More dangers lurking..

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Climate change poses a high risk to federal spending, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) re-affirmed in a biannual report on the subject released Tuesday. The GAO, which has placed climate change in the “high risk” category – reserved for programs most in need of transformation – since 2013, noted the threats to American fiscal policy came from three primary categories: disaster aid, federal insurance for crops and property, and the costs associated with managing federal land.

Climate change poses 'high risk' to federal spending: GAO | TheHill

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Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has surged above three football fields a minute, according to the latest government data, pushing the world’s biggest rainforest closer to a tipping point beyond which it cannot recover. The sharp rise – following year-on-year increases in May and June – confirms fears that president Jair Bolsonaro has given a green light to illegal land invasion, logging and burning. Clearance so far in July has hit 1,345 sq km, a third higher than the previous monthly record under the current monitoring system by the Deter B satellite system, which started in 2015.

With five days remaining, this is on course to be the first month for several years in which Brazil loses an area of forest bigger than Greater London. The steady erosion of tree cover weakens the role of the rainforest in stabilising the global climate. Scientists warn that the forest is in growing danger of degrading into a savannah, after which its capacity to absorb carbon will be severely diminished, with consequences for the rest of the planet.

The official numbers from the National Institute for Space Research are a growing embarrassment to Bolsonaro, who has tried to fob them off as lies and criticised the head of the institute. Earlier this week, the president insisted the numbers should be screened by the ministry of science and technology and shown to him before being made public so that he did not get “caught with his pants down”.

Amazon deforestation accelerating to unrecoverable 'tipping point' | World news | The Guardian

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Extreme sea level events that used to occur once a century will strike every year on many coasts by 2050, no matter whether climate heating emissions are curbed or not, according to a landmark report by the world’s scientists. The stark assessment of the climate crisis in the world’s oceans and ice caps concludes that many serious impacts are already inevitable, from more intense storms to melting permafrost and dwindling marine life. But far worse impacts will hit without urgent action to cut fossil fuel emissions, including eventual sea level rise of more than 4 metres in the worst case, an outcome that would redraw the map of the world and harm billions of people.

Extreme sea level events ‘will hit once a year by 2050’ | Environment | The Guardian

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The amount of carbon released from the loss of intact tropical forests is 626 per cent higher than previously thought, a new study has found. Generally when scientists measure carbon emissions released by forests they look at deforestation. However, this is only part of the story, according to the latest paper published in the Science Advances journal, which shows that forests are being damaged in ways previously unaccounted for.    Selective logging which damages the overall health of forests and wildlife losses from hunting are among the things harming them.  Scientists also took into account the amount of carbon which would have been sequestered if degraded forest had stayed intact.

Climate impact from loss of tropical forests 600% higher than thought | The Independent

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is warning that carbon dioxide emissions and ocean acidification are occurring at unprecedented rates and could cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars as fisheries from Alaska to Florida are threatened.  In a new report that draws on hundreds of studies detailing how NOAA will monitor the impact of ocean acidification on the U.S. over the next 10 years, the agency warns that it “will likely affect commercial, subsistence and recreational fishing, tourism and coral ecosystems.”

Ocean acidification could cost the U.S. billions of dollars | TheHill

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The methane emissions leaking from the world’s coalmines could be stoking the global climate crisis at the same rate as the shipping and aviation industries combined. Coalmines are belching millions of tonnes of methane into the atmosphere unchecked, because policymakers have overlooked the rising climate threat, according to new research. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that the amount of methane seeping from new and disused coalmines may have reached just under 40m tonnes last year. The potent greenhouse gas is a major concern among climate scientists because it has a far more powerful effect on global temperatures than carbon dioxide. The global energy watchdog estimates that one tonne of methane is the climate equivalent of 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This would put annual coalmine emissions broadly in line with the international aviation and shipping sectors combined.

Methane emissions from coalmines could stoke climate crisis – study | Environment | The Guardian

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Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has surged to its highest rate in more than a decade, according to new data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). It’s an alarming development in one of the most critical ecosystems for the planet, and it highlights how policy decisions by President Jair Bolsonaro’s government are driving the destruction. The latest results show that deforestation increased nearly 30 percent between August 2018 and through July 2019 compared to the 12 months prior. It marks the highest rate of deforestation since 2008 and amounts to a cleared area spanning 9,762 square kilometers (3,769 square miles), larger than Yellowstone National Park. The increase coincides with the election of Bolsonaro in October 2018, a far-right politician who campaigned on promises of exploiting the Amazon rainforest to benefit the Brazilian economy.

Amazon rainforest: deforestation at highest rate in more than a decade - Vox

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Extreme temperatures. Collapsing countries. Wars on multiple continents. Simultaneous natural disasters. And a US military completely unprepared to deal with it all. Welcome to all hell breaking loose. That’s not the plot of some apocalyptic novel — it’s a scenario the Pentagon is deeply concerned could happen in the not-so-distant future due to climate change. Over the past decade, the Pentagon has consistently, repeatedly cited climate change as a serious threat to America’s national security in official public documents. A new book, aptly titled All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change, reveals the Pentagon is far more worried about the potential impacts of climate change than most probably realize. The good news is that it’s doing a lot to develop ways of coping with that uncertain future. The bad news is that it still may not be enough.

How the Pentagon plans for climate change - Vox

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Tropical forests are taking up less carbon dioxide from the air, reducing their ability to act as “carbon sinks” and bringing closer the prospect of accelerating climate breakdown. The Amazon could turn into a source of carbon in the atmosphere, instead of one of the biggest absorbers of the gas, as soon as the next decade, owing to the damage caused by loggers and farming interests and the impacts of the climate crisis, new research has found. If that happens, climate breakdown is likely to become much more severe in its impacts, and the world will have to cut down much faster on carbon-producing activities to counteract the loss of the carbon sinks.

Tropical forests losing their ability to absorb carbon, study finds | Environment | The Guardian

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Melting of the Antarctic ice sheet will cause sea level rises of about two and a half metres around the world, even if the goals of the Paris agreement are met, research has shown. The melting is likely to take place over a long period, beyond the end of this century, but is almost certain to be irreversible, because of the way in which the ice cap is likely to melt, the new model reveals. Even if temperatures were to fall again after rising by 2C (3.6F), the temperature limit set out in the Paris agreement, the ice would not regrow to its initial state, because of self-reinforcing mechanisms that destabilise the ice, according to the paper published in the journal Nature.

Melting Antarctic ice will raise sea level by 2.5 metres – even if Paris climate goals are met, study finds | Environment | The Guardian