These northern U.S. communities may not be completely immune to a warming world, but they are well-placed to meet the needs of an influx of climate migrants.
Why Hurricanes Are Becoming More Intense (WSJ)
This year’s record-setting ocean temperatures are the result of decades of climate warming and an El Niño pattern that is releasing heat from the Pacific into the atmosphere and affecting ocean temperatures globally, according to Michael McPhaden, senior scientist at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle.
Gas Continues to Fill the Power Gap (Reuters)
U.S. power producers increased output of electricity from natural gas by more than from clean power sources in the opening eight months of 2023, as electricity firms grappled with low wind speeds and heavy demand from power-hungry air conditioners.
Total power generation across the lower 48 states through Aug. 20, 2023 declined by 2.1% from the same period in 2022, data compiled by Refinitiv shows.
But generation from natural gas climbed by over 10%, widening gas’ lead as the country’s main source of electricity.
The share of power generated from gas averaged 40.4% through mid-August, up from under 36% in the same period in 2022.
Global Boiling (Phenomenal World)
Take always:
1) Global Warming should be more aptly renamed Global Climate Disruption
2) This year’s heat is a 4 standard deviation event; “a giant non-linear outcome generator with wicked convexities”
3) “A ‘shock of the old’ is that we still live in the machine age of Victorians.”
4) “We need enough mitigation to avoid the unmanageable and enough adaptation to manage the unavoidable.”
Scientists fight to help protect the Florida coral that’s dying from heat (NPR)
Marine scientists say record ocean temperatures have sparked widespread coral bleaching in the Florida Keys. The extreme heat and bleaching have been deadly — killing all coral on one popular reef.
UN head warns of ‘global boiling’ as July set to be hottest month ever (FT)
EU climate change body says it is ‘more probable than not’ temperatures will reach new highs in next few month.
The world faces a new era of “global boiling”, the head of the UN has warned, as scientific forecasts showed that July is expected to be the hottest month ever recorded. “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived,” António Guterres, UN secretary-general, said on Thursday. The global average temperature this month has at times been about 1.5C higher than it was before human-induced warming set in, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. The first three weeks of July were the warmest such stretch on record, with the month now “extremely likely” to be the hottest ever, it said.
https://www.ft.com/content/657b50da-9a75-46b7-bf7c-020838f4f0a6?shareType=nongift
The World Bakes Under Extreme Heat (WSJ)
Warming oceans and heat domes are contributing to one of the hottest summers on record
Deadly heat waves are upending daily life in large parts of the U.S., Europe and Asia, as warming oceans and unprecedented humidity fuel one of Earth’s hottest summers on record.
Meteorologists say last month was the hottest June on record and 2023 could be the hottest year ever if July’s record temperatures continue, straining businesses and threatening power grids.
Several factors are contributing to the record heat this summer, said Brett Anderson, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather. Among them: Unusually warm oceans are raising humidity levels; several heat domes are trapping warmth around the world for longer than usual; and jet streams are causing deadly storms like the ones in Vermont this month to move slowly.
The hot seas and a recurring warm climate pattern called El Niño are compounding the effects of climate change, which scientists say is contributing to higher global temperatures.
Weathering the Future (PBS)
https://pbswisconsin.org/watch/nova/weathering-future-preview-txzvwi/
As extreme weather in the U.S. impacts more people – with longer heat waves, more intense rainstorms, megafires, and droughts – discover how Americans are fighting back by marshaling ancient wisdom and innovating new solutions.
Canadian Fires Signal New Frontier in Climate Change (WSJ)
Scientists, residents see changes in ecosystem of forests that make regions ripe for conflagration
Ecologists who’ve spent years in the field studying the forest say they see new swings of extreme rainfall followed by drought in the region, an expanding range of insect pests that are making forests more susceptible to fire, and shifts in the rich soils and permafrost that absorb and store carbon from the atmosphere. These changes are now combining with past fire management practices that some critics say have worsened this year’s conflagration.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/canadian-fires-signal-new-frontier-in-climate-change-a57788b2
Marquette College of Business Launches Sustainability Lab
The Marquette University Sustainability Lab is a cross-disciplinary project that aims to research and disseminate knowledge, foster and develop managers around effective sustainability and stewardship practices increasingly demanded across industries globally. Our lab aligns with the university’s commitment to the Laudato Si’ papal encyclical and furthers our Catholic, Jesuit mission to care for our common home. Through instructional opportunities that span business, the STEM fields, the humanities and more, the Sustainability Lab provides students with the knowledge they need to Be the Difference.
Housed in finance and the college of business, the S-Lab is interdisciplinary across the university including the Office of Economic Partnerships, supply chain management, communications, engineering, the natural sciences, the Women’s Leadership Institute, the law school and the Center for Peacemaking.
Its purpose: to research, educate and bring together this generation of sustainability leaders.
Marquette has long been recognized as a leader in sustainability. The university hosts the “Sustainability 2.0” Conference every fall, bringing together business leaders and executives from investment firms, public and private companies and NGOs for the largest regional conference on the issue. Our ESG (environmental, social and governance) courses are, likewise, unique among Midwest universities, designed with the future of corporate behavior in mind. Finally, the university itself is a recipient of the Princeton Review’s “Green College” designation and is recognized as one of the country’s most sustainable campuses.
Co-director, Dr. Christopher K. Merker, had this to say on the Lab and the critical importance of sustainability on present and future business performance: “Our goal is to help people understand and adapt to the world that’s changed around them. Those who undertake this successfully will be prepared to handle the strategic issues around sustainability, whether as an investor or as a business manager.”