This is a recent example of the arguments advanced by the global warming religion crowd and it continues to stick to script no matter now many scientists reject their claims. It is quite like trying to have a rational discussion with an atheist.
However we have reached the 400 ppm level for CO2 as expected. This up trend has a way to go before it flattens out or even retreats. In the meantime we have actually had a temperature flat line for a full fifteen years now and a recent reversal in the Arctic suggesting that the Sea Ice will now start to rebuild.
These trends are all natural with long histories of conforming behavior unrelated to CO2. That it why from the very beginning I separated the two phenomena. I saw zero reason to accept linkage with global temperature and today we have clear cut negative reasons.
Atmospheric CO2 Crosses "Ominous Threshold"
Monday, 16 June 2014 09:01
By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | News Analysis
"I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation. We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches."- Red Cloud, Oglala Lakota Sioux
At the beginning of June, the Obama administration proudly announced the EPA's so-called Clean Power Plan,
the goal of which is to cut carbon pollution from power plants by 30
percent below 2005 levels by 2030. It was trumpeted as the strongest
proposal ever put forth by a US president to reign in greenhouse gas
emissions.
To read more about anthropomorphic climate disruption
and how environments and communities suffer from corporate
profit-seeking, click here.
To see more Climate Disruption Dispatches from Dahr Jamail, click here.
However, Kevin Bundy with the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute
was unimpressed, commenting, "This is like fighting a wildfire with a
garden hose - we're glad the president has finally turned the water on,
but it's just not enough to get the job done."
Given the increasingly rapid pace of the impacts of runaway
anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD), Bundy's remark is well placed,
and these recent machinations by the Obama administration are clearly
too little, far too late.
This April was the second-warmest April on record globally, and marked the 350th month in a row (29 years and counting) that saw above-average temperatures.
Temperatures continue to rise across the planet.
In Australia, the last two years have been the hottest ever
recorded, and there’s no sign that the heat wave is going to stop any
time soon, according to a recently released report.
According to data compiled by Australia’s Climate Council, the period
from May 2012 to April 2014 was the hottest 24-month period ever
recorded in the country, and the trend is increasing.
New NOAA data
shows that this past April tied 2010's April as the hottest April since
recordkeeping began, and Tropical Cyclone Amanda in the Pacific was the
strongest May hurricane ever recorded.
Meanwhile, even broader impacts of ACD continue to make themselves evident. A new report
shows that the world's oceans are acidifying ten times faster than they
did 56 million years ago during an upheaval that caused a large die-off
of planetary species and from which the planet took 70,000 years to
recover. During that period, like now, a wave of CO2 surged into the
atmosphere and raised global temperatures, and scientists believe that
ocean acidification was the cause of the crisis.
The Arctic Ocean is leading the way
in acidification. Just as there is a long lag time between increasing
greenhouse gas emissions and increased temperature, changes in ocean
acidity lag very far behind alterations in atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to the February 2014 issue of Environmental Research Letters.
I was recently on a news program with Arctic sea ice expert Dr. Peter Wadhams from Cambridge University, who spoke of his 2008 prediction that by 2015 there would begin to be ice-free periods in the Arctic. As I've written in this column before, the US Navy predicts an ice-free Arctic by summer 2016, but this is a year later than expected by the UK Parliament, which points out that the six lowest September ice extents have occurred in the last six years.
The February 2014 issue
of Geophysical Research Letters showed that sea-surface temperatures
have increased 0.5 to 1.5 degrees Celsius during the last decade, and
underscored the fact that the seven lowest September sea ice extents in
the satellite record have all occurred in the past seven years.
All of these ominous signs point toward a world heading
into a very stark future; they indicate that we are already past the
point of no return.
This month's tour of how each sector of the earth is being
impacted by ACD illustrates that we are well underway in that
progression.
Earth
This year's Endangered Species Day reminded us of five more
well-known species that are threatened with extinction due to ACD,
including the grizzly bear and wild salmon. This is in addition to the
150-200 species that are already going extinct daily.
The Sahara desert, which had already been shown to be expanding due to ACD-infused desertification,
is now growing even more rapidly, increasing the potential for
displacing millions of people and increasing conflict over scarce
resources in North Africa.
Costa Rica's Tico Times reported that the number of cases of dengue fever in Latin America have quintupled
in the last ten years, affecting 2.3 million people in 2013 alone. The
figures produced by the Pan American Health Organization are being
attributed, in part, to ACD.
The expanding range of Lyme disease is being driven by
climate change, as warming temperatures are allowing new populations of
the tick vector to establish themselves in regions that were once too
cold. A new study revealed the relationship between warmer temperatures and the tick's expansion into Canada.
Canadian farmers and politicians who once believed that ACD would expand their growing seasons and increase crop yields are now seeing that this was wishful thinking.
Water
As disconcerting as it is to see the incredibly fast
disappearing act of Arctic sea ice, it is equally troubling to note that
Antarctica's rate of ice loss has increased 50 percent in the first
decade of the 2000s, according to a recent research paper.
Measurements by the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 satellite show that
the Antarctic ice sheet is now losing 159 billion tons of ice each
year, a rate twice as high as when it was last surveyed. Furthermore,
several other recent studies underscore scientists' concerns that we are heading toward a coastline at least 69 feet higher in the future.
The rise is already occurring, of course. Historic sites in Annapolis are under threat from the rising waters of Chesapeake Bay.
Overall, oceans warming from ACD are causing the single largest movement
of marine species in two million years. A recent study revealed how
swarms of venomous jellyfish and poisonous algae are migrating into
British waters due to warming ocean temperatures. Plankton sampling in
the north Atlantic has also shown that other species of plankton that
are normally only found in the Pacific Ocean have now become common in
the Atlantic.
Massive flooding events linked to ACD abound.
By 2100, Southern England is predicted to receive at least
five times as many sudden summer rainstorms as it does now, according to
advanced climate modeling.
The Balkans saw flooding
last month that affected more than a quarter of Bosnians, and the
destruction, which Bosnia's foreign minister called "terrifying," was
compared to that of the country's brutal 1992-95 war. The flooding,
which was the worst seen in southeastern Europe in more than 100 years,
killed 35 people, destroyed 100,000 homes and left entire villages
underwater. It has been linked directly to ACD.
Rising oceans continue to threaten people around the globe. People who live on the tiny south Pacific island of Kiribati are seeing their lives threatened, as rising seas are contaminating delicate freshwater lenses under the atolls and causing their precious arable lands to become increasingly saline.
Rising seas are threatening coastal areas
of Delaware, where people are witnessing high tides rivaling those seen
during Hurricane Irene in August 2011. Norfolk, Virginia is also experiencing higher tides,
where normal tides have risen 1.5 feet over the last century. The sea
is rising faster there than anywhere else on the eastern seaboard.
ACD is causing a new form of pollution, as a new study shows microplastics frozen in Arctic sea ice are being released into the now-open waters.
Across the entire Arctic, scientists are logging
increasing negative health effects they are linking to ACD, including
an increase in rickets, Vitamin D deficiency, and an increase in
waterborne diseases.
New research shows that Greenland's glaciers are more susceptible to melting than previously thought, which means that current projections of sea-level rise are too low once again.
The Athabasca glacier in Canada, the continent's most visited glacier, is losing more than five meters of ice every year and is now in danger of disappearing within a generation.
The number of glaciers in the Himalaya has increased from 3,080 in 1980 to 3,430 in 2010 due to fragmentation caused by ADC. Ice levels within said glaciers has also shrunk from 441.36 cubic meters in 1980 down to 312.4 cubic meters in 2010.
With climbing tourism still reeling from the single
deadliest climbing accident in the history of Mount Everest earlier this
season, Nepal opted to open up 104 new mountains for climbing. However,
with another avalanche killing three more climbers, new ACD research shows how quickly the country's glaciers are melting and how this will only increase the likelihood of avalanches in the future, making more and more mountains, including Everest, likely becoming impossible to climb.
New research is showing
that as temperatures continue to rise and more precipitation falls as
rain rather than snow, we will see a potentially disastrous reduction in
the overall volume of water in streams and rivers, as this is leading
to less water for irrigating crops as well as less drinking water.
This phenomenon is being made abundantly clear in
drought-stricken California, where 100 percent of the state was in one
of the three worst stages of drought, according to the US drought monitor. A recent study
by researchers at the University of California, Davis shows that severe
economic impacts lie ahead in the state where many of the nation's
fruits, nuts and vegetables are grown, and the impacts are estimated to
cost around $1.7 billion and 14,500 jobs.
As a result of the ongoing drought, counties in the farm-rich Central Valley are now issuing record numbers of drilling permits for new water wells; some are waiting a year, due to the growing backlog.
Looking east, ACD is causing yields in the US Corn Belt to
likely drop by 30 percent, as crops continue to become increasingly
sensitive to drought and because of increasingly drier air of a warming
world, according to scientists.
Oklahoma, where drought and wildfires continue to take their toll,
wheat farmers are bracing for the worst as rainfall totals in the
southwestern part of the state are inches below normal and are negatively impacting wheat crops.
Pakistan, which has seen some biblical flooding within the last decade, is also now facing water threats.
Less snowfall and melting glaciers in the Himalaya amount to a lack of
adequate water supplies, and farmers in Northern Pakistan are fearing
for the survival of their summer crops.
In the Netherlands, a multibillion-euro program continues to reshape
the watery nation, where lands are being given back to rivers and
meanders are being cut back into flood plains, all as part of a
back-to-nature approach that is reversing centuries of battling against
water.
Air
Along with massive drought and wildfires, California has
other troubles. Having just experienced its warmest winter ever
recorded, the long-term outlook for warming temperatures in the Napa
Valley region does not bode well for winemakers. Warming air is also causing an increasing number of tropical storms to migrate farther north and south towards the poles over the last 30 years, which, of course, is speeding up polar melting.
A recent study shows that hurricanes will likely threaten cities like never before, as the aforementioned migration trends continue.
Summer temperatures across the US have been warming consistently since 1970, according to recent data,
and CO2 levels throughout the entire northern hemisphere hit 400ppm for
the first time in human history in April, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Last but most certainly not least in this section, British
scientists found three new potentially damaging gases in the atmosphere,
whose global warming potential could be 10,000 times that of CO2.
While the gases are found in relatively small amounts, one is estimated
to be 127 times stronger than CO2, and the two others are CFC's, which
are likely to be 5,000 to 10,000 times more potent than CO2.
Fire
In the US, wildfire season has barely begun, but it already
looks to be another record setter - and the historical context for it
is already set. Since 1984, the area burned by wildfires in the West has
increased by 87,700 acres each year, according to an April study published
in Geophysical Research Letters. According to federal government
records, the top five years with the most acres burned all occurred in
the last decade.
From 2010 to 2013, about 6.4 million acres a year burned on average; in the 1980s it was 2.9 million acres a year.
This year's fire season has kicked off with an early and powerful start,
as the US West fire season now lasts 75 days longer than it did just
one decade ago. From eastern Oregon down to Southern California, and
over to the panhandle of Oklahoma, fire conditions are primed as the
entire Southwest is struggling to adapt to ACD's year-round fire season.
California saw nearly four dozen wildfires before "normal" fire season even began.
May found 100 percent of California to be in severe (or worse) drought, and the conditions even produced a fire tornado during one of the wildfires. Meanwhile, the drought in Texas was on course to become the third worst in the last 500 years.
Early May wildfires in Texas, most of which remains stuck in a record-breaking three-year drought, destroyed at least 100 homes and forced the evacuation of 700 to 800 people. A NOAA meteorologist said there was a possibility the drought there could continue for another few years. At the time of this writing approximately 83 percent of the state was experiencing some form of drought, even forcing residents of one town to turn to recycled sewage water to use as their drinking water.
Ninety-seven percent
of New Mexico is under some form of drought conditions, with the
majority under "severe" to "exceptional" drought. A massive wildfire in
Oklahoma left at least one person dead and forced over 1,000 people to evacuate as the wildfire burned through about 3,500 acres near Guthrie, OK and destroyed more than 30 structures.
Even Alaska is not being spared, as an early June wildfire south of Anchorage on the Kenai Peninsula doubled
in size. Its smoke plume was visible from space, and could be seen
stretching beyond Kodiak Island and well into the Gulf of Alaska.
Denial and Reality
Despite the constant deluge of scientific data and reports
about the apocalyptic impacts of ACD, a race to see who can be the
biggest climate idiot is ongoing in US politics.
In Alaska,
a senate race has spawned fierce competition to prove who knows the
least about climate science. Tea Party-affiliated candidate Joe Miller
is claiming to be the only ACD skeptic in the bunch, and said his
opponents had "joined with climate change alarmists," despite one of
them having openly questioned the validity of climate science, while
another opponent had led the effort in the US Supreme Court to strip the
EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases.
In Texas,
a new GOP platform is calling on politicians to ignore ACD, along with
pushing for the elimination of environmental regulations.
Dick Cheney's home state of Wyoming is rejecting education on human climate influence. There, founder of the conservative think tank Wyoming Liberty Group Susan Gore said that new national science standards for schools were a form of "coercion," asserting, "I don't think government should have anything to do with education."
On the federal level, the House voted to deny climate science, and has moved to tie the Pentagon's hands regarding its ability to respond to ACD.
Meanwhile, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which has
played a leading role in raising awareness of the perils of ACD is
experiencing a severe budget crisis as federal research funding is being
slashed. The organization is now making up budget shortfalls by helping oil and gas companies identify new sources of the very fossil fuels that are damaging the environment.
Despite state and federal government denials, those on the
frontlines of ACD have no question about the reality of the situation.
Farmers in California
do not have to be sold on the reality of what their state government
must do in order to address the impacts of ACD, while in Kansas,
communities in the grip of a multi-year drought are learning how to save water
while taking showers by keeping buckets at their feet, and even to save
water from their rooftops by collecting rainwater with collection
barrels under their gutters.
Britain now faces the risk of malaria
as ACD is causing mosquitoes to thrive from warming weather. Meanwhile,
rising sea levels in the northeastern US are causing city and state
officials to investigate
ways of changing how buildings and key infrastructure projects are
designed, in anticipation of future trends of stronger storms from ACD.
Despite the ACD denial prevalent in the federal government, a panel of 16 retired three- and four-star generals and admirals blamed a warming planet for aggravating tensions between nations, and stated that ACD is a "catalyst for conflict."
Militaries around the globe are acutely aware of the melting Arctic ice cap, and are well underway in their preparations towards strategic control of waterways and oil, gas and mineral deposits there that are sure to be exploited.
On a more local level, summer flounder populations are
migrating further north along the east coast in the US, setting the
stage for a battle between East Coast states on how to share the business of harvesting the fish.
The EPA recently added
four new trends to its ever-growing list of indicators that signal that
ACD is happening now. The four trends are Lyme disease (the number of
Lyme disease incidents have doubled since 1991), heating and cooling
degree days (trends directly or indirectly related to ACD), wildfires
(nine of the ten years with the largest acreage burned by wildfires have
occurred since 2000), and temperatures in the Great Lakes (which are
consistently rising).
Climatologist Bill Patzert at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab warned,
"A pattern of sea surface heights and temperatures has formed that
reminds me of the way the Pacific looked in the spring of 1997. That
turned out to be the precursor of a big El Niño." The tipping point for
declaring a significant El Niño will be an even longer-lasting, larger
collapse in Pacific trade winds, possibly signaling a shift in weather
all around our planet.
Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organization warned
that "time is running out," as CO2 hit the aforementioned northern
hemispheric 400ppm milestone, that is also a well-known "ominous
threshold" for ACD.
ACD-warmed streams in Montana are pushing a native trout species towards extinction, while another recent study
showed that plants and animals are becoming extinct at least 1,000
times faster than they did before humans arrived on the planet, and that
the world is already beginning to experience the sixth great extinction
event.
All of this has even caused the Pope to make the biblical case for mitigating the effects of ACD, when he recently declared to a massive crowd in Rome that destroying the earth is a sin.
Nevertheless, all signs say we've already gone off the cliff regarding runaway ACD.
A new report from the conservative International Energy Agency
(IEA) shows that ongoing and increasing fossil-fuel reliance has placed
the world on track for a 3.6-degree Celsius degree rise in temperature.
This IEA report, along with several others, continues to show that the
world is most certainly looking at a global increase in temperature of
between 3 and 6 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline by
2100. An increasing number of scientists agree that warming of 4 to 6
degrees Celsius causes a dead planet.
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