Climate Turmoil: Details on How Trends across the Earth are Undergoing Rapid Change: from BAMS // Sep 20, 2021
In this video, I give a detailed discussion on how the Earth was different in 2020 from the previous 3 decades. If you haven’t already downloaded the detailed PDF report by BAMS (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society) called “State of the Earth in 2020” then please do so, and follow along in the document while I chat (drone on) about it.
Some of the stuff is quite “dry”, but bear with me as it is quite important to understand; the more you understand, the more interesting it gets. ———- ———-
How about we spend $400 billion to fix existing cities, rather than build a new city in a region to be slammed by heat and climate change? But hey, the design firm also designed Google's new Bay Area HQ in the zone likely to be flooded by sea-level rise. https://t.co/KCOKYgWdVC
Please consider donating to support my work. I put a lot of time and effort into researching, studying and producing my videos so that you can learn how quickly our world is changing. Donating does not need a PayPal account, but simply a credit card. Please click here. ———- ———-
Tipping Points in Earth’s Climate System: Cascading Feedbacks in our highly Nonlinear System // Sep 10, 2021
Every year brings us new mayhem in our Abruptly Changing Climate System. This summer has been one for the record books, with intense widespread heat waves and droughts, torrential monsoon-like rains leading to record flooding, widespread wildfires, and large cyclones. Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency, severity, and duration around the planet, and are occurring in regions they never did before.
Climate breakdown is not linear, nor smooth, nor gradual. We are living through abrupt, highly nonlinear changes. Meanwhile, responses by governments are way too feeble and just don’t cut it; they are linear, smooth, and gradual and are nowhere near enough given the seriousness of the wrenching changes we are experiencing seemingly every day.
Spock, we are losing our planet. Can you help us since Earthlings seem incapable of saving themselves…
Please consider donating to support my work. I put a lot of time and effort into researching, studying and producing my videos so that you can learn how quickly our world is changing. Donating does not need a PayPal account, but simply a credit card. Please click here. ———- ———-
My latest: There are two fatal flaws with “net zero by 2050.” One is “net zero.” The other is “by 2050”.https://t.co/yssrNNBOGQ
Science Says WE Can ALL Expect Much More CATASTROPHIC Flooding in OUR Climate Casino // Aug 24, 2021
Welcome to the Climate Casino.
A few days ago a region just west of Nashville, Tennessee in the grand ole’ USA ran out of luck in the climate casino. Over 17 inches (432.3 mm) of torrential rainfall within one day created a wall of water almost like a tidal wave, sweeping away people’s cars, homes, and businesses; worst hit was in town of Waverly (population 4,100). The Piney River rose from a nominal height of 4.3 feet (1.3 m) to a historic crest of 31.8 feet (9.69 m) six hours later; most of this rise occurred in 3 to 4 hours, as measured by a river gauge. Much of the community was cut off from elsewhere by impassible roads even after the water retreated.
The problem is that this level of rainfall in a very short period of time can occur almost anywhere in our climate casino. A few months ago, in July, the exact same thing happened in Europe, flooding out many riverside towns that have been standing for centuries. Several hundred people died; many homes and cars were completely swept away.
The Arctic is warming way faster than lower latitudes, so the temperature contrast between the Arctic and lower latitudes is getting smaller. Thus, the jet streams are getting much slower and wavier and even getting stuck into ridges (under which there are heat waves and droughts) or troughs (above which there are many storms and torrential rains). Slower jet streams mean storms move across the Earth surface more slowly, so have longer time to dump rain in any given storm.
On our warmer planet, there is more evaporation from lakes, rivers, and oceans; leading, in fact to 7% more water vapour in the atmosphere. This water vapour rises and condenses into clouds, releasing huge amounts of stored energy (latent heat), fuelling ever more intense storms with torrential rains.
Just wait until there is no Arctic Sea Ice left in a few years; there will be a skyrocketing of Arctic Temperatures and even more chaotic jet streams. Without jet streams to guide storms, our weather patterns will become much more monsoonal.
Please consider donating to support my work. I put a lot of time and effort into researching, studying and producing my videos so that you can learn how quickly our world is changing. Donating does not need a PayPal account, but simply a credit card. Please click here. ———- ———-
Scientists expected thawing wetlands in Siberia’s permafrost. What they found is ‘much more dangerous.’https://t.co/KvrlQnR6Cn
Some Reflections on Life in the Climate Casino and on the Latest Climate Report // Aug 12, 2021
I am long overdue for a video, since I have been spending some time boning up on the latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) WG1 (Working Group 1) AR6 (Assessment Report 6). I am reading every word in the main report (3497 pages long) and in the Summary for Policymakers document (40+ pages), as well as thoughts from various scientists and NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) and ENGOs (Environmental NGOs). This takes a little bit of time, but I am game:)
I already know my overall conclusion on the report. Too little, too late. Governments around the planet are still subsidizing fossil fuelcompanies to the tune of trillions of dollars, which continues to destroy our planet.
We are rapidly heading to a global food shortage and then famine. Vegetation (forests, grasslands, tundra, croplands, etc…) in ever larger areas of the planet is going up in flames and smoke, but for now it is still a small percentage of the total.
In a few years, with ever higher temperatures, it is easy to imagine Canada’s and Russia’s boreal forests completely incinerating, and causing horrendous nuclear winter type scenarios.
But that is for future, detailed videos, while I finish my reading of the IPPC report in its entirety.
Here, in this video, I prefer to chat, and “shoot the breeze” on life and my latest SCUBA diving exploits including having my weight belt fall off, and surfacing from the dive in torrential rains, with a massive thunderstorm overhead and close lightning strikes, which I could actually see while I was 40 feet under the water:) Also, enjoying the near darkness and 4 degree C temperatures 24.7 meters down (82.5 feet) near the bottom of an old magnesium quarry in Quebec.
Take care, and I wish to thank everybody, from the bottom and top of my heart, that are watching my videos, and the folks that are going above and beyond by contributing to my blog PayPal at easy to use Donate button here, to help support my independent scientific research on abrupt climate system change (can be either $CAD to $USD). Take care, and stay safe in our Climate Casino so we can experience our climate unravelling together:) ———- ———-
Alex Smith, is always a absolute fav! Have We Crossed a Climate Tipping Point? Posted on August 11, 2021, by Radio Ecoshock
With record heat, drought, Biblical wildfires, and flash floods around the world – did we just pass a climate tipping point? The latest news & science from Canadian climate scientist Paul Beckwith, with reporting from Alex Smith. Beckwith has a couple of degrees and taught climate science at two Canadian Universities. Now he is the single biggest climate science teacher on the Net with hundreds of YouTube video explainers.
Listen to or download this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (17 MB)
From Ottawa Canada, we welcome Paul Beckwith back to Radio Ecoshock. There is so much catastrophic news in so many countries it is hard to know where to start. And all that comes to a drumbeat of more urgent predictions from the biggest climate science institutions. Let’s start with this: THE WORLD WATER CYCLE HAS GONE HAYWIRE (continues below. cf link,)
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Much-needed intervention from @adam_tooze: "Only if the US can set in motion a just transition at home can it credibly lead on climate on the global stage. Until it does…whether governed by Republican or Democrat, it is fundamentally unreliable." https://t.co/UHyFfZAdhd
Please consider donating to support my work. I put a lot of time and effort into researching, studying and producing my videos so that you can learn how quickly our world is changing. Donating does not need a PayPal account, but simply a credit card. Please click here. ———- ———-
“In Greece, firefighters continued to battle what the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described on Thursday as the country’s ‘greatest ecological disaster in decades.’” https://t.co/8fu8NBmf7Z
“The leader of a Siberian region has declared Friday a non-working day and urged residents to stay at home as smoke from raging forest fires raised health concerns.” https://t.co/3Bsel9G8PD
Paul Beckwith Abrupt Climate System Change Mayhem // Jul 28, 2021
Canadian Association for the Club of Rome
Summary: Temperatures in Lytton, BC set new consecutive records recently on a Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then on Thursday wildfires burned the town to the ground. Torrential rains leading to swollen rivers and flooding just devastated many towns in Europe. Weather extremes are wreaking havoc around the planet. No place is spared. Why?
Two Basic Facts: 1) For each 1 degree C rise in temperature, the air can hold 7% more water vapour. This results in the supercharging of storm intensities.
2) The Jet Streams which guide weather patterns are slowing as the Arctic warms, making them wavier in the North-South direction. This increases the intensity, duration, and frequency of extreme weather events around the planet. It also causes them to occur where they never did before.
What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic. It’s not like Las Vegas. Polar changes have rewired the behaviour of the jet streams.
Weather wilding, weirding, and whiplashing is wreaking havoc on our society and imperiling our ability to grow food.
It won’t end well; it is getting uglier and uglier at an accelerated pace. What can we do??
Who is he? Paul Beckwith, a well-known climate system scientist/physicist/engineer and educator, recently returned from his latest road trip to create a series of videos pertaining to the climate and biodiversity crises. Paul went from Ottawa, Ontario, to Alberta. In addition, he took a carbon dioxide monitor with him to measure CO2 levels in enclosed spaces.
Based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Paul is a respected creator of entertaining and comprehensible videos, usually pertaining to climate system science, abrupt climate change, meteorology, oceanography and Earth Sciences. He occasionally teaches at the University of Ottawa in the Laboratory for Paleoclimatology, and has also taught at Carleton University.
He is often asked by concerned citizens and government officials to speak at conferences and events. In addition to participating in numerous panel discussions, Paul has often been interviewed on various radio and podcast programs, and has participated as a guest and panelist at three United Nations Conference of the Parties Climate Conferences, including COP25 in Madrid, Spain, in December 2019.
In addition to his own YouTube channel , he is a panelist on the Climate Emergency Forum and is a member of the Facing Future team.
Paul has been committed to raising public awareness about the climate crisis for over twenty years. Prior to the Kyoto Protocol, he collected petition signatures, which he presented to a Canadian representative, Elizabeth May. Paul has been actively involved in local climate events since the Kyoto Protocol. ———- ———-
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Intense Antarctic cold is racing through South America right now, widespread frost with some snow observed all the way into southern Brazil.
Please consider donating to support my work. I put a lot of time and effort into researching, studying and producing my videos so that you can learn how quickly our world is changing. Donating does not need a PayPal account, but simply a credit card. Please click here. ———- ———-
Truly apocalyptic air quality the next 4 days across the Interior, rivalling the worst air quality on the planet…dangerous for all. No upper-level flow to actively disperse and lift smoke, set to fill valleys #BCWildfirespic.twitter.com/wEfgLuVN2A
Me, live on CTV News, connecting heat domes and wildfires out west to torrential rains and flooding in Europe, via high crests and deep valleys of the slow jet stream wave winds; all part of abrupt climate system change mayhem.
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Abrupt Climate System Change Mayhem: Part 1 of 2 // Jul 18, 2021
Temperatures in Lytton, BC set new consecutive records recently on a Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then on Thursday wildfires burned the town to the ground. Torrential rains leading to swollen rivers and flooding just devastated many towns in Europe. Weather extremes are wreaking havoc around the planet. No place is spared. Why?
Two Basic Facts: 1) For each 1 degree C rise in temperature, the air can hold 7% more water vapour. This results in the supercharging of storm intensities.
(cf Ref below,Clausius-Clapyron equation)
2) The Jet Streams which guide weather patterns are slowing as the Arctic warms, making them wavier in the North-South direction. This increases the intensity, duration, and frequency of extreme weather events around the planet. It also causes them to occur where they never did before.
What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic. It’s not like Las Vegas. Polar changes have rewired the behaviour of the jet streams.
Weather wilding, weirding, and whiplashing is wreaking havoc on our society and imperilling our ability to grow food.
It won’t end well; it is getting uglier and uglier at an accelerated pace.
What can we do??
Please donate here, to support my research and videos.
Ref: Clausius-Clapyron equation. Wki: The Clausius–Clapeyron relation, named after Rudolf Clausius and Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron, is a way of characterizing a discontinuous phase transition between two phases of matter of a single constituent. ———- ———-
Second Video, Part Two of Two:
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Wowie:
No more than seven percent of our genome is 'uniquely human': Study – National Post https://t.co/4FT4xIES6s
A suspension bridge by the village of Uryum, east of Chita, collapsed when a truck tried to drive over it. The driver survived. Dozens of villages are flooded in this area of the Trans-Baikal region; Trans-Siberian railway is paralysed after the flood destroyed one of its bridges pic.twitter.com/zKKpZPFzUx
— The Siberian Times (@siberian_times) July 23, 2021
U.S. pickup trucks and large SUVs are now almost as big as World War II tanks. https://t.co/L8gjbuck4Z
Lake Oroville has dropped about a foot a day since July 1 & is now within 15 ft. of its all-time low surface elevation, 643 ft. @CA_DWR says the dam's power plant will be forced to go offline for the first time ever if the elevation falls to the 630-640 foot range. @KQEDSciencepic.twitter.com/BHELuSzXa9
A Farewell to my Friend: Climate Warrior Stuart Scott // Jul 19, 2021
A Farewell to my Friend: Climate Warrior Stuart Scott Died: Thursday July 15th, 2021
My friend Stuart Scott will be sorely missed. Although his physical manifestation is gone, there are many many things that remain with us. His indomitable spirit, work ethic, caring heart, hope for humanity, fight, and resilience remain.
In the summer of 2014, I got an email out of the blue from Stuart. He had seen some of my work, and he invited me to attend the fall 2014 climate conference COP20 (20th version of the Climate of the Parties) in Lima, Peru. He offered to cover my travel expenses with Air Miles. After doing my due diligence and determining that Stuart was not a serial killer, I gladly accepted his gracious offer. Off I went to Peru, to a most memorable UN climate conference where I presented with Stuart on the perils of abrupt climate change in many press conference side events. I remembering Stuart telling me to run a comb through my dishevelled mop, wear a nice suit, and straighten my tie.
I’ll never forgive Stuart for convincing me to wander around the conference each day for an hour or two wearing a polar bear suit. It was extremely hot and humid in Lima, and needless to say it was torture inside the bear. Our lodgings was a Nun’s Convent, enclosed in a compound with very high walls, in a sketchy part of town. On more than a few evenings, after a night of refreshments in the local watering holes, I would return late and have to convince the guard to let me cross the gate, sometimes necessitating the waking up of Stuart; annoying him to no end.
Next conference for me and Stuart’s team was COP21 in Paris in 2015. Somehow Stuart had convinced James Hansen to attend, and we all had some great presentations on abrupt climate change risks and consequences.
I skipped a few COPs, but not Stuart. He went almost every year, and many UN people organizing the conferences knew Stuart on a first name, friendship level.
Then came the 2019 COP in Madrid Spain, hastily assembled in one month since Santiago, Chile was cancelled as a venue due to civil unrest. I got an email, out of the blue, offering me lodging, so again, after my detailed due diligence to ensure it wasn’t a Dexter 2.0 situation, I gladly accepted Alfonso’s gracious offer.
Once again, I had the pleasure of working with Stuart and his teams at the COP to inform the world in almost daily press conferences on the perils of climate mayhem.
I was extremely sick the weekend before the conference (early Covid?), and missed the first day. I remember getting to the conference early the second day, sitting at a sofa just inside the entrance, and hearing a loud commotion. A woman with a camera ran by me, and then a man with a camera literally leaped over me on the sofa, to get close to a group of teens sitting in a circle. I looked around, and there was Greta Thunberg joining the circle. This was the first rock star that I have ever met; hordes of reporters and paparazzi followed her every movement and word she spoke at the conference.
It was Stuart who first got Greta and her dad to a COP climate conference years earlier in Katowice, Poland; the world can thank him for that.
Stuart could never understand how my blog and video channel could get so successful; using raw unedited videos done invariably with one take, and having no polishing. I told him it was the cat, which annoyed him even more.
Stuart always had to balance many of his projects on the go, but when I introduced him to the group Scientist’s Warning, he took it to heart to greatly expand their breadth and depth of social media outreach. Never one to rest on his laurels, Stuart then went on to start Facing Future. I remember on one group Zoom call when I was walking outside, he got annoyed with me saying it was very unprofessional. A few months later, being inside for the Zoom call, my coworker Shackleton the Explorer (black cat) jumped into the call, again annoying Stuart:)
From one fellow Climate Warrior to another, thank you Stuart. Your rich and deep climate fight legacy and work will continue to be a long term inspiration to us all.
Paul Beckwith Monday July 19, 2021 Ottawa
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Record-shattering #heat hit Northern Japan on Monday. Some areas reached the mid-30s, about 10C higher than normal. The heat was so intense that the train rails were distorted in Hokkaido! pic.twitter.com/YIEZs68dbm
Please consider donating to support my work. I put a lot of time and effort into researching, studying and producing my videos so that you can learn how quickly our world is changing. Donating does not need a PayPal account, but simply a credit card. Please click here. ———- ———-
Eco Warrier Stuart Scott's remarkable life Dec 2020 conversation. July 15th at age 72 passed away at Honolulu home. At FacingFuture Colleagues will continue his work in sobering recognition few years left to save humanity & other forms of life on Earth.https://t.co/HdL602RAsS
A Community of People Most Likely to Survive Abrupt Climate Change: The Amish and Mennonites // Jul 14, 2021
In Northern Ontario, while on the road towards home in Ottawa, I passed a horse pulled carriage. I pulled off the road a few miles later, and decided to film a video.
Many many years ago, Amish people came from Europe to Canada and built up settlements in various locations, including in northern Ontario.
Some of the Amish , known as progressives, built community structures and became known as Mennonites, while others avoided doing this, and stayed as older school Amish. This is likely a gross oversimplification on my part; here is more information:
There is actually a University of Waterloo course you can take titled “Who are Mennonites”.
In any case, I think the Amish and Mennonites have a lot in common. In general, they live very close to the land, in tune with nature. They live without electricity and plumbing in their houses, and shun “modern lifestyles” and consumerism. Thus, I think that they are a very resilient people, who as a group would likely fare very well in a world where society essentially collapsed due to abrupt climate system change. ———- ———-
Another video:
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'We can hardly breath' – residents of Svetliy settlement on the wildfire currently burning next to their houses in Mirninsky district in the east of Yakutia, bordering Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk regions #wildfires2021Russiapic.twitter.com/bqdQYTMZHa
— The Siberian Times (@siberian_times) July 14, 2021
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Please consider donating to support my work. I put a lot of time and effort into researching, studying and producing my videos so that you can learn how quickly our world is changing. Donating does not need a PayPal account, but simply a credit card. Please click here. ———- ———-
NEW: California officials tell CNN they anticipate nearly all salmon in the Sacramento River will die due to abnormally hot underwater conditions as heat waves continue.
Calgary’s Saddledome Stadium: Ground Zero for Epic Flooding from Climate Driven Extreme Weather // Jul 7, 2021
I am in downtown Calgary, Alberta next to the famous Saddledome stadium. I’m glad my visit was not a week later, since the Calgary Stampede was due to start the following week at the stadium.
The Bow River meanders through the region, and during the 2013 rain on snow deluge in the Rocky Mountains the water overflowed all the rivers, and the water in Canmore made its way downhill to Calgary and flooded the downtown region.
The original bridge over the Bow River was wiped out by the flood, and the replacement bridge has been designed to withstand any water level in the river; this design claim will likely be tested in the near future.
The entire region around the Saddledome was flooded, and water filled the stadium up to about row ten or so.
Two week road trip to Canada’s tornado alley, to document extreme storms, old disaster spots: Calgary flooding, Wildfires, Grassy Narrows mercury, Elliot Lake uranium, clear cut forests… etc.
Ref: Tornado Alley, here: ‘Tornado Alley is a loosely defined area of the central United States where tornadoes are most frequent. The term was first used in 1952 as the title of a research project to study severe weather in areas of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. Tornado climatologists distinguish peaks in activity in certain areas and storm chasers have long recognized the Great Plains tornado belt.‘ ———- ———-
By the way, if you saw that video of flooding in NYC, this is exactly what climate scientists like @MichaelEMann & @AndraJReed have been saying for years in peer-reviewed literature. Once-in-a-century NYC floods now happen every couple of years. https://t.co/IaNIK5govL
Please consider donating to support my work. I put a lot of time and effort into researching, studying and producing my videos so that you can learn how quickly our world is changing. Donating does not need a PayPal account, but simply a credit card. Please click here. ———- ———-
The difference between 1.5°C, 2°C or 3-4°C average global warming can sound marginal.
In fact, they represent vastly different scenarios for the future of humanity.
Jet Stream Shift 17 degrees Southward to Greenland
Summary
Well known and respected creator of entertaining and comprehensible videos of sometimes daunting subjects, especially in climate system science, meteorology, oceanography and Earth Sciences at YouTube.
Frequently called upon for commentary by fellow educators, activists, and public. Physicist, Engineer, and part-time professor at the University of Ottawa. His primary interest is joining-the-dots on Abrupt Climate System Change to determine where we are heading, and how fast, and what it all means for us and our amazing planet.
