Global Climate Change Science News

[JimC]

Certainly there has been a steady increase (showing in polls) over the last 5 years or so of people wanting faster action on climate change, and it played a role in the defeat of the conservative Federal government here recently. Climate change actions and protests were part of changing people's minds on that. But I still think that avoiding pissing large numbers of the general public off is sensible, or at least it should be one of the factors considered when planning actions.

[Strontium Dog]

We're in a curious situation where most people want action, but they don't want to act individually, they want the state to do it. It's a real abdication of personal responsibility. For instance, something like one-seventh of greenhouse emissions are from livestock? But how many people have given up animal products. Very few.

[macdoc]

More than your might think but the bigger issue is not the first world giving up meat but the second world now being able to afford it.
We've subbed in a number of products happily

Meat Substitutes Market Revenue to Hit $12.30 Billion by 2029 | At a CAGR of 11.11%
Companies covered in meat substitute market are Beyond Meat (U.S.), Impossible Foods (U.S.), Kellogg Company (U.S.), Tyson Foods (U.S.), JBS SA (Brazil), Conagra Brands, Inc. (U.S.), Hain Celestial Group (U.S.), Unilever Group (U.K.), Nestle S.A. (Switzerland), Sunfed (New Zealand)
February 21, 2023 04:03 ET | Source: Fortune Business

https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-r ... 022%2D2029.

Manufactured meat is on the way as well.

Our unequal earth
I tried lab-grown meat made from animals without killing them – is this the future of ethical eating?
A ‘harmless’ sample of cells from one pig can produce millions of tons of ‘cultivated meat’ and is touted as far better for the climate

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ls-climate

All sizzle, no steak: how Singapore became the centre of ...

The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com › environment › nov › a...
7 Nov 2022 — Singapore is the first country to have approved the commercial sale of cultivated meat, in the form of chicken nuggets and chicken breast .

The chicken, fish and the mince substitutes we eat are excellent and cost effective.
I still like a carnivore feed at times but partner is a bit further along. Meat is getting stupid expensive and we get 2 meals each of a very tasty chicken substitute for $5.
It is too bad that kangaroo is not more widely available as they are low on the AGW impact......so is venison but roo better as no methane.

Australian consumers drop meat due to health, ...

The Pig Site
https://www.thepigsite.com › news › 2022/09 › austral...
21 Sept 2022 — Thirty-two per cent of participants said they had reduced their meat consumption in the past 12 months, according to a press release from La Trobe University.

[Brian Peacock]

Certainly there has been a steady increase (showing in polls) over the last 5 years or so of people wanting faster action on climate change, and it played a role in the defeat of the conservative Federal government here recently. Climate change actions and protests were part of changing people's minds on that. But I still think that avoiding pissing large numbers of the general public off is sensible, or at least it should be one of the factors considered when planning actions.

This is why I think education about climate change, global heating, and sustainability issues is so vital. Like really, absolutely vital. And not just an education about the carbon cycle, or the greenhouse effect.

A good chunk of the population are still bathed in light from an organised 30-year misinformation campaign, which didn't explicitly say climate change wasn't real but certainly gave that impression by saying there was very good 'scientific' reasons to doubt it, and a lot of people are not aware of how the climate is impacting their lives, and will continue to impact their lives. They're also not aware of how it's impacting other people's lives (usually poorer brown and black people far away), or the kinds of challenges their children and grandchildren are going to face, or the role fossil fuel companies have historically played in stymieing coordinated action to tackle climate change, or the influence fossil fuel companies are exerting to channel government action towards particular kinds of hegemonic infrastructure models equivalent to gas, oil and coal. But while informing people about PPM, and GHG levels, and the water cycle, and tipping points etc is useful to support action, this fundamentally isn't a story about PPMs of CO2 but about real people's lives, their health, well-being and survival - and that's not just a concern for the future or something happening to other people, but a real and present danger for them right now, and for you and me and everyone else alive today.

[Brian Peacock]

More than your might think but the bigger issue is not the first world giving up meat but the second world now being able to afford it.
We've subbed in a number of products happily

Meat Substitutes Market Revenue to Hit $12.30 Billion by 2029 | At a CAGR of 11.11%
Companies covered in meat substitute market are Beyond Meat (U.S.), Impossible Foods (U.S.), Kellogg Company (U.S.), Tyson Foods (U.S.), JBS SA (Brazil), Conagra Brands, Inc. (U.S.), Hain Celestial Group (U.S.), Unilever Group (U.K.), Nestle S.A. (Switzerland), Sunfed (New Zealand)
February 21, 2023 04:03 ET | Source: Fortune Business

https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-r ... 022%2D2029.

Manufactured meat is on the way as well.

Our unequal earth
I tried lab-grown meat made from animals without killing them – is this the future of ethical eating?
A ‘harmless’ sample of cells from one pig can produce millions of tons of ‘cultivated meat’ and is touted as far better for the climate

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ls-climate

All sizzle, no steak: how Singapore became the centre of ...

The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com › environment › nov › a...
7 Nov 2022 — Singapore is the first country to have approved the commercial sale of cultivated meat, in the form of chicken nuggets and chicken breast .

The chicken, fish and the mince substitutes we eat are excellent and cost effective.
I still like a carnivore feed at times but partner is a bit further along. Meat is getting stupid expensive and we get 2 meals each of a very tasty chicken substitute for $5.
It is too bad that kangaroo is not more widely available as they are low on the AGW impact......so is venison but roo better as no methane.

Australian consumers drop meat due to health, ...

The Pig Site
https://www.thepigsite.com › news › 2022/09 › austral...
21 Sept 2022 — Thirty-two per cent of participants said they had reduced their meat consumption in the past 12 months, according to a press release from La Trobe University.

I had a 'beyond meat' burger only a couple of weeks ago. As a vegetarian for 30+ I must admit I found it rather... meaty. Kind of disconcertingly meaty for me. Veg*ns like me are not the target demographic, but for people like my parents generation who think that you have to eat meat every day to be healthy these are great substitutes, and reducing our reliance on the products of animal agriculture is one of the most significant ways we can reduce our personal footprint.

(Now don't get annoyed by what I'm about to say) But we need to significantly reduce the very high levels of resource exploitation and depletion that animal agriculture relies on, and the ecological impact thereof, ahead of developing cheap and healthy replacements, which means acting quickly now so that can be in a position to reap the rewards of vat-grown animal protein or other sustainable meat substitutes later. This undoubtedly means that governments have to take action which will be against the interests of big beef etc in the short-term so that other, more sustainable models can be developed over the long-term. Relying on the consumer preferences of relatively wealthy societies is not going to achieve the desired result, as welcome as these new products are.

[Brian Peacock]

We're in a curious situation where most people want action, but they don't want to act individually, they want the state to do it. It's a real abdication of personal responsibility. For instance, something like one-seventh of greenhouse emissions are from livestock? But how many people have given up animal products. Very few.

Unfortunately moral opprobrium, however justified, hasn't worked and probably will not work. Shaming people into reducing or giving up animal-based products is counter-productive if and when it stops the conversation. We need to give people reasons for feeling good about making alternative choices rather than making them feel bad for the choices they've already made. This means we have to be involved in making a positive contribution to their understanding of the issues, the factors at play, and the systems that have been created. But we also have to be involved in empowering people to make different choices and to help facilitate those choices in partnership with them.

Basically, even though we can make strong moral, health, environmental, and economic arguments for veg*nism we still need a broader theory of change that can lift everyone up and bring everyone along.

[macdoc]

SCIENCEAPR 12, 2023 2:00 AM
The Massive ‘Batteries’ Hidden Beneath Your Feet
Aquifer thermal energy storage can use groundwater to heat and cool buildings—decarbonizing homes and businesses in the process.

https://www.wired.com/story/the-massive ... tm_term=P4

Many steps...it all helps.

[Brian Peacock]

Geothermal is a somewhat neglected sector. If only there was some company somewhere that had put a lot of R&D into developing viable deep drilling tech.

[Svartalf]

tell the icelanders that

[macdoc]

This is a good read on geothermal - if somewhat hyperactive

https://www.wired.com/story/where-to-fi ... mal-texas/

and Green Hydrogen- the dark horse
https://www.wired.com/story/green-hydrogen-scaling-up/

[Brian Peacock]

Oceans have been absorbing the world’s extra heat. But there’s a huge payback

By the end of March, the surface temperature of the world’s oceans was above anything seen in the 40 years that satellites have been measuring it.

Records were “headed off the charts” and, as the heat refused to fade for more than a month, the Earth marched into “uncharted territory”, scientists said.

The temperature at the ocean’s surface – like on land – is being pushed higher by global heating but can jump around from one year to the next as weather systems come and go.

But in the two kilometres below the surface, that variability is almost nowhere to be seen. The rising heat down there has been on a relentless climb for decades, thanks to burning fossil fuels...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ge-payback

[Svartalf]

You mean that's why we have el niño, la niña, and tons of tropical storms?

[macdoc]

Has little to do with La Nina or El Nino ( ENSO ) - the impact of AGW is not well understood on these natural cycles.

It has little or no impact on the number of tropical storms but does have an impact on their intensity.....warmer ocean means more power in cyclonic storms...but not more storms.
For sure more intense rainfall events and more intense snow events but again....not more of them.

[Brian Peacock]

https://www.internetgeography.net/topic ... al-storms/

Global temperatures are expected to increase as a result of climate change. This means that more of the world’s oceans could be above 27 °C, so more places in the world may experience tropical storms.

Oceans will stay at 27 °C or higher for more of the year, so the number of tropical storms each year could increase.

Higher temperatures also mean higher-intensity tropical storms with higher wind speeds, which could cause more damage. Also, there is evidence that extra water vapour in the atmosphere makes storms wetter. During the past 25 years, satellites have measured a 4 per cent rise in water vapour in the air.

The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded that confidence remains low for detecting any long-term changes in tropical cyclone activity. However, it is virtually certain (>99% probability) that the fre­quency and intensity of the strongest tropical storms (hurricanes and cyclones) has increased since the 1970s.

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/

[macdoc]

That's a 2013 report and dated.
More intensity not more storms.

Tropical cyclones now '13% less frequent' due to climate ...

Carbon Brief
https://www.carbonbrief.org › tropical-cyclones-now-...
27/06/2022 — Climate change has driven a 13% decline in the frequency of tropical cyclones since pre-industrial times, new research finds.

Are tropical cyclones changing in frequency?
Tropical cyclones and climate change - Wikipedia
Frequency. There is no consensus on how climate change will affect the overall frequency of tropical cyclones. A majority of climate models show a decreased frequency in future projections.

but intensity is up

“The intensity of tropical cyclones has increased globally in recent decades, with the proportion of Category 3 to 5 cyclones growing by around 5% per decade since 1979,” Vecchi said.