The Environment Thread

[Mark F]

western North America heatwave

"Never in the century-plus history of world weather observation have so many all-time heat records fallen by such a large margin than in the past week’s historic heat wave in western North America. The only heat wave that close is the great Dust Bowl heat wave of July 1936 in the U.S. Midwest and south-central Canada. But even that cannot compare to what happened in the Northwest U.S. and western Canada over the past week.

“This is the most anomalous regional extreme heat event to occur anywhere on Earth since temperature records began. Nothing can compare,” said weather historian Christopher Burt, author of the book “Extreme Weather.”

Pointing to Lytton, Canada, he added, “There has never been a national heat record in a country with an extensive period of record and a multitude of observation sites that was beaten by 7°F to 8°F.”"

yale climate connection.

 

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/14/amazon-rainforest-now-emitting-more-co2-than-it-absorbs

Quote

The Amazon rainforest is now emitting more carbon dioxide than it is able to absorb, scientists have confirmed for the first time.

The emissions amount to a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, according to a study. The giant forest had previously been a carbon sink, absorbing the emissions driving the climate crisis, but is now causing its acceleration, researchers said.

Most of the emissions are caused by fires, many deliberately set to clear land for beef and soy production. But even without fires, hotter temperatures and droughts mean the south-eastern Amazon has become a source of CO2, rather than a sink.

The scientists said the discovery that part of the Amazon was emitting carbon even without fires was particularly worrying. They said it was most likely the result of each year’s deforestation and fires making adjacent forests more susceptible the next year. The trees produce much of the region’s rain, so fewer trees means more severe droughts and heatwaves and more tree deaths and fires.

The research, published in the journal Nature, involved taking 600 vertical profiles of CO2 and carbon monoxide, which is produced by the fires, at four sites in the Brazilian Amazon from 2010 to 2018. It found fires produced about 1.5bn tonnes of CO2 a year, with forest growth removing 0.5bn tonnes. The 1bn tonnes left in the atmosphere is equivalent to the annual emissions of Japan, the world’s fifth-biggest polluter.

 

[FrostyWinnipeg]

This ship is getting serious now!

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/coffee-prices-skyrocket-report

Think im gonna load up this weekend at SDM.

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/greenland-oil-1.6105230

Quote

The government of Greenland has decided to suspend all oil exploration off the world's largest island, calling it "a natural step" because the Arctic government "takes the climate crisis seriously."

No oil has been found yet around Greenland, but officials there had seen potentially vast reserves as a way to help Greenlanders realize their long-held dream of independence from Denmark by cutting the subsidy of the equivalent of about $680 million Canadian the Danish territory receives from the Danish government every year.

Global warming means that retreating ice could uncover potential oil and mineral resources which, if successfully tapped, could dramatically change the fortunes of the semi-autonomous territory of 57,000 people.

"The future does not lie in oil. The future belongs to renewable energy, and in that respect we have much more to gain," the Greenland government said in a statement. The government said it "wants to take co-responsibility for combating the global climate crisis."

 

[FrostyWinnipeg]

2 minutes ago, blue_gold_84 said:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/greenland-oil-1.6105230

 

When do we start dam'ing up Greenland to save that freshwater?

In other losing freshwater news...

https://www.livescience.com/giant-antarctic-lake-disappears.html

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

How does every month of June stack up against each other?

 

[Mark F]

"As ice sheets and glaciers melt prodigious amounts of water into the ocean, sea levels rise. Sea levels have risen by some eight to nine inches since the late 1800s, and a conservative United Nations estimate is sea levels will rise by another one to two feet by the century's end. 

But it could be more like two or three feet, or even more. It all depends on what the Florida-sized Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica does: It's already destabilized and increasingly purging ice."

 

much more, dont read if you are bummed out.

 

https://mashable.com/article/epa-climate-change-website?

 

insanity.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Downtown Los Angeles has now seen the 3rd wettest July since records have been kept from 1877. So far this morning there was 0.09" of rain at DTLA. The wettest July ever at #DTLA was 0.38" which fell in July of 2015. The 2nd wettest was July of 1886 with 0.24"

[Tracker]

 

WTF · 3h

10 cities from the south region of Brazil had a f**king SNOWSTORM today! It is such a rare phenomenon to happen over here that people are emotionally gathering on the streets to celebrate like an 90's Christmas movie! A local TV is broadcasting it live and we are amazed by it!

[Mark H.]

Eastern Canada is having a rainy summer. 

[Tracker]

6 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

Eastern Canada is having a rainy summer. 

I was wondering where our rain went.

[Tracker]

Electrical Storm of Epic Power In Bucharest Yesterday: 

 

 

                                   

Aaaand....kangaroos hopping in snow in Australia yesterday

 

https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/av5BwKX_460svvp9.webm

[Tracker]

It was this hot this week....

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/climate-change-wildfires-health-1.6122363

Quote

...though the risks from smoke are among the biggest worries, there are also less-obvious health concerns such as the impact on mental health and clean water to consider.

If the last few years are an indication of what's ahead for summers in this country, it's a pretty unsettling thought.

[Mark F]

3 hours ago, blue_gold_84 said:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/climate-change-wildfires-health-1.6122363

If the last few years are an indication of what's ahead for summers in this country, it's a pretty unsettling thought.

infortunately it is going to be worse. a lot worse.

 

ten years from now, the last few years will be "the good old days"

Edited July 30, 2021 by Mark F

[WildPath]

1 hour ago, Mark F said:

infortunately it is going to be worse. a lot worse.

 

ten years from now, the last few years will be "the good old days"

Agreed. I fear I will be telling my son about how the world used to be and he will never know the childhood I did. But hey, let's keep focused on "net-zero" for 2050 🙄

[Mark F]

52 minutes ago, WildPath said:

Agreed. I fear I will be telling my son about how the world used to be and he will never know the childhood I did. But hey, let's keep focused on "net-zero" for 2050 🙄

during the record heat on vancouver island a few weeks ago, someone posted on facebook that they went to help someone who had collapsed on the sidewalk. appeared to be heat related.

they phoned for an ambulance, and were told, there would  be no ambulance coming. 

there just wont ne money for what its going to cost to keep things even semi normal.

have ndp green coalition here, and they are clueless asmthe cons liberals. there was a two and a half hour lineup for electic car fast charger the other day, while they spend two billion on a highway expansion for a five mile stretch of road near victoria.

hasnt been a drop of rain on south van island for close to three months.

net zero 2050, farce. pr for stupid people.

Edited July 30, 2021 by Mark F

[the watcher]

23 hours ago, Mark F said:

infortunately it is going to be worse. a lot worse.

 

ten years from now, the last few years will be "the good old days"

It's the heat that we all notice but the thing that is really going to punch us in the guts is water. You are already seeing that in communities  like Morden. More and more out here have or are going to link into the Pembina water line which gets it's water from the Red River. Already they are concerned about the level of their intakes. It's also an issue with both rural community and private wells. And as you say, this is just the start.

2 minutes ago, the watcher said:

It's the heat that we all notice but the thing that is really going to punch us in the guts is water. You are already seeing that in communities  like Morden. More and more out here have or are going to link into the Pembina water line which gets it's water from the Red River. Already they are concerned about the level of their intakes. It's also an issue with both rural community and private wells with aquifer levels.  And as you say, this is just the start.

Edit :Hey it takes some real talent To do that 2x

Edited July 31, 2021 by the watcher

[Mark H.]

39 minutes ago, the watcher said:

It's the heat that we all notice but the thing that is really going to punch us in the guts is water. You are already seeing that in communities  like Morden. More and more out here have or are going to link into the Pembina water line which gets it's water from the Red River. Already they are concerned about the level of their intakes. It's also an issue with both rural community and private wells. And as you say, this is just the start.

During the dirty thirties, some children did not see their first drop of rain until the end of the decade. 

[the watcher]

28 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

During the dirty thirties, some children did not see their first drop of rain until the end of the decade. 

I just re-read Barry Broadfoot's "Ten Lost Years " last winter. It's a stark reminder of just how bad things could get both weather wise and economically. It effected alot of my parents generation to their dieing day.

[Mark H.]

3 hours ago, the watcher said:

I just re-read Barry Broadfoot's "Ten Lost Years " last winter. It's a stark reminder of just how bad things could get both weather wise and economically. It effected alot of my parents generation to their dieing day.

My grandmother was 10 years old in 1930.  Although Hutterite colonies fared better than many others, due to subsistence farming and better farming methods, it was still tough.

For the rest of her life, grandma could not bear to see one scrap of food wasted - she would eat other peoples' leftovers when she did the dishes - or put them in the fridge for later.  

Drought is a fact of life on the prairies - it has been almost a 100 years since 1930...
 

[Mark F]

3 hours ago, Mark H. said:

Drought is a fact of life on the prairies - it has been almost a 100 years since 1930...

current drought in the s.w. us is much worse than that of the thirties, and is probably

permanent.

usa today 2020

"Fueled in part by human-caused climate change, a “megadrought” appears to be emerging in the western U.S., a study published Thursday suggests.

In fact, the nearly-20-year drought is almost as bad or worse than any in the past 1,200 years, scientists say. 

Megadroughts – defined as intense droughts that last for decades or longer – once plagued the Desert Southwest. Thanks to global warming, an especially fierce one appears to be coming back:

"We now have enough observations of current drought and tree-ring records of past drought to say that we're on the same trajectory as the worst prehistoric droughts," said study lead author A. Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Columbia University, in a statement. This is “a drought bigger than what modern society has seen." 

This year is worse.

you can chuck out all the past experiences, this is all new.

 

like beating (lytton)  a heat record by seven degrees. never happened since meterological record keeping began. anywhere.

 

the general prediction, is extremes, worse drought, worse floods, and less sweet spot, moderate.

the scientists been accurate on everything.... if anything, conservative.

Edited August 1, 2021 by Mark F

[Mark H.]

The truth is, the South west has always relied heavily on irrigation. Drought is not exactly a big departure from the norm. 

[the watcher]

10 hours ago, Mark H. said:

The truth is, the South west has always relied heavily on irrigation. Drought is not exactly a big departure from the norm. 

It is true there are areas that have relied  on irrigation   . It's true we have suffered drought before .BUT there is no denying that we just had the hottest July on record.We are breaking records that have been kept since the late 1800s.  And it's a more world wide phenomenon than previously. There are misconceptions about the 1930s. It's not that it didn't rain for 10 years .Most farmers still planted crops but only to see them wither and die over the summer.Although the Palliser Triangle was extremely dry. Yes the drought was horrendous but it was the combination of drought, economic collapse, extremely low commodity prices , a lack of government support and the fact that it went on for 10 years that brought the west to its knees. I suggest if anyone is interested read The Great Deppresion by Pierre Berton or The 10 Lost Years by Barry Broadfoot ( a collection of interviews of those who lived it )

 

Edited August 1, 2021 by the watcher

[Mark F]

11 hours ago, Mark H. said:

The truth is, the South west has always relied heavily on irrigation. Drought is not exactly a big departure from the norm. 

The article is not about irrigation.

 

The current drought is a "big departure from the norm"

you should read the article.