Hot Air

Something to keep in mind…


If we are to have real hope
...
we must first accept reality.
...
There is no silver bullet.
...
People are working on effective and innovative solutions.
...
The world is finally beginning to act.

.
Tim Flannery
Atmosphere of Hope
.

.
EVERY TOOL WE HAVE MUST BE USED TO COMBAT CLIMATE BREAKDOWN

eat less red meat and make a difference
~

Changing your diet could help save the planet - simply by eating lower on the food chain. A new report published last week by the Norway-based think tank EAT and the highly respected, British medical journal the Lancet goes into great depth. 37 researchers from 16 countries contributed to the study.

It recommends transitioning agriculture practices to be carbon sinks rather than carbon sources...

The world faces many challenges over the coming decades, but one of the most significant will be how to feed its expanding global population. By 2050, there will be about 10 billion of us, and how to feed us all, healthily and from sustainable food sources, is something that is ... being looked at.

The study says that...

Food production is the largest cause of global environmental change. Agriculture occupies about 40% of global land, food production is responsible for up to 30% of global greenhouse-gas emissions and 70% of freshwater use.

The EAT-Lancet report specifically addresses how food production affects greenhouse gases...

Systems of food production release greenhouse gases (eg, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) into the atmosphere directly and drive land use change that releases additional carbon dioxide when forests are cleared, wetlands drained, and soils are tilled.

Food production is a prime source of methane, and nitrous oxide, which have 56 times and 280 times the global warming potential (over 20 years) of carbon dioxide, respectively.

Methane is produced during digestion in ruminant livestock, such as cows and sheep, or during anaerobic decomposition of organic material in flooded rice paddies. Nitrous oxide mainly arises from soil microbes in croplands and pastures and is affected by soil fertility management, such as fertiliser application.

Carbon dioxide is released by agricultural land from tillage of soils and during burning to clear land of plants, soil, organic matter, and agricultural residues, and from burning fossil fuels by farm machinery, for production of fertilisers, and in transport of agricultural products.

Carbon dioxide is also released when converting natural ecosystems, especially forests, to agriculture.

.
Plate of food.jpg
.

Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems recommends a planetary diet limiting red meat and refined foods and suggests a major dietary shift towards greens, nuts and legumes.

Their diet in a nutshell...

• Nuts - 50g a day
• Beans, chickpeas, lentils and other legumes - 75g a day
• Fish - 28g a day
• Eggs - 13g a day (so one and a bit a week)
• Meat - 14g a day of red meat and 29g a day of chicken
• Carbs - whole grains like bread and rice 232g a day and 50g a day of starchy vegetables
• Dairy - 250g - the equivalent of one glass of milk
• Vegetables -(300g) and fruit (200g)
The diet has room for 31g of sugar and about 50g worh of oils like olive oil.

Shifting to sustainable agriculture will provide healthier diets and feed more people...

Providing a growing global population with healthy diets from sustainable food systems is an immediate challenge.

Strong evidence indicates that food production is among the largest drivers of global environmental change by contributing to climate change, biodiversity loss, freshwater use, interference with the global nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, and land-system change (and chemical pollution, which is not assessed in this Commission).

Food production depends on continued functioning of biophysical systems and processes to regulate and maintain a stable Earth system.

Application of this framework to future projections of world development indicates that food systems can provide healthy diets (ie, reference diet) for an estimated global population of about 10 billion people by 2050 and remain within a safe operating space. However, even small increases in consumption of red meat or dairy foods would make this goal difficult or impossible to achieve.

They seek a "Great Food Transformation" and they have five strategies to accomplish this...

(1) Seek international and national commitment to shift towards healthy diets. …
(2) Re-orient agricultural priorities from producing high quantities of food to producing healthy food. …
(3) Sustainably intensify food production to increase high-quality output. …
(4) Strong and coordinated governance of land and oceans. …
(5) At least halve food losses and waste, in line with global sustainable development goals.

Finally, the key top-level points in their executive summary are: [heavily edited]

1 Unhealthy and unsustainably produced food poses the following risks
• many people have insufficient food and consume an unhealthy diet
• global food production is the largest pressure caused by humans on Earth

2 Current dietary trends, combined with projected population growth to about 10 billion by 2050, will exacerbate risks to people and planet

3 Adopting healthy diets from sustainable food systems is necessary to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement

4 Healthy diets have
• an appropriate caloric intake
• consist of a diversity of
- plant-based foods,
- low amounts of animal source foods
- unsaturated rather than saturated fats
- small amounts of refined grains, processed foods, and added sugars.

5 Transformation will require dietary shifts
• including a greater than 50% reduction of unhealthy foods e.g.red meat and sugar,
• a greater than 100% increase in consumption of nuts, fruits, vegetables, and legumes.

6 Dietary changes could avert about 10·8–11·6 million deaths per year

7 Sustainable food production should
• use no additional land
• safeguard existing biodiversity
• reduce consumptive water use and manage water responsibly
• reduce nitrogen and phosphorus pollution
• produce zero carbon dioxide emissions
• cause no further increase in methane and nitrous oxide emissions.

8 Transformation to sustainable food production by 2050 will require implementation of agricultural mitigation options to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions

9 Achieving global targets for freshwater, climate, land, oceans, and biodiversity will be achieved through strong commitment to global partnerships and actions

10 Achieving healthy diets will require shifts towards
• healthy dietary patterns,
• large reductions in food losses and waste
• major improvements in food production practices.

Many articles about the EAT-Lancet report are published in the mainstream news...

NYT, BBC, Psychology Today, Forbes

There are numerous other studies that address different aspects of meat consumption and Climate Breakdown. The BBC addressed this in 2015…

Can eating less meat help reduce climate change?
BBC November 24, 2015

the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle [have been identified] as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. And they are blamed for a host of other environmental crimes, from acid rain to the introduction of alien species, from producing deserts to creating dead zones in the oceans, from poisoning rivers and drinking water to destroying coral reefs.

… Livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.
Burning fuel to produce fertiliser to grow feed, to produce meat and to transport it - and clearing vegetation for grazing - produces 9 per cent of all emissions of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. And their wind and manure emit more than one third of emissions of another, methane, which warms the world 20 times faster than carbon dioxide.
Livestock also produces more than 100 other polluting gases, including more than two-thirds of the world's emissions of ammonia, one of the main causes of acid rain. [from 12-10-06 Independent]

The livestock sector produces about 15% of global greenhouse gases, roughly equivalent to all the exhaust emissions of every car, train, ship and aircraft on the planet.

Researchers ranked shifting to a “plant-rich diet” as one of the most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change...

free from HARM January 19, 2019

More than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries agree that “promoting dietary shifts towards mostly plant-based foods” is among “examples of diverse and effective steps humanity can take to transition to sustainability.” Among their named causes of the “current trajectory of potentially catastrophic climate change due to rising GHGs” is “agricultural production— particularly from farming ruminants for meat consumption.”

Many other articles on livestock production from 2018 are archived here.

And there are a number other articles that have excellent information. This 2006 report is by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Bloomberg, The Guardian, Skeptical Science, The Independent all have articles about the impact of livestock production on Climate Breakdown.
.

The 2005 World Green House Emissions chart from the World Resources Institute
World Emissions Chart.jpg
Click here for large version on site.
.

HOT AIR NEWS ROUNDUP

Paul Beckwith and his cat Shackleton, named after the greatest polar explorer ever, hit it out of the ballpark again!

I join-the-dots on extreme events like Australia’s heat waves (50 C; 122 F), eastern North America and European deep freezes, torrential rains in Europe and California, accelerating ice melt from Greenland and Antarctica releasing methane, and huge insect kills in near-equator rainforests.

Part 1
[video:https://youtu.be/ygNuDYxquoc]
Part 2
[video:https://youtu.be/AkQqkrZ6_Dg]

.
In Berlin 35,000 call for eco-sustainable harvests during Green Week
DW January 20, 2019

Tens of thousands of critics of industrialized farming have converged on Berlin to renew calls for shifts to eco-sustainable harvests. Visiting Berlin for its annual Green Week expo are 70 agriculture ministers.

Protesters called out by some 100 organizations asserted that alleviation of climate change and species depletion required a reorganization of EU farming policy, including subsidies, currently amounting to €60 billion ($68 billion) annually, including €6.3 billion allocated in Germany.

Pentagon Warns of Dire Risk to Bases, Troops From Climate Change
Bloomberg January 18, 2019

The U.S. Defense Department has issued a dire report on how climate change could affect the nation’s armed forces and security, warning that rising seas could inundate coastal bases and drought-fueled wildfires could endanger those that are inland.

The 22-page assessment delivered to Congress on Thursday says about two-thirds of 79 mission-essential military installations in the U.S. that were reviewed are vulnerable now or in the future to flooding and more than half are at risk from drought. About half also are at risk from wildfires, including the threat of mudslides and erosion from rains after the blazes.

“The effects of a changing climate are a national security issue with potential impacts to DOD missions, operational plans and installations,”

Americans Increasingly Say Climate Change Is Happening Now
Climate Change News January 23, 2019

Nearly half of Americans think people in the United States are being harmed by global warming "right now"—the highest point ever in a decade-long national survey called Climate Change in the American Mind.

The climate communications researchers who conducted the survey believe the results released Tuesday mark a shift in perceptions on the urgency of the climate crisis, with far-reaching implications for the politics of what should be done to address the issue.

Coal Ash Is Contaminating Groundwater in at least 22 States, Utility Reports Show
Inside Climate News January 18, 2019

The clearest picture yet of coal ash contamination in the United States is emerging, with utilities reporting serious groundwater contamination in at least 22 states.

At dozens of power plants across the country, including many in the Southeast, utilities have found coal-ash pollution severe enough to force them to propose cleanup plans. Those plans will likely become the next front in a decades-long battle over how to manage one of the nation's largest industrial waste streams—one tainted by toxic heavy metals.
...
All power plants in South Carolina, for example, are removing the ash from their unlined ponds to prevent them from leaking pollution into nearby waterways. The governor of Virginia this month called for the complete removal of coal ash ponds within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. And environmental advocates have won rulings in state and federal courts, keeping the pressure on utilities to take action to protect human health and the environment.

Extreme heatwave: all-time temperature records fall across parts of Australia
The Guardian January 16, 2019

Temperature records have been broken in towns across parts of Australia sweltering through a heatwave, which is currently in its fourth day.

Australia also recorded its hottest December on record the Bureau of Meteorology said on Thursday in a special climate statement on “the unusual extended period of heatwaves” across much of the country.

December 27 was the hottest on record for nationally averaged mean maximum temperature (40.19C) and the second hottest day on record for any month.

Nine places in New South Wales broke temperature records on Wednesday – including six all-time records, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Climate Change Is Making Winter Colder in the Northeast
EcoWatch January 22, 2019

Paradoxically, frosty winter temperatures in some areas have been linked to rising temperatures around the globe. Climate change is distorting weather systems, yielding colder winter weather in parts of the world, including much of the U.S. One reason for this phenomenon is a weakening of the polar jet stream, the air current circling the Arctic.

The jet stream is the result of the difference in temperature between colder northern latitudes and temperate southern latitudes. Warm air from the equator is colliding with cold air from the Arctic, and a ribbon of powerful winds runs the length of the collision. Ushered along by the rotation of the Earth, this air current is moving west to east at speeds upwards of 200 miles per hour.

The jet stream is strongest in the winter months when the temperature difference between north and south is greatest.

Judge Dismisses Company’s Racketeering Claims Against Greenpeace
Inside Climate News January 23, 2019

A U.S. judge on Tuesday dismissed the most serious claims in a lawsuit brought by a Canadian logging company that accused Greenpeace and another advocacy group of running a criminal enterprise to damage the company.

The case, and a similar one filed later by the developer of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, had gained the attention of civil liberties and environmental advocacy organizations who warned it could set a dangerous precedent if it were allowed to proceed.

Ocean waves pack bigger and stronger punch
Climate News Network January 23, 2019

As the world’s seas warm, the ocean waves are starting to pack more power. Spanish scientists monitoring the tropical Atlantic report that the waves today contain more energy than they did 70 years ago. Sea surface temperatures influence wind patterns, and the payoff is a wave with more impact.

What this means for marine creatures, mariners, meteorologists and the mayors of seaside cities is not yet certain. But it does mean that wave energy could join carbon dioxide atmospheric ratios, global sea level rise and global air temperatures as yet one more metric of overall global warming and climate change.

.

Blog wk 16 .jpg

PROTESTS • EXTINCTION REBELLION • RESISTANCE
.
Fridays For Future
.
Thousands Skip School Again to Go to Belgium Climate Protest
US News January 17,2019

BRUSSELS (AP) — More than 10,000 students skipped school again in Belgium to join a march demanding better protections of the globe's fragile climate.

Swiss, German students protest inaction on climate change
ABC News January 19, 2019

Thousands of students held rallies Friday across Germany and Switzerland to protest the lack of action against climate change.

Irish youth demand climate action from Leinster House
Green News January 20, 2019

The Children’s Rally for Climate Action organised by Climate Case Ireland (CCI) comes just days before a high profile climate case against the Irish Government in the High Court.

'Make love, not CO2': Swiss students march for climate action
Yahoo News January 18, 2019

Geneva (AFP) - Thousands of school children and university students across Switzerland skipped class on Friday to march in the streets and demand climate action, telling politicians "There is no planet B".

Despite vows from a number of school districts to show zero tolerance for those who missed class, pupils as young as 12 turned out across at least 15 Swiss cities and towns for the "climate strike."

.

Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg's Demand to Davos Elite: Act Urgently on Climate for 'Sake of This Beautiful Living Planet"
Common Dreams January 23, 2019

Sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg threw down the gauntlet to the global elite gathered in the Swiss Alps for the World Economic Forum (WEF) this week, urging them to work towards meaningful climate action in order to "safeguard the future living conditions for humankind."

"Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we all have created. But that is just another convenient lie," the Swedish teen says in a video posted to Twitter. The video was also posted on the WEF Facebook page and was intended to be shown to the attendees inside.
...
Thunberg posted the video a day ahead of her arrival—by train—in Davos, where she'll take part in a panel discussion. Meanwhile, her joint op-ed with former United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres declared it "outrageous" that the climate crisis is not taking center stage at the WEF gathering.
...
they believe "these are inspirational times for transformational change," noting the historic Paris climate accord and global "school strike for climate," which Thunberg catalyzed. Students around the world taking a stand for urgent climate action, they write, have declared that "they are unstoppable and that another world is possible."

But to even begin taking a crack at the urgent crisis, they lay out a three-step "find and replace" exercise for Davos attendees:

Find coal, and replace it with renewable energy supported by storage.

Find internal combustion engines, and replace them with zero-emissions mobility.

Find crop burning (when farmers burn the stubble left over from the harvest to clear the ground quickly for new planting) and replace it with “no till” and “low till” technologies that enrich the soil instead of burning its nutrients.

Greta's message to Devos...

.
Greta Thunberg's joint op-ed with former United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres...
.
Davos, this is outrageous
Washington Post January 23, 2019

Climate change is an existential threat to humanity and already a matter of life and death for many, but it is just one issue among many on the agenda at this year’s World Economic Forum. It should be the number one priority and should sit at the center of every conversation in Davos.

This week, the two of us — from different generations but united by the same concern for our planet — will jointly address delegates at the summit. Climate change action has never been so urgent, as we are quickly approaching tipping points of no return. In that context, we will talk about leadership, outrage and optimism. We believe these are inspirational times for transformational change.

In Paris in 2015, the world’s governments agreed to hold global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while striving to keep the rise to 1.5 degrees by the second half of this century.

.
Extinction Rebellion
.
JOIN EX USA: on their website
.
Excellent read...
.
Extinction Rebellion isn’t about the Climate Change
Medium January 10, 2019

I’ve been with Extinction Rebellion (XR) from the start. I was one of the 15 people in April 2018 who came together and made the collective decision to try to create the conditions that would initiate a rebellion. I was a coordinator of one of the original five working groups, and I’ve been organising with XR day-and-night since then (frugally living off my savings so I don’t have to work, having quit an industry that paid me £1000/week). And I’ve been in RisingUp (the organisation from which XR has emerged) since the first RisingUp action in November 2016. I’m a RisingUp Holding Group member, and a member of the XR Guardianship Team.

And for the sake of transparency: that previous paragraph is all about me ‘pulling rank’ — I’m trying to convince you to listen to what I have to say…

And I’m here to say that XR isn’t about the climate. You see, the climate’s breakdown is a symptom of a toxic system of that has infected the ways we relate to each other as humans and to all life. This was exacerbated when European ‘civilisation’ was spread around the globe through cruelty and violence (especially) over the last 600 years of colonialism, although the roots of the infections go much further back.

.

Blog Earth entering hot house.jpg

ADAPTION AND RESILIENCE

Battery boom aids climate change battle
Climate News Network January 18, 2019

Billions of dollars are being invested worldwide in the developing battery boom, involving research into storage techniques to use the growing surpluses of cheap renewable energy now becoming available.

Recent developments in batteries are set to sweep aside the old arguments about renewables being intermittent, dismissing any need to continue building nuclear power plants and burning fossil fuels to act as a back-up when the wind does not blow, or the sun does not shine.

Batteries as large as the average family house and controlled by digital technology are being positioned across electricity networks. They are being charged when electricity is in surplus and therefore cheap, and the power they store is resold to the grid at a higher price during peak periods.

Interesting article...

4 Ways to Shift from Fossil Fuels to Clean Energy
World Resources Institute January 15, 2019

The world is vastly underestimating the benefits of acting on climate change. Recent research from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate finds that bold climate action could deliver at least $26 trillion in economic benefits through 2030. This groundbreaking research, produced by the Global Commission and more than 200 experts, highlights proof points of the global shift to a low-carbon economy, and identifies ways to accelerate action in five sectors: energy, cities, food and land use, water and industry. Our blog series, The $26 Trillion Opportunity, explores these economic opportunities in greater detail.

This is a great website...

Canada: Vancouver passes climate emergency resolution
Climate Emergency Declaration January 17, 2019

On 16 January 2019 as the first Canadian city, Vancouver City Council voted unanimously to join 28 other cities around the globe – like London in England and Los Angeles in California – in declaring a climate emergency to match the urgency that scientists are reporting.

Vancouver is the eighth most populous city in Canada with a population of 631,486 people, according to its 2016 census.

Councillor Christine Boyle with the political party OneCity Vancouver moved a resolution supported by a majority of Council for the City of Vancouver to declare a climate emergency, direct staff to take immediate action to ramp up ambition in the city’s climate action plans, and embed an equity framework to prioritise vulnerable communities within those plans.

Climate emergency declarations cover 17 million citizens
Climate Emergency Declaration January 22, 2019

Populations covered by governments that have declared a climate emergency now exceed 17.5 million citizens in four English-speaking countries, with over 10 million of these living in the United Kingdom.

These are the overall figures, according to population statistics available via the Internet:

Australia: 8 councils, 623,715 persons
United Kingdom: 13 councils, 1 authority: 10,541,382 persons
USA: 7 councils, 5,696,536 persons
Canada: 1 council, 631,486 persons

Total: 30 local government bodies, 17,493,119 persons

…and counting. This figure keeps growing almost every week as more and more councils keep joining in.

All of these cities declared a climate emergency in January of 2019...

Climate Emergency Declaration January News 2019

United Kingdom: Kirklees Council passes climate emergency motion [VIDEO]
United Kingdom: Bradford District Council declares a climate emergency
United Kingdom: Scarborough Borough Council declares a climate emergency

.

Blog Intro.jpg

WILDLIFE & THE ENVIRONMENT

New study demonstrates benefits of undervalued saltmarsh
PHYS ORG January 23, 2019

Saltmarshes can be found in sheltered coastal areas and are expanses of salt water tolerant grassland, exposed at low tide. The study shows that saltmarsh has a positive effect on the local and wider environment by providing an important habitat for wading birds, nursery grounds for fish, and natural flood defences.

Yet the habitat is in decline with around half being lost around the world because of sea level rise, changes to water nutrient levels from agricultural run-off, and land development.

Watch the video and be thrilled...

3 Newborn Endangered Right Whales Inspire Hope for Species
Eco Watch January 22, 2019

Right whale Catalog #2791 and her calf sighted 10 nautical miles off Fernandina Beach, Florida January 6. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Whale watchers and researchers are rejoicing after a third North Atlantic right whale calf was documented this winter, especially after the previous calving season resulted in no confirmed births.

Antarctic krill: Key food source moves south
BBC January 21, 2019

Scientists say warming conditions in recent decades have led to the krill contracting poleward.

If the shift is maintained, it will have negative ecosystem impacts, they warn.

Already there is some evidence that macaroni penguins and fur seals may be finding it harder to get enough of the krill to support their populations.

An icy forecast for ringed seal populations
Science Daily January 23, 2019

Scientists have already observed and predicted that high ringed seal pup mortality rates are linked to poor environmental conditions like early ice breakup and low snow. Researchers have now gone a step further by coupling these hypotheses with forecasts of future spring snow and ice conditions, developing a mathematical model, and following it to some stark conclusions for populations off the Amundsen Gulf and Prince Albert Sound in Canada.

A hard story to read...

‘A sad day’: two more B.C. mountain caribou herds now locally extinct
The Narwhal January 23, 2019

Slocan valley farmer Jim Ross spotted an unusual convoy on Monday as he pulled into a gas station near Salmo in the afternoon twilight — three B.C. government trucks and a stock trailer with plywood tacked over the slats.

Intrigued, Ross asked the government employees what kind of animal was in the trailer while they filled up their vehicles at the snowy Centex station. He didn’t get an answer, so he asked again. And again.

“They all looked like deer in the headlights and behaved like they were on some secret mission,” Ross wrote that evening in a Facebook post. “When I wouldn’t stop pressing, the driver told me they were caribou.”

Inside the stock trailer were two female caribou and a male — three of the last survivors of two highly endangered caribou herds in southeastern B.C. known as the South Selkirk and South Purcell subpopulations.

Coastal seas around New Zealand are heading into a marine heatwave, again
PHYS ORG January 23, 2019

Seasonal forecasting a few months ahead is difficult. It falls between weather and climate predictions. In a collaboration between the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, we are examining how well long-term forecasts of ocean conditions around New Zealand stack up. Early forecasts suggested this summer would not be as warm as last year. But it now looks like this summer will again be very warm in the ocean.

One of the important points to keep in mind is that when we are at the beach, we are sampling only the surface temperature. The same is true of satellites – they monitor less than the top millimetre of the ocean.

Sea surface temperatures are several degrees above normal at the moment. But in deeper waters, because of the high heat content of water, even a tenth of a degree is significant. Temperature in the deeper ocean is monitored by a network of moored buoys on and off the continental shelf along the Australian coast. New Zealand has almost nothing that would be comparable.

Climate change kills 98% insects in Puerto Rico’s rainforest: study
Down to Earth October 17, 2018

A research paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on October 15 says that researchers landed at this number after noticing the number of insects in the sticky traps they put up under forest’s canopy between 1976-77 and 2012-13.

When scientists recovered samples from the forest floor they observed that insects had decreased by four to eight times within this period. They used a measurement of insect biomass in milligrams to estimate the change in number of these organisms.

Earlier, studies had predicted a 20 per cent decrease in insects owing to climate change. The current study shows a parallel decrease in the number of animals that feed on insects like lizards, frogs and birds. For example, the number of Yellow chinned Anole lizards, which are commonly found in the area, had decreased by 25 per cent and the green-coloured Emerald Anole lizard had reduced by 91 per cent.

The study also finds that the rainforest’s temperature has increased by 2 degree Celsius in the past 30 years

.

Blog Artic Blue Ocean 7-4.jpg

CLIMATE STUDIES

Paul Beckwith unpacks this in his video above...

Greenland ice melting four times faster than in 2003, study finds
EurekAlert! January 17, 2019

Scientists concerned about sea level rise have long focused on Greenland's southeast and northwest regions, where large glaciers stream iceberg-sized chunks of ice into the Atlantic Ocean. Those chunks float away, eventually melting. But a new study published Jan. 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the largest sustained ice loss from early 2003 to mid-2013 came from Greenland's southwest region, which is mostly devoid of large glaciers.
...
"We knew we had one big problem with increasing rates of ice discharge by some large outlet glaciers," he said. "But now we recognize a second serious problem: Increasingly, large amounts of ice mass are going to leave as meltwater, as rivers that flow into the sea."

The findings could have serious implications for coastal U.S. cities, including New York and Miami, as well as island nations that are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels.

And there is no turning back, Bevis said.

"The only thing we can do is adapt and mitigate further global warming--it's too late for there to be no effect," he said. "This is going to cause additional sea level rise. We are watching the ice sheet hit a tipping point."

This same story is reported at many other sites...

Greenland's ice melting faster than scientists previously thought – study
The Guardian January 20, 2019

Greenland’s ice is melting faster than scientists previously thought, with the pace of ice loss increasing fourfold since 2003, new research has found.

Enormous glaciers in Greenland are depositing ever larger chunks of ice into the Atlantic Ocean, where it melts. But scientists have found that the largest ice loss in the decade from 2003 actually occurred in the south-west region of the island, which is largely glacier-free.

This suggests surface ice is simply melting as global temperatures rise, causing gushing rivers of meltwater to flow into the ocean and push up sea levels. South-west Greenland, not previously thought of as a source of woe for coastal cities, is set to “become a major future contributor to sea level rise”, the research states.

Climate change tipping point could be coming sooner than we think
Science Daily January 23, 2010

A new study confirms the urgency to tackle climate change. While it's known that extreme weather events can affect the year-to-year variability in carbon uptake, and some researchers have suggested that there may be longer-term effects, this study is the first to actually quantify the effects through the 21st century and demonstrates that wetter-than-normal years do not compensate for losses in carbon uptake during dryer-than-normal years, caused by events such as droughts or heatwaves.

Study predicts how air pollutants from US forest soils will increase with climate change
PHYS ORG January 22, 2018

A study from Indiana University has found that trees influence whether soil can remove or emit gases that cause smog, acid rain and respiratory problems.

The chemicals, collectively known as reactive nitrogen oxides, are produced by soil bacteria that feed on naturally occurring ammonium—as well as nitrogen fertilizers from industrial and agricultural sources that enter soil from the atmosphere.

Climate-Driven Fires Could Turn Yellowstone Forests to Grassland By Midcentury
State of the Planet January 17, 2019

A new study just published in the journal Ecological Monographs shows that some of Yellowstone’s forests may now be at a tipping point, and could be replaced by grassland by the middle of this century.
...
Large fires are no longer a rarity in the West, in large part due to warming temperatures. Yellowstone is nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer on average than it was just 60 years ago. The park’s forests may be at the brink of abrupt change, where their resilience may suddenly be overwhelmed, say the researchers. “Fires are being driven by hot, dry conditions and these are trends that are expected to continue,”
...
the study found that seedlings of both tree species established themselves and survived only in high-elevation plots, where surface temperatures were between 52.5 and 59 degrees Fahrenheit. At the low-elevation plots, soil temperatures regularly exceeded this range, and the soils dried. More than 90 percent of the seeds never sprouted, and those that did died within three years.

.
Equivalencies:
• 1 gigatonne equals one billion tons
• 1 gigatonne of carbon equals 3.67 gigatonnes of CO2
• 1 part per million of atmospheric CO2 is equivalent to 7.81 gigatonnes of CO2
• 1 part per million of atmospheric carbon is equivalent to 2.13 gigatonnes of carbon

Global Warnings

QMS: Time to disconnect greed from the welfare of earth, if survival means anything. I like trees.

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."

Magi Amma: We need to turn on a dime at mach nine!

Enjoy!
blog Banner Hot Air 0.small_.jpg

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

magiamma's picture

A screw thread, often shortened to thread, is a helical structure used to convert between rotational and linear movement or force. A screw thread is a ridge wrapped around a cylinder or cone in the form of a helix, with the former being called a straight thread and the latter called a tapered thread.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM0HqmptYlY]

big h/t to divineorder...

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

detroitmechworks's picture

@magiamma Is actually pretty easy.

Take a piece of mild steel, heat it till it glows a good solid red, stick it in a vise, attach a wrench and start twisting it on its axis. A square piece of metal will create a helix pattern, which can be as tight as you need. Slice off the end and draw it out to a point, then flatten the other end and carve a notch.

One Screw. Yes, it does take a bit longer than just going down to Home Depot... but it's fun to think about the intellectual exercise involved with shaping the metal into the piece you want. Hell, it makes a basic Water elevator as well, if you put it in a tube. (Archimedes Screw)

It's amazing to me really, how many basic machines can fulfill so many different purposes, if just applied properly. To me at least, it feels like a simple logic puzzle, but one that can be solved dozens of different ways, with the pieces malleable to fit the problem. Aaaand some music for people that fits the feel I hope to set for the day.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6rBK0BqL2w]

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

magiamma's picture

@detroitmechworks never made screws... but did make a few tools as I needed them for bronze work and for ceramics. right tool for the right job. still have a few of them. fascinating how they make screws as you describe it. I am a sucker for the "how to" stuff. the greatest video I ever saw on "how to" was on the tar sands production in Alberta. Horrifying. but gives one a good understanding of the driving force behind both the economics and the politics up there. what an operation. so disappointed in Trudeau. just another neocon. nothing on climate. so sad. thanks for the music. Have a good one...

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

detroitmechworks's picture

@magiamma When I was a kid I used to cast toy soldiers with my grandfather. Still have some great art Ideas from back then that I never got a chance to try. Smile

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

magiamma's picture

@detroitmechworks @detroitmechworks
it is equipment intensive so you would have to find a foundry or school that would be open. I learned the old school lost wax with big-clunky-molds method. they still do lost wax but use higher tech stuff for the molds. faster, easier, less mess, less toxic. there are foundries that will cast for you if you give them the wax. might not be too expensive if it is a small piece. and smaller is definitely easier to sprue. edit

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

@magiamma

Thanks for including bases for hope amid all the ominous news.

I love pasta e fagiole. This is a meatless version.

I love white beans in general. For a hearty, healthy, filling dip, mash together crushed garlic, white beans, olive oil and seasoning to taste.

up
0 users have voted.
jobu's picture

@HenryAWallace My Grand-pop used to make a pot for me, freeze it in plastic ricotta cheese containers so I could eat at while away in college. Always ate with fresh Italian bread.

Those small white beans are what made it. Delicious.

up
0 users have voted.
magiamma's picture

@HenryAWallace
we all have to do what we can. daunting. I am close to their diet but not close enough. need to eat more beans. but beans must be soaked for at least a day and the water poured off bc beans have some chems in them that are not our friends. I did some research on this a while back and will try to find it as it is important. diet for a small planet is the best source, still, that I know of for balancing proteins. but then again I have not really checked current info. eggs have the perfect amount of all of the proteins that humans cannot manufacture. the EAT-Lancet diet says one egg a week, essentially. make what changes you can and move closer as time passes. that's what I think. Thanks for the recipe. Have a good one...

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

jobu's picture

Yes. We need a wartime economy to wage war on climate change. Incremental change equals no change at all.

We have done this before.

During the Second World War, the United States had a centrally planned economy. Strategic resources were produced in quantities set in Washington, and allocated among end users by the public officials sitting on the War Production Board. Key prices and wages were administered, not left to markets. The large majority of investment was directed, financed, and, in most cases, owned by the federal government. Thousands of private businesses that failed to comply with the planners’ instructions were simply taken over by the government—including some of the country’s largest corporations, like Montgomery Ward. For millions of Americans, the photograph of Ward’s adamantly anti-Roosevelt chairman Sewell Avery being carried from his headquarters by a squad of soldiers crystallized the new relationship between government and capital. The Economy During Wartime

The New Deal was one thing and it helped. But the rapid switch to a wartime economy is what really ended the Great Depression. Whatever one thinks of the sincerity of Ocasio-Cortez, she has brought a huge spotlight to the concept of a Green New Deal. However hopeful, this alone is insufficient.

We need to act as if we are at war and Marshall (pun intended) our economic resources accordingly.

Here David Attenboroough gives what I consider to be a Churchillian "we will fight them on the beaches" speech on climate change and the urgent need for global action. He was speaking to the Global Order of Sociopaths at Davos:

[video:https://youtu.be/xuudPum21nE]

up
0 users have voted.
magiamma's picture

@jobu
great video and love the picture of Sewell. Would love to see the congress critters and white house grifters carried out like that. well, all of the 1%, why not. Attenborough really uses his body to talk. Wonderful to watch. On message. Hope they listen to him. Yes, we need a wartime effort to pull out of the mess, the melting. there is no other way. can we do it. thanks for the video. have a very good one...

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

@jobu

He was speaking to the Global Order of Sociopaths at Davos:

Of which he is one.
The person who piped up in response with 'America' should be applauded as well, for at least saying something.
But I have a hard time giving any credit to the greedy psychopaths that got us INTO this morAss finally speaking up. When it's too late.
Some have hope, which is cool! Don't get me wrong, I'm Not a pessimist(and I Don't play one on tv), I try to look At what is being reported around me, and hope(for me) dissipates fairly quickly. The post highlights scientists claiming a 'tipping point' is close, or we may be at one-Folks, the tipping points are long past. We know the ipcc conclusions over the years have been on the conservative side due to gathering a consensus before publication.
Today's reports are what was Not Supposed to Occur for another couple of decades.
And here we are. Today.
They JUST figured out snow melt is supplying the rivers with added flow!?! And is contributing to sea level rise?!? Like, figured out Recently? smdh.
And there Has to be More situations we've overlooked than just this one.
Think on the consequences of that concept.

To quote an assWhole; "the unknown unknowns". We ain't turning on No dime and we're dumping raw fuel(ala afterburner) into the mix. Wish I could see it otherwise, but once seen, and all that. . .

peace

up
0 users have voted.

Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

jobu's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly

Folks, the tipping points are long past. We know the ipcc conclusions over the years have been on the conservative side due to gathering a consensus before publication.

Coping mechanism on my part, I guess. The saddest thing of all is that their will never be any justice for the Exxon mobile execs who buried their findings at the point where, maybe, maybe, we could have stemmed the irreversible trends.

They make the Sackler Family look like saints.

up
0 users have voted.
magiamma's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly
There are 69 tipping points. Of these, there are 2-4 that have more 'science' to support their destabilization:

• loss of polar sea ice,
• slowing of the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation,
• slowdown or Stagnation of Planetary Waves of the Jet Stream,
• pick another... any other and I can probably find supportive studies - some more than others.

Studies come out every week now that point to collapse of one or the other of these tipping points. And they are all interrelated so if one goes it's like a row of dominoes going.

Tipping Points.jpg

Tipping Points https://www.pik-potsdam.de/services/infodesk/tipping-elements

Melting of the Arctic Sea Ice
Loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet
Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Partial Collapse in East Antarctica
Melting of the Yedoma Permafrost
Methane Emissions from the Ocean
Slowdown of the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation
Disruption of the So Pacific Climate Oscillation & Strengthening of the El Niño Phenomenon
Slowdown or Stagnation of Planetary Waves of the Jet Stream
Destabilization of the Indian Monsoon
Shift of the West African Monsoon with Impacts on the Sahara
Drying out of the South-Western United States
Transformation of the Amazon Rainforest
Retreat of the Northern Boreal Forests
Destruction of Coral Reefs
Weakening of the Marine Carbon Pump
(this is not a complete list)

so what's my point... things are unraveling fast. people need to get that.

3-10 years I think. people need hope to act. so I think we give them a dollop of hope with the grim facts. but how 'we' stop the 'machine' that is the problem

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

@magiamma not a good one.
WE are the Machine. You and I can talk all we want about stopping it, but it IS all of us collectively And as individuals that make up this machine.
With the logistics issue I referenced in another comment, how does the Vast majority of people get Food if the Trucks or boats or trains don't run?Water if the electricity goes? Get rid of their sewage? How can we dismantle That fast enough?
Let alone all the myriad systems in place that rely on a stable power grid. Sure, we Can convert a Lot of these systems to renewables given the will and time: I see both of these items in extremely short supply.
Are things changing? Yes. Fast enough, no. Your ballpark figure is three to ten-sounds like a prison sentence-years to make the necessary changes To Have a Chance at keeping under 2C.
Two of those years just blew out the window(buh-Bye)'thanks to the silliy season starting.
The worlds billionaires are in Davos, One Location! and we can't make a dent in their Bubble?!?
Power concedes Nothing without a demand-and We have not been Loud Enough for them to hear us.
I don't know why, I truly don't.
I wish I did know,and that it would make a difference, but I suspect it wouldn't.
Anyway, enough of being a (who decided?)debby Downer.
I wish you All at least Some happiness and joy in whatever awaits us.

peace

up
0 users have voted.

Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

magiamma's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly @Tall Bald and Ugly

WE are the Machine. You and I can talk all we want about stopping it, but it IS all of us collectively And as individuals that make up this machine.

which makes it hard. can we as a global society come together? maybe. best case, yes.

With the logistics issue I referenced in another comment, how does the Vast majority of people get Food if the Trucks or boats or trains don't run?Water if the electricity goes? Get rid of their sewage? How can we dismantle That fast enough?

we don't. that is the government's job and it is not doing it and has no plans to. in ?Sweden they told everyone to stock up on food. food that would not need water for cooking - among a other things. this was in case of nuclear attack, iirc. I don't see that happening anywhere else.

Let alone all the myriad systems in place that rely on a stable power grid. Sure, we Can convert a Lot of these systems to renewables given the will and time: I see both of these items in extremely short supply.

all of this is possible but not probable. people do not realize how urgent it is. we need to start now. Vancouver bc just pasted a climate emergency ordinance and they have one month to come up with a plan. and they probably will. I lived up there for a while. during the drought the government said to conserve water and they turned on turn a dime, everyone ! quit watering their lawns and started conserving. can we do that here? like what we did in world war II? in any case it will be extremely interesting to see what Vancouver comes up with. santa cruz passed a city cc emergency statement, not an ordinance. nothing has happened regarding. all this to say, I agree with your assessment. best case, it will be very difficult.

Are things changing? Yes. Fast enough, no. Your ballpark figure is three to ten-sounds like a prison sentence-years to make the necessary changes To Have a Chance at keeping under 2C. Two of those years just blew out the window(buh-Bye)'thanks to the silliy season starting. The worlds billionaires are in Davos, One Location! and we can't make a dent in their Bubble?!?

three years is absolutely the worst case scenario. but ten is not. things will be tough in ten. by 2050 it will be a mess. I say this because BP in their 2017 yearly report addressed climate change. their forecast for 2035 emissions was 30 gigatonnes co2 emissions, worst case scenario. 20 gt best case. count on their assessment to be accurate. neither is viable. we hit 37 gt this year alone. up from the last several years. edit

Power concedes Nothing without a demand-and We have not been Loud Enough for them to hear us.

maybe XR and Greta - humans can do amazing things together - I think one of the main gating factors will be getting people the right information - making sure they are educated.

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Lookout's picture

The world is melting; oceans are rising, yet most ignore the perils ahead. Thom and Dahl's conversation covers the state of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, melting glaciers which could drown the planet and whether it is too late to reverse climate change. Has humanity destroyed itself? (20 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjOA8qR0-AA]

He suggests every part per million (ppm) increase in CO2 = 1 foot sea level rise baked into the system. In my life CO2 has increased well over 100 ppm. So 100 ft sea level increase baked into the system. I look forward to watching Paul's two clips above. He has been trying to teach us for years.

Attenburough's plea to Davos.... (listen in jubo's clip above)

It’s difficult to overstate the crisis humanity is now facing, he said. “We are now so numerous, so powerful, so all-pervasive, the mechanisms that we have for destruction are so wholesale and so frightening, that we can actually exterminate whole ecosystems without even noticing it because the connection between the natural world and the urban world since the Industrial Revolution, has been remote and widening,” said Sir David.

“I was born during the Holocene – the period of climatic stability that allowed humans to settle, farm, and create civilisations,....; (but)the Holocene has ended. The Garden of Eden is no more. We have changed the world so much that scientists say we are in a new geological age: the Anthropocene, the age of humans,” he added.

Humanity really needs to be to aware of the destruction it is causing before the damage becomes irreversible. “Almost everything we do has its echoes, duplications and implications across the natural world. The natural world, of which we are a part, is incredibly complex and it has connections all over the place. If you damage one, you can never tell where the damage is going to end up, because of all the broken connections. And if you break all of them, then suddenly the whole fabric collapses and you get eco -disaster,” he warned.

up
0 users have voted.

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

magiamma's picture

@Lookout
great interview with Dahr. right. the same thing hit me. 1 foot for every 100 ppm. we just hit 413 ppm per beckwith. 413-280=133. that's 133 above pre. How much is there anyway. I thought it was a total of 200ft or maybe 200ft per pole so 400 ft? how can I forget that. Dahr thinks it's happening fast and that we need to figure out how to survive the major onslaught. I think he's probably right and good company w beckwith and others. you will love the two beckwith videos. they're the best. and I love shackleton. what a great name. Attenburough is also worth watching. In his life time. yep. well, it's happening. thanks for witnessing it with me and all of us. have a great one...

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

WoodsDweller's picture

@magiamma A full melt out would add 200 feet from Antarctica (East and West), and another 20 feet from Greenland.

up
0 users have voted.

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

magiamma's picture

@WoodsDweller @WoodsDweller
and the video posted above shows the Earth w 213 feet of water. at the time I was in argentina on the ~12th floor and someone ask me how high the water would be if all the ice melted. I said 200 feet - about as high as we are right now. graphic. a lot of water. and argentina would d be under water. doesn't it seem like we are headed towards some crazy melting? can't figure anyway around it. gets messier every week. the thing is that you have to add to that storm surge, high tides, winds. can't even imagine how anything could survive. hope is needed but also it's important to be grounded. ha, whatever that means. wizard is right we need to do one or two big things well. do not know if that is possible. still people need hope. thanks. have a very good one...

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

magiamma's picture

@magiamma
I posted the video from the article in my reply

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

WoodsDweller's picture

@magiamma

Ground level to base of statue: 204 feet, and the ground is a little above sea level. So that picture might be more like 240 feet.

up
0 users have voted.

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

snoopydawg's picture

@magiamma

Not sure how long it's been going on but people have to walk on planks and other structures to keep from getting their feet wet. During high tides it gets much worse.

Joe posted an article about how corporations are looking for ways to make profits off the effects of climate change instead of trying to stop the damage its going to cause. Like tell Trump to stop the deregulation of laws put in place to stop pollution, etc.

Lookout asked this question:

Has humanity destroyed itself?

Probably. But not all humans are responsible for what's coming. Exxon and other oil and gas companies knew that what they were doing was damaging the environment, but they kept it hidden for decades. In a sane world they would be punished for that. But we don't live in a sane world do we?

up
0 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Heartening to learn of the many diverse groups joining together and stepping up to fight for the health of earth and our future.

-- Student Strike for Climate
-- Sunrise Movement
-- Extinction Rebellion
-- 350.org
-- Climate Emergency Resolutions representing 17.5 million souls and growing
-- Force of Nature Alliance
-- Hot Air

People are a huge planetary resource. Nations investing in the health, education and well being of their populations will be better positioned to succeed in the future.

up
0 users have voted.
magiamma's picture

@QMS
people are certainly waking up. especially the young folks. like wildfire. that's what we need. greta and christiana figueres wrote an op-ed in the w post together. that in itself is news. and they are speaking a devos. more and more news on the top level news outlets every day. that's also good news. and just in time. I do think the kids are making the difference. thanks for popping in and for keeping the focus on the positive. good stuff. Smile have an amazing one...

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

all hands on deck approach to this climate catastrophe, declare this a global emergency, stop everything we're doing that is harmful, the kids might have a future.
Thanks for the roundup...amazing as always.

up
0 users have voted.
magiamma's picture

@randtntx
that's what we need to do. punct. the more people know the more they wake up and the more they will do. you are very welcome and thanks for stopping by. have a best day...

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Learn to be aware of the problem in your daily lives. When I walk around town, and I walk a lot, I see gas burning SUV hogs, a "natural" gas power plant, commercial buildings with poor or no insulation, private houses burning huge amounts of gas and oil to stay warm during the Winter and airplanes flying overhead on their way to Logan airport. We are releasing almost 80,000,000,000,000 lbs of CO2 every year. These are all of the things that we need to fix. The time when we could make a few adjustments to our lifestyles to alleviate a global climate crisis is over. We are now in condition red and all of those things that you notice in your daily lives need to be changed to zero emissions.

The recent IPPC report shows that the survival scenarios have two things in common. 1) A sudden decrease in the rate of CO2 emissions, essentially a singularity point, now, and 2) Net negative emissions by mid century. These are highly unlikely to happen and herculean tasks. Again, think of your walk around town and then think about your government and the fossil fuel industry. They are not on board to make this happen. Which means that the people need to demand these changes. But the people need to be enlightened as to what is really needed and to be focused so that demands are reasonable and sufficient to fix the problem.
Sorry, but many of the solutions proposed are unfocused and way too small in effect and it's way too late. We are in danger of creating a self-righteous Liberal lifestyle vision as a solution that will be repulsive to Middle America. The answer is not "all of the above" it's just a few things extremely well focused. As an example, combining the right to a job with fixing climate change. I'm all for making the right to a job as part of the bill of Rights, like FDR wanted, but dammit we are all going to die if we don't fix the Climate/Habitat Global Emergency. Focus!

up
0 users have voted.

Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

magiamma's picture

@The Wizard
I seriously think I need blinders because I can no longer look at the world without seeing the impact that everything has on climate.

Yes, please look at each thing you see and analyze the impact it has on the climate.

And then see if you can turn it off. I cannot. so I write. lol.

we each can do small things and we each need to do all of them. it's a start and can give us hope.

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

magiamma's picture

@The Wizard @The Wizard
save the best for last. I live 35 miles from the silicon valley. it is a temple to bernays. people there have very little awareness and are consummate consumers. it's more or less like that in many places.

so how do you reach those people and all those like them? we released 37 gigatonnes of co2 last year alone.

the eat-lancet study was all over the mainstream news. people paid attention. diet is something people relate to. they start changing their diet via eat-lancet and through that become aware of the magnitude of the problem. people care about their kids and families and will sacrifice for them. I see that is a way 'in'.

yes, everything 'we' do must go to 0 emissions.

if every person brought their emissions close to 0, which must be done, it is still not enough. nothing 'we' can do is big enough.

co2 must be removed from the air. and the mic/extractive industries etc must reduce as well.

yes...

Which means that the people need to demand these changes. But the people need to be enlightened as to what is really needed and to be focused so that demands are reasonable and sufficient to fix the problem.

what are your priorities for focused demands?

I think that is what XR is working towards. and I think that Greta has given young people a pretty clear message also. I see more traction every week. I do not see the same traction in the US yet but it is being organized. I have talked to people who are working with XR.

what/how more can we enlighten people. do you have ideas?

yes if we don't do something very soon the whole damn thing is going away. exactly as you say...

but dammit we are all going to die if we don't fix the Climate/Habitat Global Emergency. Focus!

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

can't endorse Bernie

"They're cowering for no reason."

That was how Jacobin magazinepublisher and editor Bhaskar Sunkara responded Tuesday night to The Baffler magazine's decision to fully retract and remove from its website an op-ed by Brooklyn-based writer Amber A'Lee Frost, who argued that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is the best possible candidate to defeat President Donald Trump in 2020 and advance a truly progressive agenda.

up
0 users have voted.
magiamma's picture

@gjohnsit
fuc yeah. bernie or bust. why are they so worried. because we have our infrastructure in perfectly in place and only last week had a webinar w bernie - all over the county. we had around 20 watching parties in the bay area. we are in place and ready to march. we have not lost a step since the last election. they ask for organizers to step up only yesterday. that why the ptb or whoeverthefuc are so worried.

this just came in after the house parties a couple of days ago...

Thank you for RSVPing to our video-conference today at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET! We're excited to connect with you and discuss how you can help us organize in your state!

For this conference, you have the option of joining us by video. If you would like to do so, you’ll need to download the Zoom Conference app. To download the app, all you’ll need to do is click the link below and it will start downloading on your desktop. You can also download the Zoom app on your smartphone by searching in your App or Google Play Store.

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

From 2016 -- about 40 minutes. People powered resistance to the extractors. Powerful

up
0 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

https://www.businessinsider.com/greenland-approaching-threshold-of-irrev...

The videos at the end of the article are chilling
the whole eastern seaboard gone, Florida, gone
many Gulf cities gone, the theme is terrible.

up
0 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

magiamma's picture

@ggersh
and now there is venezuela. thanks for the article. here is one of the videos at the end of the article that shows Earth with 213 feet of water. thanks for the article! have a good one...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbiRNT_gWUQ]

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

ggersh's picture

@magiamma maybe if the article title read when
instead of if all the ice melts, sigh

up
0 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

smiley7's picture

over research."

As the longest-ever government shutdown finishes its fourth week, I keep waking up in the night with thoughts of a fence.

In Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, we’ve planted thousands of saplings with the help of hundreds of volunteers. Those tiny trees are supposed to be part of a decades-long experiment on the critical zone, the life-sustaining region from groundwater to treetops. The only thing that protects the saplings from hungry deer is a thin fence. And the Park Service rangers who protect the fence are furloughed — not working because they’re government employees. Although the deer haven’t got through yet, other environmental data sets are already being hurt: the longest-running study of predators and prey, how salinity affects commercial seafood, how forests recover from acid rain, to name just a few.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00207-9?utm_source=Nature+Bri...

Thanks magi. Have a wonderful afternoon and evening.

up
0 users have voted.
magiamma's picture

@smiley7
good afternoon. hope you are being well. thanks for the music. lovely. have a very good one...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ2lMzQf19U]

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Good afternoon, and thanks for Hot Air this week. Thank you for all the information in one place.

Talking about diet, I like what the big LLC in New Zealand is selling. Hemp Technologies Global, same ones that do HempCrete(tm) Here is their cheesy video, it kinda grated my nerves but for what it's worth:
Hemp’s History and Its’ 10,000 Uses

On a nutritional level, hemp seeds are one of the highest quality proteins and balanced omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, and they've been eaten by people for eons.

What is old is new again. Forget patriotism, and Henry Ford built camps in Poland to kill people, so ftg. Take what you want and leave the rest.

visualize whirled peas
thanks

up
0 users have voted.
magiamma's picture

@eyo
great video, 10k year old hemp fabric. hemp rope from before the last ice age? 25,900 bc. go carbon dating. cool. hemp seed for protein. on my list. new zealanders are really happy people. went there to hike a while back and they wanted to know everything and ask with a big smile. chirpy folks. even in the morning. gotta love em. watched a bunch of the videos you posted last week and then forgot to put them in the news. lol. thank you for being here. have a super one...

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

WoodsDweller's picture

you need to understand four key things. The research for these has largely been published in the last 10 years, since the cutoff date for papers which were part of the IPCC 5th Assessment. Remember that the problem is not what's in the IPCC reports, the problem is what is not in them yet.

The first point is that there are many greenhouse gasses, not just CO2. There is methane, water vapor, NO2, CFCs, and many others. Each has their own chemistry and unique effects on the global system.

The second point is positive feedbacks (tipping points, as magiamma posts above). There are enormous natural reservoirs of carbon which are loosely sequestered and vulnerable to release as the global average temperature rises even slightly. These include topsoils, forests, peat bogs, permafrost, methane hydrates, and others. If anthropogenic global warming is the fuse, these reservoirs are the dynamite.

The third point is abrupt climate change. When global average temperature rises enough, positive feedbacks engage, making large scale changes to the atmosphere and trapping vast amounts of heat. Global average temperature can rise, not by a degree per century (which we just might be able to mitigate), but by a degree per decade, or perhaps more. No society, no ecosystem, few if any species can adapt to change at that rate. Hence the Sixth Mass Extinction.

The fourth and final point is aerosol masking (aka "the umbrella effect" and "global dimming"). There are natural aerosols such as forest fires and volcanoes, and numerous artificial aerosols produced by industrial civilization. These aerosols reflect sunlight into space before it has a chance to turn into heat, keeping global average temperature lower than it would otherwise be. It appears that the effect is massive, and that three quarters of the heating effect of the existing greenhouse gas levels is being masked. This effect was not accounted for (to be fair it hadn't been published yet) when the IPCC came up with their graph of climate sensitivity which was used to calculate the carbon budget remaining to stay below 2C. By ignoring three quarters of the warming they got it hopelessly wrong. We've already locked in 4C, only the haze of our modern world standing between us and runaway global warming. If it were to be interrupted, it would wash out of the air in six weeks. If we don't interrupt the systems that generate the aerosols, greenhouse gasses continue to accumulate. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

up
0 users have voted.

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

a week rise as the pollutants fall.
Global Dimming is that large.
Maybe any New Life that arises after we're gone will get it right next time. Sure hope so.

up
0 users have voted.

Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march