ApocaDocuments (10) for the "Climate Chaos" scenario from this week
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Sun, Aug 2, 2009
from Edinburgh Scotsman:
Scientists claim planet is heading for 'irreversible' climate change by 2040
Carbon dioxide levels are rising at a faster rate than the worst-case scenario envisaged by United Nations experts, with the planet heading for "catastrophic" and "irreversible" climate change by 2040, a new report claims.
The rise of greenhouse gases will trigger an unprecedented rate of global warming that will result in the loss of the ice-covered polar seas by 2020, much of our coral reefs by 2040 and see a 1.4-metre rise in the sea level by 2100. The apocalyptic vision has been outlined in a paper by Andrew Brierley of St Andrews University, which is likely to influence the views of UN experts gathering in Copenhagen this December to establish a new protocol that will attempt to halt global warming.
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"Apocalyptic"? Where are the plagues of locusts?
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Sat, Aug 1, 2009
from Charleston Daily Progress:
Forged letters to congressman anger local groups
As U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello was considering how to vote on an important piece of climate change legislation in June, the freshman congressman’s office received at least six letters from two Charlottesville-based minority organizations voicing opposition to the measure.
The letters, as it turns out, were forgeries.
“They stole our name. They stole our logo. They created a position title and made up the name of someone to fill it. They forged a letter and sent it to our congressman without our authorization,” said Tim Freilich, who sits on the executive committee of Creciendo Juntos, a nonprofit network that tackles issues related to Charlottesville’s Hispanic community. “It’s this type of activity that undermines Americans’ faith in democracy.” ...
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As if letters to politicians matter anyway!
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Fri, Jul 31, 2009
from New Scientist:
Alaska's biggest tundra fire sparks climate warning
The fire that raged north of Alaska's Brooks mountain range in 2007 left a 1000-square-kilometre scorched patch of earth – an area larger than the sum of all known fires on Alaska's North Slope since 1950.
Now scientists studying the ecological impact of the fire report that the blaze dumped 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – about the amount that Barbados puts out in a year. What's more, at next week's meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Albuquerque, New Mexico, two teams will warn that as climate change takes hold tundra fires across the Arctic will become more frequent.
Tundra fires only take off once certain thresholds are reached, says Adrian Rocha of the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts. "But projected changes in climate over the next century – increased aridity, thunderstorms, and warming in the Arctic – will increase the likelihood that these thresholds will be crossed and thus result in more larger and frequent fires." ...
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Just when you thought you'd run out of stuff to worry about...
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Thu, Jul 30, 2009
from San Francisco Chronicle:
100 Cities: The Best and Worst Air Quality
...More than 175 million Americans -- six in 10 -- live in counties where high ozone levels were detected -- nearly twice as many as were at risk in 2008. That increase is largely due to new government calculations that account for new scientific understanding of risk of exposure at lower levels for shorter durations.
Even as cities have taken steps to reduce pollution sources, global warming is producing more hot sunny days, extending the ozone pollution season (April heat wave, anyone?) and increasing the number of days likely to produce unhealthy levels of ozone pollution... The Cleanest [City} in the U.S.: Fargo-Wahpeton, ND-MN This is the only city area to appear on the American Lung Association's list of cleanest cities when measured by all three criteria -- ozone, short-term particulates and long-term particulates. ...
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Let's all go drive there, don't cha know.
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Thu, Jul 30, 2009
from AlterNet:
Naomi Klein: Let's Put an End to Sarah Palin-Style Capitalism
...Think about it: Sarah Palin stepped onto the world stage as Vice Presidential candidate on August 29 at a McCain campaign rally, to much fanfare. Exactly two weeks later, on September 14, Lehman Brothers collapsed, triggering the global financial meltdown.
So in a way, Palin was the last clear expression of capitalism-as-usual before everything went south.... This is the most comforting and dangerous lie that there is: the lie that perpetual, unending growth is possible on our finite planet. And we have to remember that this message was incredibly popular in those first two weeks, before Lehman collapsed. Despite Bush's record, Palin and McCain were pulling ahead. And if it weren't for the financial crisis, and for the fact that Obama started connecting with working class voters by putting deregulation and trickle-down economics on trial, they might have actually won. ...
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Dude, I just got the chills reading this!
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Tue, Jul 28, 2009
from London Times:
Eco-awareness festival halted by safety concerns
Organisers of Europe’s biggest eco-awareness event have had to cancel their 15th annual festival after police and the local council raised safety fears days before it was to start... Described as a “celebration of our natural world” in a village fête atmosphere, the festival combines practical advice and demonstrations on sustainable lifestyles combined with entertainment powered by the wind and the sun....organisers surrendered their licence yesterday after concerns, including issues involving road and fire safety, could not be resolved with police and the local council. ...
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TOTAL BUZZKILL
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Tue, Jul 28, 2009
from Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:
Experts planning for a flood of Noah's Ark proportions
California may be caught in the throes of a years-long drought, but ... crisis experts are now planning for a flood of Noah's Ark proportions.
Worried about the long-term effects of climate change, the USGS and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration are co-creating a scenario for a cataclysmic flood across the Golden State.
Last year, a USGS-led team of 300 scientists created a detailed scenario for a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Southern California, followed by a "ShakeOut" drill of 5.4 million residents, a disaster preparedness record.
Many of the same scientists are now fashioning a hypothetical ARk Storm scenario similar to the mother of all known California floods - the Great Flood of 1861-62. ...
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Are they also acquiring two of every kind of beast?
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Mon, Jul 27, 2009
from Guardian (UK):
World will warm faster than predicted in next five years, study warns
The world faces a new period of record-breaking temperatures as the sun's activity increases, leading the planet to heat up significantly faster than scientists had predicted over the next five years, according to a new study.
The hottest year on record was 1998, and the relatively cool years since have led to some global-warming sceptics claiming that temperatures have levelled off or started to decline. However, the new research firmly rejects that argument.
The work is the first to assess the combined impact on global temperature of four factors: human influences such as CO2 and aerosol emissions; heating from the sun; volcanic activity; and the El Nino southern oscillation, the phenomenon by which the Pacific Ocean flips between warmer and cooler states every few years.... As solar activity picks up again in the coming years, the new research suggests, temperatures will shoot up at 150 percent of the rate predicted by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. ...
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Dang! When will we see "slower than expected" showing up in these stories?
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Mon, Jul 27, 2009
from Radio Australia:
Grim climate warning for Asia Pacific
A new report says climate change could produce 75 million refugees in the Asia Pacific region in the next 40 years.
It urges Australia to put new immigration measures in place to help with people movements, and to cut deeply into its own climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions.
The report, by aid agency Oxfam Australia and a think-tank, the Australia Institute, says the effects of climate change are already being felt in the region.
It says addressing the immigration question is vital, as is giving more financial assistance to the region targeted specifically at measures to help communities adapt.
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Climigration is going to give me a climigraine!
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Mon, Jul 27, 2009
from London Observer:
Poisonous gas from African lake poses threat to millions
More than two million people living on the banks of Lake Kivu in central Africa are at risk of being asphyxiated by gases building up beneath its surface, scientists have warned.
It is estimated that the lake, which straddles the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, now contains 300 cubic kilometres of carbon dioxide and 60 cubic kilometres of methane that have bubbled into the Kivu from volcanic vents. The gases are trapped in layers 80 metres below the lake's surface by the intense water pressures there. However, researchers have warned that geological or volcanic events could disturb these waters and release the gases.
The impact would be devastating, as was demonstrated on 21 August 1986 at Lake Nyos in Cameroon, in West Africa. Its waters were saturated with carbon dioxide and a major disturbance - most probably a landslide - caused a huge cloud of carbon dioxide to bubble up from its depths and to pour down the valleys that lead from the crater lake.
Carbon dioxide is denser than air, so that the 50mph cloud hugged the ground and smothered everything in its path. Some 1,700 people were suffocated. ...
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Sounds like the Mother of all Belches.
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