Concerning’ leaks of climate-changing methane gas reported at fracking site

Methane leaks at a fracking site near Blackpool have raised concerns about the capacity of the industry to produce gas without harming the environment.

Cuadrilla reported four spikes in methane above levels set by authorities since it began its controversial operation in October.

The largest event saw concentrations of the climate-warming gas rise to around 15 times higher than normal background levels.

Workers attempted to burn the gas as they released it from the well, but it failed to catch light and was released into the air.

Venting unburned methane at the site is banned by the Environment Agency “except where necessary for safety reasons”.

 Besides providing a source of fuel, methane is a potent greenhouse gas with the power to warm the planet up to 84 times more than CO2.

Controlling leaks from fracking sites is therefore vital if the industry wants to achieve its stated goal of providing a cleaner alternative to coal.

Three of the spikes recorded by Cuadrilla took place in January, with the highest one pushing methane levels to 30.5ppm.

Fear of fracking ‘soars’ as industry lobbies for limits to be lifted
The fossil fuel company said measurements by the British Geological Survey before fracking commenced had recorded far higher methane levels of up to 70ppm at the site.

But Dr Grant Allen, who conducted the BGS analysis, said it was not fair to present this as any kind of baseline.

“This is not normal. Background methane concentration is around 2 ppm,” he said, noting that “very rare” peak levels before fracking began at the site were generally around 7 ppm.

In their report, BGS attributed the earlier spike to emissions from a nearby dairy farm. Any reading above 7.1ppm recorded by Cuadrilla must be reported to the Environment Agency.

Vivienne Westwood joins anti-fracking protest outside Courts of Justice
While the leaks from the Preston New Road site are not enough to hamper the UK’s efforts to tackle climate change, Dr Allen said they must be taken seriously if the industry wants to expand across the country. 

“Methane emissions such as this are very much a concern regarding the industry’s carbon footprint and contribution to greenhouse gas budgets,” he said.

“Such concerns exist because of the potential cumulative impact of a future scaled up industry in the UK and how that might affect the UK’s stated emissions targets.”

Ban fracking or relax earthquake rules, Ratcliffe tells government

If shale gas – which contains methane – is to be cleaner than coal and serve as a “bridge fuel” to green energy promised by the government, the industry must ensure no more than 2 per cent of it is vented into the air. 

While it is too early to know if Britain’s fledgeling operations will stay below this limit, data from the US shows its expansive fracking industry is close, at around 1.6 per cent.

Despite these worries, Cuadrilla’s environmental manager Nick Mace said they were “very proud” of their monitoring programme, which he said showed the company’s commitment to the environment.

“The absolute level of methane emissions over the 12 month reporting period is reassuringly tiny,” he said, noting there were no health consequences from such short term emissions.

Cuadrilla has endured a rocky few months at the Lancashire site, facing repeated disruptions due to earthquakes and bitter opposition from campaigners angry about its environmental impact.

A spokesperson from Preston New Road Action Group said news of the recent spikes were a “major concern” to local residents.

“Even after only a partial frack we are seeing impacts on the air we breathe. We should be reducing gases that contribute to climate change rather than increasing them,” they said.

Industry leaders have claimed fracking will never take off in Britain unless earthquake limits are raised, but the government has so far resisted their calls.


Knight Sha

Climate Change Demands Action! Children Across 30 Countries to Skip School on March 15 for a Protest

WORLD Team Latestly  Mar 06, 2019
Thousands of New Zealand school students are planning to skip school on March 15 for a strike on climate change. High-school and middle-school students in more than 30 countries will join the strike demanding politicians to treat the global climate change crisis as an emergency situation. 'School Strike 4 Climate' will ask authorities to implement Green New Deal championed by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The children's support has received the support of politicians too.

Leo Eric Varadkar, Irish politician said, "I am inspired and enthused by the fact that young people, students and school pupils are taking a real interest in climate action, that they are going to protest and that they are putting it up to all of us in all parties, and to all adults, to do more when it comes to climate action." Climate Change To Worsen Your Health, Warn Doctors: Here’s How Global Warming Will Affect Human Lives.

Last month, pupils from around the UK went "on strike" as part of a global campaign demanding action on climate change. Reportedly, protests took place in more than 60 towns and cities, with estimated participants of 15,000 pupils. They had carried placards which read 'There is no planet B'. Here Are 5 Biggest Threats to Our Oceans and Marine Life!

It began after 15-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg skipped class to sit outside government buildings in last year, accusing her country of not following the Paris Climate Agreement. Since then protests by children have taken place in countries including Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Australia. Cities like London, Brighton, Oxford and Exeter have seen some of the biggest protests. On December 16, Greta attended a UN Climate summit in Poland in which held world leaders responsible for not acting on the current situation. 4 Truths That Make Us Wonder Whether The Earth Will Survive 50 Years From Now.
Watch her speech at the UN here:

She repeated the same attack on politicians at World Economic Forums' annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland.
Watch the video here:

 In the US, Europe, and Australia, students are skipping school most Fridays to attend the protest requesting for a better future. This January 24 around 32,000 students took the streets demanding urgent change in Brussels. Talking about children's participation, a New Zealand Minister Phil Twyford said it was great to see young people getting involved in issues like climate change because "if there's one issue that's going to affect the next generation it's climate change".

Thanx  World Team Latesty
Crusader Jenny , Nanook  , Knight  Mika  & Knight  Moto

Really alarming science of climate change facing a challenge from trump

I select the video   put the video on my post  , daddy show  me how   mama watch   mama was so  happy   daddy made the video larger  daddy say  I will do it next time
Everyone can learn a lot  how to  help  the planet  get healthy again  oldest member  that is in our group is uncle Harvey  he will be 87  the 19 June   uncle Harvey  say not to tell  the  cute chicks 
Thank you for watching

Knight Man

Climate Scientist Who Coined ‘Global Warming’ Dies: Interesting Facts about the Grandfather of Climate Science Wallace Smith Broecker

SCIENCE Team Latestly  Feb 20, 2019 11:33 AM IST
Wallace Smith Broecker (Photo Credits: The Earth Institute, Columbia University)
Wallace Smith Broecker, a professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, known for coining the term ‘Global Warming’ passed away at the age of 87. A spokesperson for the university’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory said that Broecker had been suffering from health problems in the recent months. The climate scientist is best known for bringing the term Global Warming into common parlance with a paper he wrote in 1975. Back then, he sounded warning bells that rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would lead to increased warming and related environmental problems. Here are important facts about Wallace Smith Broecker. Climate Change Effect: Oceans are Warming Faster Than Scientists Thought, Says New Research.
Known to friends, peers and admirers as “Wally,” Broecker, born in 1931, is considered one among the greatest geoscientists.
His area of research has been the role of oceans in climate change.
He was a pioneer in radiocarbon and isotope dating – the methods used for creating a map of the history of Earth’s climate fluctuations. India And China Are Leading in Increasing Earth's Green Cover Through Various Agriculture Initiatives. 
Apart from naming Global Warming, Broecker also discovered Ocean Conveyor Belt and coined the term.
 It also happens to be the most important discovery in the history of oceanography and one of the most crucial ones related to climate.
Broecker has won many awards, which includes the Vetlesen Prize in 1987, National Medal of Science given to him by Bill Clinton in 1996 and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2002.
Among his highly-acclaimed books is Fixing Climax, co-authored with writer Robert Kunzing, where he recommends making carbon “scrubbers” that will cycle carbon out of the environment and send it back to earth’s crust.
In the book, he says burning fossil fuels isn’t bad as far as only climate change is concerned, but dumping the waste into the atmosphere is.
Unlike the others, Broecker was realistic in his approach towards using fossil fuels, given humanity’s dependence on them.
In a BBC talk show Hardtalk, he explained: “I think we have an option and the option is to let them industrialise but take care of the problem by capturing and storing the CO2.” The real challenge is to “put away” the waste.
Known as the "Grandfather of Climate Science" and the "Dean of Climate Scientists", Broecker’s contributions to climate science has been invaluable. His discoveries have changed the way we look at and understand the environment. His death has dealt a big blow to the field of climate science.

Thanx  SCIENCE  Team Latestly
Crusader Jenny , Nanook , Knight Mika  & Knight  Moto

What is the greenhouse effect?

What is a greenhouse?

Drawing of greenhouse, with glass walls and roof, plants growing inside. Sunlight coming in through roof, but bounces off inside of roof and cannot escape.

A greenhouse is made of glass. It traps the Sun's energy inside and keeps the plants warm, even in winter.

A greenhouse is a house made of glass. It has glass walls and a glass roof. People grow tomatoes and flowers and other plants in them. A greenhouse stays warm inside, even during winter. Sunlight shines in and warms the plants and air inside. But the heat is trapped by the glass and can't escape. So during the daylight hours, it gets warmer and warmer inside a greenhouse, and stays pretty warm at night too.

How is Earth a greenhouse?

Earth's atmosphere does the same thing as the greenhouse. Gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide do what the roof of a greenhouse does. During the day, the Sun shines through the atmosphere. Earth's surface warms up in the sunlight. At night, Earth's surface cools, releasing the heat back into the air. But some of the heat is trapped by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That's what keeps our Earth a warm and cozy 59 degrees Fahrenheit, on average.

Drawing shows Earth, surrounded by atmosphere containing greenhouse gases, and Sun shining through. Labels say 'During the day, when the sun's energy reaches Earth's atmosphere, most of it goes right through. Some bounces off, back into space. At night, most of the Sun's energy escapes back into space. But some is trapped inside the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases, further warming Earth.
Greenhouse effect of Earth's atmosphere keeps some of the Sun's energy from escaping back into space at night.

Is it warm in here, or is it just me?

You might think 59 degrees Fahrenheit is pretty cold. Or, you might think that's warm. It depends on what you are used to. That temperature would melt all the Arctic ice. Yes, it's colder than 59 degrees in a lot of places, and hotter than 59 degrees in a lot of places, but 59 is the average of all of the places.

Drawing shows Earth, surrounded by atmosphere containing too much greenhouse gas, and Sun shining through. But some is trapped inside the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases. The atmosphere is colored yellow and orange to show that it is warming up too much.
If the atmosphere causes too much greenhouse effect, Earth just gets warmer and warmer.

The point is, if the greenhouse effect is too strong, Earth gets warmer and warmer. This is what is happening now. Too much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the air are making the greenhouse effect stronger.

Why can't we just plant more trees?

You might well wonder, because, after all, trees—like all plants—take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.

Well, that might help a little. But, instead of planting more forests, some people are cutting them down and burning them to make more farm land to feed the growing human population.

A forest burns. (Photograph copyright Woods Hole Research Center).

Photo of white, sick-looking corals under water.
These coral are sick. They should be colorful, not bleached out. Credit: Bruno de Giusti.

The ocean also absorbs a lot, but not all, of the excess carbon dioxide in the air. Unfortunately, the increased carbon dioxide in the ocean changes the water, making it more acidic. Ocean creatures don't like acidic water. The bleached out, unhealthy coral in this picture is just one example of what acidic water can do.

Don't clouds keep Earth cooler?

Water in the atmosphere also acts as a greenhouse gas. The atmosphere contains a lot of water. This water can be in the form of a gas—water vapor—or in the form of a liquid—clouds. Clouds are water vapor that has cooled and condensed back into tiny droplets of liquid water.


Earth's clouds as seen from space.

Water in the clouds holds in some of the heat from Earth's surface. But the bright white tops of clouds also reflect some of the sunlight back to space. So with clouds, some energy from the Sun never even reaches Earth's surface.

How much the clouds affect the warming or cooling of Earth's surface is one of those tricky questions that several NASA missions are aiming to answer.

Cloud effects on Earth's radiation. Diagram shows how clouds reflect some of the Sun's energy back to space.
Clouds prevent some of the Sun's energy from ever reaching Earth's surface.

Or do clouds make Earth warmer?
Here is a riddle—a serious one, not a joke:

As the ocean warms up, more water evaporates into the air. So does more water vapor then mean more warming? And does more warming mean more water vapor? And ‘round and ‘round we go?

Drawing shows how clouds have a greenhouse effect at night. Clouds trap some of the heat coming from Earth's surface, preventing it from escaping into space.
At night, clouds trap some of the heat from Earth's surface. Thus, it does not escape back into space.

Or, since more water vapor means more clouds, will the fluffy white clouds reflect enough sunlight back into space to make up for the warming?

Drawing shows arrows that represent sun's energy reflecting off tops of clouds.
During the day, clouds reflect the Sun's energy back to space, before it has a chance to heat Earth's surface.

This cloud riddle has scientists scratching their heads and trying to figure it out. NASA is helping with satellites like Aqua and CloudSat, which study the Earth's water cycle and clouds in 3-D.

Image taken by a satellite of a hurricane. Below is a cross-section of the storm clouds, colored to show how much water is contained in the clouds at different heights.
The top image is a hurricane, as seen by a satellite. Below is a cross-section of the storm clouds. This colorful image was made with data from the CloudSat satellite. It shows with different colors how much water is contained in the clouds at different heights.
Thanx NASA Climate Kids
Knight Man

 

To the Nanook Knights for acing your exams and getting high scores …

Congrats 

So proud

 Love Knight Aunt Jeannie

Climate of North American cities will shift hundreds of miles in one generation

 February 12, 2019 
Source:   University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science 
Summary:
In one generation, the climate experienced in many North American cities is projected to change to that of locations hundreds of miles away -- or to a new climate unlike any found in North America today. A new study and interactive web application aim to help the public understand how climate change will impact the lives of people who live in urban areas of the United States and Canada. These new climate analyses match the expected future climate in each city with the current climate of another location, providing a relatable picture of what is likely in store. 

Under current high emissions the average urban dweller is going to have to drive more than 500 miles to the south to find a climate similar to their home city by 2080. 
Credit: Matthew Fitzpatrick/University of Maryland Center for Environmental 
In one generation, the climate experienced in many North American cities is projected to change to that of locations hundreds of miles away -- or to a new climate unlike any found in North America today. A new study and interactive web application aim to help the public understand how climate change will impact the lives of people who live in urban areas of the United States and Canada. These new climate analyses match the expected future climate in each city with the current climate of another location, providing a relatable picture of what is likely in store.

"Within the lifetime of children living today, the climate of many regions is projected to change from the familiar to conditions unlike those experienced in the same place by their parents, grandparents, or perhaps any generation in millennia," said study author Matt Fitzpatrick of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "Many cities could experience climates with no modern equivalent in North America."

Scientists analyzed 540 urban areas that encompassed approximately 250 million inhabitants in the United States and Canada. For each urban area, they mapped the similarity between that city's future climate expected by the 2080s and contemporary climate in the western hemisphere north of the equator using 12 measures of climate, including minimum and maximum temperature and precipitation during the four seasons.

The study also mapped climate differences under two emission trajectories: unmitigated emissions (RCP8.5), the scenario most in line with what might be expected given current policies and the speed of global action, and mitigated emissions (RCP4.5), which assumes policies are put in place to limit emissions, such as the Paris Agreement.

Climate-analog mapping is a statistical technique that matches the expected future climate at one location -- your city of residence, for instance -- with the current climate of another familiar location to provide a place-based understanding of climate change. Combining climate mapping with the interactive web application provides a powerful tool to communicate how climate change may impact the lives of a large portion of the population of the United States and Canada.

"We can use this technique to translate a future forecast into something we can better conceptualize and link to our own experiences," said Fitzpatrick. "It's my hope that people have that 'wow' moment, and it sinks in for the first time the scale of the changes we're expecting in a single generation."

The study found that by the 2080s, even if limits are placed on emissions, the climate of North American urban areas will feel substantially different, and in many cases completely unlike contemporary climates found anywhere in the western hemisphere north of the equator. If emissions continue unabated throughout the 21st century, the climate of North American urban areas will become, on average, most like the contemporary climate of locations about 500 miles away and mainly to the south. In the eastern U.S., nearly all urban areas, including Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, will become most similar to contemporary climates to the south and southwest. Climates of most urban areas in the central and western U.S. will become most similar to contemporary climates found to the south or southeast.

"Under the business as usual emissions the average urban dweller is going to have to drive nearly 1,000 km to the south to find a climate like that expected in their home city by 2080," said Fitzpatrick. "Not only is climate changing, but climates that don't presently exist in North America will be prevalent in a lot of urban areas."

The climate of cities in the northeast will tend to feel more like the humid subtropical climates typical of parts of the Midwest or southeastern U.S. today -- warmer and wetter in all seasons. For instance, unless we take action to mitigate emissions, Washington, D.C. will feel more like northern Mississippi. The climates of western cities are expected to become more like those of the desert Southwest or southern California -- warmer in all seasons, with changes in the amount and seasonal distribution of precipitation. San Francisco's climate will resemble that of Los Angeles. New York will feel more like northern Arkansas.

"Similar efforts to communicate climate change often focus on temperature only, but climate is more than just temperature. It also includes the amount precipitation an area receives, when it falls during the year, and how much arrives as snow versus rain," said Fitzpatrick. "Climate change will lead to not only warming, but also will alter precipitation patterns."
Search the interactive climate map for your location atwww.umces.edu/futureurbanclimates.
The paper, "Contemporary climatic analogs for 540 North American urban areas in the late 21st century," by Matt Fitzpatrick of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Robert Dunn of North Carolina State University, is published in Nature Communications on February 12.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Knight Man