Month: February 2024

Current Ocean surface temperatures at once-in-256,000 year level.
That sounds bad. Is that bad?

Chris also flagged low Great Lakes Ice levels. Also bad.

Chris Gloninger is a long time TV Meteorologist who gained national attention last year when he left his post as Chief Meteorologist at KCCI in Des Moines, Iowa, when his commitment to putting weather extremes in climate context drew a stream of death threats to himself and his family.
I caught up with Chris this week in Massachusetts, where he has a new gig at consulting firm Woods Hole Group.

The Hill:

The world isn’t on track to meet its climate goals — and it’s the public’s fault, a leading oil company CEO told journalists.

Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Darren Woods told editors from Fortune that the world has “waited too long” to begin investing in a broader suite of technologies to slow planetary heating.

That heating is largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels, and much of the current impacts of that combustion — rising temperatures, extreme weather — were predicted by Exxon scientists almost half a century ago.

The company’s 1970s and 1980s projections were “at least as skillful as, those of independent academic and government models,” according to a 2023 Harvard study.

Since taking over from former CEO Rex Tillerson,Woods has walked a tightrope between acknowledging the critical problem of climate change — as well as the role of fossil fuels in helping drive it — while insisting fossil fuels must also provide the solution.

In comments before last year’s United Nations Climate Conference (COP28), Woods made a forceful case for carbon capture and storage, a technology in which the planet-heating chemicals released by burning fossil fuels are collected and stored underground.

“While renewable energy is essential to help the world achieve net zero, it is not sufficient,” he said.

“Wind and solar alone can’t solve emissions in the industrial sectors that are at the heart of a modern society.”

International experts agree with the idea in the broadest strokes.

Carbon capture marks an essential component of the transition to “net zero,” in which no new chemicals like carbon dioxide or methane reach — and heat — the atmosphere, according to a report by International Energy Agency (IEA) last year.

But the remaining question is how much carbon capture will be needed, which depends on the future role of fossil fuels.

Continue reading “Exxon CEO: Don’t Look at Me. It’s Your Fault”

Florida Governor DeSantis: “Knock on wood” we won’t have any more big storms – ever.
Also DeSantis: they’re pricing in all these things that very well may not happen.”
In other words, the very definition of insurance.

Florida Politics:

The Governor continues to raise questions about the state insurance company’s ability to weather a significant event.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is telling the nation that people in his state shouldn’t rely on the state-run insurer of last resort, raising new questions about Citizens Property Insurance ahead of what is expected to be an active hurricane season.

“It is not solvent and we can’t have millions of people on that because if a storm hits, it’s going to cause problems for the state,” the second-term Republican Governor said on CNBC’s “Last Call.”

The Governor’s comments are particularly interesting as they were in the middle of a rumination about private insurers bringing new capital into the state, in which he claimed that “about 30% of those policies from Citizens” taken out by “new private insurance (companies) will actually be able to offer lower rates to those people.” That suggests roughly 70% of people are paying more since the take out of Citizens’ policies.

Scrutiny on Citizens has come from Washington in recent months.

The U.S. Senate Budget Committee has probed the DeSantis administration about the company’s ability to handle underwriting losses, including the question of whether the state insurer might need a federal bailout.

“In light of the state’s acknowledgement of Citizens’ potential insolvency and the likelihood that it would be both politically and economically unfeasible for Citizens to attempt to recoup tens of billions of dollars in losses from policyholders across Florida, the Committee is concerned that Citizens and the state of Florida would turn to the federal government to bail them out. Given the potential magnitude of Citizens’ losses, such a bailout request could put substantial strain on the federal budget,” wrote Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island.

DeSantis has warned about Citizens’ bloat in the past. He noted in 2022 that Citizens was “unfortunately undercapitalized” and that the company could go “belly up” if it actually had to weather a major storm.

Continue reading “Governor DeSantis: “Knock on Wood” there will Be No Storms – Florida’s Insurer “Insolvent””

It’s February.

Dallas Morning News:

Multiple wildfires scorching the Texas Panhandle had merged as of Thursday morning, creating the largest wildfire in state history at more than one million acres burned.

The forest service said the largest of the fires, the Smokehouse Creek fire in Hutchinson County, was an estimated 1,075,000 acres and 3% contained as of 9 a.m. Thursday. The 687 Reamer fire, which stood Thursday at roughly 2,000 acres, burned into the Smokehouse Creek fire, the service said.

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to deploy additional state emergency resources, just one day after he issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties. Evacuations were ordered in Canadian, Glazier, Double Diamond, Arrowhead Addition, Maverick Village, Alibates, McBride, Mullinaw and Harbor Bay.

The forest service also raised wildland fire preparedness to level 3, expecting wildfire activity will increase over the next several days.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told The Dallas Morning News Wednesday the fires had already killed up to “tens of thousands of head of cattle” and closed at least 13 school districts.

“It’s really bad,” Miller said. “It’s going to get worse.”

Crews from across the state have traveled to the Panhandle to help contain the fires, including 15 firefighters with the Fort Worth Fire Department, who said they could stay as long as two weeks.

Officials haven’t declared a cause for the cluster of blazes, but the region has experienced unseasonably warm temperatures, dry conditions and gusty winds.

Another example of the increasing number of local TV stations spotlighting impacts of climate change when reporting weather extremes.

Smokehouse Creek fire at 850,000 acres, till out of control, heading for record breaking burn area.
Summer beckons.

Concerns about weather conditions setting up for coming days.

29 fires in 15 counties reported including of the state’s largest in history.
High winds and temperatures above 80 fanning flames.
Meanwhile in the east, tornado outbreak more characteristic of April slams upper midwest.

Funnel touchdowns reported in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois. Thousands without power.

Temps setting high records in the upper midwest, set for a 50 degree drop tonight.
As the TV Met points out, tonight’s storm track would be more typical several hundred miles farther south, for this time of year. But we are beyond normal. I spoke to a friend in Michigan’s farthest north UP – Calumet – who told me temps were in the unheard of for February forties, with only patches of snow in an area that can typically see up to 300 inches in a winter.