Peter Gleick
Want to learn something about #water and #climate change?
A simple approximation is that for every degree C of warming, the atmosphere holds 7% more water. That's one factor behind the growing number of extreme flooding events.
And climate scientists have been predicting these impacts for literally a half century or more.
The Trump administration's efforts to hide these kinds of basic scientific truths are just fossil-fuel industry propaganda.
Aug 22, 2025 at 5:20amWeb
Show threadMartin Vermeer (not Jesus)Aug 22, 2025

@petergleick

> A simple approximation is that for every degree C of warming, the atmosphere holds 7% more water

True. The approximation here is that the atmosphere's mean relative humidity does not change. If it did, we would have a *way* bigger problem on our hands than global warming: global drying, as well as a strongly positive cloud feedback...

Show threadMichael GraafAug 22, 2025
@petergleick Water vapour itself is the main greenhouse gas, simply by being present in greater quantities than the others. Hence the coldness of desert nights even in the tropics.
Show thread𝔅icyclet𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰Aug 22, 2025
@michaelgraaf @petergleick Am I right in thinking that the difference between water and CO2, is that the former condensates and rains, while the later simply accumulates indefinitely?
Show threadMichael GraafAug 22, 2025

@bicycletting @petergleick Well of course there are many differences. But of relevance here is that the higher the average temp, the less condensation, the greater H2O's greenhouse action.

Besides accumulating in the atmosphere CO2 also dissolves in water, acidifying it & reacting with other substances. Corals etc. whose anatomy requires calcium carbonate (containing captured CO2) struggle to form it in higher acidity. Another feedback loop.

Show threadSteveJB has movedAug 22, 2025
@michaelgraaf @bicycletting @petergleick Aside from added atmospheric water, there's the issue of added heat creating more kinectic energy in the atmosphere. Where I live we've had 3 tornadoes between 1966 and 2023. In July of 2024, we had 4 confirmed tornadoes. They are more frequent and stronger.
Show threadMichael GraafAug 22, 2025
@SteveJB @bicycletting @petergleick The energetics of convection cells are mind-boggling, because water vapour in an updraft releases latent heat when it condenses & falls, then there's the interaction between static electricity & the earth's magnetic field, lightning etc....
Show threadDieuAug 22, 2025

@petergleick It's important to realise that this means temperature n+2 gets us 7% additional water on top of the 7% we got in addition to temperature n at temperature n+1. This is not linear growth.

Lo and behold, average economist, compound interest doesn't only work with money.

Show threadDreyAug 22, 2025
@petergleick - All this is coming true. The dooms day clock is getting there at yhe top of the bell curve. as the antarctic begins to melt due to over heating our oceans are rising land disappears crops starve. Hmm what a mess.
Show threadSANZA son in e.uAug 22, 2025
@petergleick
Why is nobody talking about the millions of litres of high octane Jet Fuel that Rocketman Musk is burning in the atmosphere or Strato Sphere???
Show threadPeter GleickAug 22, 2025
@sanzasonindaeu They are beginning to.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/14/trump-rocket-launches-environment-musk-bezos
Trump’s space order risks environmental disaster while rewarding Musk and Bezos, experts say

US president is pushing an ‘end run around’ on safeguards, risking harm to wildlife, air and water, attorney says

The Guardian
Show threadSANZA son in e.uAug 22, 2025
@petergleick
Thanks Peter It's a nice article 👍...too little has been done because of the close relationship between Trump and his Oligarchs ..but you never know because Trump goes with the wind and changes his mind with whatever suits him Best on a Whim..his ONLY concern is his Bank Balances
Show threadclewAug 22, 2025

Is that also causing our extreme drying events? When dry air with a higher capacity for humidity crosses a landscape, it sucks up more soil and plant moisture than the landscape is “used to” losing?

… and then drops it all at once elsewhere causing the floods… @petergleick

Show threadPeter GleickAug 22, 2025
@clew Yes. Rising temperatures are accelerating the desiccation of souls, landscapes, and ecosystems.
[Lol, autocorrect turned "soils" into "souls" and I thought "how appropriate"].