State Of The Climate Report
By Thom Hartmann A...
The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration - or NOAA - has come out with its Annual State Of The Climate report - and things don’t look good for Planet Earth.
As the report explains - 2015 was a record-shattering year for the climate in all the worst possible ways.
Not only was it the hottest year ever - it also saw ocean temperatures and global sea levels rise to their highest level in recorded history.
And that’s just the beginning.
2015 also saw Arctic sea ice sink to its lowest extent ever - a net loss in Alpine glacier ice for the 36th straight year - and a sharp rise in the number of areas affected by drought.
If it wasn’t obvious before - it should be now.
Climate change is very - very real.
As world-renowned scientist Michael Mann told the Guardian, “The impacts of climate change are no longer subtle. They are playing out before us, in real time. The 2015 numbers drive that home.”
You can say that again.
Let’s hope this is the wake-up call the world needs to stop global warming before it’s too late.
Comments
#2
Polutocrats
{a limerick}
O Mother Earth, take ye us whither?
To your oven? - which heats as we dither
while politicians slither
with {plutocrats} polutocrats hither
and thither, until all is {withered} awither?
… PS:
“They” don’t want us to think
that our Earth is a sinking heat sink.
================================
#3
Earth probably had use for all the oil US cartels are sucking out of here
#4
Homo-Sapiens = Homo-Terminus = Homo-Extinctus.
#5
Sadly there isno need of excution, as with the rest of humanity they will be killed by Mother Earth. And it is already too late. We would not only have to instantly stop all emisions yesterday but find a way to get alot of the co2 out of the atmosphere. And even if we found a way to pull that off we are still screwed. All the deniers will keep at it untill the ship sinks. Death will shut them up!
#6
Homo SAPIENS? Not
{… a rhyme …}
Homo sapiens? Well, no.
“Sapiens” is quite the wrong term.
In stupidity’s suicidal woe
our species will squirm like a worm.
==========================
#7
Thom,
Something to rant about:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-griswold-globalization-and-tr...
#8
Consider that individual up to collective reversal of albedo-loss, reductions in reflectivity of one's roof, the street no longer black that added up is more important now for the next few decades than reducing emissions, this also seems to not be happening in a timely manner.
The heat gain from sea-ice loss now is 25-years worth of power for the USA, about 95,000-Terawatt-hours/year over the 1980-2000 average extent. This heat will have a portion reflected back by the greenhouse forcing.
For context adding up the waste-heat for all the steam power plants globally it's about 36,000-Twh/year, 38% of albedo-loss for the sea-ice so far.
So if all those steam plants were removed it's still far less than gained by the loss in ice cover.
Basically we can't afford to lose the rest of the Arctic sea-ice and expect to land at less than 4-5C/7.2-9F in 84-years and it lasts for thousands of years at the elevated temperature regardless of we ending emissions by business-as-usual.
The reason is we have so much legacy carbon from the planet sequestering it over time and the planet only uses rock erosion to remove it, that's the process now so the rule is that 1/4th, 25% of our carbon now stays in the air for over 10,000-years.
To dream we can remove our excess demands zero emissions by any sequester method, the coal companies have tried since the 60's using algae and other means, did it work yet?
#9
For N. Africa, Tunisia most projections show a continued drying expecting more variable weather like snow, flash flooding yet extended drought and higher temperatures overall.
Pumping fossil water isn't a solution, please consider flood-agriculture practiced by many surviving tribes in the Americas in desert lands, modified by terracing and rock cisterns buried to avoid heating and evaporation these can water drip irrigated terraces above them. With the cisterns you collect when the water comes, 1 acre-foot of water can be stored this way on 1/2-acre of land.
#10
thanks for that.
#11
Since when does a Revolution need an election? Why not start the climate revolution now. I would recommend everyone to read Tony Seba and act now. Put PV panels on your house and buy a battery to store the energy. In the USA, Tesla is building solar panels and batteries and EV in America. Support the effort. Buy an EV even from another company until his Model 3 comes out. In Europe there are a few companies that are building PV's in Europe. I am trying to encourage companies to build a battery factory in Europe. Contact the Auto Builder's Union and ask them why they are still building gas powered cars. This is Zombie work and is a waste of time. They should push from the inside to develop and build EV's on a huge scale. I am disappointed with the Green Party in Germany since they don't want to make the effort to do any significant changes and Germany continues to burn more Brown Coal now than in 2010. With everyone investing in batteries this will cut down on Peak Power plants and will help to clean up the environment. I have contacted several Electrical Utilities in Switzerland and they are open to a change. I approached them about batteries and they were open to a dialogue. I stopped using Air travel for 5 years. How can you be worried about the environment while still travelling. Become serious. Stop bombing Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, etc, etc. I won't vote for Jill Stein, I am too busy fighting the revolution. Start Now since it is too late. We can't wait until November.
#12
I'm hearing scientists say that we've passed the point of no return. If we stopped pumping carbon into the atmosphere today, the human race is doomed.People say "Save the Earth." Actually, the Earth doesn't care if our oceans are polluted with plastic, or the forests are dead, or the lowlands are flooded. Our planet continues spinning around the sun with or without humanity. To wake people up, we needed the ecological equivalent of Pearl Harbor. Didn't happen. Environmental death is slow. No one notices. Politicians do not need to act. Besides, I have my six pack and large screen TV... why should I care?
#13
Thom, one of your callers mentioned a book called "The Purge" I would like to suggest that the purge of the poor is going on every day by doing nothing about climate change, heathcare, high drug prices, no jobs, students saddled with enormous debt, cutting support for food and shelterr for the poor, unending wars, fracking, Monsanto and on and on. It is not just one day, it is ongoing, forever.
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I have two questions and a comment. The first question is Are there any studies as to how climate change effects different regions on the globe? What can be done to alert the public here in Tunisia and North Africa?
I know this is Draconian but it is time to have the death penalty for climate change deniers.