Tag: Climate chaos

  • The John James Newsletter 155

    The John James Newsletter 155

    To subscribe or unsubscribe email John
    What the US government is doing in Syria is tantamount to a war of aggression, which, according to the Nuremberg Tribunal, is the worst possible crime a State can commit against another State
    Father Miguel D’Escoto
    People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster
    James Baldwin

    South Florida’s Rising Seas – Sea Level Rise Documentary 

    we all need to plan for this future. Florida keys is only a few feet above SLT, just like Barmagui another parts of Australia.

    Earth Under Water – Worldwide Flooding | Sea Level Rise 

    Everywhere exposed cities and agricultural land will be flooded. Meltwater Rie pulse 1A 5m+ or 16 feet in a century. By 2100 coastal cities will nkow they are doomed.

    Antarctic contribution to meltwater pulse 1A from reduced Southern Ocean overturning

    Giant iceberg poised to break off from Antarctic shelf 

    Predicted to be one of the largest break-offs ever recorded, separation of iceberg could trigger breakup of most northern major ice shelf, Larsen C. A thread of just 20km of ice is now preventing the 5,000 sq km mass from floating away, following the sudden expansion last month of a rift that has been steadily growing for more than a decade. “It just makes the whole shelf less stable. If it were to collapse there would be nothing holding the glaciers up and they would start to flow quite quickly indeed.”
     
     

    Is that a Black Hole or a hole in the data?

    How to quickly spot dodgy science.
    To spot false information
    The US government is creating a new $160 million bureaucracy to shut down information that doesn’t conform to U.S. propaganda narratives, building on the strategy that sold the bloody Syrian “regime change”

    Most Important Videos Uploaded In December 2016

    *  Peter Wadhams interview Farewell to Arctic Ice
    *  Mark Jacobson presentation How the Future of Energy Impacts the Future of Our Cities
    *  Paul Beckwith video Abrupt Climate Disrupting Arctic Changes
    *  Peter Wadhams also in video interview for ExtinctionRadio
    *   Guy McPherson presentation 22 December.

    Earths past was much hotter

    Today global land temperature stands at 14.8C where the most common has been 7C hotter – far too hot for us

    Morality vs Ethics: the problem with trolleys 

    Many people – even many philosophers – think that morality and ethics are the same thing. But they are not. Morality is primarily about making correct choices, while ethics is about proper reasoning. Should you kill the fat man?
    and

    Fresh doubt over global warming ‘pause’

    When the researchers corrected the data to take the “cold bias” into account, they concluded that the oceans had warmed 0.12C per decade since 2000, nearly twice as fast as previous estimates of 0.07 degrees. The warming experienced in the first 15 years of the 21st Century was “virtually indistinguishable” from the rate of warming between 1950-99, a time generally acknowledged to have seen significant rates of warming from human emissions of CO2. The study did not go down well with climate sceptics and US House of Representatives subpoenaed the author’s emails which Noaa refused to hand over.

    Population growth masking weak economy, making households worse off

    One of the economic arguments that has been used to support current immigration rates has been that it helps offset an ageing population. However, the Commonwealth Bank report noted that this is only “kicking the can down the road”, with the current working age migrants themselves ageing and leaving the workforce 20, 30 or 40 years from now.

    When hoping for population decline

    It is worth remembering what happened to the numbers of the St Matthew Island reindeer herd in the late 1960s.

    Record-breaking extreme weather in Australia in 2016 devastates ecosystems

    Bureau of Meteorology’s annual climate statement cites unprecedented bushfires in regions that don’t usually burn and worst coral bleaching on record, and has been attributed as the cause of damage to vast tracts of crucial kelp forests, oyster farms and salmon stocks across southern Australia.

    A well-kept open secret: Washington is behind India’s brutal experiment of abolishing most cash

    In early November, without warning, the Indian government declared the two largest denomination bills invalid, abolishing over 80 percent of circulating cash by value. Amidst all the commotion and outrage this caused, nobody seems to have taken note of the decisive role that Washington played in this. That is surprising, as Washington’s role has been disguised only very superficially.

    Changing the Global Food Narrative

    The dominant story about the future of the world food supply is logical, well known and wrong. Changing Diets, Not Population Growth, is the Dominant Driver of Food Demand

    Climate change is going to be very bad for the global economy

    But by analyzing temperatures alone we have more precise estimates of how climate change could affect the economy. It turns out that temperature has a surprisingly consistent effect on different economic inputs: labor supply, labor productivity, and crop yields all drop off dramatically between 20°C and 30°C.

    Nearing exit, Obama seeks to tie Trump’s hands

    Obama has also permanently banned oil and gas drilling across large swaths of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, closed off 1.6 million acres of Western land to development and scrapped the last vestiges of a registration system used largely on Muslim immigrants.

    ‘The Greatest Single Step’ to help Elephants

    In ‘game-changing’ development, China announces it will ban all domestic ivory trade by end of 2017.

    History suggests Australia could be left behind by the next industrial revolution 

    There’s a new industrial revolution just around the corner, driven by artificial intelligence and robotics. Deterioration within the key institutions of suffrage, education, and land policy indicate that Australia may be left behind this time.

    NATO’s Playbook Of Proxy Wars In The Middle East

    Since the times of the Soviet-Afghan jihad, during the eighties, it has been the fail-safe game plan of the master strategists at NATO to raise money from the oil-rich emirates of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Kuwait; then buy billions of dollars’ worth of weapons from the arms’ markets of the Eastern Europe; and then provide those weapons and guerilla warfare training to the disaffected population of the victim country by using the intelligence agencies of the latter’s regional adversaries. Whether it’s Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, Libya or Syria, the same playbook has been executed to the letter.

    What Kerry Did

    What set off the firestorm was that Kerry dared to publicly and forcefully criticize Israeli policy. And that was what the overreaction intended to snuff out. The standard Israeli approach used in situations of this sort is to launch a campaign of intimidation designed to pummel the offender into submission and to discourage others from taking similar course.

    2016 was a great year for wind and solar, even if nobody noticed.

    Renewable energy’s gains this year were incremental and unglamorous. In the US, the amount of residential solar installed rose, with no limits in sight. Utilities built solar projects in record-breaking numbers.

    The future of nuclear power runs on the waste of our nuclear past

    The conventional nuclear power method involves inserting radioactive rods into a reactor core where their fissionable material is converted into energy. Problem is, it’s not particularly efficient. Over the four years or so that a rod will remain in use, only about three percent of its available nuclear material is expended, leaving 97% as “waste.” And since nobody seems particularly willing to just fling it into the Sun, this waste must be disposed of in a nuclear repository. Over the past forty years or so, the US has generated 67,500 metric tons of the stuff—enough to cover a football field with spent fuel rods to a depth of seven yards. But what if there were a way to recycle the waste and recapture the remaining energy?

    Preview YouTube video Earth Under Water – Worldwide Flooding | Sea Level Rise (SLR)

  • India backs Adani despite slowdown in demand for coal

    India backs Adani despite slowdown in demand for coal

    cage_adaniRecent ABC reports that India is stepping away from coal fail to understand the nuanced report by the Central Electricity Agency (CEA) that predicts falling demand for new coal power. Their report indicates that the government has overestimated general economic growth and individual demand for electricity. Despite this, the government intends to proceed with its Ultra Mega Power Plants projects to rapidly expand India’s coal fired electricity and general electricity consumption. The Paris-based International Energy Agency predicts that India will double coal consumption in the next five years, despite a global slowdown led by China, which consumes half the world’s coal.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-19/india’s-plan-to-step-away-from-coal-casts-doubt-on-adani-mine/8131240

    http://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2016/dec/12/indias-coal-demand-to-see-biggest-growth-globally-iea-1548302.html

    Indicating a significant shift in the Indian power sector, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has, in its National Electricity Plan (2017-2022), said the country does not need any more coal-based capacity addition till 2022. CEA said India would add massive renewable-based capacity.

    http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/india-does-not-need-more-coal-based-capacity-addition-till-2022-central-electricity-authority-116121300042_1.html

  • Marrakech ends up-beat despite lack of leaders

    Marrakech ends up-beat despite lack of leaders

    COP22 in Marrakech
    COP22 in Marrakech tries to enact Paris in a hostile climate

    The Climate Change Conference in Marrakech ended on Sunday with 111 countries confirming their commitment to the agreement hammered out in Paris one year ago. “Paris was the deal, Marrakech is the detail,” said Salaheddine Mezouar noting that the conference had accelerated the implementation timetable agreed at COP21 in Paris.

    Among the highlights, delegates from Australia and the UK presented a finance roadmap showing an annual expenditure of 100billion US dollars to fund climate action and local government officials committed to one gigaton of Carbon Dioxide reductions annually in addition to those commitments already made by national governments.

    Cop 23 will be held in Bonn, Germany with Fiji as the presiding nation.

    http://www.expressnews.com/business/national/article/Momentum-on-climate-change-poses-hurdle-for-Trump-10626038.php

    http://cop22.ma/en/#actualites/salaheddine-mezouar-and-cop22-steering-committee-take-stock-on-climate-action-in-marrakech

    https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/opinion/what-local-and-regional-government-leaders-at-cop22-can-teach-the-world/

    http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/11/cop22-liveblog/

  • Warming worsens as world wanders into Marrakech

    Warming worsens as world wanders into Marrakech

    COP22 in Marrakech
    COP22 in Marrakech tries to enact Paris in a hostile climate

    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 and temperature records being broken all around the world, many commentators have called on people to shift gear away from trying to prevent climate chaos and start planning how to survive it.

    Speakers at Marrakech conference have criticised this approach as well as the denial of world leaders trying to prop up unstable economies.

    Scientists have warned that without drastic and concerted action by governments temperatures will rise between five and eight degrees Celsius.

     

    The Arctic ice pack is packing in 

    Arctic sea ice regrowth this winter is truly horrible, with 13 metre waves breaking up what thin fragile ice remains. We are heading to zero sea ice. With two must-see videos.

    http://arctic-news.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/less-sea-ice-warmer-arctic-ocean.html

    http://motherboard.vice.com/read/arctic-sea-ice-is-struggling-to-reform-in-record-hot-temperatures

    The Paris Deal Dooms the Planet to Climate Change Chaos

    Environmental organizations and activists continue to slam the agreement for doing too little too late and dooming the world to climate chaos, here are five things you should know about the COP21 climate deal.

    http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/5-Ways-the-COP21-Deal-Dooms-the-Planet-to-Climate-Change-Chaos-20151214-0015.html

    Harsh Criticism of False Climate Solutions 

    The world’s largest social movement blasted world leaders Monday for promoting “false solutions” to the global environmental crisis and disguising ongoing crimes against humanity as a commitment to climate action as the COP22 world climate meeting kicked off in Marrakech, Morocco, on the heels of last year’s Paris summit.

    http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Harsh-Criticism-of-False-Climate-Solutions-Overshadows-COP22-20161107-0003.html

    and

    https://corporateeurope.org/pressreleases/2015/12/activists-call-out-false-climate-solutions-paris

    Game Over? Warming Is Still Underestimated

    Researchers say “business as usual” could actually put planet on track for 4.78°C to 7.36°C rise by 2100. Because the climate has “substantially higher sensitivity” to greenhouse gases during warm phases, within the 21st century, global mean temperatures will very likely exceed maximum levels for the last 784,000 years.

    http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/11/10/game-over-climate-report-warns-warming-still-underestimated

     

  • Climate chaos outpaces all predictions

    Climate chaos outpaces all predictions

    Hundreds of scientists, including 30 Nobel Prize winners have published an open letter to governmclimate_chaos_cote_graph_2013ents 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 large sections of humanity.

    Hillary Clinton, for example, has not mentioned climate change once since receiving the endorsement of Bernie Sanders.

     

    Top scientists warn of ‘real, serious, immediate’ climate threat

    375 of the world’s top scientists, including 30 Nobel Prize winners, published an open letter: the evidence is clear that humans are causing climate change. The seas are rising, the oceans are warming, the lower atmosphere is warming, the land is warming, ice is melting, rainfall patterns are changing and the ocean is becoming more acidic. These facts are incontrovertible. No reputable scientist disputes them. It is the truth. Despite these facts, the letter reports that the US presidential campaign has seen claims that the earth isn’t warming, or it is only a natural warming, or that climate change is a hoax. These claims are false. The claims are made by politicians or real estate developers with no scientific experience. These people who deny the reality of climate change are not scientists.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/sep/21/375-top-scientists-warn-of-real-serious-immediate-climate-threat

     

    Greenland Ice Sheet

    Melt area in 2015 exceeded more than half of the ice sheet on July 4th for the first time since the exceptional melt events of July 2012, and was above the 1981-2010 average on 50 of 92 days. The length of the melt season was as much as 30-40 days longer than average in some areas.

    http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/greenland_ice_sheet.html

     

    Much of Greenland is rising far more rapidly than thought

    This means 19 cubic kilometres more ice is falling into the sea each year, an increase of about 8% on earlier figures. The faster rebound is thought to be the result of hotter, more elastic mantle rocks under eastern Greenland, a remnant from 40m years ago when the island passed over the hot spot that now powers Iceland’s volcanoes.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/21/greenlands-huge-annual-ice-loss-is-even-worse-than-thought

    NASA: Earth is warming at a pace ‘unprecedented in 1,000 years’

    Records of temperature that go back far further than 1800s suggest warming of recent decades is out of step with any period over the past millennium. This year has already seen scorching heat around the world, with the average global temperature peaking at 1.38C above levels experienced in the 19th century. Just five more years of C02 emissions at current levels will virtually wipe out any chance of restraining runaway climate change.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/30/nasa-climate-change-warning-earth-temperature-warming

     

    What Factors Determine Earth’s Climate? 

    https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/faq-1-1.html

     

     

    Hillary Clinton ‘dropped climate change from speeches after Bernie Sanders endorsement’

    While the presidential candidate talks regularly about her plan for the US to become a “clean energy superpower”, in recent months she has rarely made reference to the planetary crisis that necessitates it. On Monday, when she launched her pitch to millennials online, she could find no room for an issue that will affect that voting cohort more than any other.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/20/hillary-clinton-dropped-climate-change-from-speeches-after-bernie-sanders-endorsement

  • Indonesian fires responsible for 100,000 deaths

    Indonesian fires responsible for 100,000 deaths

    Indonesian forest fires in September 2015
    Indonesia is the sixth largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world

    Indonesian agribusiness interests are responsible for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths from the after effects of smoke from last year’s forest fires, according to a report released by Harvard University this week.

    This time last year, the smoke haze from the fires blanketed South East Asia, diverting aircraft and causing illness in countries from Malaysia to the Philippines and New Guinea.

    The Harvard University study identified the tiny smoke particles, less than 2.5mirons in diameter as reaching deep into the lungs and bloodstream of humans, causing a long list of ailments such as decreased lung function, heart attack, aggravated asthma, and premature death.

     

    satellite image of forest fires
    The 2015 fires caused widespread disruption at the time

    Agricultural fires in Indonesia linked to 100,000 premature deaths

    Fires associated with palm oil and timber are mostly to blame. Smoke haze from agricultural fires may have caused more than 100,000 premature deaths across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore last fall

     

    https://thinkprogress.org/indonesia-fires-linked-to-hundreds-of-thousands-of-deaths-9ea759a4fcdb#.kx7vuz4tx

    http://www.monbiot.com/2015/10/30/nothing-to-see-here/