This week we start with trouble at the top and bottom of the world and finish with trouble with our leading media magnate and politician.
1. Geenland at a tipping point?
THE cracks are beginning to show. Greenland’s ice sheets slid into the sea 400,000 years ago, when Earth was only a little warmer than it is today. That could mean we are set for a repeat performance.
If Greenland goes, West Antarctica also goes, giving 13 metres of sea level rise from those sources. If that happens there will also be a complete loss of other glaciers and ice caps, thermal expansion and some partial melting from East Antarctica. A mess!
The question is how soon and what can we do? The answer is we need more research and we need to think more in terms of centuries.
We should be thinking about the next 500-1000 years, how ice sheet decay can be minimised, stabilised and headed in the other direction. Our plans for the next 50-200 years should be made in the light of this.
This image from the article shows a part of Greenland where the ice is quite dynamic.These areas are expected to grow.
Here’s an image from another article:
2. Big trouble in the Antarctic has been brewing for a long time
David Spratt at Climate Code Red:
“A game changer” is how climate scientist Dr Malte Meinshausen describes newly published research that West Antarctic glaciers have passed a tipping point much earlier than expected and their disintegration is now “unstoppable” at just the current level of global warming. The research findings have shocked the scientific community. “This Is What a Holy Shit Moment for Global Warming Looks Like,” ran a headline in Mother Jones magazine.
Meinshausen says this is new information. He says that the beaches we know and love all around the world will disappear. He also wonders what other nasty surprises lie this side of a 2°C temperature rise. Spratt says we told you ages ago it was coming, by James Hansen, for example and by himself and Philip Sutton in 2007.
This NASA image shows the temperature changes from 1957 to 2006:
Hansen warned; Meinshausen says it’s happening. Spratt warns:
It’s par for the course for climate policy-makers to hope for the best, rather than plan for the worst. More than once this blog has warned that sea-level rises are being underestimated by Australian policy-makers, and that the tens of millions of dollars being put into adaptation planning for sea-level rises of no more than 1.1 metres by 2100 will be a waste of money, and all that work will have to be done again. And now that has come to pass.
3. Huge ‘whirlpools’ in the ocean are driving the weather
GIANT “whirlpools” in the ocean carry far more water than expected and have a big impact on the weather – though as yet we don’t know exactly what.
The areas of swirling water are 100 to 500 kilometres across. These “eddies” generally move west, driven by Earth’s rotation, until they stop spinning. Now, for the first time, the amount of water and heat they carry has been measured.
Article and image available also here.
Nestled into the pastoral landscape of Treviso, Italy, BioCasa_82 is a beautiful home that boasts some seriously energy-efficient technologies.
The house is made from 99% recyclable materials and scores
117 points out of 136, according to the American protocol LEED Platinum, and 10 out of 11 points in regards to innovation in design, the building is a real gem in the European building practice.
According to the carbon footprint analysis, BioCasa_82 yields 60% less emissions than traditional buildings. Its photovoltaic system produces around 14kWh/mq of electricity, and a high-efficiency geothermal plant provides heat, hot water and cooling. These strategies are complemented by a rainwater harvesting system.
5. Rupert Murdoch doesn’t understand climate change basics
That is everyone’s problem since he owns a world-wide media empire.
Many of Murdoch’s news outlets are also among the worst when it comes to getting climate science wrong and disseminating climate myths and misinformation. Inaccurate media coverage is in turn the primary reason why the public is so misinformed about global warming.
I won’t go into the details, but Climate Progress observes that he ‘lowballed’ the numbers and minimized possible impacts. Here in Oz:
”We can be the low-cost energy country in the world,” he said. “We shouldn’t be building windmills and all that rubbish.”
Elsewhere Graham Readfearn finds that Tony Abbott’s views on climate are seriously crap.
Reminder: Use this thread as an open thread on climate change.
In this article Greenland expert Jason Box says we have already set in motion about 69 feet (21m) of sea level rise. That’s roughly what I’ve been saying for quite a while now.
The poms should really jail Murdoch for phone hacking. Apart from that?
Meinhausen is right in criticising Australian policy makers – but shouldn’t that criticism be extended to all Australian decision makers – corporate as well as governmental?
It is fashionable nowadays to talk about The Great War. The attitudes of Murdoch, his courtiers and his servants towards the hazards of climate change reminds me of the attitudes of the ill-prepared politicians and the stale old generals in that terrible conflict. Unless we are careful, the current follies, complacency, ignorance and inflexibility will get us all wiped out – not by gas and guns but by famine. Do like your suggestion for saving the planet through jailing an over-influential individual, John D.; every little helps.
I do like the look of that BioCasa-82. Naturally, such a structure would be outlawed in Australia. Never mind, I shall look it up on the internet anyway. 🙂