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carbon20
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Posted: December 07 2019 at 3:02pm |
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WARMING AT THE POLES WILL SOON BE FELT GLOBALLY IN RISING SEAS, EXTREME WEATHER PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFFREY KERBY READ CAPTION Ice loss, permafrost thaw, fires: Trouble in the Arctic and Antarctic could cause shocks to the world’s weather and sea levels sooner than thought, says a new study. BY CHERYL KATZ Eric Post has observed seasons at the same location on the West Greenland tundra for 26 years. Over that time, he’s seen profound changes. When he first started working there, hundreds of caribou covered the hills. Now, he says, the herd is down to around 90. “You find yourself thinking they’ll be back next spring; numbers will go up again,” Post says, “but year after year goes by and the big groups just aren’t there the way they used to be.” As Earth trudges steadily toward a dangerously warm future, a new report on the outlook for the polar regions says the Arctic is already there—with consequences on the horizon for everyone. “There is a real possibility that we will be entering a phase of accelerated Arctic warming in the next two to four decades if mitigation action isn’t taken soon,” says Post, a climate change ecologist at the University of California, Davis. Post is lead author of the report published today in Science Advances, in which an international group of scientists looks at current and future impacts of polar warming across a range of disciplines. The Arctic is warming far more quickly than anywhere else on the planet. Temperatures climbed nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 Celsius) in the past decade alone. At the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions, the North is on track to warm 7.2 F (4 C) year-round—and top 12.6 F (7 C) in autumns—by the middle of this century, according to the report. That’s about when the planet as a whole is projected to reach the 3.6 F (2 C) warming often cited as the threshold for disastrous impacts. (Find out why Earth’s climate systems are heading for dangerous tipping points.) Already, the High North is seeing unprecedented changes, including drastic ice losses on land and sea, galloping permafrost thaw, raging wildfires, unseasonal storms, earlier springs, and more. Summer sea ice this year shrank to its second lowest extent since satellite measurements began in 1979, while record July heat melted billions of tons of ice off the Greenland ice sheet. Wildfires blazed across millions of acres from Alaska to Siberia. “Consequences of recent Arctic warming have already been widespread and pronounced, and yet we haven’t even seen what’s expected to be the most rapid phase of warming,” Post says. Climate 101: Causes and Effects While both the Arctic and Antarctic are experiencing rising temperatures, thinning glaciers, disturbed ecosystems, and other alarming shifts as heat-trapping fossil fuel emissions build up, changes are sweeping the northern region far faster. The impacts of a warming Arctic will be felt well beyond the high latitudes in the near future, the report warns. Sea ice losses One of scientists’ top concerns as the planet warms is the loss of Arctic sea ice. Summer sea ice, which has been shrinking more than 10 percent a decade over the past 40 years, is projected to essentially disappear within 20 to 25 years at the current emissions rate. Some put it even sooner. Co-author Julienne Stroeve, a specialist in remote sensing of the polar regions with the University of Manitoba in Canada and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, thinks Arctic warming may already have pushed summer sea ice past its threshold. “I know it's a dangerous thing to say,” says Stroeve, “but at this point, regardless of what we commit to with CO2 reductions, and the warming that we try to limit things to… we will likely see ice-free summers emerging.” Her latest work suggests that Arctic sea ice is now shrinking faster than most current climate models project. That ice loss fuels Arctic amplification—the force that’s speeding up northern warming. As the ocean’s protective lid thaws, more sunlight enters the water, causing more warming, leading to yet more ice loss, in a feedback spiral. Peeling back that ice cover could also unleash more extreme weather on the Northern Hemisphere’s mid-latitudes, including droughts, floods, and heatwaves. Although a topic of current debate among scientists, some studies suggest Arctic warming makes the jet stream weaker and wavier, letting cold polar air reach further south and warm air stretch north. “The accelerated Arctic warming impacts weather down here in the lower 48 and around the entire Northern Hemisphere by changing the temperature contrast between mid and high latitudes,” explains co-author Michael Mann, a Pennsylvania State University atmospheric scientist. “That temperature contrast is responsible for the existence of the jet stream, and when it decreases, the jet stream tends to slow down and weather systems linger longer in the same location,” he says. Mann says the phenomenon has been linked with relentless hot spells like the ones that baked Europe this summer, and brutal cold snaps like the recent “Arctic blast” that froze the eastern and midwestern United States. Rising concerns Sea-level rise is another looming concern. Arctic land ice—particularly the vast ice sheet atop Greenland—is thawing faster than current climate models suggest, and could raise sea levels substantially more than the 3 feet projected by the end of the century in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report released in September. Arctic permafrost thaw is also escalating, releasing the potent greenhouse gas methane and spiking atmospheric levels, with profound global warming effects. Wildfires burn near the tundra-taiga transition in Siberia. Such fires are expected to become more common as the permafrost thaws, then dries out. PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFFREY KERBY Another recent study projects Arctic wildfire intensity doubling each year as thawing ground dries out. Meanwhile, warming is already knocking the Arctic’s seasonal clock off-kilter. Spring plant growth is coming earlier and earlier, meaning tundra animals like the caribou at Post’s Greenland research site arrive at their annual birthing grounds after the plants they eat have passed their nutritional peak. Flowers open before the insects that pollinate them can get there, and migrating birds miss the spring flush. The shifts are accelerating, the report says, and in future could exceed ecosystems’ ability to adapt. Arctic warming also stands to disrupt the marine food web, increase mortality for polar bears and seals, and threaten the livelihoods of the region’s indigenous people. One bright note in the outlook: So far whales seem to be benefitting from range expansion as sea ice recedes. The Antarctic is not the Arctic While temperatures are surging in the Arctic—by century’s end, they could soar as much as 23.4 F (13 C) during parts of the year, according to the report—Antarctic warming has been similar to the global average, although some parts are warming much faster. Both polar regions are changing, says co-author Richard Alley, a Penn State glaciologist and Antarctica specialist. “But it’s not as simple as they all do the same thing. The Arctic is not the Antarctic and the Antarctic is not the Arctic.” Antarctica is surrounded by the vast Southern Ocean, which is soaking up much of the atmosphere’s excess heat. “And if it goes into the ocean,” says Alley, “then it's not staying in the air.” Like the Arctic, ice on the southernmost continent is also being eaten away by warming. Major glaciers—most notably the Florida-sized Thwaites—are rapidly retreating, while the floating ice shelves that hold them in place are thinning above and below. Those trends worry scientists. “Warming of the air or ocean can weaken the ice shelves, and beyond some threshold, they tend to break off,” says Alley. If ice shelves in West Antarctica failed, and the Thwaites and other glaciers collapsed, sea levels could rise an additional foot or more by 2100—and a whopping 10 feet or more in the following century if irreversible glacier loss tipping points are crossed. "That's the thing that that really worries us with West Antarctica,” says Alley. “A reasonably small difference in how things evolve could end up making a really big difference in what happens with sea levels." Antarctic sea ice has waxed and waned. The past two years, however, have seen record autumn lows. Moreover, the warming Southern Ocean could provide a route for invasive species and diseases to reach the isolated continent. And Antarctica’s penguins, some of which are already having to shift their ranges as coastal conditions change, may face widespread displacement in future. The iconic emperor penguins could all but vanish by the end of the century, another new report projects. The polar outlook is a “generally solid assessment of the changes and how they depend on these emissions scenarios,” says University of Alaska-Fairbanks atmospheric scientist John Walsh, who was not involved with the study. “The article makes the point that even with the low emissions scenario—and a 2 degrees C warmer world is down at the low end of the emissions scenario spectrum—the Arctic is a changed place.” Cutting fossil fuel emissions can lower or delay Arctic warming by several decades, the authors say. "In a way, the Arctic is speaking to us," say Post. "The question is whether we are listening." PUBLISHED DECEMBER 4, 2019 FOLLOW US TERMS OF SERVICEPRIVACY POLICYAD CHOICESCUSTOMER SERVICEJOBS Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society. Copyright © 2015-2019 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved |
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Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖
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BBC News - Climate change: COP25 talks to open as 'point of no return' in sight
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50614518 |
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carbon20
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Ad Environment World must stop war against nature, UN chief says ahead of key climate talks Declaration comes ahead of the summit in Madrid Isla Binnie 12 hours ago UN chief says influential countries such as China and US arent pulling their weight which is having a detrimental effect on change UN chief says influential countries such as China and US arent pulling their weight which is having a detrimental effect on change ( Getty ) The world must stop a war against nature and find more political will to combat climate change, United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres has said ahead of the start of a two-week global climate summit in Madrid. Around the world, extreme weather ranging from wildfires to floods is being linked to manmade global warming, putting pressure on the summit to strengthen the implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement on limiting the rise in temperature. Our war against nature must stop, and we know that it is possible, Mr Guterres said ahead of the 2-13 December summit. Download the new Indpendent Premium app Sharing the full story, not just the headlines Download now We simply have to stop digging and drilling and take advantage of the vast possibilities offered by renewable energy and nature-based solutions. Cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases mostly from burning carbon-based fossil fuels that have been agreed so far under the Paris deal are not enough to limit temperature rises to a goal of between 1.5 and 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Many countries are not even meeting those commitments, and political will is lacking, Mr Guterres said. President Donald Trump for his part has started withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement, while the deforestation of the Amazon basin a crucial carbon reservoir is accelerating and China has tilted back towards building more coal-fired power plants. Seventy countries have committed to a goal of carbon neutrality or climate neutrality by 2050. Watch more Earth may have already hit catastrophic climate change tipping point This means they would balance out greenhouse emissions, for instance through carbon capture technology or by planting trees. But Mr Guterres said these pledges were not enough. We also see clearly that the worlds largest emitters are not pulling their weight, he said, and without them, our goal is unreachable. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Last years UN climate summit in Poland yielded a framework for reporting and monitoring emissions pledges and updating plans for further cuts. But sticking points remain, not least over an article on how to put a price on emissions, and so allow them to be traded. I dont even want to entertain the possibility that we do not agree on article 6, Mr Guterres said. We are here to approve guidelines to implement article 6, not to find excuses not to do it. Reuters MORE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE | UNITED NATIONS | PARIS AGREEMENT | GREENHOUSES GASES | EMISSIONS GET IN TOUCH Contact us Jobs OUR PRODUCTS Subscriptions Install our apps Archive OTHER PUBLICATIONS Evening Standard Novaya Gazeta EXTRAS All topics Voucher codes Advertising guide Syndication LEGAL Code of conduct and complaints Contributors Cookie policy Privacy notice User policies service worker |
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carbon20
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Humans are KILLING THE PLANET........
we are changing the chemistry of the biosphere....... |
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carbon20
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Worldometers W PopulationWorldWorld Population by Year World Population by Year Year World Population Yearly Change Net Change Density (P/Km) Urban Pop Urban Pop % 2019 7,713,468,100 1.08 % 82,377,060 52 4,299,438,618 56 % 2018 7,631,091,040 1.10 % 83,232,115 51 4,219,817,318 55 % 2017 7,547,858,925 1.12 % 83,836,876 51 4,140,188,594 55 % 2016 7,464,022,049 1.14 % 84,224,910 50 4,060,652,683 54 % 2015 7,379,797,139 1.16 % 84,506,374 50 3,981,497,663 54 % 2014 7,295,290,765 1.17 % 84,708,789 49 3,902,831,934 53 % 2013 7,210,581,976 1.19 % 84,753,917 48 3,824,990,329 53 % 2012 7,125,828,059 1.20 % 84,633,758 48 3,747,842,586 53 % 2011 7,041,194,301 1.21 % 84,370,698 47 3,671,423,872 52 % 2010 6,956,823,603 1.22 % 84,056,510 47 3,594,868,146 52 % 2009 6,872,767,093 1.23 % 83,678,407 46 3,516,830,263 51 % 2008 6,789,088,686 1.24 % 83,142,076 46 3,439,719,128 51 % 2007 6,705,946,610 1.24 % 82,428,777 45 3,363,609,560 50 % 2006 6,623,517,833 1.25 % 81,610,806 44 3,289,446,226 50 % 2005 6,541,907,027 1.25 % 80,747,638 44 3,215,905,863 49 % 2004 6,461,159,389 1.25 % 79,974,275 43 3,143,044,892 49 % 2003 6,381,185,114 1.26 % 79,411,926 43 3,071,743,997 48 % 2002 6,301,773,188 1.27 % 79,146,582 42 3,001,808,223 48 % 2001 6,222,626,606 1.29 % 79,132,783 42 2,933,078,510 47 % 2000 6,143,493,823 1.31 % 79,254,768 41 2,868,307,513 47 % 1999 6,064,239,055 1.33 % 79,445,113 41 2,808,231,655 46 % 1998 5,984,793,942 1.35 % 79,748,154 40 2,749,213,598 46 % 1997 5,905,045,788 1.38 % 80,153,837 40 2,690,813,541 46 % 1996 5,824,891,951 1.40 % 80,678,972 39 2,632,941,583 45 % 1995 5,744,212,979 1.43 % 81,062,552 39 2,575,505,235 45 % 1994 5,663,150,427 1.46 % 81,552,881 38 2,518,254,111 44 % 1993 5,581,597,546 1.50 % 82,677,737 37 2,461,223,528 44 % 1992 5,498,919,809 1.56 % 84,630,365 37 2,404,337,297 44 % 1991 5,414,289,444 1.63 % 87,058,383 36 2,347,462,336 43 % 1990 5,327,231,061 1.71 % 89,789,503 36 2,290,228,096 43 % 1989 5,237,441,558 1.79 % 92,015,550 35 2,233,140,502 43 % 1988 5,145,426,008 1.84 % 92,903,861 35 2,176,126,537 42 % 1987 5,052,522,147 1.85 % 91,954,235 34 2,118,882,551 42 % 1986 4,960,567,912 1.84 % 89,646,172 33 2,062,604,394 42 % 1985 4,870,921,740 1.82 % 86,910,119 33 2,007,939,063 41 % 1984 4,784,011,621 1.80 % 84,442,317 32 1,955,106,433 41 % 1983 4,699,569,304 1.78 % 82,182,762 32 1,903,822,436 41 % 1982 4,617,386,542 1.77 % 80,389,780 31 1,854,134,229 40 % 1981 4,536,996,762 1.77 % 78,993,248 30 1,804,215,203 40 % 1980 4,458,003,514 1.77 % 77,497,414 30 1,754,201,029 39 % 1979 4,380,506,100 1.76 % 75,972,599 29 1,706,021,638 39 % 1978 4,304,533,501 1.77 % 75,027,441 29 1,659,306,117 39 % 1977 4,229,506,060 1.80 % 74,839,196 28 1,616,419,308 38 % 1976 4,154,666,864 1.84 % 75,186,258 28 1,577,376,141 38 % 1975 4,079,480,606 1.89 % 75,686,434 27 1,538,624,994 38 % 1974 4,003,794,172 1.94 % 76,013,934 27 1,501,134,655 37 % 1973 3,927,780,238 1.98 % 76,129,993 26 1,462,178,370 37 % 1972 3,851,650,245 2.01 % 75,890,628 26 1,424,734,781 37 % 1971 3,775,759,617 2.04 % 75,322,571 25 1,388,834,099 37 % 1970 3,700,437,046 2.06 % 74,756,419 25 1,354,215,496 37 % 1969 3,625,680,627 2.09 % 74,081,500 24 1,319,833,474 36 % 1968 3,551,599,127 2.09 % 72,829,165 24 1,285,933,432 36 % 1967 3,478,769,962 2.08 % 70,847,332 23 1,252,566,565 36 % 1966 3,407,922,630 2.05 % 68,339,033 23 1,219,993,032 36 % 1965 3,339,583,597 2.00 % 65,605,259 22 1,188,469,224 36 % 1964 3,273,978,338 1.96 % 62,977,329 22 1,157,813,355 35 % 1963 3,211,001,009 1.92 % 60,580,214 22 1,122,561,940 35 % 1962 3,150,420,795 1.89 % 58,577,288 21 1,088,376,703 35 % 1961 3,091,843,507 1.87 % 56,893,759 21 1,055,435,648 34 % 1960 3,034,949,748 1.86 % 55,373,563 20 1,023,845,517 34 % 1959 2,979,576,185 1.84 % 53,889,480 20 992,820,546 33 % 1958 2,925,686,705 1.82 % 52,380,615 20 962,537,113 33 % 1957 2,873,306,090 1.80 % 50,862,808 19 933,113,168 32 % 1956 2,822,443,282 1.78 % 49,423,346 19 904,685,164 32 % 1955 2,773,019,936 1.77 % 48,173,195 19 877,008,842 32 % 1954 2,724,846,741 1.76 % 47,237,781 18 850,179,106 31 % 1953 2,677,608,960 1.78 % 46,747,398 18 824,289,989 31 % 1952 2,630,861,562 1.81 % 46,827,301 18 799,282,533 30 % 1951 2,584,034,261 1.88 % 47,603,112 17 775,067,697 30 % 1927 2,000,000,000 1900 1,600,000,000 1850 1,200,000,000 1804 1,000,000,000 1760 770,000,000 1700 610,000,000 1600 500,000,000 1500 450,000,000 1400 350,000,000 1200 360,000,000 1100 320,000,000 1000 275,000,000 900 240,000,000 800 220,000,000 700 210,000,000 600 200,000,000 200 190,000,000 -200 150,000,000 -500 100,000,000 -1000 50,000,000 -2000 27,000,000 -3000 14,000,000 -4000 7,000,000 -5000 5,000,000 Source: Worldometers (www.Worldometers.info) From 1950 to current year: elaboration of data by United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision. (Medium-fertility variant). Enter your email below to receive Worldometers' latest news (free): about | faq | languages | licensing | contact > Copyright Worldometers.info - All rights reserved - Disclaimer & Privacy Policy |
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Technophobe
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Well, I dissagree on the main point. The science is sound; agreed on by the vast majority of scientists , at least those not funded by fossil fuel companies. Most ecosystems are failing.
But I have to agree with him on this point; our governments can't save us. The damage is already done and no amount of willpower is going to pull us back from the cliff edge; we are already falling. Humans however are ingenious. I can't see us going extinct, just having a large drop in numbers. (not most preppers) The world is not going to change into another Venus; we are in the goldilocks zone; Venus is not. For those unwilling to cut and paste here is FluMom's article: https://www.redstate.com/nick-arama/2019/11/24/watch-john-stossel-destroys-climate-change-myths-in-terrific-video/?fbclid=IwAR0Hw5SGkaWj0rKY75yBmo5CWKMV00dMrWHrcAOMYPXgcFWuXZH_riy57EY |
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All you climate change people need to read and watch this. The Climate Change people would not show up to this says a lot. If you are telling the truth you would show up.
https://www.redstate.com/nick-arama/2019/11/24/watch-john-stossel-destroys-climate-change-myths-in-terrific-video/?fbclid=IwAR0Hw5SGkaWj0rKY75yBmo5CWKMV00dMrWHrcAOMYPXgcFWuXZH_riy57EY I do not know how to post a link just copy and paste and it will show up, I tried it that works. |
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