Humor4u

The unthinkable consequences of global warming by Andrew Glikson “We’re simply talking about the very life support system of this planet”. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber 2009. “Burning all fossil fuels would create a different planet than the one that humanity knows. The paleoclimate record and ongoing climate change make it clear that the climate system would be pushed beyond tipping points, setting in motion irreversible changes, including ice sheet disintegration with a continually adjusting shoreline, extermination of a substantial fraction of species on the planet, and increasingly devastating regional climate extremes” and “this equates to 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs per day 365 days per year ” James Hansen et al. 2012 . Humanity is fast reaching our moment of truth. What Hansen, Schellnhuber and others have warned us is based on evidence consistent with the basic laws of science, the discipline which, contrary to medieval superstition, is founded on direct observations, calculat...

By Andrew Glikson Earth and climate scientist Australian National University As the concentration of atmospheric CO₂ has risen to 408 ppm and the total greenhouse gas level, including methane and nitrous oxide, combine to near 500 parts per million CO₂-equivalent , the stability threshold of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, currently melting at an accelerated rate , has been exceeded. The consequent expansion of tropics and the shift of climate zones toward the shrinking poles lead to increasingly warm and dry conditions under which fire storms, currently engulfing large parts of South America (Fig. 1), California, Alaska, Siberia, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Angola, Australia and elsewhere have become a dominant factor in the destruction of terrestrial habitats. Figure 1. Sensors on NASA satellites Terra and Aqua captured a record of thousands of points of fire in Brazil in late August. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory Since the 18th century, combustion of fossil fuels ha...

Blueprints of future climate trends Extreme GHG and temperature rise rates question linear climate projections Andrew Glikson Earth and climate scientist Australian National University geospec@iinet.net.au Abstract The extreme greenhouse gas (GHG) and temperature rise rates since the mid-1970th raise questions over linear climate projections for the 21st century and beyond. Under a rise of CO₂-equivalent reaching +500 ppm and 3.0 W/m⁻² relative to 1750, the current rise rates of CO₂ by 2.86 ppm per and recent global temperature rise rate ( 0.15-0.20°C per decade ) since 1975 are leading to an abrupt shift in state of the terrestrial climate and the biosphere. By mid-21st century at >750 ppm CO₂-e climate tipping points indicated by Lenton et al. 2008 and Schellnhuber 2009 are likely to be crossed. Melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets has increased by a factor of more than 5 since 1979–1990. As the ice sheets and sea ice melt, the albedo flip between reflecti...

Beyond climate tipping points Greenhouse gas levels exceed the stability limit of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets by Andrew Glikson Abstract The pace of global warming has been grossly underestimated. As the world keeps increasing its carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, rising in 2018 to a record 33.1 billion ton  of CO₂ per year, the atmospheric greenhouse gas level has now exceeded 560 ppm (parts per million) CO ₂ -e quivalent , namely when methane and nitrous oxide are included. This level surpasses the stability threshold of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The term “climate change”   is thus  no longer appropriate, since what is happening in the atmosphere-ocean system, accelerating over the last 70 years or so, is an abrupt calamity on a geological dimension, threatening nature and human civilization. Ignoring what the science says, the powers-that-be are presiding over the sixth mass extinction of species, including humanity. As conveyed by leading...