Is Global Warming becoming unstoppable?

[basilio]

Using the oceans to capture atmospheric CO2

As usual very interesting and thought provoking.

It is one of a myriad of possible and necessary options to drastically tackle GG emissions before global warming destroys our current ecosystems.

Unfortunately our current economic systems aren't capable of recognising that the end of our current eco system is a truly bad event.

 

[basilio]

India and Pakistan are currently sweltering in extreme heat wave conditions.
What is really sad however is that closing down coal fired power stations and moving to solar/wind power will increase temperatures.

A climate scientist on India and Pakistan’s horror heatwave, and the surprising consequences of better air quality ​

Published: May 6, 2022 1.57pm AEST

Author​

1. 
   Andrew King
   Senior Lecturer in Climate Science, The University of Melbourne

Disclosure statement​

Andrew King receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program.

​

The record-shattering heatwave that engulfed most of India and Pakistan through March and April brought temperatures exceeding 45℃ in many areas, leading to critical electricity and water shortages.

Indeed, the maximum temperatures forecast for Delhi, India, will continue to reach over 40℃ for several days. The severe heat has strained healthcare systems across both nations, which are already stretched due to the continuing high numbers of COVID cases.

Temperatures overall have eased back to near-average in the last few days, but unfortunately as the planet continues to warm, such extreme heat will become more commonplace.

This is particularly dire for India and Pakistan, as steps to improve air quality is an added factor that will actually increase temperatures during heatwaves. Let’s take a closer look at why this heatwave is exceptional, and what the future may hold for the region.

A climate scientist on India and Pakistan's horror heatwave, and the surprising consequences of better air quality

This long, uncharacteristically early heatwave has hit hundreds of millions of people in one of the world’s most densely populated and vulnerable regions.

theconversation.com

 

[basilio]

How are behind India is Australia ?

​

Seriously ugly: here’s how Australia will look if the world heats by 3°C this century ​

Published: March 31, 2021 5.56am AEDT

Authors​

1. 
   Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
   Professor, The University of Queensland
2. 
   Lesley Hughes
   Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University

Disclosure statement​

Ove Hoegh-Guldberg receives research funding from the Australian Research Council, the UNEP and WWF. HIs salary is paid for by the University of Queensland.

Lesley Hughes has received funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a Councillor with the Climate Council of Australia, a Director of WWF-Australia, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, and a member of the Climate Targets Panel.

Imagine, for a moment, a different kind of Australia. One where bushfires on the catastrophic scale of Black Summer happen almost every year. One where 50℃ days in Sydney and Melbourne are common. Where storms and flooding have violently reshaped our coastlines, and unique ecosystems have been damaged beyond recognition – including the Great Barrier Reef, which no longer exists.

Frighteningly, this is not an imaginary future dystopia. It’s a scientific projection of Australia under 3℃ of global warming – a future we must both strenuously try to avoid, but also prepare for.

The sum of current commitments under the Paris climate accord puts Earth on track for 3℃ of warming this century. Research released today by the Australian Academy of Science explores this scenario in detail.

The report, which we co-authored with colleagues, lays out the potential damage to Australia. Unless the world changes course and dramatically curbs greenhouse gas emissions, this is how bad it could get.

Seriously ugly: here’s how Australia will look if the world heats by 3°C this century

This is not an imaginary future dystopia. It’s a scientific projection of Australia under 3°C of global warming – a future we must both strenuously try to avoid, but also prepare for.

theconversation.com

 

[wayneL]

Not strictly to do with climate change (and after all this time my opinion has not changed a job on that), but this is something I've been going on about for months and months and not one greeny is picking it up as an issue.

 

[sptrawler]

Not strictly to do with climate change (and after all this time my opinion has not changed a job on that), but this is something I've been going on about for months and months and not one greeny is picking it up as an issue.

The wife and I ride around the place on push bikes and there are discarded masks everywhere.

 

[basilio]

Not strictly to do with climate change (and after all this time my opinion has not changed a job on that), but this is something I've been going on about for months and months and not one greeny is picking it up as an issue.

Absolutely nothing to with CC. Just another distraction.
Often used by COVID deniers to point out how disastrous for the environment all these used masks are.

I reckon the next line from the usual suspects will be counting up the many millions of RAT tests used with all the plastic waste they generate as the next distraction.

In the meantime of course, not a peep about how runway human caused global warming is destroying the habitability of our planet as we are watching.

How climate change plunders the planet

A warming Earth disturbs weather, people, animals and much more. Here, we explore three critical effects of climate change.

www.edf.org

 

[wayneL]

Yep, plastic waste is a complete non-issue. Absolutely zero effect on the environment whatsoever. Governments (usually leftist) have been absolutely wrong, and it has been absolutely unnecessary to try to reduce single use plastics.

Furthermore, anybody with any concerns, whatsoever, with plastics on the environment are surely antivaxxers and covid deniers... Probably racists, transphobes and Nazis too.

There should be immediate legislation introduced to prosecute plastiphobes indulging in plastic hate speech.

Absurdity reigns.

 

[basilio]

Yep, plastic waste is a complete non-issue. Absolutely zero effect on the environment whatsoever. Governments (usually leftist) have been absolutely wrong, and it has been absolutely unnecessary to try to reduce single use plastics.

Furthermore, anybody with any concerns, whatsoever, with plastics on the environment are surely antivaxxers and covid deniers... Probably racists, transphobes and Nazis too.

There should be immediate legislation introduced to prosecute plastiphobes indulging in plastic hate speech.

Absurdity reigns.

Drop off the nearest cliff Wayne. Shouldn't be hard becasue you are marching purposefully to the edge.

Plastics are an environmental disaster. Dealing with the myriad issues around plastic waste and it's infiltration into the ecosystem and all creatures is a critical issue. I'm sure I have brought it up in other threads.

However choosing to focus on masks as a symbol of this disaster on this thread is just a diversion. And as I said previously it's a diversion used largely by people trying deflect action against the spread of COVID .

There are tens of thousands of single use plastic products that would warrant special attention. Bottled water immediately comes to mind. But this thread is about the issue of Global Warming becoming unstoppable and the impacts this is having on everything around us. Can we stay on the subject ?

 

[wayneL]

Drop off the nearest cliff Wayne. Shouldn't be hard becasue you are marching purposefully to the edge.

Plastics are an environmental disaster. Dealing with the myriad issues around plastic waste and it's infiltration into the ecosystem and all creatures is a critical issue. I'm sure I have brought it up in other threads.

However choosing to focus on masks as a symbol of this disaster on this thread is just a diversion. And as I said previously it's a diversion used largely by people trying deflect action against the spread of COVID .

There are tens of thousands of single use plastic products that would warrant special attention. Bottled water immediately comes to mind. But this thread is about the issue of Global Warming becoming unstoppable and the impacts this is having on everything around us. Can we stay on the subject ?

Cool.

I'm glad we can agree on the issue of plastics finally, despite divergence on climate change.

It is a shame that such is framed by the acrimony you introduced. You could have just said, yep I agree with you on the plastics issue (which polyester masks etc have become a huge part of).

But no, you just had to be a total c&$#.

 

[wayneL]

Here you go Baz, from one of your own leftist sh1trags:

Coronavirus face masks: an environmental disaster that might last generations

As face marks and coverings become compulsory worldwide, littering and their potential impact on the environment increases.

theconversation.com

And then there is the issue of microplastics in human lungs.

These issues are far too political for you, to be able to have any sort of objective opinion.

Now, about that cliff...

 

[basilio]

Lets change the tone of this thread. Just for a minute

Climate change is an obvious myth – how much more evidence do you need?​

Many people just refuse to accept the facts that surround them, even if we saw 100 more years of it plain and apparent

There’s no such thing as climate change, Northampton has always looked like this. Photograph: Alamy

Dean Burnett

@garwboy
Tue 25 Nov 2014 09.17 GMTFirst published on Tue 25 Nov 2014 07.13 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/science...h-how-much-more-evidence-do-you-need#comments
363
Climate change is a myth. We all know this, deep down. Some of you reading this may have been taken in by the fear-mongering governments or corrupt scientists so have been brainwashed into thinking climate change is a real thing that “threatens all of humanity” or some other nonsense, but it’s just that: nonsense. When you look closely at it, the so-called evidence for climate change, or “global warming” or “warmageddon” or “planetary death spiral” or whatever they’re calling it these days, it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Climate change is an obvious myth – how much more evidence do you need? | Dean Burnett

Dean Burnett: Many people just refuse to accept the facts that surround them, even if we saw 100 more years of it plain and apparent

www.theguardian.com

 

[wayneL]

Lets change the tone of this thread. Just for a minute

Climate change is an obvious myth – how much more evidence do you need?​

Many people just refuse to accept the facts that surround them, even if we saw 100 more years of it plain and apparent
View attachment 141836
There’s no such thing as climate change, Northampton has always looked like this. Photograph: Alamy

Dean Burnett

@garwboy
Tue 25 Nov 2014 09.17 GMTFirst published on Tue 25 Nov 2014 07.13 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/science...h-how-much-more-evidence-do-you-need#comments
363
Climate change is a myth. We all know this, deep down. Some of you reading this may have been taken in by the fear-mongering governments or corrupt scientists so have been brainwashed into thinking climate change is a real thing that “threatens all of humanity” or some other nonsense, but it’s just that: nonsense. When you look closely at it, the so-called evidence for climate change, or “global warming” or “warmageddon” or “planetary death spiral” or whatever they’re calling it these days, it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Climate change is an obvious myth – how much more evidence do you need? | Dean Burnett

Dean Burnett: Many people just refuse to accept the facts that surround them, even if we saw 100 more years of it plain and apparent

www.theguardian.com

You may want review many pronouncements I have made on this topic, instead of once again, being a total ****.

Just so I don't have to do it all over again for the hundredth time.

 

[basilio]

Critical climate indicators broke records in 2021, says UN​

World Meteorological Organization says extreme weather wreaked heavy toll on human lives

People wade across a street after heavy rains that caused flooding killed at least 33 people in Henan province, China, in July 2021. Photograph: Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images

Damian Carrington Environment editor

@dpcarrington
Wed 18 May 2022 09.00 BSTLast modified on Wed 18 May 2022 09.09 BST


Critical global indicators of the climate crisis broke records in 2021, according to a UN report, from rising oceans to the levels of heat-trapping emissions in the atmosphere.

The UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said these were clear signs of humanity’s impact on the planet, which was bringing long-lasting effects. Extreme weather, which the WMO called the day-to-day face of the climate emergency, wreaked a heavy toll on human lives and led to hundreds of billions of dollars in damages, the agency said.

Droughts and floods triggered food price rises that have been exacerbated in 2022. The WMO’s State of the Global Climate in 2021 report also found the past seven years have been the hottest recorded.

“Today’s State of the Climate report is a dismal litany of humanity’s failure to tackle climate disruption. Fossil fuels are a dead end – environmentally and economically,” said António Guterres, the secretary general of the UN.

“The only sustainable future is a renewable one. The good news is that the lifeline is right in front of us. Wind and solar are readily available and, in most cases, cheaper than coal and other fossil fuels. If we act together, the renewable energy transformation can be the peace project of the 21st century.”

Prof Petteri Taalas, the WMO secretary general, said: “Our climate is changing before our eyes. Human-induced greenhouse gases will warm the planet for many generations to come. Some glaciers have reached the point of no return and this will have long-term repercussions in a world in which more than 2 billion people already experience water stress.

“Extreme weather has the most immediate impact on our daily lives,” he said. “We are seeing a drought emergency unfolding in the Horn of Africa, recent deadly flooding in South Africa and the extreme heat in India and Pakistan. Early warning systems are critically required [to save lives] yet these are only available in less than half of WMO’s 187 member nations.”

Extreme heat in oceans ‘passed point of no return’ in 2014
Read more
The world’s oceans absorb more than 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases and 2021 set a record. The increasing warmth in the ocean, which is irreversible over timescales of centuries to millennia, has been especially strong in the last 20 years. Much of the ocean experienced at least one strong marine heatwave in 2021, the WMO said.

The global sea level also reached a new record high in 2021. It has increased by 10cm since 1993 and the rise is accelerating, driven by the melting of ice sheets and glaciers and the thermal expansion of the ocean. The rise imperils hundreds of millions of coastal dwellers, the WMO said, and increases the damage caused by hurricanes and cyclones.

Almost a quarter of CO2 emissions are absorbed by the oceans, but this causes them to become more acidic. This threatens shell-forming wildlife and corals and therefore food security, tourism and coastal protection, the WMO said. The oceans are now more acidic than for at least 26,000 years.

CO2 and methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, are at record levels, with CO2 concentration 50% higher than before the Industrial Revolution sparked the mass burning of fossil fuels. The global temperature in 2021 was 1.1C above the pre-industrial average, moving closer towards the 1.5C limit agreed by the world’s nations to avoid the worst climate impacts.

The WMO noted exceptional heatwaves in 2021 in western North America and the Mediterranean, deadly flooding in Henan, China, and western Europe, and rain being recorded for the first time on the summit of Greenland’s ice sheet. The agency warned eastern Africa is facing a high risk of rains failing for a fourth consecutive season, meaning the worst drought in 40 years.

Prof James Hansen, who warned the world about the climate crisis in testimony to the US Senate in 1988, said this week there was “a spectacular, continuing failure of governments to adopt effective long-term energy and climate policies.

“We must all be aware that demands for effective policies will yield only superficial change as long as the role of special interests in government remains unaddressed.”

Last week, the Guardian revealed that 195 oil and gas “carbon bombs” were planned by the industry, ie projects each producing at least a billion tonnes of CO2. These carbon bombs alone would drive global heating beyond the 1.5C limit, but the dozen biggest oil companies are on track to spend $103m a day to 2030 on climate-busting schemes.

Critical climate indicators broke records in 2021, says UN

World Meteorological Organization says extreme weather wreaked heavy toll on human lives

www.theguardian.com

 

[sptrawler]

Absolutely nothing to with CC. Just another distraction.
Often used by COVID deniers to point out how disastrous for the environment all these used masks are.

I reckon the next line from the usual suspects will be counting up the many millions of RAT tests used with all the plastic waste they generate as the next distraction.

In the meantime of course, not a peep about how runway human caused global warming is destroying the habitability of our planet as we are watching.

How climate change plunders the planet

A warming Earth disturbs weather, people, animals and much more. Here, we explore three critical effects of climate change.

www.edf.org

Hey Bas, you ever thought of starting your own thread, or a blog, the doom and gloom or maybe the end is near, or world is about to end thread. I mean really there is an election on we dont have time for all this other crap, can it wait?

 

[basilio]

Hey Bas, you ever thought of starting your own thread, or a blog, the doom and gloom or maybe the end is near, or world is about to end thread. I mean really there is an election on we dont have time for all this other crap, can it wait?

Indeed

One wouldn't want to talk about anything like that at an election time would we? Far too much of a downer.
And as you point out both Liberal and Labour have been running dead on on CC. Certainly no one wants to spoil the party.

By and large I haven't been posting "end of the world" stories but rather trying to look at constructive solutions to a really big and really serious problem. And it will be a catastrophic issue if we continue on the path we are currently taking.

I got a bee in my bonnet with Wayne's efforts at trying to divert the thread. It was just another part of the repertoire of climate deniers/delayers/don't look up brigade. That is why I called him out. And that is why I then chose to highlight in full what we are facing if we collectively don't make huge changes across a score of situations that might slow down global heating.

 

[wayneL]

Indeed

One wouldn't want to talk about anything like that at an election time would we? Far too much of a downer.
And as you point out both Liberal and Labour have been running dead on on CC. Certainly no one wants to spoil the party.

By and large I haven't been posting "end of the world" stories but rather trying to look at constructive solutions to a really big and really serious problem. And it will be a catastrophic issue if we continue on the path we are currently taking.

I got a bee in my bonnet with Wayne's efforts at trying to divert the thread. It was just another part of the repertoire of climate deniers/delayers/don't look up brigade. That is why I called him out. And that is why I then chose to highlight in full what we are facing if we collectively don't make huge changes across a score of situations that might slow down global heating.

LMAO!

You're tilting at windmills there, Mr Quixote.

 

[basilio]

Stanford Gets $1B for Climate Change School From John Doerr​

Stanford University will launch a new school focusing on climate change thanks to a $1.1 billion gift from billionaire venture capitalist John Doerr and his wife, Ann, the university announced Tuesday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stanford University will launch a new school focusing on climate change thanks to a $1.1 billion gift from billionaire venture capitalist John Doerr and his wife, Ann, the university announced Tuesday.

The gift, one of the largest single donations to an American institute of higher education, will open the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability this fall. The school combines several existing Stanford departments and institutes and will hire dozens of new faculty members over a decade, as well as establish an accelerator to provide grants for new projects.

“We have designed a school for the future combining knowledge generation and impact, building on the strong foundation established through Stanford’s history of scholarship,” said Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, in a statement.

Stanford engaged in a years long process to define a vision for a new school focused on climate change. The Doerrs connected with Stanford after learning about the new school, university spokesperson Mara Vandlik said in an email.

One of Silicon Valley's most prominent investors, John Doerr is chairman of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, where he has worked since 1980, successfully advocating for early investment in technology companies like Google, Amazon and Slack. He has authored a book
published last year "Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now," that outlines technology and policy priorities for attaining a livable future. Ann Doerr is the board chair of the online education provider Khan Academy, as well as an advisory trustee and former board member of the Environmental Defense Fund.

https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2022-05-04/stanford-gets-1b-for-climate-change-school-from-john-doerr

 

[basilio]

Came across this essay on how some leaders in the climate movement are now thinking.

For those able to feel the meaning of the news, the message of the sixth IPCC assessment report from August 2021 was harrowing. Our best climate scientists said the harm humans have done to our habitat is ‘unequivocal’ and ‘unprecedented’. We are already too late in some ways, and still too slow in others, which is why Rupert Read’s emphasis on ‘transformative adaptation’ in this essay is such an important shift of perspective. Paradoxically it is only by preparing for what can no longer be prevented that we might yet avoid something even worse.

What next on climate? The need for a new moderate flank - [ Perspectiva ]

The moderate flank can be a force in party politics; and this offers hope.

systems-souls-society.com

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Came across this essay on how some leaders in the climate movement are now thinking.

For those able to feel the meaning of the news, the message of the sixth IPCC assessment report from August 2021 was harrowing. Our best climate scientists said the harm humans have done to our habitat is ‘unequivocal’ and ‘unprecedented’. We are already too late in some ways, and still too slow in others, which is why Rupert Read’s emphasis on ‘transformative adaptation’ in this essay is such an important shift of perspective. Paradoxically it is only by preparing for what can no longer be prevented that we might yet avoid something even worse.

What next on climate? The need for a new moderate flank - [ Perspectiva ]

The moderate flank can be a force in party politics; and this offers hope.

systems-souls-society.com

I don't like saying this.

Global Warming to a catastrophic degree is unstoppable.

War, Plague, Pestilence and Famine prevent any reasonable international consensus on addressing it.

gg

 

[basilio]

When I started this thread I already felt aware that substantial Climate Change was going to happen regardless of anything we did. The momentum we had created was not going to be stopped. If we were very, very fortunate we might arrive at a messy, disastrous, survival situation. I concur with GG's view.

The above analysis and the one I'm posting now expand on that POV.

Rupert Read and Wolfgang Knorr

This is not an 'Emergency'... It's Much More Serious Than That​

​

The real climate emergency is that we don’t treat the climate crisis as an emergency because we feel no emergency. Call this ‘the meta-emergency’.​

The mantra of ‘Climate Emergency!’ has been a central feature of the exhilarating and deeply necessary climate-movement that has swept the world since 2018. In this essay, we ask uncomfortable questions: What if climate is not an emergency, but something much more difficult? Worse: What if the drive towards declaration of emergency is just another form of immunity to deep change, in disguise? Then, the only significant practical value of declarations of emergencies by institutions would be that the language can be mirrored back to them by activists trying to hold them to account for the next step. The question we are asking is whether that advantage outweighs the significant downside that we explore below.

Our contention is that the emergency frame is actually too optimistic. It’s a form of denial about the width, depth, and tragic nature of the crisis. We connect this briefly with the contemporary fetish for net zero carbon declarations. Both, ultimately, for all their attractions and even successes, are forms of simplistic wishful thinking.

This is not an 'Emergency'... It's Much More Serious Than That - Emerge

The real climate emergency is that we don’t treat the climate crisis as an emergency because we feel no emergency. Call this ‘the meta-emergency’.

www.whatisemerging.com