Nautical News

[GordMay]

Two cargo ships collide in Baltic fog, rescue underway

Two cargo ships collided on Monday during foggy conditions in the Baltic Sea between the Danish island of Bornholm and the southern Swedish city of Ystad, and a rescue operation was launched for two missing people, authorities said.

The 55-metre “Karin Hoej”, registered in Denmark, had capsized and was upside down, the Swedish Maritime Administration (SMA) said. It had two people on board and they were missing, the Danish Defence's Joint Operations Centre (JOC) said.

The other ship, the 90-metre, British-registered "Scot Carrier", was functional and its crew were safe.

More ➥ https://www.reuters.com/world/two-ca...er-2021-12-13/

Or ➥ https://www.theguardian.com/business...tic-sea-rescue

[GordMay]

As seas rise, study sees need for national, natural approach to help coastal towns

A study [1], released this weekend, by the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, based at Ontario's University of Waterloo, found Canada lacks a national planning system, or standard classifications, compared to other countries. Such systems can be used to evaluate risks to coastal areas, and plot the wisest path forward.
The key conclusions of the 94-page report [1], called "Rising Seas and Shifting Sands", call for the federal government to develop national standards, particularly for natural solutions, that range from dune restoration, to re-establishment of marshlands.

More about ➥ https://www.cheknews.ca/as-seas-rise...-towns-926279/

[1] "Rising Seas and Shifting Sands” ~ Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation [University of Waterloo]
This report describes how Canada can scale-up the use of nature-based solutions*, in tandem with grey infrastructure*, to protect communities along the East and West coastlines.
➥ https://www.intactcentreclimateadapt...n_Grey_NbS.pdf

* Coastal protection measures can be divided into two key categories:
• Grey Infrastructure: hard, engineered coastal protection measures, and;
• Nature-Based Solutions: measures that depend on, or mimic, natural systems to
manage flood and erosion risk, that may be:
a) predominantly sediment-based, such as adding sediment to beaches through beach nourishment,
or
b) predominantly vegetation-based, such as saltmarsh restoration

[GordMay]

U.S. Coast Guard Has Suspended Search For Woman Overboard on Carnival Cruise
The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended its search for a woman who went overboard from a Carnival cruise ship off the coast of Mexico. Officials say the woman, believed to be in her 20s, fell overboard at around 3:30 a.m. Saturday.
Authorities searched more than 31 hours for the woman before pausing the search on Sunday, pending additional information.
More ➥ https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/nat...arnival-cruise

[GordMay]

UN adds record Siberia temperature to extreme weather archive

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed [1] that a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) reached in Verkhoyansk [Siberia], on June 20 last year, was a record for the Arctic.
Verkhoyansk is about 115km (71 miles) north of the Arctic Circle; a region that is among the fastest warming in the world, and is heating more than twice the global average.
The record is now an official entry in the ‘World Weather & Climate Extremes Archive’ [2], a sort of Guinness World Records for weather, that also includes the heaviest hailstone, and longest lightning flash.
Last year also saw a new temperature record for the Antarctic continent of 18.3C (65F), at Argentina’s Esperanza station.

More about ➥ https://technocharger.com/un-adds-re...dw-14-12-2021/

[1] “WMO recognizes new Arctic temperature record of 38 C”
➥ https://public.wmo.int/en/media/pres...f-38%E2%81%B0c

[2] “WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes” ➥https://public.wmo.int/en/resources/...imate-extremes
and
[2] “World Meteorological Organization's World Weather & Climate Extremes Archive”
➥ https://wmo.asu.edu/

[GordMay]

Further to ➥ https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3536569

FBI LA investigating after Carnival cruise ship passenger goes overboard; Woman remains missing 3 days later
More ➥ https://www.foxnews.com/us/fbi-los-a...rd-search-body

[GordMay]

Amplify Energy charged in October California spill

The Texas-based, Amplify Energy Corporation, and two of its companies [Beta Operating Co. LLC and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co.] , that operate several oil rigs and pipelines, off the coast of California, were indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday, for illegally discharging oil.

“The pipeline, which was used to transfer crude oil from several offshore facilities to a processing plant in Long Beach, began leaking on the afternoon of October 1, but the defendants allegedly continued to operate the damaged pipeline, on and off, until the next morning,” prosecutors said in a statement.

The spill, one of the state’s largest, sent 570,000 litres (126,000 gallons) of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean, and fouled the sands of Huntington Beach*, as well as other coastal communities.

“Three Companies Face Charges of Negligent Conduct During Offshore Oil Leak that Damaged Southern California Coastline” ~ U.S. Attorneys - Central District of California
➥ https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr...l-leak-damaged

*

[GordMay]

10 weather stories that made 2021 a year like no other

Environment Canada has released its Top 10 weather stories for 2021, the "most destructive, the most expensive and the deadliest year for weather in Canadian history."

[quote]Not in 26 years of releasing the Top 10 Weather Events has there been anything comparable to this year, where Canadians endured such a stream of weather extremes. The year began with windstorms causing multi-million dollar damage across the West in early January, and ended with rain, windstorms and floods causing multi-billion dollars of damage in British Columbia. Although we cannot attribute a single weather event to human-caused climate change, the evidence is conclusive -- we are experiencing more intense and more frequent extreme weather. Climate change is leading to more frequent and more intense disasters around the world. This was the year southern Canadians began seeing this firsthand. There was no new types of weather this year – our grandparents coped with the same rain, heat, floods, fires and drought. But the extremes were of a different nature than in the past. They were more widespread, intense, frequent and impactful.

Canada continued to warm in 2021 for the 26th consecutive year, and was one of the warmest in 75 years. Canada’s excessive heat in early summer helped to make July the planet’s warmest month in more than a century and a half. No place in the world has warmed more than Canada’s North. Three decades of gradual but relentless warming have dramatically changed the geography in the North: fragile ice shelves are crumbling into the ocean, sea ice is thinning and shrinking, sea levels are rising slowly and ocean waters are becoming less salty, more acidic and warmer throughout.

In 2021, Canadians witnessed the real threat and impact of climate change all around them and were shocked by the variety and frequency of weather extremes. British Columbia became ground zero for weather catastrophes. The province was dried out, scorched, flooded and inundated with mud, rock and debris flows. Owing to the extraordinary early summer heat and drought, British Columbia suffered a tragic week of weather and from unbelievable fall-season rains and floods, likely the most destructive and expensive year to date.

The Prairies continued to be hot and dry as they have been for the past 2 or 3 years, with economic costs in the billions of dollars. The wildfire season started early, burned later, and became bigger and hotter, igniting a near-record area of forests across Canada. The smoke affected millions of Canadians for days and months. For instance, this year Calgary saw 512 hours of smoke and haze, far exceeding the average of 12 hours per year.

The unseasonably warm Atlantic Ocean waters led to another very active tropical storm season. Canada was touched by 6 tropical storms, including Hurricane Larry in Newfoundland and Labrador, the longest-lasting Category 5 hurricane in Atlantic basin history.

The year showed that heat can be a disaster and even more catastrophic than ever before thought possible. Temperature extremes in Canada covered a range of 100 degrees, varying from a record hot of 49.6 °C, causing nearly 800 fatalities in British Columbia and Alberta, to the coldest temperature in 4 years at -51.9 °C. Much of western and central Canada faced some of the coldest temperatures in years in mid-February when the dreaded Arctic blast impacted the entire country. In 2021, Calgary reinforced its reputation as the hailstorm capital when a half-billion-dollar hailer struck the city for a few minutes on July 2.

Volatile weather also occurred when a rare tornado, the first one in 45 years, touched down in Vancouver. In addition, the usual hot spot for tornadoes in Canada, the central Prairies, had a 2 month period in mid-summer without a single tornado. Yet Canada, overall, has never seen so many major EF2 tornadoes with winds exceeding 175 km/h, as in this year.

At times in 2021, Canada even broke records for the number of records broken. Property damage from weather cost Canadians millions of dollars and the economy billions. Based on preliminary estimates compiled by Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ), there were 13 major catastrophic weather events with billions of dollars in insured losses. It will be months before final figures are tallied. In the end, insured damages will only be a fraction of the total economic costs and together with business losses and infrastructure costs for repairing and rebuilding, 2021 will undoubtedly be the most expensive in history.

From a list of at least 100 significant weather happenings across Canada in 2021, events were ranked from 1 to 10 based on factors that included the degree to which Canada and Canadians were impacted, the extent of the area affected, economic and environmental effects and the event’s longevity as a top news story. Incredibly, British Columbia’s terrible weather led the way in the first 5 of the Top 10 Weather Events in 2021 ...[quote]

The List - Details in the link [below]:
Record Heat Under the Dome
British Columbia’s Flood of Floods
Canada Dry Coast to Coast
Wildfire Season – early, active and unrelenting
Canada rides out four heat waves
Year of the EF2 Tornado
Dreaded Arctic Blast Freezes Canada in February
Another hailer-flooder in Calgary
Hurricane Larry belonged to Newfoundland
January Prairie Clipper

More ➥ https://www.canada.ca/en/environment...ries/2021.html

[wolfgal]

Originally Posted by GordMay

10 weather stories that made 2021 a year like no other

The List - Details in the link [below]:
Record Heat Under the Dome
British Columbia’s Flood of Floods
Canada Dry Coast to Coast
Wildfire Season – early, active and unrelenting
Canada rides out four heat waves
Year of the EF2 Tornado
Dreaded Arctic Blast Freezes Canada in February
Another hailer-flooder in Calgary
Hurricane Larry belonged to Newfoundland
January Prairie Clipper

More ➥ https://www.canada.ca/en/environment...ries/2021.html

oh dear. what amazes me is the pace at which the S is HTF... seems that the positive feedback loops may be increasingly kicking in...

hey Gord, concerning the recent high temps recorded in the Arctic and the glacier that is on the move in the Antarctic, have you been able to find any new information regarding the AMOC?

thanks

wolfie

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by wolfgal

...concerning the recent high temps recorded in the Arctic and the glacier that is on the move in the Antarctic, have you been able to find any new information regarding the AMOC?

Unfortunately, research [1] published Aug. 5, 2021, in Nature Climate Change suggests that the AMOC* currents are weakening, and if nothing is done to prevent/mitigate further climate change, they may collapse completely.

Ice-core, and other data, from the last 100,000 years show the AMOC has two states: a fast, strong one, as seen over recent millennia, and a slow, weak one. The data shows rising temperatures can make the AMOC switch abruptly between states, over one to five decades.

Eight independently measured datasets of temperature and salinity, going back as far as 150 years, enabled the author to show that global heating is indeed increasing the instability of the currents, not just changing their flow pattern.

The analysis concluded:
“This decline [of the AMOC in recent decades] may be associated with an almost complete loss of stability over the course of the last century, and the AMOC could be close to a critical transition to its weak circulation mode.”

* AMOC = Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which is composed of a network of currents, branching throughout the Atlantic Ocean.
The AMOC works like a perpetually turning conveyor belt.
As water warms in the tropics, it upwells, becoming more buoyant, and less salty. This warm upwell rushes northward towards the polar regions, where it cools, becoming denser and saltier, before sinking once more. The cold, dense water is then whisked back to the tropics to start the cycle anew.
The crucial ingredient is a positive feedback loop. Salt water's density keeps the AMOC churning.
However, this also means that when large amounts of freshwater are added to the North Atlantic, the positive feedback might collapse. Such an event is known as a "tipping point," a kind of ecological threshold that, once crossed, can take centuries, or even millennia to stabilize.
That said, the effects wouldn't be as immediate, or severe, as disaster movies portray. Many comprehensive climate models don't predict a total AMOC shut down for another 250-300 years, under current emissions, though they predict a bevy of negative consequences, as the currents slowly slide toward collapse.


The research:

[1] “Observation-based early-warning signals for a collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation” ~ by Niklas Boers
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s415...heguardian.com


This earlier thread got somewhat derailed:
‘Changes in Atlantic currents’ ➥ https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3457878
The original link only had the abstract; but this new link [1 above] has the full study.

[wolfgal]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Unfortunately, research [1] published Aug. 5, 2021, in Nature Climate Change suggests that the AMOC* currents are weakening, and if nothing is done to prevent/mitigate further climate change, they may collapse completely.

Ice-core, and other data, from the last 100,000 years show the AMOC has two states: a fast, strong one, as seen over recent millennia, and a slow, weak one. The data shows rising temperatures can make the AMOC switch abruptly between states, over one to five decades.

Eight independently measured datasets of temperature and salinity, going back as far as 150 years, enabled the author to show that global heating is indeed increasing the instability of the currents, not just changing their flow pattern.

The analysis concluded:
“This decline [of the AMOC in recent decades] may be associated with an almost complete loss of stability over the course of the last century, and the AMOC could be close to a critical transition to its weak circulation mode.”

* AMOC = Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which is composed of a network of currents, branching throughout the Atlantic Ocean.
The AMOC works like a perpetually turning conveyor belt.
As water warms in the tropics, it upwells, becoming more buoyant, and less salty. This warm upwell rushes northward towards the polar regions, where it cools, becoming denser and saltier, before sinking once more. The cold, dense water is then whisked back to the tropics to start the cycle anew.
The crucial ingredient is a positive feedback loop. Salt water's density keeps the AMOC churning.
However, this also means that when large amounts of freshwater are added to the North Atlantic, the positive feedback might collapse. Such an event is known as a "tipping point," a kind of ecological threshold that, once crossed, can take centuries, or even millennia to stabilize.
That said, the effects wouldn't be as immediate, or severe, as disaster movies portray. Many comprehensive climate models don't predict a total AMOC shut down for another 250-300 years, under current emissions, though they predict a bevy of negative consequences, as the currents slowly slide toward collapse.


The research:

[1] “Observation-based early-warning signals for a collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation” ~ by Niklas Boers
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s415...heguardian.com


This earlier thread got somewhat derailed:
‘Changes in Atlantic currents’ ➥ https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3457878
The original link only had the abstract; but this new link [1 above] has the full study.

thanks Gord.

[GordMay]

Omicron blindspots: why it’s hard to track coronavirus variants
Researchers are rapidly sequencing the genomes of virus samples worldwide, but shortcomings in the global surveillance system, make the task a challenge.
More ➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03698-7

[GordMay]

GM Starts Delivering Hummer EV
Even Though the Planet Doesn’t Need Really Luxury Electric Pickup Trucks & SUVs

In a press release [1] on Friday, GM announced the beginning of “a new era” for the company, marked by the delivery of its first next-generation electric vehicles.

Unfortunately, that new era is headlined by the Hummer EV Edition 1 [2], a $110,295 car, with an estimated 329 miles (529 kilometers) of range, “modular sky panels,” the ability to do a “crabwalk” and drive diagonally, and an “extract mode”, to navigate over boulders and water.

Luckily, this isn’t GM’s last EV. The company, which is working towards selling only zero emission cars and trucks by 2035, has plans to release 30 new electric vehicles over the next four years. According to the release, two-thirds of those new cars will be available in North America.

[1] “GM’s Transition to an All-Electric Future Begins with an Off-Road Supertruck (HUMMER EV) and Commercial Delivery EV, Both Powered By Ultium Platform”
➥ https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/...-electric.html

[2]“GMC HUMMER EV PICKUP AND SUV”
➥ https://www.gmc.com/electric/hummer-ev
➥ https://media.gmc.com/media/us/en/gm...17-hummer.html

[GordMay]

Madagascar police chief swims 12 hours to safety after helicopter crash
Madagascar's police minister [Gen. Serge Gelle[], and an air force mechanic [Chief Warrant Officer Jimmy Laitsara] succeeded in swimming for 12 hours to safety after their helicopter crashed in the Indian Ocean.
More ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/madaga...rash-1.6295292



Fire ravages Finnish Labour Temple, home to Thunder Bay's famous Hoito Restaurant
More ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thund...fire-1.6296039
Video ➥ https://twitter.com/i/status/1473836489440120832

[GordMay]

Madagascar shipwreck death toll rises to 85
The death toll from a shipwreck off the coast of Madagascar this week has risen to 85, maritime officials have said.
Maritime authorities said 138 people were on the 12-foot-long* (3.6-metre) boat carrying cargo which sank on Monday, adding that only 50 had been rescued.
More ➥ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/...ll-rises-to-85



* The wreck of the boat 'Francia', that sank off the coast on Monday, is pulled to the beach in northeastern Madagascar

[jimbunyard]

From the outboards on the stern (not to mention the improbability of arranging 138 people on a maximum of roughly 100 square feet of deck), I'm guessing there's a transpostion of feet and meters; i.e. 12 meters and 36 feet...


Some pre-news. JWST launches tomorrow!!!