Extreme weather

[Alan Klein]

If that's the case (for which you've shown no evidence), then it may have to do with the fact that the cost of fossil fuel is subsidized and/or doesn't reflect the real cost to society.

Cheers,
Bart

Why should I believe your claim.   You've shown no evidence.

[LesPalenik]

Another plague encouraged by hot weather - Japanese Beetles.
I've been gardening for over 40 years and never saw them before in any significant numbers, but for the last three years I've been fighting them and every year they come in greater numbers. They eat the leaves on various fruit plants, including blackberries, raspberries, currants and roses. It's easy to pick them (I flick or shake them from the leaves into a metal can filled half way with water), but every day a new contingent arrives. Their big Drang Nach Norden offensive just started, and I see that this summer I'll have to increase my daily engagement with them to twice-a-day routine to save the plants. They like hot weather and like to fool around in the heat of the day. Often you see several of them on top of each other engaging in indecent activities. They must enjoy the aforementioned midday activities and seem sluggish in the evening which is the best time to relocate them from the plants into a metal or glass container.

The beetles are back, but not with the cool hair and rocking music that we would be okay with (side note: as if the Beatles ever truly left). They are back in droves of shiny, green-eating, reproducing machines, also known as the Japanese Beetle. If you have never experienced these small beetles, you can count yourself among the lucky few, as their spread seems to be getting greater throughout the Niagara Region each year. These little guys will skeletonize leaves in the blink of an eye and can make their way through entire bushes in just a matter of days.

Like the name implies, the Japanese Beetle is native to Japan. They were imported into the United States supposedly in 1916 and have slowly spread throughout North America. The Japanese Beetle is about 1 cm long with a shiny, metallic-green body and bronze-colored outer wings. It begins feeding on plants in June/July. They are attracted to sweet smelling plants, which will become apparent as you see them on plants such as roses, lindens and grapes. It eats the tender tissues between the veins of leaves until all that’s left of the leaves are the brown, skeletal remains.
 

http://www.millionplants.com/advice/our-thoughts-and-advice-on-japanese-beetles/

[Alan Klein]

Another plague encouraged by hot weather - Japanese Beetles.
I've been gardening for over 40 years and never saw them before in any significant numbers, but for the last three years I've been fighting them and every year they come in greater numbers. They eat the leaves on various fruit plants, including blackberries, raspberries, currants and roses. It's easy to pick them (I flick or shake them from the leaves into a metal can filled half way with water), but every day a new contingent arrives. Their big Drang Nach Norden offensive just started, and I see that this summer I'll have to increase my daily engagement with them to twice-a-day routine to save the plants. They like hot weather and like to fool around in the heat of the day. Often you see several of them on top of each other engaging in group sex. They must enjoy the aforementioned midday activities and seem sluggish in the evening which is the best time to relocate them from the plants into a metal or glass container.

http://www.millionplants.com/advice/our-thoughts-and-advice-on-japanese-beetles/

  You're doing it all wrong.  You're suppose to interrupt their sexual activity during the day if you want to stop their spread, not wait until night when they're sleeping it off. 

When I was a kid, I used to see these beetles every year living in NYC.  But I haven't seen them in years.  Maybe it's a local phenomenon? 

[LesPalenik]

  You're doing it all wrong.  You're suppose to interrupt their sexual activity during the day if you want to stop their spread, not wait until night when they're sleeping it off. 

When I was a kid, I used to see these beetles every year living in NYC.  But I haven't seen them in years.  Maybe it's a local phenomenon?

They are more rambunctious and more agile during the day, consequently more capable of a fly-away escape. Also normally, I hate to interfere with couples in intimate moments.
From now on, I'll get up earlier and surprise them in the morning while they are still sluggish. 

Most probably, they are still in NYC, but unless you look for them or see the skeletonized leaves you wouldn't notice them. By now, they seem to be in every state and province. Apparently, they eat over 300 different plants and even lawns.

Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica (Newman), is a severe invasive insect pest of turf, landscapes, and horticultural crops. It has successfully colonized much of the United States and has recently established in mainland Europe. The distribution and voltinism of P. japonica will undoubtedly change as a consequence of climate change, posing additional challenges to the management of this species.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6429693/

https://journalstar.com/lifestyles/home-and-garden/sarah-browning-japanese-beetles-taking-toll-on-plants/article_fdabae8e-e908-5c88-bc41-7c6d6f5d31f3.html

[degrub]

Get out the nematodes in August and let them go to town in your grass eating the grubs of the beetles.
http://www.millionplants.com/advice/our-thoughts-and-advice-on-japanese-beetles/

[LesPalenik]

Get out the nematodes in August and let them go to town in your grass eating the grubs of the beetles.
http://www.millionplants.com/advice/our-thoughts-and-advice-on-japanese-beetles/

Thanks for the tip, I'll try it this year. Apparently, one nematode package contains a whopping 10 million fighters.
However, the problem is that the Japanese bugs are quite competent fliers and come to visit from the neighbouring backyards.

[Alan Goldhammer]

We used to have a lot of Japanese Beetles but I've not seen much in the way of an infestation in the last five years.  Perhaps they don't like anything in our yard.  the other pest that has disappeared is the Gypsy Moth that used to infest oak trees.  It's been gone for over ten years in our area despite the prevalence of the host tree.

[Rob C]

Rain?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaH4TUFjc_M

[LesPalenik]

This afternoon, a friend of mine went to the beach and took with him a camera and tripod. It was a hot day even near water. 
He felt fine, took a few shots, moved a few meters to a new position, started to adjust his tripod, and next moment he was coming around from fainting beside his tripod. Fortunately, his wife had a thermos with cold water and resuscitated him.

Weather forecast for Fri and Sat calls for Humidex of 44C (110F). Not in Miami, but 2,400km north of it, right in Toronto.

[Rob C]

This afternoon, a friend of mine went to the beach and took with him a camera and tripod. It was a hot day even near water. 
He felt fine, took a few shots, moved a few meters to a new position, started to adjust his tripod, and next moment he was coming around from fainting beside his tripod. Fortunately, his wife had a thermos with cold water and resuscitated him.

Weather forecast for Fri and Sat calls for Humidex of 44C (110F). Not in Miami, but 2,400km north of it, right in Toronto.

He's an activist; just another misguided soul who drank the C-C kool-aid and fell into step with the Red Chinese plot to destabilize the West!

(The above is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, just in case it doesn't travel well in this heat.)

In Singapore our model crumbled off a rock and I caught her just in time to save the shoot - never mind her; in Key West my wife collapsed without warning: out. In both cases I suggest it was the oppressive heat married to the high humidity.

The thing is, it doesn't take a huge change to push the normal conditions into the unbearable. That's the trouble: people think that only twenty degrees or something of change will affect life; not so. Food sources fare no better; and without water not at all.

[Alan Klein]

Another energy boondoggle. 
"July 18 (Reuters) - New York on Thursday awarded two major offshore wind contracts to Norway’s Equinor and a joint venture between Denmark’s Orsted and U.S. utility Eversource, a key milestone in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s ambitious plan to slash the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The two contracts add up to 1700 MW of capacity, or enough to power 1 million homes, Cuomo said at a press conference in New York City. Four major developers had submitted proposals to the state, which plans to procure 9,000 MW of offshore wind energy by 2035."

So people's utility costs and/or taxes will go up $3.2 billion dollars to pay for all this new economic activity.  That's $3200 per home for the million homes.  Of course all this economic activity has to be paid by someone through additional taxes or increased utility costs.  Plus, profits get sent partially to a foreign firm.  Good move Gov Cuomo.  I'm glad I moved to NJ where utility costs are less than I use to pay in NY. 

[Alan Klein]

Here's the link.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/18/reuters-america-new-york-awards-offshore-wind-contracts-to-equinor-orsted.html

[LesPalenik]

US farmers now face extreme heat wave after floods and trade war.

In the past year, torrential rains have dumped water on U.S. farmlands, destroying acreage and delaying crops from getting planted on time.

Now, farmers face another hurdle: a stifling heat wave that’s spreading across the United States and is expected to be the worst in the farm regions, including Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/19/extreme-heat-wave-hits-us-farmers-already-suffering-from-flooding.html

[Rob C]

Another energy boondoggle. 
"July 18 (Reuters) - New York on Thursday awarded two major offshore wind contracts to Norway’s Equinor and a joint venture between Denmark’s Orsted and U.S. utility Eversource, a key milestone in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s ambitious plan to slash the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The two contracts add up to 1700 MW of capacity, or enough to power 1 million homes, Cuomo said at a press conference in New York City. Four major developers had submitted proposals to the state, which plans to procure 9,000 MW of offshore wind energy by 2035."

So people's utility costs and/or taxes will go up $3.2 billion dollars to pay for all this new economic activity.  That's $3200 per home for the million homes.  Of course all this economic activity has to be paid by someone through additional taxes or increased utility costs.  Plus, profits get sent partially to a foreign firm.  Good move Gov Cuomo.  I'm glad I moved to NJ where utility costs are less than I use to pay in NY.

You are obsessed with figures. Either you are in your mid-nineties and give not a bugger about the generations to come and care only about stretching your pension and savings for another year or so (my concern too, the fiscal, but not the future bit) or, simply, you think it's all one gigantic joke or scam, an invention of the biased, anti-Trump press. If that's the case, bear in mind that the concerns were there before the word Trump had any connotation beyond games of cards.

You rather die rich and leave the coming generations cursing your name?

As has been pointed out, it's not so much what alternatives cost to make, but what they cost if not made.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

US farmers now face extreme heat wave after floods and trade war.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/19/extreme-heat-wave-hits-us-farmers-already-suffering-from-flooding.html

I don't envy the farming community. The above article, of course, talks about Weather and not about Climate. However, there is a clear pattern emerging that the weather extremes are becoming more frequent, which is in line with Climate change.

Last month of June, was in my country the warmest June since official systematic recording started in 1901. Coming week we are likely to have another heatwave. The lack of rain, last year and this year so far, already is causing failed crop production (and soil salination near the coast), and it increases the chance of wildfires. Exotic insects bring new (tropical) diseases to our Latitudes. All that already causes human and economic hardship, hurts the economy more than it would have cost to prevent it, and nature has a hard time to adapt fast enough.

The above article also illustrates the incomprehensible stupidity of those who say that they don't mind a few degrees warmer winter weather. Those few degrees are Global, and Average. They are constructed from higher highs and lower lows, with the extremes becoming more extreme. Food production is at stake, and human health is under pressure.

And this is only the beginning.

There are some promising attempts to get a grip on the situation, but it will take an increasing amount of effort the longer we wait. We can only hope we do not cross irreversible tipping points.

Cheers,
Bart

[LesPalenik]

And this is only the beginning.

Last two days we had in Toronto Humidex up to 44C. It was too hot to go to the lake! Paddling a canoe is no fun at those temperatures. Also no fun for fish, since warm water has a low capacity for holding oxygen.
The hot and humid weather, caused by a so-called “heat dome,” stretched across southern and northern Ontario, southern Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Climate change means that temperatures could be even more unbearable in the future, according to Miriam Diamond, earth sciences professor at the University of Toronto. “The important point here is that this is not the new normal,” Diamond told CTV News Chanel. “The climate is continuing to heat up. So, we’re really hot right now and the future holds even higher temperatures for longer, more prolonged periods.”

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/humidex-tops-44-c-as-eastern-canada-swelters-under-heat-dome-1.4516713

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

This is the international (NOAA) table that our Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute uses for 'Heat Index'


Cheers,
Bart

P.S. Here's more info on "Humid heat waves at different warming levels":
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-07536-7

[Alan Klein]

You are obsessed with figures. Either you are in your mid-nineties and give not a bugger about the generations to come and care only about stretching your pension and savings for another year or so (my concern too, the fiscal, but not the future bit) or, simply, you think it's all one gigantic joke or scam, an invention of the biased, anti-Trump press. If that's the case, bear in mind that the concerns were there before the word Trump had any connotation beyond games of cards.

You rather die rich and leave the coming generations cursing your name?

As has been pointed out, it's not so much what alternatives cost to make, but what they cost if not made.

Based on the NYS project costs, it would cost $8 trillion dollars to replace the electric production in the US with wind assuming it was possible to operate with wind 100%.  Of course, you can't   Nor does the sun shine for solar.  You still need to operate fossil fuel plants because wind doesn;t blow all the time.  So you don't save anything.  Look at Germany.  40% of its electric are from renewables.  Yet, their costs are 2 1/2 times Americas per KWH.  Also, their CO2 production has hardly changed in ten years.   So what have they accomplished?  Nothing.

By comparison, the US spends $3.5 trillion totally on all medical costs.  So the $8 trillion for wind generation would pay for all medical care for over two years. 

The Federal government will have a trillion dollar deficit this year.  NYS long term liabilities (pensions, etc.) are over $250 billion.  And NYS is a rich state compared to most states throughout the country which are in worse shape.    You don;t live here so you're not familiar with just how broke the states and federal government are.  The fed owes over $20 trillion dollars.  It's already paying something like $500 billion on interest just to finance our debt.  That's money that's just getting pissed away.

Bankrupting the country does not help future generations.  They will be the ones absorbing all the additional debt being held by the Chinese and others.  So on the hope you're going to change the climate, we should bankrupt the economy?  That's nuts. 


Here's an article on NYS electric issues.  We're going to shutdown an existing nuclear plant and replace it with fossil fuels.  Another Gov Cuomo plan.  That's also nuts. Also, read how dangerous from a power failure offshore wind is compared to on-land fossil or nuclear.  So we should expect more blackouts.  And none of the solar or wind will replace conventional because there aren't enough batteries to store power for use at night or when the wind stops. 

 

[Alan Klein]

Here's th link to the article mentioned in my last post regarding NY electricity.
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/new-york-prepare-for-more-green-blackouts-nuclear-solar-wind

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Based on the NYS project costs, it would cost $8 trillion dollars to replace the electric production in the US with wind assuming it was possible to operate with wind 100%.  Of course, you can't   Nor does the sun shine for solar.  You still need to operate fossil fuel plants because wind doesn;t blow all the time.  So you don't save anything.

Alan, that's nonsense, you're creating a strawman. You do save by having to burn less fossil fuel (and produce less CO2 emission) with free wind and sun. These systems are complementary, and will not totally replace Fossil fuel utility plants.

Look at Germany.  40% of its electric are from renewables.  Yet, their costs are 2 1/2 times Americas per KWH.

Are you serious? Since when does the cost in the USA reflect the true cost of energy? Add the cost to society from increased droughts, flooding, Hurricanes, diseases, etc., and you'll get a more realistic comparison.

Also, their CO2 production has hardly changed in ten years.   So what have they accomplished?  Nothing.

That's not due to renewable enery. If Germany hadn't added renewables to the mix, then their emissions would have skyrocketed. They do need to scale down the coal-generated energy production, and they are aware of that because they've committed to doing that in the light of the Paris agreements.

You are still searching for arguments for inaction. Time has run out for such games.

Soon there will be Carbon taxing on international trade, and the laggards will pay dearly.

Cheers,
Bart