Climate News & Discussion: Part 2

[NationalTitles18]

In the Michigan December cold, no less.

Tesla Model S Goes 752 Miles with a Prototype Battery from a Michigan Startup

This 'proof of concept' was meant to show that very long-range, environmentally sustainable battery packs can exist—and ONE, Inc., is about to start building one.

www.caranddriver.com

 

[NationalTitles18]

 

[Bamaro]

Nuclear fusion milestone creates "burning plasma" for the first time
For the prospect of limitless, clean energy produced through nuclear fusion to become a reality, scientists need the reactions at the heart of the technology to become self-sustaining, and newly published research has edged them closer to that goal. Scientists using a high-powered laser at the National Ignition Facility have achieved "burning plasma" for the first time, demonstrating for a fleeting moment how the fuel can provide much of the heat needed to keep the reactions going.

“Fusion experiments over decades have produced fusion reactions using large amounts of ‘external’ heating to get the plasma hot," said lead author Alex Zylstra. "Now, for the first time, we have a system where the fusion itself is providing most of the heating. This is a key milestone on the way to even higher levels of fusion performance.”

Nuclear fusion milestone creates "burning plasma" for the first time (newatlas.com)

 

[DzynKingRTR]

After all the crap the last few years, I am pretty sure this whole planet will die well before climate change destroys us.

 

[Tug Tide]

Court Finds Massive Offshore Oil Lease Sale in Gulf Based on Faulty Legal Analysis

Environmental groups respond to court decision halting lease sale

earthjustice.org

 

[Bamaro]

Mount Everest has lost 2,000 years' worth of ice in less than three decades

The highest glacier on the world's tallest mountain is losing decades worth of ice every year because of human-induced climate change, a new study shows.

The findings serve as a warning that rapid glacier melt at some of the Earth's highest points could bring worsening climate impacts, including more frequent avalanches and a drying-up of water sources that around 1.6 billion people in mountain ranges depend on for drinking, irrigation and hydropower.

Ice that took around 2,000 years to form on the South Col Glacier has melted in around 25 years, which means it has thinned out around 80 times faster than it formed.

 

[Bamaro]

The intense dry spell that's parched the western U.S. the past 22 years is the region's worst "megadrought" since at least the year 800, a new study released Monday said.

The study, published Monday in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature Climate Change, said that over 40% of the current drought can be blamed on human-caused climate change.

Megadroughts, which are defined as intense droughts that last for decades or longer, once plagued western North America. Now, thanks in part to global warming, an especially fierce one is back.

 

[crimsonaudio]

U.S. megadrought worst in at least 1,200 years, researchers say

The drought also shows no signs of letting up, with increasing temperatures causing the atmosphere to suck up more moisture. “It’s a slow-motion train wreck,” one scientist said.

www.nbcnews.com

But while droughts occur naturally throughout history, climate change is making them both more frequent and more intense, the scientists said. And compared to other megadroughts in the historical record, what's surprising is that this current drought shows no signs of letting up, said A. Park Williams, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the study's lead author.

"Twenty-two years in, some of these big megadroughts in the past were starting to peter out," he said. "This drought is not petering out. Instead, it's in full swing and is as strong now as it ever was before."

While the study's findings are alarming, Smerdon said it's still not too late to avert the worst impacts of climate change. He said he hopes the research compels communities and governments to act.

"If you're on a boat getting tossed around by waves, you don't go up to the captain and ask, 'Are we screwed?' You find a bucket and you start bailing water," he said. "That's the attitude we all have to have about this. We need to all go pick up a bucket and get to work."

 

[Bamaro]

UN report paints dire picture of the Gulf of Mexico's future

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 50 inches of rain on parts of the Texas coast in 2017. Then in 2020, ferocious winds from Hurricane Laura destroyed homes across coastal Louisiana. Hurricane Ida hit in 2021, leaving the entire city of New Orleans without power for days.

Such extreme weather is becoming more common, and that’s just one of the warnings for the Gulf of Mexico region in a United Nations report released this week. The devastating effects of climate change in the region also include rising seas, collapsing fisheries and toxic tides, even if humanity somehow manages to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era.

“The hurricanes that we get, there’s a higher probability that they can bloom up into major hurricanes,” Louisiana’s state climatologist Barry Keim said, agreeing with the report's details on more dangerous weather.

The report, an “atlas of human suffering,” details numerous ways in which climate change will affect the gulf. From Texas to Florida, which has the longest coastline of any state, the entire U.S. Gulf coast is under serious threat from rising seas as the planet's polar ice caps melt, the U.N. report says.

UN report paints dire picture of the Gulf of Mexico's future (msn.com)

 

[Chukker Veteran]

I have a friend who has a beachfront house in Florida. His house used to have a street and houses between his house and the water, but the houses closer to the ocean are gone now. Instant beachfront.

 

[Padreruf]

I have a friend who has a beachfront house in Florida. His house used to have a street and houses between his house and the water, but the houses closer to the ocean are gone now. Instant beachfront.

Years ago a friend had a beach front house on Bald Head Island -- off the NC Coast. Then a storm came through -- and he didn't have a lot, much less a house. Collected insurance, never built back...

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I have a friend who has a beachfront house in Florida. His house used to have a street and houses between his house and the water, but the houses closer to the ocean are gone now. Instant beachfront.

My stepdaughter's inlaws have a house on Fripp Island. Fortunately, it's set well back, on the road which traverses the narrow waist of the island. Some years ago, my wife and I agree to drive over for 7/4. It's a big house, but knowing the social structure of the family, we figured it would fill up and, at the last minute, overflow. So, we rented a condo on the north tip of the island, so we could control our own social agenda. It turned out to be a good idea. It left a pretty good hike, more than a mile, down the beach to the house. The houses and condos on the north end set back several hundred yards from the ocean. Eventually, I decided to hike the beach on the south end. Well, there was hardly any there - at places, none at all. There were multi-million dollar homes behind a sea wall 6' or so in height and barely 50' from the water. I found out that the Corps of Engineers continually haul millions of cubic yards of sand from the north end to the south end. I think some would say that's just the way of barrier islands. The older residents blame it on climate change and say that it used to be stable...

 

[Bamaro]

Years ago a friend had a beach front house on Bald Head Island -- off the NC Coast. Then a storm came through -- and he didn't have a lot, much less a house. Collected insurance, never built back...

Yeah, kind of hard to build back if your former lot is under water.
Wait until it's not just beach houses. A huge part of the world population lives on the coast.

 

[Padreruf]

Several years ago we sold a house on Fort Morgan beach...had been in the family almost 50 years. One of the reasons we agreed to sell was that almost all the water level projections showed that in 20 years it would be under water. We had already rebuilt completely after a hurricane in 1980-81? As it was when a storm went into New Orleans water would come up under our house. I really don't think the good Lord intended for us to live on barrier islands and the like....

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Several years ago we sold a house on Fort Morgan beach...had been in the family almost 50 years. One of the reasons we agreed to sell was that almost all the water level projections showed that in 20 years it would be under water. We had already rebuilt completely after a hurricane in 1980-81? As it was when a storm went into New Orleans water would come up under our house. I really don't think the good Lord intended for us to live on barrier islands and the like....

One of my best friends for decades lived on Hatteras for about ten years. His wife's ancestors were original settlers and her grandfather's name was on one of the foundation stones for the iconic lighthouse, before they moved it inland. With one hurricane, the water came to within 6' of their porch, which was on first floor level. Bob got busy and raised the house 12'. Then, he put it on the market. It took several years, but he finally managed to sell it and move to Asheville...

 

[Chukker Veteran]

Years ago a friend had a beach front house on Bald Head Island -- off the NC Coast. Then a storm came through -- and he didn't have a lot, much less a house. Collected insurance, never built back...

I’ve mentioned it before, but flood insurance has been shifted this year, separating the state of Florida from a national insurance pool and making the state stand alone. This will eventually drive property insurance through the roof there, in ten or twenty years.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I’ve mentioned it before, but flood insurance has been shifted this year, separating the state of Florida from a national insurance pool and making the state stand alone. This will eventually drive property insurance through the roof there, in ten or twenty years.

The pool premiums have also escalated dramatically over the last 20 years or so. My friend who lived on Hatteras used to complain about the rates. That was nothing to what's about to happen...

 

[crimsonaudio]

I’ve mentioned it before, but flood insurance has been shifted this year, separating the state of Florida from a national insurance pool and making the state stand alone. This will eventually drive property insurance through the roof there, in ten or twenty years.

It why when I move back home (FL) at some point I'll be far from the coast. I grew up in central FL and will likely return there. I have zero interest on living next to the rising ocean.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

It why when I move back home (FL) at some point I'll be far from the coast. I grew up in central FL and will likely return there. I have zero interest on living next to the rising ocean.

Even central Florida may have a beachfront...

 

[Chukker Veteran]

Even central Florida may have a beachfront...

Flood plain insurance hits more than just coastal properties.