https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas

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http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33287

Record temperatures across much of the world over the past two weeks could make July the hottest month ever measured on Earth, according to climate scientists.

The past fortnight has seen freak heat in the Canadian Arctic, crippling droughts in Chennai and Harare and forest fires that forced thousands of holidaymakers to abandon campsites in southern France and prompted the air force in Indonesia to fly cloud-busting missions in the hope of inducing rain.

If the trends of the first half of this month continue, it will beat the previous record from July 2017 by about 0.025C, according to calculations by Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist at the University of Oxford, and others.

This follows the warmest-ever June, which was confirmed this week by data from the US space agency Nasa, following Europe’s Copernicus satellite monitoring system.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/16/july-on-course-to-be...

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Rising methane: A new climate challenge

Sara E. Mikaloff Fletcher, Hinrich Schaefer

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Science  07 Jun 2019:

Vol. 364, Issue 6444, pp. 932-933

DOI: 10.1126/science.aax1828

In 2007, the amount of methane in the atmosphere (CH4) began to rise after a 7-year period of near-zero growth (1). Recent research shows that a second step change occurred in 2014 (2). From 2014 to at least the end of 2018, the amount of CH4 in the atmosphere increased at nearly double the rate observed since 2007 (see the figure). Because CH4 is a potent greenhouse gas, rising atmospheric CH4 presents a major challenge to achieving the goals set out in the Paris Agreement, an international consensus to limit temperature increase to 2°C or, if possible, to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels.

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https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6444/932

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Conclusion: If I understand the full article (in print), the more "new" CH4 in the atmosphere, the less the concentration of 13C (carbon 13 isotope) in CH4 by comparison. Thus it is important to gauge the carbon 13 isotope versus normal carbon 12 to verify satellite readings of increase in CH4. Apparently, the only observatory of 13C in the methane equation, in the south Atlantic is Ascension Island, yet this observatory is about to be closed down...

We're in deep shit.

The chief executive of the world’s largest mining company has endorsed drastic action to combat global warming, which he calls “indisputable”, and an emerging crisis.

“The planet will survive. Many species may not,” the BHP chief executive officer, Andrew Mackenzie, told a business breakfast in London on Tuesday. “This is a confronting conclusion but as a veteran geologist once said, ‘you can’t argue with a rock’.”

Mackenzie endorsed carbon pricing but said it was not enough to combat the looming threat of mass extinctions and major sea rises.

Do you remember the good old days when we had "12 years to save the planet"?

Now it seems, there's a growing consensus that the next 18 months will be critical in dealing with the global heating crisis, among other environmental challenges. 

Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that to keep the rise in global temperatures below 1.5C this century, emissions of carbon dioxide would have to be cut by 45% by 2030. 

But today, observers recognise that the decisive, political steps to enable the cuts in carbon to take place will have to happen before the end of next year. 

The idea that 2020 is a firm deadline was eloquently addressed by one of the world's top climate scientists, speaking back in 2017.

"The climate math is brutally clear: While the world can't be healed within the next few years, it may be fatally wounded by negligence until 2020," said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founder and now director emeritus of the Potsdam Climate Institute.

The sense that the end of next year is the last chance saloon for climate change is becoming clearer all the time.

"I am firmly of the view that the next 18 months will decide our ability to keep climate change to survivable levels and to restore nature to the equilibrium we need for our survival," said Prince Charles, speaking at a reception for Commonwealth foreign ministers recently.

• 'No brainer' fuel change to cut transport CO2
• Used cooking oil imports may boost deforestation
• Government 'like Dad's Army' on climate change

The Prince was looking ahead to a series of critical UN meetings that are due to take place between now and the end of 2020. 

Ever since a global climate agreement was signed in Paris in December 2015, negotiators have been consumed with arguing about the rulebook for the pact. 

But under the terms of the deal, countries have also promised to improve their carbon-cutting plans by the end of next year.

Read more:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48964736

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Not the inconvenient truth anymore... The brutal truth it is:

With 41.2 ° C, Bordeaux beat its absolute heat record on Tuesday, while France faces its second heat wave episode in less than a month and a record of 80 departments are now on alert.

The mercury indicated 41.2 ° C at the Bordeaux-Mérignac station around 16h15, breaking the record of 40.7 ° C dating from August 4, 2003. Other records also fell in Angers, with 40.7 ° C ( against 39.8 ° C in 1947), Rennes (40.1 ° C) or Blois (40 ° C).

Several absolute records beaten in New Aquitaine

Records had already fallen Tuesday morning, with a night that had never been so hot in the Southwest: 24.8 ° C in Bordeaux, 25.1 ° C in Toulouse-Francazal, 23.7 ° C in Saint -Martial-Viveyrols in Dordogne, 22.9 ° C in Montlieu-la-Garde in Charente-Maritime, or 23.6 ° C in Réaup-Lisse in Lot-et-Garonne.

In New Aquitaine, in addition to Bordeaux, Limoges also broke its absolute heat record with 37.9 ° C (against 37.3 ° C on July 16, 2015). Record also beat for Tusson in Charente with 40.9 ° C (against 40.1 ° C on August 7, 2003) and Brive-la-Gaillarde with 42.1 ° C (against 41.4 ° C on July 16, 2015). Cognac also broke its record with 40.3 ° C, as well as Saint-Martial-Viveyrols (40.7 ° C) or Socoa (39.7 ° C).

Read more:

https://www.sudouest.fr/2019/07/23/bordeaux-record-de-chaleur-absolu-bat...

Translation by Jules Letambour.

Scientists have released alarming new satellite images showing enormous wildfires spreading across the Arctic Circle, with potentially dire consequences for the environment.

• Snow forests are burning at a rate not seen in at least 10,000 years
• More than 100 wildfires have been recorded across the Arctic Circle

• In June, the fires emitted more CO2 than some European countries do in a year 

The fires are raging as heatwaves plague Europe and the US, and come after the planet experienced its hottest June on record. 

In recent years the earth's boreal forests — the world's northernmost forests, which stretch across vast swathes of land in Alaska, eastern Siberia and Greenland — have been burning at a rate that has not been seen in at least 10,000 years, according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

While wildfires are common in Alaska, the fires spreading across Siberia were "in northern areas where you don't usually expect these many fires," satellite photography expert Pierre Markuse told the ABC.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-25/arctic-circle-burns-as-heatwaves-...

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