Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumClimate Godzilla Stirs: Heat and CO2 Records ‘Obliterated’
http://www.juancole.com/2016/03/climate-godzilla-stirs-heat-and-co2-records-obliterated.htmlClimate Godzilla Stirs: Heat and CO2 Records Obliterated
By contributors | Mar. 18, 2016
By James Dyke | (The Conversation)
And another one bites the dust. The year 2014 was the warmest ever recorded by humans. Then 2015 was warmer still. January 2016 broke the record for the largest monthly temperature anomaly. Then came last month.
February didnt break climate change records it obliterated them. Regions of the Arctic were were more than 16℃ warmer than normal whatever constitutes normal now. But what is really making people stand up and notice is that the surface of the Earth north of the equator was 2℃ warmer than pre-industrial temperatures. This was meant to be a line that must not be crossed.
Two degrees was broadly interpreted as the temperature that could produce further, potentially runaway warming. You can think of it as a speed limit on our climate impact. But its not a target speed. If you are driving a car carrying a heavy load down a steep hill youre often advised to change down from top gear and keep your speed low, as if you go too fast your brakes will fail and you will be unable to stop. Less braking means more speed which means less braking a dangerous runaway feedback loop. Hopefully the hill flattens out and you have enough straight road ahead to recover. If you dont then you will be stopping much more abruptly.
We are currently swamping the Earth's ability to absorb greenhouse gases. 2015 saw the largest annual increase in carbon dioxide since records began far higher than the Earth has experienced for hundreds of thousands of years.
Newkularblue
(130 posts)For exposure
Helen Borg
(3,963 posts)You know, politicians and business people who thought this would only affect things after they would be long dead. Perhaps it'll all happen really fast as they are still alive... Tiny consolation, of course.
Xipe Totec
(43,872 posts)stillwaiting
(3,795 posts)I can not believe it.
forest444
(5,902 posts)Able, like nothing else can, to turn people against their own best interests.
They way they turned most of the African-American community against Bernie over Black Lives Matter last year (something Bernie has believed in and acted on his entire adult life) was a truly masterful stroke on their part.
If African-American voters were giving him the kinds of vote totals Hillary has been getting from them (as Bernie deserves to have), the Democratic nomination fight would be over.
Uncle Joe
(58,112 posts)the corporate media conglomerates wake up.
Moostache
(9,895 posts)The warnings have been out for DECADES...they have been ignored and marginalized and "poh-pooh'd" by the political and media classes because they never fully understood the threats.
Methane leaks from the permafrost was the last straw and we have crossed that rubicon a while back.
We are now passengers on the Titanic and there are NO lifeboats this time, the rich and "1st class" fuckers are going down with the rest of us and it won't be a glide path down, more like freefall.
The projections that were "end of the century" type statements - which gave everyone a fake sense of security for their OWN lifetimes - will soon be revised to "end of the next decade" and that is based on the MATH we are seeing now from the '14 / '15 / '16 data.
16 C rise in the Arctic? My blood literally went cold when I saw that. It is game over for humanity folks, the only question left is how long the extinction takes and whether we are 3 or 4 generations away from the end. My bet is on much faster than anyone has previously said because these numbers are horrifyingly bad.
NickB79
(19,114 posts)The next 50 years will be......interesting.
pengu
(462 posts)Barely at all. I think climate change got under 5 minutes between all the debates combined. It's just disgusting that we're on the verge of nominating the Secretary of Fracking.
Jitter65
(3,089 posts)Yes, more needs to be talked about on this subject but the moderates are more focused on gotcha moments for the candidates than on things that are affecting out everyday lives. Obama tied this together long ago.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/242622-obama-climate-change-serious-threat-to-global-security
chervilant
(8,267 posts)Plus, I have a youngling artist in my life, for whom I provide transportation to knitting and woodcarving. We got into a discussion about climate change, and she insisted that we are actually on the verge of another ice age because the climate is "cooling down." I asked her where she got her information, and she started proselytizing about the online survivalist preacher she and her grandfather follow. Per this "preacher," a significant number of prominent climate scientists agree.
There are many, many, many younglings being homeschooled to believe that we are actually about to experience another ice age. It boggles the mind.
Dustlawyer
(10,493 posts)run as a group over the edge of a cliff. I feel like one who doesn't want to go over but the bodies of the others keep knocking me closer to the edge no matter what I try to do to stop.
tex-wyo-dem
(3,190 posts)Synchronicity II
Another suburban family morning
Grandmother screaming at the wall
We have to shout above the din of our Rice Crispies
We can't hear anything at all
Mother chants her litany of boredom and frustration
But we know all her suicides are fake
Daddy only stares into the distance
There's only so much more that he can take
Many miles away
Something crawls from the slime
At the bottom of a dark Scottish lake
Another industrial ugly morning
The factory belches filth into the sky
He walks unhindered through the picket lines today
He doesn't think to wonder why
The secretaries pout and preen like
cheap tarts in a red light street
But all he ever thinks to do is watch
And every single meeting with his so-called superior
Is a humiliating kick in the crotch
Many miles away
Something crawls to the surface
Of a dark Scottish lake
Another working day has ended
Only the rush hour hell to face
Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes
Contestants in a suicidal race
Daddy grips the wheel and stares alone into the distance
He knows that something somewhere has to break
He sees the family home now looming in the headlights
The pain upstairs that makes his eyeballs ache
Many miles away
There's a shadow on the door
Of a cottage on the shore
Of a dark Scottish lake
Many miles away, many miles away
Javaman
(62,443 posts)ah yes, we be the ants while elephants fight.
CRH
(1,553 posts)
in May thru August. With all the anomalies in the OP, is this the first year we see a month with near zero ice in the arctic?
Viewing the graphs on the extent now, it does appear this will not be a good year for sea ice.
NickB79
(19,114 posts)Fucking scary if we actually have an ice-free Arctic exactly when predicted
Helen Borg
(3,963 posts)That humans, with all their intelligence and emotional makeup, are not viable as a species living on this planet. Perhaps on evolutionary scales, bacteria and coleoptera are much more viable.
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)And doesn't support fracking? Hmmm.... can't quite place my finger on his name.
tex-wyo-dem
(3,190 posts)The one who answered "climate change" when asked what was the greatest treat to the U.S. during a debate. I believe the other candidate said "terrorism" or some sort of bullshit.
RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)that there is no Plan(et) B, when it comes to the environment. Earth is still our only home. Some of us keep asking them what they are going to do with their money when the air has too much smog to breathe, when the streams have too many chemicals to drink, and the food will not grow because of these two things. Will they be able to eat, drink and breathe their money?
Some of them tell us that it is the workings of some mythological divine creator, yet cannot provide proof of such.
I, for one have been telling people about this for most of my adult lifetime, and I am 61. I have not polluted the planet with more human beings who continue to consume everything in sight. Yes, there are many things that I must do to compromise my beliefs, in order to live in this society, and I just cannot stand them. Living here in the US, I have to drive practically everywhere, so I drive the most fuel efficient car that I can, even though my co-workers, and some friends ridicule me. I am a recycler AND a re-purposer. When something is used up for its intended use, I try to see if I can use it for something different before I recycle it. I also try to buy recycled when I can. I haven't used a bag from a grocery store, or any other store in 25 years. I have been using the same canvass bags for that time as well. I collect rainwater to water my garden.
Even though I do all this, it is not enough, because the vast amount of people have been brainwashed into the capitalist system to consume more, more and more, until there is no more, then consume even more, in panic. This rash consumption seems to be the culprit. If we thought about the planet as having limited resources, which we all must share, and plan accordingly, perhaps something could have been done. Unfortunately it is too late. Capitalism has won, and shall lead to the destruction of the species.
Sorry, but it's too late for the Human Race. The rats won the rat race.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)To them:
Sorry guys, we've been right all along.
To us:
Unfortunately, when you factor in all the non-climatic factors it's even worse than we've been saying. Things are so far out over the edge that the danger we face is literally inconceivable.
Anyone who thinks I'm being hyperbolic when I talk about humanity being overpopulated by 1000 times suffers from an inability to connect the fucking dots.
It is what it is.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)Our temps have been +10 degrees spring through fall, and winter is a crapshoot- either deadly cold and storms of the century, or nothing.
I was always skeptical of the 2050-2100 timeframe...but I know they had to be conservative or be considered cry wolfers...and I don't think we'll get it together to fix this in time.
DemocracyDirect
(708 posts)They were burning down forests in Indonesia as fast as they could before popular opinion could condemn it and shut it down.
All so they could grow some palm trees for oil.
Corporations are devouring the planet.