The Climate Change Threat (not the Pentagon study)

That said, Gabbneb's core point is good -- have the effects gotten worse or is the reporting getting better?

Good questions. I don't think there is a conclusive answer to either. Anecdotal evidence is pervasive and persuasive, given the way it is reported.

Plus, it's such a political issue. We don't know the source of climate change. We don't even have good enough measurements to conclusively deduce the significance of it. If there is change that is relevant, we don't know if there's anything we can do about it. Here are other links to consider:

SATELLITE
FINDS WARMING "RELATIVE" TO HUMIDITY

The Debate Is Warming Up
Urban heat, pollution found to mess up weather
Global Warming.org

According to this NSC page, yes: the disruptions in the nitrogen cycle contribute to both.

(Sorry Gabbeb, I don't have anything really helpful to add, just found the above widely-reported link a bit scary.)

Whatever the cause of climate change, the record shows that it occurs regularly in the history of the earth. So, while there may be debates about why that is, and while those debates may be 'political' in nature or not often separated from political debates about whether at the moment humans are responsible for climate change, it would seem that the existence of the climate change cycles is not a political question. Whether current weather phenomena relate to them might be political. And I suppose that how to respond to such cycles, if at all, might be political.

I had a grinding panic over environmental collapse back in the early nineties that lasted for about a month

-- Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, March 29, 2004 5:49 PM

i am right in the middle of one of these. the reporting seems to be reaching a more frightening pitch. glad to see it's become a bigger issue in the public consciousness, but given the stuff i'm reading these days, i don't have a lot of confidence in "consciousness" improving our future much.

btw the SMALL PLEASURES thread was totally started to counteract abovementioned grinding panic that's been in effect for like two weeks.

http://www.otbeach.com/news/news--3/20-cities%2C-islands-%26-countries-threatened-by-global-warming--494.html

Exciting times.

So, how much credibility does James Lovelock have with current climate boffins? Because
according to him, it's not so much a 'tipping point' as an irredeemably steep slope. That
we've fallen off. And stuff like geo-engineering http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12052171 will not restore the balance that will exists.

*that exists

There was a useful piece on 'Revenge of Gaia' on RealClimate that puts Lovelock's arguments into context.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081201/wl_afp/italyfloodsweathervenice

Did we have Global Warming in 1966?

the worst incident on November 4, 1966, when the city was submerged by 1.94 metres of water amid catastrophic flooding throughout Italy.

Yes

I don't think this latest in a long line of floodings in a sinking city built on marsh is indicative of an increasing rate of climate change.

(I don't think Global Warming had Title Case in 1966)

acqua altas are caused by a number of factors. Their rate and size may be reflective of climate change, a phenomenon that began to take off in the 1940s and is generally recognized as a cause of rising sea levels that threaten Venice's existence.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Climate_juggernaut_on_the_horizon_U_12012008.html

Arctic ice has already passed tipping point, says James Hansen

so in light of two hurricanes hitting the northeast coast of the US two years in a row, is it still too boring to talk about climate change?

I prefer wringing my hands, as I can do this while watching television.

The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported on Friday, reaching a concentration not seen on the earth for millions of years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/science/earth/carbon-dioxide-level-passes-long-feared-milestone.html?hp

Friend is involved in this, spreading the word:
http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/climate_confidential_beacon.php

Seriously considering signing up for that.

The person I know who's involved has already done a lot of really great work for the Times, Nat Geo, and other publications. I'm sure it will be good.

Anyone else go to the march today? I was hungover but struggled though 10 blocks or so. A dearth of minorities. Felt a little guilty drinking out of a plastic water bottle.

Looked very much like yuppie UWS let's play activism for a day from where I was....they didn't even have a list of demands, right? Wish they'd have showed up instead for the rally earlier this month against police brutality, which had a better chance of changing something

were there food trucks there? i'll bet there were plenty of wacky costumes. oh how mirthful

exactly

Self-righteous vegans (redundant?) with many charming signs: "STOP KILLING MY PLANET, CARNIVORES."

did see d selzer tho

i went today

it was a failure because people left trash behind. also i saw some people consuming products as they left the march. fucking hypocrites, all of them

the 1574 groups that participated in the march should have met beforehand and made a list of "demands". it would have been very easy to do that since all of the groups are united by the leadership of the Great Dragon Khanaed, High Lord of the New Kingdom.

and if the participating leaders of the UN Climate Summit don't comply with our demands, why then, why, why

I suppose Khanaed would blow fire on everyone and murder everyone

sorry, i'm actually just using this thread to respond to demoralizing things said by people on twitter, demoralizing mainly because they're people that i clicked the "follow" button at some point because i thought they weren't terrible selfish bastards

I saw the dr. Sorry I didn't stop and say hello. I was out of it. Walking along central park for hours was having the worst ever hay fever attack of my life. Saw lots of people stopping in mcdonalds, eating mcdonalds fries. I mean I don't give a shit but if you could hold off on the mcdonalds for one day, that would've been a good day.

I was exhausted enough to be sitting on the curb, as you saw. Then I went to Astoria to replenish with Hou hsiao-Hsien.

Yeah, and all the fucking Starbucks cups.

Good piece here: https://workingclassstories.substack.com/p/higher-ground

I interviewed her for my podcast a few months ago, she's a great writer, based in North Carolina.

These floods– Helene taking the leaves off trees and collapsing the highway, the breathtaking speed of water along the Guadalupe, the day after day soaking of tropical storms so frequent they are running into each other and I can’t keep track of their dates or names– they aren‘t just hitting the poorest of us, but now are pulling down the mountains under the Hillers and backing up the drains of Biltmore. They aren’t just the Buffalo Creek Disasters sending sludge down on the miners’ families and the brown water of Katrina swallowing up New Orleans, these storms are now creeping in on the millionaire’s mile and Mar-a-Lago, too.

I find myself hoping that all this water will be Biblical, washing over us as an equalizer, a reminder that all cars’ engines seize up when submerged, that the windows of shacks and mansions are both made of glass and a flash flood breaks through them the same. I think, maybe now, now that we are all scared, maybe now they will install the sirens, maybe now they will rebuild the dams, maybe now they will cap the carbon, maybe now they will protect public lands, maybe now they will preserve the forests, maybe now we will be reborn.

But they don’t.

I try to ignore daily Trump news,for fear of my sanity. It's still too hard to reconcile with what I believe to be reality.

Stuff like this just slaps me it the head:

Climate report publication
The Trump administration will not publish the National Climate Assessment on the NASA website, despite previously indicating otherwise.

Legal and procedural requirements
A 1990 law requires the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) to produce regular National Climate Assessments.

Changes to federal climate data
The administration stopped the publication of several climate-related resources. Earlier in the year, the EPA did not publish the annual report on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions required for the United Nations, and the database tracking costly extreme weather events was also discontinued.

Climate stuff is where it feels most literally like they are just trying to kill everybody. Slashing solar/wind funding and cheerleading for MORE fossil fuel consumption, it is really hard to read as anything but some orgiastic death wish.