale, over hundreds of millions of years, the area now occupied by Cardigan Bay has variously been dry land or underwater on several occasions. In addition to climate change we have to consider the area's tectonic evolution over such lengthy time-frames, which are outside of the scope of the book, covering as it does the latest Pleistocene and the Holocene Stages of geological time.

Lumped together, these two stages make up the latter part of the Quaternary System, which began, following the Pliocene, 2.58 million years ago. The Quaternary represents a diversion away from the norm of the previous tens of millions of years, in that it featured regular and cyclic advances of ice-sheets, equatorwards from the Polar regions. For long stretches of geological time prior to the mid-Cenozoic, say from before some 35 million years ago, Polar ice was not a regular feature on the menu at all. So the changes from that climate state to the alternating glacials and interglacials of the Quaternary were, by definition, profound. But in order to understand how such changes came about, it is first necessary to look at past times when Earth has had an Icehouse climate. It's not a particularly common climate state over geological time and perturbations to the Slow Carbon Cycle have had a hand in every such switch.

Posted on 29 October 2019 by doug_bostrom

62 articles, 11 open access

[Late breaking]

A few hours after "finishing" this edition of New Research, Nature Communications published a reassessment of SLR-driven coastal flooding hazards, New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding by Kulp & Strauss. The authors identify systematic problems with Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) DEM (digital elevation model) data and DEM products based on the SRTM data product. This family of DEM products support key inputs into estimates of human populations and cultural features at risk from increased coastal flooding due to SLR. Given that Kulp & Strauss are proposing a substantial difference in affected population, we can be sure that this work will be closely attended not only in the popular press but by other researchers studying the same subject.

Close to home

In their article The truth is not in the middle": Journalistic norms of climate change bloggers, Christel W. van Eck and coauthors examine practices of climate change bloggers, comparing climate blogosphere journalism to more traditional news media. From the article introduction in Global Environmental Change:

The results show that climate change bloggers support the traditional journalistic norms of personalization, dramatization, novelty, authority and order, but not balance. Beyond the traditional journalistic norms, climate change bloggers identify contextualization, clarity, decency, and particularly truth as important journalistic norms. Truth is understood as a multi-dimensional norm comprising objectivity, transparency, and honesty. No differences are identified between norms supported by climate sceptical and climate mainstream bloggers, but each group operationalizes the norms differently.

The paper features many ships, crew and cargo familiar to those plying the climate blogging ocean. Beyond the immediate research results, the paper's backgrounding discussion is a fascinating look into a feature of human culture created almost entirely as a incidental effect of policy friction introduced by entrenched industrial interests. We're reminded by this article of how climate blogging has traditionally been most centrally concerned with arguing over the equivalent validity of "2+2=4," with a tiny but dedicated group of variously motivated self-described iconoclasts dissipating energy, patience and time otherwise better employed elsewhere.

A difference between traditional journalism and what we read in blogs emerges in van Eck et al: blog authors are less attached to the notion of "balance" as an overriding objective. In particular, we read that for bloggers not trading in science fiction, defying the laws of physics by attempting to synthesize "balance" where it cannot be found is subordinated to slavish devotion to reality.

We can also see that there's certainly more than a little dark absurdity woven into the fabric of the climate blogging world; quoted in the paper, Peter Sinclair is barely attaining hyperbole when he remarks "If one side of the issue is that the sky is blue and the other side of the issue is the sky is purple with pink polka dots, those are not two sides that deserve equal weight. " To be having the discussion implied by Sinclair's analogy is tragicomic but he's not really exaggerating the weird parameters of the conversation. There's no turning down the responsibility to counter comically silly arguments when those arguments pose a serious threat to obviously necessary changes and hence more or less we're all made fools, unavoidably.

Posted on 28 October 2019 by doug_bostrom

[Per remarks in comments below, a couple of corrections have been made to this article, to do with human employment of energy and Earth energy imbalance. It's always appreciated when readers with sharp eyes improve our work- thank you.]

60 years ago this month the first direct observation "Earth Radiation Budget" experiment (ERB) was successfully lofted into orbit on Explorer VII, after a string of disappointing launch failures. This deployment was only the start of an increasingly sophisticated series of experiments intended to quantify and eventually monitor the ERB. In light of subsequent development it's an event worth commemorating.

"The primary purpose of the experiment is to measure the solar, reflected, and terrestrial radiation currents to obtain the radiant heat flow to and from the earth, and ultimately to obtain a clearer understanding of the driving force behind the circulation of the atmosphere." - Weinstein & Suomi, 1961"

But first: what's the "Earth Radiation Budget," or "ERB?" This describes the net gain or loss of solar energy to or from the Earth and its various surface systems. With a balanced radiation budget, Earth on average reradiates 100% of incoming solar radiation. Tiny changes in this budget (deficit or surplus) will necessarily exert profound effects on virtually every dynamic system on the planetary surface, including our cultural activities.

Indeed- as accepted physics predicts- adding CO ₂ to the atmosphere as a side-effect of our cultural activities on Earth has introduced a slight imbalance in the radiation budget, somewhere in the neighborhood of 0.5-0.8 watts/square meter retained as a "surplus" and needing to be spent. This doesn't sound impressive in comparison with the 340 watts/square meter arriving from the Sun, but the surface of the Earth exposed to solar radiation is very large. Hence a lot of a little equals a whole bunch, several hundred terawatts of excess power being absorbed in warming the Earth's surface systems. By comparison, human manipulation of energy from all sources is about 18 terawatts.

Once the Earth's collection of systems has warmed sufficiently to radiate at the top of the atmosphere a little bit more powerfully- equal to the initial imbalance of concern- the ERB will again be in average equilibrium ("balanced" in accounting terms). It's the warming required to balance the radiation budget by stimulating increased radiation that is the root of our concern with anthropogenic climate change. That warming is dictated by increased net power delivery to Earth's surface systems, as reflected in the ERB at any given time.

Posted on 24 October 2019 by greenman3610

In a warming climate, hurricanes could linger longer, causing extreme rainfall and wind damage.

Posted on 23 October 2019 by BaerbelW

I work in the IT-department of a German manufacturing company where I help maintain the company's installation of the SAP business software. SAP is a global IT-company headquartered in Walldorf, Germany. Each fall, SAP organizes a large technical conference - the TechEd - in Las Vegas, Barcelona and Bangalore. These events are comparable to scientific conferences, offering keynote speeches, lectures, hands-on sessions and vendor exhibitions all happening at the same time in different tracks. Several thousand participants come together each year at each of the three locations for three days to learn about many aspects of the SAP system we deal with on a day to day basis, or stuff we need to know for things to come.

In addition to working as a developer, I've also been active in the online SAP Community for several years, asking and answering questions and writing blog posts every once in a while. Therefore I was happy to be able to join SAP TechEd in Barcelona this year, which I could combine with a two weeks vacation at Spain's Costa del Sol. And while my husband and I flew to and from Malaga for our vacation (not having realized that it would have been possible - if timeconsuming - to get there by train), I decided to take the train from Malaga to Barcelona and back to at least not add another flight to my itinerary.

By now, I'm sure you are wondering why I'm writing about attending this conference as it doesn't really have anything to do with climate, right? Well, there are a couple of reasons to write about it. For one, SAP is trying to make the conference as sustainable as possible, by offsetting its CO ₂-emissions, including those incurred by the participants' travels (we were asked to fill out a questionnaire for that). For another, in Barcelona, they handed out reusable water-bottles which we could then refill everywhere at the venue and by doing so, contribute to the " Fill-it-forward" project. I also heard, that SAP decided to not have some of the large convention area laid out with carpet as that would have been thrown away after the 3-day event, causing a massive amount of waste which now was avoided.

Posted on 22 October 2019 by doug_bostrom

54 articles, 18 open access

When positives are a negative

Nature Climate Change highlights Susan Natali's Large loss of CO2 in winter observed across the northern permafrost region, observing:

Warming in the Arctic is causing soils to decompose more rapidly, even during winter. Now, estimates of winter carbon dioxide loss indicate that it can offset carbon gains during the growing season, meaning that the region is a source of carbon.

We need another positive feedback like we need a hole in the head. Outcomes like this increase the weight of mitigation lifts we are currently failing to perform.

Speedier equilibrium opens a horizon of opportunity?

Geophysical Research Letters notes an article by D. Saint‐Martin, Fast‐Forward to Perturbed Equilibrium Climate, remarking:

The Earth system responds on a range of timescales to a change in radiative forcing, and full equilibration takes centuries to millennia in many models. In their recent paper, [D.Saint-Martin et al] propose a technique for reaching a faster equilibrium temperature response to alternative CO 2 concentration levels by briefly overshooting the desired concentration level to warm the deep ocean faster than a conventional step‐change experiment. Understanding how these timescales interact is essential for better representing the relationship between transient climate change and the warming which should be expected as greenhouse gas concentrations stabilize. But, the technique also raises new possibilities about how Earth System Models could be developed, and whether we could gain the capacity to spin up alternative model configurations such as perturbed parameter simulations or alternative control states to explore historical forcing uncertainty.

Cow tuning for a better tomorrow

Adjusting input variables to dairy cattle so as to optimize for maximized milk output and minimized CO2 hoofprint is explored by Brandt et al with their Intensification of dairy production can increase the GHG mitigation potential of the land use sector in East Africa. The authors find that- according to their results- there is potential to significantly expand dairy production while distinctly shrinking both CO2 intensity and (less dramatically) overall emissions from this sector, while also reducing loss of forest productivity. The devil may be in the details and the need to attend to those; the authors note the potential for problems if inputs are not scrupulously sourced.

Articles:
Physical science of anthropogenic global warming Rapid CO2 release from eroding permafrost in seawater Water vapour adjustments and responses differ between climate drivers (open access) Attribution of ocean temperature change to anthropogenic and natural forcings using the temporal, vertical and geographical structure (open access) Thermodynamic and dynamic effects of increased moisture sources over the Tropical Indian Ocean in recent decades
Posted on 21 October 2019 by Guest Author

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Lindsay Fendt

When the pilot guides the electric airplane from its hangar, there is only a light whirring of propellers instead of the roar of an engine. And it leaves no exhaust in its wake as it takes off from a small air strip south of Denver. The small plane, the eFlyer, is the first all-electric plane to seek FAA certification and its builders hope it will revolutionize the aviation industry as the first commercial electric airplane.

"Electric motors are not new," said George Bye, President of Bye Aerospace and the airplane's creator. "But the application to airplanes is remarkable, and until recently most people thought it was impossible."

Bye, who started working to develop the plane 12 years ago, said it took a transformation in battery and engine technology to make the eFlyer possible. While cars have long been able to carry heavy batteries and engines, airplanes must be aerodynamic and light. Bye completed his design once batteries and electric engines became small enough. The eFlyer is the first all-electric airplane to enter an FAA certification program, and the first eFlyers could take to the skies as early as 2021.

Training pilots, draining carbon

Bye initially designed the electric plane after learning of a growing commercial airline pilot shortage. He thought the eFlyer could cut down on expensive fuel costs for flight school training. But in addition to breaking down barriers to entry for new pilots, electric planes could one day make the aviation industry much friendlier to the environment.

Electric airplanes 'not only possible, but it's revolutionary.' - Bye Aerospace creator

29 comments
Posted on 17 October 2019 by David Kirtley

In August, the Canadian government launched a new website called ClimateData.ca which "provides engineers, public health professionals, urban planners, mayors, and anyone else doing long-term planning with user-friendly climate change information, data, resources and tools" ( press release). The website uses past weather data from 1950-2011 along with computer modelling to project the possible future impacts of climate change in Canada. Françoys Labonté, the Executive Director of Computer Research Insititue of Montréal (CRIM), one of the developers of the new web portal, said the website's purpose is "to provide Canadian leaders and managers with easy access to useful, actual and future climate data and information to assist them in anticipating and managing climate change-related issues over the medium and long term."

It didn't take long for climate science denialists to notice the lack of weather data before 1950 and assume that Canadian government scientists must be up to something nefarious. Blacklock's Reporter was the first to claim, "Canada omitted 100 years' worth of weather data from a federal website intended to illustrate climate change." Their story is behind a rather expensive paywall (even for us AGW alarmists who are "rolling in grant money"). But the story was picked up by Toronto Sun journalist, Lorrie Goldstein, claiming that Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) "omitted a century's worth of observed weather data in developing its computer models on the impacts of climate change." James Delingpole blared from Breitbart that the ECCC "has erased a century's worth of observed temperature data, claiming its modelled computer projections are more accurate." Delingpole goes further in his conclusion:

Others less committed to green activism might find it somewhat sinister that the international agencies charged with maintaining the world's temperature records are destroying them because the factual evidence doesn't support the global warming scare narrative.

These wild claims about omitted, scrapped, erased, or destroyed historical weather data are completely false, and they are a total misrepresentation of the types of computer modelling used for ClimateData.
28 comments
Posted on 16 October 2019 by Guest Author

If we stop emitting greenhouse gases is that the end of global warming? Not if we've passed a point of no return - a planetary tipping point. And if we're not careful, things could end up even more messy than my skateboarding.
23 comments
Posted on 15 October 2019 by doug_bostrom

38 articles, 9 open access

Known unknowns become known

3 months of SkS research news exposes a persistent feature of the weekly harvest: reports of investigations of expected climate outcomes in particular geographical sectors of Earth. This is made possible by regional climate modeling, a capacity that has matured and almost equally importantly become less expensive and hence more widely available in recent years. Earlier this year Filippo Giorgi's Thirty Years of Regional Climate Modeling: Where Are We and Where Are We Going next? (open access) comprehensively described how we've arrived at the point that we may project our likely experience decades into the future.This ability allows us to tackle both mitigation of and adaptation to global warming in a plethora of modes, not least in agriculture, engineering and health sciences. We have a lot of planning to do if we're to optimize the dilemma we've created but happily we've developed the skill and resources to drive this planning with numbers.

We knew something was going to happen but now increasingly we can say how much and where. That tells us what we need to do.

More generally, it's one thing to hear that the world's temperature will increase by 2 degrees centigrade if we play our remaining cards exactly right, but our imaginations may light up a little more brightly when "2 degrees" is replaced by "these things will happen" and " world" is replaced by " on my continent," or " in my country's borders" or " in my province" or " in my county." This information invites comparisons and comparisons can lead to resentment. The Earth being spherical and hence a closed space, as a pragmatic matter we're all in this together despite regional disparities; each local choice counts to a whole that we must each wish to be successful. Hopefully regional climate modeling will translate into public awareness and motivation that finds a sink in wise formulation of public policy connecting dots in a bigger picture.

Articles:
Physical science of anthropogenic global warming Effects of ocean slow response under low warming targets How accurately can the climate sensitivity to CO2 be estimated from historical climate change? (open access) 29 comments
Posted on 14 October 2019 by dana1981

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections

On the heels of its August special report on climate and land, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in late September published another special report, this one focused on oceans and ice.

This latest report was authored by 104 climate scientists from 36 countries and reflecting findings in 6,981 studies. It contains a wealth of information - its Summary for Policymakers alone runs 45 pages - but some of the key points can be summarized as follows:

Sea-level rise is accelerating because the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting at an increasing rate;

The oceans, while still basic, are becoming more acidic, which will have serious consequences for coral reefs and shell-building marine species;

The oceans are warming rapidly, leading to more frequent marine heatwaves, which also damage coral reefs;

Researchers are beginning to see more of the most intense hurricanes, those in Category 4 and 5, which in combination with higher sea levels and increased precipitation pose increasing risks and damages to coastlines;

Melting of permafrost could become a major feedback, adding carbon emissions and global warming in energy scenarios with significant continued fossil fuel burning;

Ocean oxygen levels are declining, which in combination with rising temperatures drives marine species away from the equator toward the poles, and, in concert with algal blooms, could lead to reduced seafood catches at fisheries.

Sea-level rise is accelerating

The claim that sea-level rise is not accelerating has long been a popular myth among those challenging climate science. Measurement data indeed are noisy, making it difficult to detect a change in the rate at which the oceans are rising, but some recent studies have been able to detect an acceleration. The IPCC report confirms this conclusion, noting with high confidence that "Areas of concern in earlier IPCC reports, such as the expected acceleration of sea-level rise, are now observed."

Posted on 12 October 2019 by John Hartz
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Oct 6 through Sat, Oct 12, 2019
Editor's Pick

The world needs a massive carbon tax in just 10 years to limit climate change, IMF says

The international organization suggests a cost of $75 per ton by 2030.

An aerial view of large icebergs floating as the sun rises near Kulusuk, Greenland, on Aug. 16. (Felipe Dana/AP)

A global agreement to make fossil fuel burning more expensive is urgent and the most efficient way of fighting climate change, an International Monetary Fund study found on Thursday.

The group found that a global tax of $75 per ton by the year 2030 could limit the planet's warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), or roughly double what it is now. That would greatly increase the price of fossil-fuel-based energy - especially from the burning of coal - but the economic disruption could be offset by routing the money raised straight back to citizens.

"If you compare the average level of the carbon tax today, which is $2 [a ton], to where we need to be, it's a quantum leap," said Paolo Mauro, deputy director of the fiscal affairs department at the IMF.

The world needs a massive carbon tax in just 10 years to limit climate change, IMF says by Chris Mooney & Andrew Freedman, Climate & Environment, Washington Post, Oct 10, 2019

Posted on 10 October 2019 by andylee

Andy Lee Robinson has updated his Arctic sea ice minimum volume video through 2019.

Posted on 8 October 2019 by doug_bostrom

44 articles, 12 open access

Long levers

Economists and macroeconomics must necessarily deal with a grand experiment wherein none of the variables feeding the show can be adjusted or fixed; economists face worse problems than do researchers pursuing cutting-edge experimental physics. Our experience with and expectations of economic phenomena as factors of predictable results are necessarily shaped by history and cultural memory. Operational, empirical economics- investment choices- heavily depend on expert opinion in shaping decisions having a massive impact on human commercial activity; abstract hypothesis on future behavior of the economy is not only inevitable but also critical in terms of its plausibility and validity- as a day-to-day practical matter.

Given the urgency we face with slewing certain parts of our economy so as to improve our trajectory, "getting it right" with regard to the discount rate is arguably of paramount importance. In a nutshell and in the language of an ignorant layperson (the author), the discount rate is a number expressing the time value of money, so it follows that- In the simplest terms- the communally acceptable, conventionally-derived discount rate in a given economic context significantly determines the viability of any proposed investment in that context. Given our culture, the money required for scaled climate mitigation work will not be forthcoming without the seemingly tiny number of the discount rate being "right," with "right"judged in 1/100ths.

In The role of the discount rate for emission pathways and negative emissions Emmerling et al plow directly into the discount rate, their paper serving nicely to illustrate exactly how important is an accurate target rate:

The importance of the discount rate in cost-benefit analysis of long term problems- such as climate change- has been widely acknowledged. However, the choice of the discount rate is hardly discussed when translating policy targets-such as 1.5 °C and 2 °C-into emission reduction strategies with the possibility of overshoot. Integrated assessment models (IAMs) have quantified the sensitivity of low carbon pathways to a series of factors, including economic and population growth, national and international climate policies, and the availability of low carbon technologies, including negative emissions. In this paper we show how and to what extent emission pathways are also influenced by the discount rate. Using both an analytical and a numerical IAM, we demonstrate how discounting affects key mitigation indicators, such as the time when net global emissions reach zero, the amount of carbon budget overshoot, and the carbon price profile. To ensure inter-generational equity and be coherent with cost-benefit analysis normative choices, we suggest that IAMs should use lower discount rates than the ones currently adopted. For a 1000 GtCO2 carbon budget, reducing the discount rate from 5% to 2% would more than double today's carbon price (from 21 to 55 $/tCO2) and more than halve the carbon budget overshoot (from 46% to 16%), corresponding to a reduction of about 300 GtCO2 of net negative emissions over the century.

The discount rate is widely acknowledged as a key factor in our success with fixing our climate problem, even as it is famously controversial in this application. To an untrained eye the variances we still see- decades into discussion-- in proposed acceptable discount rates as they apply to investment in a functional climate capable of sustaining our culture are not an inspiration to confidence in our outcome. To a person making an investment decision determining how many centimeters of sea level rise we see in 200 years, it's paralytic.
46 comments
Posted on 7 October 2019 by Guest Author

This is a re-post from Carbon Brief
Dr Ruth Mottram, Dr Martin Stendel and Dr Peter Langen are climate scientists at the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) in Copenhagen, which is part of the Polar Portal. A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Sep 29 through Sat, Oct 5, 2019 Dr Andreas Ahlstrøm and Dr Kenneth D. Mankoff are chief research consultant and senior scientist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, respectively.
As the end of August sees summer shift into autumn for the northern hemisphere, it also marks the end of the melt season for the Greenland ice sheet.

The advent of a new season is the traditional time for our annual look back at the year gone by and what it tells us about the state ice sheet.

Our estimates show that the surface of the ice sheet gained 169bn tonnes of ice over 2018-19 - this is the seventh smallest gain on record.

And using new satellite data, we show that - once all ice sheet processes are factored in for the past year - the Greenland ice sheet saw a net decline of 329bn tonnes in ice.

Surface processes

While western calendars show another four months before a new year, scientists generally consider the beginning of September as the start of a new annual cycle for the Greenland ice sheet.

This yearly pattern sees the ice sheet largely gain snow from September, accumulating ice through autumn, winter and into spring. Then, as the year warms up into late spring, the ice sheet begins to lose more ice through surface melt than it gains from fresh snowfall. This melt season generally continues until the end of August.

The contrast between snow gains and ice losses at the surface over the whole year is known as the "surface mass balance" (SMB). The chart below shows the SMB for 2018-19 on individual days (top) and cumulatively across the year (bottom). The blue lines show 2018-19 data and the grey line shows the long-term average. The lower chart also shows the record low year in 2011-12 (red line) for comparison.

Posted on 5 October 2019 by John Hartz

Editor's Pick

Greta Thunberg is right: It's time to haul ass on climate change

Economically and politically, early ambition is better.

New York, NY - August 28, 2019: 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg arrives into New York City after crossing the Atlantic in a sailboat and attend press conference at North Cove Marina - Shutterstock

When Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed the elites assembled at the World Economic Forum in Davos, she concluded with a simple message: "I want you to act as if our house is on fire."

For those elites, it was unfamiliar language. They are accustomed to talking about climate change, but typically such talk amounts to ritual invocations of "urgency" coupled with promises about what might be achieved in 2030 or 2050.

When your house is on fire, though, you don't promise results in a decade or a year or a week. You grab a bucket and find some water. Immediately.

When it comes to climate policy, Thunberg has it right. We are in a unique historical moment; we understand the danger of climate change and, for now, still have the resources and political space necessary to address it. But every second of delay makes the challenge more expensive, more difficult, and more dangerous.

It's not just climate activists saying that. The policy community is moving in that direction as well, with similar arguments coming into clearer view from economists and political scientists. The common theme is risk, and what it means to take the mounting risks of the climate crisis seriously.

Greta Thunberg is right: It's time to haul ass on climate change by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, Oct 4, 2019

Posted on 2 October 2019 by Guest Author

This is a re-post from the WMO

The world's leading climate science organizations have joined forces to produce a landmark new report for the United Nations Climate Action Summit, underlining the glaring - and growing - gap between agreed targets to tackle global warming and the actual reality.

The report, United in Science, includes details on the state of the climate and presents trends in the emissions and atmospheric concentrations of the main greenhouse gases. It highlights the urgency of fundamental socio-economic transformation in key sectors such as land use and energy in order to avert dangerous global temperature increase with potentially irreversible impacts. It also examines tools to support both mitigation and adaptation.

"The Report provides a unified assessment of the state of our Earth system under the increasing influence of anthropogenic climate change, of humanity's response thus far and of the far-reaching changes that science projects for our global climate in the future. The scientific data and findings presented in the report represent the very latest authoritative information on these topics," said the Science Advisory Group to the UN Secretary-General's Climate Action Summit.

"It highlights the urgent need for the development of concrete actions that halt the worst effects of climate change."

The Science Advisory Group is co-chaired by WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas and Leena Srivastava, former Vice Chancellor of TERI School of Advanced Studies. It comprises highly recognized and respected natural and social scientists, with expertise in different aspects of climate change, including on mitigation and adaptation.

The report, which was coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization, aims to present a "transparent envelope" of authoritative and actionable cutting-edge science.

Posted on 1 October 2019 by doug_bostrom

51 articles, 20 open access

Situational awareness: "That ship has sailed."

In a meeting of oil and gas executives this past summer, Mark Barron suggested energy companies accept that as a functional matter of politics anthropogenic climate change is fact and that their industry must deal with the reality of an under-40 US population seeing climate change as "an existential crisis that we need to address."

A brief glance at this week's proportionality of published climate change research illustrates how- let alone its being a political reality and fait accompli-- acceptance of our influence on the climate in the broad scientific community is a ship that has sailed and sunk beneath the horizon, is well along its necessary course.

There are still interesting results to be found in the basic physical science of how our climate responds to a massive injection of CO2, but research activity increasingly lies in quantifying our future climate and Earth systems behavior based on what we already know from prior more basic results. Exploring and creating economic scenarios from which citizens may forge informed and functional policy,and understanding how the biome will cope with upcoming changes we're imposing on the planet are areas of intense focus. As well, a substantial (alarmingly?) component of current climate-related research concerns how we will feed and house a population projected to increase by some 35% even as food production and livable space are more or less negatively impacted by heating. Most immediately, now that we know something is happening our eyes are opened; observations of changes already taking place are a substantial part of this week's roster, a notably persistent feature of Skeptical Science research news.

Researchers can explore scenarios, offer quantification of what we may expect to see but of course it's up to us to be improved by all of this work, to help shape useful policy responses. Not all of us can be credentialed scientists or citizen scientists, yet we all of us together share responsibility for making better luck.

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Global Warming and Climate Change skepticism examined

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Examines the science and arguments of global warming skepticism. Common objections like 'global warming is caused by the sun', 'temperature has changed naturally in the past' or 'other planets are warming too' are examined to see what the science really says.

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bbc.com uses simple graphs and simple words to explain climate change in simple terms to educate.

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They use the website to explain how we can save money and reduce our carbon footprint and give us 10 different options. A way they explain is simply just using a reusable water bottle or as simple as turning off lights when your not using them.

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Austin was one of 195 cities worldwide that signed the Paris Agreement at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, agreeing to lower greenhouse gas emissions to alleviate the worst impacts of climate change. But this is only the most recent development in a long history of climate action taken by our city. In 2007, City Council approved a resolution to make Austin a leader in the fight against climate change. Building on that effort, in 2014 Council set a target of community-wide net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

But what does it all mean? Currently, the City is working to implement over 130 actions that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy, transportation, and materials and waste sources. But it's going to take more than City action to meet the net-zero goal - everyone has to do their part to cut carbon.

That's where we need your help! Taking personal action isn't hard and also comes with great benefits. In addition to reducing your carbon footprint, you'll also save money and time, avoid traffic, reduce pollution, improve air quality, and enjoy a healthier, more active lifestyle.

Here are 10 easy ways you can start making a difference:

1. Stop buying your water in plastic. Get a reusable water bottle and keep it filled and with you at all times. You'll save money and the environment!

2. Incorporate walking or biking to some of your regular short-trip destinations. In most instances, you can walk a mile in less than 20 minutes. This is a great way to add exercise to your busy schedule.

7. Set your thermostat to 78 in summer and 67 in winter. And turn-off the heat and AC when you're not home. You'll be surprised at the difference it makes in your energy bill.

10. Use alternative transportation (bus, train, carpool, or bike) to get to work one day per week. Enjoy the chance to catch up on your reading instead of testing your patience in traffic!

Simple actions really add up when everyone joins in! Deciding to take action means that you want to take care of this place we call home - making Austin greener today and for many years to come. Doing your part makes you a Net-Zero Hero!

Tell us your Net-Zero story at sustainability@austintexas.gov.

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Top 10 Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint and Save Money

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Austin was one of 195 cities worldwide that signed the Paris Agreement at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, agreeing to lower greenhouse gas emissions to alleviate the worst impacts of climate change. But this is only the most recent development in a long history of climate action taken by our city.

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This site provides students and educators with ocean, coastal, and climate literacy resources, including activities on ocean and climate literacy, sea level rise, and increasing your city’s resilience to climate change.

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US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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National Ocean Service Education: For Educators

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a collection of education topical pages from NOAA’s National Ocean Service

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This site provides learning activities, curriculum materials, and multimedia resources for teaching about climate and energy.

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Led by the producers of The Island President and An Inconvenient Sequel, this is a cross-curricular professional development opportunity to bring science and social studies educators together to address climate change in their schools. After...