The ever reliable Dahr Jamail clearly shows how we are in runaway abrupt climate change.
Prepare for an Arctic summer like no other. As he writes:
“Temperatures in 2016 Approach Limit Set at Paris Climate Conference“:
“On April 22 (Earth Day), US Secretary of State John Kerry, with his granddaughter in his lap, signed the international commitment that is supposed to slow the pace of anthropogenic climate disruption.
“The commitment, which was the result of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference last fall, was signed by more than 150 countries at the UN. Its aim was to limit global temperature increases to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial baseline levels.
“The problem is, three days before Kerry made his symbolic signature, NASA released data showing that the first three months of 2016 are already nearing the lower limit of the Paris talks’ threshold, 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial baseline temperatures.
“Already Too Late? By July 2015, the planet, already having been warmed by 1 degree Celsius over preindustrial temperature levels, was already halfway to the politically agreed upon goal of aiming to limit the global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius.” Article continues at link above.
I'm an anti-imperialist, environmental activist and blue ocean sailor, who is passionate about the earth and all it's inhabitants without favour. Brace for imminent impact as we bare witness to the non-linear unraveling of the biosphere and habitability disappearing for most if not all complex life on the only habitable planet we know of. To quote President Niinistö in North Russia: ‘If We Lose the Arctic, We Lose the World’. Folks we have lost the Arctic.
Kevin Hester 
The implications of the rapidity of this warming, for those who care to digest it emotionally, are horrifying.
As Truthout previously reported, a study published in Nature Climate Change showed that the planet is warming at a stunning rate: 50 times faster than when it came out of the most recent ice age. The implications of the rapidity of this warming, for those who care to digest it emotionally, are horrifying.
The study showed that even if carbon reduction targets are achieved and the planet’s temperature is kept below the warming threshold of 2 degrees Celsius, sea-level rise will still inundate major coastal cities around the world, forcing one-fifth of the world’s human population to migrate away from the coasts. New York, London, Rio de Janeiro, Jakarta, Cairo, Kolkata and Shanghai will all be underwater.
Then, according to recently released data from NASA, February 2016 was the warmest month ever measured globally, at 1.57 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial baseline temperature average.
Thus, stunningly, while it took from the advent of industrialization until October 2015 to increase the planetary temperature 1 degree Celsius, only four months later, the global temperature had risen an additional 0.57 degrees Celsius.
The Paris climate deal still has to be ratified by each of the signatory nations, and the ratification deadline is nearly a year away, on April 21, 2017.
I live in Johnsonville Wellington. Back in the 80s I’d go tramping in the Tararuas and would have to cope with pesky sand flies. I was amazed the other day when a sandfly landed 2 or 3 times on me in central Johnsonville on the main Street! They are also up in Kau Kau too! And living in the hillside suburb of Newlands I’ve had them land on me where I live! Plus a mosquito a couple of weeks ago. That for me is proof along with the drought we’re having here that Climate Change has arrived in Johnsonville. Robin Westenra has also noted the droughts and the Winters getting milder and milder here. Insects are spreading as in England: When I lived in the South had never heard of a tick, now they’re common there and spreading Lyme disease.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent observations thanks Bill. I also believe that we will see Lymes disease arriving in NZ as well as Malaria and Dengue fever.
LikeLike
Here a presentation by Guy McPherson one week ago about abrupt climate change. Unfortunately from what he says it’s a cert. he mentions another feedback loop, ” moistening of the upper troposphere “. Water rich Planets go Venus like when solar strength and forcing increases, however pumping huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere not to mention methane does the same job as solar forcing,meaning we’re cooked! We maybe heading for Jurassic Park. Prof Guy McPherson * Runaway Climate Change * Newest Info * April 22 2016
LikeLiked by 1 person
Professor Guy McPherson and myself will be touring NZ in October/ November 2016 discussing the ongoing unraveling.
LikeLike
A very good summing up of the process we are now in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4jKo2-dS4M
LikeLiked by 1 person
Disturbing New Study Shows The Pacific Ocean May Suffocate In Just 15 Years
http://www.inquisitr.com/3045950/disturbing-new-study-shows-the-pacific-ocean-may-suffocate-in-just-15-years/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Are the oceans running out of oxygen? Fish could ‘choke’ as climate change causes a dramatic drop in the gas being dissolved
Researchers found tropical oceans may already be suffering oxygen loss
The gas dissolves less in warmer water and does not reach the deep ocean
Most of the world’s seas are expected to suffer deoxygenation by 2040
It is the essential ingredient needed by every animal on the planet, but oxygen levels in the world’s oceans are running critically low, a study has warned.
Researchers have found climate change may already be causing a reduction in the amount of the life-giving gas that is dissolved in sea water.
They warn this could start to leave many sea creatures, including fish, squid, crabs and shellfish, struggling to breathe.
Dr Matthew Long, lead author of the study and a researcher at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder, Colorado, said: ‘Loss of oxygen in the ocean is one of the serious side effects of a warming atmosphere, and a major threat to marine life.
HEATING UP THE WORLD’S OCEANS
The amount of man-made heat energy absorbed by the seas has doubled since 1997.
Scientists have long known more than 90 per cent of the heat energy from man-made global warming goes into the world’s oceans instead of the ground.
Researchers have now tracked how much man-made heat has been buried in the oceans in the past 150 years.
The world’s oceans absorbed approximately 150 zettajoules of energy from 1865 to 1997, and then absorbed about another 150 in the next 18 years, according to a study in the journal Nature Climate Change.
To put that in perspective, if you exploded one atomic bomb the size of the one that dropped on Hiroshima every second for a year, the total energy released would be two zettajoules.
So since 1997, Earth’s oceans have absorbed man-made heat energy equivalent to a Hiroshima-style bomb being exploded every second for 75 straight years.
‘Since oxygen concentrations in the ocean naturally vary depending on variations in winds and temperature at the surface, it’s been challenging to attribute any deoxygenation to climate change.
‘This new study tells us when we can expect the impact from climate change to overwhelm the natural variability.’
Oxygen dissolved in water is essential for fish and other sea creatures to survive as they use their gills to extract the gas.
Much of this oxygen comes from seaweed and algae growing in the water but it can also come from the atmosphere when air is mixed with the water.
Warming surface waters, however, absorb less oxygen but are also less likely to mix with the colder deeper water below.
This means the deep ocean will suffer far more than the surface as the climate warms, scientists have warned.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3565431/Are-oceans-running-oxygen-Climate-change-caused-dramatic-reduction-gas-dissolved-seawater-world.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
McMurray
Alberta has declared a state of emergency, it is the largest fire evacuation in the province’s history
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau branded the situation ‘terrifying’ as he sent government aid
Incredible dash cam footage has captured a man’s drive through supercharging wildfires tearing across Alberta, Canada, as more than 88,000 people are being forced to evacuate their homes.
More than 1,110 firefighters, 145 helicopters, 138 pieces of heavy equipment and 22 air tankers were fighting a total of 49 wildfires that now cover land the size of New York City. Seven of the blazes are deemed out of control.
On Wednesday, one resident in the devastated oil sands city of Fort McMurray filmed the moment he had to drive across town through flying embers and black-out smoke.
Cars can be seen veering from lane-to-lane to avoid the flames as gusts of wind threaten to push burning trees over.
Though it was filmed at 2pm, the scene looks dark as night.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3575070/Alberta-fire-evacuees-moved-2nd-time-weather-shifts.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
More evidence of the exponential nature of this predicament.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/05/09/climate_scientist_s_animation_helps_visualize_global_warming.html
LikeLike
The Q & A from Guy McPhersons latest presentation in the US.
LikeLike
” Guy McPherson is my favorite climatologist, because he doesn’t pull any punches when he explains our imminent extinction.”
Eric the Lefty Math Professor believes we have been in exponential runaway since 2013. Draw your own conclusions as to how much time we have left but remember chaos breaks out once the capitalist charade unravels with the dawning that we have kicked the biosphere over the cliff, that could happen with any major climatic event like the Western Antarctic ice shelf calving or a massive pulse of methane.
Either way, complex life on this planet is now a day to day proposition.
Guy McPherson and I will be touring NZ in November discussing the coming chaos assuming it hasn’t unraveled before.
LikeLike
The most significant aspect of this latest set of records is the margin above previous records.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/17/seven-climate-records-set-so-far-in-2016?CMP=share_btn_fb
LikeLike
Another important milestone falls.
https://t.co/H87zCMOLxh
LikeLike
Via;Jennifer Hynes
·
We have lift-off … welcome to the hockey stick. Enjoy the ride.
“Two key climate change indicators — global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent — have broken numerous records through the first half of 2016, according to NASA analyses of ground-based observations and satellite data.
Each of the first six months of 2016 set a record as the warmest respective month globally in the modern temperature record, which dates to 1880, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. The six-month period from January to June was also the planet’s warmest half-year on record, with an average temperature 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the late nineteenth century.”
http://climate.nasa.gov/news/2465/2016-climate-trends-continue-to-break-records/
LikeLike
Month after month after month of record highs.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2016/07/20/june_2016_was_the_hottest_june_on_record.html
LikeLike