Siberian heatwave of 2020 almost impossible without climate change

Prolonged Siberian heat of 2020

A large, rapid multi-method attribution study, supported by observational and large ensemble model analyses, indicates with high confidence that extremely warm periods such as the 6 months of January – June 2020 over the Siberian region would have been at least 2 °C cooler in a world without human influence. Similar events have a best estimate return time in the current climate of around 130 years and are now more than 600 times as likely to occur as they would have been at the beginning of the 20th century; with the best estimate orders of magnitude larger. By 2050 we expect such a regional warm period in the first 6 months of the year to be at least another 0.5 °C warmer, and possibly up to 5 °C warmer, with similar 6-month regional temperatures becoming correspondingly more frequent. Statements regarding the very high June daily maximum temperatures (38 °C) such as were reported at Verkhoyansk can be made only with much lower confidence. Nevertheless, results also indicate a large increase in the likelihood of such temperatures and, with more confidence, an increase in extreme daily maxima of more than 1 °C when comparing the climate of 1900 to the present day.

NOAA – 2019 State of U.S. High Tide Flooding with a 2020 Outlook

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Sea level rise flooding of U.S. coastlines is happening now, and it is becoming more frequent each year. This flooding typically occurs when ocean waters reach 0.5 meter (m) to 0.65 m above the daily average high tide and starts spilling onto streets or bubbling up from storm drains. Evidence of a rapid increase in sea level rise related flooding started to emerge about two decades ago, and it is now very clear. This type of coastal flooding will continue to grow in extent, frequency, and depth as sea levels continue to rise over the coming years and decades.

2019 State of U.S. High Tide Flooding with a 2020 Outlook

FloodFactor – Find your home’s Flood Factor – Tool for Determining Present and Future Flood Risk

https://floodfactor.com/

Flood Factor™

Defining American’s past, present, and future flood risk.

Flood Factor is a free online tool created by the nonprofit First Street Foundation that makes it easy for Americans to finally find their property’s current and future risk of flooding, learn if it has flooded in the past, and understand how flood risks are changing because of the environment.

Flood Factor was created to make the most cutting edge flood science:

Accessible to all

Available at the property level

Easy to understand

SOLVING THE CLIMATE CRISIS: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy, Resilient, and Just America

Majority Staff Report, Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, SOLVING THE CLIMATE CRISIS: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy, Resilient, and Just America (June 2020)

Executive Summary

American leadership and ingenuity are central to solving the climate crisis. With the devastating health and economic consequences of climate change growing at home and abroad, the United States must act urgently, guided by science, and in concert with the international community to provide a livable climate for today’s youth and future generations. We must harness the technological innovation of the moonshot, the creativity of our entrepreneurs, the strength of our workers, and the moral force of a nation endeavoring to establish justice for all. Working together, we will avert the worst impacts of the climate emergency and build a stronger, healthier, and fairer America for everyone. The Climate Crisis Action Plan outlined in this report provides a roadmap for Congress to build a prosperous, clean energy economy that values workers, advances environmental justice, and is prepared to meet the challenges of the climate crisis.

Law: Carbon Capture and Storage, Technological Advancements and Operational Hurdles – Feb 2020

“Law: Carbon Capture and Storage, Technological Advancements and Operational Hurdles” – recording

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Grant

ECOLE: Emerging Technologies in Occupational Health and the Environment Workshop Program

February 14, 2020

9AM-12:00 Noon

8:45 – Welcome

9:00 -10:15 – Panel:       Legal Regimes and Policy Hurdles for Carbon Capture and Storage and Negative Emissions Technologies

Nick Bryner (Professor, LSU Law Center)

Tracy Hester (Lecturer, Houston Law Center)

Will Burns (Professor, Institute for Carbon Removal Law & Policy, American University)

10:15-10:30 – Break

10:30-11:45 – Panel:      Legal Regimes and Policy Hurdles for Green and Blue Carbon Capture and Storage

Blake Hudson (Professor, Houston Law Center)

Ed Richards (Professor, LSU Law Center) slides

Nick Bryner (Professor, LSU Law Center)

11:45-Noon – Closing Remarks

Objective/Purpose

This program aims to discuss emerging issues at the intersection of technology, law and carbon capture and storage, and to educate the local legal and scientific community on the potential of these technologies, and their potential pitfalls.

FEMA – Disaster Operations Legal Reference Manuals

Version 3.1

This mid-edition online update of the Disaster Operations Legal Reference (DOLR 3.1) describes the legal authorities for FEMA’s readiness, response, and recovery activities. It supersedes DOLR 3.0, issued in March 2017. Because this reference is not exhaustive, the legal authorities are subject to modification and change, and the specific facts surrounding an issue may change the legal analysis, use of the information contained here should be verified with the FEMA Office of Chief Counsel before becoming the basis for a final decision by the Agency.

Disaster Operations Legal Reference (DOLR 3.1)

Version 3.0

The Third Edition of the Disaster Operations Legal Reference (DOLR 3.0) describes the legal authorities for FEMA’s readiness, response, and recovery activities. It supersedes DOLR 2.0, issued in June 2013. Because this reference is not exhaustive, the legal authorities are subject to modification and change, and the specific facts surrounding an issue may change the legal analysis, use of the information contained here should be verified with the FEMA Office of Chief Counsel before becoming the basis for a final decision by the Agency.

FEMA – Disaster Operations Legal Reference Manual – Version 3.0 (2017)

Version 2.0

The Second Edition of the Disaster Operations Legal Reference (DOLR 2.0) describes the legal authorities for FEMA’s readiness, response, and recovery activities. It supersedes DOLR 1.0 issued in November 2011. Because this reference is not exhaustive, the legal authorities are subject to modification and change, and the specific facts surrounding an issue may change the legal analysis, use of the information contained here should be verified with the FEMA Office of Chief Counsel before becoming the basis for a final decision by the Agency.

FEMA – Disaster Operations Legal Reference 2013

California – Climate Change and Sea Level Assessment

Council, Ocean Protection. “State of California Sea Level Rise Guidance, 2018 Update.” Ocean Protection Council: Sacramento, CA, USA (2018): 84.

This updated document, the “State of California Sea-Level Rise Guidance” (Guidance), provides a bold, science-based methodology for state and local governments to analyze and assess the risks associated with sea-level rise, and to incorporate sea-level rise into their planning, permitting, and investment decisions. This Guidance provides:

1. A synthesis of the best available science on sea-level rise projections and rates for California;

2. A step-by-step approach for state agencies and local governments to evaluate those projections and related hazard information in decision making; and

3. Preferred coastal adaptation approaches

California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment – Statewide Summary (2018)

The Statewide Summary Report presents an overview of the main findings from California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, to translate the state of climate science into useful information for action. This report presents findings in the context of existing climate science, including strategies to adapt to climate impacts and key research gaps needed to spur additional progress on safeguarding California from climate change.

WWW site – http://www.climateassessment.ca.gov/

California’s Changing Climate 2018: A Summary of Key Findings from California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment

California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment provides information to build resilience to climate impacts, including temperature, wildfire, water, sea level rise, and governance. Here you can view a snapshot of the key findings of the Fourth Assessment. For additional information, please download the Key Findings brochure.

ASSESSING AND COMMUNICATING THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COAST (2018)

Over the course of this and the next century, the combination of rising sea levels, severe storms, and coastal erosion will threaten the sustainability of coastal communities, development, and ecosystems as we currently know them. To clearly identify coastal vulnerabilities and develop appropriate adaptation strategies for projected increased levels of coastal flooding and erosion, coastal managers need user-friendly planning tools based on the best available climate and coastal science. In anticipation of these climate change impacts, many communities are in the early stages of climate change adaptation planning but lack the scientific information and tools to adequately address the potential impacts. In collaboration with leading scientists worldwide, the USGS designed the Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) to assess the coastal impacts of climate change for the California coast, including the combination of sea level rise, storms, and coastal change. In this project, we directly address the needs of coastal resource managers in Southern California by integrating a vast range of global climate change projections and translate that information using sophisticated physical process models into planning-scale physical, ecological, and economic exposure, shoreline change, and impact assessments, all delivered in two simple, user-friendly, online tools. Our results show that by the end of the 21st century, over 250,000 residents and nearly $40 billion in building value across Southern California could be exposed to coastal flooding from storms, sea level rise, and coastal change. Results for the other major population center in California (the greater San Francisco Bay Area) are also available but not explicitly discussed in this report. Together, CoSMoS has now assessed the exposure of 95% of the 26 million coastal residents of the State (17 million in Southern California).

 

The Paris Climate Change Agreement

The Paris Agreement – Full Text

Sachs, Noah, The Paris Agreement in the 2020s: Breakdown or Breakup? (October 3, 2019). Ecology Law Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 1, 2019.

The Paris climate agreement is at risk of falling apart in the 2020s

Season 3, Episode 2: Will We Always Have Paris? Can the World’s Climate Agreement Survive the 2020s?

Paris Mismatches: The Impact of the COP21 Climate Change Negotiations on the Oil and Gas Industries

Withdrawal from International Agreements: Legal Framework, the Paris Agreement, and the Iran Nuclear Agreement – CRS 2017

President Trump’s Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement Raises Legal Questions: Part 1 & 2. CRS (2017)

Data Driven Yale, NewClimate Institute, PBL 2018: Global climate action of regions, states and businesses. Research report published by Data Driven Yale, NewClimate Institute (2018)

Subnational climate change mitigation efforts will not offset the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.