ApocaDocuments (10) for the "Climate Chaos" scenario from this week
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Sat, Apr 19, 2008
from Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Scientist: Stop carbon emissions or face ruin
"Droughts, more wildfires, hotter and longer summers and more violent storms will plague the desert Southwest if carbon-dioxide pollution continues, a leading climate-change scientist believes. Sea levels will rise several feet, covering the state of Florida, the country of Bangladesh and most beachfront property by the end of the century if people keep pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at the current rate, said James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies." ...
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Oh that James Hansen. Even if he found a silver lining in a cloud, it would be made of mercury.
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Sat, Apr 19, 2008
from Associated Press:
Jet stream found to be permanently drifting north
The jet stream -- America's stormy weather maker -- is creeping northward and weakening, new research shows. That potentially means less rain in the already dry South and Southwest and more storms in the North. And it could also translate into more and stronger hurricanes since the jet stream suppresses their formation. The study's authors said they have to do more research to pinpoint specific consequences. From 1979 to 2001, the Northern Hemisphere's jet stream moved northward on average at a rate of about 1.25 miles a year, according to the paper published Friday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. ...
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America's lack of discipline is clearly at fault here. We can't even keep our jet streams on track!
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Sat, Apr 19, 2008
from National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration:
Global Land Temperature Warmest On Record In March 2008
"The average global land temperature last month was the warmest on record and ocean surface temperatures were the 13th warmest. Combining the land and the ocean temperatures, the overall global temperature ranked the second warmest for the month of March. Global temperature averages have been recorded since 1880." ...
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March is busting out all over!
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Fri, Apr 18, 2008
from Reuters:
Freshening of deep Antarctic waters worries experts
"Scientists studying the icy depths of the sea around Antarctica have detected changes in salinity that could have profound effects on the world's climate and ocean currents... Voyage leader Steve Rintoul said his team found that salty, dense water that sinks near the edge of Antarctica to the bottom of the ocean about 5 km (3 miles) down was becoming fresher and more buoyant. So-called Antarctic bottom water helps power the great ocean conveyor belt, a system of currents spanning the Southern, Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans that shifts heat around the globe....If these currents were to slow or stop, the world's climate would eventually be thrown into chaos." ...
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The great conveyor belt may soon be closed for repairs. Except no repair-person can fix that.
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Thu, Apr 17, 2008
from London Guardian:
Waves of Destruction
"Rising seas are changing Britain's coast dramatically. Norfolk is the first low-lying area to face a stark and cruel new choice - plough millions into doomed defences, or abandon whole villages to the invading waters...More than 15 million people live close to Britain's coastline. This small corner of Norfolk is the first to confront what every low-lying community in the country will face in the coming decades: the real cost of increased erosion, storms and sea-level rises exacerbated by global warming. It presents local people and the government with a stark dilemma. Is it worth spending billions on defending homes and livelihoods? Or, faced with inexorable sea-level rise, should expensive coastal defences be abandoned, leading to the evacuation of land and houses?" ...
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Or should we accelerate our genetic mutations and grow gills?
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Thu, Apr 17, 2008
from Der Spiegel:
A Storehouse of Greenhouse Gases Is Opening in Siberia
"Researchers have found alarming evidence that the frozen Arctic floor has started to thaw and release long-stored methane gas. The results could be a catastrophic warming of the earth, since methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. But can the methane also be used as fuel? ... In the permafrost bottom of the 200-meter-deep sea, enormous stores of gas hydrates lie dormant in mighty frozen layers of sediment. The carbon content of the ice-and-methane mixture here is estimated at 540 billion tons. ...
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It's so tempting -- and it's not very likely anything could go wrong...
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Wed, Apr 16, 2008
from Bloomberg:
Biofuel Rule Will Do More Harm Than Good, Oxfam Says
"U.K. fuels for cars and trucks must contain biofuels starting today, a move that may do more harm than good to the environment and drive food prices higher, charities including Oxfam and Greenpeace said....Scientists in the U.K. and U.S. have found that the cultivation of biofuels can increase the output of CO2 and other gases blamed for global warming because of changes in land use." ...
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Bloody hell! Here we thought biofuels were going to be the bomb and instead they're busting our balls!
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Wed, Apr 16, 2008
from New Scientist:
World sea levels seen rising 1.5m by 2100
"Melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warming water could lift sea levels by as much as 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) by the end of this century, displacing tens of millions of people, new research showed on Tuesday. Presented at a European Geosciences Union conference, the research forecasts a rise in sea levels three times higher than that predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last year. The U.N. climate panel shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore." ...
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If you're not on a coast somewhere, start renovating that extra bedroom -- or turn your garage into housing -- you can make extra money housing refugees!
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Tue, Apr 15, 2008
from BBC:
China now 'top carbon polluter'
"China has already overtaken the US as the world's "biggest polluter", a report to be published next month says. The research suggests the country's greenhouse gas emissions have been underestimated, and probably passed those of the US in 2006-2007." ...
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Now that's progress!
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Mon, Apr 14, 2008
from Reuters:
Bangladesh faces climate change refugee nightmare
"DHAKA - Abdul Majid has been forced to move 22 times in as many years, a victim of the annual floods that ravage Bangladesh.
There are millions like Majid, 65, in Bangladesh and in the future there could be many millions more if scientists' predictions of rising seas and more intense droughts and storms come true...Experts say a third of Bangladesh's coastline could be flooded if the sea rises one metre in the next 50 years, creating an additional 20 million Bangladeshis displaced from their homes and farms." ...
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What are you called if you leave the coastline early -- in anticipation of rising sea levels? A prefugee!
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