Posted on 28 July 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom, John Hartz

Story of the week

In a week crammed with news of the Paris Olympics and another passing of an entirely different torch in Washington, D.C., USA— on top of the usual high noise level— came an inflection point, and our Story of the Week.

Earlier this month the Copernicus Climate Change Service alerted the world that as of June we'd seen 12 contiguous months of Earth surface temperature exceeding 1.5 °C over the pre-industrial reference period. Only a month later (this past week) came more news of temperature excursions. On July 21st the average temperature of the entire globe exceeded any previous measurement reaching back to 1940.  This new record did not stand long; the very next day brought a new high. 

This comes on top of global ocean temperature continuing to run at record highs, with the ocean's heat capacity dwarfing that of the atmosphere.

This toasty situation is as entirely expected as it is thoroughly undesirable. Thanks to our accidental (at first) tampering with our atmosphere we're now accumulating a lot excess energy that otherwise would find an easier path back into the cold dark of space. With the atmosphere now effectively acting as a more efficient insulator, the Earth needs to heat up in order to radiate that energy back into space. It would be best if we slowed down our rate of warming, because heating up enough to dump excess energy accumulated thanks to our accident means the planet needs to become too warm too fast.

Given Skeptical Science's mission, we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that getting this situation under control will be easier to accomplish without interested parties concertedly engaging in deceit so as to prolong their outmoded and increasingly lethal business plans.

As a technical matter it shouldn't be necessary to suffer through an object lesson of planetary scale but here we are, living exactly that tutelage. Decades of deception leading to prevarication and procrastination find us living in an undesirable future we could easily see long ago. Our climate is changing in accordance with projections we've had to hand for many years, with upward wiggles trumping downward bumps. It's obviously high time to retire doubt and dismissal of our influence on Earth's climate.

Stories we promoted this week, by publication date:

Before July 21

• Kentucky lawmakers hear climate-science skepticism from attorney general’s office, Kentucky Lantern, Liam Niemeyer.
• How J.D. Vance Went From Green Tech Investor to Climate Change Doubter, The Heat 2024, Capital & Main, Marcus Baram. "Trump’s VP pick flip-flopped on global warming as he rose in GOP politics, earning a zero score on climate from a leading environmental group."
• Earth’s Disastrous 10th Tipping Point Has Been Identified, Science Popular Mechanics, Darren Orf. "New potential climate crisis just dropped."
• Beyond Tomorrow: Earth's distant climate future, ClimateAdam on Youtube, Adam Levy.
• 123 House and Senate Republicans deny climate science: Analysis, Energy & Environment, The Hill, Rachel Frazin.
• Louisiana’s ‘business-friendly’ climate response: canceled home insurance plansLouisiana’s ‘business-friendly’ climate response: canceled home insurance plans, Floodlight, Terry L Jones. "Under a new state law, residents will no longer be protected from homeowners’ policy cancellations, higher deductibles or big rate increases."
• ‘It affects everything’: why is Hollywood so scared to tackle the climate crisis?, The Guardian, David Smith. "Twisters is the latest in a long line of movies that fail to address the environmental emergency – experts say it’s a missed opportunity"
• What to Know about Project 2025’s Dangers to Science, Politics, Scientific American, Ben Guarino, Andrea Thompson, Tanya Lewis & Lauren J. Young.

July 21

• 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #29, Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler, Doug Bostrom & John Hartz. A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024.
• Electric Vehicles Strain the Automaker-Big Oil Alliance, Inside Climate News, By Marianne Lavelle. In the clean car battle, the oil industry leans on friends—including Donald Trump—to keep gasoline transport alive, while carmakers steer toward an EV future.
• The Staggering Nihilism of the GOP’s Climate Policy Was on Display This Week, Environment & Health, Truthout, Op-ed by Sasha Abramsky. Lede: "The Republican Party platform unveiled this week says — in all caps, of course — that 'We will DRILL, BABY, DRILL.' ”

July 22

• How Kamala Harris and Donald Trump compare on climate change, Policy & Politics, Yale Climate Connections, Samantha Harrington, Sara Peach & Pearl Marvell. "Harris has said, 'the urgency of this moment is clear.' Trump has called climate change a 'hoax.' ”
• From crisis to connection: CCL`s resilience trainings, Citizens' Climate Lobby, Amber Powell.

July 23

• Sunday was world’s hottest ever recorded day, data suggests, Environment, The Gulardian, Ajit Niranjan. "Preliminary data from Copernicus suggests temperature records were shattered, taking world into ‘uncharted territory’"
• Climate disasters make waves on the coast, but inland counties are also swamped, The Christian Science Monitor USA, Seth Borenstein. When most people think of climate change, they think of disastrous hurricanes and earthquakes hitting the coasts harder each year. But flooding is the most common disaster in the United States, and much of it happens inland.
• A report due in February still hasn’t been submitted after a series of public meetings; leaders of the carbon capture and sequestration study are mum, Carbon Capture, Floodlight, Terry L Jones.
• Climate Misinformation Mechanics, Cranky Uncle, and Skeptical Science with John Cook, The Environment in Canda Podcast, Jessica Murray. A 1 hour long podcast from "The Environment in Canada Podcast"
• Joe Biden’s enormous, contradictory, and fragile climate legacy, Climat, Vox, Umair Irfan. "If elected, Trump could slow down Biden’s progress, but the shift to clean energy is unstoppable."

July 24

• Global Temperatures Hit a New Record High – Again, Heatmap, Jessie Hullinger. "On this week’s heat, nitrous oxide emissions, and Q2 earnings"
• State of the climate: 2024 now very likely to be warmest year on record, Carbon Brief, Zeke Hausfather. As 2024 passes its midpoint, the global climate continues to push into uncharted territory.
• Meet the scientists behind the ice sanctuary - a memory vault for dying glaciers, Grist, Syris Valentine. Glacial ice contains valuable data about climates past. These researchers are working to preserve those records for the future.

July 25

• Tagging seals with sensors helps scientists track ocean currents and a changing climate, The Conversation, Lilian Dove. A surprising technique has helped scientists observe how Earth’s oceans are changing, and it’s not using specialized robots or artificial intelligence. It’s tagging seals.
• UN chief urges wealthy countries to beat fossil fuel `addiction` amid expansions, The Guardian, Oliver Milman. Secretary general said wealthiest countries are ‘signing away our future’ with more production and called for phase-out of fossil fuels
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #30 2024, Skeptical Science, Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack. Skeptical Science's weekly survey of academic climate research, and government/NGO reports on matters of coping with climate change.

July 26

• He had his dream career. But was it good for the climate?, Yale Climate Connections, Tree Meinch. After spending years in a conventional job, Felipe Morales decided he wanted to do his part to create a sustainable future for Mexico
• Climate hero or villain? Fossil fuel frenzy challenges Norway`s green image, Environment The Guardian, Ajit Niranjan. As it rapidly adopts clean technologies while drilling furiously for oil and gas, the Nordic nation is a paradox
• Hurricane season has been on pause. Here’s when that could change, Weather, CNN, Mary Gilbert.
• Canadians mourn as Jasper, jewel of the Rockies, burns   by Max Matza & Eloise Alanna, BBC News, July 26, 2024

July 27

• Fact brief - Are polar bears endangered?, Skeptical Science, John Mason.