Green Climate Seeker

Tag: Extinction Rebellion

  • Global Temperatures Rise: How Global Warming Fuels Extreme Weather?

    Global Temperatures Rise: How Global Warming Fuels Extreme Weather?

    When global temperatures rise, they give more heat energy to the atmosphere. This in turn can make droughts and wildfires worse and lead to flooding when it rains.

    Scientists are studying how these extreme events may be linked to climate change. To understand this emerging field, Carbon Brief has mapped every attribution study on the subject to date.

    Climate Change

    For decades, engineers, land-use planners and risk managers have used thermometers, rain gauges and satellite data to calculate the probability of extreme weather events. But a warming planet is making those events more frequent and intense – with consequences felt throughout the country.

    The human-caused rise in greenhouse gases traps heat and warms Earth’s air and oceans, causing the water cycle to shift, changing weather patterns, and melting land ice. It’s also increasing the strength of storms, affecting their size and where they form, and increasing the amount of rainfall associated with hurricanes and other tropical cyclones.

    Warming temperatures are also boosting sea level, which increases the impact of coastal storms and puts more stress on freshwater supplies during droughts. The warmer atmosphere also holds more water vapor, which leads to more frequent and severe flooding, especially in urban areas with poor drainage.

    A growing number of climate-related disasters are occurring in the United States, from hotter summer temperatures to more frequent and severe wildfires. But it can be challenging to attribute any single event to global warming because many factors, like natural climate variability and regional variations, can affect the odds of a particular weather event.

    A new study from Stanford researchers, however, reveals that the common scientific approach to predicting the likelihood of an extreme event by analyzing how frequently similar events occurred in the past can significantly underestimate those chances. The findings can improve how scientists assess and incorporate global warming into predictions of future extreme weather.

    Weather Patterns

    The Earth’s rising temperatures can intensify extreme weather events, such as heat waves, heavy rain and floods, and droughts. Scientists can confidently attribute the increase in these events to human-caused climate change, but it is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of individual events.

    To understand how global warming influences extreme events, scientists use a combination of history and models. They compare observations from Earth, air, sea and space to the results of climate models that simulate how the planet’s climate changes over time. This is called event attribution. Scientists also look at human activities that can amplify the impact of extreme weather, such as urban planning, wetland destruction and building homes in floodplains.

    For example, rising ocean temperatures can make category 3 and higher Atlantic hurricanes more severe because they absorb more energy from the warm waters. Global warming can also make rainfall more intense, which can lead to more flooding and land erosion.

    Researchers have conducted hundreds of event attribution studies for the most common types of extreme weather. This interactive map shows how many of these studies find that human activity has made the event more likely or severe (red), less likely or severe (yellow) or no influence at all (blue). Click on a circle or hexagon to see the number of studies in each category.

    This map is updated annually to include new studies. The dotted lines show the range of confidence in the findings: high confidence means that the finding is very likely due to human activity, medium confidence means that the finding is likely due to human activity, and low confidence means that the finding is not very likely or may be inconclusive.

    The map includes studies of the three most common types of extreme weather: heat waves, heavy rain and flooding, and droughts. Studies of 152 extreme heat events found that human activity made the event more likely or severe, while only one study of a drought found no effect. This year’s study of 126 flood events and 85 droughts showed similar results. Scientists have less confidence in the effects of climate change on extreme cold events, and they are inconclusive about the effects of changing sea levels on storm surges and coastal flooding.

    Weather Forecasting

    Weather forecasting has evolved from a manual process involving hand-counted thermometers and rainfall gauges to computer-based models that take many atmospheric factors into account. But human input is still required to select the most appropriate model and evaluate its accuracy. This requires pattern recognition skills, knowledge of the climate system, teleconnections and experience evaluating model performance over time.

    Weather experts are able to save lives by alerting people when dangerous conditions are coming and giving them the chance to prepare for what’s ahead. They also help governments at the local, state and national levels understand what areas are under threat so that they can prepare accordingly and make sure essential services are available to residents who need them.

    But a growing body of evidence shows that global warming is making extreme weather events more likely. And that’s creating new risks for people and the economy. For example, sea level rise makes it more likely that more coastal storms will produce flooding, while warmer temperatures cause land ice to melt, which in turn can add water to the world’s oceans.

    Warming also contributes to drier conditions, as moisture evaporates more easily from soil and water bodies. This can lead to wildfires, and it can increase the intensity of droughts, as seen in California this summer.

    Engineers, land-use planners and risk managers have long used historic weather records to calculate the probability of certain extreme events. But a new Stanford study reveals that not accounting for the influence of climate change when predicting future events can significantly underestimate their likelihood, with potentially devastating consequences for humans. This is because the lower atmosphere is becoming warmer and moister due to greenhouse gas emissions, a factor that can make some extreme events more likely.

    Climate Models

    Scientists use computer models to create simulations of our climate – everything from how moisture evaporates off the Earth’s surface and forms clouds, to where wind carries them and where rain falls. The interactions of these small-scale processes add up to the overall picture of our climate system, which includes how temperatures vary over time and place.

    The models can help predict extreme weather by simulating a range of different scenarios, for example how the occurrence and intensity of hot days or heavy rainfall would be affected by human-caused climate change. For the most accurate results, scientists compare model output with real climate data from a number of sources. This process is called “bias correction,” and it’s a critical part of the modelling process, according to Maraun.

    As we’ve seen in the devastation from wildfires and floods across western Europe, the window of predictability for extreme weather is shrinking as our planet warms. And that’s a problem, because engineers, land-use planners and risk managers use the frequency of extreme events to estimate the likelihood of costly impacts such as heat waves or flooding.

    A recent study by Stanford University professor Noah Diffenbaugh found that a common scientific approach to estimating the odds of such events, based on historical observations, can significantly underestimate the effects of global warming. By analyzing how frequently extreme events occurred in the past and comparing them with future predictions, the researchers found that even small increases in global warming amplify the frequency of hot spells and downpours.

    In contrast, models that take the rate of climate change into account perform better at predicting temperature trends over time. The higher resolution of some newer models – down to grids 2 kilometres squared – may also help them get more accurate with regional extremes, such as the heatwave that hit North America last summer.

    It’s important to remember, though, that the current extremes we are experiencing were already predicted by climate models, and the predictions will only become more accurate as our understanding of the climate system improves. And as we continue to reduce emissions, models will be able to better predict how global warming affects the chances of hot days and heavy rainfall in the future.

  • How to Get Involved in Climate Activism

    How to Get Involved in Climate Activism

    Climate Activism is a worldwide social movement that advocates pressing governments and industry to take action against climate change. This movement has many goals, including helping the environment. Specifically, climate change and the impacts of climate change are its main priorities. However, there are many ways to get involved. These include social media, organizing protests, and joining a school strike for climate.

    Social media

    While social media has often promoted polarization, it is also a tool that can be used to foster healthy dialogue and understanding about climate change. This type of mediation usually seeks a middle ground compromise, and advocates believe that converting skeptics to support climate change policy is a critical step in the process.

    Activists have turned to social media to promote their campaigns, share data, and connect with other people. For example, the environmental sector is increasingly using social media to help ordinary citizens track air quality and water quality in their own communities. The rise of hashtags and geotags has made it possible for ordinary people to access and share this data.

    But using social media to advocate for climate justice has its challenges. Youth activists, for instance, often experience harassment and death threats from online trolls. They also struggle to navigate misogynistic spaces. Using social media as a tool to raise awareness about climate change is important for youth activists.

    Despite the fact that the climate strikes garnered global coverage, engagement levels on climate change stories have been much lower than those for other stories about climate change. But on social media, the strikes generated more conversation in real time. Twitter posts that featured climate strikes received more Likes and Angries than other stories on climate change. Yet climate strikes have also divided audiences in the comment sections. Although the top ten most-engaged posts on Facebook were generally positive, most comments were divided into two camps: one group of people who shared positive messages about the strikes. In contrast, those who were anti-climate activists were generally less positive in comments.

    Extinction Rebellion

    In the UK, Extinction Rebellion has gained significant ground as a climate activist group. This group has successfully shut down cities and engaged in disruptive civil disobedience. Today, they have activists in 75 countries. The group is widely regarded as the most radical climate activist group.

    The Extinction Rebellion is a global movement that calls on the government to take action on climate change and species loss. It has recently impacted the city of London, with the protests shutting down five iconic locations and causing over a thousand arrests. It has the backing of many individuals, who share their beliefs and want to see a change in government policy.

    The group was able to create a unique language for climate change protests, which was rooted in cultural signs and symbols. These visual forms connect people’s bodies and ideas and advocate non-violent civil disobedience and direct action. The group’s three demands are to end global warming and halt the escalating rate of global warming.

    Extinction Rebellion has blocked the Oxford Circus in August and erected a giant table in Covent Garden. The group’s campaigning strategy has evolved since its first campaigns in 2017 and 2018. However, the group has cut down on the antagonising of the public in recent years. After years of causing disruption and arrests, they have shifted their focus to building a larger movement and systemic change.

    School Strike for Climate

    The UN Climate Summit, taking place at the end of this month, is meant to put pressure on countries to meet tougher climate targets and accelerate the transition to renewable energy. The Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015 set a target of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius. However, each country has its own carbon emissions target and is expected to ramp up their emissions over time. The goal of the strike is to raise awareness about the root causes of global warming and demand a more urgent response from governments.

    The movement started as a grassroots effort in Sweden, where students skipped classes to protest climate change. It quickly spread throughout Europe, and in the United States, the school strike movement took off. The strikes were inspired by Greta Thunberg, who became an international figurehead when she demonstrated outside the Swedish Parliament. Thunberg refused to attend class until politicians responded to her demands.

    The school strike is a powerful way to bring awareness to the climate crisis and make the case for a more sustainable future. With the help of innovative technology, school strikers around the world can connect to one another and make their voices heard. This global stream of content is forcing politicians to rethink their policies on climate change.

    International Youth Climate Movement

    As a 10th grader, Ella is active in the International Youth Climate Movement (JYCM) and leads the Manhattan chapter. She is passionate about environmental justice and was inspired by the recent global climate strike to get involved. She believes that every person can make a difference and wants to inspire people to live a sustainable lifestyle. Ella is also an avid reader and soccer player.

    The global youth climate movement is incredibly diverse, but has one thing in common: the need to make a difference. It is linked to a shared fear of the uncertain future and an increasing frustration with the status quo. The youth climate movement is a result of an emerging global concern about climate change and a collective disregard of the issue by world leaders.

    This movement started in Sweden, where Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old activist, started skipping school every Friday to protest against climate change. She has since been joined by over one million other students around the world. The first global youth climate strike, on March 15th, saw protests in over 100 countries. This year’s strike is expected to have even more participation.

    Elijah, a rising senior in West Hartford, CT, is involved in several student groups on campus. He is a member of LEFTY, the Lexington Federation of Temple Youth, and Diversify Our Narrative, a student-run coalition focused on improving educational curricula and improving student mental health. He also writes for Student Newswire, an independent student news organization. He is committed to bringing positive change through the JYCM.

    Citizens’ Assemblies

    The Citizens’ Assembly for Climate Activism report is filled with information and recommendations for addressing the problem of climate change. It emphasizes the need for citizen-led climate change response. It also highlights the need to balance competing values in the fight against global warming. Moreover, it highlights the importance of information, education, and greener products and services.

    The Assembly was organized in the UK by six parliamentary select committees. It brought together 108 citizens who learnt about the climate crisis and discussed a goal to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The participants were drawn from all strata of society, including those who have little or no awareness of climate change.

    While CAs are an important step towards climate policy reform, they must be well-designed to make citizens aware of the scale of the challenge. This means using robust rules and establishing a genuine public debate. Moreover, comparison of the assemblies in France and the UK shows that many improvements need to be made. Although the two assemblies took place simultaneously, their outcomes were very different.

    Citizens’ Assemblies are a great way to start a dialogue. They give citizens a chance to voice their opinions and help to create new legislation. These meetings can also help bridge polarizing divides and bring about innovative policies.

    Citizens’ Climate Network

    Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) is an organization with members throughout the United States and Canada that advocates for climate legislation. Its stated mission is to build political will for a climate-friendly future by inspiring individual action. With an international headquarters in Coronado, California, and a national office in Sudbury, Ontario, CCL works through local grassroots organizing and media outreach.

    CCL supports climate social action projects around the world. This includes developing resources to educate and engage the public about climate change. It also sponsors a virtual workshop to help organizations and individuals amplify climate action around the world. The goal of the workshop is to increase public awareness of the need to address climate change and promote climate justice.

    The Citizens’ Climate Lobby is committed to creating a climate justice movement that is accessible to all. This movement includes many young people who are holding decision-makers accountable for their actions. They are holding the older generation to account for their mistakes and are proving themselves to be invaluable contributors to climate action. They are innovators, activists, and entrepreneurs who are applying their talents to help move the world forward.

    The EIDCA (Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act) is a bipartisan approach to combating climate change. The goal is to preserve a habitable planet for future generations. According to a Columbia University study, the EIDCA will lead to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution while creating a transition to cleaner energy sources. It will also have a positive financial impact on low and middle-income households.