“It is a drought we have not seen in 110 years. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and it is due to global climate change.” — S. Thirunavukkarasu, a retired Tamil Nadu Public Works official.
****
For India, the hot-season-like temperatures began in late February — two months earlier than usual. After a brief respite, they fired again in March, bringing April-like temperatures a month too soon. The hot season for this region typically begins in mid-April and extends through mid-June. In 2017, hot-season conditions sparked in late February. Today, life-threatening temperatures of between 100 and 115 F blanket much of this vast, densely populated land.
The early onset of heat comes after years of expanding drought, warming temperatures, melting glaciers and drying rivers, bringing with it a deepening hardship. Farmers across the country report a sense of deepening desperation as cries for help in the form of nationwide protests break out. Meanwhile, those working outdoors increasingly suffer from heat- and dehydration-related kidney failure. This year, conditions that threaten heat injury and loss of life have spurred schools across the country to close early.
(GFS model runs indicate temperatures in excess of 47 C or 115 F over parts of India tomorrow, April 22nd. Meanwhile, forecasters predict that 50 C or 122 F readings are possible in the coming days and weeks. Image source: Earth Nullschool.)
In two southern provinces, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the situation is one of extreme drought. In Kerala, water stress has now reached an intensity not seen in all of the past 115 years. Tamil Nadu’s own drought crisis is the worst in 110 years. And in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, the situation is nearly as calamitous (see map of India’s provinces here).
Retired Tamil Nadu public works official S. Thirunavukkarasu recently noted:
“It is a drought we have not seen in 110 years. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and it is due to global climate change. We may see a repeat of 2015 [floods] next year or the rains may fail again like they did in 2016. We cannot figure the weather out. But we need to ensure that we are prepared.”
Throughout the region and over other parts of India, residents are relying on ground water or water supply trucks as lakes and rivers run dry. Ground water supplies are being drawn down at an alarming rate. Water depths that should comfortably sit at 2-3 meters underground have been driven back to 8-15 meters or more. In some locations, wells are being driven as deep as 80 to 90 meters in search of water.
(Though southern India and Sri Lanka are hardest hit, long-term drought is impacting nearly all of India. Image source: NOAA.)
It’s a water crisis that is wide-ranging — impacting both rural locales and population centers like Delhi. Public officials are being forced to divert water from construction and other industries in order to ensure that residents receive access to life-giving supplies.
As with last year, reports are trickling in that tens of millions of people across India are experiencing water stress. Two years of delayed monsoons and severe hot seasons have already left the country reeling. This year’s extended hot season adds insult to injury. And with Pacific Ocean surface temperatures in the Equatorial region tracking above average for this time of year, it is again uncertain that present assurances of a ‘normal monsoon season’ will bear out.
Cyclical droughts and heatwaves are normal for India. What is not normal is the present situation of continuously worsening conditions. These ever-intensifying droughts and heatwaves are being driven by a global warming primarily brought on by fossil fuel burning. And, in the end, relief for India will only come when the warming ceases.
Links:
Five States Face Drought Made Worse by Early Onset of Summer
One-Third of Indian Population Stares at Drought This Summer
Delhi on the Verge of Groundwater Crisis
Capital City Reels Under Severe Water Shortage
Heatwave Across North, Central and Western India
The Indian Hot Season Began Two Months Early This Year
Hat tip to Colorado Bob
Erik Frederiksen
/ April 21, 2017Disconcerting to see such severity of impacts occurring when we’ve just recently hit 1 degree C, given the momentum in the planet’s climate which means significant further warming this century.
I just read this:
“Drastic cuts to the environment ministry of Brazil and the approval of anti-environment laws will jeopardise the country’s fulfilment of the Paris Agreement targets.
SÃO PAULO, 20 April, 2017 – The Amazon rainforest, so vital to the world’s climate welfare, is said by environmental groups and scientists to be under severe attack from the Brazilian government, which is removing many safeguards to prevent deforestation.”
http://climatenewsnetwork.net/brazil-slashes-environment-budget/
coloradobob
/ April 21, 2017Money
earlosatrun
/ April 22, 2017It can be eaten, just ask King Midas.
Oh, wait.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Unbridled profit motive is completely nonsensical.
My wife has a simple saying that I believe applies here:
“Development is the bane of my existence.”
True for us all these days.
coloradobob
/ April 21, 2017The spam filter Really ? After all these years ? The spam filter ?
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017I’ve added a number of keywords to prevent harmful meme generation. What this means is that more comments go into moderation. It’s not personal. But it does mean that sometimes folks will have to wait a bit for their comments to clear. It’s a part of a two-edges sword that is a well moderated forum.
coloradobob
/ April 21, 2017The entire idea is to convert the Earth into money.
Exposing the Big Game
/ April 22, 2017Reblogged this on The Extinction Chronicles.
wili
/ April 22, 2017Thanks for covering this dire situation. Seems to me that COBob deserves a bit of a tip of the hat here…he posted stories on this quite a ways back, iirc.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Fair enough. I knew someone had. Thanks for the reference.
wili
/ April 22, 2017These kinds of stories make it clearer and clearer to me that we no longer have to wait and to speculate what the dire consequences of GW are going to be…they are right here before us already. It puts me in mind of what Edward R. Murrow said to his staff as they were hesitating to put out information that would help end the Joe McCarthy madness:
“The terror is right here in this room.”
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017And these are just the first and more minor effects of a larger crisis that will last for decades. In the best case scenarios, this gets worse for a while. In the worst case, it hits an intensity that’s tough to imagine.
labmonkey2
/ April 22, 2017Then this happened:
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/we-just-breached-the-410-parts-per-million-threshold-21372
climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ April 22, 2017Tweet scheduled on this, thanks.
Roger Boyd
/ April 22, 2017Weird, the NOAA Manua Loa site says that the daily average is unavailable for that day (usually due to data issues etc.). Have not reported a number above 410 yet.
https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/monthly.html
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Two days above 410 ppm last week… We’ll probably get at least one more bump up before peak this year.
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/
Sheri
/ April 22, 2017Summer has come to Phoenix area a few days early.Temps above 95 are my definition of summer here and we usually have these end of April then we zip up over 100 quickly in early
May. 90s and above are tirning on AC for me. Not unusally hot yet but I imagine this summer we’ll some records across the country with the way 2017 has been going. Hell coming for all meals and sncks, too.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Thanks for the update, Sheri. 🙂 There’ve been more troughs out west this year. So the heat is not so pronounced there as it has been recently. We may need to watch Greenland and Siberia this year, though. That and the Bering Sea. The ridging appears to be setting up for these regions particularly.
Andy_in_SD
/ April 22, 2017For First Time Since 1800s, Britain Goes a Day Without Burning Coal for Electricity
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Fantastic news here, Andy. The ambition to end coal use by 2025 an amazing advance for the country.
Leo van Lierop
/ April 22, 2017There have been reports of an new Asian April temperature record at Larkana Pakistan of 50°C (122°F) a few days a go on the 19th.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Thanks for this, Leo. Here’s a quote from a recent article on the subject:
“Never in the history of the Sindh province, had temperature risen to 50°C in the month of April,” the officials said. The officials further added that it was a clear manifestation of the extreme weather patterns to be observed after the climate change and related phenomenon.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/199698-Larkanas-temperature-touches-50C
Ryan in New England
/ April 22, 2017Scientists march across the world today to protest the Trump administration’s war on science. Things have gotten so bad that scientists have been forced from their labs/classrooms in order to stand up and defend objective reality. It really says something about the current state of affairs.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/22/global-march-for-science-protests-call-for-action-on-climate-change
Ryan in New England
/ April 22, 2017Jeff Masters and Bob Henson will be attending the march for science…
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/why-were-taking-part-march-science
On Saturday, April 22—Earth Day 2017—Jeff Masters and I will be joining many thousands of others who care deeply about the importance of scientific inquiry in our society. We will be taking part in the first-ever March for Science, which will unfold at more than 600 locations around the world. Jeff will be marching in San Francisco, and I’ll be in Denver. We plan to share photos from both locations through WU’s social media channels (watch for us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram), and we’ll have more to say about the events in a post next week. (See also my post from Monday on Earth Day’s origins.)
Many scientists would prefer to do anything—anything!—other than tromp through the streets defending their life’s work. Science itself is not inherently a political activity. Some scientists have raised good questions about whether the March for Science lends a politicized flavor to the very act of scientific inquiry. Still, many of us feel the time has come to stand up for the importance of science in a world where emotions, snap decisions, and us-versus-them thinking threaten to overwhelm reason and inquiry.
wili
/ April 22, 2017Is anyone planning to go to the march in their area? I’m heading over to the one in St. Paul soon.
I should say, though, that while I certainly want to defend scientists and ‘science’ against climate denialism and other such obvious political lies and distortions, I do think it is legitimate to ask serious and deep questions about the nature of science as practiced in today’s global society, and how it has often put powerful tools in the hands of a society not ready to handle such power in a mature and responsible manner.
Other, deeper critiques of science (and really more of what should be called ‘scientism,’ ‘essentialism’ and ‘objectivism’) can be found in books like Wendel Berry’s “Life is a Miracle” and in “A Feeling For the Organism” by Evelyn Fox Keller about Barbara McKlintock.
I would also point out that many of what might be seen as the least scientifically sophisticated societies–traditional, indigenous, non-Western, societies the world round–have been among the most consistent and vocal defenders of and advocates for the defense of the natural world.
This should, at the least, give us pause. Not of course to reject science, but to ponder what beyond science is needed in so called ‘advanced’ societies that might move us away from our rapacious, earth destroying behaviors, including GW, but far beyond even that.
Cate
/ April 22, 2017wili, excellent points. Science has made all sorts of unthinkable things possible—good and bad, and I don’t need to make a list for any readers here, I’m sure. For me, when I look at the power of science to transform utterly what it means to be human and to live on this planet, the question always boils down to, Just because we can do something, does that mean we should? That is a question that science can never answer. It’s a question that can be addressed only through the other great, ancient fields of human inquiry and knowledge, such as philosophy, ethics and morality, faith and spirituality, and so on.
wili
/ April 22, 2017Well put, Cate.
Jean Mcmahon
/ April 23, 2017I marched in Tulsa.Okla..I absolutely could not believe the large number of beautiful People..Lots of parents w a couple of kids w signs..The radio stations were talking about the Marches a lot including marches in Europe..I could not believe that either
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Power must always be tempered by compassion and moderation. Scientific knowledge often produces power. But we cannot, or should not, equate the science of understanding the Earth’s climate and of making the world a more sustainable, liveable, nurturing place with, say, weapons science, or resource extraction science. If there is a science that produces a moral good then it is the science that provides us with an awareness of the harmful environmental impacts industry produces, that protects people, environments, and animals through the forewarning of harmful events, and that compels us to live in a more sustainable fashion. In climate science and in the quest for a sustainable, vital Earth, we find the meeting of science, morality, and justice.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Jean — it really is amazing the outpouring of support. Very heartening. It also shows how out of synch with present moral and justice-based sentiment the current political powers (republicans, conservatives) in this country are.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017It really is unconscionable what the fossil fuel special interests and republicans in this country have done to attempt to politicize and cast doubt on basic scientific inquiry.
About 5 years ago, I was in the same boat as Dr Masters and Henson. Though I’m not a scientist (I’m a threat analyst), I considered the mere act of taking sides on the issue and calling out bad actors (climate change deniers) to be likely to generate un-necessary conflict and contention at a time when everyone should be working together on a very important issue. But on the other hand, nowhere near enough was being done to address the problem of climate change and far too much media attention was being paid to climate change denial quackery. It became necessary to stand up, to speak out in advocacy of the science and to communicate in a way that considered the problem of climate change to be an active crisis — not simply a topic for debate and academic discussion.
Scientists, with their life-work threatened and the very understanding they’ve developed now in jeopardy of being erased by political hacks and numbskulls, now find themselves under direct attack. They’ve been forced to fight for the protection of the knowledge that they have produced. And as those at the heart of understanding the climate crisis are now forced to act as advocates for action — simply because policy makers have been blocked by a vicious and ill-seeking industry together with the agents they have so wrongfully placed into positions of power.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017A pic from the Science March this weekend:
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017It’s like the dark ages. But now there is no excuse. Because the knowledge is there. It’s proven. What we’re experiencing now is an intentional blinding and confusion of public perception of actual, basic facts.
Advertising dollars are being used by for-profit agencies to attack science. The situation with fossil fuel companies attacking climate science is basically the equivalent to drug pushers attacking addiction science.
Suzanne
/ April 24, 2017That is why we must continue to #Resist and #Persist. We have to keep on marching..and stay publicly vocal. This Saturday, April 29th…People’s Climate March…We do it again!
Here in WPB…we are again, taking it to the gate’s of Mar-a-Lago!
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017So I’ve got a group of about 10 people here locally who are all locked and loaded for the climate march. I could be wrong. but it appears the ground swell on this one is going to be huge.
basmith13f
/ April 22, 2017This kind of heat and drought will likely be California’s fate, as well.
Abel Adamski
/ April 22, 2017Mexico, Texas, New Mexico etc
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017California, like India, appears to be in the band where increasing extremes in precipitation (long droughts, short and intense floods) are a more and more dominant factor.
Abel Adamski
/ April 22, 2017And an article by a man who was very nearly Australia’s prime minister (Liberal Conservative) Dr John Hewson, a good man even if a politician and a Liberal.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-22/john-hewson-pleads-for-politicians-to-go-back-to-evidence/8463782
Politicians are getting away with flagrant dishonesty as a shift from fact to opinion colours the political debate around climate change, former Liberal leader John Hewson says.
Key points:
There’s a a lack of evidence in public debate, John Hewson says
He says politicians either ignore climate change or attempt to use issue to score points
Australia has reached a point where facts are of lesser value than opinions, he says
Dr Hewson was speaking in the run-up to today’s Global March for Science, with gatherings taking place in 12 Australian cities and towns as well as in Washington DC and other centres worldwide.
He told AM he initially decided to get involved because he was concerned about the “the lack of evidence being used as the basis of public policy”.
“I think science is probably more useful and more relevant to society today than it’s probably ever been. But there’s been a widening gap between science and the public,” he said.
“We see science funding being cut. We see, obviously, a lack of evidence in public debate. We see attacks on scientists, as we’ve seen in the climate change debate.
“And I think we need to stop and recognise the significance of science and the importance of funding it properly and using the evidence that it produces as the basis of good public policy.”
He said climate change was the most significant challenge faced by society today, but said politicians were playing politics with it.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017For basic reference, a liberal in Australia = a conservative everywhere else. And an honest member of this group on the issue of climate change has been very difficult to find lately. That said, there are a number of brave exceptions that have served as increasingly visible outliers to an overall horrible and wretched trend.
Abel Adamski
/ April 22, 2017In Australia by the ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-22/march-for-science-australians-join-worldwide-movement/8463800
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Fantastic to see solidarity in Australia! So much needed considering the present state of suppression of the sciences in that state.
postgenetic
/ April 22, 2017New Day, New Horror/s … and as readers here know, we’re just getting started.
Going big-pic, thinking this:
Survival in biological, cultural & tech networks is primarily a function of processing complex relationship information with sufficient reach, speed, accuracy & power.
Humans aren’t sufficiently coded — genetically, culturally or technologically — to pass natural selection tests in environs undergoing exponentially accelerating complexity for X number of years. X approaches … that is, think we lose the selection arms race with accruing complexity; we are unable navigate the alien, ever-unprecedented environs that complexity continues to generate.
Verily, if your culture’s relationships with the sky and ocean are deadly, your cultural genome sucks.
For more, see: The Margins of Selection: http://ow.ly/VGQl30aRkTw
Piece is experimental; has a more conventional article embedded re Complexity, Code & Governance.
Re code: it’s fundamental, physics efficacious relationship infrastructure in bio, cultural & tech networks: genetic language math moral religious legal monetary etiquette software, etc.
“The story of human intelligence starts with a universe that is capable of encoding information.” — Ray Kurzweil — “How To Create A Mind”
Thomas Simon
/ April 22, 2017Scientist damn well better get our of the lab and classroom so they can get elected to positions that will put in place policies to address the problems we are facing.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017I think it would be helpful if we had a number of scientists running for office. People like Alley and Mann and Nye. But I also think that we should be very clear that their work in the lab or the field is essential to the functioning of our civilization as well.
climatehawk1
/ April 22, 2017Tweet scheduled.
Jeff Boutilier
/ April 22, 2017Another bad season on the rise for Siberian tundra and forests : http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/large-wildfires-and-major-flooding-as-siberia-faces-a-spring-thats-both-dry-and-wet/ . Many regions are burning while in the west the problem is snow melt water in the Ob, the world’s 7th longest river.
wili
/ April 22, 2017rs said he was noticing some of these fires earlier. perhaps this stuff is worthy of a main post?
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Big dipoles again are indicative of large jet stream wave patterns. Large sections of Siberia have been particularly warm this year. As such, we have another early onset for fire season. And the hot spots are really starting to flare.
wili
/ April 22, 2017http://www.climatecentral.org/news/we-just-breached-the-410-parts-per-million-threshold-21372
“We Just Breached the 410 Parts Per Million Threshold”
Perhaps another main-post-worthy development??
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017I think so. Especially worth looking at the larger trend as well. Rate of increase appears to be slowing this year somewhat from 2015/2016 but not by too much as yet.
Suzanne
/ April 22, 2017I attended Two March for Science events here today in sunny, hot Florida. At the afternoon event, we marched right to the front of Mar-a-Lago. And next week, we do it again for the People’s Climate March. The Lunatic wasn’t in town this weekend..but his neighbors in Palm Beach got the message!
wili
/ April 22, 2017Thanks for participating. We made it to part of the protest here in the Twin Cities. Helped that it was a beautiful day.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Fantastic, Suzanne! Thanks to you and to everyone else who pitched in! Looking forward to a climate march heard ’round the world this weekend.
Keith Antonysen
/ April 23, 2017Various impacts of extreme conditions, including heatwave in India:
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Thanks for this, Keith.
Robert In New Orleans
/ April 23, 2017My sign for the New Orleans March for Science.
https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/18077361_615223968674550_1666307187591095758_o.jpg?oh=bdbcd00e57a79d9bc0059a046621ada3&oe=597FC596
Suzanne
/ April 23, 2017Still miss Carl….(sigh)
Jeff Boutilier
/ April 23, 2017Me too , I was in my mid twenties when I started his non fiction books . For me. he was the most influential of them all . He left us much too early . 😦
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017He’d have been a heck of a leader in the present day. His calm voice and clear vision would have really been helpful.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Love this!
Robert In New Orleans
/ April 23, 2017The other side of my sign.
https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/18056165_615224055341208_8896975909907132296_o.jpg?oh=5a8a0d27baff4efaf7f1566b90a74840&oe=5982A31F
Suzanne
/ April 23, 2017And Leonard too…Great signs Robert.
I would say the March for Science was a great day for science…and democracy.
Jeff Boutilier
/ April 23, 2017Very cool 🙂 , Thank you . All of you that attended . Good job !
wili
/ April 23, 2017But I think most attendants were a bit incredulous that in 2017 we had to have an international march to defend science!
Jeff Boutilier
/ April 23, 2017No argument from me there , seems strange when everything in modern life is from one science or another.
Jeff Boutilier
/ April 23, 2017No argument from me there , seems strange when everything in modern life is from one science or another. Strange indeed.
coloradobob
/ April 23, 2017Nice job.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017I shared this one on twitter. Great sign, Robert!
Robert in New Orleans
/ April 25, 2017Mr. Fanny I am deeply humbled and honored by your selection of my poster as Tweet worthy.
Please feel free to use this image as you please (just make sure it is for logical purposes only 😉 ). This also applies to all Scribblers around the world.
robertscribbler
/ April 25, 2017Thank you for pitching in, Robert! Love that sign 🙂
Christina MacPherson
/ April 23, 2017Reblogged this on nuclear-news.
wili
/ April 23, 2017Seems like this thread needs some music, so here’s my contribution:
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Thanks for this, wili.
coloradobob
/ April 23, 2017NBC ‘s first news show this morning did not report on the march , we did get an in depth report on the death a of a “Happy Days” supporting actor.
coloradobob
/ April 23, 2017robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Such an amazing outpouring of support for climate science!
coloradobob
/ April 23, 2017Good luck , You’ll need it.
coloradobob
/ April 23, 2017How to seek meaning in a world of Mad House.
coloradobob
/ April 23, 2017Bob the Bummer …………..
Sorry I’ve at this for decades .
Skreho
/ April 24, 2017It is still very warm here in India https://www.ventusky.com/?p=17.1;86.1;4&l=temperature
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Looks scorching hot to me.
wili
/ April 25, 2017Cumulative effects are quite bad, too:
http://english.sakshi.com/news/2017/04/24/heatwaves-claim-over-4000-lives-in-4-years-telugu-states-top
“Heatwaves Claim Over 4,000 Lives In 4 Years; Telugu States Tops The List”
wharf rat
/ April 24, 2017“In the 1850s, John Tyndall made quantitative measurements of the heat trapping capacity of various gases, including CO2.”
There was somebody else B4 Tyndall, a fact I was reminded of just the other day. An American woman beat him by 3 years….
Eunice Foote was an amateur scientist with a lively interest in many topics, from campaigning for women’s rights to filing patents for boot soles. In 1856, she wrote a paper https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=fjtSAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA382&lpg=PA382&dq=%22Circumstances+Affecting+the+Heat+of+the+Sun%E2%80%99s+Rays%22+foote&source=bl&ots=j5MLp3r_i4&sig=pfHXWv44uTHzjMyCAx_vjOnxlyU&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22Circumstances%20Affecting%20the%20Heat%20of%20the%20Sun%E2%80%99s%20Rays%22%20foote&f=false
for the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, reporting on her measurements of the heat-trapping properties of carbon dioxide. She even speculated that if, “at one period of [earth’s] history the air had mixed with it a larger proportion [of CO2] than at present, an increased temperature from its own action must necessarily have resulted” – in other words, if there were more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, then it would trap more heat, and the earth would be warmer
http://blog.ucsusa.org/katharine-hayhoe/climate-science-its-a-lot-older-than-you-think
Paid for by the Committee To Repeal and Replace Tyndall with An American Woman
wharf rat
/ April 24, 2017robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Thanks for this, Rat. It appears that there’s often a woman who did it first before some dude got the credit. Nice to see this coming to light.
June
/ April 24, 2017Some researchers in the U.S. are starting to study the other side of sea level rise impacts.
“If you think traffic is bad now, wait for the inland migration”
As sea levels rise, inland cities are going to get much more congested.
…Where will they go — and how will their destination cities cope with them?
That’s the focus of a new study that projects as many as 13.1 million Americans could become climate refugees by the end of this century, an influx of people that could stress inland cities, particularly those already grappling with population growth, urban development, traffic congestion, and water management.
https://thinkprogress.org/sea-level-migration-inland-d5f9e995c8bd
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017People have to go somewhere. And it will increasingly be inland, northward, uphill, and up stream.
Suzanne
/ April 24, 2017New Ecoshock radio interview with Michael Mann “Battling for Climate Sanity”
http://www.ecoshock.org/2017/04/battling-for-climate-sanity.html
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Thanks for this, Suzanne.
Suzanne
/ April 24, 2017At about 6 minutes into the interview with Dr. Mann… talks about how the U.S was the only “hold out” on a proactive, forward thinking Climate Change statement at the G7 a few weeks ago…thus, no consensus statement could be released. This, he says, how this Trump Regime is undermining worldwide CC policies…and could damage the Paris Agreement.
I have never…been so angry and embarrassed about being an American. I can barely stomach this evil Regimes deplorable actions…it just doesn’t end. They are truly a cancer to the welfare and future of our planet.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Your outrage is completely justified, Suzanne.
Erik Frederiksen
/ April 24, 2017Agreed. Thing is we were already well above 400ppm before Trump. What now?
Erik Frederiksen
/ April 24, 2017The thing a lot of people don’t understand about coming increases in heat waves is that areas over land heat faster than areas over the oceans because of the thermal properties of water.
So at a temperature increase of 2 degrees C we’d see larger heat anomalies over land.
It’s already getting difficult to work outside in the daytime in some places in the low latitudes, and for many, because of increased drought, there’s no work to do in the fields anyway as the crops fail.
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Just want to give everyone a fair warning — the Trump Administration and a number of billionaire allies are pushing solar geo-engineering as a so-called ‘tech fix’ solution to climate change.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-circle-touts-risky-climate-engineering_us_58e5299ee4b00ea3841db513
I also want to warn everyone here that I’ve gotten considerable ‘spam-type’ pressure from people promoting this dangerous activity.
Some scientists refer to blocking rays from the sun as Plan B vs Plan A (which is a more responsible reduction of global carbon emissions). Unfortunately, model studies indicate that injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to block the sun’s rays will have a harmful impact on the world’s precipitation patterns. This disruption would have unpredictable outcomes and is likely to negatively impact growing seasons with a high risk of harming billions of people worldwide.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30197085
It would likely produce some cooling. Which would tend to delay other effects of human-forced climate change. However, the injection would have to be continuous in order to produce a lasting effect — costing in the hundreds of billions of dollars over time. In addition, the size of the injection would have to increase with time in order to prevent similar levels of warming — producing increasingly outsized and unpredictable impacts to the Earth’s energy balance and precipitation regimes.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120606092715.htm
The above paper notes:
“Climate engineering cannot be seen as a substitute for a policy pathway of mitigating climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”
It’s also worth noting that there is reasonable concern that the particles injected could produce a kind of toxic fall-out or acid rain — especially in the case of aluminum laced particles or sulfur based compounds.
https://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2017/webprogram/Session15317.html
“the risks, which could include ozone loss, reduced precipitation, increased diffuse shortwave radiation, perturbations to large-scale atmospheric circulation, and direct toxicity of the aerosols themselves.”
Perhaps more ominous is the fact that paleoclimate evidence hints that the periods of rapid warming and following cooling during the Permian Extinction produced a combination of droughts and deluges that helped shove the global ocean into a Canfield state. Warming was the ultimate driver. But higher rates of dust, and run-off loading provided a big increase in nutrients that contributed to eutrophication.
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/massextinct_09
By injecting such particles into the atmosphere while not also rapidly curtailing greenhouse gas emissions, we would ultimately be setting ourselves down a very similar path to that of the Permian. For at some point the aerosol cooling effect reaches saturation and cannot overcome the larger influx of greenhouse gasses. But the disruption effect of aerosol cooling periods in the context overall longer term warming can be very disruptive to stable climate states while hampering a number of key life support features such as ozone or adding still more toxicity to the environment.
Suzanne
/ April 24, 2017Sounds like a Frankenstein Climate Monster solutions to me. Scary.
Why can’t they just focus on actions that will work?
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017It’s certainly Frankenstein. But more a climate treatment than a cure. Very scary. And, you’re absolutely right, we should be focusing on cutting those emissions as fast as possible and trying to pull down that excess carbon from the atmosphere.
Roger Boyd
/ April 24, 2017I have the image in my mind of humanity running on the proverbial hamster wheel, to drive an air conditioner in a closed room. At the same time an electric fire keeps slowly increasing its heat output to the room. Humanity better not break a leg …
Vic
/ April 24, 2017The Indian state of Tamil Nadu is suffering its worst drought in 140 years, affecting an estimated 3.2 million farmers, according to the State Government. The farmers have become so desperate that more than 150 have committed suicide since October last year, while others have seen no other option but to stage a month long protest in the nation’s capital in a “do-or-die battle”.
Braving temperatures that rose up to 43 degrees Celsius, the protestors had variously conducted mock funerals, partially shaved their heads, consumed mice, paraded naked in front of the prime minister’s house and rolled their bodies on a boiling hot macadam. Five farmers went as far as to cut their hands with razors while others brought the skulls of loved ones they said had committed suicide in desperation.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-24/dramatic-indian-drought-protest-halted/8468552
robertscribbler
/ April 24, 2017Thanks for the update, Vic.