Climate Change/Mass Extinction Megathread

[Valmy]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/us/politics/trump-climate-science.html

The demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler," the physicist, William Happer, who serves on the National Security Council as the president's deputy assistant for emerging technologies, said in 2014 in an interview with CNBC.

FFS

Well he is the one calling for carbon-dioxide to be burned. WHO IS THE NAZI NOW?!!!111

[Maladict]

 

https://twitter.com/RasmusTonboe/status/1139504201615237120

[crazy canuck]

https://twitter.com/RasmusTonboe/status/1139504201615237120

I got a good look at Greenland on our flight back from Europe - there are lots of deep wide trenches running down to the sea formed from glacier flows that used to be there.  It looks like a massive abandoned open pit mining operation.

[HVC]

really cool looking picture though. Jesus dogs

[Barrister]

https://twitter.com/RasmusTonboe/status/1139504201615237120

I got a good look at Greenland on our flight back from Europe - there are lots of deep wide trenches running down to the sea formed from glacier flows that used to be there.  It looks like a massive abandoned open pit mining operation.

To be fair you don't know how long ago those glaciers melted.  There are tons of places that look like that - but the glacial retreated 100+ years ago.

[crazy canuck]

Given the dramatic rate of glacier melt that has occurred over the last 20 years (and particularly the last 10) I highly doubt what I was looking at dated to 1919.

[Maladict]

Everything seems to be going well.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/25/g20-nations-triple-coal-power-subsidies-climate-crisis

G20 countries triple coal power subsidies despite climate crisis
Major economies pledged a decade ago to phase out all aid for fossil fuels


G20 countries have almost tripled the subsidies they give to coal-fired power plants in recent years, despite the urgent need to cut the carbon emissions driving the climate crisis.

The bloc of major economies pledged a decade ago to phase out all fossil fuel subsidies.

The figures, published in a report by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and others, show that Japan is one of the biggest financial supporters of coal, despite the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, having said in September: "Climate change can be life-threatening to all generations ... We must take more robust actions and reduce the use of fossil fuels." The annual G20 meeting begins in Japan on Friday.

China and India give the biggest subsidies to coal, with Japan third, followed by South Africa, South Korea, Indonesia and the US. While the UK frequently runs its own electricity grid without any coal power at all, a parliamentary report in June criticised the billions of pounds used to help to build fossil fuel power plants overseas.

Global emissions must fall by half in the next decade to avoid significantly worsening drought, floods, extreme heatwave and poverty for hundreds of millions of people. But emissions are still increasing, with coal-fired power the biggest single contributor to the rise in 2018.

"It has now been 10 years since the G20 committed to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, yet astonishingly some governments are actually increasing the amount they give to coal power plants," said Ipek Gençsü, research fellow at ODI and lead author of the report.

"Momentum is growing around the world for governments to take urgent action to tackle the climate crisis and ending subsidies to coal would bring benefits to all [including reduced air pollution] and help set a level playing field for clean energy," she said.

Han Chen, energy policy manager at the Natural Resources Defense Council and co-author of the report, said: "Other governments may struggle to take Japan's rhetoric on climate change seriously, as this year's G20 host government continues to pour billions of dollars into propping up coal. If prime minister Abe is serious about dealing with climate change, he should end Japan's government-backed finance for coal."

Green campaigners are planning protests in Japan against the G20's coal subsidies and in nations where coal plants are being funded. China is supporting coal plants in the Philippines, opposed by the Oriang women's movement, which campaigns for gender and social justice.

Flora Santos, the movement's president, said: "We cannot continue to live in peril and in the face of ever-worsening threats to the survival and security of our families. The expansion of the coal industry and projects must stop as soon as possible."

The researchers totalled the financial and tax subsidies given for mining coal and building and maintaining coal-fired power plants, including investments by state-owned companies. They found the average annual amount increased from $17bn in 2014 to $47bn in 2017. In contrast, the subsidies for coal mining halved, from $22bn to $10bn.

"In reality, government support to coal is much larger than our report's numbers show, because many G20 countries still lack transparency on the many ways they subsidise coal," said Ivetta Gerasimchuk, at the International Institute for Sustainable Development and another co-author.

Coal is seen as a sector in terminal decline across the world, from Asia to the US to Europe, and the International Energy Agency reported that total investments in new coal plants have fallen by 75% from 2015 to 2018. The reason state subsidies are bucking this trend may be because governments are choosing to prop up the sector for political reasons, said Gençsü.

"They are just kicking the can down the road," she said. "The money would be much better channelled to managing the [low carbon] transition and setting an end date. Coal use is going to end – it is the trajectory the world is on – but they are really dragging their feet."

About 5% of the subsidies identified in the report went to assisting a transition away from coal, mainly in Germany and the UK. But other programmes have been launched since 2017, including a $15bn fund in China for coal and steel workers, and a €250m scheme for coalminers in Spain, which is not a G20 nation.

The World Coal Association did not respond to a request for comment.

[garbon]

[Admiral Yi]

Spain, which is not a G20 nation.

This I did not know.

[Razgovory]

I'm glad I don't have kids.

[Tamas]

https://twitter.com/RasmusTonboe/status/1139504201615237120

I got a good look at Greenland on our flight back from Europe - there are lots of deep wide trenches running down to the sea formed from glacier flows that used to be there.  It looks like a massive abandoned open pit mining operation.

IIRC the original photo was posted as dramatic because of how early this stage was reached in the year, otherwise this is supposed to happen in the summer.

But it went around the world with the basic attitude of OMG GREENLAND HAS LOST ICE, DOOM IS AT HAND.

My problem with that is that the issue is severe enough without hyperbole, I think arguments for action could be more convincing if at least the pro-action side refused to be sensationalist.

[garbon]

Spain, which is not a G20 nation.

This I did not know.

http://theconversation.com/explainer-who-gets-invited-to-the-g20-summit-and-why-33308

But Spain is a what is known as a "permanent invitee". What is the difference between a member and a permanent invitee, I hear you cry. No-one knows. Spain always gets to come.

[crazy canuck]

https://twitter.com/RasmusTonboe/status/1139504201615237120

I got a good look at Greenland on our flight back from Europe - there are lots of deep wide trenches running down to the sea formed from glacier flows that used to be there.  It looks like a massive abandoned open pit mining operation.

IIRC the original photo was posted as dramatic because of how early this stage was reached in the year, otherwise this is supposed to happen in the summer.

But it went around the world with the basic attitude of OMG GREENLAND HAS LOST ICE, DOOM IS AT HAND.

My problem with that is that the issue is severe enough without hyperbole, I think arguments for action could be more convincing if at least the pro-action side refused to be sensationalist.

The fact that the North is warming quickly is a very good indication that doom is at hand.

[Maladict]

I think arguments for action could be more convincing if at least the pro-action side refused to be sensationalist.

They've tried that for decades and nobody cared. And it's hard to overstate the problem at this point.

[crazy canuck]

I think arguments for action could be more convincing if at least the pro-action side refused to be sensationalist.

They've tried that for decades and nobody cared. And its hard to overstate the problem at this point.

Tamas is a good example of what is wrong.  Intellectually he knows that climate change is a thing.  He is just not ready to acknowledge how urgent the problem is.  As was discussed upthread a while ago, the climate change delayers may be more harmful at this point than the deniers.  The deniers look foolish now.  The delayers have a veneer of reasonableness and moderation that too many people will accept and in doing so we are going to go over 1.5.

We see this problem in the Canadian election coming up.  The two main parties give lip service to climate change but the things they are prepared to do about it are not close to what the IPCC says needs to be done.