An international Treaty that works! The Montreal Protocol and the healing of the ozone layer.
After 30 years of the Montreal Protocol, the ozone layer is gradually healing The Conversation Andrew Klekociuk, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, University of Tasmania, Research Group Leader, CSIRO This weekend marks the 30th birthday of the Montreal Protocol, often dubbed the world’s most successful environmental agreement. The treaty, signed on September 16, 1987, is slowly but surely reversing the damage caused to the ozone layer by industrial gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
Each year, during the southern spring, a hole appears in the ozone layer above Antarctica. This is due to the extremely cold temperatures in the winter stratosphere (above 10km altitude) that allow byproducts of CFCsand related gases to be converted into forms that destroy ozone when the sunlight returns in spring.
As ozone-destroying gases are phased out, the annual ozone hole is generally getting smaller – a rare success story for international environmentalism.
Back in 2012, our Saving the Ozone series marked the Montreal Protocol’s silver jubilee and reflected on its success. But how has the ozone hole fared in the five years since?
The Antarctic ozone hole has continued to appear each spring, as it has since the late 1970s. This is expected, as levels of the ozone-destroying halocarbon gases controlled by the Montreal Protocol are still relatively high. The figure below shows that concentrations of these human-made substances over Antarctica have fallen by 14% since their peak in about 2000.
It typically takes a few decades for these gases to cycle between the lower atmosphere and the stratosphere, and then ultimately to disappear. The most recent official assessment, released in 2014, predicted that it will take 30-40 years for the Antarctic ozone hole to shrink to the size it was in 1980………
Reassuringly, a recent study showed that the size of the ozone hole each September has shrunk overall since the turn of the century, and that more than half of this shrinking trend is consistent with reductions in ozone-depleting substances. However, another study warns that careful analysis is needed to account for a variety of natural factors that could confound our detection of ozone recovery……..
While annual monitoring continues, which includes measurements under the Australian Antarctic Program, a more comprehensive assessment of the ozone layer’s prospects is set to arrive late next year. Scientists across the globe, coordinated by the UN Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organisation, are busy preparing the next report required under the Montreal Protocol, called the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2018.
This peer-reviewed report will examine the recent state of the ozone layer and the atmospheric concentration of ozone-depleting chemicals, how the ozone layer is projected to change, and links between ozone change and climate.
In the meantime we’ll watch the 2017 hole as it peaks then shrinks over the remainder of the year, as well as the ozone holes of future years, which will tend to grow less and less large as the ozone layer heals. https://theconversation.com/after-30-years-of-the-montreal-protocol-the-ozone-layer-is-gradually-healing-84051
The global impact of glaciers shrinking as climate change affects them
Glacial melt will wreck ecosystems http://climatenewsnetwork.net/glacial-melt-wreck-ecosystems/?utm_source=Climate+News+Network&utm_campaign=4bffebee1d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_15&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1198ea8936-4bffebee1d-38798465 by Tim Radford The alarming rate of glacial shrinkage worldwide threatens our current way of life, from biodiversity to tourism, hydropower to clean water supply.
Glaciers cover one-tenth of the planet’s land surface – but not for much longer.
Glaciers worldwide are in retreat, and losing mass. They are shrinking and melting, and that will create problems almost everywhere, according to new research.
Between 2003 and 2009, glaciers melted on a gargantuan scale, with an estimated 1,350 cubic kilometres of meltwater streamed from what had once been vast streams of slowly flowing ice.
Ice has been in retreat in the Gulf of Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, Greenland and Antarctica. In the European Alps summers have become measurably warmer during the last 30 years, snowfall has diminished and 54% of the ice cover in the mountains has disappeared since 1850. By 2100, Alpine summits may have lost around nine-tenths of the ice that still covered them in 2003. In South America, the glaciers of Bolivia lost almost 50% of their mass in the last 50 years. In western Canada, somewhere between 60% and 80% of the ice measured in 2005 will have disappeared, and flowed into the sea to raise sea levels everywhere.
And, says an international team of scientists, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the loss of mountain ice creates problems for the people who live downstream.
Glaciers in the basins of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus rivers are right now losing 24 billion metric tons of ice a year: between 2003 and 2009, that added up to about a tenth of all the glacial ice lost everywhere in the world. Ice loss upstream means changes in the timing, magnitude and frequency of the flows downstream, and that in turn affects the levels of sediment, and the nutrients, both for the human populations who depend on the farmland in the valleys and plains below, but also for the natural ecosystems in the rivers, lakes and coastal zones.
It is time, the scientists argue, for some serious thinking: glacier loss cannot be separated from complexities such as changes in natural hazards such as flooding and drought, in agriculture, tourism, hydropower, cultural life and political economy.
“We don’t believe that the sheer enormity of the impact of glacial shrinkage on our downstream ecosystems has been fully integrated to date. From biodiversity to tourism, from hydropower to clean water supply, the breadth of risk to our current way of life is vast. The first step must be a realignment in how we view glacial shrinkage, and a research agenda that acknowledges the risk to regions likely to be most affected,” says Alexander Milner, professor of river ecosystems at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, who led the study.
Four tasks
He and colleagues, from Alaska, Switzerland, Norway, Austria, France, Iceland, Denmark, Italy and other UK universities, want the global science community to think about four big things.
They want new technologies to map the details of ice loss with greater precision. They want better global monitoring of the nutrients and contaminants that are now trickling at ever greater rates from glaciers into downstream waterways.They want to see better understanding of the impact of what scientists like to call “ecosystem services” delivered by glaciers – and that includes what happens to salmon habitats and sports fisheries. And they would like to see management plans for change in the most sensitive glacier regions, and that could include international legislation to protect what they call “strategic glacier-derived water resources”.
Researchers have been warning about glacial loss for many years: they have highlighted regional alarms in Greenland, central Asia, the Antarctic, and the Bolivian Andes.
They have firmly linked glacial loss to global warming driven by profligate human fossil fuel combustion and they have warned that such loss risks social change and potential catastrophe for millions.
Glacial water
So the latest study is a kind of summary of the research so far, and an attempt to identify what glaciologists, geographers, hydrologists and social scientists should do to understand the problems ahead, and identify steps to ameliorate some of the worst impacts. They see potential for conflict over access to dwindling water supplies downstream from what had once been great glacier systems.
And, they warn, there is even a religious dimension.
“For example, thousands of pilgrims annually traverse the Gangotri Glacier in India, considering it a sacred spot, and in Peru and the Yukon Territory of Canada, indigenous people consider glaciers as gods. In Peru, the loss of ice and snow from mountain peaks is thus associated with the god’s departure and the end of the world. On the Tibetan Plateau, residents consider the glacierised Yulong Snow Mountain their spiritual home, but already 65% have recognised the necessity to potentially migrate to adapt to climate change and achieve a sustainable livelihood,” they write.
“These social upheavals would clearly lead to implications across the wider array of services that human populations use from glacier-fed rivers.”
– Climate News Network
If Now’s Not the Time to Talk About Climate Change, When Is?
A nation serious about mitigating natural disasters like the ones we’ve just seen can’t afford to let this moment slip away. I’ve witnessed the debate over when is—and when isn’t—the appropriate time to discuss the role that climate change may have played in calamitous natural disasters such as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and the raging wildfires that have now destroyed more than eight million acres in the American West. On one side of the debate, we have those who believe it’s wrongheaded and offensive to be bringing up climate change while so many people are still mourning loved ones, sorting through debris, and picking up the pieces of their shattered lives. On the other side, we have those who believe we simply can’t afford to postpone the conversation—that any delay is tantamount to abdication.
For the people in this second group, humanity finds itself “confronted with the fierce urgency of the now,” in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. Confronted, that is to say, with evidence of an actual crisis in progress, as opposed to a predicted crisis taking place somewhere down the line. And that partially explains the frustration felt by many at the position taken by EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and his allies, who decry any discussion of climate change in the immediate aftermaths of Harvey and Irma. It’s hard to swallow an accusation that the “double-C phrase” is “insensitive to mention,” coming from the figurehead who takes every available opportunity to side with the oil and gas industry over the public and to weaken rather than strengthen environmental protections. Rather than a plea for compassion, it sounds much more like yet another muted threat from a climate denier……..
Like Tom Bossert, Scott Pruitt, and Donald Trump, Americans everywhere are seeing the effects of climate change right before their eyes. But unlike them, we aren’t disinclined to study, analyze, dissect, or discuss the causes. Because if there’s anything at all that we can be doing to reduce the chances of another crisis, we’re on board.
We understand the risks of denial—and also of waiting too long to act. They’re the same risks. https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/if-nows-not-time-talk-about-climate-change-when
Nuclear power simply IS NOT ‘zero-carbon technology’
Letter to Guardian, Ian Hill, Guardian 14th Sept 2017, Your excellent editorial on the reducing cost of offshore
wind power (13 September) is timely in identifying the increasingly futile
case for new nuclear build. It does, however, repeat the fallacy that
nuclear power “is a zero-carbon technology”.
The carbon emissions involved in building such immense structures, in mining and transporting uranium,
and in the transport, reprocessing and storage of waste, contribute to a
considerable carbon burden. Estimates vary considerably, but studies
suggest that the emissions from nuclear generation could be one-10th of
those of fossil fuels, but twice those of wind power.
Furthermore, the need for a continuous supply is of only limited use when consumption patterns
become distorted by, for example, the increased need to charge electric
vehicles overnight, as your leader identifies. What is needed now,
alongside continued investment in the latest generation of renewable
production, is increased investment into a wide range of storage
technologies, and further research and investment into the production of
renewable heat.
Tackling the energy challenge is plainly within our grasp
as new technologies come to the market. The challenge now is not a
technological one, it is a political one. Sadly, that is a political
challenge which our current government seem unable to address.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/14/the-role-of-renewables-in-the-uk-energy-mix
Over 300 American Organisations Endorse Sweeping Climate Bill
As Nation Reels from Disasters, 300+ Groups Endorse Sweeping Climate Bill
“Disaster after climate-induced disaster is proving that we can’t fail to address our rampant burning of fossil fuels—too much is at stake.” Common Dreams, by Jessica Corbett, staff writer, 15 Sept 17
“Disaster after climate-induced disaster is proving that we can’t fail to address our rampant burning of fossil fuels—too much is at stake.” Common Dreams, by Jessica Corbett, staff writer, 15 Sept 17
Climate change and coral reefs – for some reefs, their end is nigh
Farewelling coral reefs The Saturday Paper, Karen Middleton, 16 Sept 17 We hear much about trying to contain temperature rises to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Why is that the magic number?
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg The 2-degree guardrail came out of the 2009 Copenhagen meeting. When you looked at how ecosystems were responding, you got into an unmanageable area at 2 degrees above the pre-industrial period, which was where the CO2 concentration had been stable for a long time. The trajectory we’re on today could raise temperatures by as much as 5 or 6 degrees on history.
One of the problems with 2 degrees is that generally people have the idea that it’s a guardrail. You go up to the edge of 2 degrees and look over it and see where you don’t want to go and it’s all very safe here. But it’s more like a slippery slope. Things get progressively worse until they become unmanageable. At the latest Conference of the Parties, the UNFCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ] governing framework started to say, “well actually we want to keep things well below 2 degrees, and hopefully aim for 1.5 in the long term”.
KM And where are we now?
OHG We’re about a degree above the pre-industrial period.
KM So we’ve got half a degree’s leeway left.
OHG: To keep to that half a degree would be a massive decarbonisation of almost everything we do – energy, transport, food production and so on. Key to this is not just the amount of temperature change; it’s the system’s stability. If we don’t take care of fossil fuels we very quickly get into a situation where things change. Anything like that puts a lot of stress on biology but also on our economic systems. If you’re constantly having increasing temperatures and challenges then you’re not going to be able to build an economic system that will last 50 or 100 years……..
KM You predicted 20 years ago that we were going to be in a diabolical situation. Are you saying, “I told you so?”
OHG I wish I’d been wrong. A very simple model that I put together with people from the European Union showed what temperature was likely to do and we knew the temperature at which coral reefs got into trouble and they crossed each other around mid-century. I remember thinking at the time, “I hope this one’s wrong.” In the last couple of years we’ve had back-to-back bleaching events. Reefs have disappeared from many places – the Caribbean has been particularly hit hard. Corals have gone from maybe 50 to 60 per cent of the bottom of the ocean to less than 5 per cent in many places.
KM Is this irreversible?
OHG Under normal, non-climate-change circumstances, reefs might lose corals due to cyclones for example. And if they’re given 10 to 20 years, they’ll bounce back. But what’s been happening with these bleaching events, which are similar to cyclones in killing coral en masse, is they’re now coming faster and faster. There’s not enough time for reefs to bounce back……..
you have to say, “Where are those reefs that have the best chance of surviving a climate increase of 0.5 degrees?” The ocean isn’t heating up at the same rate in all places. There are some places where the currents have stalled, where it’s getting a lot hotter a lot quicker, like the equatorial Pacific, versus the coral triangle, which is this South-East Asian paradise for corals. The number of species there is something like three times that of Australia. So you start to go, “Oh, well if we’re going to preserve something we wouldn’t do it at the equator where it’s getting really, really hot – we should be going to South-East Asia.”
You do run into what appears to be triage, and I don’t think that’s the right word. I think it’s about another strategy being added onto the great things that are already going on in conservation. We will be releasing a list later this year and you have to ask the question: “What if the Great Barrier Reef’s not on it?” And it’s an interesting one………
KM How do you assess the current status of the Great Barrier Reef? How bad was the bleaching?
OHG The reef’s health has been rocky for some time. In 1998 we had 50 per cent of the reef bleached but only 10 per cent died. That’s 10 per cent of 40,000 square kilometres of coral – it’s still a large amount. Then it happened again in 2002 and then we had a bit of a break and then it came roaring back in 2016 and 2017, where not only much of the reef bleached but we lost almost 50 per cent of the corals over the last two years. If we continue to have warm summers like we had in ’16 and this year, the next one could wipe out the remaining coral. Now, I don’t want to sound doomsday, but that’s where we’re at right now. It’s still a wonderful place to visit. But if we continue on this trajectory it won’t be, very soon – within our lifetime. I think that this is the wake-up call that we need. If losing the Great Barrier Reef isn’t serious stuff, what is? https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/environment/2017/09/16/farewelling-coral-reefs/15054840005215
Pope Francis urges climate change sceptics to consult with a scientist.
Pope Francis On Climate Change Denial: ‘Man Is Stupid’ Huff Post, WASHINGTON, 14 Sept 17 — Climate change denials amid catastrophic hurricanes are a reminder that humans are not a particularly smart species, Pope Francis said Sunday while flying over areas in the Caribbean decimated by Hurricane Irma.
“Man is stupid,” he said, referencing a passage in the Old Testament, according to the The New York Times and The Associated Press. “When you don’t want to see, you don’t see.”
A correspondent for Crux Now had a slightly different translation of the pontiff’s comments: “Man is a stupid and hard-headed being who doesn’t see.”
The pope — who has sparred with President Donald Trump on several issues, including climate change — also urged the climate skeptics of the world to consult with a scientist.
“Those who deny climate change need to go to scientists and ask them,” Francis said, according to Crux. He said the scientific community has been “clear and precise” in linking human activities to the ongoing crisis and that “each [person] has a moral responsibility, bigger or smaller.” Climate change is a “serious matter over which we cannot make jokes,” he said.
Pope Francis’ comments came during a flight from Colombia to Rome, which passed over areas of the Caribbean left devastated by Hurricane Irma. According to Crux, journalists asked the pope about the moral responsibility world political leaders have to fight against climate change.
Francis warned that “history will judge those decisions,” and that if humans fail to curb climate change we “will go down,” according to reports.
When Trump met with Francis in May, the pope gave the president a copy of his 2015 encyclical on climate change and the environment, “Laudato Si.” In the 184-page document, Francis argues that climate change is inherently a moral and spiritual issue and criticizes local and national governments that refuse to address it. ……http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/09/11/pope-francis-on-climate-change-denial-man-is-stupid_a_23205254/
Climate change, extreme wildfires, and lung damage
Extreme wildfires in the US could lead to long-term lung damage https://www.newscientist.com/article/2147141-extreme-wildfires-in-the-us-could-lead-to-long-term-lung-damage/, 12 September 2017, And it looks like there is more to come. Most western states will remain at risk throughout September. “Fuel moisture levels and fire danger indices in these areas are at near-record to record levels for severity,” warns the NIFC. In August, rainfall was 25 per cent below average in western states – and temperatures were 2 to 6°C higher than normal.
As part of its wildfire outlook for the rest of the year, the NIFC predicts fires this month in parts of Idaho, Nevada and Utah. There, grasses were two to three times more profuse than usual, but have since dried out.
The NIFC says states such as Montana are so bone dry that they could still be at risk in October. Fires are also likely as late as December in central Texas and most of Oklahoma, following a predicted dry spell in late autumn.
Don’t breathe
Charities supporting lung health warn that people exposed to smoke and other pollution from the fires are at higher risk of short and long-term lung damage. Children, whose lungs are still immature, and the elderly are most at risk.
“We consider unhealthy air to contain around 35 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic metre, but in Montana, they’re looking at just under 1000 over many days on a regular basis,” says Janice Nolen of the American Lung Association in Washington DC. “A colleague of mine up there is saying he can’t breathe.”
“Man-made climate change is making things incrementally hotter and allowing for fuels to dry out that much faster,” says John Abatzoglou at the University of Idaho. There is also “a legacy of fire suppression and fuel accumulation” that has intensified the natural pattern of wildfires in the US.
“We need to prevent this going forward, and one reason we’re having this crisis is climate change,” says Nolen. “It’s exacerbating these events, making them more likely and moBy
There is no relief on the horizon for beleaguered citizens in California, Montana, Oregon and other western states besieged by an abnormally large profusion of forest fires.
Nationally, wildfires this year have scorched 3.3 million hectares. That is roughly the size of Maryland, and way ahead of the 2.25-million-hectare annual average up to September seen between 2006 and 2016.
The US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Idaho says there are currently 64 very large fires. Montana has been worst hit, suffering 25, and Oregon now has 17. And it looks like there is more to come. Most western states will remain at risk throughout September. “Fuel moisture levels and fire danger indices in these areas are at near-record to record levels for severity,” warns the NIFC. In August, rainfall was 25 per cent below average in western states – and temperatures were 2 to 6°C higher than normal.
As part of its wildfire outlook for the rest of the year, the NIFC predicts fires this month in parts of Idaho, Nevada and Utah. There, grasses were two to three times more profuse than usual, but have since dried out.
The NIFC says states such as Montana are so bone dry that they could still be at risk in October. Fires are also likely as late as December in central Texas and most of Oklahoma, following a predicted dry spell in late autumn.
Media are letting us down, coverage of climate change gets poorer, as climate change gets worse
Climate change is getting worse, and so is media’s coverage of it, Salon.com. Media are failing to inform audiences about pressing impacts on human migration patterns, women, and the economy, Broadcast networks are decreasing their climate coverage at a time when the case for reporting on the issue is become more and more compelling. By ignoring this serious matter, media are failing to inform audiences about pressing impacts on human migration patterns, women, and the economy.
In 2016, media had no shortage of compelling reasons to cover climate change — from the revelation that it was the third consecutive hottest year on record to the United States’ election of a climate denier to its highest office. Yet broadcast news outlets’ coverage of climate change dropped a whopping 66 percent from 2015 to 2016, making it the third consecutive year of declining coverage.
When media turn a blind eye to climate change, they ignore an issue that will have devastating impacts and multiply existing threats across the globe. According to The New York Times, unmitigated climate change could displace between 50 million and 200 million people by 2050. But the effects of climate change are already visible. In the U.S. last year, the federal government allocated $48 million in grants to resettle residents of Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana, which represents “the first allocation of federal tax dollars to move an entire community struggling with the impacts of climate change.”
Climate change poses a particular threat to women. A whole host of studies have concluded that women will bear the brunt of climate change-induced natural disasters and severe weather events. According to a United Nations analysis, “Women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men — primarily as they constitute the majority of the world’s poor and are more dependent for their livelihood on natural resources that are threatened by climate change.” The analysis also stated, “When coupled with unequal access to resources and to decision-making processes, limited mobility places women in rural areas in a position where they are disproportionately affected by climate change.”
The prospect of a warming planet also presents a huge risk to the global economy. ……http://www.salon.com/2017/09/11/climate-change-is-getting-worse-and-so-is-medias-coverage-of-it_partner/
Himalayas facing grave threat from climate change
Global warming poses grave threat to the Himalayas, The Himalayan Times, September 12, 2017 Nepal, THT ONLINE/RASTRIYA SAMACHAR SAMITI, KATHMANDU: Increasing global warming caused by greenhouse effect and its subsequent impact has posed a grave threat to the Nepal’s mountain ranges, experts said.
They stressed the need of taking timely interventions to minimise the impact of climate change on the mountains.
The experts shared their views at an interaction programme on ‘challenges f mountaineering tourism and environmental impact’ organised by Management Association of Nepal on Tuesday.
Former President of Nepal Mountaineering Association Ang Chhiring Sherpa revealed the fact that increasing atmospheric temperature caused rampant snow melting and mountains were in the gradual process of turning into just rocky hills.
“This situation is dangerous for the entire mountain ecosystem. Mountaineering tourism is certain to be severely hit by this. Some settlements in the mountain region are in the need of relocation, following the water crisis there.”…….. KATHMANDU: Increasing global warming caused by greenhouse effect and its subsequent impact has posed a grave threat to the Nepal’s mountain ranges, experts said…… https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/global-warming-poses-grave-threat-himalayas/
Satellites reveal global fingerprints of sea-level rise
Global fingerprints of sea-level rise revealed by satellites, http://www.nature.com/news/global-fingerprints-of-sea-level-rise-revealed-by-satellites-1.22588
Geological processes send more meltwater from glaciers and ice sheets to Earth’s mid-latitudes. Rachael Lallensack, As an ice sheet melts, it leaves a unique signature behind. Complex geological processes distribute the meltwater in a distinct pattern, or ‘fingerprint’, that causes seas to rise unevenly around the world. Now, for the first time, researchers have observed what these sea-level fingerprints look like on a global scale.
“No one has put it together for a complete global picture like this before,” says James Davis, a geophysicist at Columbia University in Palisades, New York. The work was published in Geophysical Research Letters on 9 September1.
The concept of sea-level fingerprints has been been factored into models used to predict sea-level rise for several years, says lead researcher Isabella Velicogna, a geophysicist at the University of California, Irvine. And researchers have used tide gauges for just as long to observe the fingerprints in coastal regions. But the global view provided by the latest study adds confidence to projections of future sea-level rise.
As an ice sheet melts, it leaves a unique signature behind. Complex geological processes distribute the meltwater in a distinct pattern, or ‘fingerprint’, that causes seas to rise unevenly around the world. Now, for the first time, researchers have observed what these sea-level fingerprints look like on a global scale.
“No one has put it together for a complete global picture like this before,” says James Davis, a geophysicist at Columbia University in Palisades, New York. The work was published in Geophysical Research Letters on 9 September1.
The concept of sea-level fingerprints has been been factored into models used to predict sea-level rise for several years, says lead researcher Isabella Velicogna, a geophysicist at the University of California, Irvine. And researchers have used tide gauges for just as long to observe the fingerprints in coastal regions. But the global view provided by the latest study adds confidence to projections of future sea-level rise.
Velicogna and co-author Chia-Wei Hsu, also at the University of California, Irvine, used gravity data from NASA’s two Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, which measure changes in mass on Earth’s surface. The scientists looked at satellite data from April 2002 to October 2014, and matched it with measurements from pressure stations on the ocean floor. These instruments measure the total mass above them.
Velicogna says that the findings should be used to create a roadmap for better placement of ocean-bottom pressure stations, which in turn can be used to improve calculations of sea-level fingerprints in the future.
“We know sea-level change throughout the world won’t be uniform, and it’s useful for people to know how those changes might show up,” says Mark Tamisiea, a geophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin.
There are 11 nuclear power plants in the path of Hurricane Irma
What Lies In Irma’s Path, Five Thirty Eight, By Rachael Dottle, Ritchie King and Ella Koeze, what lies in that path? We can’t say for sure, but within the so-called cone of uncertainty for Irma, there are 11 nuclear power plants, hundreds of hospitals and a slew of hazardous waste containment sites that could become sources of environmental contamination. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-lies-in-irmas-path/?ex_cid=538email
Climate change: Parts of South Asia devastated by record monsoon floods
India is one of several South Indian countries to suffer huge floods in the this year’s unprecedented monsoon season.
More than 1,400 are thought to have died across four countries. Many more saw their homes washed away, families split up, and crops on which they depended to survive ruined.
The crisis has had relatively little worldwide coverage, with news organisations more focused on hurricanes on the other side of the world.
But both are linked to changing weather patterns due to climate change that are expected to drive more extreme weather in the years to come.
In India, the poverty-stricken northern state of Bihar was among the worst affected……
weeks after the flood first struck, there has been virtually no Government aid to help victims.
Instead, local charities have been left to deliver emergency supplies.
There were also questions over why there had no been warnings to evacuate or prepare ahead of the floods.
Ashish Ranjan, a volunteer flood relief coordinator, said deaths could have been prevented.
Cold War-era nuclear waste in the path of Hurricane Irma
Hurricane Irma may plow into a site full of Cold War-era nuclear waste, Business Insider, DAVE MOSHER,
- Hurricane Irma, or what’s left of it, may plow into the continental US over the weekend.
- There’s a chance the damaging winds and heavy rainfall could affect Savannah River Site, a large Cold War-era nuclear reservation in South Carolina.
- The site hosts tens of millions of gallons of liquid nuclear waste in storage tanks, plus burial grounds filled with contaminated objects.
- SRS said its facilities are “able to withstand extreme natural events including hurricanes and floods.”
As Hurricane Irma threatens to ram South Florida, officials have issued warnings and evacuation orders.
Yet National Hurricane Center forecasts suggest the Texas-size storm may penetrate deep into the US mainland after pummelling Florida, blowing down trees, knocking out power, and triggering flooding far away from the sea.
On Friday, one inland area still well within Irma’s threat zone was the Savannah River Site: a sprawling 310-square-mile nuclear reservation in South Carolina that borders northeast Georgia.
During the Cold War, scientists and technicians there produced weapons-grade bomb material for the US military as well as plutonium-238 for NASA’s pluckiest spacecraft. These activities also created millions of gallons of nuclear waste that’s stored in dozens of tanks, plus burial grounds filled with contaminated objects.
With Irma threatening powerful wind and heavy rains across the Savannah River watershed, of which SRS is a part, some experts have expressed concern.
“If Hurricane #Irma track predictions hold, it will pass close to or even directly over DOE’s Savannah River Site. That could be very bad,” Stephen Schwartz, an independent nuclear-weapons policy analyst and author of “Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of US Nuclear Weapons Since 1940,” wrote in a tweet on Thursday. (Irma’s path later shifted west, but the NHC still has the site on the edge of the storm’s “cone of probability.”)
Schwartz went on to sum up the cache of SRS’ waste, which includes about 35 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste, 195 acres of dirt-trench burial grounds filled with contaminated gear, and even thousands of tons’ worth of nuclear contamination from Greenland and Spain.
The most dangerous waste is contained in 51 large storage tanks. Less dangerous “low-level” waste (clothes, tools, equipment, and more laced with radioactive contamination) was dumped into unlined pits and covered with earth over the decades.
A major effort is underway to empty and seal the storage tanks, solidify the waste into glass, and entomb it underground, as well as construct up-to-standard disposal units.
However, there’s still billions of dollars’ and perhaps decades’ worth of work that remains, given current nuclear-cleanup funding levels.
“The problem with the tanks and flooding isn’t so much that the tanks will leak … it’s more the stuff that has leaked out over the years,” Schwartz told Business Insider. “If there’s severe flooding, it could move that stuff around and into the ground water.”
Schwartz also said the burial grounds may pose a lesser though significant risk. “If you’ve got a contaminated tool or bulldozer, which there are, that’s not going to move,” he said. “But the uranium, plutonium, and other stuff stuck to clothing and dirt and equipment could potentially start migrating very far.”
He added that SRS is situated on top of an aquifer that supplies several states with drinking water……….https://www.businessinsider.com.au/hurricane-irma-cold-war-nuclear-waste-flooding-2017-9?r=UK&IR=T
CNN the only Sunday morning political show to mention climate change when discussing Irma
Sunday shows largely fail to mention climate change in Hurricane Irma coverage https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/09/10/sunday-shows-largely-fail-mention-climate-change-hurricane-irma-coverage/217895
CNN’s State of the Union was the only Sunday morning political show to mention climate change when discussing Irma
DINA RADTKE, Three out of four* major Sunday morning political programs neglected to discuss climate change during their coverage of Hurricane Irma, the second category four hurricane to hit the United States in a matter of weeks.
As Hurricane Irma tore through the Caribbean and approached Florida, Sunday morning political news programs reported on the storm’s remarkable strength and size and the potential damage it could cause, but three major Sunday shows — Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Fox News Sunday, CBS’ Face the Nation, and ABC’s This Week — failed to mention the effects of climate change during their coverage of the storm, even though expertshave linked extreme weather events, including Irma, to global warming.
The only Sunday morning political show to discuss climate change was CNN’s State of the Union. During an interview with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), host Jake Tapper said, “I would be remiss if I didn’t mention, the fact that many experts say that the storm is more intense because of climate change” and asked why many Republicans “act as if it’s not real, even though the overwhelming scientific consensus is that it’s real, and it’s man-made”:
Television news programs have repeatedly avoided discussing climate change in their coverage of devastating natural disasters, including Hurricane Harvey. The reluctance to discuss climate change on this week’s Sunday news shows follows a pattern that seems to be getting even worse.
Methodology
Media Matters searched SnapStream for discussions of climate change and global warming using the search terms “climate change” or “global warming” on Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Fox News Sunday, CBS’ Face the Nation, and ABC’s This Week, and CNN’s State of the Union. Segments were counted if climate change or global warming was discussed in reporting on Hurricane Irma.
*NBC’s Meet the Press was not included because the show was preempted for Hurricane Irma coverage.
1 This Month
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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