Climate Change

[Michael Scally MD]

Confidential documents show that Shell sounded the alarm about global warming as early as 1986. But despite this clear-eyed view of the risks, the oil giant has lobbied against strong climate legislation for decades. Today we make Shell’s 1991 film, Climate of Concern, public again.

Shell made a film about climate change in 1991 (then neglected to heed its own warning)
https://thecorrespondent.com/6285/shell-made-a-film-about-climate-change-in-1991-then-neglected-to-heed-its-own-warning/692663565-875331f6

Shell Oil Company has spent millions of dollars lobbying against measures that would protect the planet from climate catastrophe. But thanks to a film recently obtained by The Correspondent, it’s now clear that their position wasn’t born of ignorance. Shell knows that fossil fuels put us all at risk – in fact, they’ve known for over a quarter of a century. Climate of Concern, a 1991 educational film produced by Shell, warned that the company’s own product could lead to extreme weather, floods, famines, and climate refugees, and noted that the reality of climate change was "endorsed by a uniquely broad consensus of scientists."

The question, ladies and gentlemen, is what did Shell know and when did they know it. The Correspondent would like to enter into evidence Exhibit A: Climate of Concern.

 

[ronin17]

All you climate deniers. Watch the latest vice on hbo. You will learn something.

Hopefully. If not, there is no hope for you

 

[Michael Scally MD]

The Met Office forecast for the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2017 suggests that the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the year will be smaller than the rise seen in 2016 – which was the largest annual increase in the 50-year record.

However, carbon dioxide levels are still expected to rise by more than the average for the last decade.

The forecast applies specifically to the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, and follows a successful forecast of 2016 CO2 concentrations produced by the Met Office Hadley Centre, in conjunction with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which has been measuring CO2 at Mauna Loa routinely since 1958.

The Met Office’s Professor Richard Betts, who leads the production of the CO2 forecast, said: “The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide last year was the largest seen in the 50-year Mauna Loa record. Our forecast correctly predicted that 2016 would also be the first year in the record where the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide wouldn’t dip below 400 parts per million (ppm).

“For 2017 we are forecasting a rise of around 2.5 ppm, smaller than the 3.4 ppm rise between 2015 and 2016, but this is still a higher figure than the average over the last decade.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

FYI: 424 CO2 PPM
71.45° N, 55.89° E
https://earth.nullschool.net/#curre...thographic=-90.00,87.03,258/loc=55.889,71.451

 

[Michael Scally MD]

On a particularly bad day for Earth's wellbeing – the EPA revealed massive budgetary cuts while the Trump administration waffled on the Paris Agreement on climate change – environmentalist and 350.org founder http://www.rollingstone.com/contributor/bill-mckibben appeared on Real Time With Bill Maher to discuss the dire situation and how the American people can fight back.

"The level of complete corruption from the fossil fuel industry that marks this administration is like nothing we've ever seen," McKibben said, adding that new EPA chief Scott Pruitt http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/trumps-epa-pick-is-the-fossil-fuel-industrys-con-man-w454716 while Attorney General of Oklahoma.

"Earlier this afternoon, the EPA under Mr. Pruitt… their budget cuts leaked out. Not only are they going to cut by 97 percent the amount of money they're spending to try and improve water quality in the Great Lakes – which finally begun to improve, same thing with San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound, Chesapeake Bay; good thing that no one lives in any of these places," McKibben said.

"They also said they're going to drastically cut the amount of money they spend on something called water quality compliance, the kind of things that helped alert us to things like Flint, the water crisis there. Of course, since they're zeroing out the environmental justice program at EPA, that probably won't be a big worry anymore."

After pointing out that the Keystone Pipeline would be built using Russian steel – the oligarch of that Russian steel mill gifted Vladimir Putin a $35 million yacht, McKibben noted – McKibben attacked the argument that state governments will handle the things the EPA doesn't by highlighting the crisis in Pruitt's own state of Oklahoma.

"For as long as this continent has been around, Oklahoma has been seismically inert, as stable as it was possible to be," McKibben said. "Now, it shakes a lot more than Oklahoma. It's the most seismically active place on the continent because we've done nothing but frack it for the last 10 years and force all this water underground into wells on the faults."

Even as the nation is divided into two halves – liberals who believe in climate change and http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/why-republicans-still-reject-the-science-of-global-warming-w448023 – McKibben warned, "In the end, these are not political questions. In the end, physics doesn't care what your skin is. It just does what it does."

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/bill-mckibben-talks-climate-change-battle-on-real-time-w470412

 

[GigaloRob]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2013/02/13/peer-reviewed-survey-finds-majority-of-scientists-skeptical-of-global-warming-crisis/#4512be874c7c.

 

[PIZZABOY]

It did not freeze once here this winter, very mild.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Climate Deregulation Tracker [Sabin Center for Climate Change Law - Columbia Law School]
http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/resources/climate-deregulation-tracker/

President Donald Trump has stated that he intends to undo most or all of the Obama administration’s efforts to address climate change. Many members of Congress have expressed similar intentions.

The Climate Deregulation Tracker monitors efforts undertaken by the Trump administration to scale back or wholly eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures. The tracker also monitors congressional efforts to repeal statutory provisions, regulations, and guidance pertaining to climate change, and to otherwise undermine climate action. Finally, the tracker will monitor any countervailing efforts to advance climate change mitigation and adaptation in the face of these deregulatory actions.

The tracker will also provide links to related news items, such as updates about federal agency appointments, the removal of climate data from federal websites, and federal actions with indirect implications for climate change.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

The World Wasted Trillions of Dollars on Fossil Fuels Because of Bad Math.
The World Wasted Trillions of Dollars on Fossil Fuels Because of Bad Math - Motherboard

Government subsidies for fossil fuels over the last three decades have been far larger than anyone previously thought, according to a new study published by the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy in March. https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/fossil-fuels-stefanski.pdf

A fossil fuel subsidy is any government policy that lowers the cost of fossil fuel production, raises prices received by producers, or lowers prices paid by consumers: they can consist of tax breaks and direct funding for fossil fuel companies. But subsidies can also consist of loans, price controls, or giveaways in the form of land or water at below market-rates, and many other actions.

They have been so high across the world, finds Dr. Radek Stefanski—an economist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland— that they are nearly four and a half times higher than previously believed.

So what's the damage? It's pretty colossal. For the last year in his model, 2010, Stefanski found that the total global direct and indirect financial costs of all fossil fuel subsidies was $1.82 trillion, or 3.8 percent of global GDP. He also found that the subsidies meant much higher carbon emissions released into our atmosphere.

Compare that to the International Energy Agency (IEA) figure for the same year. In its 2011 World Energy Outlook, the IEA calculated total worldwide fossil fuel subsidies for 2010 to be $409 billion, less than a quarter of Stefanski's figure of nearly two trillion dollars.

 

[ronin17]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2013/02/13/peer-reviewed-survey-finds-majority-of-scientists-skeptical-of-global-warming-crisis/#4512be874c7c.

There were only a thousand participants in that study. So 36% of 1000. That isn't significant in the slightest. I would also be interested to know what industry the participants are from. Maybe I missed it.

There was just a program on vice on hbo. It had clips from 70's experiments that shell preformed. It had a retired shell scientist who was involved in those studies. He asserted shell knew back then the effects thier industry had on global warming but made the decision it would be bad for business to go public.

Watch the show. It's a good one.

Thanks for the article though.

 

[GigaloRob]

There were only a thousand participants in that study. So 36% of 1000. That isn't significant in the slightest. I would also be interested to know what industry the participants are from. Maybe I missed it.

There was just a program on vice on hbo. It had clips from 70's experiments that shell preformed. It had a retired shell scientist who was involved in those studies. He asserted shell knew back then the effects thier industry had on global warming but made the decision it would be bad for business to go public.

Watch the show. It's a good one.

Thanks for the article though.

Just a quick correction. Only 36% believed humans are creating a global warming crisis. So that would be 64% that don't believe humans are responsible. Every study can be scrutinized as to the motives of the particular participants but that also works both ways. I like to read as much of differing opinions as I can since my expertise does not extend to climate science.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

For the second year in a row, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have climbed at a record pace. According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, carbon dioxide levels jumped by three parts per million in both 2015 and 2016 and now rest at about 405 parts per million.

It’s the biggest jump ever observed at the agency’s Mauna Loa Baseline Atmospheric Observatory in Hawaii, where the measurements were recorded. And similar observations have been recorded at stations all over the world, said Pieter Tans, who leads the Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases group at NOAA’s Greenhouse Gas Reference Network.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

There were only a thousand participants in that study. So 36% of 1000. That isn't significant in the slightest. I would also be interested to know what industry the participants are from. Maybe I missed it.

There was just a program on vice on hbo. It had clips from 70's experiments that shell preformed. It had a retired shell scientist who was involved in those studies. He asserted shell knew back then the effects thier industry had on global warming but made the decision it would be bad for business to go public.

Watch the show. It's a good one.

Thanks for the article though.

It is a load of crap! And, that is being kind. Anyone who does not accept AGW is just plain nuts, idiotic, ignorant, stupid as all fuck, etc. It is the perfect test of sanity.

James Taylor misinterprets study by 180 degrees
http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/2013/02/14/james-taylor-misinterprets-study-by-180-degrees/


Denialism From Forbes Courtesy of Heartland Hack James Taylor [https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/james-m-taylor]
http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2013/02/15/denialism-from-forbes-courtesy-of-heartland-hack-james-taylor/

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Hicks Pries CE, Castanha C, Porras R, Torn MS. The whole-soil carbon flux in response to warming. Science. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/03/08/science.aal1319

Soil organic carbon harbors three times as much carbon as Earth's atmosphere, and its decomposition is a potentially large climate change feedback and major source of uncertainty in climate projections. The response of whole-soil profiles to warming has not been tested in situ. In this deep warming experiment in mineral soil, CO2 production from all soil depths increased significantly with 4 degrees C warming-annual soil respiration increased by 34-37%. All depths responded to warming with similar temperature sensitivities, driven by decomposition of decadal-aged carbon. Whole-soil warming reveals a larger soil respiration response than many in situ experiments, most of which only warm the surface soil, and models.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

432 ppmv
53.31° N, 115.10° W✕
190° @ 5 km/h
https://earth.nullschool.net/#curre...graphic=-109.89,49.08,258/loc=-115.102,53.309

 

[Michael Scally MD]

436 CO2 ppmv
53.31° N, 115.10° W
235° @ 8 km/h
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/chem/surface/level/anim=off/overlay=co2sc/orthographic=-109.89,49.08,258/loc=-115.102,53.309

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]