Resistance in the Anthropocene

People in the UK just experienced a weird, time-shifted summer — in the final two weeks of February.

In west London the temperature peaked at 21.2C. That’s the hottest February day ever recorded in the UK, and the first time a temperature above 20C has been seen in winter.

The February summer wasn’t limited to Britain. Amsterdam also recorded its hottest ever February day, with a peak temperature of 18.4C.

The sudden shift in temperatures was so extreme that climate scientists struggled to analyse it. Dutch scientist Geert Jan van Oldenborgh said that according to current models the probability of a 21C February day in London was close to zero:

‘This is an incredible jump in record temperatures. If you asked me a few months ago, I would have said it is ridiculous…It’s at least a one-in 200-year event, but it could be more because my statistical tools break down.’

Read the Medium story by David Mattin - “Resistance in the Anthropocene.”

Escaping extinction through paradigm shift

For the last month, as a journalist and academic, I’ve experienced a strange sensation of paralysis.

Drone footage of displaced family tents in one settlement
 in Badghis, Afghanistan, due to ongoing drought and
climate change. There are thousands of makeshift homes
 spread between mountain hills on the outskirt of Qala-i-naw city. 

I don’t usually experience this. Usually I find myself driven by the pressures of wanting to cover with due justice a full spectrum of intersecting crises and potential solutions.

But this month watching the spectacle of political madness unfolding across Washington, London and Brussels, while chaos and suffering continues to kick off across Venezuela, Yemen, Israel-Palestine, Syria, Nigeria and beyond, I experienced something I haven’t felt in a long-time. A sense of total burn-out. Of futility. Of tiredness.

Read the Medium story by Nafeez Ahmed - “Escaping extinction through paradigm shift.”

Let’s Pretend Climate Change Isn’t Real

“Yeah, but it won’t be that bad.”

“Yeah, but it won’t affect us.”

“Yeah, but we’ll adapt.”

For many people, climate change just doesn’t feel like a big issue. Unless you happen to have experienced a wildfire, a drought or a flood, it still seems quite far off. We can spend a lot of time talking through chains of cause and effect but if someone — be they a member of a public, a businessperson or a political figure — has decided for themselves that climate change isn’t a big deal, it can be pretty difficult to convince them otherwise.

So maybe a different tactic is required. What if we just pretend climate change isn’t real? What if we pretend that sea levels aren’t rising, that oceans aren’t acidifying, that global temperature isn’t creeping upwards? This might seem perverse at first — the fundamental science is, after all, unequivocally robust — but as we have seen, people often just don’t respond to problems unless they have an obvious or immediate effect. This explains a lot of life: it’s why we drink alcohol, eat cake, and spend way too much time on social media. People are great at discounting — that is to say, going for short-term gains even if they incur long-term losses. If we accept this as an unavoidable truth, the only way to prompt action is to focus on the short term. How could we make lives better — now?

Read the story from Medium by Jacob Ashton - “Let’s Pretend Climate Change Isn’t Real.”

What is the 6th Mass Extinction?

The planet is undergoing a sixth mass extinction: so that means it’s the sixth time in the history of life on Earth that global fauna has experienced a major collapse in numbers.

The Amur leopard is critically endangered.

In short, it’s human caused. While we consume things, words and the internet, something more important is actually occurring around us. You know, to Vehicle Earth and the environment.

This isn’t an Earth Day litany, this is the environmental apocalypse. A lot of people just don’t get it and are too short sighted to care.

Earth has supported life for 3.5 billion years, but its hospitality is hardly consistent. There are these global “resets” on what life can or could be. Human beings have devastated global biodiversity in a very short period.

Read the story from Medium by Michael K. Spencer - ”What is the 6th Mass Extinction?”

Climate Change Will Alter The Way We Think About Energy

Although the current 413 ppm CO2 in our atmosphere may have been experienced as recently as the Miocene ten to fifteen million years ago, we have yet to see some of the radical effects of such a CO2 level. Seas were a hundred feet higher, and average surface temperatures were 11 degrees Fahrenheit hotter in the Miocene. 

One explanation may be that nowhere can we find a rate of change (upper 200s ppm to lower 400s ppm of CO2 over a period of a couple hundred years) as rapid as this, as far as we know, in the past three and a half billion years that life has been present on planet Earth.

Because of this blink-of-the-eye rise (geologically speaking), there may be a significant lag time before the Earth starts to once again look like the Miocene.

Because we are so short-lived, we scoff at people that warn us of these future changes. Yet, when these changes come along we think of them as normal because that’s the way it’s been most of our lives. This life span problem is a major disadvantage to our species. It ranks up there with greed and stupidity.

If we do manage to transition to lower CO2 levels and successfully reverse climate change, we should then be ever vigilant of our greenhouse gas outputs and our use, or misuse, of energy.

Read the story from Medium by Glen Hendrix - “Climate Change Will Alter The Way We Think About Energy."

Australia sweats through the hottest March on record

Australia has just experienced the hottest March on record, capping off the hottest first quarter of the year ever recorded.

People enjoying Bondi on a hot Sunday afternoon in
March. It was the sixth-hottest March on record for NSW.

The national mean temperature for March was 2.13 degrees above average, and the January to March quarter was 0.88 degrees hotter than the average.

Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Blair Trewin said the new records were "quite significant”.

"That's a big margin to be breaking those sorts of records by," he said.

Read the story from The Age by Rachel Clun - “Australia sweats through the hottest March on record.”

How do extreme weather events impact agricultural production?

In summer 2018, Europe experienced a record-breaking heat wave and drought, leading to widespread harvest failures and risks of bankruptcy for farmers. 

At the same time, south-east Australia suffers from one of its most severe droughts on record, threatening the livelihoods of grain farmers and livestock managers. 

Climate extreme events, such as droughts, heat waves, cold spells or heavy precipitation events, are projected to increase under climate change in many regions worldwide. 

Understanding the effect of such events on crop yields is crucial to predict the response of agricultural production to climate extremes and inform adaptation processes. 

This talk examines the effect of temperature and precipitation extremes on the yields of four major crops — maize, rice, soybeans, and wheat, using a global, high-resolution yield dataset and global, gridded data on past weather conditions and climate extremes. 

By applying a range of novel statistical methods, this presentation investigates the complex interactions between changes in climate conditions during the growing season and yield fluctuations, and identifies most influential climate factors for predicting crop yield anomalies.

Register for the Australia-German Energy College seminar, which you can either personally attend the Wednesday, November 7, event or join the webinar.

When water runs dry

Argentina just experienced its worse drought in thirty years; California recently suffered its worse drought since the 1400s according to ring tree research carried out by the University of Arizona; Oregon Governor Kate Brown just signed an executive order over the dire conditions of drought in the Klamath Basin, agriculture disaster was recently declared by the US Department of Agriculture in four states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas) due to drought, concentrated in to a total of 25 parishes and 124 counties; last week Iranian farmers in Isfahan protested the government’s failure to act on a drought that has plagued the region for over a decade; farmers in Maharashtra, India protested over loan waivers, prices, and land rights with state ministers due to the growing problem of drought in the region; on Tuesday, Kansas Governor, Jeff Colyer, signed a drought declaration for all 105 counties in the state of Kansas; and also on Tuesday the South African government declared that the drought afflicting Cape Town and other parts of the country is a national disaster.

Read the opinion from International The News by Julian Vigo - “When water runs dry."

Factsheet: Climate Change and Soaring Arctic Winter Temperatures

THE ARCTIC has just experienced its fourth year in a row of soaring winter temperatures, driven by intensifying climate change.

The Climate Council’s ‘Climate Change & Soaring Arctic Winter Temperatures’ factsheet shows sea ice has reached record winter lows, with an area of ice equivalent to the size of the Northern Territory shrinking after severe heatwaves hit the region in January and February.

From the Climate Council - “Factsheet: Climate Change and Soaring Arctic Winter Temperatures.”

Petition: Matthew Guy, get serious on climate change.

In 2017, the world witnessed concerning climate change impacts, from record-breaking hurricanes and wildfire in the United States to bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef.

Closer to home we're seen parts of Victoria experienced the driest conditions on record and the state has faced a heightened bushfire risk in summer. 

It’s time for Matthew Guy and the Victorian Liberal and
National party to get serious about climate change.

Unchecked climate change exposes Victorian families and regional communities to intensifying heatwaves, bushfires, droughts, and extreme weather. These climate impacts threaten public health, infrastructure, and agricultural production.

Communities across the state are now taking action. Victorians are reining in emissions by getting energy efficient and installing solar. Others are working on projects to prepare their local communities from climate impacts that are now unavoidable.

Read the Friends of the Earth story - “Petition: Matthew Guy, get serious on climate change.”

Spring heat shock

Shepparton experienced its hottest September day on record on Saturday with the mercury hitting 34°C at 3.41 pm.

Melbourne Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Rod Dickson confirmed the figure as a September record for the bureau’s weather station at Shepparton airport.

He said weather stations at Kyabram and Tatura also recorded record September temperatures of 32.4°C.

Mr Dickson said a pool of hot air sitting over the Australian interior was brought down in the eastern states ahead of a cold front causing temperatures to soar.

He said parts of NSW saw 40°C on Saturday.

Mr Dickson said the highs were an extraordinary event for this time of year.

‘‘It’s not unusual to see temperature swings in September, but this really was an extreme event,’’ he said.

Temperatures will settle this week to more normal spring weather patterns.

Today and tomorrow are forecast to reach 18°C with a slight chance of a shower, Wednesday will climb to 23°C, while Thursday drops to 19°C and Friday to 17°C, with a possible late shower.

Mr Dickson said Shepparton had experienced an abnormally dry September with only 7 mm recorded against a typical September average rainfall of 38 mm.

He said while the three-month spring forecast for the district contains no clear indication of rain, temperatures were expected to be above average.

Story from the Shepparton News by John Lewis - “Spring heat shock.”

We can no longer tolerate climate change denial

The United States Weather Service, normally not an agency prone to colourful language, issued an extraordinary statement on Sunday regarding hurricane Harvey, saying, "This event is unprecedented and all impacts are unknown beyond anything experienced". It is now predicted the storm could eventually drop over 150 centimetres of rain in some areas, more than any other in the region's history.

America's efforts to combat climate change have
 been battered by President Donald Trump. 

Far from over, it is already clear that Harvey's impact is catastrophic. Six people are confirmed dead and that number is expected to increase. Cost estimates range up to $US100 billion.

Meanwhile flooding in Bangladesh, India and Nepal during the region's worst monsoon season in a decade has killed an estimated 1200 people.

Climate scientists are reluctant to attribute any particular weather event to global warming, though in this case the signs are that human behaviour contributed to the formation and severity of the storm and its impact.

Read the Editorial in The Sydney Morning Herald - “We can no longer tolerate climate change denial.”

Florida’s Sea Level Rose 6x Faster Than Average And It's Not Due To Climate Change

If you're living along the coast of Florida you experienced sea level rising six times faster than the global average and this was NOT a result of climate change. The rapid sea level rise along the US east coast from Cape Hatteras to Miami is the result of a localized sea level rise hot spot.

A new study, published in Geophysical Research Letters and undertaken by the University of Florida analyzed tidal and climate data for the southeastern seaboard of the United States. They found that between the years 2011 and 2015 sea level rose more than six times faster in the southeast United States as compared to global average sea level rise.

What is the cause of accelerated yet localized sea level rise? The answer is not climate change, but naturally-occurring climate variations superimposed on the background steady sea level rise due to a warming planet. While you may have heard of the gradual rise in sea levels globally over the past century, there appear to be rapid climate processes that affect localized sea levels on the year(s) time scale.

Read the Forbes story Trevor Nace - “Florida’s Sea Level Rose 6x Faster Than Average And It's Not Due To Climate Change.”