How climate change has pushed our oceans to the brink of catastrophe
For decades, the oceans have absorbed much of the excess heat caused by greenhouse gases. The latest observations suggest they are reaching their limits, so how worried should we be?
New Scientist, By Madeleine Cuff, 14 August 2024
…………………………………………………………………….. Something isn’t right in the world’s oceans. From orange algal blooms in the North Sea and a boom in gelatinous Bombay duck fish off China to disappearing “bottom water” in the Antarctic, there is growing evidence that extreme temperatures are wreaking havoc in our waters. After years of the oceans acting as silent sinks for excess human-caused heat, they are starting to creak under pressure – and we are finally waking up to how worried we should be……………………….(Subscribers only) https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26335040-100-how-climate-change-has-pushed-our-oceans-to-the-brink-of-catastrophe/
EDF cuts nuclear production in reaction to soaring temperatures
euro news, By Eleanor Butler, 14/08/2024
The energy provider insists there are no looming safety risks as three French regions face heatwave warnings.
EDF has reduced its electricity production at nuclear sites in France in response to soaring temperatures.
Three reactors are currently affected, although the energy provider has said “there is no safety risk”.
A reactor located at the Bugey nuclear power plant, a site near Lyon, has been closed since 12 August.
Also near Lyon, the Saint-Alban nuclear plant has experienced production cuts since 11 August, and similar measures are being taken at the Tricastin site. This is located in the South East of France, north of Avignon.
Heat-related incidents aren’t a new complication for EDF but rather a recurring problem, as exemplified when the firm published a climate change action plan last month……
High temperatures can interfere with nuclear processes as reactors are heavily reliant on water.
Heat from nuclear reactions is used to transform water into steam, which then drives turbines to produce electricity.
Another current of water, outside of the closed loop system, is then drawn from surrounding rivers to cool the reactor…..
During periods of extreme heat, this can produce a number of complications.
If surrounding water sources are warmer than usual, reactors cannot be cooled as efficiently.
French regulations also prevent sites from discharging water that is too hot back into rivers and lakes, to avoid the accidental killing of fish and other wildlife.
EDF told Euronews that it had temporarily reduced production to “respect regulations relating to thermal discharges”.
The firm explained that “discharge limits are established individually for each plant” by the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN).
Three departments in France are currently affected by heatwave warnings, with storms now replacing hot weather in some areas. https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/08/14/edf-cuts-nuclear-production-in-reaction-to-soaring-temperatures
Half a billion children live in areas with twice as many very hot days as in 1960s
Unicef analysis also finds children in eight countries spend more than half the year in temperatures above 35C
Almost half a billion children are growing up in parts of the world where
there are at least twice the number of extremely hot days every year
compared with six decades ago, analysis by Unicef has found. The analysis
by the UN’s children’s agency examined for the first time data on
changes in children’s exposure to extreme heat over the past 60 years. As
the planet continues to warm, people worldwide are facing more frequent and
severe climate threats such as extreme heat and heatwaves. Children are
more vulnerable to such hazards.
Guardian 14th Aug 2024
Mature trees offer hope in world of rising emissions
Older trees are able to accelerate their rates of absorbing planet-warming
emissions, scientists at the University of Birmingham have found. A forest
of mature oak trees was exposed to elevated levels of carbon dioxide for
seven years and in response, the trees increased their production of wood –
locking in the greenhouse gas and preventing it from warming the planet.
The researchers hope the study, published in Nature Climate Change, will
demonstrate the importance of protecting and maintaining mature forests for
tackling climate change.
BBC 12th Aug 2024
How Close Are the Planet’s Climate Tipping Points?
Earth’s warming could trigger sweeping changes in the natural world that would be hard, if not impossible, to reverse.
Right now, every moment of every day, we humans are reconfiguring
Earth’s climate bit by bit. Hotter summers and wetter storms. Higher seas
and fiercer wildfires. The steady, upward turn of the dial on a host of
threats to our homes, our societies and the environment around us.
We might also be changing the climate in an even bigger way. For the past two
decades, scientists have been raising alarms about great systems in the
natural world that warming, caused by carbon emissions, might be pushing
toward collapse.
These systems are so vast that they can stay somewhat in
balance even as temperatures rise. But only to a point. Once we warm the
planet beyond certain levels, this balance might be lost, scientists say.
The effects would be sweeping and hard to reverse. Not like the turning of
a dial, but the flipping of a switch. One that wouldn’t be easily flipped
back.
New York Times 11th Aug 2024
Heat aggravated by carbon pollution killed 50,000 in Europe last year – study
Hot weather inflamed by carbon pollution killed nearly 50,000 people in
Europe last year, with the continent warming at a much faster rate than
other parts of the world, research has found.
The findings come as
wildfires tore through forests outside Athens, as France issued excessive
heat warnings for large swathes of the country, and the UK baked through
what the Met Office expects will be its hottest day of the year.
Doctors call heat a “silent killer” because it claims far more lives than most
people realise. The devastating mortality rate in 2023 would have been 80%
higher if people had not adapted to rising temperatures over the past two
decades, according to the study published in Nature Medicine.
Guardian 12th Aug 2024
EDF extends heat-related warning cuts at 3 nuclear plants
(Montel) French utility EDF has extended by two days a warning of power output curbs at three nuclear power plants – totalling 10 GW – along the river Rhone in southeastern France from tomorrow until Friday next week due to high temperatures.
Reporting by: Muriel Boselli, 08 Aug 2024, https://montelnews.com/news/f1e0a4b4-61b8-4d45-8027-d549192b910e/edf-warns-of-heat-related-cuts-at-3-nuclear-plants-10-gw
EDF could curb output at 3.6 GW Tricastin, 3.6 GW Bugey and 2.6 GW St Alban, the state-owned utility said on Thursday.
Weather service Meteo France has forecast temperatures to intensify in southeast France over the next few days, with peaks reaching 35C.
At some power plants, EDF uses river water to cool reactors. However, it could reduce output if river water temperatures or levels are too warm or too low.
Separately, EDF has extended a capacity cut warning at its 2.6 GW Golfech nuclear power plant in southwest France by three days to 17 August, due to warm temperatures.
IAEA concerned about forest fires near occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
Tetyana Oliynyk — Thursday, 8 August 2024, https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/08/8/7469572/
he International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) believes that intense fires near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is temporarily occupied by Russia, pose a risk for its external power supply.
Source: IAEA website, as reported by Ukrinform
Quote: “On several occasions over the past week, the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya (ISAMZ) observed several fires at various distances from the ZNPP and nearby villages. Over the weekend, the IAEA experts observed smoke coming from an area to the north of the ZNPP near the Zaporizhzhya Thermal Power Plant (ZTPP) inlet channel.”
Details: The agency noted that the fire was underneath the remaining overhead power cables that supply power to the plant.
Quote: “As the summer heat continues, such fires along the pathways of the two remaining lines place the ZNPP at risk of loss of external power. While there was no disconnection of either line on this occasion, the situation highlighted the fragility of off-site power at the ZNPP.”
‘Massive disinformation campaign’ is slowing global transition to green energy
UN says a global ‘backlash’ against climate action is being stoked by fossil fuel companies
Fiona Harvey Environment editor, Thu 8 Aug 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/08/fossil-fuel-industry-using-disinformation-campaign-to-slow-green-transition-says-un
Fossil fuel companies are running “a massive mis- and disinformation campaign” so that countries will slow down the adoption of renewable energy and the speed with which they “transition away” from a carbon-intensive economy, the UN has said.
Selwin Hart, the assistant secretary general of the UN, said that talk of a global “backlash” against climate action was being stoked by the fossil fuel industry, in an effort to persuade world leaders to delay emissions-cutting policies. The perception among many political observers of a rejection of climate policies was a result of this campaign, rather than reflecting the reality of what people think, he added.
“There is this prevailing narrative – and a lot of it is being pushed by the fossil fuel industry and their enablers – that climate action is too difficult, it’s too expensive,” he said. “It is absolutely critical that leaders, and all of us, push back and explain to people the value of climate action, but also the consequences of climate inaction.”
He contrasted the perception of a backlash with the findings of the biggest poll ever conducted on the climate, which found clear majorities of people around the world supporting measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The survey found 72% of people wanted a “quick transition” away from fossil fuels, including majorities in the countries that produce the most coal, oil and gas. Green parties and plans may have suffered reverses in some parts of the world, he said, but in others they have gained seats, and seen policies that would once have been considered radical enter the mainstream.
Governments must take note, said Hart, who acts as special adviser on climate to the UN secretary general, António Guterres. “This should alert political leaders – those that are ambitious are not only on the right side of history, they’re on the side of their people as well.
“Climate appears to be dropping down the list of priorities of leaders,” he said. “But we really need leaders now to deliver maximum ambition. And we need maximum cooperation. Unfortunately, we are not seeing that at the moment.”
He warned that the consequences of inaction were being felt in rich countries as well as poor. In the US, many thousands of people are finding it increasingly impossible to insure their homes, as extreme weather worsens. “This is directly due to the climate crisis, and directly due to the use of fossil fuels,” he said. “Ordinary people are having to pay the price of a climate crisis while the fossil fuel industry continues to reap excess profits and still receives massive government subsidies.”
Yet the world has never been better equipped to tackle climate breakdown, Hart added. “Renewables are the cheapest they’ve ever been, the pace of the energy transition is accelerating,” he said.
Governments should also take care to ensure that their climate policies did not place unfair burdens on those on low incomes, as poorly designed measures could hurt the poor, according to Hart. “Each country will really need to ensure its transition is well planned to minimise the impact on people and vulnerable populations, because a lot of the so-called pushback comes when there’s a perception that the costs on poor and vulnerable persons are being disproportionately felt,” he said.
For that reason, the UN is calling for new national plans on the emissions reductions required under the 2015 Paris agreement, in which governments must set out clearly not just their targets but how they will be achieved through policy, and what the probable impacts are.
The new national plans, called nationally determined contributions (NDCs), should be “as consultative as possible so that whole segments of society – young people, women, children, workers – will be able to provide their perspective on how the transition should be planned and well-managed, and how it will be financed”, he said.
“Despite everything we see [in the form of extreme weather], we’re still not seeing the level of ambition or action that the world desperately needs.”
‘It made me cry’: photos taken 15 years apart show melting Swiss glaciers
A tourist has posted “staggering” photos of himself and his wife at
the same spot in the Swiss Alps almost exactly 15 years apart, in a pair of
photos that highlight the speed with which global heating is melting
glaciers. Duncan Porter, a software developer from Bristol, posted photos
that were taken in the same spot at the Rhône glacier in August 2009 and
August 2024. The white ice that filled the background has shrunk to reveal
grey rock. A once-small pool at the bottom, out of sight in the original,
has turned into a vast green lake. “Not gonna lie, it made me cry,”
Porter said in a viral post on social media platform X on Sunday night.
Guardian 6th Aug 2024
Extreme heat in South Korea kills 11 and decimates livestock
Eleven people and more than 250,000 livestock have died in extreme heat in
South Korea as record temperatures continue across Asia. The number of
people treated in hospital for heat-related conditions since May is 1,546,
the interior ministry said on Monday. Three women died at the weekend after
losing consciousness, raising the death toll to 11 over the past three
months.
Times 5th Aug 2024
France Warns of Nuclear Power Cuts as Heat Triggers Water Curbs
Bloomberg, By Lars Paulsson, August 8, 2024
Electricite de France SA will likely curtail production at nuclear reactors starting this weekend as hot weather restricts the amount of water that can be discharged into the Rhone River.
EDF uses water to cool its reactors before releasing it into the river, and overheating the waterway can threaten fish and other wildlife. Temperatures across much of western Europe are forecast to climb……………. (Subscribers only) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-08/france-warns-of-nuclear-power-cuts-as-heat-triggers-water-curbs?embedded-checkout=true
Extreme ‘heat dome’ hitting Olympics ‘impossible’ without global heating
The “heat dome” causing scorching temperatures across western Europe
and north Africa, and boiling athletes and spectators at the Olympic Games
in Paris, would have been impossible without human-caused global heating, a
rapid analysis has found. Scientists said the fossil-fuelled climate crisis
made temperatures 2.5C to 3.3C hotter. Such an event would not have
happened in the world before global heating but is now expected about once
a decade, they said. Continued emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide
will make them even more frequent, the researchers warned.
Guardian 31st July 2024
Largest wildfire in US grows to cover area bigger than Los Angeles
The largest wildfire in the US swelled to more than 380,000 acres (154,000
hectares) on Tuesday morning, an area bigger than the city of Los Angeles
and three times the surface area of Lake Tahoe, as thousands of
firefighters battled the blaze in a remote wilderness area in northern
California. Meanwhile, the destruction caused by wildfires raging across
the US west came into sharp focus as photographers documented the
destruction left by the Borel fire in southern California. The fast-growing
fire tore through the historic mining town of Havilah, leaving burnt
buildings, cars and forests.
Guardian 30th July 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/30/california-wildfires-los-angeles
As record heat risks bleaching 73% of the world’s coral reefs, scientists ask ‘what do we do now?’
A vast array of solutions are being worked on but experts urge a ‘fundamental rethink’ as temperatures are forecast to climb even higher in coming decades
Graham Readfearn Climate and environment reporter, Tue 30 Jul 2024 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/30/as-record-heat-risks-bleaching-73-of-the-worlds-coral-reefs-scientists-ask-what-do-we-do-now
After 18 months of record-breaking ocean temperatures, the planet’s reefs are in the middle of the most widespread heat-stress event on record.
Across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, latest figures from the US government’s Coral Reef Watch, shared with the Guardian, show 73% of the world’s corals have been hit with enough heat for them to begin bleaching.
Beginning in February 2023, this is the fourth global mass bleaching event – the second in 10 years, and the most widespread on record.
After seeing their beloved reefs struggling to survive, some coral scientists are calling for a major rethink on how to protect reefs as temperatures climb even higher in the coming decades.
“We’re coming out of a couple of decades where we made predictions,” said Prof Tracy Ainsworth, the vice-president of the International Coral Reef Society.
“Now we are at a point where we hoped we would not be. Now we’re asking, what do we do now?”
In the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, three articles were published on Monday calling on the coral conservation and science community to have a collective rethink.
“I would call it soul searching,” said Prof Tiffany Morrison, a co-author of one of the articles which is sharply critical of widespread programs, many with corporate backers, to grow corals in nurseries and then plant them out on reefs.
“When everyone realised the scale of the climate impacts on coral reefs, the first instinct was to just do something and intervene because people were so distressed.”
In Florida and the Caribbean last year, many replanted corals died as record-breaking heat stress swept across the region
“We need a fundamental rethink,” said Prof David Bellwood, a colleague of Morrison’s at James Cook University in Australia.
“Too much is at stake. At the moment, coral restoration is at best psychological relief and cosmetic conservation, and at worst a dangerous distraction from climate action.”
Critical coral
Coral reefs provide food for millions of people around the world. They also provide the raw material that eventually becomes much of the sand on beaches and protect coastlines from wave damage.
When corals sit in water that is too hot, they expel algae in their tissues that provide colour and much of their nutrients.
Dr Derek Manzello, director of Coral Reef Watch, said the number of reefs affected by heat stress from the current global event was still rising and had “definitely led to most everyone involved with reef science and restoration having a hard think about future activities and best practices”.
The current global event has affected reefs in 70 countries and the full impact may never be fully understood.
The world’s biggest coral reef system – the Great Barrier Reef – has also likely been through its worst coral bleaching event, but government scientists may not know until next year how many corals died.
Whether an individual coral survives bleaching depends on each species and the extremes and duration of heat.
In another scientific article, Prof Michael Webster of New York University suggested a radical idea which, he said, would have been far too controversial for a scientific paper only 10 years ago.
Coral reefs exist across tropical waters around the world but are adapted to local conditions. Conservationists should consider introducing corals that have evolved in very hot regions to reefs where the current mix of corals are struggling to survive, Webster said.
“It’s incredibly controversial and we might not ever go there, but we’re in a situation where we’re questioning if we will have reefs in many places. Is it now worth asking that question?”
Webster said coral reefs would have a better chance of surviving through the coming decades if they had a diversity of coral species.
“Getting CO2 down has to be our end game, but we have centuries where coral systems like reefs will be in trouble.”
Cautious interventions
It’s interventions like that mooted by Webster that Morrison is cautious about.
There’s a vast array of scientific solutions for coral reefs currently being worked on around the world, from whitening clouds to shade reefs to selective breeding of corals for increased heat tolerance.
“We are vesting too much money and hope into these speculative coral bioengineering and genetic engineering solutions,” Morrison said. “We don’t know if they’re scalable and, if they are, whether we can afford to scale them.”
Many interventions come up against a philosophical question. Who decides which species to save or modify, or which steps to take? Those decisions could dictate what reefs look like in the future – decisions made by humans, not by nature.
“There are very few people looking at unintended consequences and there’s no governance systems in place to manage that,” Morrison said.
“But number one – we have to be mitigating fossil fuels.”
Freaking out
Members of the International Coral Reef Society wrote in May that scientists needed to “reconsider this challenge” of protecting reefs.
Because efforts to cut global greenhouse gas emissions were too slow, governments and communities needed to redouble efforts to reduce other stressors on corals, such as overfishing and local water pollution, the society said.
Tim McClanahan, a reef ecologist and director of marine science at the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, admitted “people are freaking out” from the current bleaching.
He said there was little evidence coral restoration projects had restored reefs at scale, and in places like Florida, coral nurseries had been destroyed by heat.
“I think they are ignoring past experiences and not recognising the science,” he said.
“I’m concerned that a problem we have with NGOs is we’re not very good at admitting to our failures. I find there’s a tendency to act without consulting the literature.”
McClanahan, in a third article in Nature Climate Change, said predicting the future for coral reefs needed to be more sophisticated.
Rather than just including heat, modelling should account for how reefs react differently to heat stress depending on local conditions like the mix of coral species or how well protected they are. The prognosis for some reefs may not be quite so dire, he argued.
McClanahan has been working on reefs for 40 years and said he has seen them go from undisturbed wonders to shadows of their former selves.
“Yes, the reefs are screwed – in deep trouble. We’re experiencing very austere conditions for corals already,” he said.
“In the 90s I was in grief, but now I want to know how we deal with the situation that we’re in. We are not dealing with it very well and we have this fatalistic view.
“We should be freaking out. That’s not an unreasonable response, but we need to sit back and be a bit more intelligent.”
1 This Month
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