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Showing Original Post only (View all)The Coming 'Instant Planetary Emergency'. [View all]
How will climate change affect the future of the planet? Scientists predict it will be nothing short of a nightmare.
-snip-
Weve Never Been Here as a Species
We as a species have never experienced 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Guy McPherson, professor emeritus of evolutionary biology, natural resources, and ecology at the University of Arizona and a climate change expert of twenty-five years, told me. Weve never been on a planet with no Arctic ice, and we will hit the average of 400 ppm within the next couple of years. At that time, well also see the loss of Arctic ice in the summers. This planet has not experienced an ice-free Arctic for at least the last three million years.
For the uninitiated, in the simplest terms, heres what an ice-free Arctic would mean when it comes to heating the planet: minus the reflective ice cover on Arctic waters, solar radiation would be absorbed, not reflected, by the Arctic Ocean. That would heat those waters, and hence the planet, further. This effect has the potential to change global weather patterns, vary the flow of winds, and even someday possibly alter the position of the jet stream. Polar jet streams are fast flowing rivers of wind positioned high in the earths atmosphere that push cold and warm air masses around, playing a critical role in determining the weather of our planet.
McPherson, who maintains the blog Nature Bats Last, added, Weve never been here as a species and the implications are truly dire and profound for our species and the rest of the living planet.
While his perspective is more extreme than that of the mainstream scientific community, which sees true disaster many decades into our future, hes far from the only scientist expressing such concerns. Professor Peter Wadhams, a leading Arctic expert at Cambridge University, has been measuring Arctic ice for forty years, and his findings underscore McPhersons fears. The fall-off in ice volume is so fast it is going to bring us to zero very quickly, Wadhams told a reporter. According to current data, he estimates with 95% confidence that the Arctic will have completely ice-free summers by 2018. (US Navy researchers have predicted an ice-free Arctic even earlierby 2016.)
The rest: http://www.thenation.com/article/177614/coming-instant-planetary-emergency#
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Melting permafrost will pump tons of methane into the air. Methane is a very potent GH gas.
alfredo
Dec 2013
#3
ironicaly amusing if an ice-free shipping zone opens up on the Siberian side and not the NA side
nilram
Dec 2013
#7
Good source. It also allows for a much clearer answer for those that have trouble understanding
grantcart
Dec 2013
#47
And a lot of this "the findings are all getting worse, all the time" stuff is hooey as well.....
AverageJoe90
Dec 2013
#30
Something that would shade to the right, controlled degree, the upper atmosphere
Ghost Dog
Dec 2013
#32
I graduated from one of the first multi-disciplinary environmental science courses
Ghost Dog
Dec 2013
#66
All I know is I was very happy to see Stephen Colbert tear David Keith a new one.
truedelphi
Dec 2013
#37
And honestly, I do wonder how much climate doomerism may play into such fantasies...................
AverageJoe90
Dec 2013
#72
No. Any "technological breakthrough" will only create a new set of problems
magical thyme
Dec 2013
#49
"STFU. We don't want to hear no steenkin truth. Sneer." - RepubliBaggers, Inc. (R)
Berlum
Dec 2013
#18
Yes they have a track record but it has been on the conservative side as you stated.
Uncle Joe
Dec 2013
#57
You do realize I had that in *quotes*, right? As in....with an element of sarcasm?
AverageJoe90
Dec 2013
#61
dramatically reduced emission vehicles are irrelevent until the existing fleet is largely replaced
magical thyme
Dec 2013
#54
I used to criticize the format rather than the content too... but then I learned how to read better.
LanternWaste
Dec 2013
#67