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The Climate Change Thread

Jasmine18 said:


Carbon tax would have to be over 210 dollars to have any real effect on reducing emissions rather than what is offered now.

That has always been one of my critiques about the carbon tax that a small carbon tax really does absolutely nothing to help the environment and that only a drastic tax would actually do anything which would be rather impactful on people
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Yeah, sucks that.

Not being able to breathe would also be rather impactful on people. Perhaps even more so than any sort of financial consideration. Or, what do I know, I studied politics and languages in school, not biochemistry.
 
EU parliament declares 'climate emergency'

EU lawmakers have said the declaration will increase pressure on the incoming European Commission to take a stronger stance on fighting climate change.

m.dw.com

EU Parliament declares 'climate emergency' | DW | 28.11.2019

EU lawmakers have said the declaration will increase pressure on the incoming European Commission to take a stronger stance on fighting climate change.
m.dw.com m.dw.com
 
Ont. Energy minister cites climate change denial blog when asked about cancelling renewables

From link.

Ontario’s energy minister cited a climate change denial blog in the legislature Tuesday when asked about the $231 million cost of cancelling renewable energy contracts, saying later it’s just one of many information sources he checks when preparing for question period.

As the Ford government has earmarked $231 million to cancel numerous green energy contracts approved by the former Wynne Liberals, NDP leader Andrea Horwath asked Energy, Mines, Northern Development and Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford to disclose more information about how the government arrived at the $231 million figure.

Rickford replied in part that Ontario’s high electricity costs are caused by the subsidized rates given to green energy producers to encourage their proliferation.

He then cited arecent post about Germany’s use of wind energy in a blog expressly designed to encourage people to question the theory of man-made climate change.

“I looked through periodicals and here I came across the Climate Change Dispatch and quote yesterday; ‘power grid operators have been struggling to keep the grid stable due to erratic feed in of subsidized wind energy causing German electricity prices to become amongst some of the most expensive worldwide,’ Mr. Speaker,” Rickford said.

Climate Change Dispatch says it “does not believe in consensus science” and its mission is to fight the “garbage science” of climate change caused by carbon dioxide emissions, something nearly universally understood amongst scientists who study the issue.

Its last three posts published Nov. 26 are entitled “Why Apocalyptic Claims About Climate Change are Wrong,” “98 per cent of Air Passengers Won’t Buy Carbon Offsets to Fight Climate Change,” and “Best Monsoon In 25 Years Quells Climate Fears Among Indian Farmers.”

“We are past the point of debating whether climate change exists. Ontarians know climate change is real, and caused by human action. Does this government know that,” NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon.

Speaking later, Rickford said he reads a variety of sources of information.

“We do a scan of periodicals and magazines all of the time, and in this case we found a suitable quote about a situation that’s going on in Germany right now and I thought it was appropriate to do that,” Rickford said. “I am not going to defend or explain how I put my answers in Question Period together but for myself I thought it was entirely appropriate. It was remarkably similar to the situation that we have . . . for the benefit of the people of Ontario.”

The government says the $231 million worth of cancellation fees is expected to save ratepayers $790 million.

But industry representatives dispute that figure.

For her part, Ontario's Auditor General called the $231 million figure "reasonable."

Tuesday’s exchange at Queen’s Park comes as seven young people filed a lawsuit against the Ontario government, saying its weakened carbon emission reduction targets constitute a breach of young Ontarian’s Charter rights to life, liberty and security of the person
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That looked like a hostage video...

Days after being attacked for quoting a blog that denies climate change during a public debate, Ontario's energy minister told reporters he does believe in climate change.

And that's pretty much all Greg Rickford said before walking away from a scrum at Queen's Park on Thursday, leaving reporters audibly frustrated.

"I believe in climate change and I believe it's a consequence of human activity. Thank you," Rickford said.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/greg-rickford-comments-on-climate-change-1.5377225
 
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If possible, check out this week-end's Globe and Mail editorial advocating for the above-mentioned necessary 210$/tonne carbon price by 2030. (It would only add .40$/L to fuel by that year which is still cheap by, let's say European standards.
The editorial goes on to give examples of what the tax returns would be to hypothetical "typical" families at these rates. Turns out that large numbers of people (excluding, as always, single folk...subsidising everyone forevermore!) would effectively have negative income tax rates.
The editorial talks about how it should be sold to the ignorant public (my term entirely) by highlighting the reduction in income taxes this carbon pricing would theoretically generate.

It needs to be done. I'm cool...my Mercedes is available in all-electric as of next year. Just have to get the landlord to install charging stations in the carpark. ?
 
SunriseChampion said:
If possible, check out this week-end's Globe and Mail editorial advocating for the above-mentioned necessary 210$/tonne carbon price by 2030. (It would only add .40$/L to fuel by that year which is still cheap by, let's say European standards.
The editorial goes on to give examples of what the tax returns would be to hypothetical "typical" families at these rates. Turns out that large numbers of people (excluding, as always, single folk...subsidising everyone forevermore!) would effectively have negative income tax rates.
The editorial talks about how it should be sold to the ignorant public (my term entirely) by highlighting the reduction in income taxes this carbon pricing would theoretically generate.

It needs to be done. I'm cool...my Mercedes is available in all-electric as of next year. Just have to get the landlord to install charging stations in the carpark. ?
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I think the issue is that such a tax is regressive as you are taking 100s or thousands of dollars from peoples pockets when they need the money now to pay the bills and giving it to them months later.

I think its good carbon taxes give back people money but if they get that high it will be a hit on the middle class at first.
 
Jasmine18 said:
I think its good carbon taxes give back people money but if they get that high it will be a hit on the middle class at first.
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You working at the new Ministry of Middle Class Prosperity and Other Made-Up Ministering now?

Why would it hit only the middle class at first? It'll hit everyone who uses anything that emits GHGs, which is everyone, almost. I know some hippies who might be exempt, but they're quite anomalous I can assure you.
 
Climate change: Oceans running out of oxygen as temperatures rise

By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, Madrid

Climate change and nutrient pollution are driving the oxygen from our oceans, and threatening many species of fish.

www.bbc.com

Climate change: Oceans running out of oxygen as temperatures rise

A warmer world means oceans are able to hold less dissolved oxygen, which is bad news for many fish.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
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New projections show that South Florida is in for even more sea level rise

From link.

The sea rise curves unveiled Wednesday at the Southeast Florida Climate Leadership Summit in Key West tack on about three to five extra inches by 2060, and that number only gets bigger in the future.

The region went from expecting between 14 and 26 inches of sea level rise by 2060 — commonly shortened to two feet by 2060 by local leaders — to predicting 17 to 31 inches of sea rise.

“These numbers are all big enough that you can see that South Florida gets in big trouble quickly,” said Harold Wanless, a University of Miami professor of geology and member of the projections team. “If you look out the window, like the areas in the Keys that are flooding for weeks on end, this is not something that might happen, this is something that is already happening.“

These new numbers come from a group of more than a dozen scientists, researchers and local government staffers from South Florida as an update to 2015 predictions. Representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of the Interior were also included, but the group clarified their involvement “does not necessarily imply official review or opinions of their agencies.”
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SLR%20projection.png

Scientists with the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact updated 2015 sea level rise predictions for 2019. These projections guide development in the counties.

Unlike the stream of predictions for sea level rise that make headlines throughout the year, these numbers actually make a difference in South Florida. Local governments, including Miami-Dade and Miami, use them to decide how high to build new buildings.

The unified projection suggests local governments build between a range of heights, with critical infrastructure like hospitals and power stations tending toward the higher end of the range.

Susanne Torriente, Miami Beach’s chief resilience officer, said her city adopted the projections in 2016.

“I recommend that the city again adopted the updated projections for planning purposes to inform all design and construction — whether designed in house or by consultants,” she wrote in an email.

Jayantha Obeysekera, head of Florida International University’s Sea Level Solutions Center and one of the scientists on the team, said the researchers analyzed all the recent research out there on sea rise before deciding which projections to include.

The ones that made the cut were the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s median curve, a conservative prediction that runs lower, NOAA’s intermediate high, high and extreme curves. They all have something in common: They’ve gotten higher since 2015.

“We looked at all the literature and it seemed like it’s trending at a rate higher than we’ve seen before,” Obeysekera said.

That’s mostly due to increased melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, but scientists also point to rising ocean temperatures. Hotter water takes up more space than colder water, a process known as thermal expansion.
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SLRcomparison.png

Scientists with the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact updated 2015 sea level rise predictions for 2019. These projections guide development in the counties

While scientists are sure that climate change is occurring and that it’s human-caused, figuring out precisely how high sea levels will be in a given year is tough, thanks to all the factors involved.

“That’s going to be a problem forever, knowing the exact rate of rise,” said Wanless.

Jane Gilbert, Miami’s chief resilience officer, said the uncertainty is why the city is designing its new stormwater master plan system to a certain amount of inches of sea level rise rather than a particular year.

“We are modeling for 18 [inches] and 30 [inches] of SLR,” she wrote in an email. “Of course, we will own the model and could run the model for different levels as well in the future.”

Wanless, who tends to predict higher rates of sea rise, worries that builders and developers will look at the multiple curves and choose the lowest one to build to, rather than some of the higher curves.

He pushed for the inclusion of NOAA’s extreme curve — one Obeysekera said is “a pretty rare scenario with a very low probability” — to show South Floridians the risk they could face if carbon dioxide emissions are allowed to continue unabated.

Of the NOAA intermediate curve, which predicts a little over three feet by 2070, he said, “That’s the lowest one I would even talk about, and I think everything under that is wishful thinking.”
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So do these higher numbers mean Miami-Dade leaders will start saying two and a half feet by 2060 instead of two feet? Not necessarily.

“We’re always in that posture of trying to give people some sense of the future conditions, but at the same time let the uncertainty in the data bracket that,” said James Murley, chief resilience officer for Miami-Dade County.

However, Miami-Dade plans to begin updating its existing buildings soon, and Murley said this latest data would be part of that process.

“The fact that we’re always prepared to update the information and that the process of updating and building new facilities is influenced by this is one of the best parts of the collaboration,” he said. “I don’t know another place that does it like this.”
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Climate change: Majority of Germans support ditching Christmas lights

As part of efforts to combat climate change, a majority of Germans say they’re in favor of scaling down or completely abandoning their Christmas lights this year, according to a new survey.

A majority of Germans say they would consider scaling down their Christmas lights to protect the climate, a survey released on Sunday said. A total of 57% of those surveyed said they would reduce Christmas lighting or even do without it in the future, according to the survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of the German news agency DPA.

m.dw.com

Majority of Germans back ditching Christmas lights – DW – 12/08/2019

As part of efforts to combat climate change, a majority of Germans say they're in favor of scaling down or completely abandoning their Christmas lights this year, according to a new survey.
m.dw.com m.dw.com
 
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