Hot Air

Global 'Warning'

The Arctic is now the fastest warming place on the planet. As it heats it is melting the sea ice. The melting of Arctic sea ice decreases the amount of reflective surface. Dark water absorbs more heat which:

melts more surface ice
• warms the ocean depths, potentially releasing methane hydrates
• slows the jet stream down
• heats the air over the Arctic which raises the tropopause which displaces the polar vortex

Each one of these actions creates a positive feedback system.

We were warned in 1988…

Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate
New York Times June 1988

Congress was warned about the need to reduce carbon emissions in 1988. James Hansen, then director of NASA’s Institute for Space Studies, told Congress that they must consider ways to slow Climate Change...

Hansen was an early herald of potential Climate Change disaster and has continued to issue alarms about ice sheet collapse, sea level rise, the slowing of ocean-current circulation and super storms.

In 2007, Tim Flannery issued another warning about the Arctic…

Oh, this is, for me, the most disturbing thing. You know, the ice cap at the North Pole has been there for three million years. You know, walrus, polar bears, many unique species have evolved in that wonderful environment. And, of course, (the ice cap at the North Pole) it’s an absolutely essential regulator of earth’s climate. It reflects a vast amount of heat, of energy, back into space, that doesn’t then heat our planet.

 What we've seen, starting in the 1970s, but particularly since 2005, is a rapid melting of that ice cap. And it’s possible now that as early as 2013 there will be no polar ice cap in summer, and that will change the world, if -- that is, if that happens. We cannot -- I just hope that that will not happen, that we’ve got a long good timeframe to act. But all indications are it’s melting with unprecedented rapidity.

 

James Hansen stated his concerns again in 2012…

Climate Citizen December 2012

The thesis that Hansen has put forward for several years is that Ice Sheet collapse is a non-linear process: that with the inclusion of amplifying climate feedbacks it is likely to follow an exponential rate of acceleration - a doubling rate. It might be a 10 year doubling time, or less. This will lead to extensive sea level rise, perhaps on the order of 5 meters in this century.

In 2016, Hansen and 16 other scientists published a paper with the shocking conclusion that Climate Change was happening faster than expected...

Scientists Warn of Perilous Climate Shift Within Decades, Not Centuries

NY Times March 2016

The basic claim of the paper is that by burning fossil fuels at a prodigious pace and pouring heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, humanity is about to provoke an abrupt climate shift.

Specifically, the authors believe that fresh water pouring into the oceans from melting land ice will set off a feedback loop that will cause parts of the great ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica to disintegrate rapidly.

The 2016 paper said, “that the concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have been accelerating in recent years.” To me, methane is the most worrisome...

Is Climate Change causing an exponential rate of Ice sheet Mass Loss...
Climate Citizen
December 2012

Methane is a very strong greenhouse gas, 21 to 25 times as strong as carbon dioxide over a 100 year period. But for a shorter period under 20 years it (methane) can be 100 times the strength of CO2. This is a really powerful feedback mechanism in the short-term.

Arctic sea ice is melting now in areas where it has been the thickest for thousands of years, up to 5 meters thick. As the sea ice melts, there is a loss of reflective surface. The sea heats up, absorbing up to 94% of the sun’s energy versus 10% when it is covered by ice...

The once-thickest Arctic sea ice has gone
Arctic News August 2018

A further huge danger is that, as warming of the Arctic Ocean continues, heat will reach methane hydrates on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, causing them to get destabilized and release methane.

Blog c99 week 4 Methane image.jpg

Meanwhile, for the first time in human history, mean global methane levels as high as 1900 ppb have been recorded.

Fast forward to 2018...

Degrading Plastic Emits Methane and Could be Responsible for Climate Change
The Green Optimistic July 2018

The study found that some of the most used plastics under sunlight release methane and ethylene in the atmosphere. The amounts of gases released are small. However, the astonishing amount of plastic waste could still contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change over time.
...
the research team tested polycarbonate, acrylic, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polystyrene, high-density polyethylene and low-density polyethylene (LDPE). These materials are used commonly in food packaging, textile, and other plastic goods. Polyethylene, the most popular material out of plastics, was releasing the biggest amounts of greenhouse gases.

Additionally, they found out that the longer the LDPE is exposed to sunlight, the greater the emissions from it.

Paul Beckwith July 2018
[video:https://youtu.be/C3irArpE_FU]

Methane leaks offset much of the climate change benefits of natural gas, study says
Washington Post June 2018

The U.S. oil and gas industry emits 13 million metric tons of methane from its operations each year — nearly 60 percent more than current estimates and enough to offset much of the climate benefits of burning natural gas instead of coal, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

The higher volumes of natural gas leaking from across the industry’s supply chain would be enough to fuel 10 million homes and would be worth an estimated $2 billion, the researchers said.

“Natural gas losses are a waste of a limited natural resource, increase global levels of surface ozone pollution, and significantly erode the potential climate benefits of natural gas use,” the study’s authors wrote.

They added that, over 20 years, the climate effects of emitting 13 million metric tons of methane annually “roughly equals” the carbon dioxide emissions from all U.S. coal-fired power plants operating in 2015.

HOT AIR NEWS ROUNDUP
UN Scientific Paper Suggests Capitalism Has to Die in Order for the Planet to Be Saved
Gritpost August 28, 2018

Capitalism and global sustainability are incongruous with one another, according to a recent paper for the UN’s 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report.

The team of researchers from various academic institutions throughout Finland who wrote the report gave a sobering assessment of the planet’s future if the current economic order continues unabated. Namely, that all rich Western countries have based their societies on an abundance of cheap energy, which the scientists say is no longer a reality.

“Economies have used up the capacity of planetary ecosystems to handle the waste generated by energy and material use,” the paper reads. “[D]ominant economic theories as well as policy-related economic modeling rely on the presupposition of continued energetic and material growth. The theories and models anticipate only incremental changes in the existing economic order. Hence, they are inadequate for explaining the current turmoil.”

Scientists argued that worsening climate change is having a drastic impact on ecosystems and biodiversity, and that symptoms of unchecked capitalism like rising inequality, unemployment, and debt are also contributing to the destabilization of society.

China and the Planetary Environment, Climate Change
Global Research August 28, 2018

China has the worst air quality of any country, containing the majority of the world’s most polluted cities. It is estimated that up to two million Chinese die each year as a result of consistent exposure to poisonous aerial fumes. Furthermore, China has significant water contamination problems with about 40% of the nation’s rivers suffering extensive pollution, due to agricultural and industrial waste.

China is the world’s biggest consumer of coal, last year burning over four times as much coal as second-place India, and more than five-fold that of the US. China is also clear in the distance as the world’s greatest coal producer. In addition, the Chinese are the biggest oil importers on earth and are the second largest consumers of oil (behind the US), while the country is the fourth greatest guzzler of gas. As we enter the end of the second decade of the 21st century, it is astonishing that China continues relying so heavily upon fossil fuels – tendencies which should have been seriously addressed and reduced many years before.

Trends so far in 2018 reveal China’s rising consumption of a variety of fossil fuels. Three months ago, the non-governmental organization Greenpeace outlined that,

“China’s carbon emissions have accelerated since the beginning of the year [2018]… Led by increased demand for coal, oil and gas, China’s carbon emissions for the first three months of 2018 were 4% higher than they were for the same period in 2017… Big spending on energy intensive industries persisted through 2017, meaning China has been backsliding on the climate progress it made earlier this decade, and the rest of the world must redouble efforts simply to ensure global carbon emissions don’t climb dramatically”.

Dramatic surge in China carbon emissions signals climate danger
Unearthed May 30, 2018

China’s carbon emissions growth has accelerated since the beginning of the year, leading to warnings that the country could be headed for its largest annual increase in climate pollution since 2011.

Led by increased demand for coal, oil and gas, China’s CO2 emissions for the first three months of 2018 were 4% higher than they were for the same period in 2017, according to an Unearthed analysis of new government figures.

Analysts have suggested the country’s carbon emissions could rise this year by 5% — the largest annual increase in seven years, back when the airpocalypse was at its peak.

Abrupt, Irreversible Climate Change
Guy McPherson August 22, 2018
[video:https://youtu.be/dD1jZxerJRk?t=385]

California Releases New Climate Science, Planning Tools to Prepare for Climate Change Impacts
Global Climate Action Summit August 27, 2018

Warning that two-­‐thirds of Southern California’s beaches could completely disappear and the average area burned by wildfires could nearly double by 2100, the State of California today released California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, which details new science on the devastating impacts of climate change and provides planning tools to support the state’s response.
...
In addition, a report set for release in early September will highlight how California can better integrate climate impacts in design processes for critical infrastructure. The report by a working group established by AB 2800 (Quirk) of 2016 reflects the expertise of multiple scientific and engineering disciplines to help design and construct infrastructure to withstand higher temperatures, more frequent and intense storms, drought, wildfires and sea-­‐level rise.

Climate change is melting the French Alps, say mountaineers
Guardian August 24, 2018

“Global climate change has serious and directly observable consequences in high mountains,” says Vincent Neirinck from Mountain Wilderness, a campaign group that works to preserve mountain environments around the world.

One of the consequences of climate change is the ongoing retreat of glaciers.

“In the Alps, the glacier surfaces have shrunk by half between 1900 and 2012 with a strong acceleration of the melting processes since the 1980s,” says Jacques Mourey, a climber and scientist who is researching the impact of climate change on the mountains above Chamonix.
...
“The Mer de Glace is now melting at the rate of around 40 metres a year and has lost 80m in depth over the last 20 years alone,” says glaciologist Luc Moreau.

A Whole Lot of the Planet Is on Fire Right Now
Live Science August 23, 2018

North and South America, as well as Australia, have had widespread — and sometimes record-setting —wildfires this year, NASA officials said, as a result of warming temperatures and droughts linked to climate change, as well as forest mismanagement in some areas.

'Apocalyptic threat': dire climate report raises fears for California's future
The Guardian July 27, 2018

City heatwaves could lead to two to three times as many deaths by 2050, the report says. By 2100, without a reduction in emissions, the state could see a 77% increase in the average area burned by wildfires. The report also warns of erosion of up to 67% of its famous coastline, up to an 8.8F (4.9C) rise in average maximum temperatures, and billions of dollars in damages.

The North Fork Mono tribe chairman, Hon Ron Goode, who also contributed to the assessment, said it was the first time the state’s native population had been included in the report, despite the fact that native Californians were among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

But before colonization, Goode said, the native population would not have been so vulnerable, because it was more mobile and could nimbly adapt to changes in the climate. “They knew how to move around and where to go and let something rest,” he said. “Now, it’s different. We’re locked into our reservations; rancherias; allotment lands. We can’t just run away – those are our lands and that’s it.”

French nuclear production reduced by 3.1 GW due to heatwave
Reuters August 3, 2018

(French utility) EDF, which operates the 58 nuclear reactors that cover around 75 percent of France’s electricity needs, extended outages at the 900 megawatt (MW) Bugey 2 and St. Alban 1 nuclear reactors until Aug. 11.

Production was reduced by 665 MW at the 900 MW Bugey 3, and by 300 MW at its 900 MW Fessenheim 2 reactor.

Drought reveals ancient ‘hunger stones’ in European river
AP August 23, 2018

The low water levels in the river that begins in the Czech Republic then crosses Germany into the North Sea has exposed stones on the river bed whose appearances in history used to warn people that hard times were coming.

The Point of No Return: Climate Change Nightmares Are Already Here: The worst predicted impacts of climate change are starting to happen — and much faster than expected
Rolling Stone August 5, 2018

Historians may look to 2015 as the year when shit really started hitting the fan. Some snapshots: In just the past few months, record-setting heat waves in Pakistan and India each killed more than 1,000 people. In Washington state’s Olympic National Park, the rainforest caught fire for the first time in living memory. London reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit during the hottest July day ever recorded in the U.K.; The Guardian briefly had to pause its live blog of the heat wave because its computer servers overheated. In California, suffering from its worst drought in a millennium, a 50-acre brush fire swelled seventyfold in a matter of hours, jumping across the I-15 freeway during rush-hour traffic. Then, a few days later, the region was pounded by intense, virtually unheard-of summer rains. Puerto Rico is under its strictest water rationing in history as a monster El Niño forms in the tropical Pacific Ocean, shifting weather patterns worldwide.

On July 20th, James Hansen, the former NASA climatologist who brought climate change to the public’s attention in the summer of 1988, issued a bombshell: He and a team of climate scientists had identified a newly important feedback mechanism off the coast of Antarctica that suggests mean sea levels could rise 10 times faster than previously predicted

Global warming is changing the jet stream, increasing extreme weather events
About Climate Change August 27, 2018

..the scientists said the jet stream — the high atmospheric winds that influence our weather — is making bigger north-south swings due to the impact of global warming, setting the stage for weather systems to linger and become more extreme.
[video:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/62/Aerial_Su...
...noted Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. “It’s because these perturbations in the jet stream have a hemispheric scale. And we see extreme weather all around the Northern Hemisphere like we are seeing this July.”

These big swings in the jet stream lead to persistent extreme weather events, Mann added, like prolonged periods of extreme heat, unprecedented wildfires, drought, and floods.

Sweden's reindeer at risk of starvation after summer drought
Guardian August 22, 2018

Sweden’s indigenous Sami reindeer herders are demanding state aid to help them cope with the impact of this summer’s unprecedented drought and wildfires, saying their future is at risk as global warming changes the environment in the far north.

The owners are asking for emergency funding to help pay for supplementary fodder as a replacement for winter grazing lands that could take up to 30 years to recover from the summer’s drought and fires.

“We are living with the effects of climate change,” Niila Inga, chair of the Swedish Sami Association, told the SVT news agency. “The alarm bells are ringing. We face droughts, heatwaves, fires. This is about the survival of the reindeer, and of Sami culture, which depends on them.”

The owners are warning that without help some of their herds may not survive the year.

Paul Beckwith: "I declare a global climate change emergency to claw back up the rock face to attempt to regain system stability, or face an untenable calamity of biblical proportions."

Kevin Hester: "There is no past analogue for the rapidity of what we are baring witness to. There has been a flood of articles ... 2C is no longer attainable and that we are heading for dangerous climate change"

Guy McPherson: "The recent and near-future rises in temperature are occurring and will occur at least an order of magnitude faster than the worst of all prior Mass Extinctions. Habitat for human animals is disappearing throughout the world, and abrupt climate change has barely begun."

me… We need to turn on a dime at mach nine!

Enjoy!
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We've been having much warmer and humid air this summer. July was hotter than "normal" with a long dry spell nearing drought. Then the humidity jumped in August and we have had many tropical rain events. Dumping rain at 2 inches per hour or greater used to be an unusual event. Now it is the new "norm" here. The county government here in the Albany has been quietly replacing culverts that run under the roadways with bigger ones ever since hurricanes Irene and Lee blew through here and did lots of damage seven years ago. I had to fork out $2K for a bigger one under my driveway to stop the water from overtopping and washing it out. My biggest contribution to the environment has been not reproducing. Until people wake up and understand there are way too many of us living on this planet we are destined for unpleasant cataclysmic change. The food and water wars will one day be upon us. I saw the Jean-Luc Ponty band playing on their Atlantic Years tour Tuesday at a small theater near me. The 2 hour show was great and I recommend catching this one if they play near your location. See video below.

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Mark from Queens's picture

@jbob
seemingly endless heatwave of 2018, reminding us for the moment of the extraordinary pressure being put on the energy gird here.

As I was saying here last night I absolutely loathe NYC summers. I'm reduced, especially now with two babies during this excessive heat, to being forcibly stuck in this little apartment going completely stir crazy, three AC's going on in each room we occupy, much to my chagrin as a conscientious person. There's no other way. The other two rooms, the kitchen and bathroom, are brutal saunas you can barely step into them. When there's a heatwave forecast I immediately go into bunker mentality and cook and freeze as much as possible while I can, and also make big batches of hummus and cook pasta to put in the fridge to microwave, all before the thing hits or in the very early morning hours during it.

It's an ugly scenario of racing the stroller to the shaded areas of the street, hustling kids into a furnace-blasted car and doing every possible to stay out of direct sunlight. Doesn't matter that much with this goddamn humidity though. I can't remember a summer like this.

But to think of the European immigrants coming here at the turn of last century and cramming into those tiny, airless tenement apartments, with large families no less, is absolutely mind-blowing. Seriously brutal conditions. How did they do it? Can't think of a more brutal way to die than to bake and suffocate.

The masses don't want to hear this climate change news and the dire unanimous warnings from scientists. Too busy with their myopic lives, conditioned with selfishness, lauding "convenience" over everything. It's all another underlying vile aspect of unbridled capitalism, especially how it relates to the twin Big Lies of The American Dream and American Exceptionalism. We use up 25% of the earth's energy resources, yet we comprise only 1% of its population. It's our right to live as we please, the ultimate embodiment of Libertarian Individualism. Arrogance and entitlement don't even come close to describing life in this country.

Where in the Hudson Valley are you, jbob? Lots of musician folk and artists up that way. I love it up there and often think of getting away to up there. But feel like it's become too priced out.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

@Mark from Queens to listen to WINS at 10pm and they report a temp of 92 in Manhattan, and then give a temp out in the burbs of the low 70's. Oh to be anywhere else.

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Mark from Queens's picture

@Snode
makes it so much hotter. There's just so little relief.

Find yourself not going out or if you do ducking into any air-conditioned place just to get a little relief. The libraries are packed with people, from new parents with strollers to old folks crowded around tables reading newspapers. Of course the subways trains can swing wildly from ice cold to treacherously uncooled. Which makes the experience even more hellish. The heat down in the underground subway station is something to behold. Unnaturally stifling.

It is fun to go up to places like Washington Heights and neighborhoods of Brooklyn where folks are out in the streets with the fire hydrants open and blasting cold water. The sense of camaraderie of experiencing something awful together and making the most of it. Music blasting, open beer drinking, card games on makeshift tables and people drooped over stoops. I like that sense of oneness. I find myself filling the fridge with cheap 24oz cans of beer to get through it myself.

Looks like another week too of this fucking insane heatwave here. Never-ending nightmare. More cheap beer and music. God, I can't wait for the Fall. Much more than usual.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

smiley7's picture

@Mark from Queens
change on a corner in August heat and an inescapable blast of diesel smoke from a turning bus choked life away.

All the best.

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@Mark from Queens heating up during the day, retaining the heat overnight....and people can't understand the concept of global warming. Hang in there.

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@Mark from Queens We are just south of Albany in a town called New Scotland NY. We are about 15 minutes from downtown by auto travel. It's still rural in character here with many horse properties (including ours). We are near to a water reservoir for one of the local towns. We have well water and septic system sewer out here. I spent lots of time in Manhattan during the summer when I was working for rock bands based there. The winter can also be kind of brutal there when the cold wind gets blowing through those man made canyons.

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until we realize we essentially live in pens....capitalist feed lots, where we pay them for our own keep, on their terms. I think we all feel it on some level, the conflict between the need for self determination and lack of opportunity to attain it. I would love to think there is some way to use the PTB strengths against them, but I don't see how. I think their solution will be to reduce our numbers and lifespans, and they're succeeding.

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earthling1's picture

@Snode
had something to say about this.
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/08/17/how-to-beat-a-manipulator/
She makes a lot of sense.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1 more and more. I was thinking more along the lines of the Earth, the biosphere, is a closed system and what's killing it is also a closed system, capitalism, and for better or worse, today we depend on both for our existence. We don't have anything else. We're part of capitalism as the components of consumer/labor. Capitalism has become lethally efficient. We can conserve and do our small parts but I don't know if there is a way to make a radical, large change that's needed. Capitalism is a global plague. If it becomes obvious that the environment is degrading at an alarming rate, then it'll be us that will have to go. Capitalism will do fine with less people as long as the wealth remains concentrated.

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jbob reminded me of the Cayahuga River and this fell out the lint trap:
The Crying Indian - full commercial - Keep America Beautiful

Why Rivers No Longer Burn

By the late 1960s, Lake Erie had become so polluted that Time magazine described it as dead. Bacteria levels in the Hudson River were 170 times above the safe limit.

Then dirty US industries moved elsewhere, like to China. USA gave them more lung cancer than anything, and billionaires, oy! No wonder they weaponized bird flu. touche

Nissan’s unveils plans to help battle China’s smog

Nissan has now said that its Sylphy Zero Emission, which is based on Nissan's leaf, is being produced by Nissan Motor Co. and a Chinese partner, Dongfeng Motor group.

The company revealed that the Sylphy costs $25,850 (166,000 yuan) after government subsidies and can go 338 kilometers (210 miles) on a charge.

Making the announcement, Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa said, "We're confident that the Sylphy Zero Emission rolling off the production line today will become a main player in the EV market. We're going to roll out a range of EVs that will appeal to customers within all market segments."

Click here for the pie!

"People start pollution, people can stop it"
Too many starters, not enough stoppers? heh "If you can't be a plumber, be a plumber's helper."

peace

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@eyo

Remember I told you about him? Well, by then he'd been passing as Native so long that he'd convinced himself, too, that he was one. So it was probably not all an act.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven I already knew about him, but thanks. I like the tube comment over there, Sonoma County is currently covered in "out of sight" Wine Country pollution, and of course outlaw cannabis growers are teh EVIL. lol good luck

Earth Day, the annual day of environmental action and awareness, was first held on April 22, 1970. This past April 22nd, we finally ventured into the woods behind our house and pulled 4 putrid truck tires/mosquito farms out of the mud, along with about 200 pounds of scrap metal, engine parts, and farm equipment. The place used to be a dairy farm, and I guess "out of sight" was "out of mind". If it were still the 70's, cleaning up the woods would have been "outta sight" in a whole different way.

Here's a clip of The Crying Indian from the early 70's. OK, so Chief Iron Eyes Cody wasn't a real Native American after all. That didn't stop the ad campaign from having a tremendous effect back then. And it's no less relevant today.

"Today" was 2007, keep flushing.

peace

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magiamma's picture

@eyo
China is still at it and gaining on itself. 2017 Data from the article above...

China is the world’s biggest consumer of coal, last year burning over four times as much coal as second-place India, and more than five-fold that of the US. China is also clear in the distance as the world’s greatest coal producer. In addition, the Chinese are the biggest oil importers on earth and are the second largest consumers of oil (behind the US)

People can start pollution, people can stop it. Meh. Smile

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Lookout's picture

I was taking an Ag engineering class - tractors, irrigation, pond construction and so on.

I had become aware of global warming at that point and suggested farms must move toward solar technologies and away from fossil inputs. The prof arrogantly stated the system is simply too large for humans to effect. Oh the ignorance fed by greed.

We've know it for a longtime too. I don't think I've dropped this link in your OT before, but apologies if I have - 1.2 min
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6YyvdYPrhY]

The entire hour long 1958 Capra film is here -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1ph_7C1Jq4

Thanks for keeping this topic front and center - Too bad the MSM is bought and sold or they would too. Then there might be hope we would act responsibly. Instead we get RUSSIA.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

magiamma's picture

@Lookout
Thanks for the video. Dramatic. 1958! Wow. Dwight David Eisenhower was president and very few people were aware of Global Warming then. I'll watch the whole thing later. RUSSIA indeed. Word. Thank you for keeping on with this as well...

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

magiamma's picture

for dropping by and bringing all the news

here's more alarming news... read the whole article if you have time

The Melting Arctic Is a Real-Time Horror Story — Why Doesn’t Anyone Care?
The Rolling Stone August 29, 2018

Last week, scientists learned that 40-foot piles of compacted sea ice — some of the oldest and most durable clusters in the Arctic — are breaking away from the coast of Greenland and drifting out to sea. One meteorologist called it “scary,” but it was hardly unexpected. As the earth’s climate heats up, the idea of a “blue Arctic” — that is, the disappearance of sea ice for at least part of the year, leaving only open ocean — has long been predicted by climate scientists. Some researchers believe that you might be able to kayak to the North Pole as early as 2030; others think the sea ice might last until 2040 or longer.

The thawing of the Arctic is one of the biggest stories of our time, even if it is playing out at a pace and in a way that virtually guarantees most people will pay little or no attention to it. What’s going on is not a future concern, or simply a tragedy for polar bears; the warming Arctic is already having a tremendous impact on our world and may help explain much of the extreme weather this summer, especially in the U.S. and in western Europe. To oversimplify this only slightly, you could argue that this summer’s historic wildfires in California were predicted by heat in the Arctic.

edit highlight

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

The Aspie Corner's picture

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

magiamma's picture

@The Aspie Corner
and informative. Thank you and good morning. Smile It will be an interesting gubernatorial race.

I wonder how much global warming is contributing to the algae bloom. What happens when the next hurricane comes? No mention of climate change.

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

@magiamma thanks, I think phosphorous is what turns the Russian River toxic every year now, runoff from wineries mostly. So, let's blame Monsanto, Bayer why not. (shakes fist at sky) The county puts up signs to keep dogs away from the water when it gets toxic. What about the wildlife? never mind
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Lake Erie...
Glyphosate Sprayed on GMO Crops Linked to Lake Erie’s Toxic Algae Bloom

Glyphosate, the controversial main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup and other herbicides, is being connected to Lake Erie's troubling algae blooms, which has fouled drinking water and suffocated and killed marine life in recent years.

Phosphorus—attributed to farm runoff carried by the Maumee River—has long been identified as a leading culprit feeding the excessive blooms in the western Lake Erie basin. Now, according to a new study from chemistry professor Christopher Spiese, a significant correlation has been established between the increased use of glyphosate to the percentage of dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) in the runoff.

As No-Till Farmer observed from the study, DRP loads in Lake Erie increased in the mid-1990s at the same time that farmers began the widespread cultivation of crops genetically engineered to withstand multiple applications of Roundup.

If glyphosate got banned everywhere, that would be good? Not sure what the unintended consequences would be at this point, practically every municipality in rural California is/was using it for road and path weed control, our local paper printed a statement from the city manager in support of Ranger Pro not long ago, because it saves the city money "to pay for rising pension costs". That's the system.

peace

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@eyo

if you apply it regularly. But it can't be patented and no fortunes can be made from it.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

LeChienHarry's picture

@eyo @eyo of other things. No herbicides/biocides.

Also a good occupation for at least a few people.

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You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce

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enhydra lutris's picture

presentation of all this in one spot here and thanks for keeping it on our minds. Have a good day despite it all.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

@enhydra lutris
Thank you. Exactly. One of my goals is to have all this information collected in one place. Want to shock and agitate bc, well, turning on a dime... it takes a lot of mach to overcome inertia...

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mimi's picture

@magiamma @magiamma @magiamma
don't you think that the world population has a kind of death wish for themselves? They do everything so that it could happen. What do you call a behavior like that?

Scientists, who understands them anyhow ... /s
I like science, if they just wouldn't post so many fake news. /s

Arghh... it hurts to comment. It was meant as a joke, but I understand if nobody can laugh. Sorry.

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magiamma's picture

@mimi
either laugh or cry... Populations will eat themselves to death if they are not controlled by diseases. Tim Flannery talks about that iirc.

Mark from Queens upthread...

(The US) We use up 25% of the earth's energy resources, yet we comprise only 1% of its population. It's our right to live as we please, the ultimate embodiment of Libertarian Individualism. Arrogance and entitlement don't even come close to describing life in this country.

I think we humans have already begun to deplete the earth's resources but I don't know the stats.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@magiamma

from the popular thought experiment of yeast in a jar or test tube with a finite amount of nutriment, doubling its numbers with each generation. Pretty soon the yeast has eaten through the available supply - and dies.

The scary part is that it takes only *one* generation to go from half-eaten to all-gone.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Middleton, WI, a suburb of Madison. (some areas to the west reported as much as 14 or 15 inches. the official 24-hour record for anywhere in Wisconsin is about 11 3/4.)

Two days ago, 4+ inches of rain, plus tornadoes etc, in an east-west band across the entire state of Wisconsin -- happily, the band didn't quite extent down the Madison area. There was rain, but not buckets.

Current extended forecast indicates sunny skies today, and then rain every day for nine days (which is as far as the forecast extends).

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

mhagle's picture

Glad that Rolling Stone keeps writing about it.

Thanks for the report!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Truer words are seldom spoken. Sharpen your pitch forks folks. Time to disconnect greed from the welfare of earth, if survival means anything. I like trees.

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magiamma's picture

@QMS @QMS

Sharpen your pitch forks folks. Time to disconnect greed from the welfare of earth, if survival means anything. I like trees.

Nice juxtaposition of images and absolutely imperative to disconnect greed from the welfare of the earth.

The comment at the beginning of the McPherson video...

If you think the economy is more important than the environment, try holding your breath while counting your money.

edit

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@magiamma This huge maple tree and I had a blending moment, with my bare feet on the ground, feeling the energy of the roots beneath, admiring the thickness of the trunk, watching him wave the upper branches in the passing gusts, I felt like there is a communication -- out there -- once the ego shield is removed. I sent love to a friend a thousand miles away by maples means, called today, and wonder of wonders -- he got it! We are connected. Not thru the inter tubes, as much, as the vast environment. Had to keep saying -- it's out there.. not in here. Wondrous.

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mhagle's picture

@QMS

Wonderful maple tree story! Thanks for sharing it.

Seems to be a theme every where I look.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

@mhagle cain't make this stuff up

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mhagle's picture

@QMS

Smile

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

@magiamma wish more would. It is damn important. Thanks magi

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smiley7's picture

https://maps.journeynorth.org/map/?year=2018&map=monarch-adult-fall

Another jammed-packed episode of environmental news; grateful for your work, magiamma.

Have a good day, everyone.

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mhagle's picture

@smiley7

Last year I saw migrating monarchs for the first time since I have lived in Texas. Seldom ever see monarchs at all and certainly never hundreds in a group.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

magiamma's picture

@smiley7
Thanks for the good news. So welcome. The map is great. We have two monarch preserves here. They come north and lay eggs here. The next generation then flies over the Santa Cruz mountains to the valley. The nursery sells butterfly bushes. I have two butterfly bushes in my yard and have had 'cat' hatches.

Have a good one...

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dystopian's picture

Yeah, its a real climate and environmental disaster out there. The media and PTB have done a great job of selling most on there not being a problem, and to question science, and oh yeah, that Russia did it. The methane leakage problem in fracking is an unspoken nightmare in the making, as is the wastewater disposal. Like coal ash. Anyone that has really been studying nature is freaked out about what they are seeing, and not seeing. The lack of response night-lighting for insects is scary to me. There are many bird species right here in America that have lost 50% or more of their populations in my life, and losses are accelerating. New birders can't believe the numbers of birds we used to see just 40 years ago. It is very hard to model what you do not know. It is much worse than we think. The greed and power mongers will continue until denial is no longer effective. See "Democratic" party.

Hey MfQ, I did two years/summers working in "THE" city... but from leafy Jersey, brutal, I feel for ya man! That heat island effect can be bad.

Folks, Journey North is great, I have some records and sightings/photos in there from so.cent. Texas. Watch the maps and you can know when and where to go look for Monarch, and other things if you check their site out a bit. For Monarchs in fall look along water or river courses, particularly Pecan bottoms with Frostweed under-stories. One year (04) here in the NW part of the 99 x 29 latilong (70 mi. W. of SAT) we had 100,000 go over. Last year 500.

gotta run... see y'all

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

magiamma's picture

@dystopian
It is such a delicate web of interconnections and dependencies. No part can be disturbed without disturbing the whole. It is unsettling to watch it disintegrate right before our very eyes.

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earthling1's picture

Just had a talk with earthling2 this morn about your posts.
She still wants to curl up and hide from it as helplessness overcomes her. I'm still encouraging her to speak out and get the frustration off her chest.
Johnstones analogy (in my comment above) of our being in an abusive relationship is spot on.
Thanks for putting this all together.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

magiamma's picture

@earthling1
Thanks. Helplessness is a big one. Tell E2 to share the info. And speak out! The more people in misery er, in the know, the better. A guy from France saw my website and sent the info to some other folks in France who are working on environmental issues. They had no idea that all this was happening. They thanked him. Crazy that they didn't know but it made me feel better.

I like to think of us as a community of trees communicating and sharing and supporting each other at our roots. (Can't remember the name of the book I just read about how trees communicate right now, but they do.)

Johnstone's article is right on.

Because of the reach of mass media, every single one of us is in an abusive relationship with plutocratic manipulators. ... Good manipulators try to shift the ground underneath us to funnel the real wealth into their coffers, while placating us with good feelings about how blessed our hard work is and all that, and how selfish it would be to demand healthcare when there’s people in Syria who need to be bombed for their freedom. ... Meanwhile, keep pointing out the weird things they do to try and avoid giving you what they said they would. Shout it from the rooftops when they do something sly. They’ve used your politeness and goodwill to hide their little indiscretions. Don’t let them anymore. If they’re being creepy, say it. Don’t be manipulated into tacit consent by your politeness.

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LeChienHarry's picture

@magiamma @magiamma @magiamma Here is a Guardian review:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/16/richard-powers-interview-o...

Couldn't get the link insert to work. Sorry for the click.

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You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce

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@LeChienHarry thanks for the link, missed it before. I had same experience working around Giant Sequoias, and the Big Trees in Santa Cruz when I was still a teenager. I mean, I cut down a lot of trees in the CCC, and cleared a lot of brush. We had to hike in to the forest with hand tools and chop up the fallen debris for controlled burns, I don't know why they didn't continue everywhere (but 100 billionaires and a Rainy Day Fund, that's the system. Jerry Brown). We used to rake the duff at least eight feet around the ancient trees, the fires never raged they burned slow and kinda smoky. QMS is not alone with the tree comms, join the party line. right on

Powers hadn’t particularly considered trees until his first encounter with a giant redwood a few years ago, while he was in California teaching on Stanford’s creative writing fellowship course. “When they’re as wide as a house and as tall as a football pitch you don’t have to be particularly sensitive to be wowed by it,” he says. “But once I started looking, I realised it’s not about the size and scale … it’s that I’ve been blind to these amazing creatures all the time.”

The result was, in his own words, a “religious conversion”: not in the theistic sense, but in the sense of “being bound back into a system of meaning that doesn’t begin and end with humans”. He had addressed environmental issues before in The Echo Maker, but this time was different. “‘Environmentalism’ is still under the umbrella of a kind of humanism: we say we should manage our resources better. What I was taking seriously for the first time in this book was: they’re not our resources; and we won’t be well until we realise that.”

With scientific precision, Powers’s new novel portrays the interconnected lives trees lead. Their behaviour – the ways they help and provide for each other, and other living things too numerous to count – is a direct rebuke to the way we live today. It would be easy, watching him identify the plants, fungi and mosses around him, to think he had been a botanist all his life, as opposed to a man who spent a frustrating 12 months learning to tell oak from ash.

I'm just gonna ignore that "we won't be well" part, it is too true for me. Once I tried to going to Tamalpais High School, but half the semester I hitchhiked up the mountain and learned geometry on the Steep Ravine trail instead. lol It was the trees calling, that's my excuse. heh

thank you

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mimi's picture

in Madagaskar. Rosewood. Assholes.
The Fate of Madagascar's Endangered Rosewoods

Madagascar, rosewood traders are kingmakers, felling trees — and governments. Going undercover, reporters found how they make millions smuggling the rare bleeding timber to China.

I think the article is well worth a full read to the end. With all the political ramifications covered in the end. Oh, btw I met a woman (old friend of my sister from her time as a student 50 years ago) born in Madagaskar and she happened to talk about it to us today, before I even ran into this article.

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magiamma's picture

@mimi

300 year old trees... harassment and arrests of environmental activists continues... in 2013, between $250 and $300 million exported... no reliable figures since then... 80 percent of the island's forest-dwelling lemurs, the only population in the world, is gone...

Moreover, one owner of a 200-ton rosewood stockpile (about 10 containers) told reporters that several timber barons own or control their own shipping companies, making it easy to keep the trade secret.

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mhagle's picture

@mimi

with great grief.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

mimi's picture

@mhagle

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magiamma's picture

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mimi's picture

@QMS
(ducking - this is snark...) ... thrills just come in on times you never foresee and when you expect them they just are missing in action ...

Thanks for the post. Good ol' B.B.King. I saw him once live at the New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt, MD. Music will never be gone. As I think the following video shows.

[video:https://youtu.be/_OFaXbVJX4Q]

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

climate change OT, Magiamma.

Pleasantry

Hope you and yours have a nice and safe long holiday weekend!

[Edited: Tweet didn't embed. Fingers crossed!]

Blue Onyx

“At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”
~~Maya Angelou

"Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong."
~~W. R. Purche

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.