global warming

WooHoo A New PPM Record for CO2

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says in March, the global monthly average for carbon dioxide hit 400.83 parts per million. That is the first month in modern records that the entire globe broke 400 ppm, reaching levels that haven’t been seen in about 2 million years.

“It’s both disturbing and daunting,” said NOAA chief greenhouse gas scientist Pieter Tans. “Daunting from the standpoint on how hard it is to slow this down.”

And somewhat disturbing is that the political party that legislates stuff (like funding for NOAA) completely and utterly denies this basic scientific fact.

In fact, they go beyond denying this fact, and call anyone who *does* delusional. They do this over and over and over again, with the backing of many of the richest people on the planet (who make money off selling the stuff causing the rise in CO2).

So that’s where we are at…a place no human civilization has ever been.

And rising.

Amount of carbon dioxide in air keeps rising, hits milestone
—
The great thing about this is that the GOP, which controls funding for these agencies, in planning to gut it in order to not get any more reports like this one.

The Last Time Oceans Got This Acidic This Fast, 96% of Marine Life Went Extinct

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The biggest extinction event in planetary history was driven by the rapid acidification of our oceans, a new study concl​udes. So much carbon was released into the atmosphere, and the oceans absorbed so much of it so quickly, that marine life simply died off, from the bottom of the food chain up.

That doesn’t bode well for the present, given the disturbingly similar rate that our seas are acidifying right now. Parts of the Pacific, for instance, are already so acidic that sea snails’ shells begin dissolving as soon as they’re born.

via The Last Time Oceans Got This Acidic This Fast, 96% of Marine Life Went Extinct | Motherboard.

Just another one of those observable effects of that human civilization is having on our planet.

 

Note: these are denied utterly and completely by the GOP.

Yale Climate Opinion Maps

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Yale Climate Opinion Maps.

Outstanding look at various opinions on global warming, as collected by various political/geographic entities.

I’d be interested to see this data weighted by income.  My assumption is that, if we did so, opinions would be very much tilted *against* the notion that this is happening.

My assumption goes that way because the legislature goes that way…so there’s the logic behind the illogical.

 

Study Forecasts 70% Loss of West Canada’s Glaciers

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He added that since the projections for the study were based on the climate panel’s range of predictions, it was heartening to find that the panel’s projections that took into account the possibility of strong measures to combat climate change showed glacial loss leveling off. “There are still some good-behavior rewards there,” he said. “We have to get at this now.”

via Study Forecasts 70% Loss of West Canada’s Glaciers – NYTimes.com.

I wanted to highlight that quote because I think there is still hope for this issue.

I haven’t given up yet.   I do think the liars are losing, the question is whether or not it will be fast enough to keep things from getting out of hand.

The California drought is going to be a big factor.  If you haven’t read the linked story yet, now would be a good time, because it explains why the drought is probably going to get worse, for a long time.

Seantor Inhofe is a *Dangerous* Idiot

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This is rather insane. Remember that idiotic Senator from Oklahoma who doesn’t think Global Warming exists because God flooded the Earth and therefore won’t destroy us again?

Yea…well…now he wants to go to war with Russia because of some seven-year old pictures of Russian tanks.

And just to be clear….GOP…committee chair…

‪#‎stopvotingforidiots‬

Senator “Duped” Into Using Old Photos to Promote New War With Russia
This afternoon, the Washington Free Beacon published EXCLUSIVE photos, obtained by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), that purportedly showed new Russian aggression in…
FORTRESSAMERICA.GAWKER.COM|BY ADAM WEINSTEIN

Senator Inhofe Lies to the World, Takes Over Senate Environmental Committee

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The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted 98-1 to approve a resolution stating that “it is the sense of the Senate that climate change is real and not a hoax.” Then, about 15 minutes later, the Senate rejected a second resolution that said climate change is real and caused by humans.

The first resolution was approved — and co-sponsored — by one of the most outspoken climate deniers in the Senate, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), a man who literally wrote a book about how climate change is the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated.” The only Senator to vote against the resolution was Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS).

Sounds too good to be true, right? That’s because it is. At the last minute, right before a vote was taken, Inhofe took the floor to state that he would be co-sponsoring and approving the amendment on the grounds that yes, climate change is real, but human-caused climate change is not. “Man cannot change climate,” Inhofe said. “The hoax is that there are some people that are so arrogant to think that they are so powerful that they can change climate.”

“Gaawwwwhd has deeclared he is the OOOOONNNLY ONE who may destroy the Earth,” continued the animated corpse from Oklahoma.

I’m actually not joking…this is why many in this country don’t think it is *possible* for humans to do something as big and powerful and “godlike” as changing our own climate.

As I’ve done before, I’d advise anyone who thinks this way to try this little experiment. Instead of billions of people and hundreds of millions of cars, and thousands of cubic miles of atmosphere, take one person, one car, and one garage. Put the person in the car, put the car in the garage, and start the car and close the garage.

Come back in a day and tell me again how humans can’t use our technology to change our atmosphere (and we already know that changing the atmosphere can change the climate).

This is the stuff of Idiocracy, I shit you not.

Senate Votes 98-1 That ‘Climate Change Is Real And Not A Hoax’
Sounds too good to be true, right? That’s because it is.
THINKPROGRESS.ORG

What’s More Likely to Be Bullshit

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I’m glad this is a thing…http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiratard

BTW, I noticed a great one the other day….

You know how kooky some people are who think the U.S. faked the moon landing? It would take nearly 1,000 people, scientists, politicians, lawyers, astronauts, etc, all in on it, faking the data, and telling the same “lie” for generations.

But the thing is…in order to think that global warming in a lie, one has to extend that number to 10,000 and instead of just the U.S., it has to become a massive *global conspiracy*.

So the idea that global warming is a conspiracy is, roughly, about 1,000 times * less likely than a faked moon landing…

…and yet is still quite popular.

‘Merica.

* the difficulty of successfully conspiring in inversely and logarithmicly related to the number of people it takes to pull it off.

Usually the One that Predicts the Future is the One we want to listen to….

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Back in 2004, Sloan, professor of Earth sciences at UC Santa Cruz, and her graduate student Jacob Sewall published, “Disappearing Arctic sea ice reduces available water in the American west” (subs. req’d). They used powerful computers “to simulate the effects of reduced Arctic sea ice,” and “their most striking finding was a significant reduction in rain and snowfall in the American West.”

“Where the sea ice is reduced, heat transfer from the ocean warms the atmosphere, resulting in a rising column of relatively warm air,” Sewall said. “The shift in storm tracks over North America was linked to the formation of these columns of warmer air over areas of reduced sea ice.” In January, Sewall wrote me that “both the pattern and even the magnitude of the anomaly looks very similar to what the models predicted in the 2005 study (see Fig. 3a [below]).”

via Climatologist Who Predicted California Drought 10 Years Ago Says It May Soon Be ‘Even More Dire’ | ThinkProgress.

It’s funny, but this has happened a few times now.  You see…when 97%+ of the world’s scientists are using their models to predict the future based on known things (like the measurements of the world getting warmer because of human activity), they get to start making predictions about the future based on that knowledge.

The deniers just sit there and go “nu-uh!!”.  They have no predictions, no knowledge, no point, just flat out denial, repeated endlessly.

You know who else believes in Global Warming? Actuaries

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In Global Warming’s “New Normal,” Florida May Be Uninsurable – Facts So Romantic – Nautilus.

Yesterday, there was an arguably more important and revealing statement on global warming, although it won’t get nearly as much press. The Geneva Group, an insurance company trade organization, released a report declaring that climate change is bringing their industry into a new era [pdf]—and not in a good way. Global warming, the report says, has already raised ocean temperatures enough to significantly increase the chances of highly destructive storms. At the same time, insurance policy holders, such as homeowners, are not taking sufficient steps to protect their property from catastrophic damage. The combination “could create a risk environment that is uninsurable in some regions,” reads the report. “Examples with this potential are U.K. flood or Florida wind storm insurance.”

Curiously, the only people at this point who deny this is happening are folks who make their money causing the problem and of course the folks on their payrolls (oh, and idiots…lots of idiots).

Read the insurer’s report here.

Koch Brothers Pay Off Legislators to Fight Fighting Climate Change

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When President Obama rolled out his climate strategy last week, he made a point to sidestep Congress and take executive action — and with good reason. A two-year study conducted by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University offers some insight into how Charles and David Koch have helped systematically derail climate legislation on Capitol Hill.

Using Americans For Prosperity, a conservative group they bankroll, the Koch brothers have convinced scores of Republicans in Congress not to vote for any climate legislation unless it’s “accompanied by an equivalent amount of tax cuts.”

via Koch Brothers Pledge Helped Kill Climate Change Legislation: Report.

It’s not even a hiding thing any more.  They are straight up saying…vote against this stuff and we fund you….vote for it and we primary your ass.    The vast majority of the GOP is completely beholden to these asshats.

Record heat waves again this summer too, for those paying attention.

Geeks hate the GOP (shouldn’t be news to anyone)

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Among employees who work for Google, Mr. Obama raised about $720,000 in itemized contributions this year, against only $25,000 for Mr. Romney. That means that Mr. Obama took almost 97 percent of the money between the two major candidates.

Apple employees gave 91 percent of their dollars to Mr. Obama. At eBay, Mr. Obama took 89 percent of the money from employees.

Over all, among the 10 American-based information technology companies on the Fortune’s list of “most admired companies,” Mr. Obama raised 83 percent of the funds between the two major party candidates.

Mr. Obama’s popularity among the staff at these companies holds even for those which are not headquartered in California. About 81 percent of contributions at Microsoft, which is headquartered in Redmond, Wash., went to Mr. Obama. So did 77 percent of those at I.B.M., which is based in Armonk, N.Y.

via In Silicon Valley, Technology Talent Gap Threatens G.O.P. Campaigns – NYTimes.com.

Here’s the thing…when the platform of your party disavows some of the most amazing discoveries in the history of our species…expect those that tend to like amazing discoveries to not like your party.   When a certain group is very pro-science, and your party is very anti-science, expect that group to not like you.

When your party platform is based largely on ignorance about the outside world, expect those that work to make that world accessible NOT LIKE YOUR PARTY.

So there’s a reason the GOP’s GOTV (Get Out The Vote) system failed so miserably…very few people who know how to make good software like the GOP.

Sea Level Rising Faster than U.N.’s IPCC Projected….WAKE UP!!

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Seas rising faster than projected, low areas threatened – study http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSL5E8MRAA520121128?irpc=932

DOHA, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Sea levels are rising 60 percent faster than U.N. projections, threatening low-lying areas from Miami to the Maldives, a study said on Wednesday. The report, issued during U.N. talks in Qatar on combating climate change, also said temperatures were creeping higher in line with U.N. scenarios, rejecting hopes the rate had been exaggerated. “Global warming has not slowed down, (nor is it) lagging behind the projections,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, lead author at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research that compared U.N. projections to what has actually happened from the early 1990s to 2011. The study said sea levels had been rising by 3.2 mm (0.1 inch) a year according to satellite data, 60 percent faster than the 2mm annaul rise projected by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over that period.

I still think it’s absurd bordering on criminal how scientific reality has become partisan politics…all because the GOP is so beholden to carbon billionaires.