The Environment Thread

[pigseye]

21 minutes ago, Tracker said:

I seem to recall that in Sweden, when they tested hydrogen tanks but for cold weather,  they installed a low-output electric  heater on the outside of the tank(s) to keep the contents from gelling.

Sounds reasonable, diesel used to gel in the lines too before they came out with a winter version, not a new problem and I'm sure they will find a fix, just don't be the first in line to get one when they come out  

[pigseye]

[PDF] Dependence of Earth's Thermal Radiation on Five Most Abundant Greenhouse Gases. | Semantic Scholar

[PDF] Multiple regression analysis of anthropogenic and heliogenic climate drivers, and some cautious forecasts | Semantic Scholar

A couple recently published studies both concluding that green house gases have reached saturation levels. 

[pigseye]

Unexpected ice | Earthdata (nasa.gov)

 

[FrostyWinnipeg]

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/here-is-how-warm-the-weather-was-in-winnipeg-in-january-according-to-environment-and-climate-change-canada-1.5291143

 

[Mark H.]

Fun fact:

1961 used to be the driest year on record. 2020 broke that record by about 50 mm

Source - CJOB

[FrostyWinnipeg]

1 hour ago, Mark H. said:

Fun fact:

1961 used to be the driest year on record. 2020 broke that record by about 50 mm

Source - CJOB

Thought 2019 was drier but thats the way it is right? Every year, hottest, driest on record it seems with coldest on record every 10 years.

[Mark H.]

30 minutes ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

Thought 2019 was drier but thats the way it is right? Every year, hottest, driest on record it seems with coldest on record every 10 years.

2019 was dry with a wet fall - 2020 was dry all the way through. 

[Brandon]

2 hours ago, Mark H. said:

2019 was dry with a wet fall - 2020 was dry all the way through. 

2018 was a wet summer & fall

2019 was a really hot dry early summer and then terribly wet late summer/fall

2020 was really good. 

How I know.... my wife in early 2018 requested for me to work on our deck/gazebo and I procrastinated... by August it was raining every few days and I didn't get a chance to work on it and stain it because we never had a nice 5 day streak of nice weather.  The amount of "I told you so" and nagging I endured throughout that fall and winter was severe.  

2019 rolls around and we do have nice weather,  turns out that our deck was constructed poorly and I had to basically rebuild it and it took almost a month for me to rebuild it and stain it. I remember burning badly because it was obscenely hot outside.  I finally finished the deck and erected our new gazebo. Naturally the moment I finished it was the moment our nice weather ended and it kept raining and raining and we did not have a streak of nice weather.  Once again I endured more "I told you so" ,  "Would of been nice to use the deck" and more severe reminders and nagging throughout another fall/winter. 

2020 arrives... we have a very nice summer and fall and we used the deck many times.  However the nagging did not stop with my wife saying  "See we could of enjoyed doing this over the last two summers had you not procrastinated". 

Moral of the story...  it rained a lot and I will not procrastinate in the future.   

[tacklewasher]

6 hours ago, Brandon said:

 I will not procrastinate in the future.   

I call BS on that

 

[Jpan85]

12 hours ago, Mark H. said:

Fun fact:

1961 used to be the driest year on record. 2020 broke that record by about 50 mm

Source - CJOB

Funny Winninpeg was sandwiched between two record rain falls but still was the very dry.

[Mark H.]

1 hour ago, tacklewasher said:

I call BS on that

 

Procrastinators unite...tomorrow. 

[tacklewasher]

7 hours ago, Mark H. said:

Procrastinators unite...tomorrow. 

Dyslexics untie

[Mark F]

a climate bet. Of note, in Pierre's original article describing the bet, he states:

 

https://skepticalscience.com/impossible-to-lose.html

Edited February 3, 2021 by Mark F

[blue_gold_84]

3 hours ago, Mark F said:

a climate bet. Of note, in Pierre's original article describing the bet, he states:

 

https://skepticalscience.com/impossible-to-lose.html

I doubt those knuckle-dragger denialists at NTZ will hold up their end of the bet, much less acknowledge reality.

Best part of that article: 

Quote

The good news

Rather than end on that pessimistic note I think it’s important to point out, things are moving in a positive direction on many fronts. The United States is back in the Paris Agreement, run by an administration that views the climate crisis as a top priority. Renewables are continuing to get cheaper and cheaper, to the point they’re falling below extraction costs for fossil fuels sources. Most newly installed electricity generation is now renewable. All the major car companies are shifting production to electric vehicles. That's just to name a few.

A day is coming when I would lose this same bet thanks to international climate mitigation measures. It’s not likely during my lifetime, but probably in my children’s lifetimes. They’re smart kids, though. I’m sure they’ll listen to the science and know when the bet is no longer impossible to lose.

 

[Tracker]

17 hours ago, tacklewasher said:

Dyslexics untie

And if life gives you melons....you are probably dyslexic. There is a Procrastinators Anonymous but they haven't gotten around to setting a meeting yet.  There is also a Paranoids Anonymous but they are not telling anyone where the meetings are.

[Mark F]

16 hours ago, blue_gold_84 said:

Best part of that article: 

second  best part is that someone named "BobLoblaw" posted a comment.

this takes me way back.

[pigseye]

A later onset of the rainy season in California - Luković - - Geophysical Research Letters - Wiley Online Library

Quote

WASHINGTON—The start of California’s annual rainy season has been pushed back from November to December, prolonging the state’s increasingly destructive wildfire season by nearly a month, according to new research. The study cannot confirm the shift is connected to climate change, but the results are consistent with climate models that predict drier autumns for California in a warming climate, according to the authors. “What we’ve shown is that it will not happen in the future, it’s happening already,” said Jelena Luković, a climate scientist at the University of Belgrade in Serbia and lead author of the new study. “The onset of the rainy season has been progressively delayed since the 1960s, and as a result the precipitation season has become shorter and sharper in California.” The results suggest California’s wildfire season, which has been getting progressively worse due to human-caused climate change, will last even longer in the years to come and Californians can expect to see more fires flaring up in the month of November. 2020 was California’s worst wildfire season on record, with nearly 10,000 fires burning more than 4.2 million acres of land.

Sounds pretty convincing until you read

Quote

 

Tony Heller produced a chart showing California drought over the past showing it is naturally cyclical and has been worse than now:

https://realclimatescience.com/2018/02/science-man-made-california-droughts/

“Scientists who study the West’s long-term climate patterns say that California has had multiple droughts of 10 or 20 years in a row during the past 1,000 years — and two severe “megadroughts” of 180 years and 240 years.”

 

and

Quote

California rain follows Pacific Ocean currents, faster currents more water moved northwards, and thanks to the size of the Pacific the Earth’s angular momentum changes, slightly altering length of the day LOD.
http://www.vukcevic.co.uk/CaRainSC.gif
Spectral composition of the California’s ran follows closely the LOD’s spectral composition with a strong ~ 30 year periodicity and it’s second 14-15 year harmonic

and

Quote

I was just thinking while reading the article that “how do they know that California wasn’t abnormally wet back in the 1960’s?” And according to Tony Heller’s graph, it appears that was the case.

 

[Mark F]

 

[Mark F]

"For the tiny North Atlantic nation of Iceland, however, mackerel are a harbinger of ocean warming.

Until about 2000, mackerel were a rare sight in Iceland, an island whose people have survived for centuries by fishing. But today they are one of the country’s most commercially important fish, both in terms of value and volume.

In 2016, mackerel was the third largest catch for Iceland and its third-most-valuable fish, bringing in $103 million or 8 percent of the nation’s total catch value.

“This mackerel story is maybe one of the most marked ones... demonstrating the changes taking place in the fish stock in the North Atlantic in recent years,” said Ólafur S. Ástþórsson, a scientist at Reykjavik’s Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MFRI), which advises the Icelandic government on catch levels.

Rising ocean temperatures have altered fish stocks around Iceland, with southern species migrating northwards and northern species shifting even further north, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Iceland has also seen 31 new species of fish in its waters since 1996, including blue sharks, flounder, megrims and black devil anglerfish,"

The waters around Iceland have warmed between 1 to 2 degrees Celsius in the last 20 years, said Hreiðar Þór Valtýsson, a professor at the Faculty of Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Akureyri.

 

 

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heatwave-iceland-fish-idUSKCN1BW02T

 

 

 

 

[FrostyWinnipeg]

A big test of reusable packaging for groceries comes to Canada

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/whatonearth/deadly-glacier-break-in-himalayas-a-warning-of-hazards-in-a-warmer-world-scientists-say-1.5917505

Quote

Glaciologists say the deadly slide in northern India earlier this month is a sign of how areas around glaciers are becoming more dangerous as a result of climate change.

Local authorities said Tuesday 146 people are still missing and 58 confirmed dead following the slide that wiped out one hydro-electric construction site and damaged another further downstream.

It's not known yet exactly what triggered the torrent of ice, water, mud and other debris on Feb. 7 in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand state, but it started when a chunk of glacier broke away just below Nanda Devi, India's second-highest Himalayan peak.

Scientists are still investigating what caused the glacier to break — possibly an avalanche or a release of accumulated water.

What is known is that a warming planet is increasing the rate at which glaciers retreat and danger grows. Meltwater around the glaciers makes them less stable — something that could prove devastating to Canadian communities situated close to glaciers as well.

 

[Mark F]

Denmark population under six million.

someone explain why Canada can not do this.Are we really as backward as it seems?

"Danish energy infrastructure investments firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is looking to build what it says is Europe’s largest production facility of CO2-free green ammonia, with the final product aimed at the shipping and agriculture sector as a means to reduce emissions."

The project will be located in the town of Esbjerg on the west coast of Denmark, where the facility dubbed "Power-to-X-facility" will convert power from offshore wind turbines to green ammonia. 

This will be used by the agriculture sector as CO2-free green fertilizer and by the shipping industry as CO2-free green fuel. 

The excess heat will be used to provide heating for around one-third of the local households in Esbjerg. The facility will consist of 1GW electrolysis. 

Ultimately, this is expected to reduce CO2-emissions by about 1.5 million tons CO2 yearly – or the equivalent to removing 730,000 cars from the roads permanently, CIP said."

 

 

https://www.oedigital.com/news/485481-europe-s-largest-cip-to-launch-offshore-wind-powered-ammonia-plant-in-denmark

[Mark F]

have a look back on this thread and see some of the nonsense posted ...eg   "myth...co2 is a pollutant"

 

anyway,

"London — UK government-funded tests have concluded successfully on a solid-state battery system that is cobalt-free and costs under half that of comparable lithium-ion technology, project participants told S&P Global Platts Feb. 24."

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/metals/022421-uk-cobalt-free-solid-state-battery-technology-claims-major-cost-efficiencies

 

cascade of renewables aus

 

The growth in low marginal cost wind and solar generation will see generators with more expensive fuel costs, like coal and gas, pushed out of the market due to the National Electricity Market’s merit order effect.

“They will be displaced because wind and solar have no fuel cost and typically bid into the market with prices close to zero,” IEEFA analyst Johanna Bowyer said.

“We predict that gas power station output will fall by 78% and coal output by 28% by 2025 compared to 2018 levels.”

wow.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/tidal-wave-of-new-wind-and-solar-will-force-early-coal-plant-closures/

Edited February 24, 2021 by Mark F

[Mark F]

 

"In a stunning announcement, GM says it will stop making all diesel and gas-powered cars and trucks. Its goal is to be carbon neutral by 2040 so to that end it will stop all diesel and gas-powered production by 2035. That’s it. No more Duramax Silverados. No more V8 Corvettes. In fact; no more internal combustion anything."

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/general-motors-plans-to-exclusively-offer-electric-vehicles-by-2035.html

 

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Mark F

[Tracker]

53 minutes ago, Mark F said:

 

"In a stunning announcement, GM says it will stop making all diesel and gas-powered cars and trucks. Its goal is to be carbon neutral by 2040 so to that end it will stop all diesel and gas-powered production by 2035. That’s it. No more Duramax Silverados. No more V8 Corvettes. In fact; no more internal combustion anything."

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/general-motors-plans-to-exclusively-offer-electric-vehicles-by-2035.html

 

 

Another nail in the coffin of the petroleum industries and another reason to cancel Keystone pipeline.