Scott Boehmer

Tag: Climate Change

  • How Do We Get Out of This Mess?

    Robert Reich shares 15 ways that he thinks we could improve things in the United States.

    How Do We Get Out of This Mess? (YouTube – Robert Reich)

  • Climate Crisis and Carolina Coastlines

    North Carolina’s coastlines are an inescapable reminder of the climate crisis as they face accelerating sea level rise, intensifying storms, and increasing coastal erosion. These environmental changes threaten not only invaluable ecosystems, but also the cultural heritage and economic stability of communities along the shores of North and South Carolina.

    Zanetta Sirleaf

    Climate Crisis and Carolina Coastlines: A Looming Threat to Communities and Ecosystems (Carolina Forward)

  • Cuts Threaten Climate Modeling

    Proposed cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency whose weather and climate research touches almost every facet of American life, are targeting a 57-year-old partnership between Princeton University and the U.S. government that produces what many consider the world’s most advanced climate modeling and forecasting systems. NOAA’s work extends deep into the heart of the American economy — businesses use it to navigate risk and find opportunity — and it undergirds both American defense and geopolitical planning. The possible elimination of the lab, called the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, in concert with potential cuts to other NOAA operations, threatens irreparable harm not only to global understanding of climate change and long-range scenarios for the planet but to the country’s safety, competitiveness and national security.

    Abrahm Lustgarten

    White House Proposal Could Gut Climate Modeling the World Depends On (ProPublica)

  • Climate Reanalyzer

    Climate Reanalyzer is a site by the Climate Change Institute and the University of Maine that provides visualizations for weather forecasts and climate trends. For climate change, it makes it easy to check historical data on air and sea temperatures as well as sea ice at the poles.

    Climate Reanalyzer

  • Innovation is a Distraction

    We do absolutely know what we need to to to fight the climate crisis: Reduce carbon emissions radically. Which we have known for decades (I was taught about the “greenhouse effect” in motherfucking school 30 years ago and my schools never have been especially avant-garde). We know that we need to stop burning fossil fuels, stop eating as much meat, invest in cleaner energy sources and insulate houses, etc. We know.

    But it’s inconvenient. The solutions we know, we have researched, we have tested, are annoying. They force us to change our lives, force us to rethink our social and economic structures (Oh who would have thought: An economic system based on limitless growth and consumption would lead to bad outcomes. Let’s start a research project!). And who wants to do all that?

    Jürgen Geuter / tante

    Innovation is a distraction (Smashing Frames)

  • Ecology & Climate

    It was in the midst of this cross-disciplinary ferment that it occurred to him that the people talking about ecology and the people talking about climate were talking about the same thing. It was an observation he apparently mused on for over fifty years before presenting it formally, in 2022, with two other scientists, Debra Peters of the USDA and Dev Niyogi, University of Texas. His early observation appears now as: “When scientists focus on the physics of the Earth system, it has traditionally been called climate. In contrast, when scientists focus on the biological aspect of the Earth system, it is called ecology.”

    Rob Lewis

    Are Ecology and Climate the Same Thing? (The Climate According to Life)

  • 2024 Was Hot

    Scientists say this year is almost certain to take over the top spot as the hottest year. The global average temperature could potentially breach a key threshold, reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial average. Countries have agreed to try to limit warming to below that level in order to avoid much more intense storms, rainfall and heat waves.

    The record-setting build up of heat has surprised scientists, setting off a climatic whodunit.

    Lauren Sommer

    2023 was extremely hot. Then came 2024 (NPR)

    After reading that, I stumbled upon this Ask NASA Climate article from a decade ago:

    Last week NASA and NOAA announced that 2014 topped the list of hottest years ever recorded. Yikes!

    What’s worse, the ten warmest years ever recorded have all occurred since 1998. Yikes again!

    I fear this news story might turn into a blip that gets tons of attention and is then forgotten after a few days. But it’s a topic that deserves sustained attention.

    Laura Faye Tenenbaum

    The 10 warmest years: Not exactly forever ago (Ask NASA Climate)

    The only year from that article’s list of the hottest years on record that is still in the top ten is 2014, and 2024 is going to knock it down to number 11. The 10 warmest years on the record are the most recent 10 years.

  • 2024 is going to smash heat records

    This is likely also the first year that global average temperatures have risen more than 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than they were before the industrial revolution. That might not sound like much, but it exceeds the most ambitious target set in the Paris climate accord — an international treaty to keep warming from surpassing 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius over the long term. Our planet’s climate remained relatively stable for the last 11,000 years or so, supporting the rise of agriculture and civilization as we know it, until the industrial revolution. The Paris agreement aims to keep global temperatures within roughly the same temperature range. But without a transition to cleaner energy to get rid greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, global temperatures will continue to rise.

    Justine Calma

    2024 is going to smash heat records (The Verge)