Study Asserts Climate Change Could Make South Asia Uninhabitable In Our Lifetime

Futurism - Chelsea Gohd

New research shows how, by the year 2100, many regions in South Asia could become so hot that humans could no longer survive there.

Foggy Morning India Gate. Prasenjeet Gautam

Climate Change
The consequences of climate change are not only real and imminent, but increasingly catastrophic.
Currently, climate change has been attributed to dangerously increasing temperatures, sea levels rising, the extinction of a variety of species, and much more.
Without fierce opposition, the effects of climate change will only become more and more destructive. Natural disasters, mass flooding, food shortages and other crises are all possible (some already happening, in fact) if current trends continue.
One part of the world may even become uninhabitable in our lifetime.
Elfatih Eltahir, a professor at MIT, recently published new research in the journal Science Advances that shows how, by the end of the century, areas in South Asia could be too hot for humans to survive there.
In a Skype interview from Khartoum, Sudan with CBC News, Eltahir said, “The risk of the impacts of climate change in that region could be quite severe.”
Eltahir and his colleagues analyzed this projected situation under two conditions: a “business-as-usual” model and a model in which we increase our efforts to mitigate emissions.
The team concluded that the “business-as-usual” model was not only most likely, but would yield unlivable conditions by the year 2100.


How long will deadly India heatwave continue? BBC News

The Only Way is Forward
The effects of the projected heat waves will not fall over sparse landscapes that would be easily escapable.
They will wash over the densely populated, agricultural areas of South Asia, directly threatening the lives of countless inhabitants who — because many of the people living there live in poverty — will be essentially trapped in the deadly conditions.
Climate change has already taken lives, and isn’t slowing down.
This deadly heat wave scenario would only be a piece of the puzzle in the year 2100.
Where will the people of the agricultural regions of South Asia go if the rest of the planet is also facing the catastrophic effects of global warming? (That is, of course, if they are able to leave at all in future socioeconomic conditions.)
The only way is forward, and the only way forward includes our best efforts against climate change.

Links

• Deadly heat waves projected in the densely populated agricultural regions of South Asia
• Parts of South Asia could be too hot to live in by end of century 
• Study suggests Earth to warm more than 2 C this century
• World temperatures hit new high in 2016 for 3rd year in row
• Farmer suicides rise in India as climate warms, study shows
• Study suggests Earth to warm more than 2 C this century
• Climate change before your eyes: Seas rise and trees die
• The world hit its warmest in 2016 — and it's getting hotter: study
• India records its hottest temperature ever of 51 C
• Rain brings little relief as India heat toll passes 2,200

Anti-Pipeline Campaigners Found Not Guilty By Judge Because 'Protest Against Climate Change Crisis' Was Legal 'Necessity'

The Independent - Andrew Buncombe

'We're part of the the movement that is standing up and saying we won’t let this go by on our watch'

More than a dozen protesters who clambered into holes dug for a high pressure gas pipeline said they had been found not responsible by a judge after hearing them argue their actions to try and stop climate change were a legal “necessity”.
Karenna Gore, the daughter of former Vice President Al Gore, was among more than 198 people who were arrested because of their 2015 actions protesting the pipeline in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. Thirteen people were to go on trial this week, though prosecutors downgraded their original criminal charges to one of civil infraction.

Karenna Gore said the protesters were part of a movement that was not allowed to let such things happen 'on our watch'.

Speaking outside the court afterwards, Ms Gore, 44, Director of the Centre for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York, said the court’s decision was historic. “What happened today was really important,” she said.
“The people….were found not responsible by reason of necessity. The irony is that we are making ourselves responsible. We’re part of the the movement that is standing up and saying we won’t let this go by on our watch. We won’t act like nothing’s wrong.”
On Tuesday, Judge Mary Ann Driscoll of West Roxbury District Court, found all 13 defendants not responsible, the equivalent of not guilty in a criminal case. She did so after each of the defendants addressed the judge and explained why they were driven to try and halt the pipeline’s construction.

Roxbury Defendants

Marla Marcum of the Climate Change Disobedience Centre, which supported the activists, said that each of the 13 had addressed the judge about why they had been part of the protests against the pipeline, which was constructed by Houston-based company Spectra Energy.
“At the end, she said they were all not responsible by reason of legal necessity,” she said. She said the group had an audio recording of the hearing which it intended to post online.
Neither Ms Driscoll or the court clerk was available for comment. However, one member of the court’s staff who asked not to be named, told The Independent the judge had found them not responsible. The person denied, however, that the judge had made the ruling on the grounds of legal necessity.

The environmentalist and academic Bill McKibben, who was to appear as a defence witness for the defendants, said on Twitter: “Good golly! A few minutes ago a Boston judge acquitted 13 pipeline protesters on the grounds that the climate crisis made it necessary for them to commit civil disobedience. This may be a first in America.”
Spectra Energy, which was last year bought by the Canadian firm Enbridge Inc, did not immediately respond to inquiries.


Mothers Out Front in West Roxbury

Links

• Exciting News from West Roxbury
• West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline in Boston Criminal Trial Downgraded
• West Roxbury Pipeline Protestors Arrested
• Judge: Anti-Pipeline Activists' Acts Necessary To Fight Climate Change

AGL Lines Liddell Up For Pumped Storage, Dismisses Chinese 'Approach'

Fairfax - Peter Hannam

AGL Energy is proceeding with plans to replace its Liddell power station with other energy sources including pumped hydro, dismissing a report that a Chinese textile group offered to buy the ailing power plant.
The nation's biggest energy company said it had not had any approach from Shandong Ruyi, the owner of the giant Cubbie Station cotton farm.
A News Corp newspaper reported the Chinese firm had contacted the Prime Minister's office in December, indicating an interest in buying the Hunter Valley power plant that AGL plans to close in 2022.

AGL Energy's Liddell power plant, with Lake Liddell in the foreground, and the company's Bayswater power plant behind. Photo: Simone De Peak

"We remain committed to our NSW Generation Plan as the most economic way to fully replace the Liddell plant, as reviewed and confirmed by [the Australian Energy Market Operator]," an AGL spokesman said.
It's understood the PM's office did not inform AGL of any Chinese interest and considers the report to be a "non-story".
Minister for the Environment and Energy, Josh Frydenberg, told Sky News he was "aware there had been expressions of interest" in Liddell "but it is up to those companies to directly approach AGL".
Doug Jackson, an AGL executive group manager, told Fairfax Media that Lake Liddell - which currently provides cooling for the adjacent power station - is one of two sites in the Hunter now being looked at for possible pumped hydro.
The two plants, still at the pre-feasibility stage, were in the order of 200-250 megawatts of capacity each, compared with the 1680-MW capacity of the coal-fired plant.
Pumped hydro typically requires an upper and lower reservoir. During times of low-cost power - such as during windy days - the operator pumps water to the higher reservoir, to be released to generate hydropower when power prices are high.
Don Harwin, the NSW Minister for Energy, said the state was keen to boost pumped hydro, particularly to support the three renewable energy priority zones announced last week. An Australian National University study last year identified 8600 such sites in NSW, and the Berejiklian government is looking to prioritise development of the most promising pumped storage areas.
“Pumped hydro is 'nature’s battery' and the world’s most established bulk energy storage technology, making up 97 per cent of global energy storage capacity,” Mr Harwin said.
“We need a mix of generation sources to maintain our security into the future. If we can harness our natural assets we can have an affordable, clean and secure energy future for NSW,” he said.
AGL's Mr Jackson declined to specify the location of the second Hunter site. He added that mine voids could be among the suitable locations.
Either project, though, could turn out to be much cheaper and faster to build than the much bigger Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro plan touted by the Turnbull government.
Current estimates put the cost of that project at more than $2000 per megawatt of storage, or in excess of $4 billion.
"Lake Liddell is a pretty easy one to get going in a few short years," Mr Jackson said, noting the existing access to power transmission among its advantages.

The Snowy Hydro 2.0 project has been touted by the Turnbull government. Photo: Supplied

Links

• NSW government's power plan reveals huge renewable energy resources
• Revealing The Dark Side Of Liddell, From Power Failures To Distorted Debate
• A Future Without Coal-Fired Power Stations Is Inevitable
• AGL Rebuffs Malcolm Turnbull And Commits To Ditching Liddell Power Station For Gas, Wind And Solar
• Why South Australia Must, And Will, Lead World On Renewables
• 'Worst Fears': States Prepare To Highlight The Negatives In Turnbull's Energy Plan
• Australia Could Be 'World Leader' In Energy Storage Despite Public Skepticism
• Let’s Be Honest: Australia Is Well Behind On Renewables

Marine Heatwave Recorded In Tasman Sea Breaks Records, Prompts Joint Climate Report

ABC News - Carla Howarth

Warm water events have taken their toll on Tasmania's kelp forests. (Mick Baron: Eaglehawk Dive Centre)

The Tasman Sea experienced a "marine heatwave" over summer that pushed the surface temperature to a record high, climate scientists say.

Following a particularly hot summer on both sides of the Tasman and in between, the Bureau of Meteorology and New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research teamed up to release a "special climate statement".
New Zealand's summer was the hottest ever recorded, while Tasmania had its hottest November-January on record.
"Tasmania had its warmest November on record and its second-warmest December and second-warmest January," senior BOM climatologist Dr Blair Trewin said.
"In New Zealand, they had their hottest summer on record and January was their hottest month on record, so it was exceptionally warm on both sides of the Tasman."
Dr Trewin said the water surface temperature in the southern Tasman Sea was also exceptionally high.
"They were more than two degrees above average in December and part of January," he said.

Tasmania had its hottest November on record in 2017. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)

"And for the November to January period, they were easily the highest on record — 0.6 of a degree on any other year."
Dr Trewin said the record temperatures were caused by a "very persistent" belt of high pressure from Tasmania to New Zealand in November last year that remained stationary for three weeks.
"That allowed the ocean waters to heat up under very constant sunshine without being disturbed," he said.
"Ocean waters take a long time to warm up or cool down, so they stayed persistently warm right through until the end of January before coming back a bit closer to average in February," Dr Trewin said.
Tasmania's waters have experienced a number of marine heatwaves in recent years, taking its toll on abalone stocks and kelp forests.

Urge to document 'major climate event'
The collaboration was a first between the two organisations, who said the purpose of the report was to "document major events and act as a historical record".
"Sea surface temperatures in the southern Tasman Sea rose to exceptionally high levels in late 2017 and early 2018," the report begins.

"These temperatures were far above any others previously observed at that time of year in the region, and extended west from New Zealand to Tasmania and mainland southeast Australia."

Dr Trewin said scientists had identified a long-term warming trend in the world's oceans.
"You're seeing these extremes emerge in different places in individual years but when you look at the overall number of significant marine heatwaves, it's only going in one direction and that's upwards," he said.

Alarm over extreme weather events
Acting Climate Council CEO Dr Martin Rice said the weather patterns were alarming.

"For Australia to tackle climate change and curb current extreme weather trends, we need to quickly and deeply cut our greenhouse gas pollution by continuing our transition to clean, affordable and reliable renewable energy and storage technologies," he said.

"Worsening climate change, driven by the burning of coal, oil and gas, is causing temperatures to rise at unprecedented rates and is making extreme weather events across Australia and elsewhere more intense, damaging and costly.
"As 2018 gets underway, we've already seen the country hit with a series of extreme weather events, including tropical cyclones, severe heatwaves, intense rainfall and bushfires."

Links

• Special Climate Statement—record warmth in the Tasman Sea, New Zealand and Tasmania (pdf)
• Australian and NZ weather experts issue joint statement
• Tasmanian marine heatwave longest since records began
• BOM annual climate statement shows 2017 was Australia's third-warmest year on record
• Abalone industry heading for collapse without urgent action, warn veteran divers