Planetary Crises - Climate Change - Be Informed of Dangers

[Paul Kemp]

Burning 'Deep Purple': Australia So Hot
New Color Added to Index

Published on Tuesday, January 8, 2013 by Common Dreams
An 'unparalleled setting of new heat extremes' continues
CommonDreams.org- Jon Queally, staff writer

Deep purple... the Bureau of Meteorology's interactive weather forecasting chart has added new colors.
(Photo: Bureau of Meteorology)


Wild fires continue to rage across Australia Tuesday and temperatures have become so hot the country's Bureau of Meteorology was forced to add a new color—deep purple—to show areas that have exceeded all-time heat records.

Previously the Bureau's heat index was capped at 48°C (118.4°F), but now recorded temperatures of over 50°C (122°F) have pushed the limit of the scale to an unheard of 54°C, which is equivalent to 129°F.

‘‘We are well past the time of niceties, of avoiding the dire nature of what is unfolding, and politely trying not to scare the public."–Liz Hanna, climate scientists

"The scale has just been increased today and I would anticipate it is because the forecast coming from the bureau's model is showing temperatures in excess of 50 degrees," David Jones, head of the bureau's climate monitoring and prediction unit, told reporters.

Indicating that the worst may yet to come, Jones added that, "The air mass over the inland is still heating up - it hasn't peaked."

Climate scientists in Australia—with Jones among them—say the fires and the heat are unprecedented in scale and intensity, but that Australians should understand the destructive temperatures and ensuing fires across Tasmania and southern sections of the country are the new normal of runaway climate change.

‘The current heatwave – in terms of its duration, its intensity and its extent – is now unprecedented in our records,’’ Jones was quoted as saying in The Age.

‘‘Clearly, the climate system is responding to the background warming trend. Everything that happens in the climate system now is taking place on a planet which is a degree hotter than it used to be.’’

“Those of us who spend our days trawling – and contributing to – the scientific literature on climate change are becoming increasingly gloomy about the future of human civilization,’’ Liz Hanna, convener of the human health division at the Australian National University’s Climate Change Adaptation Network, told The Age in a separate interview.

‘‘We are well past the time of niceties, of avoiding the dire nature of what is unfolding, and politely trying not to scare the public," she said. "The unparalleled setting of new heat extremes is forcing the continual upwards trending of warming predictions for the future, and the timescale is contracting.’’

Responding to the news from Australia, The Guardian's Damian Carrington put the heat and fires in a global context:

We already know that climate change is loading the weather dice. Scientists have shown that the European heatwave of 2003, that caused over 40,000 premature deaths, was made at least twice as likely by climate change. The Russian heatwave of 2010, that killed 50,000 and wiped out $15bn of crops, was made three times as likely by global warming and led to the warmest European summer for 500 years.

The extreme weather forecast is even worse. Mega-heatwaves like these will become five to 10 times more likely over the next 40 years, occurring at least once a decade, scientists predict.

Work by the most authoritative group of scientists, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, found that it is 90% certain that heatwaves will increase further in length and severity, as will extreme high tides. It is 66% likely that hurricanes and typhoon winds will get faster and that intense rain will increase, as well as landslides. It is more likely than not that droughts will intensify in Europe, North and Central America and, most dangerously given the poverty there, Southern Africa. There are uncertainties of course, but the basic physics is that heat-trapping carbon emissions mean more energy is being pumped into the system, increasing climate chaos.

The two nations in which the fringe opinions of so-called climate sceptics have been trumpeted most loudly - the US and Australia - have now been hit by record heatwaves and, in the US, superstorm Sandy. The scientists are turning up the volume of their warnings, but whether this leads to loud and clear political action to curb emissions or more shouting from sceptics and the vested fossil fuel interests that support them remains to be seen.
According to the special bulletin (pdf) on the record heatwave from Australia's Bureau of Meteorology:

A particular feature of this heatwave event has been the exceptional spatial extent of high temperatures. The table below gives the national and state/territory average maximum temperature for each day of the heatwave event. Australia set a new record for the highest national area-average temperature, recording 40.33 °C and surpassing the previous record set on 21 December 1972 (40.17 °C). To date (data up to the 7 January 2013) the national area-average for each of the first 7 days of 2013 has been in the top 20 hottest days on record, with 6 January the fifth hottest on record and the first time 6 consecutive days over 39 °C has ever been recorded for Australia.










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[Paul Kemp]

Poisoned Planet: Doubling of Ocean Mercury Levels Threatens Global Health

Published on Tuesday, January 8, 2013 by Common Dreams
UN report exposes toxic legacy of coal, gold, and a world bent on extraction
CommonDreams.org- - Beth Brogan, staff writer

The world's rivers, lakes, and oceans are suffering the severe consequences of modern industrial mercury pollution, according to a new UN report, which also warns the health of the entire planet and its inhabitants face a perilous future if serious action is not soon taken.

Hundreds of tons of mercury from sources such as coal-fired power plants, gold mining and other industrial processes have seaped into the world's water systems over the past century, dramatically increasing health and environmental risks for people all over the world, according to the Global Mercury Assessment 2013 released Thursday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The report comes just days before representatives of countries are scheduled to meet in Geneva to discuss a proposed, legally-binding treaty to reduce global mercury emissions.

In July 2012, negotiators rejected a stand-alone article on health, contending that the treaty should be primarily focused on the environment. But advocates for stricter emissions restrictions say mercury poisoning is devastating those in developing nations, and demand the treaty address the health implications as well.

“Millions of people around the globe are exposed to mercury on a daily basis, in artisanal mining and elsewhere," said Juliane Kippenberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "There is a dire need for stronger prevention and treatment of mercury poisoning.”

Mercury, which accumulates in fish and climbs up the food chain, poses the greatest risk of nerve damage to pregnant women, women of childrearing age and young children, according to the AP.

Over the past 100 years, mercury in the top 100 meters of the world's oceans has doubled, according to the study. Waters deeper than that have seen mercury concentrations increase by 25 percent, and rivers and lakes contain an estimated 260 metric tons of mercury that was previously held in soils.

Uruguayan environmental affairs Minister Fernando Lugris, who chairs the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for the treaty talks, says the "time for action is now" is an interview that accompanied the UNEP report.

Lugris notes that because mercury pollution that occurs today will have long-lasting health impacts for years to come, it is "imperative that we act now to reduce future emissions and releases to the maximum extent possible in order to stop adding more to the global environment."

The Guardian reports that the health effects of mercury poisoning include "brain damage and the loss of IQ points in unborn children, injuries to kidneys and heart, and results in tens of billions of dollars in healthcare costs every year in the US alone."





Of the treaty under consideration at the International Negotiating Committee on Mercury (INC5) next week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marc A. Yaggi write in the Guardian:

Coal barons and mining magnates are profiting from poisoning the rest of us. As coal consumption dwindles in the US, these companies are exporting their deadly product to the rest of world. A recent report from World Resources Institute (WRI) estimates that almost 1,200 additional coal-fired plants are planned for development around the world.

But the mercury treaty is likely to call simply for reductions on a per facility basis, rather than an overall reduction in mercury emissions to air and and water. As a result, the treaty could legitimize increased mercury pollution as the number of coal-fired power plants increases globally. Moreover, there is no agreement that the treaty should even require existing facilities to apply the best available techniques to reduce mercury releases.


Those of us who care about public health and clean water, must stand strong and shame the spineless diplomats in Geneva into crafting a treaty that truly prevents the devastating environmental and public health impacts of mercury.






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[Paul Kemp]

Scientists Confirm: Arctic Sea Ice 'Collapse' at Our Door


Published on Friday, February 15, 2013 by Common Dreams
Warming planet and new evidence portend future of ice-free Arctic

- Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer

Arctic sea ice volume in 1000s of cubic kilometers (via Robinson)

The Arctic Sea is experiencing rapid ice loss at a pace so fast that the area will soon be ice-free in warmer months, scientists confirmed in a report this week—showing a collapse in total sea ice volume to one fifth of its level in 1980.

The alarming rate of melting was measured by the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 satellite, which uses new technology to measure the thickness of the sea ice in addition to how much of the region is covered.

While ice thickness is more difficult to see with the naked eye, its decline in volume is a harbinger of faster and more alarming ice loss, the scientists urged.

"Not only is the area getting smaller, but also its thickness is decreasing and making the ice more vulnerable to more rapid declines in the future," Christian Haas, a geophysicist at York University in Canada, told NBC News.

The Arctic sea already hit record lows in 2012 with the lowest amount of ice on record, covering only half the average area covered between 1979 and 2012.

The newly released data confirms earlier reports—which included data from NASA's ICESat satellite between 2003 to 2008—that the Arctic, which normally maintains vast amounts of ice throughout the year, may soon be ice-free during warmer months. Another team of scientists came to the same conclusion in September using the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) at the University of Washington’s Polar Science Center.

"As the satellite measurements show that not only the area decreases but also its thickness, it is actually becoming more likely that the ice will disappear sooner rather than later," Haas told NBC News.

Researchers published the study online in Geophysical Research Letters. "Other people had argued that 75 to 80 percent ice volume loss was too aggressive," said co-author Axel Schweiger in a press release. "What this new paper shows is that our ice loss estimates may have been too conservative, and that the recent decline is possibly more rapid."

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), commented on the new findings in a press release:

Arctic sea ice volume has declined by 36 per cent in the autumn and 9 per cent in the winter between 2003 and 2012, a UK-led team of scientists has discovered….

The findings confirm the continuing decline in Arctic sea-ice volume simulated by the Pan-Arctic Ice-Ocean Modelling & Assimilation System (PIOMAS), which estimates the volume of Arctic sea ice and had been checked using earlier submarine, mooring, and satellite observations until 2008.

BBC News adds more details:

The data gathered so far by Cryosat were compared with information compiled by the US space agency's (Nasa) Icesat spacecraft in the mid-2000s.

For autumn (October/November), the analysis found the Icesat years from 2003 to 2008 to have recorded an average volume of 11,900 cubic km.

But from 2010 to 2012, this average had dropped to 7,600 cu km - a decline of 4,300 cu km - as observed by Cryosat.

For winter (February/March), the 2003 to 2008 period saw an average of 16,300 cu km, dropping to 14,800 cu km between 2010 and 2012 - a difference of 1,500 cu km.

The smaller relative decline in winter volume highlights an interesting "negative feedback".

New record low Arctic sea ice extent, reached in September 2012, compared to the average
summer minimum extent for the last 30 years in yellow. Source: NASA

Monthly sea ice volume anomalies from 1979 to the present (Axel Schweiger / UW)

CommonDreams.org

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[Paul Kemp]

The Most Important Topic For 2013

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Published on Feb 5, 2013
Film Presented by John Massaria. The audio is part of a teleconference call between Russ Tanner (Global Skywatch) and Dane Wigington (WIWATS/Activist) These calls happen every Monday at 7 : 30 central time and can be accessed through Russ' fb page. Please join us!
Scientific Research explaining why they are spraying the sky's around the world. Learn and more importantly do something about the Chem trails being sprayed. Learn the details here in this short film. UN Environment Programme: 200 Species Extinct Every Day, Unlike Anything Since Dinosaurs Disappeared 65 Million Years Ago. According to the UN Environment Programme, the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the "natural" or "background" rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago.

I had to turn off comments because to many people (dis-informed people) were saying they don't seed or spray the sky's, and well... all I have to do is look up or look at the documents I have to show these are plain ignorant to facts and data. Maybe they are in denial.




Our Coming Environmental Catastrophe: Geoengineering and Weather Warfare


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Global Warming or a New Ice Age: Documentary Film

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Published on Jun 22, 2012
Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth's surface and atmosphere along with a posited commencement of glaciation. This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community, but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the scientific understanding of ice age cycles. In contrast to the global cooling conjecture, the current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled, but undergone global warming throughout the twentieth century.

Concerns about nuclear winter arose in the early 1980s from several reports. Similar speculations have appeared over effects due to catastrophes such as asteroid impacts and massive volcanic eruptions. A prediction that massive oil well fires in Kuwait would cause significant effects on climate was quite incorrect.

The idea of a global cooling as the result of global warming was already proposed in the 1990s. In 2003, the Office of Net Assessment at the United States Department of Defense was commissioned to produce a study on the likely and potential effects of a modern climate change, especially of a shutdown of thermohaline circulation. The study, conducted under ONA head Andrew Marshall, modelled its prospective climate change on the 8.2 kiloyear event, precisely because it was the middle alternative between the Younger Dryas and the Little Ice Age. The study caused controversy in the media when it was made public in 2004. However, scientists acknowledge that "abrupt climate change initiated by Greenland ice sheet melting is not a realistic scenario for the 21st century".

Currently, the concern that cooler temperatures would continue, and perhaps at a faster rate, has been observed to be incorrect by the IPCC. More has to be learned about climate, but the growing records have shown that the cooling concerns of 1975 have not been borne out.

As for the prospects of the end of the current interglacial (again, valid only in the absence of human perturbations): it isn't true that interglacials have previously only lasted about 10,000 years; and Milankovitch-type calculations indicate that the present interglacial would probably continue for tens of thousands of years naturally. Other estimates (Loutre and Berger, based on orbital calculations) put the unperturbed length of the present interglacial at 50,000 years. Berger (EGU 2005 presentation) believes that the present CO2 perturbation will last long enough to suppress the next glacial cycle entirely.

As the NAS report indicates, scientific knowledge regarding climate change was more uncertain than it is today. At the time that Rasool and Schneider wrote their 1971 paper, climatologists had not yet recognized the significance of greenhouse gases other than water vapor and carbon dioxide, such as methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons. Early in that decade, carbon dioxide was the only widely studied human-influenced greenhouse gas. The attention drawn to atmospheric gases in the 1970s stimulated many discoveries in future decades. As the temperature pattern changed, global cooling was of waning interest by 1979.

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[Paul Kemp]

A Growing Drought for Some, Flood Warnings for Others, says New Report


Published on Friday, March 22, 2013 by Common Dreams
'No relief in sight' says Spring forecast from NOAA
- Common Dreams staff

In a report released Thursday, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) warned that the drought that plagued the U.S. in 2012 will continue this year and that extreme weather—a mix of continued dryness in some areas, flooding in others and the destructive interplay of a warming world in general—is what farmers and U.S. residents should expect as the main growing season arrives.

"This outlook reminds us of the climate diversity and weather extremes we experience in North America, where one state prepares for flooding while neighboring states are parched, with no drought relief in sight," said Laura Furgione, deputy director of NOAA's National Weather Service.

As The Guardian reports:

Last year produced the hottest year since record keeping began more than a century ago, with several weeks in a row of 100+degree days. It also brought drought to close to 65% of the country by summer's end.

The cost of the drought is estimated at above $50bn, greater than the economic damage caused by hurricane Sandy.

According to NOAA, Fifty-one percent of the continental U.S.--primarily in the central and western regions--is already experiencing moderate to exceptional drought. "Drought conditions are expected to persist," the report said, "with new drought development, in California, the Southwest, the southern Rockies, Texas, and Florida."

Despite some large snowfalls--even those of late winter--the drought picture does not look good. In fact, most of the late season snowfall is likely to result in mild to severe flooding, but have little positive impact on the growing season.

"The drought that we accumulated over the last five or six years in the middle part of the country and also the south-west is going to take a long time to remove," said Furgione.

As The Guardian report adds, the prospect of another dry year is causing consternation in the midwest and along the Mississippi where falling water levels last year caused panic for those who live along and depend on the river:

A coalition of mayors from towns along the river visited Washington this week to press for funds to keep the waterway open.

"If the river is shut out, that's $300m a day that is affected by that in economic losses because you can not shift the traffic up and down the river," said Hyram Copeland, mayor of Vidalia, Louisiana.

Communities across the wheat and corn-growing areas, that took the brunt of last year's drought, had been looking for heavy snows and rains this winter to prime the land for the next planting season.

"The bottom line is we need a big spring because we do not have the buffer or carryover we did coming into 2012," Mark Svoboda, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center, told a forum on Wednesday.

However, the [NOAA] forecast suggests that big spring will not materialise.

CommonDreams.org

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