PREFACE
This is part 2 of my multi-part (lol) Series of Essay's on Climate Change. Again, this was originally published at TOS, but I have cut the up original, edited it and have changed some things a bit editorially (broadened vocabulary, less expletives). I'm just being upfront about it's "content" differences with the original at TOS.

Some of this essay (most) I wrote months ago, and some if it is new, with updated info, opinion and or commentary. I'm no scientist, but my hope is to convey, as a basic ignorant citizen of this country, I get it, that climate change is an incredibly important issue, not just for me, or the US, but the entire planet, life on earth as we know it. (Gee, what happened the last time someone said something similar about changing the way we know something?)
[video:https://youtu.be/nTCoU85dsLM align:center]

Deer in the Head Lights

The effects of climate change we are already experiencing right now, are overloading our “man made systems” to effectively deal with the unimaginable consequences that are currently unfolding before our eyes. Our natural eco-systems are already overloaded, hurling us frogs with deer in the head light eyes in slowly boiling water, ever closer to crossing the Rubicon of multiple tipping points, in real time. (I'm told a Mad Max dystopia future would actually be, a soft landing so....)

Social upheaval, mass migrations, food shortages, the rise of nationalism as a result of mass migrations all across Europe, the ME, rising temperatures, mass crop failures, all spell disaster. Oh, did I mention nuclear war with either Russia, China or North Korea? (The future is so bright, I gotta wear shades....)

Just survey the landscape of youtube videos, even from credible channels, there is massive unrest across this planet, and while it's not "all climate change", what is for sure, at least to my non-trained analysis is that, as a result of poor planning, or criminal fraud, or lack of imagination mostly (ignorant expletives!), humanity's "systems" that are currently in place to respond to this global crisis, are woefully short on vision and functionality, financially, and most generally, completely under prepared.

We can't even protect our own citizens from the lead and other lethal contaminants in our water systems, how do you think the response will be with something bigger?

Look at what happened by a "little rain", as many republicans might describe it, in Louisiana just a couple of weeks ago....

From the Denver Post:

BATON ROUGE, La. — An act of God is how some are describing it, a catastrophic 48-hour torrent of rain that sent thousands of people in Louisiana scrambling for safety and left many wondering how a region accustomed to hurricanes could get caught off guard so badly.

At least seven people have been killed and more than 20,000 have had to be rescued since Friday in some of the worst flooding the state has ever seen.

A seventh body was pulled from floodwaters Monday, said Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office. A volunteer patrolling in his boat found the body, and sheriff’s units confirmed the discovery. The coroner’s office said the man in his 50s died of accidental drowning.

Snip

Meteorologist Ken Graham of the National Weather Service’s office in Slidell said forecasters alerted people days in advance of the storms. The forecasts Thursday were for 8 inches of rain, with higher totals expected in some areas.

But Graham emphasized that forecasting exactly how much rain is going to fall and where is nearly impossible. “It’s one thing to say we’re getting set up for a lot of rain. It’s another thing to say where is this going to be,” he said.

Some areas, such as the town of Zachary, received more than 2 feet of rain in a 48-hour period that ended Saturday morning. Another hard-hit area, Livingston, got nearly 22 inches over the same stretch.

Graham said the odds of that much rain were 1 in 500 in some places, and 1 in 1,000 in others.
(emphasis mine)

Got that? 2 ft. of rain in 48 hours.

The Neoliberal policies of the major political parties since the 70's have certainly made sure our government agencies have been effectively neutered to deal with anything of serious consequence, through budget cutting, de-funding, blocking, and other political and legislative "maneuvers". Oh, and not to mention the good ole bait and switch-er-roo by our elected officials. You know, those good ole' campaign slogans, like our current president said on the campaign trail! But campaign promises are like Las Vegas, what happens on the campaign trail, stays on the campaign trail....

For example, here's a clip from our current (expletive) in Chief, back in 2008 in NC,
[video:https://youtu.be/AiKEnwwMUFU align:center]

Contrast his statements with your reality, and then with this next video with Farron Cousins from Ring of Fire Radio Youtube Channel, who points out what that propaganda mouth piece (my opinion) for the Obama administration, the Washington Post, didn't say in their article.

Nut shell = oil production in the US has nearly doubled during Obama's time in office, from around 5 million barrels per day to 9 million.

Question? Would you call that a commitment to Climate Change? Vegas baby Vegas!

[video:https://youtu.be/DxNpjkt3h88 align:center]

Here's the link to the NYT article he is referring too in the video above.

I'm sorry but when I'm told one thing, and I'm paraphrasing here..., "hey climate change, bad, we're gunna tackle that and make new green jobs and blah blah, blah", and go from 5 million barrels of oil a day to 9 million, obviously one of our systems is truly screwed up. (Rant over, for the most part...now the more serious issues facing humanity!)

Systems Overload

Broadly speaking, systems are comprised of five basic components. Input, output, processing, controls and feedback. (That's mainly from my info sys background, I'm not a scientist!)

Systems also impact other systems. The output of one system could be the input to another system. For example, at one the major plants where I was consulting, they produced plastic parts to be utilized in the manufacture of vehicles. So the output of that plant (system for producing plastic parts), were the input to a different system, the assembly of vehicles.

Each individual system can, and does, interact with other systems to produce specific results, but, as in the case with many of the “systems”, we as a civilization have created systems, that not only interact with other human made systems, but impact our natural climate systems, ecological system, the food chain, ocean system, etc.., all, in a seriously negative way!

Broadly speaking, the largest "output" of human activity (all of collective systems), is waste, not products or "progress". Human activity's main "input", is the extraction and consumption of our planetary resources, from fossil fuels, to animal and live stock, to the number of trees remaining in the Amazon rain forests, to the vineyards in northern California.

Human "output" is a direct "input" into our ALL of our natural, global, planetary systems, happening in real time, non-stop and for ever relentless is would seem. Our global systems are resilient, but they can only "process" so much, and like when a pipe in your hose has too much pressure, it blows and then it s heck of a mess to clean up.

While systems can be thought of as separate and distinct in and of them selves, in terms of our natural, global systems, they actually fit together like an intricate jigsaw puzzle, that we don't exactly know everything about yet. The tiniest impact in one system, can dramatically affect other systems, which in turn affect even more systems. A cascade or domino effect can reach up and bite the ass of humanity really quick, and there's not much we can do about it after that.

Our global climate system has a natural balance for “processing” the output of carbon dioxide, and other green house gases which is produced by both natural systems and man made systems. Prior to humankind's technological and industrial development, our global climate system function properly. That is, the “system” could effectively “process” the vast output of carbon dioxide that occurs naturally within our overall planetary environment.

Within our global systems, we have natural carbon sinks, that is, these carbon sinks absorb carbon dioxide that occurs naturally. Our oceans are one example, vegetation (trees and plants) are another example. Vegetation breaths in Co2 and exhales O2, that is oxygen, which humans and animals need to survive.

However, since the arrival of human industrialization, the huge amounts of carbon dioxide and other green house gases we have released into our natural system for “processing” our atmosphere, has essentially overloaded the natural “system” for processing the massive output of green house gases from our industrialization, and naturally occurring output.

Right now only about 40% of the carbon dioxide we produce, as output, can be processed by our natural carbon sink systems(5). So, 60% of our output of carbon is accumulating in our atmosphere on an annual basis and is not being processed.

This accumulation of green house gases in our atmosphere is what is affecting our natural global climate systems. And it is already creating the foundations for, not just one “positive feedback loop”, but several, and combined together, these positive feedback loops will create a tipping point from which there will be no going back, and we get run away climate change. Meaning once we hit that “tipping point”, humanity will be on a trajectory to extinction. Which loosely translates into, hell on earth is a lot closer than we think.

The “feedback”, we are receiving from our global climate system shows up in a variety of ways. For example, the melting sea ice around the Arctic, the melting of Glaciers around the globe, but most pronounced in the giant glacier in Greenland(6), which in 2012 produced flash floods that wiped out concrete bridges and tossed around heavy equipment front loaders, like they were plastic toys floating in a bathtub.

From the National Snow and Ice Data Center:

Greenland’s 2012 melt season started early, surpassing the 30-year average for melt-covered area in mid-May, and remaining far in excess of typical conditions for June, July, and through mid August. For the peak melt days in early July and again in early August, more than 70% of the surface of the ice sheet experienced some melt, and the peak melt event on July 10 to 11 occurred over 97% of the ice sheet.

The graph above shows the daily extent of melt during 2012 on the Greenland Ice Sheet surface as a percentage, compared to the average from 1981 to 2010. Data are from the Greenland Daily Surface Melt 25km EASE-Grid 2.0 Climate Data Record. About the data

Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center/Thomas Mote, University of Georgia

This "feedback", also shows up in the from of more and more extreme weather events and increased global record temperatures, which have been rising for at least the last decade(7). Not to mention the increase in carbon dioxide emissions by 24%, just in the last 58 years.(8) (Hello!)

Since 1958, the Mauna Loa Observatory has been gathering data on how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide has increased by about 24 percent since the beginning of this record.

While we experience more extreme weather events around our planet, (rain in Louisiana, 2ft in 48 hours) the effects of rising temperatures in the Arctic(9) are more pronounced, because of the melting sea ice, which reduces the amount of radiant heat energy reflected back into space, which increases the amount of heat absorbed by the dark blue waters of the ocean, and the land masses that are no longer covered by bright white snow and ice.

The temperature of the air in the Arctic was recorded at it's highest levels since 1900 in 2015(10). A 2.9°C since the beginning of the 20th century.

The mean annual surface air temperature anomaly (+1.3°C relative to the 1981-2010 mean value) for October 2014-September 2015 for land stations north of 60°N is the highest value in the record starting in 1900 (Fig. 1.1). This is an increase of 2.3°C since the 1970s and 2.9°C since the beginning of the 20th century. The global rate of temperature increase has slowed in the last decade (Kosaka and Xie 2013), but Arctic air temperatures have continued to increase. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes. (Bold emphasis mine)

Think about that. The Arctic has already passed the “magic number” of 1.5°C specified in the Paris Agreement. How are we going to hold the entire planet to 1.5°C?

People seem to think, and this is just observation, that turning off an extra light, drive a few miles less, turn off a few lights when you leave work, are going to help reduce green house gas emissions. Well, it's hasn't done much yet, what makes us think it will now or in the future?

In my next post I'll tell ya what I know about permafrost and why you need to know about it too, and most importantly, how it could spell the death of humanity. (gee, just what ya wanted, more good news....)

References:
5 - Human C02 Emissions
6 - Greenland Melt
7 - Fact Sheet
8 - 400 ppm Quotes
9 - NASA News
10 - NOAA Arctic Report Card