A planetary emergency
I’ve been calling that “in the pipeline” — as in, “we have .8°C warming now, and another .8°C is in the pipeline, inevitable.” The following illustrates this perfectly:
Another result is the likely release of large amounts of methane — a greenhouse gas — trapped in the permafrost under Greenland’s ice cap, the remains of the region’s organic plant and animal life that were trapped in sediment and later covered by ice sheets in the last Ice Age.
And finally, hello methane, and a fact you may want to stash away:
Methane is 25 times more efficient at trapping solar heat than carbon dioxide, and the released gases could in turn add to global warming, which in turn would free up more locked-up carbon.
And that’s your global climate report for today. Still to come — a review of our five-pronged approach to a solution and a preliminary to-do list.