UN Global Warming report is out

[papasmurfbell]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dIheuvIKDg

[vmax]

More of the same. We're heading for catastrophe....

 

 

 

Human influence on the planet's climate is clear and having "widespread and consequential impacts on human and natural systems," some of which may be irreversible, says a draft report out today from a United Nations science panel.

"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia," the report says. "The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen."

Changes in many extreme weather and climate events have been seen in the past six decades or so, including fewer cold temperature extremes and more hot temperature extremes.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) document is the final part of the group's Fifth Assessment Report, which synthesizes three earlier large reports on various aspects of climate change. There's little in this document not covered in the others, but the language is more stark.

The IPCC is a group of researchers and scientists from around the world who monitor recent climate science and release reports every several years about the latest scientific findings.

The report states that the cause of this climate change is man-made emissions of greenhouse gases, which are "the highest in history" and probably "unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years."

The recent uptick in carbon dioxide levels is correlated with a rise in global temperatures of about 1.5 degrees since the early 1800s.

"Without additional mitigation, and even with adaptation, warming by the end of the 21st century will lead to high to very high risk of severe, widespread and irreversible impacts globally, " it says.

The report says that if carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to be emitted at the current rate, it's likely that by 2050, temperatures will rise by about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, when compared with the temperatures from 1986 to 2005.

By 2100, temperatures could be about 6.7 degrees warmer. Though it wouldn't occur for hundreds of years, the huge sheet of ice over Greenland could melt entirely, leading to as much as a 23-foot rise in world ocean levels, leaving many coastal cities underwater.

This 127-page draft report, obtained by USA TODAY Tuesday, could change before its official release in Copenhagen in October. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2014/08/26/climate-change-report-united-nations/14638079/

[dc.]

And here's why we're screwed...

 

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/8q3nmm/burn-noticed?xrs=synd_facebook_092314_tds_60

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http://thedailyshow.cc.com/extended-interviews/knk3nr/tony-zinni-extended-interview

Here is another reason we are screwed.

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Washington, D.C., which already experiences flooding from the Potomac river during hurricanes, will see chronic flooding—with 388 occurrences a year by 2045, according to the report.

Annapolis, Maryland; Lewisetta, Virginia; and Wilmington, North Carolina, will see more than 300 tidal floods a year. Miami—which now experiences about six tidal floods a year—will also get wetter.

 

Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is projected to be underwater for more than 875 hours a year by 2045.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/us-east-coast-cities-face-frequent-flooding-due-to-climate-change/ar-BB8cu5f

 

 

That's not too far away in the future. Go Green People!

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No we will want to deal with it when it is already to late.

[vmax]

They are telling the bold hard truth....

 

 

 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world's top scientific group dedicated to climate, is meeting in Copenhagen this week and will adopt its final report to be released Sunday.

A draft out this week contains some of the most strident language yet by the panel about climate change.

"Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems," the draft states.

"Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic (man-made) emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history," it says. "The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen."

The assessment comes as the Earth is on its way to its hottest year ever recorded, along with its highest level of atmospheric carbon dioxide in at least 800,000 years.

Sunday's final report will be "the most comprehensive assessment of climate change ever undertaken," the panel's chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, said this week.

Jessica Hellmann, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, warned about the dire consequences of the findings.

"The report explains that we are approaching a global tipping point," Hellmann said. "If we cross this point, we will see huge changes in ecosystems, our ability to grow food, and increased human suffering from flood, heat, drought and sea level rise."

Hellmann added that the world "can still avert catastrophic change if we act quickly to reinvent our economy and our relationship to the Earth, but the window of opportunity is closing. ... Climate change may be the most difficult problem society has ever confronted." http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/10/28/ipcc-climate-change-report/18068573/

 

[thundercleetz]

I am starting to think, is there really anything we can do of significance? Everything I have read and people I have talked to make it seem like we are screwed regardless and the time to act was years ago. I heard about this today and had never even thought about the cause and effect:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_aviation

 

My opinion is the future of human survival is going to be dependent upon technological innovation.

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You know maybe Interstellar is a prediction.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JRBC_0Cs6aQ

[vmax]

The UN needs to keep putting this kind of information out. Keep it front and center.

We are on our way to being extinct.

 

 

 

 

“Any one year being a record warm one is not in itself particularly significant, but this is one in a series of record warm years that are driven by the continuing underlying long-term global warming,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies. “We expect that heat records will continue to get broken - not everywhere and not every year - but increasingly and that does not bode well for a civilisation that is continuing to add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere at an increasing rate.”

The findings from Nasa and Noaa were in line with reports from the United Nations weather organisation, the UK Met Office and Japan’s meteorological agency confirming the steadily upward march of temperatures over the last decades. Thirteen of the 15 hottest years have occurred since 2000. “1988 was also a record warm year at the time. Now it doesn’t even rank in the top 20,” Schmidt said.

 

What's the tipping point? How close are we to it?

That's the point of no return.

 

 

 

Ocean surface temperatures were far warmer in 2014 than any year on record, especially in the northern Pacific. In April, westerly winds began spreading that very warm water out along the equator to the eastern Pacific and around to the Gulf of Alaska – releasing heat that had been locked in the depths for nearly a decade. The unusually warm waters shifted hurricane tracks, weakened trade winds, and led to widespread bleaching of coral reefs in Hawaii. Vast expanses of the northwestern and southeastern Atlantic, most of the Norwegian Sea, and parts of the central to southern Indian Ocean were also extraordinarily warm. Global sea-surface temperatures were 1.03°F (0.57°C) above the 20th century average.

On land, temperature records toppled almost everywhere.

A great swathe of Europe and parts of North Africa sweated out heat waves. Britain saw its hottest summer in three and a half centuries. Nearly every weather station set new records. Transport crew in Norway had to hose down runways to prevent them buckling in the heat. Finns were warned they may soon face Decembers without snow. Australia had a series of heat waves.

For North America – aside from California and Alaska – it was the opposite story. The year was so cold it spawned two new meteorological terms: polar vortex for the Arctic blast at the beginning of the year and lake effect, for the 2ft of snow dumped on Buffalo in November.

But California saw its hottest year, with annual average temperatures 4.1F (2.3C) higher than 20th century average, and scant relief for a punishing drought. http://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/2014-officially-the-hottest-year-on-record-us-government-scientists-say/ar-AA8fjvT?ocid=iehp

 

I keep thinking that the poles have shifted to explain the cooler temperatures in North America but nobody has said that is the case. Other than hurricanes, the Mid Atlantic states are having good temperatures and rainfall. Until we are hit with obvious severe bad weather,...life changing stuff... I don't see people in this part of the world waking up until it's too late.

[dc.]

Any one watch The Newsroom on HBO?

 

This year has a funny side bit in one episode in which they bring a climate scientist into the studio for an interview. It's a long story why he's there.

 

But he keeps pretty much saying that we are all dead. I think my favorite is the analogy, "it's like you got in your car and turned it in the garage... And you did that 20 years ago... And the car is still running. And now you're dead." The first asks if someone could come turn off the car and open the door. He is pretty much like, "yes. But you've been dead for twenty years."

[dc.]

Found it.

 

[RavenMad]

I really like the Newsroom. It's a shame I believe this is it's last season.

[cravnravn]

Just keep your polar vortex above the fl border please, they still talking about the snow in Jacksonville from last week.

 

Think I should have located south of Melbourne that seems to be the cut off line where the artic blasts end.

[Spen]

I still think we need more information to decide if man is helping to create climate change. The debate isnt over.

 

Hey some shop keeper in Topeka wont let his workers put up a Christmas tree! Its an undeniable war on Christmas!

[RavenMad]

I still think we need more information to decide if man is helping to create climate change. The debate isnt over.

 

Seriously?

[dc.]

Read his whole post: add line two to line one.

[thundercleetz]

http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/randall-carlson-2

 

Long podcast but this guy really knows his stuff explaining the history of the earth's climate.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ii9zGFDtc

[cravnravn]

Took my son and future daughter in law 20 hrs to drive home yesterday. 11 1/2 hours from Richmond to northeast Maryland.. Ugggh

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTdpdFUTyqs

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/03/09/florida-governor-climate-change-global-warming/24660287/

Fla. gov. bans the terms climate change, global warming

If Florida Gov. Rick Scott didn't want the terms "climate change" or "global warming" officially associated with his state, he won't be happy with the media attention his decision has sparked.

Scott, a Republican, banned the use of those terms in state communications and publications shortly after he took office in 2011, according to a Miami Herald story Sunday by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.

Though it was not a written rule, "we were told not to use the terms 'climate change,' 'global warming' or 'sustainability,' " Christopher Byrd, a former attorney with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) Office of General Counsel told the investigative reporting center. "That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors," said Boyd, who held that post from 2008 to 2013.

When reached for comment about the supposed ban on the terms, Gov. Scott's spokesperson John Tupps said "it's not true." Tupps said that neither the governor's office nor the DEP had a policy on the use of the terms.

In Florida, about 300,000 houses worth about a total of $145 billion are vulnerable to a rise in the sea level caused by climate change, according to Climate Central. a nonprofit news organization that analyzes and reports on climate science.

Sea-level rise was another term that Scott prohibited, saying it should be called "nuisance flooding," the newspaper said.

This has happened before: In North Carolina in 2012, the legislature said it would ignore studies that mentioned sea-level rise.

Last year, the federal National Climate Assessment said Florida is vulnerable. "There is an imminent threat of increased inland flooding during heavy rain events in low-lying coastal areas such as southeast Florida, where just inches of sea-level rise will impair the capacity of stormwater drainage systems to empty into the ocean," the study said.

The Washington Post, CNN and other media have picked up on the story about the Florida ban, spreading the word about how climate change is likely to impact Scott's state.

 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZTTI_0mHN0

This is so funny.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPQDqNGtycM