Notices by Ed Hawkins (ed_hawkins@fediscience.org)

Carbon dioxide emissions -> Global warming -> Increase in UK temperatures -> More intense UK rainfall -> Higher risk of flooding

2023 was the warmest year on record globally by a large margin. Another dark red stripe gets added, though I think I need a new colour.
#ShowYourStripes

The small-scale, but high-profile, disruptions caused by Just Stop Oil protesters in the UK are extremely frustrating for many. But their single demand – for no licenses for new UK coal, oil and gas projects – is consistent with the science underpinning the international agreements that the UK has signed.

https://theconversation.com/science-shows-the-severe-climate-consequences-of-new-fossil-fuel-extraction-210846

The science is clear: burning existing & already planned fossil fuel reserves means global warming will exceed 1.5°C level & possibly 2°C.

This would break the commitments that every country made in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Choices:

(1) Expand fossil fuel infrastructure & let the globe continue to rapidly warm.

(2) Expand fossil fuel infrastructure & rely on capturing emissions in largely unproven ways.

(3) Invest in proven alternatives to rapidly reduce & then phase out fossil fuel use.

Yes, the climate has always changed.

But, the speed of recent change is unprecedented.

More importantly, we understand why.

Burning fossil fuels & deforestation adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere which warms the planet.

Simple physics. Understood for more than a century.

#EarthDay

85 years ago.

In April 1938, Guy Callendar published his seminal paper showing that Earth’s land areas had warmed over the previous 50 years.

He also suggested that man-made CO₂ emissions had caused around half of the observed warming.

85 years ago.

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/qj.49706427503