Posted on 25 February 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom

Story of the week

“In the tropical eastern Atlantic, it’s four months ahead of pace—it’s looking like it’s already June out there,” says Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami. “It’s really getting to be strange that we’re just seeing the records break by this much, and for this long.”

Scientists are misunderstood and criticized for speaking in jealously measured tones. So when a scientist says "really strange," that's shouting. Lots of people were captivated by this latest update on a phenomenon as unexpected as it is sudden, and so our story of the week is Peter Sinclair's review and synthesis of articles titled Scientists: Ocean Heat Waves Stunning, Persistent, and Worrying. The unprecedented bulge of observable ocean heat beginning in 2023 has been in the news for a while now. Familiarity may breed complacency if not contempt,  but this pattern persists and continues to baffle our experts. Sinclair's collection of articles from different outlets commemorates that observations of this kind are of serious concern; at the scale of our own lives it's akin to our family physician being unable to explain a fever. In this case it's not an unexpected pathogen causing the problem but expected, predictable physical outcomes.  Even so, it seems we're unprepared for how this may emerge as details, as made explicit in the articles highilighted in Sinclair's compilation. 

Stories we promoted this week, by publication date:

Before February 18

• Ocean Temperatures Keep Shattering Records—and Stunning Scientists, Wired, Matt Simon. Sea surface temperatures have been skyrocketing beyond expectations. That may be a bad sign for hurricane season—and the health of ocean ecosystems.
• Adjusted Global Temperature Data, Open Mind, Grant Foster ("Tamino").
• ‘Speak to people’s values’: A climate psychologist’s guide to confronting denial and delayism, EuroNews, Jessica Kleczka. Many people are victims of their own emotional response to the climate crisis, rather than villains
• Very cool: trees stalling effects of global heating in eastern US, study finds, The Guardian, Oliver Milman. Vast reforestation a major reason for ‘warming hole’ across parts of US where temperatures have flatlined or cooled
• 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #07, Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler. A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, Feb 11, 2024 thru Sat, Feb 17, 2024.
• Column: Why storms like this one will make solving homelessness even harder for L.A., L.A. Times, Erika D. Smith.
• Scientists: Ocean Heat Waves Stunning, Persistent, and Worrying, This is Not Cool, Peter Sinclair.
• Interview: Why global support for climate action is `systematically underestimated`, Carbon Brief, Simon Evans. There is near-universal global public support for climate action, yet people systematically underestimate the commitment of their peers, according to a new study.
• The new Arctic: Amid record heat, ecosystems morph and wildlife struggle, Mongabay , Sharon Guynup .
• Climate Scientist Michael Mann Wins Defamation Case, Science Friday, Ira Flatlow. A 17 minute interview with Michael Mann about the defamation lawsuit he recently won

February 19

• Climate Trial Against Oil Giant Eni Opens in Italy, DeSmog, Stella Levantesi. The case coincides with a new Greenpeace Italy and ReCommon report showing Eni’s technical consultants have wide links to climate denier groups.
• This scientist was paralyzed by the threat of climate change. How she found hope, CBC Technology News, Sheena Goodyear. Hannah Ritchie calls for ‘urgent optimism’ in her book Not The End of the World
• Oil giant fined just $780,000 after ‘one of world’s biggest ever’ methane leaks, Climate, The independent (UK) , Stuti Mishra. Leak comparable to that of driving more than 717,000 petrol cars for a year

February 20

• At a glance - Was Greenland really green in the past?, Skeptical Science, John Mason.
• How oil sands undermine Canada`s climate goals, Yale Climate Connections, Dana Nuccitelli. Canada is considered a leader in climate policy. But its emissions remain stubbornly high.
• California and Sweden ink deal on climate collaboration, TheHill, Sharon Udasin.
• The public wants clean energy – but this is Australia, where the climate wars never die, Comment is Free, The Guardian, Opinion by Adam Morton. Voters have made their position clear but our politicians are still not talking about how we can change the way we live and work to ease the climate crisis

February 21

• Another Climate Impact Hits the Public`s Radar: A Wetter World Is Mudslide City, Inside Climate News, Audrey Gray. L.A. saw 592 slides in one week, a reminder that excessive precipitation events set off more than flooding.
• Multiple California Climate Cases Against Big Oil Are Merging into One Super Suit, DeSmog, Dana Drugmand. Climate deception litigation, led by the California attorney general, will proceed in San Francisco Superior Court.
• Greenwashing Through Sport, DeSmog, Freddie Daley and Andrew Simms. Saudi Aramco is using Formula One to confuse and mislead.
• Chicago sues fossil fuel companies for role in climate crisis, The Guardian, Dharna Noor. Lawsuit targets BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66 and Shell, alleging that they intentionally misled public
• Trump vs. an emerging Republican climate strategy, Energy , By Emma Dumain and Timothy Cama. “We’re not dependent on a standard-bearer outside of the House,” insists Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah), who founded the 82-member Conservative Climate Caucus.
• Scientists under arrest: the researchers taking action over climate change, Nature, Daniel Grossman. Fed up with a lack of political progress in solving the climate problem, some researchers are becoming activists to slow global warming.

February 22

• No `statistically significant` link between climate change and Chile`s wildfires, Carbon Brief, Carbon Brief Staff. Climate change did not have a statistically significant impact on the wildfires that hit Chile earlier this month, according to a new rapid attribution study by the World Weather Attribution service (WWA).
• Severe Drought Erased Climate Progress in the Northwest in 2023, Distilled, Michael Thomas. Power emissions rose in the region due to drier conditions and less hydro output
• Revealed: UK civil servants` secret doubts over climate techno-fixes, Climate Home News, Joe Lo. The government is relying on special cow food and green plane fuel to cut emissions but its civil servants have grave doubts
• The Rising Cost of the Oil Industry`s Slow Death, Articles and Investigations - ProPublica, by Mark Olalde, ProPublica, and Nick Bowlin, Capital . Unplugged oil and gas wells accelerate climate change, threaten public health and risk hitting taxpayers’ pocketbooks. ProPublica and Capital & Main found that the money set aside to fix the problem falls woefully short of the impending cost.
• Climate change - A tragedy in three parts, Carbon Risk, Peter Sainsbury. There are three tragedies at the heart of climate economics: the commons, the horizon, and inertia. Accounting for external costs is key to eliminating all three.
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #8 2024, Skeptical Science, Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack. Skeptical Science's weekly sampling of the torrent of climate research arming us for a better future.
• The Tipping Point, Steam, Fabula Studios.
• Column: Disinformation is a public health crisis. Here’s how scientists and doctors are fighting it, Los Angeles Times, Micahel Hiltzick . Disinformation sprawls across our landscape but there are tools to fight it.

If you happen upon high quality climate-science and/or climate-myth busting articles from reliable sources while surfing the web, please feel free to submit them via this Google form so that we may share them widely. Thanks!