Posted on 5 August 2018 by John Hartz

Stories of the Week...

Scorching Summer in Europe Signals Long-Term Climate Changes

People trying to cool down in the Trocadero Fountain in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Credit: Ludovic Marin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In Northern Europe, this summer feels like a modern-day version of the biblical plagues. Cows are dying of thirst in Switzerland, fires are gobbling up timber in Sweden, the majestic Dachstein glacier is melting in Austria.

In London, stores are running out of fans and air-conditioners. In Greenland, an iceberg may break off a piece so large that it could trigger a tsunami that destroys settlements on shore. Last week, Sweden’s highest peak, Kebnekaise mountain, no longer was in first place after its glacier tip melted.

Southern Europe is even hotter. Temperatures in Spain and Portugal are expected to reach 105-110 degrees Fahrenheit this weekend. On Saturday, several places in Portugal experienced record highs, and over the past week, two people have died in Spain from the high temperatures, and a third in Portugal.

But in the northernmost latitudes, where the climate is warming faster than the global average, temperatures have been the most extreme, according to a study by researchers at Oxford University and the World Weather Attribution network. 

Scorching Summer in Europe Signals Long-Term Climate Changes by Alissa J. Rubin, World, New York Times, Aug 4. 2018

California vows to fight Trump EPA's move to freeze fuel economy rules

Vowing to defend California's authority to set its own greenhouse gas emissions rules, Gov. Jerry Brown said the state would fight the new EPA plan “in every conceivable way possible.” (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

The Trump administration Thursday pushed ahead with plans to unravel the federal government’s most effective action to fight climate change — aggressive fuel economy standards aimed at getting the nation’s cars and trucks to average more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025.

After months of discussion and drafts, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration formally unveiled their plan to rewrite those rules and replace them with ones so lax that even automakers are wary.

The administration’s plan would freeze mileage targets in 2020 for six years. It would also move to end California’s power to set its own, tougher greenhouse gas emissions standards and nullify the state mandate that automakers sell a specified number of electric vehicles.

EPA officials sought to portray the proposal as the administration’s opening bid in a negotiation with California. State officials, however, loudly denounced the plan as too extreme and threatened to fight it in court. California and the 13 other states that follow its more stringent rules argue the Clean Air Act empowers them to keep the Obama-era standards in place in their markets.

California vows to fight Trump EPA's move to freeze fuel economy rules by Elvan Halper, Tony Barbosa & David Lauter, Los Angeles Times, Aug 2, 2018

Toon of the Week...

Hat tip to Moms Clean Air Force Facebook page.

Quote of the Week...

“In the past, we had this kind of heat wave once every 10 years, and now we have them every two years or something like that,” said François-Marie Bréon, a climatologist and deputy director of the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Science, a research institute affiliated with France’s National Center for Scientific Research. “That’s really the sign of climate change: We have heat waves that aren’t necessarily more intense but that are more and more frequent.”

Scorching Summer in Europe Signals Long-Term Climate Changes by Alissa J. Rubin, World, New York Times, Aug 4. 2018

Graphic of the Week...

California vows to fight Trump EPA's move to freeze fuel economy rules by Elvan Halper, Tony Barbosa & David Lauter, Los Angeles Times, Aug 2, 2018

SkS in the News...

John Cook is extensively quoted by Shannon Osaka in her Grist article,A climate denial video has 6 million views. Facebook doesn’t care. posted on July 31, 2018. The lead quote:

John Cook, who focuses on climate misinformation as a professor of cognitive science at George Mason University, says he hasn’t heard of the social media giant flagging any climate denial content. “Facebook’s fact-checking algorithms are a bit of a black box,” he tells Grist via email. (The social media site did not respond to a request for comment.)

Photos of the Week...

Changes observed in vegetation, permafrost, and coastal erosion at the Yukon's Qikiqtaruk-Herschel Island Territorial Park between 1987 (top) and 2017 (bottom).

Credit: Isla Myers-Smith/University of Edinburgh

Arctic carbon cycle is speeding up by Esprit Smith, Vital Signs of the Planet, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Aug 3, 2018

SkS Spotlights...

The purpose of CoalSwarm is to create shared information for the worldwide citizens’ movement seeking to address the impacts of fossil fuels and move to cleaner sources of energy. The Global Coal Plant Tracker has information on 13,000 existing and proposed coal plants worldwide. The CoalWire newsletter is a global weekly news digest. The CoalSwarm portal on SourceWatch contains over 9,000 wiki articles providing a constantly expanding reference. FrackSwarm provides a reference on oil and gas, including hundreds of major pipelines and  LNG (liquified natural gas) terminals. CoalSwarm’s reports can be found here.

Coming Soon on SkS...

• The GOP and Big Oil can't escape blame for climate change (Dana)
• Pollution is slowing the melting of Arctic sea ice, for now (John Abraham)
• Climate change science comeback strategies (Karin Kirk)
• State of the climate: 2018 set to be fourth warmest year despite cooler start (Zeke Hausfather)
• New research this week (Ari)
• 2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #32 (John Hartz)
• 2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #32 (John Hartz)

Climate Feedback Reviews...

Washington Post story puts recent weather extremes in accurate climate change context

Climate Feedback asked a team of scientists to review the article, Climate change is supercharging a hot and dangerous summer by Angela Fritz & Joel Achenbach, Health & Science, Washington Post, July 26, 2018

Three scientists analyzed the article and estimate its overall scientific credibility to be 'very high'.

A majority of reviewers tagged the article as: Accurate.

Review Summary 

This story in The Washington Post lists a variety of extreme weather events seen around the Northern Hemisphere recently. The article explains that some of these types of weather are known to be connected to human-caused climate trends.

Scientists who reviewed the article found that this scientific context was accurately provided. Heatwaves and intense rainstorms, for example, are increasing in severity and frequency. Some weather patterns—like slow-moving meanders in the jet stream—are indeed less clear and consequently subjects of active research. 

Washington Post story puts recent weather extremes in accurate climate change context, Edited by Scott Johnson, Climate Feedback, July 31, 2018

SkS Week in Review... 

• 2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #31 by John Hartz
• New research, July 2-29, 2018 by Ari Jokimäki
• Permafrost and wetland emissions could cut 1.5C carbon budget ‘by five years’ by Robert McSweeney (Carbon Brief) 
• Coming full circle: from study to comedy sketch to study by BaerbelW & David Kirtley
• Climate change made 2018 European heatwave up to ‘five times’ more likely by Robert McSweeney. Carbon Brief
• America spends over $20bn per year on fossil fuel subsidies. Abolish them by Dana Nuccitelli, Climate Consensus - the 97%, Environment, Guardian)
• 2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #30 by John Hartz

Poster of the Week...