Tag: climate

Atmospheric rivers

the solution to the california drought: atmospheric rivers:

Geologic evidence shows that truly massive floods, caused by rainfall alone, have occurred in California every 100 to 200 years. Such floods are likely caused by atmospheric rivers: narrow bands of water vapor 2 km above the ocean that extend for 1000s of km.

in fact, this happened in 1862

The cataclysm cut off telegraph communication with the East Coast, swamped the state’s new capital, and submerged the entire Central Valley under 4.5m of water.

2023-05-05: Also known as an Arkstorm.

Climate change is expected to increase the risk of severe flooding from a hypothetical ARkStorm, with runoff 200 to 400% above historical values for the Sierra Nevada in part due to a decrease in the portion of precipitation that falls as snow, as well as an increase in the amount of water that storms can carry. The likelihood of the event outlined in the ARkStorm scenario is now once every 25-50 years, with projected economic losses of over $1 trillion

China coal plants

China would try to cut pollution from coal-fired power plants by 60% by 2020, reducing CO2 emissions by 180M metric tons

this is about 2% of world emissions
2020-01-04:

China is set to add new coal-fired power plants equivalent to the EU’s entire capacity, as the world’s biggest energy consumer ignores global pressure to rein in CO2 emissions in its bid to boost a slowing economy. While the rest of the world has been largely reducing coal-powered capacity over the past 2 years, China is building so much coal power that it more than offsets the decline elsewhere

Fossil fuel lawsuits

The fossil-fuel industry—which, for 2 centuries, underwrote our civilization and then became its greatest threat—has started to take serious hits. Today, President Obama rejected the Keystone Pipeline, becoming the first world leader to turn down a major project on climate grounds. 18 hours earlier, New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued subpoenas to Exxon, the richest and most profitable energy company in history, after substantial evidence emerged that it had deceived the world about climate change.

RICO for climate deniers

using anti-racketeering to bring down the climate denier cabal. an intriguing idea.

At the rate things are going, these wicked old men might be glad to be in a nice safe white-collar prison instead of a climate-crisis refugee camp. The following is the text of a letter written by a number of scientists asking for a federal investigation of climate science denial under the RICO statute.

Peak Environmental Impact

if true (requires a lot more study) this would be major good news

It is now conceivable that the human race will reach “peak impact” before the end of this century.

The decoupling is a breaking of the link between economic and population growth on the one hand and resource use on the other. Some decoupling indicators from the report: The per-capita farmland requirement has declined by half in the last half-century. In absolute terms, cropland has expanded 13% and pasture 9% in that time period, but the sum of the 2 has remained stable since the mid-1990s. Total water consumption increased by 170% between 1950 and 1995, but per-capita water consumption peaked around 1980 and declined thereafter. The least decoupled environmental impact is greenhouse gas emissions from energy: global per-capita emissions increased by nearly 40% between 1965 and 2013.

Super-cheap flights

If the cost of international flights drops to the $300 to $400 range instead of $700 to $1500 or more and better cabin air pressure means no jet lag, then shorter one week international vacations would open up as a far bigger market and more frequent option.

2017-09-05:

After 2050, there will likely be 6-7B people that are the equivalent of today’s developed world middle class or affluent class. 2 to 4 trips per person per year is not inconceivable (higher incomes and low transportation costs). This would be 12-28B international arrivals.