[May 8-14’23] Global Decarbonization Alliance is BS

How AI helps spread climate disinformation, help climate compatible trees, how does a landfill work and avoid paying environmental damages is just to go bankrupt.

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Weekly Climate 🎉

References: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and [6].

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‼️News you can’t miss

Here’s one important scary/bad (🙀), good (😻), interesting (😼) and fossil (💩) news item.

🙀 How AI helps spread climate disinformation

😻 Help climate compatible trees

😼 How does a landfill work?

💩 Easiest way for fossil fuel companies to get out of paying for environmental damages? Just go bankrupt.

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👩‍⚕️ Status: Climate & Science

Let’s look at how we’re doing this week!

[#elnino] — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has updated their El Niño prediction meaning that there’s now a 90% chance of El Niño forming already in May and June and persisting into the end of 2023, after an unusual three-year La Niña. El Niño is marked by warmer ocean temperatures and changes in global air currents, which alter weather and storm patterns, and is associated with extreme heat and more rain in certain regions.

[#heatwave] — A historic heat wave caused by climate change is sweeping across Asia and Europe, breaking temperature records in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Spain. The heat wave has a 1-in-400 chance of occurring each year and is one of the most brutal heat events the world has ever witnessed, according to a climate historian. Climate change continues to drive extreme heat and its impacts, which are likely to continue as Pacific Ocean conditions shift from La Niña to a more warming El Niño pattern.

[#wildfiresmoke] — Aerosols from the Australian wildfires in 2019 and 2020 brightened clouds above the subtropical Pacific Ocean, cooling the ocean surface and atmosphere, shifting the Intertropical Convergence Zone (a cloud and rain belt) northward, and nudging the Equatorial Pacific into a long-lasting cool phase of the La Niña-El Niño cycle, according to a new study in Science Advances. The three-year La Niña affected the world, intensifying drought and famine in Eastern Africa and priming the Atlantic Ocean region for hurricanes, including the most active tropical storm season on record in 2020. The study highlights the widespread multi-year climate impacts caused by an unprecedented wildfire season and warns that such large-scale interactions between wildfire aerosols and the climate may become more prevalent under climate change as wildfires are projected to intensify and become more frequent.

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📰 The 7 Grand Challenges

🏘 Reduce impact of urban and rural areas

Lowering the impact of urban and rural areas.

[#norwayev] — Despite concerns about electric cars causing grid collapses and using up natural resources, Norway's EV revolution has been successful with about 80% of new cars sold last year being battery-powered and closer to 90% this year. The transition to electric cars has not been without its challenges, such as unreliable chargers and long waits during periods of high demand, but it has also created new job opportunities. The demand for electricity has increased, but most owners are charging their cars at night when demand is lower and the cost of electricity is lower. Overall, the EV revolution in Norway has brought many benefits without the dire consequences predicted by critics.