Bubbling methane craters and super-seeps – is this the worrying new face of the undersea Arctic? “Scientists have shared the first results of a trip to the world’s largest deposit of subsea permafrost and shallow methane hydrates.
“Fields of methane discharge continue to grow all along the East Siberian Arctic Ocean Shelf, with concentration of atmospheric methane above the fields reaching 16-32ppm (parts per million).”
The press service of Primhydromet reported that the cyclone that hit Vladivostok [Russian Far East] on Thursday night brought about 1.5 monthly precipitation norms… “
“The wind with gusts up to 30 meters per second and sleet left almost 150 thousand residents of the cities of Vladivostok and Artem… without light.”
You can also see a video of that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efUKOAebEm8
Seoul and central South Korean regions were soaked with unseasonable heavy rain Thursday, with the capital receiving the heaviest daily precipitation on record for November, the local weather agency said. “
“On the same day, the capital also recorded its warmest November day with a low of 17.1 °C (62.8 °F).”
Torrential rains and back-to-back typhoons ripped through the Philippines in the last two weeks, turning the once picturesque river into a sea of murky brown, killing dozens and setting off deadly landslides… “
“…the storms are getting more ferocious and more frequent, the tragic consequence of a changing climate that is making disasters more intense.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/world/asia/philippines-floods-photos.html
Two people died and thousands others were displaced after floods hit 46 villages in Indonesia’s Central Java province, a local official said on Thursday. “
“Heru Kurniawan, head of the Emergency and Logistics Division of Cilacap District Disaster Management Agency, said the floods had been triggered by heavy rains since Tuesday with overflown rivers.” Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZq1iJYMXbU
First bushfires, then coronavirus, now this: Victoria [Australia] is attacked by a swarm of locusts as the pests obliterate crops and blind motorists… “
“The Australian plague locust are typically found in Queensland but heavy rainfall in recent months has increased vegetation for them to feed on and breed.”
Pietermaritzburg and some areas in the KZN Midlands (South Africa) were battered by hailstones the size of golfballs and bigger on Wednesday afternoon, damaging roof tiles, vehicles and windows. “
The storm also caused flooding at several homes.” Video:
A newly published study provides insight into why trees die in the Amazon, and why the rate of tree death may be increasing. The main risk factor explaining tree death was the mean growth rate of species… “
“The findings have major implications for the fight against climate change, given that the Amazon accounts for 12% of land-based carbon sink, but is losing that capacity as tree mortality increases.”
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/csi-amazon-epic-study-looks-at-whats-killing-amazon-trees/
A Peruvian glacier may soon reach the point of no return: High mountain environments in South America, which in many locations encompass peaks that reach 6,500 meters or more in altitude, are home to some of the most spectacular glaciers on our planet. “
“My research on one particular glacier shows how endangered these environments are.”
Authorities in Central America recovered more bodies on Thursday from landslides triggered by hurricane Iota, which battered the impoverished region this week, the second deadly storm to roar through this month… “
“Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez issued an urgent plea for international help. “We are in a situation of great calamity and we need the world to help us rebuild our country,” he told a news conference.”
A slew of rapidly intensifying hurricanes portends trouble in a warming world. “
“Ten storms rapidly intensified this Atlantic season, some to a record degree… [rapid intensification] is an especially dangerous process when it occurs close to land, coming too suddenly for coastal residents to escape an exponentially potent storm.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/11/18/hurricane-season-rapid-intensification/
A late-season hot spell is setting records across the drought-stricken Southwest US, setting the stage for an uptick in fire activity heading into the weekend. “
“Phoenix is normally one of the hottest cities in the United States, but this year has been abnormally hot in the Valley of the Sun… On Monday, Phoenix topped out at 92 F, making it the latest 90-degree day on record for the city. This record was broken the very next day…”
https://news.yahoo.com/phoenix-verge-breaking-heat-record-002157260.html
while Phoenix area parks can serve as an oasis for residents, the irrigation needed to keep parks lush and cooler comes at a high cost of water consumption… “…
“”Because of the oasis effect, when we irrigate our urban parks at night, we lose vast amounts of water and we see increased carbon dioxide emissions, which could lead to higher global warming potential,” says Enrique R. Vivoni of Arizona State University.”
https://phys.org/news/2020-11-oasis-effect-urban-contribute-greenhouse.html
climate change projections show consistent future increases in atmospheric evaporative demand (or the “atmospheric thirst”) over California and Nevada. These changes were largely driven by warmer temperatures, and would likely lead to significant on-the-ground environmental impacts. “…
“”Higher evaporative demand during summer and autumn — peak fire season in the region — means faster drying of soil moisture and vegetation, and available fuels becoming more flammable, leading to fires that can burn faster and hotter,” explained lead author Dan McEvoy, Ph.D…”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201119165442.htm
Fresh wildfires in Nevada and California force evacuations and kill at least one: “
“More than 1,000 were forced to evacuate in Reno and hundreds more in California after strong winds whipped up the blazes.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/18/nevada-california-fires-evacuees-return-home
The Trump administration on Thursday proposed to loosen Obama-era safety regulations for the oil industry in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska to ease the way for petroleum extraction in the region, an effort that President-elect Joe Biden will likely throw out once in office. “
“The proposal would revise a suite of Obama-era rules crafted to improve safety in the extreme conditions of the Arctic after a Shell drilling rig ran aground in the Gulf of Alaska in 2012.”
Heatwaves caused a record 2,556 excess deaths in Britain this summer as the country was struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic, according to a government estimate published on Thursday. “
“Increasingly frequent and severe heatwaves are among the deadliest impacts of climate change, mostly hitting elderly people and other vulnerable groups the hardest, scientists say.”
Never before since the Danes began registering temperature readings 147 years ago has the night-time temperature been so high this late in the year… “With temperatures hovering around 10-12C [50 to 54F] across the nation last night, Denmark set yet another weather record.
“…to put it into perspective, the average night temperatures in Denmark during July and August is 11.3-11.5C [52F – 53F]… another indication that this November may be the warmest ever recorded in Denmark.”
[FWIW and according to this study,] These are the 10 countries most at risk from the effects of climate change: “
“They span the globe and include developed and developing countries [TLDR; Japan tops the list].”
You can read the previous ‘Climate‘ thread here. I’ll be back over the weekend with an ‘Economic’ thread.
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16-32ppm (parts per FUCKING million)!”
Fixed a typo … and
Its happening.
Lol, Louis. In spite of the attempts of Michael Mann and others to play this down, the destabilisation of these methane beds is now irreversible and self-reinforcing; only the speed of that process is unknown.
Since the turn of the century, I have seen the concentration of CH4 over the East Siberian increase by an order of magnitude. From ~1700ppb (1.7ppm) to >17ppm. The speed of that process is unknown, but fast and accelerating.
My guess is that we will soon see larger and larger burps.