Humans have 'lost control' of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melting - and it could cause global sea levels to rise by 3.2 FEET by 2100, study warns
Here we go again! Yes. The volcanoes under it do cause West Antarctic glaciers to calve at times but it is nothing to do with global warming. Otherwise the whole ice-sheet would melt. The East is actually gaining mass. It is just a fraudulent scare below
Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey say that the inevitable melting from heating caused by greenhouse gas emissions is set to raise sea levels throughout the following decades.
Even if emissions are controlled to achieve the best possible scenario, melting of the ice sheet will continue to accelerate this century, at a speed three times faster than during the 20th century.
If it melts completely, the ice sheet will release enough water to raise sea levels worldwide by 17ft (5.3 metres).
However, scientists say that it is 'only' likely to make them rise by 3.2ft (one metre) by the end of the century.
Warming oceans, that are absorbing excess heat from the atmosphere, erode the ice sheet from underneath and this effect is most pronounced on the western side of the continent.
Scientists are unsure how much this is likely to contribute towards global sea level rise but if the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet melted it would contribute around five metres, though this scenario is seen as unlikely to happen.
East Antarctica, which contains around 95 per cent of the continent's ice, remains stable as far as scientists can see, with a recent study finding the amount of ice has been increasing there over the past 30 years, though it is rapidly melting in the west with a net loss of around 7.5 trillion tonnes of ice.
How much this melting will contribute to rising oceans is not as well understood as other polar regions such as the Greenland glaciers.
Dr Kaitlin Naughten of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and lead author of the study said other research beyond her own points to it contributing to around one metre of sea level rise by 2100.
Describing her findings, she said: 'It appears we may have lost control of the West Antarctic Ice Shelf melting over the 21st century.
'Our actions today likely will make a difference further down the line in the 22nd century and beyond, but that's a timescale that probably none of us here will be around to see.'
The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, has been described by scientists as 'sobering' as it points to an inevitable rising of sea levels that will likely devastate many coastal communities if they do not adapt.
Already in the UK the Welsh village of Fairbourne is scheduled for abandonment in the 2050s by Gwynedd Council after it announced it will no longer keep up sea defences.
Millions of people around the world live by the coast and will either have to 'build around' the threat or 'be abandoned', Dr Naughten said, who added that controlling emissions would result in slower sea level rise which would give people more time to adapt.
For the current study, Dr Naughten's BAS team simulated four scenarios for the current century against a historic baseline of the previous one, imagining that emissions are either controlled to rein in the global temperature rise to 1.5C or 2C above pre-industrial levels or that emissions continue at a medium or high level.
Every scenario showed there would be widespread warming of the Amundsen sea, which borders West Antarctica, resulting in faster melting of the ice sheets.
The various emissions pathways did not show much difference until around 2045, when the high-emissions simulation began to increase the rate of melting faster than the other scenarios.
Other scientists cautioned against viewing the results of the study as being absolutely conclusive as they are based on a single model, but that it is in line with other similar studies.
Professor Alberto Naveira Garabato, an oceanographer at the University of Southampton, said: 'This is a sobering piece of research.
'It illustrates how our past choices have likely committed us to substantial melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and its consequent sea level rise – to which we will inevitably have to adapt as a society over coming decades and centuries.
'However, it should also serve as a wake up call. We can still save the rest of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, containing about 10 times as many metres of sea level rise, if we learn from our past inaction and start reducing greenhouse gas emissions now.'
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EU proposes delaying more green rules amid opposition
Europe’s executive arm is proposing a two-year delay in implementing a key element of its sustainable finance framework, as complaints mount that businesses can’t keep up.
The European Commission said cutting red tape is critical to ensuring that the region’s companies remain competitive, according to a document laying out its agenda for 2024. That means extending the deadline for adoption of sectoral elements of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, or ESRS, currently due to come into force in June 2024.
“This will provide an immediate reduction in the reporting burden for in-scope companies,” small and medium-sized firms, the commission said.
The development is the latest sign of a pushback against Europe’s ambitions to swiftly respond to climate change and social inequality, and steer its economy toward a more sustainable model. An 11th-hour attempt on Wednesday by members of the EU’s parliament to entirely rework the ESRS failed, in a vote of 359-261.
Other corners of Europe’s ESG framework are also likely to be reworked. The commission is reviewing the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, its ESG investing rulebook. And this week, the EU announced that it’s seeking stakeholder input as it reconsiders Europe’s taxonomy of sustainable business activities amid a steady drumbeat of complaints that companies can’t meet the welter of new rules within existing deadlines.
The commission has pledged to reduce reporting requirements generally by 25%, and said it will cooperate with the European Parliament and the Council “to ensure all forthcoming proposals take into account the need to reduce burdens while preserving their policy objectives.”
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Much of the world’s gas comes from Hamas headquarters. This war could affect us all
HAMAS is headquartered in Qatar
The brutal Hamas attacks on Israel and the continuing military response to them have given rise to many questions related to regional and global energy security in recent days.
As is always the case whenever new conflicts arise in the Middle East, the direction of oil prices was the first question on many analysts’ minds. The market’s response thus far has been fairly muted, with crude prices rising by about 5 per cent at the start of Friday trading. That trend appears likely to continue absent some significant escalation of the conflict outside of Israel and Gaza, or a decision by officials in the Biden administration to restart enforcement of US sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, which they quietly stopped performing late in 2022.
With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising a ground campaign to eradicate Hamas and President Joe Biden pledging full US support, other questions around regional and global energy security are also being raised. Prominent among them is the status of the government in Qatar, and the country’s exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) that serve as a vital source of sorely needed natural gas supplies across Asia, Europe and the UK.
The questions surrounding Qatar arise chiefly from its strong ties to both Hamas and Iran, which serves as Hamas’s major funder and sponsor. Hamas maintains its head office in Qatar’s capital city of Doha and receives a good deal of its funding from the Qatari government. According to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Qatar has provided between $360 million-$480 million annually to Hamas in recent years, enabling the funding of social services and strengthening the terrorist group’s grip on power in Gaza.
Qatar’s strong ties to both Hamas and Iran give rise to concerns it could become entangled in the response by Israel and the US to the terrorist attacks. Qatar’s ties to Iran were a factor in an agreement between the US and Iran to pick Doha banks as repositories for the $6 billion in funds released to Iran’s government by the Biden administration as part of a hostage exchange between the two countries in September.
Following Hamas’s attacks on Israel, that $6 billion became a flashpoint of criticism for the Biden government, with allegations Iran had used the money to fund Hamas’s operations. The New York Times reported on Thursday that, following days of negotiations, Qatar’s government has agreed to refreeze those funds and deny Iran’s government access to them.
When asked about such an agreement with Qatar, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken did not overtly confirm it, but did claim, “none of the funds that have now gone to Qatar have actually been spent or accessed in any way by Iran.” White House spokesman John Kirby was similarly noncommittal when asked the same question, but did go on record saying, “Every single dime of that money is still sitting in a Qatari bank. Not one dime of it has been spent.”
Regardless of the actual status of those funds, the reports of Qatari cooperation with the US related to their disposal should somewhat ease concerns about ongoing availability of the country’s LNG exports.
There is little question about the vital role Qatar plays in supplying the global LNG market. Prior to 2022, the UK had regularly sourced the majority of its LNG imports from Qatar. But the vast increase in US LNG exports in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine enabled it to surpass Qatar as the UK’s biggest LNG trading partner, supplying more than half of all UK imports. Records maintained by the UK government show Qatar still supplying more than a 30 per cent share of British LNG needs, and a similar share of overall European imports. Natural gas is vital for power generation, heating, industry and other uses.
Asia is the other main destination for Qatari LNG, receiving 70 per cent of Qatar’s exports during 2021. Major Asian importers include China, South Korea, India, Japan and Pakistan. Any disruptions of Qatar’s LNG exports would result in major economic impacts across both the European and Asian continents.
Qatar’s geographic positioning near the mid-point of the Persian Gulf serves as a key factor here. This reality yet again highlights the critical nature of the ability to maintain the open flow of shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow choke point connecting the Persian Gulf to the world’s oceans and global markets for both crude oil and LNG. This objective has been a key role filled by the US Navy since the end of World War II. Iran, which sits on one side of the Strait, has often sought to impede shipping there, and has recently taken to seizing vessels on various pretexts. The US has moved forces to the area in response.
Any major escalation of this conflict between Israel and Hamas that threatens to disrupt that flow comes with wide-ranging global economic and energy security implications
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Australia: disastrous renewable energy project that's blown out in cost by $10BILLION after it was plagued by sinkholes, gas leaks and flooding
Pumped storage is an attractive idea in many ways but this project should be a warning about how it can go badly wrong in practice
The 'complex' Snowy Hydro 2.0 project continues to face delays, months after a sinkhole and a gas leak caused operational difficulties.
ABC's Four Corners program revealed on Monday the $2bn project, which has since blown out to $12bn, has faced a number of safety and operational delays.
The project's use of a $150m 400-tonne boring machine, called Florence, has caused chaos for workers and planners in recent months.
The tunnel project, which aims to dig the 15km journey below Kosciuszko National Park, was launched in March 2022.
Four Corners reported on Monday Florence has only completed 150m since the project began because of geotechnical issues the workers faced when they hit soft ground 100m into the dig.
The stalled project has added another $2bn to the budget blowout, according to Four Corners.
Despite the initial concerns, the project continued on when the machine became bogged due to water and soft ground.
'We would push forward 50cm then spend the next week clearing out all the mud and water from around the tunnel boring machine,' one worker told Four Corners.
'Sometimes there was 3 to 4 feet of water around the machine.'
To ensure the project could continue, so-called 'slurry system' equipment was ordered but it was designed on inappropriate modelling.
Snowy Hydro chief executive Dennis Barnes, who was appointed in February, told a Senate estimates hearing on Monday the Florence machine continued to operate despite the difficulties it had experienced.
'There's been no point since Florence experienced this soft ground in November 2022 that the machine has not been in some way been able to move forward,' Mr Barnes said. 'It's not bogged, it is able to move.'
Mr Barnes accepted he was naive when he took on the project earlier this year and informed a previous Senate inquiry that the project would be up and running sooner rather than later.
'I'm sorry to have understated the restarting of Florence ... it was far more complex than I anticipated,' he said.
The project also saw a sinkhole open up just before Christmas. Mr Barnes said this sinkhole was just outside the construction boundary.
The tunnel also filled up with toxic gas in July as the work was underway in an attempt to stabilise the ground around the Florence machine.
Mr Barnes told Senate estimates this was caused by a chemical reaction which caused isocyanate, a hazardous chemical.
SafeWork NSW told Four Corners the gas posed a 'serious imminent risk' to 'health and safety' and labelled the Snowy 2.0 project as having 'inadequate control measures ... to prevent exposure to a harmful substance'.
The project had also been issued a number of fines by the NSW Environment and Heritage Department.
Mr Barnes said the project was working with the state government to meet its compliance obligations and assured the Senate estimates hearing on Monday that the project is about 40 per cent complete.
Mr Barnes said while 'design immaturity and geotechnical issues' had initially added to the budget blowout, the project still was important for Australia.
'The market really does need this asset and I would characterise this as something good for the Australian market,' he said.
'We have taken third party modelling and determined that over and above the $12bn there's still a $3bn (estimated portfolio value).'
Snowy 2.0 has been pitched as a critical driver to the renewables transition and will aim to create enough clean energy to power half a million homes.
As of June, $4.3bn had been spent on the project, and is expected to be fully operational in late 2028.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12662139/Snowy-2-0-delays.html
***************************************My other blogs. Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Jim Hansen and his twin
1 comment:
What hubris to suggest humans ever had any kind of control over the melting of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet in the first place.
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