Diary Of The Last Age

The extreme heatwaves and wildfires wreaking havoc around the globe are “the face of climate change,” one of the world’s leading climate scientists has declared, with the impacts of global warming now “playing out in real time.   Emergency workers among damaged vehicles in a open parking area of northern Athens after a flash flood struck the Greek capital. Photograph: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images  Extreme weather has struck across Europe, from the Arctic Circle to Greece , and across the world, from North America to Japan . “This is the face of climate change,” said Prof Michael Mann, at Penn State University, and one the world’s most eminent climate scientists. “We literally would not have seen these extremes in the absence of climate change.” “The impacts of climate change are no longer subtle,” he told the Guardian. “We are seeing them play out in real time and what is happening this summer is a perfect example of that.”  [....] The current heatw...

I've written extensively about the carbon tax (or "fee", or "dividend") as the necessary solution to global warming.  There is support among Republicans , conservatives , Young Republicans , the IMF and the World Bank, even oil companies .   And, of course, Democrats , and everyone concerned about global warming. A carbon tax is an economic method to constrain the effects of carbon dioxide.  It is simply not going to be possible to achieve what is needed by just talking to people.  As reported in the New York Times , the oil companies have just now come out with a proposal, Recently, the lobbyists and former Senators Trent Lott and John Breaux, backed by companies like Exxon Mobil and Shell, have been campaigning for a federal tax on carbon dioxide emissions. This would increase energy costs, but all revenue from the tax would be returned to the public. A family of four might receive a $2,000 check from the government every year. And we would all ...

Ocean acidification to hit levels not seen in 14 million years I've posted about ocean acidification a number  of times .  Now there is new research showing that the current situation is very serious.  This is catastrophic for all sea life with carbonate shells, oysters, clams, shrimp, as well as the major source of food for much of sea life, krill.  At the Paleo-Eocene Thermal Maximum , oceans acidified because of green-house gases pouring into the biosphere, and which resulted in the largest loss of sea life in the history of the planet.  We are pouring carbon dioxide into the biosphere a ten times that rate as at that time.  New research led by Cardiff University has shown that under a 'business-as-usual' scenario of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, ocean acidification is likely to hit unprecedented levels. The rapid influx of CO2 in to the oceans is severely threatening marine life, with the shells of some animals already dissolving in the m...

The global heat wave is due to a climate process, a weakened jet stream and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation.   It is important to distinguish a climate process from climate change which is a change in a climate process.  There was a previous experience with what is happening now in 1976.  It's occurrence is a climate process.  The current heat wave is greater than the one that occurred in 1976.  That's climate change.  Climate change is a climate process becoming more extreme. For example, El Nino is a climate process .  The planet warms during an El Nino.  However, El Ninos are getting hotter, El Ninos are getting hotter.  That's climate change.

Heat Records Falling Around the World in 2018    A sampling of all-time high temperatures reported around the world in 2018 thus far, rounded to the nearest degree Fahrenheit. Most of these were set in late June and early July (see details below). The reading of 51.3°C (124.3°F) at Ouargla, Algeria, is the highest reliably measured temperature on record for Africa. Background image credit: NASA Earth Observatory . The first five months of 2018 were the fourth warmest in global records going back to 1880, according to NOAA . Along the way, a number of extreme heat events have occurred already this year. In recent weeks across the Northern Hemisphere, these records have included an impressive number of all-time highs (an all-time high is the warmest temperature reported on any date at a given location).  Setting an all-time high is no small accomplishment, especially for locations that have long periods of record (PORs). All-time highs are especially notew...