Climate Change

Climate Week in NYC Addresses Economic Impacts

Climate Week in NYC Addresses Economic Impacts

ByAdmin

EcoTech Note:  Climate Week is a series of high-level international meetings that take place during the same week that the U.N. General Assembly meetings.  It’s one of the two or three other high-level confabs that matter most (the others being the annual “Conference of the Parties” to the Paris Agreement and maybe Davos.

This article summarizes some of the more important talks and reports given so far this week, with elements of the EcoTech Synthesis highlighted in yellow.

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Methane emissions are rising faster than ever

Methane emissions are rising faster than ever

ByAdmin

Emissions of methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — are rising at the fastest rate in recorded history, scientists said Tuesday, defying global pledges to limit the gas and putting the Earth on a path toward perilous temperature rise.

New research from the Global Carbon Project — an international coalition of scientists that seeks to quantify planet-warming emissions — finds that methane levels in the atmosphere are tracking those projected by the worst-case climate scenarios. Because methane traps about 30 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 100-year time frame, the accelerating emissions will make it nearly impossible for the world to meet its climate goals, the authors warned.

“These extra methane emissions bring the temperature thresholds ever closer,” said Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist and chair of the Global Carbon Project. “Warming that was once inconceivable is now perhaps likely.”

Here’s what the hottest summer on Earth looked like

Here’s what the hottest summer on Earth looked like

ByAdmin

EcoTech Note:  This is a reminder that while our advocacy work must sustain over the long run, it DOES constitute an emergency.  Contrary to claims from climate skeptics that advocates are alarmist, it appears predictive models underestimated how fast-bad climate change, would get.

Global temperatures between June and August were 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the preindustrial average, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said Friday — just edging out the previous record set last summer. The sweltering season reached its apex in late July, when Copernicus’s sophisticated temperature analysis program detected the four hottest days ever recorded.

Meanwhile, temperatures for the year to date have far exceeded anything seen in the agency’s more than 80 years of recordkeeping, making it all but certain that 2024 will be the hottest year known to science.

The EcoTech Synthesis – how to judge climate change solutions

The EcoTech Synthesis – how to judge climate change solutions

ByWayne Willlis

EcoTech Note: This post will be pinned to the top of the blog to define the “scope” of what will be covered here and to define terms found in the EcoTech Synthesis, summarized below.

I think this may be the most important post I’ve ever contributed personally, and I’d appreciate your reading it and giving me any feedback you have.

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, CleanTech must displace DirtyTech in all sectors. That will only happen when CleanTech is cheaper than DirtyTech. And THAT will happen if we support CleanTech’s “learning curve” reductions in unit costs and/or if the cost of DirtyTech rises owing to carbon pricing.

In ‘Warming Up,’ the sports world’s newest opponent is climate change

In ‘Warming Up,’ the sports world’s newest opponent is climate change

ByAdmin

It’s easy to think of sports as an escape from reality, removed from the glaring problems of our world. Researcher Madeleine Orr shatters that illusion in Warming Up: How Climate Change Is Changing Sport. In her debut book, Orr shepherds readers through an at-times overwhelming deluge of all the ways climate change is disrupting sports around the world, providing a compelling case for action from athletes, sports leagues and fans alike.

Orr, a sport ecologist at the University of Toronto, draws on her academic expertise to outline how climate change is upending sports, be it wildfires almost destroying a …

Summer 2023 Was the Northern Hemisphere’s Hottest in 2,000 Years, Study Finds

Summer 2023 Was the Northern Hemisphere’s Hottest in 2,000 Years, Study Finds

ByAdmin

The summer of 2023 was exceptionally hot. Scientists have already established that it was the warmest Northern Hemisphere summer since around 1850, when people started systematically measuring and recording temperatures.

Now, researchers say it was the hottest in 2,000 years, according to a new study published in the journal Nature that compares 2023 with a longer temperature record across most of the Northern Hemisphere.

Global Hot Streak Continues, February Breaking Records

Global Hot Streak Continues, February Breaking Records

ByAdmin

For the ninth straight month, Earth has obliterated global heat records — with February, the winter as a whole and the world’s oceans setting new high-temperature marks, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus. Sea surface temperatures eclipsed any month on record. And February, as well the previous two winter months, soared well past the internationally set threshold for long-term warming,

Hole in the ozone layer to fully heal by mid-century

Hole in the ozone layer to fully heal by mid-century

ByAdmin

A new assessment of Earth’s depleted ozone layer shows that efforts to repair the vital atmospheric shield are working, according to a panel of U.N.-backed scientists. Scientists said the ozone’s recovery should also serve as proof that societies can join to solve environmental problems and combat climate change.

Join CCL Briefing on Fifth National Climate Report, Dec. 12th
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Join CCL Briefing on Fifth National Climate Report, Dec. 12th

ByAdmin

The Fifth National Climate Assessment (a report mandated by Congress every 4 years) was released on November 14th. Join CCL Research Coordinator Dana Nuccitelli for a training that will discuss this latest report at 5 pm Pacific, Dec. 14th, on this Zoom.

Click here to RSVP for a day-of reminder and to dd to your calendar.

I’m a Climate Scientist. I’m Not Screaming Into the Void Anymore

I’m a Climate Scientist. I’m Not Screaming Into the Void Anymore

ByAdmin

Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at the environmental nonprofit Project Drawdown, was a lead author on the Fifth National Climate Assessment. This letter is must-read for every CCLer who encounters climate grief, frustration, or fatalism. (Join CCLs briefing on the Fifth National Climate Assessment on Dec. 14th, 5pm PST, on Zoom.