Paris Agreement Doomed to Fail?

The Agreement aims to respond to the global climate change threat by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.


However, the progress is far from it.


As per this recent article from Independent,  BP and Shell planning for catastrophic 5°C global warming despite publicly backing Paris climate agreement.


According to this article on NY Daily News, there are many indications that the agreement is a failure. The United Nations body that oversees the Treaty estimates that if every country were to achieve every promise by 2030, the total greenhouse gas cut would be equivalent to just 60 billion tons of carbon dioxide. Keeping the global temperature rise below 2 degrees C requires a reduction in emissions during this century of almost 6,000 billion tons. Even with complete success, Paris makes only 1% progress toward the least ambitious target. Not a single wealthy, major emitter is set to meet its treaty promises. The article concludes by stating that it’s time to change course. Nations should invest far more in green energy research and development. Fixing climate change is not about making pretty promises, but about boosting innovation so green energy will eventually outcompete fossil fuels.





https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:COP21_participants_-_30_Nov_2015_(23430273715).jpg#/media/File:COP21_participants_-_30_Nov_2015_(23430273715).jpg

Some Compelling Data

This article on National Geographic explains it all and with compelling statistics and great storytelling. Here is the summary of the article.


1. The world is getting warmer. Global average surface temperature (difference from 20th century average)





Source: NOAA


2. It's becasue of us. Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide in PPM





Source: NOAA, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center


3. We're sure. A 2013 review of 4014 research papers found that 97% (98% authors) said humans caused global warming


4. Ice is melting fast. Extent of Arctic Ice in millions of miles. Coastal cities are at danger here.





5. Weather is wreaking havoc. Global natural disasters (red line is earthquakes, Tsunamis and volcanic activity, the columns from bottom to top are stroms, floods / landslides and Droughts / Heatwaves / forest fires)







Read the rest of the article on the National Geographic website at this link

Hurricanes and Global Warming

We have seen hurricanes in the past and we have seen bad ones but the kind we are getting now exceeds all limits of how much destruction it can bring.

The way Hurricane Harvey dropped unfathomable amount of rainfall on Houston and other parts of Texas was unimaginable.

The consensus among scientists is that the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and warmer oceans, made those storms far more destructive than they would have been in previous decades.

Here is the science: Hurricanes thrive over warm water and strengthen in intensity; oceans have warmed on an average 1 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century, and sea levels have risen about 7 inches during that time. Throw in compound flooding -- the combination of rising sea levels from global warming, storm surge and extreme rainfall -- and you have the perfect mix for record flooding.

Read more in this insighful article on CNN

EPA moves to rescind Obama plan to slow global warming

The roll back is real...


The Trump administration is moving to roll back the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's efforts to slow global warming, seeking to ease restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.


See more here:


http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/epa-moves-rescind-obama-plan-slow-global-warming-50330450

Global warming keeps on keeping on

A new paper finds no statistical evidence that global warming slowed down in recent years or that it’s sped up just yet
What this analysis shows us is that the Earth continues to warm apace. Furthermore, we shouldn’t get excited about any given year that is cold or warm, or think it’s showing that global warming is slowing down or speeding up. Rather, this paper reminds us that long-term trends are what matters. And the long-term trends are speaking loudly. This latest study is just another nail in the coffin of the lie that global warming ended.


Read the details here


If you are interested to read the paper, find it here

Cricket and Global Warming - What's the connection?

Cricket is one sport which is heavily dependent on weather. Once it starts raining, the game has to be suspended right away and the pitch needs to be covered for the game to resume, once the rain stops and weather clears. People who follow the game can recall countless matches which has been interrupted due to rain and then resumed with a different targets, often changing the results. Many times, the game doesn't even resume because the conditions are not conducive to bring it to a logical end.


With the kind of money riding on this sport, it is kind of surprising that climate change is hardly on the agenda in international board meetings of global administrators.


Read this article for a good account of this topic


http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/04/19/rain-stopped-play-cricket-ignores-climate-threat/

The Point of No Return?

I was reading this article which is a little old (publised in Aug 2015) but the facts are nevertheless scary and relevant.


It starts with recounting some of the recent (again, reference 2015) events and how it points to a point of no return.

• In just the past few months, record-setting heat waves in Pakistan and India each killed more than 1,000 people
• In Washington state's Olympic National Park, the rainforest caught fire for the first time in living memory
• London reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit during the hottest July day ever recorded in the U.K.; The Guardian briefly had to pause its live blog of the heat wave because its computer servers overheated
• In California, suffering from its worst drought in a millennium, a 50-acre brush fire swelled seventyfold in a matter of hours, jumping across the I-15 freeway during rush-hour traffic. Then, a few days later, the region was pounded by intense, virtually unheard-of summer rains.
• Puerto Rico is under its strictest water rationing in history as a monster El Niño forms in the tropical Pacific Ocean, shifting weather patterns worldwide.

The article then develops facts and figures to establish that the worst predicted impacts of climate change are starting to happen - and much faster than climate scientists expected.


Read the rest of the article here

G7 fails to support Paris climate accord

The US delegation is reviewing their position and that has caused the G7 minister to stall their agreement. Now, a year ago, all the energy ministers issued strong statement in the support of the accord.


US president Donald Trump has expressed a desire to withdraw from the Paris agreement and early exchanges on climate between Trump administration officials and other leaders are being watched carefully.


Souce : http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/04/10/g7-fails-agree-paris-climate-statement-us-turns-spoiler/

NASA Reveals New Discoveries on Oceans Beyond Earth During Science Briefing

Understanding Earth's climate

Jim Schultz from NASA's Langley Research Center has written a nice article explaining earth's climate. Check it out here


Langley has been working for nearly 50 years to understand the complex systems driving changes to Earth's atmosphere and the environment that it sustains, devising better ways to measure and monitor those changes so that the resultant data can be translated into meaningful knowledge.

Money and Carbon Emissions

Across the U.S., state-level carbon emissions are higher in states where income is more highly concentrated among the wealthiest residents, according to a new study by two Boston College researchers.

 

See the full article here

 

Some highlights from the article:

• A one percent increase in the income share of the top 10 percent of a state's population results in tons of additional carbon emissions 
• Spending power drives carbon-intensive consumerism. But so do the political clout and economic power of the wealthiest individuals, according to Jorgenson and Schor, whose analysis with co-author and BC graduate student Xiaorui Huang employed established economic models that assess the political and economic influence of individual wealth on society.

 

Featured Articles from NASA

Throughout its long history, Earth has warmed and cooled time and again. Climate has changed when the planet received more or less sunlight due to subtle shifts in its orbit, as the atmosphere or surface changed, or when the Sun’s energy varied. But in the past century, another force has started to influence Earth’s climate: humanity.


Catch some of the featured article at the link below:


https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/

Human Activities Vs Vocano

Some people argue that what's the point in spending so much money on climate control when all the volcanic ashes spurted out by the volcanoes every year will emit enough carbon dioxide to cancel the effect of whatever I do.


Here are some facts:


Human activities emit 60 or more times the amount of carbon dioxide released by volcanoes each year. Large, violent eruptions may match the rate of human emissions for the few hours that they last, but they are too rare and fleeting to rival humanity’s annual emissions. In fact, several individual U.S. states emit more carbon dioxide in a year than all the volcanoes on the planet combined do.

Read more here:
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/which-emits-more-carbon-dioxide-volcanoes-or-human-activities
 

What the Earth would look like if all the ice melted

Fascinating video...Don't forget that 40% of world's population lives on coast today. That's a major relocation challenge as the coast shift inwards... 

Survival of the Great Barrier Reef Depends on Halting Warming |Video

Watch this video:


Survival of the Great Barrier Reef Depends on Halting Warming |Video

31% Budget Cuts at EPA (US)

31% budget cuts at EPA would mean

• 20% reduction in staff from a current strength of 15,000
• That would in turn make the agency less available to emergencies around various states
• Many R&D projects need to be canceled (cut by half)
• US is back to 2004 budget level
• 2010 budget was $10.3B compared to $5.7B now
• Clean air, water and climate change projects will be affected
• Superfunds, used for cleaning toxic sites, will be cut by 34%
• ....and more
• ...and more
• ....and some more

Read some good coverage here:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/environmental-protection-agency-budget-cuts/


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/us/politics/budget-epa-state-department-cuts.html?_r=0


http://www.newsweek.com/trump-budget-make-people-sick-epa-veterans-say-569637

Volkswagen pleads guilty in U.S. court in diesel emissions scandal

So, finally Volkswagen has come out in the open and pleaded guilty for the first time. This is a good gesture on their part as they see that odds are stacked against them and they are not doing any favors to themselves by not accepting it.


In fact, this has helped them cut the losses by about $15B.


http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-idUSKBN16H1W4

Who's CO2 is it?

I was wondering the other day whose CO2 is it? I did some google search and of course wikipedia knew it. I am just amazed how much data is out there.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions


The top 10 countries are:


China, US, EU, India, Russia, Japan, Germany, Internation Shipping, Iran and South Korea.


Some quick observations:


1. China and US combined emit 44% of CO2. Now, that's quite an imbalance given that these two countries have 25% of global population. However, they contribute 40% to world economy. so, it appears there is a correlation to the contribution to world economy and contribution to CO2 emission.


2. Per capita emission for US is 16.1 ton which one would think will be the highest in the world but the middle eastern countries are beating that...Saudi Arabia is 16, UAE is 21.8, Kuwait is 24.4, Qatar is 39.7 and Oman is 17.5


3. 18% of greenhouse gases comes from cattles (there are 1.5B of them)


http://graphs.net/air-pollution-infographics.html


4. Look at the trend of how per capita emissions have changed over the years by country


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita


Singapore has done very well for a developed nation.

Good TED Talks on Climate Change

Al Gore's talk filmed recently will surely rank at one of the highest:

https://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_the_case_for_optimism_on_climate_change


He has delivered 4 talks between 2006 and 2016. Catch them here: https://www.ted.com/speakers/al_gore


Here is a full playlist for all inspiring talks related to climate change: https://www.ted.com/playlists/78/climate_change_oh_it_s_real

Some surprising facts...

Found this great article which lists 35 surprising facts about global warming...


http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/various-global-warming-facts.php


Here are some of my favorites (or should i say, concerning ones):

1. Fact # 3: If the sea level indeed rises by 7-23 inches by the end of the century, according to this business insider article, these islands will vanish. http://www.businessinsider.com/islands-threatened-by-climate-change-2012-10/#kiribati-1 .  Some names include the beautiful Maldives and Seychelles. Even Bangladesh will see disastrous effect.
2. Fact # 8: By 2040, Artic will have ice free summer!
3. Fact #15: About 100 million people live within 3 feet of sea level.

and more...which ones do you find disturbing?

Welcome

I am starting this blog to share the learnings and awareness around global warming. Awareness is the first step and if we all do our part, together, we can save the earth.