Der EGMR ist der Meinung, dass Klimaschutz ein Menschenrecht sei. Wie eng viele Richter in Strassburg mit NGOs verbunden sind, zeigte schon vor vier Jahren ein Bericht eines kritischen Think-tanks. Alex Reichmuth hat sich die Befunde im Nebelspalter (https://www.nebelspalter.ch/themen/2024/04/die-verbandelung-der-europarichter-mit-den-ngos) genauer unter die Lupe genommen.
Justiz
Die Verbandelung der Europarichter mit den NGOsDie Fakten: Viele Richter am Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte (EGMR) in Strassburg haben Verbindungen zu linksgerichteten NGOs. Das hat vor vier Jahren der Bericht eines Think-tanks ergeben.
Warum das wichtig ist: Die Richter am EGMR sind der Meinung, dass Klimaschutz ein Menschenrecht sei, und haben darum letzte Woche eine entsprechende Klage der Klimaseniorinnen gegen die Schweiz gutgeheissen.
- Viele Beobachter haben nun einmal mehr den Eindruck, dass das Gericht eine ideologische Schlagseite hat.
- Der erwähnte Bericht gibt klare Hinweise darauf, dass am Verdacht etwas dran ist.
Das Zitat: «Die Situation ist ernst, da sie die Unabhängigkeit des Gerichtshofs und die Unparteilichkeit seiner Richterinnen und Richter infrage stellt.» (SVP-Nationalrat Jean-Luc Addor, in einem parlamentarischen Vorstoss zur Unabhängigkeit des EGMR, 2020)
Weiterlesen im Nebelspalter (https://www.nebelspalter.ch/themen/2024/04/die-verbandelung-der-europarichter-mit-den-ngos). (Der Artikel kann nach 20 Sekunden freigeschaltet werden.)
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Die GWPF hat einen Bericht zur Hurrikansaison 2023 herausgegeben:
Executive summary
Are hurricanes getting worse? It is widely believed that they are now more frequent and/or more powerful than they used to be. And the cause, we are told, is climate change. This belief is fuelled by widespread claims by the media and some politicians, particularly when a bad storm occurs. The belief is also reinforced because the monetary damage hurricanes cause is greater nowadays, thanks to increasing populations in vulnerable coastal areas and greater wealth.
But is this belief correct, or is it a misconception? This study has carefully analysed official data and assessments by hurricane scientists and agencies, and finds:
• The apparent increase in the number of hurricanes since the 19th century has been due to changes in observational practices.
• Data show no long-term trends in US landfalling hurricanes since the mid-19th century, when systematic records began, either in terms of frequency or intensity.
• Similarly, after allowing for the fact that many hurricanes were not spotted prior to the satellite era, there are no such trends in Atlantic hurricanes either.
• Trends in landfalling Atlantic/Western Pacific hurricanes have been stable or decreasing since 1950.
• There are also no trends in global hurricane activity in the data collected since reliable records began in the 1970s.
• There is growing evidence that wind speeds of the most powerful hurricanes may now be overestimated in comparison to pre-satellite era ones, because of changing methods of measurement.
• The increase in Atlantic hurricanes in the last fifty years is not part of a long-term trend, but is simply a recovery from a deep minimum in hurricane activity in the 1970s, associated with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. These findings are in line with those of hurricane scientists generally, as well as those of official bodies.
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AFP via phys.org:
Sand mining in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta sinks homes, livelihoods
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Climatic impacts on mortality in pre-industrial Sweden
Climate variability and change, as well as extreme weather events, have notable impacts on human health and mortality. In historical times, the effect of climate on health and mortality was presumably stronger than today, owing to that nutrition status was meditated through climatic impacts on food production along with factors such as poor housing and healthcare. Despite this, climatic impacts on mortality in the past remain poorly understood. This study aims to improve the understanding of historical climate effects on mortality, using annual mortality records and meteorological data from Sweden between 1749 and 1859. The analysis includes the entire population as well as subgroups based on sex and age. A statistically significant negative correlation was found between winter and spring temperatures and mortality (i.e., lower temperatures = higher mortality and vice versa). We demonstrate that colder winters and springs were linked to higher mortality levels, not only for the same year but also the following year. Conversely, no statistically significant associations were observed between summer or autumn temperatures and mortality, and only weak associations existed with precipitation. The impact of winter– spring temperature on mortality was most pronounced for the same year in southern Sweden and during the 19th century, but stronger for the following year in central Sweden and during the 18th century. These findings call for further research, especially investigating specific diseases and additional contributing factors to the observed increase in mortality following cold winter and spring conditions in Sweden during the late pre-industrial period.
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Jet stream will get faster as climate change continues, study finds
A new study in Nature Climate Change takes one of the first deep dives into how climate change will affect the fastest jet streams—the powerful, narrow winds in the upper atmosphere that steer much of the Earth’s weather systems and are connected to outbreaks of severe weather.
The research, by UChicago Prof. Tiffany Shaw and National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist Osamu Miyawaki, suggests that as the world warms, the fastest upper-level jet stream winds will get faster and faster—by about 2% for every degree Celsius the world warms. Furthermore, the fastest winds will speed up 2.5 times faster than the average wind.
“Based on these results and our current understanding, we expect record-breaking winds,” said Shaw, “and it’s likely that they will feed into decreased flight times, increased clear-air turbulence and a potential increase in severe weather occurrence.”
Wind, weather and warming
Partly prompted by recent news reports of speed-record-breaking flights over the Atlantic, Shaw and Miyawaki began to investigate and realized there had been very little exploration of how the very fastest jet stream winds would respond to climate change.
To fill this gap, they combined climate change models with what we know about the physics of jet streams.
Jet streams usually move from west to east around the globe in the upper atmosphere, about six miles (10 kilometers) above us. We know that jet streams strongly influence the weather we experience on the ground—especially air temperature, winds and weather patterns, and storms. They also influence the occurrence of severe storms, tornadoes, hail and severe wind.
Jet streams form because of the contrast between the cold, dense air at the poles and the warm, light air in the tropics, in combination with the rotation of the Earth. (This was first shown in the 1900s by pioneering UChicago meteorologists Carl-Gustaf Rossby and Dave Fultz.)
Shaw and Miyawaki’s analysis found that climate change intensifies this density contrast. As the air in the tropics warms further, it will hold much more moisture. While the air at the poles will also warm, hotter air can hold so much more moisture than cold air that the overall density difference only increases—and sharply.
“The increase is multiplicative—about 2% per degree—rather than linear,” said Shaw. “Thus, not only does it go up over time, the steeper the contrast you start with, the larger the increase you get—leading to fast winds getting faster.”
They ran tests with models of the Earth’s climate, and found this fundamental physical explanation was very robust. “If you take away the ocean currents in the models, you still see this behavior. Same thing even if you remove all the land,” Shaw said. “This combination of simulation and understanding is what justifies us telling policymakers to take this seriously.”
Downstream effects
Though the findings are robust, more research will have to be done to predict exactly how these faster winds will impact individual storms and severe weather occurrence.
While the current generation of global climate models represent the jet stream well, extreme events like severe weather events, which occur on smaller scales, are not included—making it harder to predict how they will change. New, more detailed climate models, which represent severe weather, are starting to come online and should help a fuller picture emerge. “It’s really important for policymakers and communities to be able to plan for the future,” she said.
While faster trans-Atlantic flights might not seem so bad, the flip side is that planes are likely to experience more turbulence, Shaw said.
The scientists said though record-high jet stream wind speeds have been observed in the past decades, the effect is not statistically significant yet. “We would expect the signal to emerge in the next few decades, if humans continue the path we’re on with carbon emissions,” Shaw said.
“In the end, it’s important to remember that we’re in the driver’s seat here.”
Paper: Tiffany A. Shaw et al, Fast upper-level jet stream winds get faster under climate change, Nature Climate Change (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01884-1