Guyana warms up

A great post on the Facebook page of the Office of Climate Change gives a link to a service available through the Hydromet Service (Maproom) showing the upward trend of local maximum temperatures for July to September - see first chart. A change of variable also shows an upward trend in rainfall - see second chart.

The post says:

"Maximum Temperatures continue to rise annually. The trend shows for July to September, the maximum temperature for Demerara Mahaica, Region 4, has been continuously rising since 1985."

Apart from taking urgent action to cut our carbon emissions we should be taking action to mitigate against the changes e.g. advising all those building homes and offices.

Also relevant here is the post I made about increasing storms.

Guyana rainy season prolonged

Just to note that the rainy seasons has been unusually long. The ITCZ (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone) did not move north away from Guyana until about a week ago. We are now having hot dry weather more usual for this time of year.

Next 18 months crucial for action on climate change

A BBC report points this out noting that a key meeting takes place in late 2020 - COP26. Action is needed before then. Time is running out.

"The climate math is brutally clear: While the world can't be healed within the next few years, it may be fatally wounded by negligence until 2020," said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founder and now director emeritus of the Potsdam Climate Institute.
The sense that the end of next year is the last chance saloon for climate change is becoming clearer all the time.

"I am firmly of the view that the next 18 months will decide our ability to keep climate change to survivable levels and to restore nature to the equilibrium we need for our survival," said Prince Charles, speaking at a reception for Commonwealth foreign ministers recently.

"One of the understated headlines in last year's IPCC report was that global emissions of carbon dioxide must peak by 2020 to keep the planet below 1.5C.
Current plans are nowhere near strong enough to keep temperatures below the so-called safe limit. Right now, we are heading towards 3C of heating by 2100 not 1.5."

It is too late to stop climate change - it's happening already - but we must act to reduce its ferocity.

Wind energy for Guyana

According to Guyana Chronicle progress is being made with the Hope Wind Farm Project which plans to set up wind turbines along the coast. Project General Manager for Hope Energy Development (HED), Dr. John Sydow, said:

“We are looking at four wind turbines at Hope Beach. That will supply about seven per cent of all of GPL’s megawatt hours they are distributing.”

Discussions with various stakeholders and interest groups are taking place. The idea was first explored in 2001. Let us hope that this project is soon realised and replicated in Berbice and Essequibo.

Meanwhile the UK is now getting less than half its energy from fossil fuels according to the BBC. This includes 19% from wind power. By the 2030s fossil fuels should account for only 10%.

NASA study looks at climate prediction accuracy

According to a post on Universe Today in this new NASA study:

"...scientists analyzed the GISTEMP data to see if past predictions of rising temperatures were accurate. They needed to know that any uncertainty within their data was correctly accounted for. The goal was to make sure that the models they use are robust enough to rely on in the future. The answer: Yes they are. Within 1/20th a degree Celsius."

The above map (NASA) represents global temperature anomalies averaged from 2008 through 2012. Note that for our part of the world there seems to be a rise of between half and one degree Celsius.