Anthropogenic Global Warming ... how hot is it ?

Back to the Californian wildfires - #304 included and estimate of insured losses of $35-$45 billion and I said that was likely low. This estimate says $75 billion with total losses of $164 billion.

UCLA: L.A. wildfires caused as much as $164 billion in total property and capital losses​

The Anderson Forecast predicts a $4.6 billion loss in county-level GDP for 2025

A new report from the UCLA Anderson Forecast suggests that the two largest wildfires that recently ravaged L.A. County — the Palisades and Eaton fires — may have caused total property and capital losses ranging between $95 and $164 billion, with insured losses estimated at $75 billion.

The report, authored by economists Zhiyun Li and William Yu, predicts a 0.48% loss in county-level GDP for 2025, amounting to approximately $4.6 billion.

The economists summarized the estimated economic impacts, acknowledging that their estimates are based on various assumptions and may be subject to future revision.

Additional highlights from the report findings:
  • Local businesses and employees in the affected areas could face a total wage loss of $297 million.
  • Without substantial and effective wildfire mitigation efforts and investments, Californians will face increasingly higher insurance premiums and growing health risks from wildfire-related pollution.
  • Los Angeles housing markets, and rental units in particular, will become increasingly unaffordable.
  • All wildfire mitigation investments will be justified, considering the astronomical costs associated with wildfires.

► For full details on property loss, the impacts on home value and housing affordability, home insurance markets in California, and more, read the full report on the UCLA Anderson website.

newsroom.ucla.edu

UCLA: L.A. wildfires caused as much as $164 billion in total property and capital losses

The UCLA Anderson Forecast predicts a 0.48% loss in county-level GDP for 2025, amounting to approximately $4.6 billion.
newsroom.ucla.edu newsroom.ucla.edu

The full report, linked here, is non-technical.
 
Seems wildfires have far reaching effects beyond the immediate burn

Toxic grime: Wildfire smoke can deposit toxins on cities hundreds of kilometres away, researchers find​

Plumes of wildfire smoke can carry contaminants hundreds of kilometres, leaving a lingering toxic footprint that has the potential to be re-released into the environment, McMaster researchers show.

In recent weeks, catastrophic wildfires have devasted Los Angeles, scorching tens of thousands of acres. Canada’s 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive ever recorded, destroying an estimated 45.7 million acres.

The frequency and severity of wildfires is expected to continue increasing due to climate change, and these events can become a troubling source of pollution in urban areas, researchers say.

Wildfire smoke features a complex mixture of pollutants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a class of carcinogenic compounds that can also cause mutations in nature. PAHs are produced whenever incomplete combustion occurs, including when wood burns.

The potential impact of PAHs extends far downwind of wildfires, even hundreds of kilometres, McMaster researchers report in a new study, published Jan. 30 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

“This study was motivated by the large increase in wildfire frequency and severity in Western Canada,” explains lead author Iris Chan, a graduate student in the department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

“There is a great deal of public awareness and research on air quality related to North American wildfires, but the long-term impact of smoke drifting into cities is virtually unknown.”
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Urban landscapes are dominated by impermeable structures and surfaces such as buildings and roads, she explains. Over time, these surfaces accumulate what is known as “urban grime,” a buildup of deposited particles and other chemical compounds that can hold and re-release pollutants such as PAHs.

For this study, researchers enlisted volunteers in Kamloops and Calgary to collect samples in their backyards from August to November 2021.

They set out specially designed kits containing glass beads, which mimic impervious urban surfaces like windows.

The samples were regularly collected and analyzed at McMaster.

The team looked for correlations between surface-grime PAHs and evidence of fire activity in measurements of local air quality such as carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter.

In the Calgary samples, researchers found toxin levels nearly doubled when smoke from fires in Saskatchewan arrived from about 500 kilometres away. There were no other large-scale pollution events in Calgary at that time, suggesting the increase was linked.

In Kamloops, they pinpointed a sharp increase in toxins even when there were no significant wildfire events in the region. Based on the specific composition of samples, researchers concluded the uptick was due to a hyper-local burn, likely a neighborhood campfire.

“We should be mindful that the minor things people do every day, like using their barbeque or having a campfire in the backyard, can have a significant and long-lasting impact on their local environment,” says Sarah Styler, who supervised the study and holds the Canada Research Chair in Atmospheric Chemistry at McMaster.

The accumulation problem grows worse when there isn’t sufficient rainfall to wash away the grimy buildup. A reservoir of toxins can, in principle, grow for long periods.

“We would then expect precipitation to release pollutants into stormwater runoff, with the potential for adverse consequences for downstream water bodies, sediments and aquatic life,” says Styler.

The team is following up by analyzing samples from multiple cities in Canada and the United States, collected during the 2022 wildfire season.

Additionally, they have recently begun a pilot project with Environment Hamilton to collect and analyze dust and grime samples in city neighbourhoods to determine how much is falling in different areas and what it might contain.

brighterworld.mcmaster.ca

Toxic grime: Wildfire smoke can deposit toxins on cities hundreds of kilometres away, researchers find

Plumes of wildfire smoke can carry contaminants hundreds of kilometres, leaving a lingering toxic footprint that has the potential to be re-released into the environment, . . .
brighterworld.mcmaster.ca brighterworld.mcmaster.ca
 
Shiftless2 said:
"Back to the Californian wildfires - #304 included and estimate of insured losses of $35-$45 billion and I said that was likely low. This estimate says $75 billion with total losses of $164 billion." S2 #321
Click to expand...
Post #321 helps $quantify what's already public knowledge.
Anthropogenic global warming is hardly a news flash, even if it's most recent manifestations are.

This ubiquitous tragedy inflicts personal harm ununiformly. Among the Californians harmed most, seniors whose net-$worth was primarily in the equity of their own home, now rubble.

The best way to shrug this off irresponsibly, to insure that such unrecoverable adversity will be repeated, is to do as little as possible. Maintain the status quo. Do not match / update building codes to mesh constructively with the rapidly evolving environment.

Shiftless2 said:
wildfires

Toxic grime #322​

Click to expand...
Useful insight, but,
I consider this corroboration of what many a 12 year old might easily have reasoned on their own.

The anti-environmental aphorism: - the solution to pollution is dilution -
might seem viable basis for public policy in an Earth-sized ecosystem in a pre-industrialized human population of a few million. BUT

We're post-industrial, with an estimated 8.2 Billion human population.

Wind does not neutralize these gaseous toxins, it merely disburses them.
 
You have to wonder just how many developers are looking to grab this land at bargain basement prices (and what is the relationship between those developers and the County Commission)

YZaZuW8.jpeg
 
Shiftless2 said:
You have to wonder just how many developers are looking to grab this land at bargain basement prices (and what is the relationship between those developers and the County Commission) #324
Click to expand...
More surprising if not.

Shiftless2 said:
"Buncombe County, NC is forcing all property owners to pay their property taxes no matter if their property is no longer there or not due to Hurricane Helene." #324
Click to expand...
In my New York State county, I believe real estate assessments are conducted once per decade. The most recent assessment is the one applied until the next.
Buncombe may not have the resources to reassess the disaster-stricken area in time frame preferred by disaster stricken tax-payers.

That's not to turn the cold shoulder of indifference. But we'd need more information before we assume this is a deviation from standard practice coast to coast.
 
Understood - and, even if the homeowners hire a private assessor will the county (or can the county) use that assessment?
 
1741188004992.png

Carolina wildfire map: North and South Carolina under increased fire danger as strong winds threaten region​

Dozens of wildfires have cropped up since the weekend, forcing South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster to declare a state of emergency​

Stuti Mishra,Julia Musto

Firefighters battled over 170 blazes across North and South Carolina over the weekend as dry conditions and strong winds fueled fast-moving wildfires, prompting evacuations and sending residents indoors.

In South Carolina, more than 175 fires have torn across the state, forcing Governor Henry McMaster to declare a state of emergency on Sunday. The order aimed to bolster wildfire response efforts and ensure adequate resources for firefighters. A statewide burning ban also remained in effect on Tuesday

“Careless behaviors, such as ...

www.independent.co.uk

Carolina wildfire map: North and South Carolina under increased fire danger

Dozens of wildfires have cropped up since the weekend, forcing South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster to declare a state of emergency
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk
 
Just so you know, the US isn't the only country that's being hit

Rain offers hope in Japan's worst wildfire in 50 years​



  • The wildfire broke out on February 26, and firefighting efforts including Japan Self-Defense Forces, have continued while thousands have evacuated their homes. Photo: AFP

    The wildfire broke out on February 26, and firefighting efforts including Japan Self-Defense Forces, have continued while thousands have evacuated their homes. Photo: AFP
Wet weather looked poised to offer relief Wednesday as Japan battled its worst wildfire in half a century in a northern region hit by record-low rainfall.

The blaze around the northern city of Ofunato has killed one person and forced nearly 4,000 to evacuate their homes.

It has engulfed around 2,900 hectares -- over eight times the area of New York City's Central Park -- making it Japan's largest wildfire since at least 1975, when 2,700 hectares burnt in Kushiro on Hokkaido.

But rain and snow were falling Wednesday as several columns of white smoke billowed from a mountain where the blaze has been raging.

"Firefighters have been working on the ground through the night to extinguish the fire," a city official said on Wednesday.

"We are hoping that snow, which started to fall this morning, will help," he added.

At least 84 buildings are believed to have been damaged, although details are still being assessed, according to the fire agency.

As of late Tuesday, almost 4,000 people living nearby had complied with orders to evacuate.

Japan endured its hottest summer on record last year, as climate change pushes up temperatures worldwide.

The number of wildfires in the country has declined since its 1970s peak, but there were about 1,300 in 2023, concentrated in the period from February to April when the air dries out and winds pick up.

Japanese baseball prodigy Roki Sasaki, who recently joined the Los Angeles Dodgers, has offered a 10-million-yen (US$67,000) donation and 500 sets of bedding to people affected by the wildfire.

Sasaki was a high school student there, after losing his father and grandparents in the huge 2011 tsunami. (AFP)

gbcode.rthk.hk

Rain offers hope in Japan's worst wildfire in 50 years - RTHK

Wet weather looked poised to offer relief Wednesday as Japan battled its worst wildfire in half a century in a northern region hit by record-low rainf...
gbcode.rthk.hk gbcode.rthk.hk
 
Eco-news for environmentalists with short attention spans.
Sharks and rays belong to a group of cartilaginous fish called elasmobranchs, which have been swimming in the world’s oceans for 450 million years. The resilient species have survived five mass extinction events, and are older than dinosaurs, trees, and Mount Everest. But ...

Earth Wise – A look at our changing environment.

A look at our changing environment.
earthwiseradio.org earthwiseradio.org
Click to expand...
 

New stove that plugs into a normal wall outlet could be major gain for health and the climate​


“You wouldn’t stand over the tailpipe of a car breathing in the exhaust from that car. And yet nearly 50 million households stand over a gas stove, breathing the same pollutants in their homes,” said Rob Jackson, an environmental scientist at Stanford University and lead author on a study on pollution from gas cooking.
Then there are the health benefits of cooking with electricity. Gas stoves, which 47 million Americans use, release pollutants like nitrogen dioxide that has been linked to asthma and cancer-causing benzene.
The stove contains a battery that is smart, meaning it can charge up when electrical rates are low, allowing people to cook without incurring peak-rate electrical charges.
The new Copper stoves are not cheap. Early adopters are relying on government incentives to defray the cost. When Yaker, who worked as a teacher and was a saver, bought his, it was $6,000 and a federal tax credit for clean energy appliances brought that down to $4,200.

I've used both electric & gas stove. I prefer gas. But I've already switched from firewood, to propane, to electric to heat modest but tastefully decorated home.
This AP article neglects a broader perspective here.
This $6,000.oo stove features a large electric storage battery.
That has substantial valuable implementation potential in our post fossil fuel society. Why?

"Renewable" energy includes wind-turbine, useful when the wind blows, and photovoltaic, useful in daylight.
Decentralized buffering of these intermittent energy sources may be a substantial element of superseding fossil fuel dependency.

That may be a little more complicated than adding an electric outlet on each stove.
But a battery large enough to adequately buffer enough energy to operate a residential stove / oven / range could also be useful in supplying temporary residence electricity
in the form of a U.P.S., an uninterruptible power supply.
A substantially larger capacity electric battery of an EV could substantially add to that residential energy buffer capacity, to minimize the penalty of commercial power failures.
 
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