Latest news with #climate scientists
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Ahead of deadly Texas floods, so many warnings from climate scientists were missed
The July 4 Texas floods continue to unfold, as more than 100 are confirmed dead, and at least 160 are still missing and unaccounted for. A massive recovery effort is underway as the world watches and rightfully questions, 'Could this catastrophic climate disaster have been less deadly and destructive?' Our current Texas state and national leadership, made up of largely climate change-denying Republicans, have said it is not time for questions of 'blame' when bodies are still being found and others are missing, even when there is no hope of finding any alive. Regardless of federal and local leadership's immediate deflections of those seeking the truth, the time will quickly come for rightful questions of weather predictability, preventability, and accountability, and how there was an abject failure on all points. Starting in March of this year, climate scientists began ringing the alarm bells for a horrific period of weather in the United States starting in spring because the Northern polar cap had the most melt of ice ever recorded in history. How does this record winter melt impact our weather? The climate scientists stated that the melt, along with warming temperatures, would put an excess of moisture in the atmosphere to feed storms, weaken the jet stream across the US that drives the storms and as a result, cause storms to slow or even stall over certain points, inundating communities with heavy rains. That prediction is reflected in the deadly floods we have seen in Texas, New Mexico, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia, among many others. And while no one can predict where these devastating storms will take their toll, the increased frequency since the dire predictions earlier this year would certainly cause communities prone to flooding to prepare and increase investments to save lives and properties. Yet no one in the Trump or Texas Governor Abbott administrations seems to embrace the truths about climate change, nor the warnings coming from climate scientists of winter polar melt and warmer temperature impacts. In fact, the opposite is happening – the administration is stripping weather forecasting and emergency prevention resources. Trump is eliminating certain weather jobs in the Texas areas that are directly related to forecasts and warnings. If those jobs had been filled, it is very likely fewer lives could have been lost. Media reports have stated that the Texas elected leadership turned down requested funding at least twice in the last 10 years for a warning siren system in the flood-prone Texas counties now dealing with hundreds likely dead. Reports are also coming that despite weather alerts in the early morning hours of July 4, few reached the many impacted, dead or missing. And, sadly, we are also hearing of long delays or no response from emergency services when the floods began in those same early morning hours. Even as these devastating stories of failure emerge, the Trumpian leadership will likely never take accountability, no matter how costly to lives and economies. Until the people impacted in Texas and across the country hold these leaders accountable, more misery will unfold. Michael Dru Kelley is a writer, media entrepreneur and a cofounder and a principal LGBTQ+ shareholder of equalpride, publisher of The Advocate. Michael writes often on equality, climate change and is innovating once again in helping people eat cleaner for healthier bodies and planet. Michael can be followed on Instagram @cleanfoodscook and his forthcoming food brand, social handles and cookbook, His opinion pieces represent his own viewpoints and not necessarily those of equalpride, or its affiliates, partners, or management. This article originally appeared on Advocate: Ahead of deadly Texas floods, so many warnings from climate scientists were missed
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Real-world geoengineering experiments revealed by UK agency
Real-world geoengineering experiments spanning the globe from the Arctic to the Great Barrier Reef are being funded by the UK government. They will test sun-reflecting particles in the stratosphere, brightening reflective clouds using sprays of seawater and pumping water on to sea ice to thicken it. Getting this 'critical missing scientific data' is vital with the Earth nearing several catastrophic climate tipping points, said the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), the government agency backing the plan. If demonstrated to be safe, geoengineering could temporarily cool the planet and give more time to tackle the root cause of the climate crisis: the burning of fossil fuels. The experiments will be small-scale and rigorously assessed before going ahead, Aria said. Other projects in the £56.8m programme will model the impacts of geoengineering on the climate, and research how it could be governed internationally. Geoengineering is controversial, with some scientists calling it a 'dangerous distraction' from cutting emissions and concerned about unintended climate impacts. Some previously planned outdoor experiments have been cancelled after strong opposition. However, given the failure of the world to stop emissions rising to date, and the recent run of record hot years, backers of solar geoengineering say researching the technology is vital in case an emergency brake is needed. The Aria programme, along with another £10m project, makes the UK one of the biggest funders of geoengineering research in the world. 'Decarbonisation is the first and best chance of avoiding these tipping points,' said Prof Mark Symes, programme director at Aria. 'But the current trajectory puts us in danger of triggering some tipping points, regardless of what happens with net zero, so we do need to think about what we might do in that eventuality.' 'The point of the programme is to explore and research as transparently as possible whether any of the proposed cooling approaches could ever be used safely,' he said. 'Life in the UK could become very difficult if any of these tipping points were triggered.' Ilan Gur, Aria's CEO, said: 'If science can show us that an elegantly designed spray of seawater can protect and preserve the incredible biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef, isn't that something we want to understand?' The announcement was criticised by Prof Raymond Pierrehumbert at the University of Oxford: 'Solar geoengineering has enormous and troubling implications for global society. The UK funding sets a dangerous precedent for other governments to jump on the bandwagon [and] it is the height of folly to open the door to field experiments in the absence of any national or international governance.' Mary Church, at the Center for International Environmental Law, said: 'Solar geoengineering is inherently unpredictable and risks breaking further an already broken climate system. Conducting small-scale experiments risks normalising highly controversial theories and accelerating technological development, creating a slippery slope toward full-scale deployment.' Most geoengineering proposals aim to block sunlight reaching and heating the Earth's surface. However, solar radiation management (SRM) has the potential for serious unintended consequences, such as shifting rains vital to food production. Some private companies are already working on geoengineering; that makes building the scientific evidence base even more important, Gur said solar geoengineering diagram The Aria-funded experiments include sending a weather balloon into the stratosphere above the US or UK. Milligram samples of non-toxic mineral dust will be exposed to the high-altitude conditions and then recovered to assess how the particles' properties change with time. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Another three experiments will test how seawater sprays or electrical charges delivered by drones can seed tiny water droplets, making clouds over the oceans reflect more sunlight. One will expand current work over the Great Barrier Reef, which is in crisis because of global heating, and may reach 100sq km in scale, while another will take place on the UK coast. A fifth experiment will involve pumping water on to sea ice in Svalbard and Canada in winter, reaching up to one 1 sq km in scale. The water will freeze and preserve the ice sheet for longer in summer. Bright white ice reflects far more sunlight than the dark ocean revealed when sea ice is lost to warming waters. There will be an environmental impact assessment made public before any outdoor experiments take place and local communities will have been consulted. There is also an independent oversight committee as part of the approval process, Aria said, chaired by leading climate scientist Prof Piers Forster and including members from India and Ghana. The Aria programme will also assess space reflectors, which are sunshades placed into orbit, using modelling to determine their feasibility. 'This is the most speculative of all the approaches we're funding,' said Symes. Volcanic eruptions naturally inject particles into the atmosphere and another project will fly drones through the plumes to measure the particles' effects. Seven modelling teams will investigate the impacts of geoengineering on climate and ecosystems, especially in developing countries, where about 85% of the world's population lives. There will be a further five teams working on ethics and governance to explore the wider societal implications of geoengineering, such as how any future deployment should be agreed and managed.
