Study shows we need massive cuts in carbon emissions, now!

Smokestacks billowing into the air are almost
as clichéd at polar bears on a shrinking
 iceberg, but they do, it's imagined, have
some similar purchase on human emotions.

If the world hopes to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change, humanity must emit less than half the carbon dioxide than previously thought in the coming years, a new study shows.

In order to keep global warming to no more than 2°C (3.6°F) — the basis for the Paris climate agreement struck last year — scientists have devised a “carbon budget” for how much carbon can be emitted before warming crosses into catastrophic territory.

Their estimates range from about 590 gigatons (1 gigaton is 1 billion metric tons) to 2,390 gigatons. Global carbon dioxide emissions were about 40 gigatons in 2015, which means under the best case scenario, the carbon budget would be exhausted after 60 years and humans would have to completely stop emitting carbon dioxide. 

Read the Climate Central story by Bobby Magill - “Study Calls For Leaner ‘Carbon Budget’ to Slow Warming.”

This has been a 'big week' for the world

T

his week is a big one for our world. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels climbed above the 400 parts per million (ppm) at the Mauna Loa Observatory and it’s distinctly possible they won’t be back below that level again in our lifetimes.

Humans have burned enough fossil fuels to drive atmospheric CO2 to levels that world hasn’t seen in at least 400,000 years. That’s driven up temperatures, melted ice and caused oceans to acidify. Some extreme weather events around the world have become more likely and stronger because of it, and some will likely only get worse as the planet continues to warm.

Read the Climate Central story - “What Passing a Key CO2 Mark Means to Climate Scientists.”

Climate changes doubles Europe's chances of heatwaves: Nature

O

ver much of Europe, the sweltering heatwave of late June and early July has barely subsided. But already, scientists have analysed the possible role of climate change, concluding that global warming made such an event at least twice as likely over much of the continent.

 In some cities, climate change has made comparable heatwaves four times more likely, they say.

The speedy study comes from a collaboration involving the US-based nonprofit environmental news organization Climate Central and an international team of climate researchers.

They posted results on 2 July based on the sweltering temperatures forecasted, and updated their work on 10 July using the previous week’s actual temperatures, with similar conclusions.

Read the Nature story - “Speedy study claims climate change doubled chances of European heatwave”.

Russell, radio and are we too late to cut of carbon dioxide emissions

I

t was Betrand Russell who said something about fools talking with certainty, while the wise among us understood and accepted that life was loaded with unknowns and so uncertainties.

A recent radio discussion between the host and his guest and the news that the G8 leaders has come to a conclusion about illustrates that Russell quip.

The radio host and his guest, both of whom spoke with an sense of immense authority and knowledge damned everything about climate change, loudly proclaiming it to be a hoax and the same day the world’s G7 leaders had agreed and openly said it was critical for the future wellbeing of the world to reduce, if not eliminate, our carbon dioxide emissions.

So the two fools on the radio talked with confidence and certainty to effectively declare climate change to be crap, while the leaders of the world’s leading developed nations were uncertain about illustrated their uncertainties, except they understood the certainties of science and agreed our future was inextricably linked to reducing our carbon emissions.

And although the G7 leaders decided on a carbon goal, scientists are saying that arrival as such an ambition may in fact be too late.

A story reflecting the concerns of scientists - “G7 Carbon Goal May Come Too Late, Scientists Say” – has been published on Climate Central.

Climate change making Australian drought conditions worse

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limate change is making drought conditions in southwest and southeast Australia worse, with serious ramifications for people’s health and the agriculture industry, a new paper has warned.

The Climate Council report states that since the mid-1990s, southeast Australia has experienced a 15 percent drop in rainfall during late autumn and early winter, with a 25 percent slump in average rainfall in April and May.

The Climate Central story - “Climate Change Makes Droughts in Australia Worse” – says that severe droughts were linked to a drop in agricultural productivity and a 15 percent increase in suicide risk for rural males aged between 30 and 49.

Hottest ever, but PM doesn't seem to care

It’s official: 2014 has taken the title of hottest year on record.

The fellow who could help Australian’s prepare for this slow motion shipwreck-type calamity has been stomping about in Iraq, chest thrown out, rubbing shoulders with the military, and endorsing violence that is simple a further manifestation of our damaged climate, when he should be at home.

True, it is the people who will have to rally and so do the true “lifting” when it comes to addressing climate change, but what an easier task it would be if our government honestly, and quickly re-appraised its sceptical position.

With the government onside, rather than plumping for endless growth in a finite world, Australia could become a nation of resilient communities that both understand and embraced localism, that accepted survival of the climate change-driven catastrophe demanded processes that fell in line with the Transition Towns thesis and our government institutions were truly about caring for people, rather than having their success measure in economic terms.

This governmental opposition to climate change comes in the face of news that the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has declared 2014 the hottest for the planet on record.

In a story headed: “One for the Record Books: 2014 Officially Hottest Year” reports that the average temperature was 1.1°F above the 20th century average according to JMA’s data.

“That,” Climate Central reports, “edges 1998, the previous warmest year, by about 0.1°F.”

Science protocol determines attribution of world weather events

Scientific protocol continues to determine the attribution of world weather events.

Anthropogenic climate change continues to deliver record making and breaking weather around the world and yet we still won’t directly attribute those differences to climate change.

That stance, from a scientific view, is understandable, but it provides a massive opening for the doubters and those in denial to enter the conversation and make it an argument.

Those in denial and those who profit from further doubt simply point to what they see as indecision and so with little trouble convince the uninitiated majority that the science is not yet settled and we should simply continue with business as usual until the world’s climatologists reach an understandable consensus.

An example of this dilemma arises in a story published on July 31 this year by Climate Central headed: “Record-Setting Drought Intensifies in Parched California”.

The story says: “While the drought can’t be directly linked to climate change, the warming of the planet is expected to make already dry places drier. And future droughts could be even worse.”

Half of California is in “exception drought”, the highest category recognized by the U.S. Drought Monitor, and although it is the worst since records began, the link between it and climate change is still seen as fuzzy.

Creating tomorrow's energy source

In what was once a Polaroid factory 50 miles south of Boston, a high-tech company is printing sheets of solar cells made of plastic, trying to create tomorrow's energy source amid the tumult of today's energy market: reports Climate Central.

The article Plastics Put Solar on the Verge of an Energy Revolution published in Climate Central tells this exiting story.