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2016

Are today’s refrigerants safe?

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Refrigeration is based on heat transfer mediums that absorb heat from the area being cooled and transfer it to the outside environment.

The earliest refrigerants were dangerous substances like ammonia.  In the 1930s, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) like Freon became the standard refrigerant for use in refrigeration systems and even in aerosol cans.  When these substances were found to be depleting the earth’s ozone layer, the Montreal Protocol dictated their phaseout and by the mid-1990s, CFCs were largely replaced by hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

HFCs don’t deplete the ozone layer, but they were eventually determined to be potent greenhouse gases, thousands of times more planet-warming than carbon dioxide.   As a result, the global phaseout of HFCs began in 2016, and have been increasingly replaced by hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs), which are considered a more environmentally-friendly alternative to all their predecessors.

Trying to not be surprised by additional unpleasant discoveries about refrigerants, researchers are studying the potential environmental impacts of HFOs.  Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia have found that HFOs can break down in the atmosphere and that some small amounts of the resultant products are in fact fluoroforms, which are the HFC with the greatest global warming potential and can stay in the atmosphere for up to 200 years.

That only a small amount of HFC gets into the atmosphere is good, but nevertheless it reveals that the consequences of replacing widely-used chemicals are not a simple matter to determine.

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Are our refrigerants safe? The lingering questions about the chemicals keeping us cool

Photo, posted July 19, 2021, courtesy of Vernon Air Conditioning via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Why was 2023 so hot?

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Five separate weather-tracking organizations have proclaimed 2023 as the hottest year on record. They all agreed that 2023 beat the previous record-holder – 2016 – by a wide margin.  Organizations that use a pre-industrial baseline of 1850-1900 found that 2023 was 1.45 to 1.48 degrees Celsius above the baseline.  But what caused 2023 – especially the second half of it – to be so hot?

Scientists believe that there were multiple factors that contributed to the record-breaking heat.

First and foremost is the long-term rise in greenhouse gases.  Over 100 years of burning fossil fuels along with major changes in land use (particularly deforestation) have led to a significant rise in the heat-trapping blanket of the gases in the atmosphere.

On top of this long-term trend, the return of the El Niño condition in the Pacific in May helped temperatures rise further.

At the same time, the tropical Pacific was not the only ocean that was hotter than normal.  The global sea surface temperature set new records in 2023 and there were multiple marine heat waves.  Heat trapped by the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans, raising their temperatures.

Another factor is the quantity of aerosols in the atmosphere.  Many of these aerosols actually cool the atmosphere by reflecting the sun’s light back into space.  Society’s efforts to reduce air pollution and improve air quality have led to decreasing levels of aerosols.

2024 started with some seriously cold weather in some places but predictions are that this year will be roughly as warm as 2023 and possibly warmer given that the dynamics driving last year’s weather are all still in place.

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Five Factors to Explain the Record Heat in 2023

Photo, posted February 22, 2016, courtesy of Jasmin Toubi via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

El Niño Will Likely Return | Earth Wise

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El Niño, a weather phenomenon triggered by warm waters in the eastern Pacific, is likely to return this year, according to the World Meteorological Organization.  The Pacific has been in the cooler La Niña phase for the past 3 years, which is unusual, but that appears to be coming to a close.  According to the WMO, there is an 80% chance that the Pacific will shift to the El Niño phase before fall.

Record hot years typically coincide with El Niño, which adds to the ongoing warming trend in the climate.   There is not yet a clear picture of how strong the forthcoming El Niño event will be or how long it might last, but even a mild El Niño could affect precipitation and temperature patterns around the world.

The hottest year on record, 2016, occurred during a particularly strong El Niño.  Experts expect that 2024 is likely to see soaring temperatures again.  El Niño generally leads to drier conditions in Australia, Indonesia, and southern Asia, but greater amounts of rainfall in South America, the U.S., and parts of Africa.  Despite the presence of a cooling La Niña for the past three years, the last eight years have been the hottest on record.

El Niño and La Niña form an intermittent cycle known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, that is highly influential in shaping the year-to-year variations in weather conditions around the world.  ENSO is a natural phenomenon and scientists are still trying to understand how human-caused climate change might be impacting the behavior and dynamics of the cycle.

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‘A New Spike’ in Global Temperatures in the Forecast

Photo, posted October 11, 2015, courtesy of Harshil Shah via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

July Was A Scorcher | Earth Wise

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July 2021 has the unfortunate distinction as being the world’s hottest month ever recorded according to global data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.   July is typically the warmest month of the year, but this July was the warmest month of any year on record.

The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was 62.07 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 1.67 degrees above the 20th century average.  This was the highest monthly average since records began 142 years ago.  It broke the previous record set in July 2016 and tied in 2019 and 2020.

The Northern Hemisphere was 2.77 degrees above average.  Asia had its hottest July on record.  Europe had its second hottest July on record.  Places like Africa, Australia, and New Zealand all had top-ten warmest Julys.

Other aspects of the changing climate included the observation that Arctic sea ice coverage for July was the fourth-smallest in the 43-year record.  Interestingly, Antarctic sea ice extent was actually above average in July.  Global tropic cyclone activity this year so far is above normal for the number of named storms.  In the Atlantic basin, the formation of the storm Elsa on July 1 was the earliest date for a 5th named storm.

It remains very likely that 2021 will rank among the 10 hottest years on record.  Extreme heat is a reflection on the long-term climate changes that were outlined recently in a major report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  These latest global observations add to the disturbing and disruptive path that the changing climate has set for the world.

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It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

Photo, posted July 15, 2021, courtesy of Lori Iverson/National Interagency Fire Center via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Pandemic And Global Temperatures | Earth Wise

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The early months of the Covid-19 pandemic last year saw dramatic reductions in travel and many forms of commerce.  With much of human activity greatly curtailed, greenhouse gas emissions were greatly reduced.   And yet, all of that did not slow down global warming: 2020 ended up tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record and atmospheric greenhouse gas levels reached a new high.

In order to understand how this came about, it is necessary to understand the complex climate influences of different types of emissions from power plants, motor vehicles, industrial facilities, and other sources.  The fact is that some types of pollution actually have a cooling effect rather than contributing to global warming.

Tiny industrial pollution particles called aerosols actually make clouds brighter, causing them to reflect away more solar heat from the surface of the planet.   During the drastic shutdown last year, the biggest emissions decline was from the most polluting industries.  The reduction of aerosols had immediate, short-term effects on temperatures.  These types of pollutants are very bad for human health, but when they are present, they do have the effect of reducing temperatures.

It is important to keep in mind that carbon dioxide spreads through the Earth’s atmosphere and stays there for a century or more, trapping heat on a global scale.  Industrial aerosols stay relatively concentrated in the region where they are emitted and are often removed by rain and winds within a few weeks.  So, their cooling effect doesn’t spread very far or last very long.

Overall, the initial pandemic slowdown probably didn’t have any real long-term impact on the climate but over the short term, the effects were not as simple as one might expect.

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Covid-19 Cut Gases That Warm the Globe But a Drop in Other Pollution Boosted Regional Temperatures

Photo, posted July 7, 2020, courtesy of Joey Zanotti via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Hottest Month Ever

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European climate researchers announced that July was the hottest July ever recorded and since July is generally the hottest month of the year, it was indeed the hottest month ever recorded.  It just barely beat out the previous record set in July 2016.  There are multiple agencies that track temperatures around the world, and it is possible that some of them may report slightly different results. 

But whatever July’s ultimate ranking is, it is part of a long-term trend.  The past five years have been the hottest on record.   The 10 hottest years ever recorded have all occurred during the past twenty years.

This June was also the warmest on record, and the previous five months were all among the four warmest for their respective months.  All of that puts this year on track to be in the top five warmest years, or perhaps the hottest ever.

The highest above-average conditions were recorded across Alaska, Greenland, and large areas of Siberia.   Large parts of Africa and Australia were warmer than normal, as was much of central Asia.  New temperature records were set in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany with temperatures over 104 degrees Fahrenheit.  Great Britain saw an all-time record of 101.7 degrees and Anchorage, Alaska stayed above 79 degrees for a record six days in a row.

Wildfires have raged across the Russian Arctic, India has suffered heatwaves and severe water shortages, and Japan saw more than 5,000 people seek hospital treatment during a heatwave.

While scientists cannot directly link any particular heatwave to climate change, the trend for new heat records is likely to continue and accelerate unless we do something about curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

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How Hot Was July? Hotter Than Ever, Global Data Shows

Photo, posted May 25, 2019, courtesy of Jakob Montrasio via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Last Year Was Hot

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Last year was not the hottest year on record in the United States; it was only the second hottest.  2012 was the hottest because of some searing heat waves that summer.   However, 2016 marked 20 above-average temperature years in a row.  The five hottest years recorded have all happened since 1998.  Every state had a temperature ranking at least in the top seven and both Georgia and Alaska had their hottest years ever.  While it was only the second hottest year on record in the U.S., last year was the hottest year for the entire world.

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Climate Change And Heat Waves

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2016 was the hottest year on record and saw many extreme weather events.   How much of what happened resulted from climate change has yet to be assessed.  However, the analysis of 2015 – which was the hottest year on record up until last year – has been presented in a special publication by the American Meteorological Society.

[Read more…] about Climate Change And Heat Waves

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