Jan 25 2008

Climate “Clearly Out of Balance” (American Geophysical Union)

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Cross-posted from THE ENVIRONMENTALIST

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has updated its policy on climate change with the pronouncement that changes to the Earth’s climate system are “not natural.”

The Earth’s climate is now clearly out of balance and is warming. Many components of the climate system-including the temperatures of the atmosphere, land and ocean, the extent of sea ice and mountain glaciers, the sea level, the distribution of precipitation, and the length of seasons-are now changing at rates and in patterns that are not natural and are best explained by the increased atmospheric abundances of greenhouse gases and aerosols generated by human activity during the 20th century.

More below the fold…

Global average surface temperatures increased on average by about 0.6°C over the period 1956-2006. As of 2006, eleven of the previous twelve years were warmer than any others since 1850. The observed rapid retreat of Arctic sea ice is expected to continue and lead to the disappearance of summertime ice within this century. Evidence from most oceans and all continents except Antarctica shows warming attributable to human activities. Recent changes in many physical and biological systems are linked with this regional climate change.

~snip~

With climate change, as with ozone depletion, the human footprint on Earth is apparent. The cause of disruptive climate change, unlike ozone depletion, is tied to energy use and runs through modern society. Solutions will necessarily involve all aspects of society.

The AGU, which has 50,000 members in 137 countries, said delivering solutions would require the co-operation of all sectors; from science and technology, to industry and government.

Link to full AGU statement available here.

17 comments

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  1. There’s no denying it now (or, at least, there shouldn’t be).  Worth reading the whole thing (here).

  3. being moderated by Friedman…..and Bono was there too…..now that’s a gray matter wires crossed scenario for me that takes minutes just to digest before I can even pay attention but I digress.  The Iraq War affects me first and foremost, as soon as those who will survive that do survive it and it ends – the polar ice caps will be disappearing in the summer time.  God, just fuck it….fuck it all….how stupid is everything going to get before anybody gets smart enough to do something for real, say something for real, fight for something that’s real?

    • Edger on January 25, 2008 at 17:02
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    …posted a story about:

    British scientist James Lovelock and his warning that catastrophic global climate change is both imminent and unstoppable:

    Within the next decade or two, Lovelock forecasts, Gaia will hike her thermostat by at least 10 degrees. Earth, he predicts, will be hotter than at any time since the Eocene Age 55 million years ago, when crocodiles swam in the Arctic Ocean.

    “There’s no realization of how quickly and irreversibly the planet is changing,” Lovelock says. “Maybe 200 million people will migrate close to the Arctic and survive this. Even if we took extraordinary steps, it would take the world 1,000 years to recover.”

    It would be easy to view this as just another kooky end-of-the-world theory, if it weren’t for the history of some of Lovelock’s other kooky theories — like the time in the late ’70s when he hypothesized that chlorofluorocarbons wafted high into the stratosphere would eat great big holes in the ozone layer, exposing first the polar regions and then the rest of the earth’s surface to increasingly harmful ultraviolet radiation. What a nut.

    As far as I can tell, Lovelock’s latest crackpot (or should I say “crockpot”?) idea is still the minority opinion among climatologists, most of whom seem to believe we have perhaps 70-100 years before the seriously disastrous greenhouse effects kick in — although Jim Hansen, the NASA scientist, has suggested that unless major cuts in Co2 emissions are made within the next decade, the process will become every bit as irreversible as Lovelock claims it already is.

    • Viet71 on January 25, 2008 at 21:16
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    Are any large corporations looking to make money by offering goods or services aimed at reversing global warming?

  6. …that prediction. He noted that since he is so old, he would never have to do a mea culpa if he turned out to be wrong.

    More and more, it appears he’ll be one of the many once-scorned prophets who will be remembered as having been right if anybody has time to think about such matters in the coming vicious scramble.  

    • documel on January 25, 2008 at 21:33
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    You shouldn’t fool around with mother nature–until she’s at your throat, and your days are numbered.  Realizing that there will be unintended consequences, aren’t there ways to lower the earth’s temperature?  For example, one probaly very bad idea would be to try to induce volcanoes to erupt–spewing enough matter into the atmosphere to block some of the sun’s rays.  

    Grasping at straws might be all that’s left, we should be looking for good straws.  Industry is not going to give up the fossil fuel plants they already have–nor are we going to give up our cars immediately.  Before we get a new power source, we have to protect the planet from our old sources.

  8. There is another definition of climate not related to weather.

    3. the prevailing attitudes, standards, or environmental conditions of a group, period, or place: a climate of political unrest.

    Global warming ie Al Gore seeks not to save the enviornment.  It seeks to form a global tax on carbon emission for the sole benefit of people galactically wealthier than you or me.

    Lest your neighbors be a friendly Amish family get ready to get crushed by this theme.

  9. perhaps after the methane hydrates dump…..

    after the oceans rise…..

    after the northern temperate forests burn……

    then the carbon level will drop ……

    with the increase in albiedo the earth will cool….

    and perhaps the cycle will begin again….

    perhaps we should begin to consider how some of us will ride it out…..

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