Andrew Dessler
@andrewdessler.bsky.social
Prof of Atmospheric Sciences & climate scientist @ Texas A&M; AGU and AAAS Fellow; Native Texan; find out what I think at http://theclimatebrink.substack.com
No, they gave it to me after filming. I’ve certainly signed things like this before, but not in the era of AI generated video, where they could make a video of me saying basically anything.
it should go without saying that I love being referred to as "the Talent"
Sanity check. I filmed an interview today and got the following release form. It gives them the right to "simulate and impersonate" me. Does that sound as bad to you as it does to me?
It’s mid August, so the end of high temperatures is just a few weeks away.
[checks calendar and sees it’s May]
[begins weeping inconsolably]
www.cbc.ca/news/world/m...
Mexico is about to experience its 'highest temperatures ever recorded' as death toll climbs | CBC News
The extreme heat smothering much of Mexico has already killed dozens of people, but the hottest temperatures are yet to come, officials say.
www.cbc.caAmen
Look. I care about climate change a lot. I'm close to a single-issue voter on the subject!
But we have GOT to stop worrying about what are, in the scheme of things, rounding errors. I hate, hate, hate this kind of personal-responsibility climate stuff, it's deeply counterproductive.
an unpopular suggestion that happens to be correct: we should get rid of college athletics
there's a divide between the "haves" (health insurance, home ownership) and the "have nots". even if lots of people are haves, they think (correctly) that they're on the edge of being pushed into the have nots. e.g., if their homeowners insurance gets cancelled, what are they going to do?
siri, what's the most disgusting climate impact?
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
A hidden threat
Rising sea levels along the Southeast and Gulf Coast pose a problem for septic systems, which could cause environmental damage and exacerbate health risks if they fail.
www.washingtonpost.com
I wrote about the difficulty of adaptation here:
www.theclimatebrink.com/p/adaptation...
Adaptation to climate change will be an absolute nightmare
Why the easy way out is no way out at all
www.theclimatebrink.com
I'm glad they're doing this, but there's a lesson here for the "we'll adapt to climate change" crowd. It's expensive and difficult, even for the richest country in the world. What are poor countries going to do?
The answer is that they will suffer.
www.chron.com/gulf-coast/a...
Ike Dike now officially 0.0014 percent on the way to completion
The massive coastal-defense infrastructure project is now underway after the Army Corps of Engineers allowed the first $500K of an estimated $34 billion.
www.chron.com
someone is having too much fun naming buildings on the TAMU campus
@weatherwest.bsky.social pointed this article out to me, which argues that severe wind storms should become more common as the climate warms.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Thunderstorm straight line winds intensify with climate change - Nature Climate Change
Non-tornadic thunderstorm winds are associated with particularly strong damages. Here, the author assesses changes in these winds in the central USA and shows that they have intensified stronger than ...
www.nature.comIf you're wondering whether climate change played a role in yesterday's wind event in Houston, I think it's unclear but possible. Future research will tell us more, but here's (I think) the relevant paragraph from the IPCC report (Sect. 12.4.6.3):
Sometimes, over many iterations, I replace every sentence in a grad student's paper. In that case, I say I've "Ship of Thesus'ed" the paper.
I first read it as "socialize glaciologists", meaning all glaciologists should be owned by the people.
Holy cow, this is awesome!
At EIA, we just released our National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) — used to produce the Annual Energy Outlook — as an open source product, with additional EIA code to follow. 🔌💡
github.com/EIAgov
EIAgov - Overview
The U.S. Energy Information Administration collects, analyzes, and disseminates independent and impartial energy information to promote sound policymaking. - EIAgov
github.com
Democracy and insurance on The Climate Brink
www.theclimatebrink.com/p/democracy-...
Democracy and insurance
Here are a few things that caught my eye this week. Time is up for neoliberals I recently had an email exchange with a colleague about how to speed up climate policy. At one point, he said, “Capitalis...
www.theclimatebrink.com
Every once in a while I read something and think, "I wish I'd written that." This is one of those times.
Time is up for neoliberals (gift link)
wapo.st/3wy6NKy
and then institutions will start reading & summarizing applications using AI, so my AI will just be talking to your AI
wow, so many things wrong with this. also, I'm guessing this service just takes the points you wrote, puts them into chatGPT, and then returns to you the resulting letter.
Yes, people who own real estate there are screwed. Either the gov't comes in and buys it or they lose the value of the biggest asset they own.
In the first case, society explicitly buys their property, in the second, these people lose a huge chunk of their wealth, hurting the economy.
Q: How to make a small fortune in real estate?
A: Start with a large fortune and invest in Louisiana real estate.
h/t to @scrawford.bsky.social from her terrific substack post
susanpcrawford.substack.com/p/betting-on...
Obviously, people can say whatever they want and I agree that 1.5C is out, but I think that 2 vs 2.5 is still not clear.
Scientists: if someone asks you a question like this, don’t bite.
The future has not yet been determined.
We still control if warming is 2C or 2.5C or something else.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target
Exclusive: Planet is headed for at least 2.5C of heating with disastrous results for humanity, poll of hundreds of scientists finds
www.theguardian.comFor more about this: www.theclimatebrink.com/p/why-are-cl...
Why are climate impacts escalating so quickly?
it's a non-linear world we're living in
www.theclimatebrink.comThe trouble is that the world has adapted to and constructed cities designed for 20th century temperatures and rainfall, but climate change brings more heat and downpours, said Andrew Dessler, a Texas A&M University climate scientist.
“We’re departing the climate of the 20th century right now and we just can’t handle these events,” Dessler said. “So they’re getting slightly more extreme, but they’re passing our ability to handle them.”
apnews.com/article/biza...
From flooding in Brazil and Houston to brutal heat in Asia, extreme weather seems nearly everywhere
In a world growing increasingly accustomed to wild weather swings, the last few days and weeks have seemingly taken those environmental extremes to a new level.
apnews.comtyping planet "Jupiter" and almost — almost! — typed it Jupyter
Coauthors and I have a new paper (under review) that estimates the impact of Hunga Tunga volcanic eruption over the past two years. The net effect of the eruption is to cool the globe.
essopenarchive.org/users/523044...
Evolution of the Climate Forcing During the Two Years after the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Eruption
We calculate the climate forcing for the two years after the January 15, 2022, Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (Hunga) eruption. We use satellite observations of stratospheric aerosols, trace gases and temp...
essopenarchive.orgProbably should not have checked “supervision“ unless you can supervise yourself.
it may be true that they don't agree, but it is most definitely not true that I should talk to them
when you're the only author of a paper, you can feel pretty good about yourself.
From my former colleague, Ricky Rood: What cities everywhere can learn from the Houston area's severe flooding as they try to adapt to climate change
theconversation.com/what-cities-...
What cities everywhere can learn from the Houston area’s severe flooding as they try to adapt to climate change
Too much pavement and old drainage systems are just two of the problems communities face.
theconversation.com
The latest from The Climate Brink: Climate change is making hurricanes more destructive
www.theclimatebrink.com/p/climate-ch...
Climate change is making hurricanes more destructive
a lot of climate misinformers don't want you to understand this
www.theclimatebrink.com
Your occasional reminder that one of the longest standing predictions of climate science, which has subsequently been verified by observations, is that rainfall events will become more intense.
www.nytimes.com/2024/05/05/u...
More Flooding Expected in Houston as Rain Drenches Texas
Rivers in Southeast Texas could be swollen for days or weeks, forecasters said, as multiple rounds of heavy rainfall continued on Sunday.
www.nytimes.com