Meanwhile – the planet is melting
There is no other issue that looms over us with the totality of mass extinction quite like human made climate change.
The latest UN report notes the catastrophic gap between the words spoken at the Paris agreement and the reality…
UN releases warning about ‘catastrophic’ lack of action on climate change
There is a “catastrophic” gap between what needs to be done on climate change and what governments and companies are actually doing, the UN has warned.Despite pledges to work to mitigate and deal with climate change, current plans still lead to a 3-degree Celsius rise in temperatures by the end of the decade, a major new report warns. If that happens, it will not only break through the 2-degrees target set in the Paris agreement, but also lead to deadly changes in the climate across the world.
In its latest “Emissions Gap” report issued ahead of an important climate conference in Germany next week, the program takes aim at coal-fired electricity plants being built in developing economies and says investment in renewable energies will pay for itself — and even make money — over the long term.
…this comes on the heels of new scientific research that shows we have under-estimated the speed of sea level change…
New science suggests the ocean could rise more — and faster — than we thought
Climate change could lead to sea level rises that are larger, and happen more rapidly, than previously thought, according to a trio of new studies that reflect mounting concerns about the stability of polar ice.
…while new research suggests that sea level rise could produce devastating storms…
Ancient storms could have hurled huge boulders, scientists say – raising new fears of rising seas
The new study, though, could hardly be called good news for those who will live with the consequences of climate change. It uses the boulders to underscore the lesson that as seas rise once again in our future, they will be able to unleash even more of the ocean’s destructive power upon present-day human structures. Storms won’t even need to have stronger winds — the oceans will do much of the work.
…the current political template that us focused on quarterly profit margins simply can’t produce policy to protect us from this new reality.
Radical Green Socialism still seems like the only means of countering the free market excesses of Capitalism and its unending destruction of our biosphere.
Martyn, Thanks very much for posting this very important climate change issue that Jacinda even takes seriously as in her maiden speech at the Auckland town hall she called “climate change her generation’s “nuclear moment”
When we heard this UN report announced on Radio NZ and TV one yesterday we sent a letter to the PM’s office (DPMC) requesting they deliver our letter to the three ministers who represent the leaders of the coalition Labour/NZF.Greens, as in a call to the DPMC earlier they admitted that the ministers communication system was still not setup to receive emails yet so I include it below now for you.
30th October 2017.
Public COMMUNITY letter
TO;
PM Hon’ Jacinda Ardern. Prime Minister of NZ.
MP Hon’ Winston Peters. Deputy PM. Minister of SOE
MP Hon’ James Shaw. Climate Change Minister. (CCM)
Dear Ministers,
31st October. 2017.
Jacinda Ardern said “Climate change is the Nuclear free event of our generation”
We have sent you all many reasons to use rail rather than trucks & curb our use of trucks to move freight around NZ, and our argument has been that using trucks for freight distribution is causing an increase our levels of CO2 ‘climate change gases.’
Now that you are aware of the direct increase of CO2 levels that has been linked to using trucks last week by a report by Dr James Renwick, Professor of Physical Geography, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences Victoria University, “Warnings over NZ’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions” http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018618970/warnings-over-nz-s-contribution-to-greenhouse-gas-emissions
“due to people burning more fossil fuels for electricity generation, heat, transport, manufacturing and construction we have the fifth-highest level of emissions per person of the 35 countries in the OECD”
Now this UN report, released today, our need for rail is more urgent than before due to this new UN report released today. (see below)
Please as requested before, Restore our HB/Gisborne rail freight/passenger services.
Warmest regards,
Director.
Environmental Monitoring Ltd’
Subject: Carbon dioxide levels grew at record pace in 2016, U.N. says potentially fuelling a 20-metre rise in sea levels and adding 3 degrees to temperatures, https://www.yahoo.com/news/carbon-dioxide-levels-grew-record-pace-2016-u-100129353.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/carbon-dioxide-levels-grew-record-pace-2016-u-100129353.html
By Tom Miles
ReutersOctober 30, 2017
GENEVA (Reuters) – The amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere grew at record rate in 2016 to a level not seen for millions of years, potentially fuelling a 20-metre rise in sea levels and adding 3 degrees to temperatures, the United Nations said on Monday.
Related SearchesCarbon DioxideWhat Is Carbon DioxideCo2 LevelsCarbon Dioxide Levels In BloodCarbon Dioxide Poisoning
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main man-made greenhouse gas, hit 403.3 parts per million (ppm), up from 400.0 in 2015, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
That growth rate was 50 percent faster than the average over the past decade, driving CO2 levels 45 percent above pre-industrial levels and further outside the range of 180-280 ppm seen in recent cycles of ice ages and warmer periods.
“Today’s CO2 concentration of ~400 ppm exceeds the natural variability seen over hundreds of thousands of years,” the WMO bulletin said.
The latest data adds to the urgency of a meeting in Bonn next month, when environment ministers from around the world will work on guidelines for the Paris climate accord backed by 195 countries in 2015.
The agreement is already under pressure because U.S. President Donald Trump has said he plans to pull the United States out of the deal, which seeks to limit the rise in temperatures to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.
Human CO2 emissions from sources such as coal, oil, cement and deforestation reached a record in 2016, and the El Niño weather pattern gave CO2 levels a further boost, the WMO said.
As far as scientists can tell, the world has never experienced a rise in carbon dioxide like that of recent decades, which has happened 100 times faster than when the world was emerging from the last ice age.
Scientists know prehistoric levels from tiny air bubbles found in ancient Antarctic ice cores, and they can derive even older data from fossils and chemicals trapped in sediment.
The last time carbon dioxide levels reached 400 ppm was 3-5 million years ago, in the mid-Pliocene era.
“During that period, global mean surface temperatures were 2–3°C warmer than today, ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica melted and even parts of East Antarctica’s ice retreated, causing the sea level to rise 10–20 m higher than that today,” the WMO bulletin said.
Since 1990, the global warming effect of CO2 and other long-lived greenhouse gases has risen by 40 percent. The two other main gases – methane and nitrous oxide – also grew to record concentrations last year, although at a slower rate of increase than carbon dioxide.
(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
‘Climate crisis with James Hansen’
https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/407431-nasa-climate-change-issue/
“Dr. James Hansen, former director of NASA’s Goddard Institute and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, discusses the urgent need for radical change in our relationship with the planet. RT Correspondent Anya Parampil looks at the accelerating pace of climate change”
When looking outside my window and door today, all is going on as per usual, endless rows of cars on the roads and streets, shopping madness at the supermarkets and malls, consumerism, like there is no tomorrow, and so the majority of society simply ignores the brief newslines the MSM now and then sends out, as they do not wish to be upset in their perceived security of valued consumers and ‘hard’ workers, ripping the crap out of the soil, water and air of this planet.
Have a party before the whole shit goes down, get drunk, get stoned, screw each other over, rob and pillage, and party, party, party, there will be NO tomorrow that will be worth living in.
What we need to stop is stop opening up new fossil fuel mines, and put the reinvest the money used for them into technology for rendering mixed rubbish back into separated, stable compounds. Then dump mining can redeploy mining works into digging up and reclaiming buried waste, from anywhere less than 10m above sea level, and then less than 20m, and so on. The separated, reclaimed materials could be used to generate energy or in manufacturing processes, or in various other ways.