Leon Simons (looking up) Profile picture
Feb 4 46 tweets 12 min read Read on X
Global Warming Has Accelerated
Are the United Nations and the Public Well-Informed?
[No!]

Notes from the presentation of this groundbreaking new paper by James Hansen (@DrJamesEHansen) et al. (2025), with leading climate scientists:

🧵
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@DrJamesEHansen Global warming has accelerated, which can't be explained by natural variability Image
@DrJamesEHansen The anthropogenic forcings are greenhouse gases and aerosols.

Aerosols are likely understimated by the IPCC Image
@DrJamesEHansen Faustian bargain of greenhouse gases and air pollution Image
@DrJamesEHansen Sulphur air pollution has been reduced over the past decades, especially from shipping: Image
@DrJamesEHansen Earth's reflectivity (albedo) has decreased: Image
@DrJamesEHansen The region with most shipping emissions shows the strongest increase in Absorbed Solar Radiation: Image
@DrJamesEHansen The new study estimates that the reduction in shipping emissions contributes an enormous global climate forcing of +0.5 W/m² (much more over the Northern Hemisphere). Image
@DrJamesEHansen Even though El Niño has faded, we shouldn't expect temps to decrease much this year (as we saw by January 2025 reaching a new monthly record).

If the heat stays in the Southern Hemisphere (through AMOC shutdown) we could experience multiple meters of global sea level rise. Image
@DrJamesEHansen This is very worrying: Image
Ice melt will accelerate now.

Warm water enters below ice sheets, melting them from below Image
Models underestimate deep water warming, which is why we need better observations to improve models Image
"The 2C target is dead" Image
The CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use is still increasing, because people need energy.

Energy infrastructure doesn't change overnight. Image
Only Sweden has largely decreased CO2 emissions, mainly through the use of nuclear power: Image
We need a price on Carbon! Image
We need global cooperation Image
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Young people have more power than they think.

We need a political party that doesn't take money from special interest: Image
Jefrey Sachs introduces Pushker Kharecha: Image
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Half a percent-point decrease in albedo (over 35 times larger than world energy use!)

Effect of shipping emissions is over 10 times humanity's energy use Image
The main shipping regions (North Atlantic and Pacific) show the main effect, as ocean air is relatively pristine with little other regional emissions (both natural and anthropogenic) Image
Climate sensitivity is underestimated when the effects of aerosols are underestimated.

Including a strong shipping aerosol forcing explains the increased rate of warming. Image
Sachs asks: where do we stand if we'd have a neutral ENSO (El Niño & La Niña).

Answer: Shipping emission changes add about 0.2C, which means temperatures won't decrease much from this point.

This means we've breached 1.5C for all intents and purposes. Image
Sachs Sussane Bauer from @NASAGISS Image
"We shouldn't talk about aerosols so much any more, because they are rapidly going away and greenhouse gases are taking over!" Image
The aerosol cloud effect decreases 30 years after the direct effect of aerosols! 🤯

Also note the decrease of aerosols from China, while India still increases aerosols Image
Clouds react to aerosols more over regions with less pollution Image
Sachs introduces Anton Keskinen from Operaatio Arktis Image
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We need the precautionary approach!

The West-Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse could cause multiple meters of sea level rise.

This has happened before during the Last Interglacial (Eemian), when Sea Surface Temperatures were lower than they are today. Image
We need RESEARCH on Purposeful Global Cooling

1. Acceptability of impacts in the pipeline?

2. Risk vs risk assessment!

3. Effects on mitigation [never use Sunlight Reflection Methods (SRM) as an excuse for not reducing greenhouse gas emissions!] Image
Jeffrey Sachs underscores that James Hansen been more right about the science than anyone else in the world!

'You warned us about what was coming' Image
@DrJamesEHansen James Hansen: The AMOC transports 1 PW of heat to the Northern Hemisphere.

That's equal to the effect to doubling the amount of CO2 over the Northern Hemisphere (4 W/m² over 255 Millions square kilometres)!!! Image
Hansen:

The IPCC shows that nuclear power is the most effective technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, this was largely ignored.

You can't rely on the IPCC report with regard to AMOC slowdown, as it underestimates reality.
All agree:

We need greenhouse gas emission reductions as fast as possible
We need to sop electing politicians that ignore reality and peddle to special interests
Susanne Bauer:

The lack of the [aerosol] masking effect underscores the importance of reducing greenhouse gases.

Don't forget about methane!
Hansen:

You can't reverse AMOC shutdown!
On politics:

The power needs to be with the people, not with those with money to buy politicians Image
Thank you again for taking this serious and for your tireless effort to get to the bottom of what the data shows, @DrJamesEHansen

If anyone spreads doubt about the main findings, please ask them to give an alternative explanation for the enormous increase in Absorbed Solar Radiation and Sea Surface warming over the Northern Hemisphere's mid-latitudes!

They most likely can't.
Global Warming Has Accelerated
@DrJamesEHansen et al.

Find here a recording of the paper launch presentation, with contributing scientists:
youtube.com/live/d6wOjk2OC…
We will discuss all this in detail next Sunday on Climate Chat.

Please join us

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More from @LeonSimons8

Apr 18
If only people understood how significant this >10% decrease in cloud cover and the same amount of increase in sunshine duration are.

It would be front page news over all Europe media.

It's not even included in many (most?) regional climate models... Image
Figuring out what underlying assumptions in models are is much harder than you'd think.

As if it's designed that way..

The Netherlands receives ~180 kW of additional sunshine for each hectare of its surface.

That the day and night, 365-day average.
Image
You can access the European cloud and sunshine data here.

The East-West difference in 2024 was quite remarkable. The extremely warm North Atlantic likely played a role.

Also see the figures for 2023, which didn't show this anomaly.
climate.copernicus.eu/esotc/2024/clo…Image
Image
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Read 4 tweets
Mar 16
NASA: Global Sea Level Rise increased more than expected in 2024.

0.59 cm might not sound like much, but 2/3rds of that was due to thermal ocean expansion.

Which takes about 50 times more heat to increase sea levels than melting land-ice does!
1/ Image
Ice melt: ~1.5 ZJ = 1 cm
Ocean heat: ~73 ZJ = 1 cm

We can use this to get a rough indication of Earth's Energy Imbalance in 2024:

(0.59 cm * 2 / 3 * 73 ZJ) + (0.59 cm * (1 / 3) * 1.5 ZJ) = about 29 ZJ of heat to increase sea levels by 0.59 cm.

Which is +1.80 W/m² globaly!

2/ Image
This shows the acceleration of Ocean Heat Content increase from models (SSP) and observations.

The orange Hakuba et al. (2021) bar shows OHC increase determined from rising sea levels ('Geodetic').

Like NASA CERES satellite data, its best estimate is out of range of models.
3/ Image
Read 5 tweets
Jan 27
Fossil fuels contain sulphur, which is released when burned. Scientists have known about the cooling effect of sulphur for decades.

This partially hides greenhouse gas warming.

But the scale of cooling and the decoupling of CO₂ and SO₂ emissions has been underestimated Image
As more and more clean air regulations came into effect from the 1960s onward, CO₂ and sulphur dioxide (SO₂) emissions gradually decoupled.

SO₂ emissions reached a global peak around 1980:
academic.oup.com/bioscience/art…Image
@WilliamJRipple This scatter plot clearly shows the decoupling between CO₂ and SO₂: Image
Read 14 tweets
Dec 29, 2024
🌊🌡️📈
The North Atlantic Ocean is not cooling back down.

The baseline has shifted.

We'll discuss this and more later today on Climate Chat. Image
2024 even broke the extreme Sea Surface Temperature record of 2023: Image
Unprecedented: Image
Read 8 tweets
Dec 16, 2024
The Atlantic Ocean used to transport about 500,000,000 Hiroshima bombs worth of heat northward.

This will decrease by ~30% in OUR lifetimes.

What does that mean?

I think the main problem with climate change is that our tiny brains are incapable of comprehending it.
I tried to cover the basic AMOC maths here:

patreon.com/posts/10867891…
Read 4 tweets
Nov 22, 2024
🌊🌡📈 = 🦠📉

Plankton may not survive global warming, with "devastating effects"

🚨Plankton is at the basis of the ocean food web!
🚨Plankton sequesters carbon & releases oxygen!
🚨Plankton keeps the planet cool by creating cloud condensation nuclei! Image
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This is one of the most worrying studies I've seen in a long time.

And I come across a lot of worrying studies.
oceanographicmagazine.com/news/plankton-…
The ocean are warming extremely fast Image
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Read 7 tweets

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