The flooding danger to nuclear radioactive sites -Michigan dams fail
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Michigan dams fail near Midland; ‘catastrophic’ flooding underway — Dow Chemical research reactor potentially in harm’s way http://www.beyondnuclear.org/climate-change-whats-new/2020/5/21/michigan-dams-fail-near-midland-catastrophic-flooding-underw.html
Fortunately, the Midland commercial nuclear power plant was never fired up, so there is no radioactive contamination there, nor high-level radioactive waste in on-site storage. Dr. Mary Sinclair, a co-founder and co-leader of Don’t Waste Michigan*, helped lead the successful resistance to the Midland nuclear power plant, way back in the 1970s and 1980s.
The reason the Midland nuclear power plant was stopped, at 90% construction completion on one reactor and about 50% on the other, was that safety-significant buildings were sinking into the ground, not unlike the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Of course, it took many years of dedicated commitment and hard work by anti-nuclear activists, talented environmental attorneys, and even a courageous Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) whistle-blower testifying before Congress, to prevail against greed-driven companies like Midland-based Dow Chemical, and Jackson, MI-based Consumers Energy.
A similar situation is unfolding at the Vogtle Units 3 and 4 nuclear power plant construction site in GA. BREDL has launched an intervention at the NRC against Vogtle Unit 3, due to it sinking into the ground as well. And Nuclear Watch South has also intervened at the NRC against Vogtle Unit 3’s fuel loading, due to major, widespread violations of ITAAC QA.
Speaking of Dow, there is, however, a 1967-era research reactor at its Midland facilities, that is potentially in harm’s way from the flooding, as we speak (See NRC Event Notification Report, May 20, 2020, Event Number 54719) . And there is, of course, off the charts bad dioxin and other toxic chemical contamination in or near these waterways, compliments of Dow. This includes a Superfund site, severe contamination downstream in the Tittabawassee River, as well as wastewater retention ponds at Dow Chemical itself. Groups like Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (CACC)*, Lone Tree Council, and others, have for decades watch-dogged the toxic goings-on at and downstream from Dow.
Mary Sinclair’s son, Peter Sinclair, a climate protection leader, is quoted in the Washington Post article linked above. Here are some passages from the article, including Peter Sinclair’s quote:
Dow Chemical Co.’s Midland headquarters was evacuated, with only essential staff remaining on-site to monitor the situation. The facility is associated with a Superfund site due to excess dioxins, which are known to cause cancer, in the riverbed downstream of the plant. New video released by the Michigan State Police appeared to show some flooding on the Dow property, though the extent and severity is unclear.
“Dow has activated its local emergency operations center and is implementing its flood preparedness plan which includes the safe shutdown of operating units,” wrote the company on its Facebook page. Dow also filed an “Unusual Event Report” with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission because of the possibility that floodwaters could affect its 300 kilowatt nuclear research reactor, located at the plant, though the reactor was already shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak. That reactor was built in 1967. “This is a solidly middle to upper class town because of the Dow plant here,” Peter Sinclair, a Midland resident who is a videographer for Yale Climate Connections, said in an interview. He said a 2017 seasonal flood event, combined with this disaster, may cause property values to decline. This includes expensive lakefront property, since these lakes are now being drained by the flooding. …Sinclair, who is on the dry side of Midland and is sheltering family members who live closer to the flood-affected areas, says this event illustrates what climate scientists have been warning about for years. “[There is the] Larger issue of aging infrastructure plus incremental climate change, this is a point that all the scientists make that the change is gradual, gradual, gradual until the infrastructure fails.” While this catastrophic flooding is very bad enough in its own right, it also raises the specter of worsening flooding impacts on nuclear facilities, in the Great Lakes Basin and across the continent, including the worsening high risk of dam bursts upstream of nuclear facilities.
The July 16, 1979 uranium tailings dam burst in n.w. New Mexico, inundating the Rio Puerco with a flood of radioactive and toxic wastewater, is considered one of the single worst nuclear disasters in U.S. history (that most people have never even heard of). Navajo/Diné shepherds live downstream, such as in the Red Water Pond Road Community. The Rio Puerco is their sole source of drinking and irrigation water. The shallowest of “clean ups” was carried out, leaving most of the escaped contamination in the environment.
The mass evacuation of 10,000 Michiganders to escape the floodwaters, amidst global pandemic stay-at-home and social-distancing orders, also raises the specter of a radiological disaster requiring mass evacuation at a time like this. The NRC, FEMA, related state government agencies across the country, and the nuclear power industry itself, have not addressed this question and concern. How are people supposed to shelter at home, and maintain physical distance from others, when forced to flee for their health and lives, whether from floodwaters as in Midland, or from hazardous radioctivity if a nuclear diaster were to occur during this pandemic emergency. David Lochbaum, retired from UCS, raised just such questions recently in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, when a tornado struck his hometown of Chattanooga, TN, amidst the pandemic; Chattanooga “hosts” multiple atomic reactors in the area.
Dr. Mary Sinclair herself presciently warned about the high risks of storing high-level radioactive waste on the shores of the Great Lakes and the banks of major rivers — the fresh drinking water sources for both Canada and the U.S. — as well as along the ocean coasts (also experiencing climate change-induced sea level rise). She did this in a mid- to late-1990s presentation she delivered on public access television in her area.
Please see this link to Anna Tilden and John Jackson’s 2013 update, of Irene Koch and Dave Martin’s 1990, Great Lakes Nuclear Hot Spots map, posted online.
*Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear’s radioactive waste specialist, serves on Don’t Waste Michigan’s board of directors, and on Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination’s advisory board.
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Climate: Cyclone Amphan disaster in India, Bangladesh
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Cyclone Amphan leaves thousands homeless in eastern India as PM Narendra Modi offers help, SBS News, 23 May 20, Authorities have begun assessing damage and clearing roads in the wake of Cyclone Amphan, which has killed more than 90 people and left millions displaced in eastern India and Bangladesh.
Several thousand people have been left homeless after the most powerful cyclone in more than a decade hit India and Bangladesh this week, as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the area on Friday and pledged aid. Cyclone Amphan killed at least 96 people, officials said, after it swept in from the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday. Eighty fatalities were in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal and 16 were in neighbouring Bangladesh, after winds of up to 185 km per hour caused flooding, blew away roofs, uprooted trees and ripped up power lines…… The total death toll is expected to rise as communications are restored and authorities reach villages cut off by blocked roads, particularly in India’s low-lying Sundarbans delta, home to four million people and thick mangrove forests that are a critical tiger habitat. In the Sundarbans’ Gosaba, an administrative area of the river delta that juts into the sea, the storm completely destroyed around 26,000 homes and damaged another 14,000, local disaster management official Pradip Kumar Dalui said. The cyclone also damaged some 19 kilometres of embankments around Gosaba, causing 13 breaches that led salty water to inundate swathes of land, Prime Minister Modi said. …. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/cyclone-amphan-leaves-thousands-homeless-in-eastern-india-as-pm-narendra-modi-offers-help |
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Nuclear reactor threatened by Michigan flooding, but news media ignores this
Current Event Notification Report for May 20, 2020 https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/en.html#en54719
| U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Operations Center Event Reports For
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Michigan flood – a setback to cleanup of toxic waste Superfund site
Michigan flood displaces thousands, threatens chemical plant Brynne Connolly 21 May 20, MIDLAND, Mich. (AP) — Floodwaters have overtaken dams and forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people from communities in central Michigan, where the governor warned that Dow Chemical Co.’s hometown could end up under 9 feet of water by Wednesday evening and said the state will investigate the dam operators.
Families living along the Tittabawassee River and connected lakes in Midland County were ordered to leave home Tuesday evening, the second time in less than 24 hours. By Wednesday morning, water several feet deep covered streets, parking lots and parkland and had reached a hotel near the river in downtown Midland.
No injuries or fatalities related to the flooding have been reported, city spokeswoman Selina Tisdale said.
The river topped a previous record of 33.9 feet (10.3 meters) set during flooding in 1986, the National Weather Service said. Its flood stage is 24 feet (7.3 meters), and it was expected to crest by day’s end at about 38 feet (11.6 meters).
The Weather Service urged anyone near the river to seek higher ground following “catastrophic dam failures” at the Edenville Dam, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) north of Detroit, and the Sanford Dam, about seven miles (11 kilometers) downriver.
Midland City Manager Brad Kaye said Wednesday that the Sanford Dam is overflowing but the extent of structural damage isn’t yet known.
If the entire dam structure were to fail, “there would be a much higher surge that will come down the river and that could raise the level much more quickly than what we’re seeing right at the moment,” Kaye said.
Michigan is under a stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The state has been a national hot spot for COVID-19, with more than 52,000 cases and 5,000 deaths, but Midland County has had fewer than 80 cases and under 10 deaths. Still, residents were advised to take precautions and schools set up as shelters spaced cots to adhere to social distancing guidelines.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said downtown Midland, a city of 42,000 and home to Dow Chemical Co., faced an especially serious flooding threat.
“In the next 12 to 15 hours, downtown Midland could be under approximately 9 feet of water,” the governor said during a late Tuesday briefing. “We are anticipating an historic high water level.”
On Wednesday, Whitmer told reporters that her office has been in touch with federal officials and will ask FEMA for support. “This is an event unlike anything we’ve ever seen before,” she said.
President Donald Trump tweeted that he was closely monitoring the situation and praised first responders. But he also took a jab at Whitmer, whom he has criticized for her stay-at-home orders: “We have sent our best Military & @fema Teams, already there. Governor must now ‘set you free’ to help. Will be with you soon!”
Whitmer said the state would investigate the operators of the dams and “pursue every line of legal recourse we have.”
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it has directed Boyce Hydro to establish an independent investigation team to determine the cause of the damage to Sanford Dam, and that it would reach out to state officials regarding the Edenville Dam. It will send an engineer to assist with the investigation when it’s safe to do so.
In 2018, the commission revoked Boyce Hydro’s license to operate the Edenville Dam due to non-compliance issues that included spillway capacity and the inability to pass the most severe flood reasonably possible in the area. That year, the state rated the dam, built in 1924, in unsatisfactory condition.
The Sanford Dam, which was built in 1925, received a fair condition rating. Both are in the process of being sold.
“The initial readout is that this was a known problem for a while and that’s why its important that we do our due diligence,” Whitmer said.
Dow Chemical, with 9,000 employees and contractors in Midland, on Tuesday shut down all operating units except those needed to contain chemicals, spokesman Kyle Bandlow said. By Wednesday, floodwater was mixing with on-site containment ponds prompting the company and U.S. Coast Guard to activate emergency plans, Dow said in a statement.
It said there was no threat to the public or the environment, and that it has uncovered no product releases.
The flooding likely will pose a significant setback to the cleanup of a federal Superfund site caused by Dow’s release of dioxins in the last century, which contaminated sediments and floodplains along 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers, said Allen Burton, a professor of environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan…… https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/110336978/posts/1018052
Feds spent 20 years warning Michigan dam was in danger before it failed
Feds spent 20 years warning Michigan dam was in danger before it failed, By Kyle Feldscher
May 21, 2020 Thousands in Michigan evacuate after two dams fail (CNN)Federal regulators have warned for more than 20 years of inadequate spillways at a Michigan dam that was breached Tuesday, sending floodwaters raging into a city of more than 40,000.
Global heating is making hurricanes more extreme
Global warming is making hurricanes stronger, study says, Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, 18 May 20
- Scientists studied 40 years of satellite images to reach their conclusions.
- Tropical cyclones are some of nature’s most powerful and destructive storms.
- Much of the death and destruction from hurricanes comes from storms of Category 3 strength or higher.
Who says we can’t control the weather?
Human-caused global warming has strengthened the wind speeds of hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones around the globe, a new study released Monday said.
These storms, collectively known as tropical cyclones, are some of nature’s most powerful and destructive storms. Category 5 Hurricane Dorian, for example, laid waste to portions of the Bahamas last year as the storm’s 185-mph winds cut through the nation like a buzzsaw.
Scientists studied 40 years of satellite images to reach their conclusions.
“Our results show that these storms have become stronger on global and regional levels, which is consistent with expectations of how hurricanes respond to a warming world,” said study lead author James Kossin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Global warming, aka climate change, is caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, which release greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere. This has caused the planet to warm to levels that cannot be explained by natural factors.
The study was led by scientists from NOAA and the University of Wisconsin and was published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Kerry Emanuel, a hurricane expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not involved in the study, said the findings were “much in line with what’s expected,” according to the New York Times.
Scientists said that the chances of hurricanes becoming a Category 3 or higher have increased each of the past four decades. Much of the death and destruction from hurricanes comes from storms of Category 3 strength or higher, which are known as “major” hurricanes……. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/18/global-warming-making-hurricanes-stronger-study-suggests/5216028002/
A moment of reckoning – when coronavirus meets climate change
 A moment of reckoning – when coronavirus meets climate change Cyclones in the Pacific and pandemics tell us a lot about global inequality and highlight our futile pursuit of profit, Aljazeera Dr Jale Samuwai, 18 May 20 In the midst of economic shocks and border closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Pacific region has yet again been ravaged by a Category 5 cyclone that left a trail of destruction across four Pacific island countries in a span of four days from April 5 to 8.The economic toll from Cyclone Harold and the response to the coronavirus pandemic to Pacific economies is yet to be determined, but they have for sure rolled backed significant economic gains in these countries. The economic, social and environmental impacts of the pandemic, exacerbated by climate-induced disasters such as tropical Cyclone Harold, will reverberate well into the future for these countries. COVID-19 and climate change have re-emphasised the fragility of Pacific economies and their acute vulnerability to global phenomena. Oxfam’s report on the potential economic impact of the coronavirus – Dignity not Destitution – demonstrates that the scenario unfolding in the Pacific is a reality that most vulnerable and poor developing countries in the Global South could relate to in light of the current global precarity and uncertainty. The Pacific double whammy brings us to an important moment for the world to reexamine our current approach to development, specifically the dominant economic model that prioritises profit over people and the environment. Both COVID-19 and climate change continue to expose the failures in our economic structures and the need to change our approach to how our economies are governed. Inequality – the common denominatorInequality is perhaps the most obvious flaw of the current economic model. Both cyclones and pandemics exacerbate the persistent inequalities at different levels of our societies. Those who are bound to suffer the most from the extreme effects of these two phenomena are the poorest and the “have nots” in societies. In a global economy where the world’s richest one percent of people have more than twice as much wealth as 4.6 billion of the poorest people on earth, according to a report by Oxfam in 2020, the ability of the majority of the population right now to access the resources they need to holistically build their resilience and bounce back from global crisis is severely limited and in some cases non-existent. Oxfam’s briefing, Dignity not Destitution, forecasts that half a billion more people are now likely to be pushed into poverty because of the pandemic without an urgent and a human-oriented emergency global rescue package that is compassionate towards the needs of world’s poorest and vulnerable countries. What we need is a global rescue package that not only focuses on protecting small businesses but one that also provides safety nets to the most vulnerable populations. Importantly, the pandemic and climate change have once again shone a harsh light on the persistent social gendered inequalities in our communities……… We are now approaching a crossroads; we can either continue with the business-as-usual way of development, or we can change: We transform the way we do things and build an economy that nurtures our people and our planet. This is the political choice that is at stake. For our sake, and the sake of our children, we urge our leaders to choose the latter, because sticking with the status quo will only bring about more suffering and destruction to our world. https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/moment-reckoning-coronavirus-meets-climate-change-200423105300035.html |
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Antarctic krill threatened by warming waters – climate change’s danger to the marine ecosystem
Climate change threatens Antarctic krill and the sea life that depends on it The Conversation, Devi Veytia, PhD student , University of Tasmania, Stuart Corney, Senior lecturer, University of Tasmania, 19 May 20,
The Southern Ocean circling Antarctica is one of Earth’s richest marine ecosystems. Its food webs support an abundance of life, from tiny micro-organisms to seals, penguins and several species of whales. But climate change is set to disrupt this delicate balance.
What we found
Antarctic krill are one of the most abundant animal species in the world. About 500 million tonnes of Antarctic krill are estimated to exist in the Southern Ocean.
Antarctic krill play a critical role in the ocean’s food webs. But their survival depends on a delicate balance of food and temperature. Scientists are concerned at how climate change may affect their population and the broader marine ecosystem.
Krill growth depends largely on ocean temperature and the abundance of its main food source, phytoplankton (microscopic single-celled plants)………
Krill growth habitat shifted south as suitable ocean temperatures contracted towards the poles. Combined with changes in phytoplankton distribution, growth habitat improved in spring but deteriorated in summer and autumn.
This early end to the growth season could have profound consequences for krill populations. The krill life cycle is synchronised with the Southern Ocean’s dramatic seasonal cycles. Typically this allows krill to both maximise growth and reproduction and store reserves to survive the winter.
A shift in habitat timing could create a mismatch between these two cycles.
For example, female krill need access to plentiful food during the summer in order to spawn. Since larger females produce exponentially more eggs, a decline in summer growth habitat could result in smaller females and far less spawning success.
Why this matters
Krill’s significant role in the food chain means the impacts of these changes may play out through the entire ecosystem.
If krill shift south to follow their retreating habitat, less food would be available for predators on sub-Antarctic islands such as Antarctic fur seals, penguins and albatrosses for whom krill forms a significant portion of the diet.
In the past, years of low krill densities has coincided with declines in reproductive success for these species…….. https://theconversation.com/climate-change-threatens-antarctic-krill-and-the-sea-life-that-depends-on-it-138436
Latest climate models suggest global heating could be worse than we thought
Just how hot will it get this century? Latest climate models suggest it could be worse than we thought, The Conversation, May 18, 2020 , Michael Grose, Climate Projections Scientist, CSIRO, Julie Arblaster, Associate Professor, Monash University Climate scientists use mathematical models to project the Earth’s future under a warming world, but a group of the latest models have included unexpectedly high values for a measure called “climate sensitivity”.
Climate sensitivity refers to the relationship between changes in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and warming.
The high values are an unwelcome surprise. If they’re right, it means a hotter future than previously expected – warming of up to 7℃ for Australia by 2100 if emissions continue to rise unabated.
Covid-19 highlights risks of doing nothing on global heating
‘Green Swan’ Virus Shock Proves Need for Joint Climate Action, Bloomberg Law
- Covid-19 highlights risks of doing nothing on global warming
- BIS urges global cooperation in rethinking old routines
The coronavirus pandemic that’s sent the global economy into a tailspin highlights the need for international collaboration to tackle crises posing severe threats to human lives, chief among them climate change, according to the Bank for International Settlements.
Much like global warming, the disease outbreak meets the criteria for being a “Green Swan,” according to the Basel, Switzerland-based institution, which adapted Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “Black Swan” concept for high-impact adverse events outside the scope of regular expectations to describe risks that are highly likely to materialize but too complex to fully understand…….
Central banks have already begun to consider climate change as a factor in their assessment of financial and economic risks, and the BIS highlighted the possibility of further multidisciplinary efforts to absorb large shocks. …..
With the global economy in the throes of its deepest dive since the 1930s, the pandemic may jolt decision makers into action to address global warming, according to the BIS.
“Covid-19 might have presented a vivid image of what the future might look like if nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gases, inflicting similar stoppages worldwide after some tipping-point is reached,” it said. “It may also have raised awareness of the fragility of some of our systems and therefore of the need for improved efficiency and greater resilience.”
To contact the reporter on this story:
Catherine Bosley in Zurich at cbosley1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Fergal O’Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net https://news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/green-swan-virus-shock-proves-need-for-joint-climate-action
Killer heat and humidity already with us
Map: Killer heat and humidity is spiking decades sooner than we feared https://www.fastcompany.com/90503692/map-killer-heat-and-humidity-is-spiking-decades-sooner-than-we-feared
At a ‘wet bulb’ temperature of 35 degrees Celsius, a human can’t survive for more than six hours, even in shade and with water. We’re starting to see those conditions more and more frequently. BY ADELE PETERS 13 May 20
If heat and humidity cross a certain extreme threshold—a “wet bulb” temperature of 35 degrees Celsius—the human body can’t survive long outside. It’s a scenario that some researchers had predicted becoming common later in the century, when climate change may make some regions essentially unlivable. But a new study suggests that dangerous, previously unprecedented levels of heat and humidity are already beginning to occur. Continue reading
Water loss in northern peatlands threatens to intensify fires, global warming
Water loss in northern peatlands threatens to 
intensify fires, global warminghttps://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-05/mu-wli050820.php Boreal climate change study features 59 authors, MCMASTER UNIVERSITY HAMILTON, ON, MAY 11, 2020 – A group of 59 international scientists, led by researchers at Canada’s McMaster University, has uncovered new information about the distinct effects of climate change on boreal forests and peatlands, which threaten to worsen wildfires and accelerate global warming.Manuel Helbig and Mike Waddington from McMaster’s School of Geography and Earth Sciences gathered observational data from collaborators in countries across the boreal biome. Their study of how ecosystems lose water to the atmosphere appears today in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The unprecedented detail of their work has highlighted dramatic differences in the ways forests and peatlands regulate water loss to the atmosphere in a warming climate, and how those differences could in turn accelerate the pace of warming.
Most current global climate models assume the biome is all forest, an omission that could seriously compromise their projections, Helbig says.
“We need to account for the specific behavior of peatlands if we want to understand the boreal climate, precipitation, water availability and the whole carbon cycle,” he says.
“Peatlands are so important for storing carbon, and they are so vulnerable.”
Until now, Helbig says, it had not been possible to capture such a comprehensive view of these water-cycle dynamics, but with the support of the Global Water Futures Initiative and participation from so many research partners in Canada, Russia, the US, Germany and Scandinavia, new understanding is emerging.
As the climate warms, air gets drier and can take up more water. In response to the drying of the air, forest ecosystems – which make up most of the world’s natural boreal regions – retain more water. Their trees, shrubs and grasses are vascular plants that typically take up carbon dioxide and release water and oxygen through microscopic pores in their leaves. In warmer, dryer weather, though, those pores close, slowing the exchange to conserve water.
Together with lakes, the spongy bogs and fens called peatlands make up the remainder of the boreal landscape. Peatlands store vast amounts of water and carbon in layers of living and dead moss. They serve as natural firebreaks between sections of forest, as long as they remain wet.
Peatland mosses are not vascular plants, so as warming continues, they are more prone to drying out. Unlike forests, they have no active mechanism to protect themselves from losing water to the atmosphere. Dehydration exposes their dense carbon stores to accelerated decomposition, and turns them from firebreaks into fire propagators, as shown in previous research from Waddington’s ecohydrology lab.
Drier peatlands mean bigger, more intense fires that can release vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming, Helbig says.
“It’s crucial to consider the accelerated water loss of peatlands in a warming climate as we project what will happen to the boreal landscape in the next 100 to 200 years,” he says.
Can Covid-19 response be a model for climate action?
Some governments are already flagging the need to alter environmental standards to boost economic activity. But business groups are suggesting that the rebuilding of virus-rattled economies can be done hand-in-hand with the transition to net-zero emissions. Perhaps climate policy – historically relegated to the “too-hard” basket – stands a chance in the new world.
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Can Covid-19 response be a NOAH YIM NATASHA KASSAM Mass behaviour change, policies guided by science, acting In 2020, the world will see the largest annual drop in carbon dioxide emissions in history. The havoc wreaked by the coronavirus and its accompanying lockdowns has seen fleets of planes grounded and factories shudder to a halt. Levels of mobility in the world’s largest cities have fallen below 10% of usual traffic. The International Energy Agency predicts that Covid-19 could wipe out international demand for coal, oil, and gas, with only renewable energy showing resilience. The preliminary data from some of the world’s biggest economies shows that global emissions are in for a sharp, if temporary, decline. Early numbers from Europe suggest that the continent could see a 24% drop in EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) emissions for the whole year. Global emissions will likely only fall by 5% – a reminder that most of the world’s emissions do not come from transportation. But economies around the world are lifting their lockdowns. China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, saw a 25% decrease in emissions over its four-week lockdown. Factories in China are back online, and as in previous economic disruptions, stimulus packages and increased targets could outweigh the short-term impacts on energy and emissions. Publics recognise the challenge ahead. In China, 87% say that climate change is as serious a crisis as Covid-19 in the long term. While the number in Australia is much lower, the majority – 59% – agree. Given the significant personal and economic sacrifices many publics have made to combat Covid-19, will these concerns finally translate into real progress in addressing climate change, once the current crisis has subsided? The prospects look good. Covid-19 has put science front and centre. Continue reading |
Heat+ humidity – global heating has already made parts of the world too hot for humans
Climate change has already made parts of the world too hot for humans, New Scientist 8 May 2020, By Adam Vaughan Global warming has already made parts of the world hotter than the human body can withstand, decades earlier than climate models expected this to happen.
Jacobabad in Pakistan and Ras al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates have both repeatedly crossed a deadly threshold for one or two hours at a time, an analysis of weather station data found.
Wet bulb temperature (TW) is a measure of heat and humidity, taken from a thermometer covered in a water-soaked cloth. Beyond a threshold of 35°C TW the body is unable to cool itself by sweating, but lower levels can still be deadly, as was seen in the 2003 European heatwave that killed thousands without passing 28°C TW.
A US-UK team analysed weather station data across the world, and found that the frequency of wet bulb temperatures exceeding temperatures between 27°C TW and 35°C TW had all doubled since 1979. Though 35°C TW is thought of as a key threshold, harm and even death is possible at lower temperatures, so the team included these in their analysis.
Most of the frequency increases were in the Persian gulf, India, Pakistan and south-west North America. But at Jacobabad and Ras al Khaimah, 35°C TW appears to have been passed, the first time the breach has been reported in scientific literature.
“The crossings of all of these thresholds imply greater risk to human health – we can say we are universally creeping close to this magic threshold of 35°C. The tantalising conclusion is it looks like, in some cases for a brief period of the day, we have exceeded this value,” says Tom Matthews at Loughborough University in the UK……….: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2242855-climate-change-has-already-made-parts-of-the-world-too-hot-for-humans/#ixzz6M5ow6Dlr
Alabama joins Kentucky, South Dakota and West Virginia to criminalize fossil fuel protests
In March, Kentucky, South Dakota and West Virginia passed laws restricting pipeline protests. Alabama is poised to become the fourth.
By Alexander C. Kaufman 10 May 20 Alabama lawmakers this week advanced legislation to add new criminal penalties to nonviolent protests against pipelines and other fossil fuel projects, setting a course to become the fourth state to enact such measures amid the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic.
Kentucky, South Dakota and West Virginia enacted similar measures in March, just as states started implementing lockdowns to contain the outbreak of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus.
The Alabama Senate passed the bill on March 12, just befohe Alabama Senate passed the bill on March 12, just before state officials, alarmed at the spread of the virus, postponed legislative hearings for a month. When the capitol reopened in Montgomery on May 4, state Democrats remained in their home districts, but enough Republican lawmakers returned to restart work on the legislation. On Monday, the House version of the bill was introduced and referred to the committee that oversees utilities and infrastructure. Continue reading
1 This Month
22 June – Virtual Event –Climate Change: New Data, New Debate
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25 June- THE PUKE ON NUKES
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Report Launch Online: We are seeing an increasing exploitation of space for military and commercial purposes. This must change.
Protect Sazan Island from the Trump family! https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_sazan_island_from_the_trump_family_loc/?bqFCVab&v=174511&cl=22707147157&_checksum=5e9dde668860e8231c33699735e16a1fbf22ab2cb01da50c999fe8732b9775ef&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=174511
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
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