Posted on 30 August 2020 by John Hartz

Story of the Week...

Tropical Storm Laura’s flooding and other impacts on the ground: What we know

The storm’s wind speed, deaths, damages, and possible ties to climate change, explained. 

Shutterstock 

Tropical Storm Laura, which has been downgraded from a hurricane, made landfall early Thursday morning in Cameron, Louisiana — just 35 miles east of the Texas-Louisiana border &mdas idh; as a Category 4 storm with 150 mph winds.

Already, pictures and videos of the storm from Lake Charles, Louisiana, a town about 50 miles north of Cameron, show torn-off roofs, downed power lines, blown-out windows, and dozens of trees ripped from the ground.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said he’d received a report Thursday morning of the first American fatality from Laura, a 14-year-old girl from Vernon Parish who died when a tree fell on her home. Edwards later said a total of four people in his state have died — all as a result of fallen trees. Laura was also responsible for at least 23 deaths in Haiti and the Dominican Republic earlier this week.

There has been no official word of other injuries or deaths in the US since the storm made landfall. What we know is that about 20 million people reside in the path of the storm and 500,000 have been ordered to evacuate, a task complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

And so far, more than 740,000 homes and businesses are without power in Texas and Louisiana.

Click here to access the entire article originally posted on the Vox website.

Tropical Storm Laura’s flooding and other impacts on the ground: What we know by Roge Karma, Energy & Environment, Vox, Aug 27, 2020

Toon of the Week...

Hat tip to the Stop Climate Science Denial Facebook page.

Climate Feedback Article Review...

Article by CNN exaggerates study’s implications for future Greenland ice loss with “point of no return” claim

Analysis of "Greenland's ice sheet has melted to a point of no return, according to new study" published in CNN, by Brandon Miller & Max Claypool on Aug 14, 2020

Three scientists analyzed the article and estimate its overall scientific credibility to be 'low'. 

A majority of reviewers tagged the article as: Exaggerating.

Article by CNN exaggerates study’s implications for future Greenland ice loss with “point of no return” claim, Edited by Niki Forrester, Climate Feedback, Aug 20, 2020

Coming Soon on SkS...

• Climate TRACE to track real-time global carbon emissions (Bruce Lieberman)
• Siberia’s 2020 heatwave made ‘600 times more likely’ by climate change (Daisy Dunne)
• SkS New Research for Week #35 (Doug Bostrom)
• History of Consensus Video (John Cook)
• Will Fusion Power solve Climate Change? (Climate Adam)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #36 (John Hartz)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #36 (John Hartz)

Climate Feedback Claim Review...

Planting trees can help mitigate some aspects of climate change, but it cannot solve all environmental crises 

CLAIM: “Trees provide a solution to almost all environmental crises we're facing. Trees reverse climate change by cleaning carbon from the air."

VERDICT: 

SOURCE: Pamela Anderson 8 Billion Trees, Aug 23, 2020

KEY TAKE AWAY: Trees provide a variety of ecosystem services, such as absorbing and storing carbon, that can help mitigate environmental crises and climate change. However, that alone is not sufficient to halt climate change. Reducing fossil fuel emissions and avoiding deforestation are necessary climate solutions, to which planting trees could provide additional benefits.

Planting trees can help mitigate some aspects of climate change, but it cannot solve all environmental crises, Edited by Nikki Forrester, Climate Feedback, Aug 25, 2020

SkS Week in Review... 

• Sun: 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #34 by John Hartz (SkS Original)
• Mon: Scientists seek to collect ice core samples before glaciers and ice sheets melt by Kristen Pope (Yale Climate Connections Repost)
• Tue: Climate change is worsening California's hellish wildfires by Dana Nuccitelli (Yale Climate Connections Repost)
• Wed: Skeptical Science New Research for Week #34, 2020 by Doug Bostrom (SkS Original)
• Fri: Climate change is causing more rapid intensification of Atlantic hurricanes by Jeff Masters (Yale Climate Connections Repost)
• Sat: 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #35 by John Hartz (SkS Original)

Poster of the Week...