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2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #28
Posted on 14 July 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom, John Hartz
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 7, 2024 thru Sat, July 13, 2024.
Story of the week
It's still early summer in the Northern Hemisphere. The season comes as our first year of 1.5°C warming of Earth's land surface is recorded and ocean temperature remains at historical highs, leaving our atmosphere loaded with heat and moisture crammed in by our changing our climate. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that summer 2024 is off to a roaring start, setting numerous new records of various unattractive kinds. Thus our Story of the Week is how only a little warming leads to notably worse and more frequent extreme weather— exemplified by some 1/3rd of this week's collection of news items being centered on "just" 1.5°C of warming, and extreme weather and impacts of this so-called best case warming scenario (highlighted in red).
Summer 2024's climate-fueled weather problems are leading to burgeoning cases of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, with hospitals sometimes struggling to manage influxes of patients urgently in need of care to avoid organ shutdown and death. Skeptical Science's beat is principally about combating climate change denial, a mission that is driven as much by care and consideration for others as it is annoyance with liars and the lies they tell. Meanwhile, excessive heat can and does kill workers. Hence we can't help but note that as climate change is added to the bonfire stupidity of "culture war," politicians claiming to act on behalf of workers are in fact making it legally impossible for local governments to protect those workers from excess heat exposure, despite near complete absence of binding guidance from upper echelons of jurisdiction. We believe this is helpful background information for making fully joined-up decisions in an important election year. After all, in general it's best to choose leaders who reliably can see and employ crisp facts rather than spout useless ideology when administering our affairs.
Stories we promoted this week, by publication date:
Before July 7
- Oxford University climate survey shows majority want action, Oxford Mail News, Lucy Williams. The University of Oxford has helped create the biggest ever survey on climate change and the results show 80 per cent of people want more government action on the environment.
- Crucial gaps in climate risk assessment methods, Science Daily, Staff. Significant flaws in current climate risk assessment techniques could lead to a severe underestimation of climate-related financial losses.
- Widespread Flooding in Upper Midwest Decimates Farm Towns, Science, Inside Climate News, Nina Elkadi. "Rain came when farmers needed it most, but it came at a catastrophic rate, destroying crops and shaking communities."
- To Save the Amazon, What if We Listened to Those Living Within It?, Justice & Health, Inside Climate News, Katie Surma,. "Aiming to prevent “climate and ecological collapse,” rainforest inhabitants release a detailed plan to save their home, honing in on ending fossil fuel subsidies and securing Indigenous land rights."
- Exposing Bjorn Lomborg's Climate Lies, ClimateClub on Youtube, Andreas Hernandez Denyer. A 17 minute long video explaining why most of what Björn Lomborg says about climate change is flawed.
- A historically hot summer is on a killing spree and it shows no signs of stopping, Weather, CNN, Mary Gilbert
July 7
- 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #27, Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler, Doug Bostrom & John Hartz. A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, June 30, 2024 thru Sat, July 6, 2024.
- Death Valley sets a new daily record with a searing 128 degrees as West Coast heat wave drags on, Weather, CNN, Dalia Faheid & Monica Garrett.
July 8
- Temperatures 1.5C above pre-industrial era average for 12 months, data shows, Environment The Guardian, Ajit Niranjan. Copernicus Climate Change Service says results a ‘large and continuing shift’ in the climate
- Can we air condition our way out of extreme heat?, The Climate Brink, Andrew Dessler. part 1: a primer on air conditioning
- Record temperature streak continues in June, WMO News, Staff. "The average global temperature has been 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era for 12 successive months, according to new data issued by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service."
- Houston area slammed by Beryl’s winds and water, Eye on the Storm, Yale Climate Connections, Jeff Masters & Bob Henson. Arriving at minimal hurricane strength, Beryl maximized its impact on the Houston area with millions of power outages.
- Here’s what canceling congestion pricing in New York City means for climate change, Article, Yales Climate Connections, Sarah Wesseler. "Charging drivers to enter parts of Manhattan would have implications far beyond the five boroughs."
- The Climate Is Falling Apart. Prepare for the Push Alerts., Planet, The Atlantic, Zoë Schlanger. "In our era of extreme weather, this is how we’ll watch the world change."
July 9
- `Antidotes to despair`: five things we`ve learned from the world`s best climate journalists, Environment The Guardian, Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope. From climate crisis being a crime story to presenting basic weather news in the context of climate change, here are some lessons from journalists
- Extreme heat waves broiling the planet in 2024 aren`t normal: How climate change is heating up weather around the world, The Conversation - Articles (US), Mathew Barlow, Professor of Climate Science, UMass Lowell, Jeffrey Basara, Professor of Meteorology, UMass Lowell.
- The Washington Post made an AI chatbot for questions about climate, The Verge, Emma Roth. The chatbot will use articles from The Washington Post’s climate section to inform its answers.
- Beryl leaves millions of Texans without power as dangerous heat descends on the region, Weather, CNN, Elizabeth Wolfe.
- Trump and Biden are not the same, Heated, Arielle Samuelson. "An analysis of both presidents’ climate policies quantifies the difference."
- Average Global Temperature Has Warmed 1.5 Degrees Celsius Above Pre-industrial Levels for 12 Months in a Row, Science, Inside Climate News, Bob Berwyn. "New data shows the planet’s fever stayed above a crucial target for a full year, but it would need to do that for decades to breach the Paris Agreement limit."
- Devastation as world’s biggest wetland burns: ‘those that cannot run don’t stand a chance’, Environment, The Guardian, Harriet Barber . "Blackened trees, dead animals and scorched earth – early wildfires have already devastated Brazil’s Pantanal and local people worry they may lose the battle to save them"
- Tourists Are Feeling the Heat—and Their Bodies May Not Be Able to Catch Up, Today's Climate, Inside Climate News, Kiley Price, . "Tourists visiting destinations during heat waves may be more prone to adverse health outcomes than residents, experts say."
July 10
- Can humanity address climate change without believing it? Medical history suggests it is possible, Environment, The Conversation US, Ron Barrett (Macalester College).
- Can wild animals handle the heat?, Nature & Environment, Deutsche Welle (DW), Beatrice Christofaro. "From Canada to Australia, animals are dying and suffering as heat waves become more common"
July 11
- BP-owned company is selling carbon credits on trees that aren`t in danger, analysis finds, The Guardian, Luke Barratt and Miranda Green. Satellite analysis looked at credits sold by Finite Carbon, which runs some of North America’s largest offset projects
- Anger mounts in southeast Texas as crippling power outages and heat turn deadly, Weather, CNN, Elizabeth Wolfe, Ashley Killough & Ed Lavandera.
- `All of Our Tricks Worked`: Spoof ExxonMobil Ad Nails Just How Easy It`s Been for Big Oil, DeSmog, Brett Wilkins. A new parody ExxonMobil advertisement mocks humanity for letting Big Oil get away with causing one of the biggest existential threats of all time.
- Opinion: Efforts to Build Climate Resilience Do Not Protect Human Health, Undark, David Introcaso. "The Department of Health and Human Services’ resilience policy undermines efforts to prevent climate disaster."
- Global goal of tripling renewables by 2030 still out of reach, says IRENA, Politics, Climate Home News, Daisy Clague. "The renewable energy agency calls for more concrete policy action and finance, with Africa especially lagging on clean energy"
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #28 2024, Skeptical Science, Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack. Skeptical Science's weekly roundup of academic research on climate change, plus intriguing government and NGO reports.
July 12
- The World`s Sharks Face a Gauntlet of Threats From Marine Heatwaves-and `Coldwaves,` Scientists Say, Inside Climate News, Kiley Price. Climate change is disrupting shark reproduction and development in a variety of ways, experts warn.
- How Bad Is Warming? La Niña May Reveal, E360 Digest, Yale Environment 360, Staff. "
- France’s CNews fined for broadcasting climate scepticism unchallenged, Euronews, Saskia O'Donoghue. CNews has come under fire in the past for biased reporting - but this is the first time it’s fallen foul over climate misinformation.
July 13
- Fact brief - Were scientists caught falsifying data in the hacked emails incident dubbed 'climategate'?, Skeptical Science, John Mason & Gigafact.
If you happen upon high quality climate-science and/or climate-myth busting articles from reliable sources while surfing the web, please feel free to submit them via this Google form so that we may share them widely. Thanks!
The Story of the Week’s focus is well summarized as:
We believe this is helpful background information for making fully joined-up decisions in an important election year. After all, in general it's best to choose leaders who reliably can see and employ crisp facts rather than spout useless ideology when administering our affairs.
Since ‘decision making’ is ‘making judgments’ the following are relevant quotes from Daniel Kahneman’s (an expert on the matter of human judgment) recent book “Noise – A Flaw in Human Judgment” (with Oliver Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein).
Quote from Chapter 18 with my additions in ( )
Judgments are less noisy and less biased when those who make them are well trained (in the subject matter of the judgment), are more intelligent (have fundamentally high levels of cognitive ability), and have the right cognitive style (are passionate about learning). In other words: good judgments depend on what you know, how well you think, and how you think (italics by the authors). Good judges tend to be experienced and smart, but they also tend to be actively open-minded and willing to learn from new information (new evidence and reasoning).
Quote from Chapter 4 about Matters of Judgment
...A matter of judgment is one with some uncertainty about the answer and where we allow for the possibility that reasonable and competent people might disagree.
But there is a limit to how much disagreement is admissible. Indeed, the word judgment is used mainly where people believe they should agree. Matters of judgment differ from matters of opinion or taste, in which unresolved differences are entirely acceptable.
Based on that ‘hard to argue against understanding’ it is important for everyone who cares to be a reasonable responsible member of society to be interested in learning from experts to be less harmful and more helpful to others, appreciate that on many matters there are strict limits on diversity of acceptable judgments (no misunderstanding), and vote according to that constantly improving understanding.
An example of diversity of options within the constraints of pursuing being less harmful and more helpful is structure design and construction (and related design codes). There are a diversity of materials, structural systems, and methods of construction that can meet a high level of safety and reliability requirements.
All political groups could also have unique approaches ad corresponding judgments while adhering to the governing objective of constantly learning to be less harmful and more helpful.
Important Note: Restricting a person’s ability to promote misunderstanding or limiting their ability to benefit more from more harmful actions is not ‘harming them’.
The following NPR article exposes an example of blatant promotion of misunderstanding:
Biden faces criticism over his gas car ban. But he doesn’t have one.
The following quote from the article includes a quote from the promoters
The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a trade group with major fossil fuel members, announced multimillion ad buys this year spotlighting state and federal policies for new car production. The ads urge viewers in the key presidential and Senate swing states of Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Montana, Ohio and Texas to oppose Biden-era rules that improve fuel economy. AFPM’s ads claim, without evidence, that the rules ban gas vehicles.
“We're not coming in in support of a candidate or an opposition of a candidate,” said Chet Thompson, AFPM President. “This is about informing people that this is happening and where they can go to get more information and to weigh in.”
So they claim to not be political campaign marketing ... because they want all candidates to fear upsetting them (they may have been part of the group of misleading promoters who made Joe Manchin, a Democrat, so fearful he would vote like a New Age fearful Republican on fossil fuel matters).