A “catastrophic” rise in the ocean of 4 meters to 6 meters (13 feet to 19.6 feet) is possible, said Paul Blanchon, a scientist at the National University of Marine Sciences in Cancun, Mexico, whose team studied the fossilized reefs. Bloomberg, 4-15-09
"Suicide is high. Depression is huge. Families are breaking up. It's devastation," he said, shaking his head. "I've got a neighbor in terrible trouble. Found him in the paddock, sitting in his [truck], crying his eyes out. Grown men -- big, strong grown men. We're holding on by the skin of our teeth. It's desperate times."
A result of climate change?
"You'd have to have your head in the bloody sand to think otherwise," Eddy said.
Julie Cart, L.A. Times, 4-9-09
Put simply, the carbon trading that President Obama supports is an unenforceable, shell game that allows polluters to pay to pollute. Shifting greenhouse gas pollution around is not going to result in the dramatic cuts in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases that we need. ... James Hansen, top climate scientist at NASA said, "We can still roll things back, but it is going to require a quick turn in direction." Karyn Strickler, Common Dreams, 4-3-09
Earth Day 2009: This is A Profound Moment; Choose Your Battles Very Carefully. Do Not Lose Perspective. Keep Your Priorities Straight.
By Richard Power
There is much to say about accountability for war crimes and for economic crimes.
There is much to say about the right wing's further descent into delusion since the swearing in of President Obama.
And indeed there is also much to say about the dreadful and thankless choices that Obama and the leadership of the ruling party have to make in the wake of all that has happened to us.
Words of Power will not remain silent on these issues.
But at this moment, I want to do what I have done so many times over the past decade, i.e., when there is a hot story begging to be addressed, turn away from it, and again take the opportunity to draw your attention to the greatest challenge of our time, the one that will define us for the rest of time, and will sooner than later overshadow all that presently dominates the news.
Here are excerpts from six important pieces from diverse sources -- Bloomberg, the Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, Agence France Press, Seed Daily and Common Dreams -- with links to the full texts:
Fossilized coral reefs formed the last time the Earth was warmer than today show sea levels could rise rapidly by the end of the century if global warming triggers a collapse of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.
A “catastrophic” rise in the ocean of 4 meters to 6 meters (13 feet to 19.6 feet) is possible, said Paul Blanchon, a scientist at the National University of Marine Sciences in Cancun, Mexico, whose team studied the fossilized reefs. The death and re-emergence on higher elevation of reefs 121,000 years ago could only result from a rapid increase in ocean levels caused by the breakdown of ice sheets, he said. ...
The complete melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet would add about 7 meters to sea levels and endanger low-lying coastal cities, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in 2007.
New York, Boston and Washington are among the largest U.S. cities facing flood risk over the next century from rising sea levels, Florida State University-led scientists said in a March 16 study. ... ...
Last week, the Boulder, Colorado-based National Snow and Ice Data Center said older, thicker Arctic sea ice that is better able to survive the summer shrank to the thinnest level ever recorded this winter. Older ice, which is generally thicker, is now about a third of the 1981 through 2000 average. Bloomberg, 4-15-09
In a new study published April 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists at UA found that water-deprived piñon pines raised in temperatures about 7 F (4 C) above current averages died 28% faster than pines raised in today's climate. It's the first study to isolate the specific impact of temperature on tree mortality during drought - and it indicates that in a warmer world, trees are likely to be significantly more vulnerable to the threat of drought than they are today. "This raises some fundamental questions about how climate change is going to affect forests," says David Breshears, a professor at UA's School of Natural Resources and a co-author of the PNAS paper. "The potential for lots of forest die-off is really there."
The PNAS study, led by Henry Adams, a doctoral student at UA's ecology and evolutionary biology department, also confirms that hotter temperatures actually suffocate trees in dry times. Piñon pines respond to drought by closing the pores in their needle-like leaves to stop water loss. That keeps them from going thirsty, but it also prevents them from breathing in the carbon dioxide they need to live - and eventually, the drought-stressed trees simply suffocate. (See pictures of activists defending backcountry forests from logging.) Time Magazine, 4-14-09
"Suicide is high. Depression is huge. Families are breaking up. It's devastation," he said, shaking his head. "I've got a neighbor in terrible trouble. Found him in the paddock, sitting in his [truck], crying his eyes out. Grown men -- big, strong grown men. We're holding on by the skin of our teeth. It's desperate times."
A result of climate change?
"You'd have to have your head in the bloody sand to think otherwise," Eddy said. ... Climate scientists say Australia -- beset by prolonged drought and deadly bush fires in the south, monsoon flooding and mosquito-borne fevers in the north, widespread wildlife decline, economic collapse in agriculture and killer heat waves -- epitomizes the "accelerated climate crisis" that global warming models have forecast. ...
"Australia is the harbinger of change," said paleontologist Tim Flannery, Australia's most vocal climate change prophet. "The problems for us are going to be greater. The cost to Australia from climate change is going to be greater than for any developed country. We are already starting to see it. It's tearing apart the life-support system that gives us this world." Julie Cart, L.A. Times, 4-9-09
Put simply, the carbon trading that President Obama supports is an unenforceable, shell game that allows polluters to pay to pollute. Shifting greenhouse gas pollution around is not going to result in the dramatic cuts in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases that we need. ...
President Obama proposes that we cap or reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% below that by 2050. While his proposal is more ambitious than most current local or state-level proposals, given the magnitude of the problem, those reductions are inadequate to the challenge that we face. ... James Hansen, top climate scientist at NASA said, "We can still roll things back, but it is going to require a quick turn in direction."
We must see this serious situation as an opportunity for transcendent change, a chance for American ingenuity and creativity to shine once more. But our timeline for getting it right is short. We cannot continue business as usual even for a few more decades. Karyn Strickler, Common Dreams, 4-3-09
Experts studying the mass beaching of whales along Australia's coast have warned that such tragedies could become more frequent as global warming brings the mammals' food stocks closer to shore.
Almost 90 long-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins died after washing up last week at Hamelin Bay, on the country's west coast.
It was the second mass stranding in March, and took the total number of cetaceans to beach in southern Australia in the past four months beyond 500, including a single stranding of almost 200 on King Island. Agence France Press, 4-2-09
Global warming could have chilling consequences for European livestock, warned Professor Peter Mertens from the Institute for Animal Health, at this week's meeting of the Society for General Microbiology in Harrogate.
Since 1998, rising temperatures have led to outbreaks of bluetongue (BT) across most of Europe, which have killed over 2 million ruminants (mainly sheep).
The outbreak (the largest on record) caused by Bluetongue virus serotype 8 (BTV-8), which started in the Netherlands and Belgium during 2006, has since spread to most European countries, including the UK in August and September 2007.
This outbreak, the first ever recorded in northern Europe, was not an isolated event. There are also fears that related viruses, such as African horse sickness virus, which can have a fatality rate of more than 95% and shares the same insect vectors as bluetongue, could also be introduced. Seed Daily, 3-31-09
If you have not already joined the Alliance for Climate Protection, Al Gore and I urge you to do so. Click here.
For the Words of Power Climate Crisis Updates Archive, click here.
Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.
Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Green Power, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Al Gore,George Monbiot, An Inconvenient Truth,Laurie David, Stop Global Warming!, The Eleventh Hour, Organic Gardening, Richard Power, Words of Power
