New study shows the Arctic has entered an ‘unprecedented state’ that threatens the entire planet

We already know that global warming is transforming the Arctic, but a new study highlighting the intensity and speed of the changes says it’s worse than many scientists expected.

Trouble in the Arctic.

The newly released paper, “Key Indicators of Arctic Climate Change: 1971-2017,” is a work of scientists at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland in Copenhagen (GUES). Published in a special issue on Arctic climate change by the journal Environmental Research letters, it is the first of its kind to combine observations of physical climate indicators with biological impacts. Previous to this study many of these indicators or measures of climate change were treated in isolation from one another.

Read the story from Nation of Change by Ruth Milka - “New study shows the Arctic has entered an ‘unprecedented state’ that threatens the entire planet.”

It is absolutely time to panic about climate change.

“It is, I promise, worse than you think.”

A buffalo corpse seen rotting on the side of the road in
southern Iraq on November 11, 2018. Severe droughts,
caused by a combination of climate change, dams
and internal water mismanagement, are creating a
nightmare for buffalo herders in the region.

That was was the first line of David Wallace-Wells’s horrifying 2017 essay in New York magazine about climate change. It was an attempt to paint a very real picture of our not-too-distant future, a future filled with famines, political chaos, economic collapse, fierce resource competition, and a sun that “cooks us.”

Wallace-Wells has since developed his terrifying essay into an even more terrifying book, titled The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. And it is a brutal read. Wallace-Wells was criticized in 2017 for being too hyperbolic, too doom-and-gloomy. But as Vox’s David Roberts explained at the time, those criticisms were mostly misplaced.

Wallace-Wells isn’t counseling despair or saying all is lost; he’s merely laying out the alarming facts of what is likely to happen if we don’t radically change course.

Read the story from Vox by Sean Illing - “It is absolutely time to panic about climate change.”

New analysis shows that NEG is worse than doing nothing

New modelling by energy market analysts RepuTex has added to the deepening concern about the proposed National Energy Guarantee, suggesting it is calibrated to achieve an outcome that is worse than doing nothing.

The RepuTex analysis builds on concerns that the modelling used to underpin support for the NEG made a complete hash of estimating what would happen if no policy was in place.

It finds that the “do nothing” scenario still results in a 29 per cent cut in emissions by 2030 – more than the 19 per cent assumed by the Energy Security Board and more than the 26 per cent targeted under the NEG.

That means that the NEG would provide no incentive for any new investment in renewable energy.

Read the story by Giles Parkinson from RenewEconomy - “New analysis shows that NEG is worse than doing nothing.”

Arctic melting could worsen future California droughts

Melting ice in the Arctic might seem a world away from California’s farms and aquifers. But droughts in the state could get worse as the Arctic melts.

Extent of Arctic sea ice in September 2016 versus the
1981-2010 average minimum extent (gold line). 

Summers in the Arctic Ocean are expected to be ice-free within a few decades. When that happens, the precipitation California receives could decrease as much as 15 percent.

Cvijanovic: “We see quite clearly sea ice shaping how much rainfall California receives.”

Read the Yale Climate Connections story by Diana Madson - “Arctic melting could worsen future California droughts.”

Victoria to swelter for second straight day

Nine children were rescued from hot cars and more than 1000 homes left without power as Victorians sweltered through a dangerously hot day yesterday.

Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley.

Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley warned people to brace for even worse conditions today.

‘‘The fire risk is real and the fire risk only gets worse with the fact that there’s no respite across the state tonight,’’ Emergency Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said yesterday.

Mr Lapsley said central and western Victoria were most at risk of bushfire, with blazes already burning near the SA border and Geelong.

Despite extreme heat warnings, chief health officer Charles Guest said there had been reports yesterday of nine children being left in parked cars.

‘‘We know that leaving children in parked cars can lead to death. I’m glad to say this hasn’t happened this summer so far,’’ he said.

More than 1000 properties in Beaufort, near Ballarat, were left sweltering without fans and air conditioners because of a power failure before operator Powercor restored electricity.

Dr Guest said people without access to air conditioning or at risk of heat exhaustion were advised to head to shopping centres or cinemas to cool down.

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting temperatures to reach 42°C today with other parts of the state to see ranges in the low to mid-40s.

‘‘It’s going to be dry, hot and a change in the south, but the change won’t be helping things in the north,’’ bureau state manager Andrew Tupper said.

He said there would be a risk of dry lightning, which occurs when electrical storms hit without rain managing to make it to the ground.

Temperatures hit 39°C in Melbourne and above 40°C in regional towns yesterday.

Total fire bans remain across the Mallee, Wimmera and south-west districts in the state.

Story from the Shepparton News - “Victoria to swelter for second straight day.”

Renewable Energy Isn’t Perfect, But It’s Far Better Than Fossil Fuels

In their efforts to discredit renewable energy and support continued fossil fuel burning, many anti-environmentalists have circulated a dual image purporting to compare a lithium mine with an oilsands operation. It illustrates the level of dishonesty to which some will stoop to keep us on our current polluting, climate-disrupting path (although in some cases it could be ignorance).

The image is a poor attempt to prove that lithium batteries and renewable energy are worse for the environment than energy from oilsands bitumen. The first problem is that the “lithium mine” is actually BHP Billiton’s Escondida copper mine in Chile (the world’s largest). The bottom image is of an Alberta oilsands operation, but it’s an in situ underground facility and doesn’t represent the enormous open-pit mining operations used to extract most bitumen.

Lithium is used in batteries for electric cars, cellphones, computers and other electric devices, as well as power-grid storage systems, because it’s light and highly conductive. Most lithium isn’t mined. More than 95 per cent comes from pumping underground brine into pans, allowing the liquid to evaporate and separating out the lithium using electrolysis.

Read the Desmog story by David Suzuki - “Renewable Energy Isn’t Perfect, But It’s Far Better Than Fossil Fuels.”

(As with other such stories commenting about electric vehicles and their environmental implications, and then compare them to fossil fuel powered vehicles, rarely is any attempt made to discuss the energy-rich infrastructure that supports privately owned vehicles; electric, fossil fuel powered or otherwise. 

Yes, we need to rid the world of fossil fuel powered vehicles now and turn, just as quickly as we can, to electric vehicles, powered by sun, but they must be integrated and used through a publicly owned and operated infrastructure - Robert McLean)