New report on climate change released today

angelo · Oct 30, 2019

Loren Pechtel said:
angelo said:

ZiprHead said:

View attachment 24557

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In answer to your so-called 97% consensus and it's origin.

https://mises.org/wire/bogus-consensus-argument-climate-change

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That is not a rebuttal.

It sure looks like a rebuttal to me!

PyramidHead · Oct 30, 2019

LOL mises.org is like "not all of those abstracts literally included the words 'climate change is man-made' some of them were on just totally unrelated topics like 'plotting greenhouse gas emissions and temperature increases over the past two centuries' or some nonsense"

lpetrich · Oct 30, 2019

lpetrich · Oct 30, 2019

That bit of procedural drama llama over, the hearing continued.

Tal Kopan on Twitter: "“California’s burning while the deniers make a joke out of the standards that protect us all,” says former CA Gov. Brown, testifying on the importance of fuel efficiency regulations.
“This is not just another legislative game here, this is life and death stuff.”" / Twitter

Tal Kopan on Twitter: "“The combustion car is going the way of the Dodo bird and you’ve got to either get with it, or get out of the way,” Brown says." / Twitter
Planning to get rid of internal combustion engines? Renewable-powered synfuels would make that unnecessary.

Tal Kopan on Twitter: "Rep. Comer appears to have been passed an email between Sen. Whitehouse’s staff and an unnamed automaker from last night expressing disappointment the automaker is supporting Trump’s rollback rule..." / Twitter

Tal Kopan on Twitter: "“This is a crisis that Washington has to wake up to. I don’t know why the Republican Party has chosen a flat earth approach and deny science, this is going to affect their kids too,” Brown says under questioning from Jimmy Gomez." / Twitter

Tal Kopan on Twitter: "Brown getting combative with Gibbs:
“Climate change is real, it’s happening, and you and everyone else will recognize that,” Brown tells him.
When Gibbs mentions fires: “Fires are burning and we’re in an air conditioned room here while people in California are scared to death.”" / Twitter

Tal Kopan on Twitter: "I believe Comer just withdrew his request to have this added to the record" / Twitter
That message from a car company about fuel-efficiency rules.

Tal Kopan on Twitter: "AOC notes that 6 Republicans were here in the hearing when they voted on the motion to adjourn, but all but two left as soon as the actual hearing started." / Twitter
So they stuck around to try to shut down the hearing.

lpetrich · Oct 30, 2019

Tal Kopan on Twitter: ".@AOC, confirming with Brown that Californians support fuel efficiency rules, says:
“I find it ironic when Republicans consistently want to invoke states' rights to regulate a woman’s body but that’s not good enough to regulate a car. … It’s absolutely appalling.”" / Twitter
Seems like states' rights vs. Federal prerogatives is often pure expediency. I wouldn't want to make an absolute principle out of either.

Tim

’Rourke on Twitter: "How big is the Kincade Fire and the other shockingly huge blazes that have burned our state the past three fire seasons?
This big, with San Francisco's 30,000-acre footprint as a comparison >>>
[url]https://t.co/Ho6r5YdCk8 https://t.co/n4WGikfuxz" / Twitter[/url]
Fires larger than San Francisco, which is approximately square with 7 mi (11 km) on each side.

Tal Kopan on Twitter: "Brown says “what we’re talking about is not just a little waiver rule,” but rather a need for a massive change in approaching the climate.
He says “call it whatever you want, a new deal…” a big deal, etc. AOC (proponent of Green New Deal) smiles at him." / Twitter
How sweet.

Tal Kopan on Twitter: "Lots of Californians on Oversight for this hearing, and Anna Eshoo also gets permission to ask questions despite not being on the committee (given a waiver)" / Twitter
Her district includes parts of Silicon Valley and the nearby Pacific coast.

Tal Kopan on Twitter: "Eshoo just called the automakers supporting Trump’s emissions rules rollback "the beard for the oil industry”" / Twitter
A "beard" is a woman who accompanies a gay man to provide seeming evidence that he is heterosexual.

Tal Kopan on Twitter: "Interesting: Sen. Whitehouse is suggesting that lawmakers try to use their subpoena powers/litigation to get information on dark money spending — saying there’s laws that they don’t have to disclose spending, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s privileged." / Twitter

Tal Kopan on Twitter: "Gov. Brown not losing steam as this hearing wages on: “The blood is on your soul here and I hope you wake up. Because this is not politics, this is life, this is morality … this is real."" / Twitter

Jerry Brown implores Washington to act on climate: ‘California’s burning’ - SFChronicle.com by Tai Kopan herself

“California’s burning while the deniers make a joke out of the standards that protect us all,” Brown said. “The blood is on your soul here and I hope you wake up. Because this is not politics, this is life, this is morality. ... This is real.”

He said he was disappointed that General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and Toyota were siding with the Trump administration in a lawsuit over the rollback of fuel efficiency standards that were put in place under former President Barack Obama. The standards required new cars and light trucks to reach a fleet average of roughly 50 miles per gallon by model year 2026. Brown said GM was acting as “Trump’s lapdog” and had tried and failed numerous times to block California from acting in the interest of the environment. Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen have meanwhile struck a deal with California to effectively reinstate the Obama standard.

About the Republicans' attempt to adjourn the hearing, which failed after half an hour,

“I thought that was quite revealing,” Brown said. “Because what it represents is an interest in political games, as opposed to the very profound challenge of climate change.”

...
Brown said California’s efforts were important, but that the U.S. is “not doing anywhere near what needs to be done” to address climate change problems. He noted that the California fuel economy standard is in line with those of China and Europe, but called for far greater action.

lpetrich · Oct 30, 2019

Philip Wegmann on Twitter: "What happens to Alaska if @AOC's Green New Deal becomes real? @GovDunleavy says, "it would impact our civilization as we know it."" / Twitter

Philip Wegmann on Twitter: "@AOC @GovDunleavy He tells me...
Oil would disappear
Gas would disappear
Coal would disappear
Alaska's population would plummet" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Yeah that’s kind of the point" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "The climate crisis threatens our way of life, and we must decarbonize our economy & way of life to save the planet.
I wish it wasn’t such a bad situation too, but previous generations failed to act & now young people need to deal w the science of our future & create opportunity." / Twitter

Christopher Flavelle on Twitter: "The effects of rising seas will be far worse than previously thought, wiping out entire cities by 2050, new data shows.
This is Alexandria, Egypt, under the old and new projections. [url]https://t.co/f2iAOari5D @DeniseDSLu https://t.co/U2PzLs6D2f" / Twitter[/url]
noting
Rising Seas Will Erase More Cities by 2050, New Research Shows - The New York Times

Rising seas could affect three times more people by 2050 than previously thought, according to new research, threatening to all but erase some of the world’s great coastal cities.

The authors of a paper published Tuesday developed a more accurate way of calculating land elevation based on satellite readings, a standard way of estimating the effects of sea level rise over large areas, and found that the previous numbers were far too optimistic. The new research shows that some 150 million people are now living on land that will be below the high-tide line by midcentury.

New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding | Nature Communications

Most estimates of global mean sea-level rise this century fall below 2 m. This quantity is comparable to the positive vertical bias of the principle digital elevation model (DEM) used to assess global and national population exposures to extreme coastal water levels, NASA’s SRTM. CoastalDEM is a new DEM utilizing neural networks to reduce SRTM error. Here we show – employing CoastalDEM—that 190 M people (150–250 M, 90% CI) currently occupy global land below projected high tide lines for 2100 under low carbon emissions, up from 110 M today, for a median increase of 80 M. These figures triple SRTM-based values. Under high emissions, CoastalDEM indicates up to 630 M people live on land below projected annual flood levels for 2100, and up to 340 M for mid-century, versus roughly 250 M at present. We estimate one billion people now occupy land less than 10 m above current high tide lines, including 250 M below 1 m.

lpetrich · Oct 30, 2019

'Start Listening': Greta Thunberg Rejects Major Environmental Award : NPR She thought of it as all talk no action.

The Nordic Council, an organization aimed at promoting cooperation between Nordic governments, awarded Thunberg the prize for "breathing new life into the debate surrounding the environment and climate at a critical moment in world history."

"She has stubbornly and persuasively urged the world to listen to research and act on the basis of facts," the council said in a statement.

Greta Thunberg on Instagram: “I have received the Nordic Council’s environmental award 2019. I have decided to decline this prize. Here’s why: “I am currently traveling…”

I am currently traveling through California and therefore not able to be present with you today. I want to thank the Nordic Council for this award. It is a huge honour.

...
The Nordic countries have a great reputation around the world when it comes to climate and environmental issues. There is no lack of bragging about this. There is no lack of beautiful words. But when it comes to our actual emissions and our ecological footprints per capita - if we include our consumption, our imports as well as aviation and shipping - then it’s a whole other story.

In Sweden we live as if we had about 4 planets according to WWF and Global Footprint Network. And roughly the same goes for the entire Nordic region.

Loren Pechtel · Oct 31, 2019

angelo said:
Loren Pechtel said:

That is not a rebuttal.

Click to expand...

It sure looks like a rebuttal to me!

They start out with attempting to rebut it by pointing out that 97% say that humans are one of the causes. They act like this is a rebuttal but it isn't--there are natural cycles also. Thus they are attacking it on a false basis and their attack doesn't really rebut it in the first place. No point in reading further.

angelo · Oct 31, 2019

Loren Pechtel said:
angelo said:

Loren Pechtel said:

That is not a rebuttal.

Click to expand...

It sure looks like a rebuttal to me!

Click to expand...

They start out with attempting to rebut it by pointing out that 97% say that humans are one of the causes. They act like this is a rebuttal but it isn't--there are natural cycles also. Thus they are attacking it on a false basis and their attack doesn't really rebut it in the first place. No point in reading further.

Go look at my post on the other GW/CC/CD thread.

angelo · Oct 31, 2019

lpetrich said:
'Start Listening': Greta Thunberg Rejects Major Environmental Award : NPR She thought of it as all talk no action.

The Nordic Council, an organization aimed at promoting cooperation between Nordic governments, awarded Thunberg the prize for "breathing new life into the debate surrounding the environment and climate at a critical moment in world history."

"She has stubbornly and persuasively urged the world to listen to research and act on the basis of facts," the council said in a statement.

Click to expand...

Greta Thunberg on Instagram: “I have received the Nordic Council’s environmental award 2019. I have decided to decline this prize. Here’s why: “I am currently traveling…”

I am currently traveling through California and therefore not able to be present with you today. I want to thank the Nordic Council for this award. It is a huge honour.

...
The Nordic countries have a great reputation around the world when it comes to climate and environmental issues. There is no lack of bragging about this. There is no lack of beautiful words. But when it comes to our actual emissions and our ecological footprints per capita - if we include our consumption, our imports as well as aviation and shipping - then it’s a whole other story.

In Sweden we live as if we had about 4 planets according to WWF and Global Footprint Network. And roughly the same goes for the entire Nordic region.

Click to expand...

How is she traveling, on a bicycle?

southernhybrid · Nov 5, 2019

Today, a new report was released by 11,000 scientists, who now consider that we are in a climate change emergency. I personally am extremely pessimistic that much of anything will be done before it's far too late to stop catastrophic damage to the planet. Individuals can't do enough to change things without the cooperation of governments and corporations. I have no faith or hope that's going to happen.

https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biz088/5610806?searchresult=1

Exactly 40 years ago, scientists from 50 nations met at the First World Climate Conference (in Geneva 1979) and agreed that alarming trends for climate change made it urgently necessary to act. Since then, similar alarms have been made through the 1992 Rio Summit, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and the 2015 Paris Agreement, as well as scores of other global assemblies and scientists’ explicit warnings of insufficient progress (Ripple et al. 2017). Yet greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are still rapidly rising, with increasingly damaging effects on the Earth's climate. An immense increase of scale in endeavors to conserve our biosphere is needed to avoid untold suffering due to the climate crisis (IPCC 2018).

The climate crisis is closely linked to excessive consumption of the wealthy lifestyle. The most affluent countries are mainly responsible for the historical GHG emissions and generally have the greatest per capita emissions (table S1). In the present article, we show general patterns, mostly at the global scale, because there are many climate efforts that involve individual regions and countries. Our vital signs are designed to be useful to the public, policymakers, the business community, and those working to implement the Paris climate agreement, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

Profoundly troubling signs from human activities include sustained increases in both human and ruminant livestock populations, per capita meat production, world gross domestic product, global tree cover loss, fossil fuel consumption, the number of air passengers carried, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and per capita CO2 emissions since 2000 (figure 1, supplemental file S2). Encouraging signs include decreases in global fertility (birth) rates (figure 1b), decelerated forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon (figure 1g), increases in the consumption of solar and wind power (figure 1h), institutional fossil fuel divestment of more than US$7 trillion (figure 1j), and the proportion of GHG emissions covered by carbon pricing (figure 1m). However, the decline in human fertility rates has substantially slowed during the last 20 years (figure 1b), and the pace of forest loss in Brazil's Amazon has now started to increase again

Mitigating and adapting to climate change while honoring the diversity of humans entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems. We are encouraged by a recent surge of concern. Governmental bodies are making climate emergency declarations. Schoolchildren are striking. Ecocide lawsuits are proceeding in the courts. Grassroots citizen movements are demanding change, and many countries, states and provinces, cities, and businesses are responding.

As the Alliance of World Scientists, we stand ready to assist decision-makers in a just transition to a sustainable and equitable future. We urge widespread use of vital signs, which will better allow policymakers, the private sector, and the public to understand the magnitude of this crisis, track progress, and realign priorities for alleviating climate change. The good news is that such transformative change, with social and economic justice for all, promises far greater human well-being than does business as usual. We believe that the prospects will be greatest if decision-makers and all of humanity promptly respond to this warning and declaration of a climate emergency and act to sustain life on planet Earth, our only home.

The folks who wrote this report are far more optimistic than I am. I can't imagine enough cooperation from world leaders, corporations and even individuals to turn things back. There is too much greed. People are too comfortable, or too ignorant to realize what's going on. We don't have the leadership we need in. the world and I don't see that changing in the near future.

angelo · Nov 6, 2019

11.000 out of around 10 million scientists world wide is a minuscule number. This same 11.000 from 153 countries have signed a document that declares Global surface temperatures are not sufficient to measure climate change, which should instead be tracked by a scorecard of population growth, meat consumption, forest loss and the use of air transport. It also adds that " climate crisis" was closely linked to excessive consumption of the " wealthy" lifestyle. The most affluent countries are mainly responsible for the historical greenhouse gas emissions and generally have the greatest per capita emissions. There are 350 Australians in that list of 11.000 scientists, with more ecologists and medical researchers than climate researches.

So, the answer of how to save the planet is to shut down all industries and live on locusts and wearing sackcloth while transferring all the affluent nations wealth to the festering shitholes of Africa and the rest of the third world.

Pure unadulterated leftard cultist stuff.

lpetrich · Nov 6, 2019

Climate crisis: 11,000 scientists warn of ‘untold suffering’ | Environment | The Guardian - "Statement sets out ‘vital signs’ as indicators of magnitude of the climate emergency"

The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists.

“We declare clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency,” it states. “To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live. [This] entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems.”

There is no time to lose, the scientists say: “The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity.”

Prof. William Ripple, of Oregon State University, composed this statement because of the increase in extreme weather that has happened recently -- heatwaves, droughts, super hurricanes.

What to do?

Use energy far more efficiently and apply strong carbon taxes to cut fossil fuel use

Stabilise global population – currently growing by 200,000 people a day – using ethical approaches such as longer education for girls

End the destruction of nature and restore forests and mangroves to absorb CO2

Eat mostly plants and less meat, and reduce food waste

Shift economic goals away from GDP growth

“The good news is that such transformative change, with social and economic justice for all, promises far greater human well-being than does business as usual,” the scientists said. The recent surge of concern was encouraging, they added, from the global school strikes to lawsuits against polluters and some nations and businesses starting to respond.

lpetrich · Nov 6, 2019

The source paper:
World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency | BioScience | Oxford Academic

The climate crisis is closely linked to excessive consumption of the wealthy lifestyle. The most affluent countries are mainly responsible for the historical GHG emissions and generally have the greatest per capita emissions (table S1). In the present article, we show general patterns, mostly at the global scale, because there are many climate efforts that involve individual regions and countries. Our vital signs are designed to be useful to the public, policymakers, the business community, and those working to implement the Paris climate agreement, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

The authors then listed several trends, both negative and positive.

They mention renewable energy, though IMO not strongly enough.

They mention eating less meat and strongly reducing ruminant livestock, since these animals' stomach fermentation releases lots of methane. That's mostly domestic bovines - cows. That means lots of vegetarian fake meat and fake milk and the like in our future.

Scientists Declare A Climate Emergency, Warn Of ‘Untold Human Suffering’ | HuffPost
then
HuffPost on Twitter: "More than 11,000 scientists from 153 countries warn in a new report that the changing climate will cause “untold human suffering” without drastic action. https://t.co/GzrRVydn6v" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "When it comes to the climate crisis, tweaks and shortcuts aren’t enough to preserve our planet.
Massive, systemic change is in alignment with scientific consensus.
We need #GreenNewDeal." / Twitter

lpetrich · Nov 6, 2019

Rep. Earl Bluemanuer (D-OR, OR-03, most of Portland E of Willamette River):
Earl Blumenauer on Twitter: "This is some powerful validation for the work @AOC @SenSanders and I are doing in Congress! https://t.co/a4hOtCRHbu" / Twitter
noting
11,000 scientists say that the ‘climate emergency’ is here | Grist
noting
AOC, Bernie and … Blumenauer? Who’s the third politician behind the call for a climate emergency? | Grist
noting
Earl Blumenauer on Twitter: "If Trump can call a national emergency for a fake crisis at the border, then surely Congress should call a national emergency for the very REAL crisis that is climate change.
That's why I'm introducing a resolution to declare a national emergency on the climate crisis." / Twitter
From the article,

And for those paying attention, it’s clear Blumenauer is no climate slouch. He spent two years on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s climate change special committee, where he met several leaders who also felt strongly about the climate emergency. At the national level, he wrote the agricultural piece of the Green New Deal. In his home state of Oregon, he championed a slew of policies for the climate and the environment such as energy conservation policies, protecting public lands, cleaning Superfund sites, and his famous Food and Farm Act — which offered policies to reform conservation programs and better the lives of farmers and the environment.

Another fun fact: Blumenauer is a bit of a bicycling nut. No really. The guy founded the Congressional Bike Caucus in 1996, which led to the annual National Bike Summit. In Portland, he launched a bike program that transformed the city to an intense “bike town.” I mean, a new bike and pedestrian bridge is set to be named after him. All in the name of reducing carbon emissions at a low-cost. And believe it or not, he’s one, if not the only politician, who would still show up to meetings and press interviews in and out of the capitol with a bicycle.

southernhybrid · Nov 6, 2019

angelo said:
11.000 out of around 10 million scientists world wide is a minuscule number. This same 11.000 from 153 countries have signed a document that declares Global surface temperatures are not sufficient to measure climate change, which should instead be tracked by a scorecard of population growth, meat consumption, forest loss and the use of air transport. It also adds that " climate crisis" was closely linked to excessive consumption of the " wealthy" lifestyle. The most affluent countries are mainly responsible for the historical greenhouse gas emissions and generally have the greatest per capita emissions. There are 350 Australians in that list of 11.000 scientists, with more ecologists and medical researchers than climate researches.

So, the answer of how to save the planet is to shut down all industries and live on locusts and wearing sackcloth while transferring all the affluent nations wealth to the festering shitholes of Africa and the rest of the third world.

Pure unadulterated leftard cultist stuff.

*sigh* I realize that it's hopeless to convince you, but climate change has nothing to do with partial politics, although some on the right have tried to make it appear that way. I can envision people like you sinking into the sea while still claiming that the climate isn't changing. But then again, there are people that believe the earth is flat, so what can one expect from people who aren't open minded or willing to give a close looks at the facts!

Keith&Co. · Nov 6, 2019

southernhybrid said:
I can envision people like you sinking into the sea while still claiming that the climate isn't changing.

Youv'e seen "Erik the Viking," i take it?

lpetrich · Nov 6, 2019

Bernie Sanders and AOC want to declare a climate emergency. Does that mean anything? | Grist

“This is a political crisis of inaction,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a press call on Tuesday. “It’s going to take political will (and) political courage in order for us to treat this issue with the urgency that the next generation needs in order for us to preserve our way of life and in order for us to preserve our planet as much as we possibly can.”

noting
FINAL Climate Emergency Resolution | Global Warming | Greenhouse Gas

H.Con.Res.52 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Expressing the sense of Congress that there is a climate emergency which demands a massive-scale mobilization to halt, reverse, and address its consequences and causes. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
Earl Blumenauer and 80 cosponsors, including 33 original ones, including AOC herself and several others known for progressivism. Also Tulsi Gabbard.

S.Con.Res.22 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress that there is a climate emergency which demands a massive-scale mobilization to halt, reverse, and address its consequences and causes. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
Bernie Sanders and 6 cosponsors, all original. All but Jeff Merkley (D-OR) are Presidential candidates: BS, A Klobuchar, C Booker, K Gillibrand, E Warren, K Harris.

Waleed Shahid on Twitter: "Republicans attacked Andy Beshear and Democrats by tying them to @AOC and the Green New Deal.
Their attacks and lies failed.
Beshear ran on a just transition for coal workers toward a clean and renewable energy economy.
This is a huge development in climate politics. https://t.co/7A0YP6LVAG" / Twitter
Andy Beshear defeated incumbent Kentucky governor Matt Bevin, a Republican

then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "The #GreenNewDeal works in coal country because we‘ve been fighting to fully fund coal workers’ pensions & work w/ impacted communities to plan a just transition.
A GND can put everyone to work without leaving anyone behind. It’s a winning message everywhere, incl Kentucky.

" / Twitter

Green New Deal Penguin

on Twitter: "@AOC .@AOC was going to visit Kentucky back in April and then the GOP rep who invited her backed out.
Hope she can make it there soon to keep spreading a #GreenNewDeal message. https://t.co/WT03thZ9Tr" / Twitter

PyramidHead · Nov 6, 2019

China meets ultra-low emissions in advance of the 2020 goal

China is working hard to reduce emissions and mitigate global climate change despite the significant challenges it faces as an emerging economy. A recent study shows the country has achieved notable success by beating its own rigorous timetable.

Scientists from the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science (AMSS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), along with other collaborators, recently revealed that China's coal-fired power plants met ultra-low emission (ULE) standards ahead of schedule and also achieved substantial emission reductions between 2014 and 2017.

Human Activity in China and India Dominates the Greening of Earth, NASA Study Shows

China’s outsized contribution to the global greening trend comes in large part (42%) from programs to conserve and expand forests. These were developed in an effort to reduce the effects of soil erosion, air pollution and climate change. Another 32% there – and 82% of the greening seen in India – comes from intensive cultivation of food crops.

southernhybrid · Nov 6, 2019

PyramidHead said:
China meets ultra-low emissions in advance of the 2020 goal

China is working hard to reduce emissions and mitigate global climate change despite the significant challenges it faces as an emerging economy. A recent study shows the country has achieved notable success by beating its own rigorous timetable.

Scientists from the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science (AMSS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), along with other collaborators, recently revealed that China's coal-fired power plants met ultra-low emission (ULE) standards ahead of schedule and also achieved substantial emission reductions between 2014 and 2017.

Click to expand...

Human Activity in China and India Dominates the Greening of Earth, NASA Study Shows

China’s outsized contribution to the global greening trend comes in large part (42%) from programs to conserve and expand forests. These were developed in an effort to reduce the effects of soil erosion, air pollution and climate change. Another 32% there – and 82% of the greening seen in India – comes from intensive cultivation of food crops.

Click to expand...

Call me skeptical because there are so many conflicting reports about China.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2019/01/23/coal-is-not-dead-china-proves-it/#4637486d65fa

Responsible for 46% of global production and 51% of global demand, China's coal reliance is not falling nearly as fast as some like to claim

For demand, too many confuse the crucial difference between "growing less slowly" or remaining "buoyantly very high" versus "shrinking" or "declining." Similar to U.S. oil demand, China's coal consumption aligns with the first two. While it could indeed be said that Chinese coal demand has been relatively flat for a few years now, importantly, it hasn't been falling in the absolute sense.

For production, China’s December coal output was 2.1% higher than it was in 2017, hitting the highest level in over three years. The country started up new mines last year and then ramped up production to meet high winter demand. Due to domestic gas supply shortages in recent years, China has been softening its stance to displace coal heating with natural gas.

That report is from this year. If you believe that China is really accomplishing much when it comes to climate change.........

It's all easier said than done when it comes to reducing our usage of the things that are hastening climate change. That's the real problem. Take air travel, something I never do. Plenty of the most progressive people use air travel on a regular basis. Air travel is a huge contributor to climate change. There are just so many things that we would need to change to accomplish much in the way of reducing the impact of climate change, that I find it very difficult to be optimistic.

Talk is cheap. Change is very difficult. Meat eating is another big issue, but how many people are going vegan or even cutting way back on their meat eating? We humans have really fucked up the planet, especially those of us in the first world.

New report on climate change released today

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