The climate tipping points are here – when will NZ wake up?

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The greatest climate tipping points that will cause catastrophic destruction to the global weather system are a mass methane release from permafrost (and from the ocean) alongside the shutting down of the Atlantic Ocean circulation.

Unfortunately, both those things are now here…

Atlantic Ocean circulation at weakest in a millennium, say scientists

Siberia’s enormous hole in the ground is getting bigger

…once the methane in permafrost is triggered, it causes a cascade event that can’t be stopped that would pump gigatonnes of methane into the atmosphere sparking an 8 degree  spike in temperatures for a decade which would melt all remaining Greenland Ice which would dump billions of litres of fresh water into the Labrador Sea which would ultimately shut down the Atlantic Ocean circulation which would then plunge the Northern Hemisphere into an Ice Age.

That’s why going Carbon Neutral in 30 years is such a fucking joke.

Unfortunately, rather than advocating for radical adaptation of our society, economy and community to prepare for the looming environmental collapse,  our Green Party is too focused on banning Gay conversion, ensuring any man accused of rape gets found guilty and virtue signalling Climate Emergencies that don’t actually trigger emergency powers.

The current political spectrum and total focus on middle class woke mantra will shatter once the enormities of what we face sink into the NZ populace…

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

‘Existential threat to our survival’: see the 19 Australian ecosystems already collapsing

In what may be the most comprehensive evaluation of the environmental state of play in Australia, we show major and iconic ecosystems are collapsing across the continent and into Antarctica. These systems sustain life, and evidence of their demise shows we’re exceeding planetary boundaries.

…when the panic sets in, let us turn on the political class first with vengeance for their petty tyrannies.

The current political spectrum in New Zealand can not radically adapt fast enough to adopt the changes we must make if we are to survive the climate crisis. It will require a radical Political Movement that elects a Party to implement Fortress Aotearoa…

  • Move away from intensive farming and look to become domestically self sustainable in terms of food.
  • Immediately ban all water exports
  • 5 year Parliamentary term.
  • Upper and Lower House (Upper House 50-50 split between Māori & Pakeha that can hold up legislation if unhappy about Treaty issues)
  • Massive investment into R&D from Government with the understanding research is to benefit NZ first before sold offshore.
  • Large scale increase in Navy, Army & Airforce.
  • Mass limiting of tourism numbers with increased tourist taxes.
  • Only citizens can vote.
  • Sustainable immigration and an end to exploitative migrant workers.
  • Resettlement Programms for all pacific island neighbours.
  • Increase refugee in take to 10000 per year
  • Fully funded public services.
  • Mass Green housing rebuild.
  • 100% renewable energy for entire country.
  • Massive tree planting across previous farming land.
  • Wholesale re-write of state services act to end commercial values.
  • Investment into basic pharmaceutical production.
  • Financial transaction tax
  • Wealth tax
  • Multinational tax
  • Inheritance tax

As the climate crisis unfolds more and more people in fury will turn against the current political system too wedded to the economic profits margins of the polluters. It is just a matter of time before the NZ electorate rejects the limitations of the current political spectrum.

In 2023, for the first time in NZs history, Gen X + Gen Y will be a larger voting block than the Boomers.

The revolution starts in 2023.

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22 COMMENTS

  1. Is that comment saying we need to deal to CC or that we can use CC as an excuse for massive social engineering?

  2. Absolutely spot on, Martyn.

    Unfortunately it will not be until there is a major climate-related catastrophe in NZ that people will take the matter seriously. As long as it’s sea ice in the Arctic melting, or permafrost disintegrating in Siberia, or poor Asians dying in floods and storms, most people in NZ won’t budge from their demand for a life of luxury and convenience.

    Even when there is a major climate-related catastrophe in NZ, the major parties won’t budge from their economic bullshit mantra because they are in awe and fear of global banks and corporations, and banks and corporations demand infinite-growth-on-a-finite planet, even though that is both mathematically and ecologically impossible.

    The Greeds have been , and continue to be, worse-then-useless for similar reasons.

    The good news is, economic collapse is underway, and the old institutions that act as road blocks to genuine progress will be wiped out over the coming years. It might even be this year if the central banks lose control of the money flows.

    All western nations have gone down similar, idiotic, economic paths and similar, idiotic, monetary policy paths, in futile attempts to prop up a system that is predicated on turning fossil fuels into waste, thereby buggering up the planet in every way possible.

    So it is good to see failure of the system:

    https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2021/02/09/london-the-first-global-city-to-fail/

    even though we don’t know what will replace it.

  3. Germany sees an increase of 41.9 degrees temperature in one week.
    Unseasonable European Warmth Smashes All-Time February Temperature Records Winter has receded in Europe this week. Temperature records are falling as unseasonably warm weather sweeps across the continent delivering an early spring thaw, even while neighboring Russia is simultaneously going through a deep freeze.

    The shocking weather pattern began to creep across the continent earlier this week, but has reached a fever pitch on Thursday as some countries’ all-time February high temperature records tumble. It was particularly balmy in Sweden on Thursday. An area in the country’s southeast recorded a high of 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius), the highest temperature in Sweden ever recorded in February. Though not the hottest temperature recorded in Europe, it’s jarring to see the mercury climb that high for a country synonymous with cold weather. https://earther.gizmodo.com/unseasonable-european-warmth-smashes-all-time-february-1846357348?fbclid=IwAR32Dc9i_kSn-TtYN5JKQ5q28lJ3GSfeV-TA7NG4QclO4FUDympwLOhGh4A

    Germany sees record temperature swings https://thewest.com.au/news/environment/germany-sees-record-temperature-swings-ng-s-2050779

    Texas snowstorms are due to rapid heating of the Arctic, say scientists

    A warming Arctic Circle could be responsible for bursts of cold weather in the south. https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/texas-snowstorm-arctic

  4. “In 2023, for the first time in NZs history, Gen X + Gen Y will be a larger voting block than the Boomers.”

    Who cares if they are just going to vote back in Labour + Greens. We need a new political vehicle to back. This version of a left wing government is an embarrassment.

    • There are , interestingly, quite a few social democrats writing columns in this time. Italy has just created a technocrat govt. I don’t think there is a mechanism for that here but I would definitely prefer Rod Oram, Bernard Hickey and Adrian Orr running things to limp labour.

  5. Snowstorms, the breach of the Arctic vortex and the effects of ice meltwater on the oceans

    by Andrew Glikson
    Warnings by leading climate scientists regarding the high sensitivity of the atmosphere in response to abrupt compositional changes, such as near-doubling of greenhouse gas concentrations, are now manifest: According to Wallace Broecker, (the “father” of climate science) “The paleoclimate record shouts out to us that, far from being self-stabilizing, the Earth’s climate system is an ornery beast which overreacts to even small nudges, and humans have already given the climate a substantial nudge”. As stated by James Zachos, “The Paleocene hot spell should serve as a reminder of the unpredictable nature of climate”.

    As snowstorms such as the “Beast from the East” (2018) and “Storm Darcy” (2021) sweep the northern continents, reaching Britain and as far south as Texas and Greece, those who still question the reality and consequences of global climate change, including in governments, may rejoice as if they have a new argument to question global warming.

    However, as indicated by the science, these fronts result from a weakened circum-Arctic jet stream boundary due to decreased temperature polarity between the Arctic Circle and high latitude zones in Europe, Russia and North America. The reduced contrast allows migration of masses of cold Arctic air southward and of tropical air northward across the weakened jet stream boundary, indicating a fundamental shift in the global climate pattern. http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2021/02/snowstorms-breach-of-arctic-vortex-and-the-effects-of-ice-meltwater-on-the-oceans.html

    The extreme rate at which the global warming and the shift of climate zones are taking place virtually within a period less than one generation-long, faster than major past warming events such as at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary 56 million years ago, renders the term “climate change” hardly appropriate, since what we are looking at is a sudden and abrupt event.

    According to Giger (2021) “Tipping points could fundamentally disrupt the planet and produce abrupt change in the climate. A mass methane release could put us on an irreversible path to full land-ice melt, causing sea levels to rise by up to 30 meters. We must take immediate action to reduce global warming and build resilience with these tipping points in mind.”

  6. I’ve just been reading Wikipedia on the Younger Dryas . Causes most probable seem to have changed in the last few years, but human emissions don’t seem to feature much in either the onset or the termination. What is revealed is the multitude of different theories about what might have initiated and terminated it; the speed of it’s onset and of it’s termination, and the evidence that it was not an unusual at all but one of a series of everlasting cooling and warming. The earth’s climate is constantly changing. If it isn’t warming it is cooling. The Idea that we can either cause it or for god’s sake prevent it is reminiscent of King Canute.
    The climate will do what it will do. Constantly in the past changes has caused life a lot of trouble and many extinctions and that is likely to continue especially in the precariously artificial environment we have created for ourselves ,but life goes on. Crop failures and starvation are a feature of cooling periods; warming periods have been times of plenty. We are in much more danger of global cooling than warming.
    D J S

    • And yet, temperatures continue to rise…

      “Given the size and tremendous heat capacity of the global oceans, it takes a massive amount of heat energy to raise Earth’s average yearly surface temperature even a small amount. The 2-degree increase in global average surface temperature that has occurred since the pre-industrial era (1880-1900) might seem small, but it means a significant increase in accumulated heat. That extra heat is driving regional and seasonal temperature extremes, reducing snow cover and sea ice, intensifying heavy rainfall, and changing habitat ranges for plants and animals—expanding some and shrinking others. ”

      ref: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature

      • Do you really believe that the total global average temperature was measured or can now be assessed within 2 degrees 200 years ago Frank? i don’t.
        D J S

        • David, I’m no mechanic. When my car motor starts making funny noises, I take it to an expert; someone who has spent several years learning their craft.

          When carbon dioxide, ocean acidification, and temperatures all start to rise, I look to climate scientists for answers.

          Past temperatures and CO2 levels can be measured. We have the techniques for this.

          This is not a matter of belief. It’s physics and in the grand scheme of things the Universe doesn’t really hinge on our beliefs.

          As a point of interest, this won’t be the first time living organisms have radically changed the atmosphere of this planet.

        • Furthermore, David…

          Don’t you find it interesting that whilst their is a vociferous voice that denies the science behind climate change – that no such contrariness exists against things like plate techtonics or the asteroid/comet that bashed into Earth 65 million years ago, annihilating most dinosaurs?

          Why is that do you think? Climate change, plate techtonics, and the killer asteroid/comet can’t be directly viewed by the naked human eye. Two involve long-term processes that only scientific instruments, oceanic buoys, and satellites can detect. The only, inferred by discoveries that implicate a celestial collision.

          I’ll tell you why. Money.

          The great “boogey man” of the Right and Nationalists is George Soros. But you’ll not find One Single Criticism from those same Soros critics against the Koch Bros. Yet, both are billionaires, both donate to various causes.

          The difference between Soros and the Kochs ends there. The latter does it for pure, personal profit. Ie, to protect their vast personal fossil fuel empire. Let me illustrate;

          Greenpeace:

          “Koch Family Foundations have spent $145,555,197 directly financing 90 groups that have attacked climate change science and policy solutions, from 1997-2018.”

          Ref: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/climate-deniers/koch-industries/

          The New Yorker:

          “If there is any lingering uncertainty that the Koch brothers are the primary sponsors of climate-change doubt in the United States, it ought to be put to rest by the publication of “Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America,” by the business reporter Christopher Leonard. This seven-hundred-and-four-page tome doesn’t break much new political ground, but it shows the extraordinary behind-the-scenes influence that Charles and David Koch have exerted to cripple government action on climate change.”

          Ref: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/kochland-examines-how-the-koch-brothers-made-their-fortune-and-the-influence-it-bought

          The New York Times

          “Koch Industries realized early on that it would be a financial disaster for the firm if the American government regulated carbon emissions or made companies pay a price for releasing carbon into the atmosphere. The effects of such a policy would be measured over decades for Koch. The company has billions of dollars sunk into the complex and expensive infrastructure of crude-oil processing. If a limit on greenhouse gas emissions were imposed, it could dampen demand for oil and diminish the value of those assets and their future sales. The total dollar losses would likely be measured in trillions over a period of 30 years or more.”

          Ref: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/opinion/sunday/david-koch-climate-change.html

          The Guardian

          “The Koch brothers profited handsomely from fossil fuels, and had a strong hand in muddying the debate around global warming, having spent more than ExxonMobil on funding climate denial. David Koch himself, asked whether climate change was real, would say only that “climate does fluctuate”. Carbon regulation posed a significant financial threat to the Kochs, and they supported “perhaps the earliest known organized conference of climate-change deniers, which gathered just as the scientific consensus on the issue was beginning to gel”. They helped to derail efforts at regulating carbon, and Kert Davies, the founder and director of Climate Investigations Center, has concluded that “you’d have a carbon tax, or something better, today, if not for the Kochs. They stopped anything from happening back when there was still time.” There may be planet-wide consequences to the political meddling of these two men.”

          Ref: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/28/the-koch-brothers-tried-to-build-a-plutocracy-in-the-name-of-freedom

          Now, if you want to line up behind profit-seeking, money-hoarding, astro-turfing oligarchs, that’s your call.

          Me, I’ll back the science any day.

          • I am not lining up behind anyone Frank. It’s all on my own responsibility for my opinions. But you could look who gains from the popular narrative of the day too.
            It may not surprise you that I have questions about some aspects of accepted plate tectonic theory as well. Can you explain what was going on on the vast majority of the surface of the earth when all the continents were collected up in one spot or other during the periods of Gondwanaland and the other groupings. They seem to me to demand an explanation of why they should all collect up in one spot and then spread out to a much more understandable even distribution over the globe that they mow occupy. It seems it would need the moon at close proximity to be orbiting in sinch with the earth’s rotation to drag them all onto one spot; or something of that sort.
            The science is far from certain except by non scientists. There is contradictory evidence for all hypotheses . I have just been in Wikipedia following up on a comment AFKTT made on snowball earth. and the amount of CO2 that has to be postulated to have come from volcanos to produce enough CO2 for CO2 to have been what brought us out of that. Especially in the light of the claim that nowadays volcanos both on land and under the sea produce 1000x less than we are producing (so they say), As above the competing theories and evidence are endless. To say the science is settled is simply untrue. And shouting at the top of your laptop in big blue letters about the Koch Brothers isn’t any argument at all.
            D J S

          • Did you happen to see thishttps://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/river-thames-frozen-teddington-lock-uk-temperatures-b919654.html
            D J S

          • And from the Mirror”Even some parts of the sea froze over and it is believed to be the coldest winter since 1740.”
            We haven’t been hearing about this have we! Only Texas. It’s widespread in the Northern hemisphere; Skating on the canals in Holland. Exceptional snow building damage in Moscow , unusual cold in China . The” science “is coming under pressure from the observations .
            D J S

          • If only there was a bigger theatre for truths like yours.

            An activist pro-democratic pro-rational TV channel. To go along with a similar political party. Far, far too much passivity for our vital values.

            The only political belief system since ’84 has been the virtue of letting the rich have their way.

          • Nice try Frank but David prefers his own unscientific beliefs (based on refuting the the actual evidence) over any proper scientific argument.

            I’ve trued and tried over a period of many years, and failed.

            It’s a bit like trying to convince a ‘true believer’ that God didn’t make the world in seven days, and that Noah’s Flood didn’t engulf the entire world.

            No matter what evidence is presented, David will insist he is right and all the scientists are wrong.

            I was thinking about this persistent refusal to accept evidence earlier today; it’s as if a deaf-and-blind man insists he is the only one marching in time with the music and everyone else is out of time.

            PRATT. Proven Ridiculous A Thousand Times.

            It makes no difference. David is utterly immune to evidence and will be back next time spouting utter nonsense again about CO2 not causing warming, or warming occurring before CO2 increases, or water vapour or some other nonsense.

            Provided with evidence David just shrugs it off.

            Anything but the truth, in fact.

            In that he has many compatriots and accomplices. The truth -that industrial humans are responsible for wrecking the planet- is unacceptable and therefore must be stamped on, if not stamped out.

      • People used to talk of the climate forcing of excess atmospheric CO2 as being the equivalent of 400 Hiroshima atomic bombs every day.

        I guess we must be up to the equivalent of about 420 Hiroshima atomic bombs a day now.

        Who needs a planet to live on when we’ve got ‘The Real Housewives of Hollywood’ and ‘Tattoos After Dark’ to watch Just waiting for The Real Housewives of Remuera and Tattoos on Takapuna Beach to appear on our screens. Considerably less damaging than ‘Top Gear’, if just as inane.

        • I often think that ‘The Real Housewives of Hollywood’, ‘Tattoos After Dark’,‘The Batchelor’, ‘The Batchelorette’, ‘Married At First Sight’, ‘The Block’, etc, etc, et bloody nauseum, are what we feed the masses to (a) keep them drooling and (b)… well, there is no ‘B’, just keep’em drooling.

          When is the last time we had an investigative doco on TV 1 or TV3 that grabbed our attention? Aside from “Inside Child Poverty” and follow-ups by Bryan Bruce? Nope, I can’t remember either…

  7. The “Everything Collapse” Continues: One-Third Of All Freshwater Fish Are Facing Extinction
    http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/the-everything-collapse-continues-one-third-of-all-freshwater-fish-are-facing-extinction/?fbclid=IwAR3F1EqoYX4E6olds8Br4dXfnqhM7-Uhk-x7FqKpcVkbyp3WFNbFsGJWKcg

    It isn’t just the economy that is collapsing. We live at a time when our entire planet and all of the systems that it supports are in the process of failing. There are many out there that believe that if we can just reduce global temperatures a bit that everything will be just fine, but that is a complete and utter fantasy. The truth is that everything is collapsing because of our self-destructive behavior, and we won’t be altering that self-destructive behavior any time soon. There are others that are in a state of denial about what is happening, and they continue to promote the fairytale that everything is going to be just wonderful and that a new golden era of prosperity for humanity is right around the corner. You have to be quite delusional to believe that sort of a narrative, but there are plenty of people that do.

    At this juncture, everyone should be able to see that the clock is ticking for our planet, and in this article I am going to share several examples that underscore this point.

  8. Love the brilliant goals ‘for the future’ all around the globe, but deeply central to this govt’s m.o.
    Covid is just the immediate tripe there will always be that prevents the world going into the war mode it needs to. From 1990 actually. When it begins to hurt it’s too late. If social democratic govts had still been in power then, rather than the rich, we would’ve acted at that appropriate moment but, as it is, we are still wishy washy at the last moment.

  9. This situation needs leaders to lead. Savage knew how to balance being lead against leading, hence getting to power at 65. Present ‘Labour’ is wed at the tit to being lead. Nuncle Jacinda always makes it appear NZ is an episode in her carefree CV. Why I voted for anyone but her and Grant, as per these pricks’ ‘Anyone but Cunliffe’.

    Cunliffe wasn’t a strong man for the people, but he at least floated it in his head. The jelly beneath his jelly tells you about modern Labour.

    That we can’t find anyone in Labour strong for the people says it all. Yet all our dismissals didn’t matter a thing to her record return to power. Why these people carry on with their nonsense — one more election.

    Can’t even find a strong person for the people in the party to the left of Labour, the Greens.

    So, a good field for fascism to blow up.

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