Harv's Corner

You don't have to "believe" in Climate change to "suffer" from it.  Please take the time to read the full article .  Then watch the video that's posted at the end.
Harv
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Billions suffer heat waves fueled by climate change
By SARAH KAPLAN and SCOTT DANCE • Washington Post
Star Tribune June 23, 2004

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Nate Lord uses a pick to break a block of ice before delivering it to a guest cabin in Holderness N,H, on Thursday, ethe hottest day of the young summer season.

Dozens of bodies were discovered in Delhi during a two-day stretch this week when even sundown brought no relief from sweltering heat and humidity. Tourists died or went missing as the mercury surged in Greece. Hundreds of pilgrims perished before they could reach Islam's holiest site, struck down by temperatures as high as 125 degrees.

The scorching heat across five continents in recent days, scientists say, provided yet more proof that human caused global warming has so raised the baseline of normal temperatures that once
unthinkable catastrophes have become commonplace.

The suffering came despite predictions that a yearlong surge of global heat might soon begin to wane. Instead, in the past seven days alone, billions felt heat with climate change fueled intensity that broke more than 1,000 temperature records around the globe. Hundreds fell in the United States, where tens of millions of people across the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard have been sweltering amid one of the worst early-season heat waves in memory.

"It should be obvious that dangerous climate change is already upon us," said Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "People will die because of global warming on this very day."

That much of this week's heat unfolded after the dissipation of the El Nino weather pattern — which typically boosts global temperatures — shows how greenhouse gas pollution has pushed the planet into frightening new territory, researchers say. Scientists had expected this summer might be somewhat cooler than 2023, which was the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in at least 2,000 years.

But with summer 2024 just getting started, there are ominous signs that even more scorching conditions may still be on the horizon.

June is already all but sure to set a 13th-consecutive monthly global average temperature record, said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist who works for the payments company Stripe. Next month, he added, the planet could approach or surpass the highest global averages ever measured.

Whether the unyielding trend of record heat will ease soon, with an expected transition from El Nino to its cooler counterpart, La Nina, isn't yet clear, scientists said. Scientists are also still analyzing individual extreme weather events to determine how much climate change influenced them, if at all.

What is obvious: The way humans have caused baseline temperatures to surge.

"We've got the highest greenhouse gas concentrations in the last 3 million years. Carbon dioxide traps heat, so the temperature of the planet is rising," said Michael McPhaden, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "It's real simple physics."

'Exceptional' heat is arriving sooner and lasting longer
Though not all temperatures seen around the world this week were unprecedented, they were nonetheless evidence of how the climate has shifted in a way that makes hot weather more likely to arrive earlier and last longer.

For some 80% of the world's population — 6.5 billion people — the heat of the past week was twice as likely to occur because humans started burning fossil fuels and releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, according to data provided to the Washington Post by the nonprofit Climate Central.

Nearly half that number experienced what Climate Central considers "exceptional heat" — conditions that would have been rare or even impossible in a world without climate change.

"What is really standing out is how many [heat waves] are happening at the same time," said Andrew Pershing, the nonprofit's director of climate science.

All week long, "exceptional" conditions could be found across much of Africa, the Middle East, southern Europe and southeast Asia. Surging air conditioning demand crippled power grids in Albania and Kuwait. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the past week has seen more than 1,400 high temperature records fall around the globe.

Since the start of the industrial era, human activities — mostly burning fossil fuels — have warmed the planet by about 2 .2 degrees Fahrenheit . Earth's temperature over the past 12 months has been even hotter, averaging about 2 .7 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels.

To assess how warming increases the likelihood of a given heat event, Climate Central uses multiple global climate models to calculate how often that temperature would have occurred in the preindustrial climate and how frequently it is reached today. The technique, which has been peer reviewed and published in an academic journal, underscores how warming has juiced the chance of temperatures at the edge of what people can tolerate.

The mercury in Hartford, Conn., on Thursday reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest temperature ever recorded for that day. Climate Central's analysis found those conditions are twice as likely under current levels of warming — and they will only occur more often as the world continues to heat up.

Climate change isn't just making high temperatures and other extreme events more likely, Wehner said. It also makes every disaster that does occur more intense.

Wehner's research has found that heat waves like the one currently unfolding in the United States are now about 3 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit hotter because of how humans have altered the planet. Strong hurricanes are at least 14% wetter because the warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture.  And storm surges are unfolding in oceans that are in some places more than a foot higher than they were half a century ago, allowing floodwaters to reach heights never seen before.

"We have been predicting for at least the past two decades that extreme weather would become yet more dangerous as the world warms," Wehner said. "This is not a surprise."

Early summer heat could hint at more global records
The global heat is to be expected after a historically strong El Nino pattern developed this winter and dissipated earlier this month, climate scientists said. The same thing happened in 2016, which had been the hottest year observed since at least the 1850s — until a surge of global heat began breaking those 8-year-old records a year ago.

But this time, eight more years of greenhouse gas emissions warming the planet means the otherwise natural boost in global warmth is pushing the planet even further into uncharted territory, McPhaden said. That is despite the fact that the latest El Nino was "not in the same league" as the supercharged pattern of 2015-2016.

"The impacts of this event were amplified by the warm background conditions," McPhaden said. "What had been an intense El Nino rainfall became an extreme El Nino rainfall."

El Nino, during which unusually warm Pacific waters rise to the surface and transfer vast amounts of heat into the atmosphere, has fingerprints around the globe, including heat across southern and eastern Asia and heavy rainfall in eastern Africa.

Those fingerprints were especially pronounced not because this El Nino pattern was excessively strong, but because it developed in a world where greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, McPhaden said.

Though El Nino is over, the echo of its warming influence appears increasingly likely to push 2024 average annual temperatures above the record set in 2023, Hausfather said.

For the month of June, global temperatures are likely to be slightly warmer than 2 .7 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels, Hausfather said.

Last July brought the hottest average global temperatures scientists had ever seen — the hottest, they estimate, in more than 100,000 years. It's possible the planet surpasses that milestone next month, Hausfather said, and it's almost certain to come close to it.

Climate scientists have been predicting the end of El Nino will bring a global cooling trend, but they haven't seen it arrive yet.

"If temperatures stay at current elevated levels, we'd roughly tie last July," Hausfather said. "Either way, it's super hot. It's just a question if, is it hotter than we expected, or not?"

Watch this video!  It is a quick view of Trumps agenda regarding climate change mitigation.

Roads turn into rivers in Florida
WASHINGTON POST

Harv's Corner

How bad does it have to get before we start believing that "Global Warming"  is real and that it is imperative that we join the folks trying to mitigate its worst effects? By that, I mean it can get worse . . . a lot worse. We need to pay attention. Who will be leading the country after the election, and what is their plan to tackle this problem?

Disastrous flooding plagued areas between Fort Lauderdale and Miami on Wednesday after nearly a foot of rain fell, transforming roadways into rivers and leaving homes and businesses treading water. It was the wettest summer day on record in Fort Lauderdale, where bookkeeping dates to 1912. The National Weather Service issued a dire flash-flood emergency for "catastrophic" flood effects between Miami Dade and Fort Lauderdale. The episode comes 14 months to the day since an incredible 22.5 inches fell on Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale in a single day. The historic rainfall bears the fingerprint of human-caused climate change, which is increasing the intensity and severity of top-tier rainstorms. Wednesday's downpours even delayed the Florida Panthers on their way to Stanley Cup games in Canada against the Edmonton Oilers. To make matters worse, the ongoing deluge is far from over.

Harv's Corner

Hi Everyone, 

I want to emphasize the message that Trump poses "A Clear and Present Danger" to Democracy.

It is concerning that millions of people have been led down a path of blind support for him, unable to recognize the danger he represents for the country. The structure of "Trump's" government mirrors the plans outlined in the Heritage Project.

By the way, It's time to recognize the fact that there is no longer a Republican Party.  It is the Party of Trump.

In what world would we ever choose this plan for our Country???  

Details of the Heritage project;

Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project, is a collection of right-wing policy proposals from The Heritage Foundation to reshape the U.S. federal government in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.[2][3] 

Established in 2022, the project aims to recruit tens of thousands of conservatives to the District of Columbia to replace existing federal civil servants—whom Republicans characterize as part of the "deep state"—and to further the objectives of the next Republican president.[4] 

It adopts a maximalist version of the unitary executive theory, a disputed interpretation of Article II of the Constitution of the United States,[5][6] which asserts that the president has absolute power over the executive branch upon inauguration.[3][7]

Project 2025 envisions widespread changes across the government, particularly economic and social policies and the role of the federal government and its agencies.

The plan proposes slashing funding for the Department of Justice (DOJ), dismantling the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), sharply reducing environmental and climate change regulations to favor fossil fuel production, eliminating the Department of Commerce, and ending the independence of federal agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC).[8][9] 

The blueprint seeks to institute tax cuts,[10] though its writers disagree on the wisdom of protectionism.[11] Project 2025 recommends abolishing the Department of Education, whose programs would be either transferred to other agencies, or terminated.[12][13] 

Funding for climate research would be cut while the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would be reformed along conservative principles.[14][15] 

The Project urges government to explicitly reject abortion as health care[16][17] and eliminate the Affordable Care Act's coverage of emergency contraception.[18] 

The Project seeks to infuse the government with elements of Christianity.[19][20] It proposes criminalizing pornography,[21] removing legal protections against discrimination based on sexual or gender identity,[21][22] and terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs,[4][22] as well as affirmative action.[23]

Project contributor Jeffrey Clark advises the future president to immediately deploy the military for domestic law enforcement and direct the DOJ to pursue Donald Trump's adversaries by invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807.[24][25] 

The Project recommends the arrest, detention, and deportation of undocumented immigrants.[26] It promotes capital punishment and the speedy "finality" of such sentences.[27] Project director Paul Dans, explained that Project 2025 is "systematically preparing to march into office and bring a new army, aligned, trained, and essentially weaponized conservatives ready to do battle against the deep state."[28][29] 

Dans admitted it was "counterintuitive" to recruit so many to join the government to shrink it, but pointed out the need for a future president to "regain control" of the government.[4] Although the project does not promote a specific presidential candidate, many contributors have close ties to Trump and his 2024 campaign.[6][30]

​Critics of Project 2025 have described it as an authoritarian Christian nationalist movement[19] and a path for the United States to become an autocracy. Several experts in law have indicated that it would undermine the rule of law and the separation of powers.[8] Some conservatives and Republicans also criticized the plan, for example in the contexts of centralizing power,[4] climate change,[31] and foreign trade.[11]