Climate Change/Mass Extinction Megathread

[crazy canuck]

Only China, the US and India emitted more carbon than Canada. How is that possible? Our forest fires.

Not sure what difference individual carbon reduction is going to make when the carbon stored in our trees is literally going up in smoke.

Carbon reduction will slow global warming, and global warming is a main factor in the increase in forest fires.

You could also just make your trees out of fireproof plastic.

That is what is used to think.  But we have now reached the point of warming that the burning of our northern forests has become an annual event.  We are now too late to stop that.

[Norgy]

We've had such a wet summer that the amount of petrol to start a forest fire simply is unaffordable.

The Greeks always have forest fires in summer. And, it would seem likely it is because the country being dry. But it isn't. Forests aren't to be cut down for new development projects, but when they burn, new avenues open up.

[Sheilbh]

UK's last coal plant to close this month (last shipment of coal arrived in July). Which means there'll be zero coal in the grid for the first time since 1882 when the world's first coal powered plant opened in London.

Given how important coal is to the history of the UK, it seems quite a significant landmark.

[Jacob]

Surely solar in Norway is a terrible idea?
Even the south gets pretty horrid winters.
I guess you should get good off shore winds like the Scottish West Coast?

When you're up North you get a lot of hours of sunshine during summer months. Maybe that helps.

[Norgy]

Surely solar in Norway is a terrible idea?
Even the south gets pretty horrid winters.
I guess you should get good off shore winds like the Scottish West Coast?

When you're up North you get a lot of hours of sunshine during summer months. Maybe that helps.

There is this, and solar can offer some extra power into the grid, and also to specific buildings when hydro power is at low production. Many farms have installed solar panels on their roofs to power the livestock barn or other smaller systems.
The cost-benefit analysis so far point to solar being viable also in the areas below the Polar Circle in Norway.

[Josquius]

I get the long summers would help but I'd have thought the long winters would have cancelled them out. Very curious.

[Valmy]

I get the long summers would help but I'd have thought the long winters would have cancelled them out. Very curious.

Maybe things shut down in the winter up there, so there are extra loads in the summer?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Norway gets nearly all of its power from hydroelectricity. The summers are much drier there than the winters (though not that dry    ), so it may be that solar power leads to better management of their water and hydro resources.

[Syt]

https://www.dw.com/en/summer-2024-was-northern-hemispheres-hottest-on-record/a-70149033

Summer 2024 was Northern Hemisphere's hottest on record

After shattering records in 2023, the globe is well on its way to make 2024 the hottest year ever seen, scientists at the EU climate agency warn.

The northern summer of 2024 saw the highest global temperatures ever recorded, beating last year's record and making 2024 likely to be Earth's hottest year yet, according to EU's climate monitor Copernicus.

The global average temperature between June and August was 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit). That's 0.69 degrees Celsius above the 1991 to 2020 average, Copernicus said in a report.

"During the past three months of 2024, the globe has experienced the hottest June and August, the hottest day on record, and the hottest boreal summer on record," said the agency's deputy director, Samantha Burgess, in a monthly bulletin.

The Earth had only just shattered and set the record for the hottest summer and year in 2023.

This extreme weather "will only become more intense," unless nations across the world urgently reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, Burgess said. Emissions caused by the continued burning of fossil fuels are the main cause of climate change.

The August of 2023 and 2024 tied for the hottest Augusts ever recorded, while June of 2024 was far hotter than that of 2023. July 2024 did not set a record.

What does this mean?

"What those sober numbers indicate is how the climate crisis is tightening its grip on us," said Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research.

Elsewhere, scientists confirmed that climate change is causing a severe drought in Sicily and Sardinia. They also say it intensified Typhoon Gaemi which battered the Philippines, Taiwan and China in July, killing over 100 people.

Separately, China recorded its hottest August in more than six decades, its national weather service said, after enduring a summer of extreme weather and heat waves across much of its north and west.

Chinese weather authorities had also said July was the country's hottest month since records began, state media reported.

Vienna's stats of days >25 and >30 degrees respectively so far this year, with long term average below (1961 - 1990).



We will get two more 30+ days tomorrow and Sunday and then it should cool down to 20s next week (I will be attending a business event in 30+ degree humid weather, though ).

[Barrister]

It's supposed to hit 32c today, 30c Saturday and 30c Sunday.  In September.

I know, I know - climate change <> weather.  Any one period of unseasonably warm weather doesn't mean much of anything (and temperatures drop after this weekend).  But it does feel like it's happening more and more often.

[Syt]

Actually, correction: the values above are for Hohe Warte (which is in the greener 19th district), if I run a report from the Austrian weather portal for the one closest to me I get 49 days over 30 degrees.

[PJL]

The UK obviously didn't get the memo this year - it's been the coldest summer for about 10 years.

[HVC]

The UK obviously didn't get the memo this year - it's been the coldest summer for about 10 years.

If the Atlantic currents get messed up you won't have to worry about hot weather, so that's a plus I guess.

[Valmy]

The UK obviously didn't get the memo this year - it's been the coldest summer for about 10 years.

Some weird things happened in the Pacific and Atlantic last year. Both were much warmer than usual and that led to a wetter summer than usual here in Texas which was merciful. Maybe those same forces influenced the UK?

[Syt]

Because I apparently have nothing better to do on Friday night. Exported the temperature data for the past 40 years for the weather station closest to me (in Vienna's city center).

First a graph that shows # of daytime highs over 30°C and night time lows over 20°C since 1985 plus running 10 year average.



Secondly, the monthly average daytime high and night time low this year ... last few months were "fun". And granted, September is only a few days so far. But July and August both over 30.



Finally, comparing the average daytime high temperature for July and August since 1985. The 10 year average for the monthly average daytime max temperature has gone up easily by 2 degrees since 1993 for the summer months.



I don't like where this is going.