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☆ Opinion | The Faustian Bargain of Reducing Air Pollution
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

This summer of extremes has been a summer of mystery, debate and even some confusion for climate scientists, who’ve been watching the news with the rest of us and asking, What, exactly, is going on? Is it just baseline global warming, trending upward, that explains the extreme temperatures on land and over sea? The arrival of a planet-warming El Niño in the Pacific? And when considering off-the-charts sea-surface temperatures, what role is being played by recent regulations designed to significantly reduce the sulfur emissions of ships, since less pollution in the air means more heat making its way to the water below? And almost certainly, the sulfur effect has been larger locally, along particular shipping routes in the world’s oceans, where some especially striking anomalies have been observed.

Persons: who’ve, what’s, alarmists, Robert Rohde Organizations: Berkeley Locations: Tonga, South, Phoenix

☆ July hit a crucial warming threshold that scientists have warned the world should stay under
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Rachel Ramirez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Copernicus scientists say it’s the first summer month that has surpassed 1.5 degrees, offering a glimpse of future summers. Scientists are particularly concerned that global temperature will stay above 1.5 degrees for the long term. Before that, the other months that have been 1.5 degrees warmer than pre-industrial times have occurred during winter or early spring. “The year-to-date average is still below 1.5 degrees Celsius, and we find it unlikely that the rest of 2023 will be warm enough to bring the whole year average above 1.5,” he said. Copernicus scientists noted that as El Niño continues to develop, the world may witness more of these unprecedented temperature breaches.

Persons: Rebecca Emerton, Copernicus, Emerton, “ We’ve, ” Emerton, Robert Rohde, ” Rohde, Rohde, “, ”, El Niño Organizations: CNN, Berkeley, Northern Locations: Paris

☆ Global heat in ‘uncharted territory’ as scientists warn 2023 could be the hottest year on record
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-08 | by ( Laura Paddison | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

It works like this: As the world burns fossil fuels and pumps out planet-heating pollution, global temperatures are steadily warming. David J. Phillip/APWhile the record temperatures may have been expected, the magnitude by which some have been broken has surprised some scientists. Historically, global heat records tend to topple in El Niño years, and the current record-holder, 2016, coincided with a strong El Niño. The world gets hung up on blockbuster records but “these heat records are not exciting numbers,” she told CNN. CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty ImagesUnheeded warningsFor climate scientists, this is the “I told you so” moment they never wanted.

Persons: –, Jennifer Francis, ” Carlo Buontempo, Copernicus, “, we’ve, ” Francis, El, ”, Friederike Otto, Andres Matamoros, David J, Phillip, Peter Stott, There’s, Robert Rohde, ” Otto, Prashanth Vishwanathan, Niño, El Niños, ” Stott, Otto said, “ Organizations: CNN, Climate Research, World Meteorological Organization, Grantham Institute, Climate, UK’s Met, ”, Bloomberg, Getty, Publishing Locations: Europe, Antarctica, Pacific, El, Houston, Berkeley, Patna, Bihar, India, Texas, Mexico, China, Beijing, Northern, Zhonghua, Handan, North China's Hebei

CNN —The planet’s temperature soared again on Thursday to levels not seen in the modern record-keeping era, marking the fourth straight day of record temperatures. On Monday, the average global temperature reached 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62 degrees Fahrenheit), the highest in the NCEP’s data, which goes back to 1979. On Tuesday it climbed to 17.18 degrees Celsius, where it remained on Wednesday. Before this week, the record in NCEP’s data was 16.92 degrees Celsius and was set in August 2016. Temperature records aren’t just numbers, “but for many people and ecosystems it’s a loss of life and livelihood.”

Persons: Jennifer Francis, Francis, Angel Garcia, Robert Rohde, Niño, “ It’s, ” Friederike Otto, ” Otto Organizations: CNN, University of Maine’s, US National Centers for Environmental, Climate Research, Bloomberg, Getty, Berkeley, El, Grantham Institute, Climate Locations: “, Seville, Spain

☆ 63 cruise ships owned by Carnival Corporation released more toxic sulfur gasses than all the cars in Europe, study says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Hannah Towey | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

63 cruise ships owned by Carnival Corp. emitted more sulfur oxides than all the cars in Europe in 2022. The cruise industry is investing in alternative energy sources such as LNG fuel and shore power. Though the IMO rule slashes the sulfur emissions of individual ships, it has done nothing to limit the increasing number of cruise ships in recent years. Compared to 2019, cruise ships are also spending more time at European ports and consuming more fuel, per the report. As a result, cruise ships overall emitted 9% more sulfur oxides in 2022 than in 2017, according to Transport & Environment.

Persons: MIGUEL MEDINA, Robert Rohde, — Dr, We're Organizations: Carnival Corp, European Federation for Transport, Environment, Carnival Corporation, International Maritime Organization, Transport & Environment, Cruise, Carnival Locations: Europe, Venice, AFP, Berkeley, Paris, New, York

☆ The planet saw its hottest day ever this week. The record will be broken again and again
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Laura Paddison | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —This week saw the hottest global temperature ever recorded, according to data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction. On Monday, the average global temperature reached 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62 Fahrenheit), the highest since records began. On Tuesday, it climbed even further, to reach 17.18 degrees Celsius. The average temperature for the month was 15.8 degrees Celsius (60.4 Fahrenheit), breaking the previous record by 0.9 degree Celsius. The new global average temperature record is another wake-up call, Otto told CNN.

Persons: Robert Rohde, It’s, ”, Friederike Otto, ” Paul Davies, Otto Organizations: CNN, US National Centers for Environmental, El, Grantham Institute, Climate, Met Office Locations: Berkeley, Texas, Mexico, India, Bihar, China

☆ Fact Check-Eight cooler years cannot be extrapolated to draw conclusions on long-term global warming
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

SHORT TERM FLUCTUATIONSGlobal surface temperatures are heavily influenced by annual Pacific Ocean patterns known as El Nino and La Nina, and collectively as ENSO (El Niño–Southern Oscillation). A large El Nino event followed by a La Nina can “lead to a temporary ‘pause’ in global temperatures over timescales of a decade or so”, Hausfather said. This is “what we are now seeing after the 2015/2016 super El Nino event”. Whenever there is a trend with variability like global temperatures, “you can isolate cherry-picked intervals and claim that something has paused or accelerated, but this is not appropriate”, Colose said. Temperature data for the past eight years do not reflect long-term trends, experts say, and longer-term data clearly show a continuing rise in overall global temperatures.

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