Tag: climate change

bookmark_borderThe End of Days: Floods

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While record breaking droughts have been recorded on 5 of the 6 continents Africa, Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia, parts of the world are also seeing recorded breaking floods.

“A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture—about 7 percent more per 1.8°F (1°C) of warming—and scientists have already observed a significant increase in atmospheric moisture due to the air’s ability to hold more moisture as it warms,” reports Climate Signals.

The increased moisture in the air can create atmospheric rivers.

As the Earth warms, the air will hold more moisture. More moisture-laden air moves over land and creates atmospheric rivers (Pineapple Express). The Journal EOS in the article Atmospheric Rivers Spur High-Tide Floods on U.S. West Coast said, “Atmospheric rivers are narrow bands of moisture that travel across the lower troposphere, generally at the leading edges of massive low-pressure systems. At their peak, they can carry as much water through the sky as the Amazon River does on land. They unleash intense winds and heavy rain as they surge across the Pacific Ocean, eventually making landfall on the U.S. West Coast, contributing to many high-tide flooding events.”

The atmospheric rivers also bring heavy rainfall inland causing extreme flooding.

2022 has brought record flooding to much of the world:

* All across Appalachian Eastern Kentucky, the story of flood victims is the same: Homes that they had lived in for decades, properties that were safe for generations were wiped out by a 1,000-year flood of torrential rain. — Time

“My papaw was almost 80 years old. He lost everything in the house that he has lived in since he was two years old,” says Lakyn Bolen, 26, a resident of Knott County, where 14 inches of rain fell. “It’s nothing that we’re used to, we don’t get stuff like this. And the thing is, a lot of the people in this area don’t have flood insurance because they’re not even in a flood zone.”

* Residents in the area of Dallas, Texas are recovering from torrential rains and floodwaters that inundated entire neighborhoods and roads and prompted dozens of high-water rescues this week. More than 100 homes have been damaged after parts of the Dallas area saw more than 10 inches of rainfall on Monday. Flooding also caused sanitary sewers to overflow in several locations. — CNBC

* Officials hope to fully reopen the main highway from Los Angeles to Phoenix by early next week after a flash flood washed out part of the road through the Southern California desert. — AP

* After record-setting rainfall this week, Jackson, Mississippi, is preparing for the Pearl River to reach 36 feet by Tuesday, leading to flooded streets. — CNN

* Authorities in eastern New Mexico on Wednesday warned residents of continued flooding along the Pecos River. Storm runoff has led to historic flows, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a flood warning for the area near Lake Arthur. — AP

* SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — An Arizona woman has died after she was swept away during flash flooding four days ago at Utah’s Zion National Park, officials said Tuesday. — AP

* The Pakistan floods have been compared to The End of Days with desperation and displacement in Sindh province. The floods have killed nearly 1,000 people across Pakistan since June, while thousands have been displaced – and millions more affected. The full scale of the devastation in the province is yet to be fully understood – but the people described it as the worst disaster they’ve survived. Floods are not uncommon in Pakistan, but people here said these rains were different – more than anything that’s ever been seen. One local official called them “floods of biblical proportions”. — BBC

* Heavy rains set off flash floods, killing 182 in Afghanistan. At least 182 people have been killed and hundreds more injured during a month of heavy flooding from seasonal rains in Afghanistan, according to the United Nations and the ruling Taliban. — AP

* A tropical storm blew out of the northern Philippines on Wednesday, leaving at least three people injured and thousands displaced and prompting authorities to shut down schools and government offices in the capital and several provinces prone to flooding and landslides. — AP

* Torrential rainfall hit Paris on Tuesday evening after a recent heatwave across France, flooding metro stations in the French capital. — France 24

* The death toll from flash floods in Sudan since the start of the country’s rainy season in May has climbed to at least 89, an official said Tuesday, as the downpours continued to inundate villages across the east African nation. — AP

* Mass floods and heatwaves hit Asia: the role of global warming in extreme weather events. In recent weeks, India and Bangladesh have experienced floods that have killed close to 200 people and displaced 7 million. Beyond these numbers, these events pose serious consequences for people’s livelihoods, whether in rural areas or urban settings. — France 24

* Days of deadly floods and landslides wreak havoc in Iran. Dozens are dead and at least 45 people missing after most Iranian provinces were affected by the inundations (of rain and mudslides.) — Al Jazeera

More articles on Flood Insurance, Rising Sea Levels and Global Warming.

bookmark_borderChina Drought: Shortage of Hydropower

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Al Jazeera reports, Chinese factories close as drought hits hydropower. “Factories in China’s southwest have shut down after reservoirs used to generate hydropower ran low in a worsening drought.” Unfortunately, the factory shutdowns include most of the global solar panel production, as well as Tesla electric vehicles.

Leave power for the people,” said an order from the provincial government.

Barron’s reports, “One of the suppliers with capacity in the region is the largest EV battery maker in the world — Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (300750.China), better known as CATL. That company has idled some production in Sichuan, according to reports. GM and SAIC have a joint venture that produces a lot of small electric vehicles in China.”

“A reduction in the supply of parts would affect nearly all auto makers. The industry has dealt with a lot in recent years, including Covid-19 and a semiconductor shortage. Drought is just another issue in a long line of recent problems, and it isn’t the first act of God to hit the sector. Back in March 2021, a fire at a chip plant in Japan worsened the semiconductor shortage.”

The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment

bookmark_borderWorldwide Droughts

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August 2022

There are droughts in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

* UN lists 23 countries that are in severe drought: Afghanistan, Angola, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, the United States and Zambia.

* U.S. officials declared the first-ever water shortage from the Colorado river that serves 40 million people in the West. Water levels at the largest reservoir on the Colorado River — Lake Mead — have fallen to record lows. Along its perimeter, a white “bathtub ring” of minerals outlines where the high water line once stood, underscoring the acute water challenges for a region facing a growing population and a drought that is being worsened by hotter, drier weather brought on by climate change.

* The silvery blue waters of the Great Salt Lake sprawl across the Utah desert, having covered an area nearly the size of Delaware for much of history. For years, though, the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River has been shrinking. And a drought gripping the American West could make this year the worst yet.

* Baby salmon are dying by the thousands in one California river, and an entire run of endangered salmon could be wiped out in another. Fishermen who make their living off adult salmon, once they enter the Pacific Ocean, are sounding the alarm as blistering heat waves and extended drought in the U.S.

* Extreme drought in northern Mexico has left millions of residents without water.

* From the Atacama Desert to Patagonia, a 13-year megadrought is straining Chile’s freshwater resources to breaking point.

* As Europe’s rivers run dry in a devastating drought that scientists say could prove the worst in 500 years, their receding waters are revealing long-hidden artefacts, from Roman camps to ghost villages and second world war shipwrecks. The so-called “hunger stone” at Děčín is one of dozens in central European rivers engraved to mark their levels during historic droughts – and warn future generations of the famine and hardship likely to follow each time they became visible.

* More and more droughts: How both India and the world is getting affected and what it will lead to. The head of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Ibrahim Thiaw, has said that “Humanity is at a crossroads” when it comes to managing drought, and accelerating means of slowing it down must happen “urgently, using every tool we can.

* Pakistan is one of the top 23 countries suffering from a severe drought emergency, a statement issued by the Ministry of Climate Change said. Desertification caused by human and environmental factors has left Pakistan scarred, leading to environmental degradation, loss of soil fertility, loss of biodiversity, and reduction in land productivity, exacerbating the vulnerability of the country’s fragile local communities.

* China issues nationwide drought alert amid extreme heat. A record-breaking 262 weather stations tied or broke their highest temperature on record during the long-running heat wave, which has increased in intensity during the past week. At least 244 cities across China could experience temperatures above 104°F (40°C) on Friday and more than 400 additional cities could see temperatures above 98°F (37°C). The Poyang Lake in central China’s Jiangxi province has shrunk to a quarter of its normal size for this time of year and some 66 rivers in 34 counties in southwestern China have dried up,

* UN food agency scales up assistance for Horn of Africa as millions suffer from drought. Levels of hunger soar in Horn of Africa after back-to-back droughts, threat of famine looms, says World Food Program. Since the start of the year, 9 million more people have slipped into severe food insecurity across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, leaving 22 million people struggling to find enough food to eat, WFP’s regional office in Nairobi said in a statement. “People here have been waiting years for rain – but they cannot wait any longer for life-saving food assistance. The world needs to act now to protect the most vulnerable communities from the threat of widespread famine in the Horn of Africa,” Beasley said.

* In Texas, the heat and lack of rain have uncovered dinosaur tracks from 113 million years ago. “Due to the excessive drought conditions this past summer, the river dried up completely in most locations, allowing for more tracks to be uncovered here in the park,” the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a statement.

* A drought and heat wave in southwestern China have revealed 600-year-old Buddhist statues on a rocky outcrop in the Yangtze River.

The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment

bookmark_borderColorado River: Catastrophic Collapse

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Water wars… coming to a state near you:
“A 23-year drought has been drying up the Colorado River and the effects of climate change, both in terms of extreme heat and low precipitation, are making that more severe.”
“For the second year in a row, the federal government said Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will have to reduce their water consumption.”

90% of the U.S. lettuce is produced in Arizona using water from the Colorado River. In 2021, Arizona had to drastically reduce water consumption. In 2022, Arizona is reducing water consumption from the Colorado by another 21%.

CNBC reports, Feds call for water cutbacks ‘to avoid a catastrophic collapse’ of Colorado River.
“For the second year in a row, the federal government said Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will have to reduce their water consumption.
A 23-year drought has been drying up the Colorado River and the effects of climate change, both in terms of extreme heat and low precipitation, are making that more severe.”

“Every sector in every state has a responsibility to ensure that water is used with maximum efficiency. In order to avoid a catastrophic collapse of the Colorado River System and a future of uncertainty and conflict, water use in the Basin must be reduced,” said Tanya Trujillo, assistant secretary for water and science at the Department of Interio.

The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment

bookmark_borderEurope Drought: And Yes, All Fish Will Die

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Water wars… coming to a town near you:
* Europe hydrogeneration is down 20% in France, down 30% in Italy, and down 50% in Spain. And, did you know solar panels are less efficient in high temperatures? There is more resistance in all power lines, too.
* Germany the Rhine water levels fall to new low making it non-navigable for ships
* France is relocating fish into tanks because the water is too warm. Thousands of other fish die due to lack of O2 — “Without rain, the river “will continue to empty. And yes, all fish will die”

Politico reports, Watts going down? Europe’s scorching summer parches hydropower.
“Record-breaking temperatures are starving hydropower plants and raising questions about how to adapt them for the future.”

The Guardian reports, Europe’s rivers run dry as scientists warn drought could be worst in 500 years.
“Crops, power plants, barge traffic, industry and fish populations devastated by parched waterways”

The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment

bookmark_borderClimate Change: A Hard Rain Is Falling

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by Daniel Brouse and Sidd Mukherjee

In a vacuum, everything falling to earth accelerates at 9.8 m/s^2 (32ft/s^2) [the downward speed increases at 9.8 m/s (32 ft/s) every second.]

Rain accelerates down to earth initially at 9.8 m/s^2, but air resistance slows the drops to a constant speed called the terminal velocity which depends on the size of the drop. “When all the parameters are considered the terminal velocity of a typical raindrop is calculated to be about 9 meters per second or 20 mph. A smaller raindrop of radius 0.15 cm has a terminal velocity of about 7 meters per second or 16 mph.” (1)

Velocity is only one factor in calculating the momentum of rain. The mass of rain also factors into the momentum.
p = mv
p = momentum
m = mass
v = velocity

“Climate change can affect the intensity and frequency of precipitation. Warmer oceans increase the amount of water that evaporates into the air. When more moisture-laden air moves over land or converges into a storm system, it can produce more intense precipitation — for example, heavier rain and snowstorms.” (2)

Part of the increasing momentum is transferred to the sides and upward increasing wind turbulence, as well as updrafts.

Most of the momentum is transferred upon impact. You may notice the rain bouncing higher off the streets and sidewalks. As rain becomes more massive, it will have greater momentum when it hits the ground. Ground without groundcover will be hit harder causing more damage. The groundcover will also be hit harder causing more damage.
* Concrete and asphalt will sustain more damage.
* Solar panels and roofs will sustain more damage.
* Trees and plants will sustain more damage.
* Food crops will sustain more damage.

1. “What is the speed of falling raindrops?” Kyle Hathcox, Glenn Marsch, David Ward (2001)
2. “Climate Change Indicators: Heavy Precipitation” EPA (2021)

The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment

bookmark_borderClimate Change and Pathogens

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In the report published in Nature entitled Over half of known human pathogenic diseases can be aggravated by climate change, data analyst and associate professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawaii Manoa, Camilo Mora, said climate hazards aggravated 58% of all known human pathogens. That is over half of infectious diseases discovered since the end of the Roman Empire.

A whopping 58% of an authoritative list of infectious diseases documented to have impacted humanity have already been shown to be aggravated by climatic hazards — a finding the researchers found “shocking,” Mora said.

Movement of people and animals caused by climate is one factor. Warming at higher latitudes allowed vectors and pathogens to survive winter is another factor. The report goes on to say, “The human pathogenic diseases and transmission pathways aggravated by climatic hazards are too numerous for comprehensive societal adaptations, highlighting the urgent need to work at the source of the problem: reducing GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions.”

This research reveals more evidence that humans will have difficulty adapting to climate change, especially those in developing countries, Mora said.

“The magnitude of the vulnerability when you think about one or two diseases — okay, sure, we can deal with that,” he said. “But when you’re talking about 58% of the diseases, and 58% of those diseases can be affected or triggered in 1,000 different ways. So that, to me, was also revealing of the fact that we’re not going to be able to adapt to climate change.”

Climate Change and Health

The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment

bookmark_borderClimate Endgame: Exploring Catastrophic Climate Change

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America released the study Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios:

Prudent risk management requires consideration of bad-to-worst-case scenarios. Yet, for climate change, such potential futures are poorly understood. Could anthropogenic climate change result in worldwide societal collapse or even eventual human extinction? At present, this is a dangerously underexplored topic. Yet there are ample reasons to suspect that climate change could result in a global catastrophe. Analyzing the mechanisms for these extreme consequences could help galvanize action, improve resilience, and inform policy, including emergency responses.

The Potential for Climate Catastrophe
There are four key reasons to be concerned over the potential of a global climate catastrophe. First, there are warnings from history. Climate change (either regional or global) has played a role in the collapse or transformation of numerous previous societies and in each of the five mass extinction events in Phanerozoic Earth history (38). The current carbon pulse is occurring at an unprecedented geological speed and, by the end of the century, may surpass thresholds that triggered previous mass extinctions. The worst-case scenarios in the IPCC report project temperatures by the 22nd century that last prevailed in the Early Eocene, reversing 50 million years of cooler climates in the space of two centuries.

This is particularly alarming, as human societies are locally adapted to a specific climatic niche. The rise of large-scale, urbanized agrarian societies began with the shift to the stable climate of the Holocene ∼12,000 y ago. Since then, human population density peaked within a narrow climatic envelope with a mean annual average temperature of ∼13 °C. Even today, the most economically productive centers of human activity are concentrated in those areas. The cumulative impacts of warming may overwhelm societal adaptive capacity.
Second, climate change could directly trigger other catastrophic risks, such as international conflict, or exacerbate infectious disease spread, and spillover risk. These could be potent extreme threat multipliers.

Third, climate change could exacerbate vulnerabilities and cause multiple, indirect stresses (such as economic damage, loss of land, and water and food insecurity) that coalesce into system-wide synchronous failures. This is the path of systemic risk. Global crises tend to occur through such reinforcing “synchronous failures” that spread across countries and systems, as with the 2007–2008 global financial crisis (44). It is plausible that a sudden shift in climate could trigger systems failures that unravel societies across the globe.
The potential of systemic climate risk is marked: The most vulnerable states and communities will continue to be the hardest hit in a warming world, exacerbating inequities. Using the medium-high scenario of emissions and population growth, by 2070, around 2 billion people are expected to live in these extremely hot areas. Currently, only 30 million people live in hot places, primarily in the Sahara Desert and Gulf Coast.

Finally, climate change could irrevocably undermine humanity’s ability to recover from another cataclysm, such as nuclear war. That is, it could create significant latent risks (Table 1): Impacts that may be manageable during times of stability become dire when responding to and recovering from catastrophe. These different causes for catastrophic concern are interrelated and must be examined together.

More on Climate Change

bookmark_borderFlorida Insurance Regulators Taking an “unprecedented” and “extraordinary” Step

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The St. Lucie News Tribune reports:

Florida insurance regulators are taking an “unprecedented” and “extraordinary” step to try and prevent tens of thousands of homeowners from being forced to look for new property insurance coverage if rating agency Demotech follows through on plans to downgrade many Florida carriers.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation announced a plan Wednesday to provide companies that are downgraded with reinsurance coverage through state-run Citizens Property Insurance.

The dramatic decision to assume financial responsibility for a raft of struggling insurers underscores the dire circumstances Florida is facing as a large portion of its homeowners insurance market teeters on the brink of collapse.

Downgrading so many companies could wreak havoc in the state, causing big problems for homeowners and the real estate industry.

Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require borrowers to have a home insurance policy from a highly-rated company. Florida’s home insurance market is dominated by smaller companies that only get ratings from Demotech, giving the company significant sway in the industry.

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each offer an exception to the financial rating requirements for an insurer that is covered by a reinsurer who assumes, by endorsement, 100 percent of the insurer’s liability for any covered loss payable, but unpaid by the insurer, by reason of insolvency,” the release states.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that it makes sense to use Citizens as a financial backstop for insurers, because if the companies are downgraded many of their policies would ultimately flow into Citizens – the state’s insurer of last resort.

“If the companies get downgraded and they have to shed policies those will end up going on Citizens anyway, so the exposure to Citizens is more to take on the policies than it will be to act as a reinsurer of last resort,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Tampa.

Reinsurance is insurance for insurance companies. By providing such coverage, Citizens would be on the hook to pay the claims if the downgraded insurers aren’t able to meet their financial obligations. Spiking reinsurance costs have contributed to the home insurance industry’s problems in Florida, which is heavily reliant on such coverage.

The additional reinsurance coverage comes on top of a $2 billion rescue fund approved by state lawmakers during a special session earlier this year. That fund provides reinsurance at no cost to Florida insurers. It was part of a package of reforms intended to stabilize the insurance industry.

Demotech had planned to release its ratings revisions on Tuesday, but said in a statement provided to USA TODAY Network – Florida that it is taking more time to update the ratings.

“As the current regulatory climate has become hostile and negative and we have and will expend a significant effort creating responses to third party letters, we will be taking additional time to review information and consider the issues affecting the companies operating in Florida,” the statement reads.

More articles on Flood Insurance, Rising Sea Levels and Global Warming.

bookmark_borderTropical Stratospheric Ozone Loss and Rocket Debris

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We might have another problem.
A whole buncha people, Elon Musk included, are launching thousands of satellites designed to fall into atmosphere at end of life (decade or less) and burn up, not to speak of rocket exhaust… except the products of that burning are all kindsa metal and other oxides whose chemical effects on the stratosphere is not at all well understood.

We are throwing all kindsa crap into the upper atmosphere, a system we do not fully understand. We are throwing $hit over our heads.
Now over the last few days I see reports of tropical ozone loss and elsewhere.
Something tells me this is not a good idea.

Oh, another thing, the reason i brought up disturbances in tropic stratosphere is that top of atmosphere is higher in the tropics
(higher temp and pressure) so satellites hit that part first when they are deorbiting at end of life into higher drag bits of the
atmosphere.

— Sidd

Observation of large and all-season ozone
losses over the tropics

“The whole-year large tropical O3 hole could cause a great global concern as it can lead to increases in ground-level ultraviolet radiation and affect 50% of the Earth’s surface area, which is home to approximately 50% of the world’s population. Moreover, the presence of the tropical and polar O3 holes is equivalent to the formation of three “temperature holes” observed in the stratosphere. These findings will have significances in understanding planetary physics, ozone depletion, climate change, and human health.”