Climate change threatens future of Australian Open and summer sports

As the Morrison government pours millions into rebuilding Australia’s reputation as a tourist destination, new research shows the future of the Australian Open and other summer sporting events is under threat due to climate change.

A tennis player has a smoke-induced coughing fit.

From grassroots to the professional level, popular summer sports including tennis, cycling and cricket could become casualties of the crisis, new research by the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub (MCCCRH) has revealed.

“Australian tennis is already experiencing the impact of climate change, with smoke from bushfires and extreme heat driven by climate change increasing health risks for players and the likelihood of match disruptions,” the report commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said.

Read the story from The New Daily by Isabelle Lane  - “Climate change threatens future of Australian Open and summer sports.”

Chennai’s the latest city to have almost run out of water, and other cities could follow suit

Chennai is a city that has withstood the rise and fall of empires, but it now faces a grave existential crisis as it runs dry due to a severe water shortage, leaving millions in the lurch.

Millions of people are turning to water tank trucks as taps run dry.

This week, taps ran dry as water levels in its four major reservoirs fell to one-hundredth of what they were this time last year, caused by a devastating drought.

The crisis in India's sixth-largest city — with a population bigger than Melbourne and Sydney combined — has pushed schools, hotels and commercial establishments to close, while hospitals have put off non-essential surgeries.

Millions of people are lining up at water trucks to fill containers of water in a crisis that's hit urban and rural Indians alike, and usually only half leave with their pots filled.

Read the ABC News story - “Chennai’s the latest city to have almost run out of water, and other cities could follow suit.”

Plastic bag ban looms as Victoria acts to match big stores, other states

Single-use plastic bags will be banned in all shops and supermarkets across Victoria from November this year to stop millions of them flowing into the streets and natural environment.

The ban will extend to all lightweight, single-use bags including those made from degradable, biodegradable and compostable plastics.

But plastic bin liners, small clear plastic bags used for fresh fruit and vegetables and animal waste bags will still be allowed.

Legislation will be introduced in the Victorian Parliament on Wednesday banning supermarkets, clothing stores, fast food outlets and service stations from distributing the bags.

Read the story from The Age by Benjamin Preiss and Michael Flower - “Plastic bag ban looms as Victoria acts to match big stores, other states.”

How Do You Save a Million People From a Cyclone? Ask a Poor State in India

BHUBANESWAR, India — Flights were cancelled.

Cyclone Fani made landfall in Puri, India, on Friday.
Officials said the gusts reached at least 100 m.p.h. (160kph)

Train service was out.

And one of the biggest storms in years was bearing down on Odisha, one of India’s poorest states, where millions of people live cheek by jowl in a low-lying coastal area in mud-and-stick shacks.

But government authorities in Odisha, along India’s eastern flank, hardly stood still. To warn people of what was coming, they deployed everything they had: 2.6 million text messages, 43,000 volunteers, nearly 1,000 emergency workers, television commercials, coastal sirens, buses, police officers, and public address systems blaring the same message on a loop, in local language, in very clear terms: “A cyclone is coming. Get to the shelters.”

It seems to have largely worked. Cyclone Fani slammed into Odisha on Friday morning with the force of a major hurricane, packing 120 mile per hour winds. Trees were ripped from the ground and many coastal shacks smashed. It could have been catastrophic.

But as of early Saturday, mass casualties seemed to have been averted. While the full extent of the destruction remained unclear, only a few deaths had been reported, in what appeared to be an early-warning success story.

Read the story from The New York Times by Hari Kumar, Jeffery Gettleman and Sameer Yasir  - “How Do You Save a Million People From a Cyclone? Ask a Poor State in India.”

Climate study warns of vanishing safety window—here’s why

A NEW SCIENTIFIC analysis of millions of possible climate futures found only a narrow window to keeping global warming to levels the international community has deemed safe.

Out of 5.2 million possible climate futures, carbon emissions must reach zero by 2030 in every country in the world if we are to stay at less than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) by 2100 of warming, the target set by the United Nations to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, from rising seas to deadly heat waves.

And unlike last fall’s “Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C” from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—which held out the possibility of a 2.7 degree Fahrenheit (1.5 degree Celsius) climate future—the new paper published March 11 in the journal Nature Climate Change employed three practical constraints: spending to cut carbon emissions would be no more than three percent of global GDP per year; no use of geoengineering or technologies to remove carbon; and the climate’s response to doubling carbon in the atmosphere would be at the median level or higher. 

The latter is called climate sensitivity—how much warming happens when carbon is added to the atmosphere.

Read the story from National Geographic by Stephen Leahy - “Climate study warns of vanishing safety window—here’s why.”

UK advised to look at hydrogen heating to hit 2050 emissions targets

Millions of gas boilers will need to be replaced with hydrogen alternatives and coupled with electric heating devices if Britain is to hit its carbon targets at the lowest cost, according to the government’s climate advisers.

Hydrogen is already used to power some buses. The Committee
on Climate Change says it should be used for heating homes. 

In a report on the role hydrogen could play in the energy system, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) spelt out the huge but necessary cost the country faces to switch to green heating.

The cheapest scenario, it said, is a mix of electrifying heating and fitting hydrogen boilers, and will cost the UK £28bn a year, or 0.7% of GDP, by 2050.

While electricity supplies are rapidly switching to low-carbon sources, almost all homes today rely on fossil fuels – predominantly natural gas – for heating and cooking.

Read the story from The Guardian by Adam Vaughan - “UK advised to look at hydrogen heating to hit 2050 emissions targets.”

Bat swarms tracked by weather Radar Reveal Earlier Migration as Planet Warms

When millions of migrating bats fly toward their breeding cave near San Antonio, Texas, each spring, the shadowy, swirling swarm is so dense, it shows up on weather radar. Scientists reviewed years of that radar data and found that the flying mammals are arriving about two weeks earlier than they did just two decades ago.

Millions of Brazilian free-tailed bats spend summers in the
Bracken Cave near San Antonio, Texas. A study finds
they're arriving earlier and staying longer as the planet warms.

The scientists suspect the changes in the bats' timing and seasonal cycles are linked with the way global warming is altering the food chain and weather patterns.

Spring is warming faster than other seasons in many parts of the world, including Texas. An earlier bat migration fits with many pieces of the climate change puzzle, including earlier migrations of some bird species and earlier blossoming of many plants, said Phillip Stepanian, a meteorologist with Rothamsted Research who co-authored a new study in the scientific journal Global Change Biology on bat migration using the radar data.

Read the Inside Climate News story by Bob Berwyn - “Bat swarms tracked by weather Radar Reveal Earlier Migration as Planet Warms.

Buried at sea: State hunts for underground home for carbon emissions

A search has begun off the coast of Gippsland’s Ninety Mile Beach for a place to bury millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide beneath the seabed as a way to cut Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The Minerals Council of Australia said carbon capture and 

storage could play a long-term role in reducing emissions

 from coal-fired power stations in Gippsland.

Researchers hope to find porous rock formations deep beneath the ocean, into which the state will inject gas piped from fossil-fuel based industries such as the Latrobe Valley’s coal-fired power stations.

The Andrews and Turnbull governments are spending $150 million to try to kickstart the carbon capture and storage project in Gippsland, but say it will only go ahead if the fossil fuels industry backs the technology with a significant financial investment of its own.

Critics argue more than $1 billion has already been spent on carbon capture and storage trials and pilot projects in Australia, with very little to show for it.

Read Adam Carey’s story in The Age - “Buried at sea: State hunts for underground home for carbon emissions.”

(Just a few years ago a leading climate scientist said, in answer to a question of carbon capture a storage that it was a yet to be proved technology, noting that had succeeded in a few small trial sites, but no one was really sure how the process could be scaled up, successfully. I'm far from sure that there has been much success in firming up the process and the Minerals Council would certainly endorse this move as it does little more than forestalls the adoption of a zero carbon way of life, a change that would see the demise of large parts of its industry - Robert McLean)

Millions spent on Great Barrier Reef projects against expert advice

Millions of dollars of Commonwealth money is being handed to tourism-linked groups for Great Barrier Reef protection, despite official advice recommending against the projects, or repeatedly finding them to be failing.

Government money being spent on protecting
the Great Barrier Reef contrary to official advice

The contracts include millions of dollars for tourism operators to cull out-of-control coral-eating crown of thorns starfish. Funds continue to be distributed, despite researchers employed to evaluate the program repeatedly finding it to have failed, and potentially having made the problem worse.

It also includes $2.2m spent on an unusual project involving giant fans installed on a small part of the reef to cool water down to prevent bleaching. Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal the government’s independent expert panel recommended against the project proceeding, finding the justification relied on claims that were “a major departure from reality” and that the fans could accidentally kill nearby coral.

Read Michael Slezak’s story from The Guardian - “Millions spent on Great Barrier Reef projects against expert advice.”

For Hurricane Irma, the metrics are measured in millions

Washington: Already key metrics are being measured in the millions - millions evacuated from their homes, millions without power and millions effectively twiddling their thumbs as daily life grinds to a halt.

US Federal Emergency Management
 Agency director Brock Long. 

As Hurricane Irma dawdles northwards, there were forecasts of dangerous storm surges in its wake, with Florida Governor Rick Scott warning: "The biggest thing you can do now is pray.”

And tens of millions in the rest of the country were glued to TVs, watching it all.

When news emerged from the Keys, there were reports of ferocious winds and buildings submerged in floodwaters and of power and mobile phone services being down, but Key West, at least, seemed to have escaped anticipated catastrophe.

Read Paul McGeough’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “For Hurricane Irma, the metrics are measured in millions.”

Vanishing snowpacks will impact on millions of people

M

any people in the world depend upon a melting snowpack for their water.

Climate change is changing the behaviour of snowpacks and as the resulting flow of water lessens the use of water is going to become even more restricted, limiting it use as both drinking water and as a source of much needed water for agriculture.
Much parts of the U.S. is dependent on melting snow, but now the Seattle Times has reported that all mountain stations across Washington that measure snowpack are reporting the same number: zero.

Read the story - “Snowpack? What snowpack? State measurements show zero”.