The atmosphere is to the earth as a layer of varnish is to a desktop globe. It is thin, fragile and essential for preserving the items on the surface.150 years of burning fossil fuel have overloaded the atmosphere to the point where the earth is ill. It now has a fever. Read the detailed article, Soothing Gaia’s Fever for an evocative account of that analogy. The items listed here detail progress on coordinating 6.5 billion people in the most critical project undertaken by humanity.Â
One year after Paris, the annual Conference of Partners (COP22) is being held in Marrakech with nations meeting to hammer out a series of protocols designed to limit dangerous climate chaos. With the lowest ever coverage of Arctic Sea Ice in the recent northern summer, polar temperatures overpowering the La Nina in the South Pacific Continue Reading →
NASA released this week an animation demonstrating the shrinking of the Arctic ice cap. The impact on European and North American weather systems is likely to be dramatic. The full background and other graphical information is available at the NASA website
At over 400 parts per million, atmospheric CO2 levels are now as high a 3 million years in the Pliocene period. At that time, the world was 3C warmer; oceans were 8 to 25 metres higher, and the world was a dramatically different place. The West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are melting at double the Continue Reading →
Following a summer of intense drought the forests of Siberia are burning in a climate altering event that is one of the original tipping points predicted by NASA scientists. Over 2 million hectares of forest have burned in the last six months, four times the area incinerated in Australia’s Black Saturday fires in 2009. The Continue Reading →
Over thirty countries around the world reported water shortages in the last week. From permanent and life threatening water shortages in Mombasa Kenya through imminent disaster in Pakistan to the ongoing drama of finding enough water for Northern Florida the fragility of water supplies is increasingly in the news. Falling water tables cause failures in Continue Reading →
Hundreds of scientists, including 30 Nobel Prize winners have published an open letter to governments pointing out that recent data indicates climate chaos is happening much faster than predicted and major economic and political disruption is inevitable. The 375 scientists openly criticise major world leaders for ignoring climate change and thereby risking significant harm to Continue Reading →