Global Climate Change Science News

[Brian Peacock]

Rapid ice melt in west Antarctica now inevitable, research shows

Accelerated ice melt in west Antarctica is inevitable for the rest of the century no matter how much carbon emissions are cut, research indicates. The implications for sea level rise are “dire”, scientists say, and mean some coastal cities may have to be abandoned.

The ice sheet of west Antarctica would push up the oceans by 5 metres if lost completely. Previous studies have suggested it is doomed to collapse over the course of centuries, but the new study shows that even drastic emissions cuts in the coming decades will not slow the melting.

The analysis shows the rate of melting of the floating ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea will be three times faster this century compared with the previous century, even if the world meets the most ambitious Paris agreement target of keeping global heating below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Losing the floating ice shelves means the glacial ice sheets on land are freed to slide more rapidly into the ocean. Many millions of people live in coastal cities that are vulnerable to sea level rise, from New York to Mumbai to Shanghai, and more than a third of the global population lives within 62 miles (100km) of the coast...

[JimC]

An interesting ABC article about how some climate scientists and ecologists are feeling gagged by their administrators for political reasons:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-24/ ... /102968970

[pErvinalia]

Freedom of speech being stifled? Cunt will be all over this.

[JimC]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-25/ ... /103014684

Numerous global systems humans rely on for survival — including ecosystems, groundwater, insurance and the space industry — are on the precipice of catastrophic tipping points, according to a new report by the United Nations University.

The report says the world is "perilously close" to triggering these tipping points that could have "irreversible, catastrophic impacts for people and the planet".

[Brian Peacock]

The head of the Royal Society of Pediatricians and Child Health has been in the media this week talking about climate change being the most significant risk factor impacting children's health and well-being. The usual right-wing suspects have gone apeshit of course, and accused her if playing politics with children's lives - which is kinda ironic.

[macdoc]

I liked your old avatar better.

[Brian Peacock]

I liked your old avatar better.

You must be feeling a bit more like your old self

[Brian Peacock]

Having a small amount of informal, but nonetheless encouraging contact with Saleemul Huq after being lucky enough to hear him speak at COP26, I'm actually quite sad about his death.

‘A titan of the climate movement’: tributes pour in for Saleemul Huq

Huq, ‘a visionary and climate champion’, who was named one of the top 10 scientists in the world by Nature last year, has died at 71

Tributes have poured in from around for world for the renowned Bangladeshi scientist Prof Saleemul Huq, who died on 28 October.

Huq, 71, was an acclaimed academic, a relentless climate activist and the director of the International Centre for Climate Change & Development (ICCCAD), a research and capacity-building organisation in Bangladesh.

Shahab Uddin, the Bangladeshi minister of environment, forest and climate change, said that Huq’s death was an irreparable loss to the country and the rest of the world. On Sunday afternoon in Dhaka, hundreds gathered at the Gulshan Society Mosque to pay their last respects, and a minute’s silence was observed in his memory at Sunday’s pre-Cop G77 meeting in Abu Dhabi.

The Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate told the Guardian she had the privilege of working with Huq several times over the years. “As well as fighting for those most vulnerable, Huq was incredibly generous with his time,” she said. “I remember at Cop26, I had the opportunity to do a big media interview on loss and damage but wanted an expert to speak alongside me. He immediately responded to my request, dropping what he was doing and walking across the Glasgow conference centre to join me.”

Mohamed Adow, director of the energy and climate thinktank Power Shift Africa, described Huq on X, formerly Twitter, as a “titan of the climate movement who stood out in a field dominated by scientists from Europe and North America. It was always good to see a Bangladeshi speaking with such authority and insight on the global stage.”

Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican climate leader and the former executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC), said Huq had been a “tenacious, visionary colleague”.

Huq was an early force for community-based adaptation – a well-established concept in rural Bangladesh – which focuses on helping communities find their own solutions to the climate crisis, such as improving flood defences and adjusting cropping patterns to weather change. He strongly believed that affected communities needed “to be in the driving seat” and by the 1990s, he was active in international climate negotiations, helping climate-vulnerable countries put their individual needs on the agenda at high-profile UN talks.

Among his many achievements, Huq was one of the longest and most persistent advocates of loss and damage funds, whereby rich nations – which have done by far the most to cause it – pay to help developing countries cope with the consequences of global heating. Though the idea gained traction leading up to the 2015 Paris climate agreement, it was only in 2022 that an agreement was signed. “Loss and damage isn’t aid,” said Huq. “When money is given as aid, all the power rests with the donor. It is an unequal relationship.”

‘Incredibly generous with his time’ … Huq at Cop26.
‘Incredibly generous with his time’ … Huq at Cop26. Photograph: Courtesy of IISD
Huq, who was awarded an OBE in 2022, was a professor at the Independent University, Bangladesh; a senior associate of the International Institute on Environment and Development; and part of the Cop28 advisory committee. He was a prolific writer and researcher, and was among the lead authors for the IPCC’s third, fourth and fifth assessments of the global climate. In 2022, the journal Nature named Huq as one of the top 10 scientists in the world.

Huq was a strong advocate of young people being given a voice in global negotiations. “Our generation created the mess and their generation is suffering. Hence, they must have a say,” he said.

The Bangladeshi climate advocate Sohanur Rahman described him as a “true visionary and climate champion whose unmatched legacy will remain as a shining example for years and generations to come. His tireless efforts in the fight against climate injustice will continue to inspire us all.”

Huq was known for his frankness, and spoke in a way that cut through climate jargon and politics to ask the great moral questions over the inequality of the climate crisis. Ahead of Cop28 this year, he wrote an open letter to the president of the UN climate summit, advocating for a new loss and damage fund while outlining concrete steps on how to achieve it.

“Just to cite one example from my country Bangladesh: every single day, over 2,000 climate displaced people arrive by foot, cycle, boat and bus in Dhaka and disappear into the city slums,” he wrote. “No one is looking after them but they are people being forced to move by human-induced climate change and are hence the responsibility of the UNFCCC.”

It is a fight that Huq’s friends and peers will take up on the global stage in his absence at Cop28 next month and beyond. “I’m so grateful that he lived to see the loss and damage fund finally being agreed at Cop27 in Egypt,” said Nakate. “I hope now we can fight for his legacy and ensure it is filled with real money.”

In a tribute, Harjeet Singh, the head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, said: “The battle for climate justice remains ongoing. I pledge to redouble my efforts, to uphold the torch, and to champion the cause with even more passion and hard work. I’ll do this in honour of your legacy, feeling your guidance and blessings from the heavens above.”

[aufbahrung]

Legal man finally acts on climate protest nuts.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 44752.html

Elderly lawyer shoots dead two climate protesters blocking highway

A retired lawyer allegedly shot and killed two men who were part of a protest blocking a highway in Panama.

While he has not been officially named by police, the suspect has been widely reported to be Kenneth Darlington, 77, a retired American lawyer and university professor who lives in Panama.

Police said on X (formerly Twitter) that a man has been arrested at the scene, where he was charged with aggravated homicide and illegal possession of a firearm.

(continued)

[Brian Peacock]

Legal man finally acts on climate protest nuts.

Elderly lawyer shoots dead two climate protesters blocking highway

Who else would you like to see shot in the street? Maybe we could hang them from the lampposts eh?

[Sean Hayden]

I hate violent people. They are a disease.

—//—

On this type of protest: traffic jams are killers here, intentionally causing one is criminal.

[aufbahrung]

I don't condone it. If he thought he had the law on his side, still doesn't make it right. Just saying it seems the argument is hotting up regarding greens and everyone else, some touting gnus.

[Brian Peacock]

Noclear power?

The only company to have a small modular nuclear power plant approved in the US – cited by the Australian opposition as evidence of a “burgeoning” global nuclear industry – has cancelled its first project due to rising costs.

NuScale Power announced on Wednesday that it had dropped plans to build a long-promised “carbon free power project” in Idaho. It blamed the decision on a lack of subscribers for the plant’s electricity.

The Coalition’s energy and climate spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, has cited NuScale’s technology as part of the opposition’s contentious argument that Australia should lift a national ban on nuclear energy and that small modular reactors (SMRs) could be an affordable replacement for its ageing coal-fired power plants....

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... sing-costs

[macdoc]

Alliance signs Canadian SMR contract
30 January 2023

The first commercial contract for a grid-scale small modular reactor (SMR) in North America sees Ontario Power Generation (OPG), GE Hitachi (GEH), SNC-Lavalin and Aecon team up in an innovative integrated project delivery model to develop, engineer and construct a BWRX-300 at OPG's Darlington New Nuclear Project.

https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles ... R-contract

Ontario gets more than half its power from nuclear and we are building more.

https://nuclear.gepower.com/bwrx-300

[Sean Hayden]