12
Jan
Jan
Environmental Defense Fund’s 10 startling facts that show the climate crisis is scarier than ever!
We can’t help but share another email we received from the Environmental Defense Action Fund (EDF) urging us to support a comprehensive climate and energy bill.
We can’t wait watch you all poke holes in these ten horrific consequences of being a Denier.
Dear Friend,
Please take action to support a comprehensive climate and energy bill.
In the last year alone, new evidence has emerged that the climate crisis is nearer—and scarier—than we had believed.
Please take action now to urge your Senators to support comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation that will reinvigorate our economy and create millions of new jobs.
The stakes are high. We must start cutting our carbon emissions now, or we may soon lose the ability to prevent runaway global warming.
Here are 10 startling facts we learned in 2009 that underscore the climate threat:
- A study published in the journal Science reports that the current level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere – about 390 parts per million – is higher today than at any time in measurable history — at least the last 2.1 million years. Previous peaks of CO2 were never more than 300 ppm over the past 800,000 years, and the concentration is rising by around 2 ppm each year.
- The World Meterological Organization reported that 2000-2009 was the hottest decade on record with 8 of the hottest 10 years having occurred since 2000.
- 2009 will end up as one of the 5 hottest years since 1850 and the U.K.’s Met Office predicts that, with a moderate El Nino, 2010 will likely break the record.
- The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that while a bit more summer Arctic sea ice appeared in 2009 than the record breaking lows of the last two years, it was still well below normal levels. Given that the Arctic ice cover remains perilously thin, it is vulnerable to further melting, posing an ever increasing threat to Arctic wildlife including polar bears.
- The Arctic summer could be ice-free by mid-century, not at the end of the century as previously expected, according to a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
- Recent observations published in the highly respected Nature Geosciences indicate that the East Antarctica ice sheet has been shrinking. This surprised researchers, who expected that only the West Antarctic ice sheet would shrink in the near future because the East Antarctic ice sheet is colder and more stable.
- The U.S. Global Change Research Program completed an assessment of what is known about climate change impacts in the US and reported that, “Climate changes are already observed in the United States and… are projected to grow.” These changes include “increases in heavy downpours, rising temperature and sea level, rapidly retreating glaciers, thawing permafrost, lengthening ice-free seasons in the ocean and on lakes and rivers, earlier snowmelt, and alterations in river flows.”
- According to a report by the US Geological Survey, slight changes in the climate may trigger abrupt threats to ecosystems that are not easily reversible or adaptable, such as insect outbreaks, wildfire, and forest dieback. “More vulnerable ecosystems, such as those that already face stressors other than climate change, will almost certainly reach their threshold for abrupt change sooner.” An example of such an abrupt threat is the outbreak of spruce bark beetles throughout the western U.S. caused by increased winter temperatures that allow more beetles to survive.
- The EPA, USGS and NOAA issued a joint report warning that most mid-Atlantic coastal wetlands from New York to North Carolina will be lost with a sea level rise of 1 meter or more.
- If we do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the century, some of the main fruit and nut tree crops currently grown in California may no longer be economically viable, as there will be a lack of the winter chilling they require. And, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S. production of corn, soybeans and cotton could decrease as much as 82%.
Possibly related posts:
- ScienceNow Daily says 2009 hottest year south of equator. Climate Scientist says hogwash.
- Call the Obama Administration’s bluff on the Clean Air Act threat
- Two U.S. Congressmen go after EPA on reliance on UN’s climate panel
- If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense.
- Environmental Blackmail
My take on this. Please note I chose the simple version of response instead of creating another online dissertation.
1. Bullshit
2. Bullshit.
3. Bullshit.
4. Bullshit.
5. Bullshit
6. Bullshit.
7. Bullshit.
8. Bullshit.
9. Bullshit.
10. Bullshit.
In closing I hope used my simple reply method and sent them a two word reply that start with the letter f and end with the second word you.
John…
Absolutely breathtaking response to this article! You deserve…oh, I don’t know..a medal of some sort. This is the kind of hard hitting, rational and aggressive rebuttal that is required to fight what is undoubtedly the ‘greatest hoax’ the world has every seen.
Particularly effective was your two word reply that…”start with the letter f and end with the second word you…” Yes, Brilliant!
I think you should write up your own paper and submit it to Nature..I wouldn’t be surprised to see your name on a Nobel Prize.
I’d certainly deserve it more than Obama did! Keep up the megalomania, youre so good at it!
Well spat, John!
Who can argue with that?
Well, while I agree completely with John, I’ll add a smidge more detail.
1. Given the estimated CO2 has been as high as 7,000 ppm, which resulted in an incredibly lush, green world, please explain why a 2ppm/yr increase is interesting and why we are not actually CO2 impoverished? I understand plants even had to evolve a carbon pathway (c3 Vs c4?) to adapt to the lower CO2.
2. Well duh. IF there has been warming (and I believe there has been some) then of course this will be the warmest decade. Please note the 100s of peer-reviewed papers which state that the MWP was as much as 3+ degrees warmer. So while it’s the warmest modern record, it’s far from a Holocene record.
3. see #2. If we have the predicted cooling then it won’t be a record.
4. The Arctic ice is thickening very nicely and the polar bears have increased their populations quite nicely over the last 30+ years. Also, historical records show varying levels of ice free conditions over the last several hundred years. Bears handled those just fine, as well as the warmer periods of the Holocene and the last interglacial.
5. This is an issue, if true, because…? Arctic wildlife has already demonstrated that it can handle such conditions.
6. The ice mass of Antarctica is thickening and the cooling there is stressing some of the bird/critter populations.
7. “Climate changes are already observed in the United States and… are projected to grow.” CC has been happening for billions of years and there is zero evidence of increased awfulness due to CC (unless we’re talking ice ages.) Peer reviewed papers show no increase in damaging weather events, anywhere. The NOAA hundred year trend shows a trivial increase in precipitation.
8. Observed data show zero evidence for tipping points outside of the start/end points for ice ages. Observed data shows a greening of the earth and expanding plant/critter ranges. Naturally this will include undesirable plants and critters.
9. Maybe over the next 400 years. Current rate is maybe 20cm per century with none observed in the last few years. Since Greenland and Antarctic ice is increasing (and cooling) I think a 1m rise is highly unlikely in our lifetimes.
10. Given the fact that commercial greenhouses increase CO2 to well over 1000ppm and that NASA shows a greening of the earth attributed to CO2 and that many peer-reviewed papers say “increased CO2 is good” and that CA’s crop issues are due to idiot policies, not climate, I think we can conclude that #10 is BS.
That was the verbose version of John’s reply.
CA crop issues have more to do with saving smelts and bankrupting farming communities. It is a federal policy fully suppo5rted by Obama that is depriving the central valley of water so it can pour out to sea unused, except by the smelt.
The EDF focuses on “measurable history” for CO2.
There is the Mauna Loa record starting in 1959 that does show a steady increase of CO2 over the year.
But scientists have been measuring CO2 for much longer starting around 1812 with a chemical method and indeed CO2 levels exceeded 400 PPM as recently as 1940.
In that light there study in the journal Science has been weighed and measured and found “wanting”.
Hey CBultmann
Can you post a reference to that 400ppm measurement? I’d like to add it to my “stack of stuff.”
Greg,
here’s one:
http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/180_years_accurate_Co2_Chemical_Methods.pdf
This one is also interesting re co2 vs global temp (although there’s a huge error margin in guestimating co2):
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/Carboniferous_climate.html
Thanks!
Amazing. The author would have us believe that the atmospheric CO2 record goes through the most incredible gyrations for 150 years, including virtual step changes of up to 100 ppmv, and then suddenly settles down to a slow, steady increase – which just happens to merge smoothly with the prior ice core data. So what happened to the atmosphere that caused it to so radically change it’s properties in 1959? Before 1959 the graph looks like nothing so much as the trajectory of a drunk on a pogo stick. That’s it: We’ll call it the “Pogo Stick” graph! If this thing had the name “Michael Mann” attached to it, you would all be laughing your heads off.
Dick Where ya been??? I missed you!!!!!! Glad you’re back!
The Pope didn’t shut down the Vatican when Darwin published Origin of the Species.
It can always get worse, too.
Imagine Michael Moore doing a documentary about evil haxxorz.
http://www.biomind.de/realCO2/papers.htm
Thanks for that, I’m tossing it onto the stack!
From WUWT Resources.
Page 14 is interesting CO2 in air bubbles in pre-industrial ice ranged from 160-700 ppm after 1985 the high readings disappeared.
http://nzclimatescience.net/images/PDFs/ccr.pdf
I’m still confused as to why anyone interested in real science would want to obatain C02 readings near the worlds largest active volcano??? Kind of skews things I’d think.
Total agreement with John’s comments though might prefix them with Total
Thats cold coffee. Many of the informations are old, confuted and part of rumors. Also many of them are the result of onesided researches and analysis.
Not the big hit, which might convince me of the manmade climatechange.
I agree with John in Post #1 and Tory in Post #12
Total BS – I have know problem with working towards the reduction of dependeance on fossilb fuels. Peak Oil would make more sense in my view than this scam. We will find out how “Green” people are when and if Cap and Trade comes into effect. It will be then that our politicians and MSM feel the backlash. National Post excluded. Terence Corcoran has written a few articles on this.
Sorry for the spelling above,
As all 10 points are depending on catastrophic impact of human CO2 emissions, I think it’s enough to point out that in real climate system (as opposed to inaccurate & fudged climate models) the increase in CO2 levels can only reduce slightly absolute humidity of the atmosphere. And according to observations in last 60 years, this is what has happened. For reference, please see the presentation in the end of this article:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-7715-Portland-Civil-Rights-Examiner~y2010m1d12-Hungarian-Physicist-Dr-Ferenc-Miskolczi-proves-CO2-emissions-irrelevant-in-Earths-Climate
Agree absolutely, John.
Do you suppose the EDF also believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden?
Anyone who doesn’t believe this is real will be of the people who say “oh s***” when bad things start affecting them in a tangible way. Until then, those of us who have foresight will act now and not let those who cry bullshit get in our way
Good luck Deric, if you want to throw your cash away send some this way as i’m a bit strapped due to the hidden extra charges i’m paying on my electricity bills
Bad things happen all the time.
The problem is that you can’t just blame them on AGW without data, research and rational thinking based on established scientific principles.
What we have currently is the sort of scare-mongering that went on in pre-history when an eclipse of the sun was seen as the Gods being angry. The IPCC and the University of East Anglia CRU have sold their reputations down the river and, if anyone had any sense, they’d dump both organisations.
Once you’ve established that your quarter back can’t throw the ball you dump him, you don’t try to pretend he can be mended.
“Once you’ve established that your quarter back can’t throw the ball you dump him, you don’t try to pretend he can be mended.”
Unless you’re Al Davis, then you keep him and have a lousy football team.
Can we sail entirely around Greeland’s coast yet – as the Vikings did? When we can do that, andwhen grapes can be grown as far north in England as shown by those ancient vineyards, then we’ll be as warm as during the Medieval Warming Period, Of course there were two other earlier warming periods during this same interglacial period which were evidently even warmer, and with no help from mankind. We are evidently contributing to the level of CO2 in the atmosphere, (at 2ppmv it’s really slow) and at some point (many times higher) it would become dangerous to man, but concern about that is about the same as the claim that if you eat enough apples it’ll cause cancer.) CO2 has been considerably higher in the more distant past, (evidently measurable after all), even during ice ages, with no discernable effect.
CO2 has recently been increasing in an almost linear fashion, unlike industrial growth. Perhaps that is an indication that the ocean is releasing just a bit of its reserves 800 years after the MWP which it has done quite regularly, following an earlier warming.
Global Warming is what you should be expecting (and hoping for) after 500 years of the “little ice age”. There’s no evidence that it’s anthropogenic.