Guest essay by Eric Worrall

According to Al Jazeera, Arab states are responding to Ukraine war shortages, by pledging to “keep pumping oil until the last drop” to assist with the transition to renewable energy.

‘Who’s talking climate change now?’ energy producers say

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine boosting energy costs and reducing availability, proponents are pushing back against fossil fuel eradication.

2 Apr 2022

Proponents of fossil fuel production hit back against efforts to tackle the climate crisis by urgently phasing out the burning of hydrocarbons, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine severely disrupts energy supplies.

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“We definitely at this time need to include all available resources,” UAE Minister of Energy Suhail al-Mazrouei said at an energy forum in Dubai.

“We cannot ignore or say we are going to abandon certain production. It’s just not the right time, whatever reason you have,” he said, adding that doing so would make energy prices too high for millions around the world.

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The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other international bodies have said that to address climate change there should not be new investments in fossil fuel infrastructure, the fossil fuels most responsible for climate change must phase out over time.

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OPEC projected that more oil will be needed through 2040 and beyond, particularly in Asia.

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“Look at what is happening today. Who’s talking about climate change now? Who’s talking about attending to energy security first and foremost?” said Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

Without energy security, countries will lose the means to tackle climate change, he said.

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Saudi Arabia, which pledged to have net-zero emissions by 2060, is similarly cutting emissions domestically while vowing to keep pumping oil until the last drop.

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Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/2/whos-talking-climate-change-now-energy-producers-say

Beat that one Babylon Bee.

With President Biden’s administration begging Arab states to pump more oil, they get to be climate champions and wealthy oil producers all at the same time.

If only President Biden would extend the same courtesy to US domestic oil producers.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

Just like flash floods, flash droughts come on fast — drying out soil in a matter of days to weeks. These events can wipe out crops and cause huge economic losses. And according to scientists, the speed at which they dry out the landscape has increased. 

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Texas Tech University found that although the number of flash droughts has remained stable during the past two decades, more of them are coming on faster. Globally, the flash droughts that come on the fastest — sending areas into drought conditions within just five days — have increased by about 3%-19%. And in places that are especially prone to flash droughts — such as South Asia, Southeast Asia and central North America — that increase is about 22%-59%.

Rising global temperatures are probably behind the faster onset, said co-author and UT Jackson School Professor Zong-Liang Yang, who added that the study’s results underscore the importance of understanding flash droughts and preparing for their effects.

“Every year, we are seeing record-breaking warming episodes, and that is a good precursor to these flash droughts,” he said. “The hope and purpose [of this research] is to minimize the detrimental effects.”

The research was published in Nature Communications. The study was led by doctoral student Yamin Qing and Professor Shuo Wang, both of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Flash droughts are relatively new to science, with the advancement of remote sensing technology during the past couple of decades helping reveal instances of soil rapidly drying out. This serves as the telltale sign of the onset of a flash drought and can make drought conditions appear seemingly out of the blue.

As the name suggests, flash droughts are short lived, usually lasting only a few weeks or months. But when they occur during critical growing periods, they can cause disasters. For example, in the summer of 2012, a flash drought in the central United States caused the corn crop to wither, leading to an estimated $35.7 billion in losses.  

In this study, the scientists analyzed global hydroclimate data sets that use satellite soil moisture measurements to capture a global picture of flash drought and how it has changed during the past 21 years. The data showed that about 34%-46% of flash droughts came on in about five days. The rest emerge within a month, with more than 70% developing in half a month or less.  

When they examined the droughts over time, they noticed the flash droughts happening more quickly.

The study also revealed the importance of humidity and variable weather patterns, with flash droughts becoming more likely when there’s a shift from humid to arid conditions. That makes regions that undergo seasonal swings in humidity — such as Southeast Asia, the Amazon Basin, and the East Coast and Gulf Coast of the United States — flash drought hot spots.

“We should pay close attention to the vulnerable regions with a high probability of concurrent soil drought and atmospheric aridity,” said Wang.

Mark Svoboda, the director of the National Drought Mitigation Center and originator of the term “flash drought,” said the advancement in drought-detecting technology and modeling tools — such as those used in this study — has led to growing awareness of the influence and impact of flash droughts. He said the next big step is translating this knowledge into on-the-ground planning.

“You can go back and watch that drought evolve in 2012 and then compare it to how that tool did,” said Svoboda, who was not part of the study. “We really have the stage well set to do a better job of tracking these droughts.”

The study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Hong Kong Research Grants Council.

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-28752-4 

ARTICLE TITLE

Accelerating flash droughts induced by the joint influence of soil moisture depletion and atmospheric aridity

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Apr-2022

From EurekAlert!