At every twist and turn in our Runaway Abrupt Climate Change fiasco we have been lied to by the powers that be that they were acting and had the situation under control.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
William Nordhaus, an economist at Yale was the first corporate shrill to suggest that 2C was both achievable and safe. It was neither but we were collectively sold the lie.
I have been moved to draft this blog after continually reading climate change articles that continue to reference 2C as being achievable as it patently is not and when the aware reader witnesses chaos unfolding at approximately 1.5C it is obvious that 2C will be catastrophic and is only a pathway to much higher global mean temperatures as a myriad of tipping points and self reinforcing feedback loops kick in.
2C is complete disaster
Below are a number of embedded links to confirm the obvious: ‘Why the 2°C limit looks increasingly impossible‘ care of ” Vox”.
We have been thrown under the abrupt climate change bus and the lying before Cop 21 is under way
“At a meeting in London on 28 October, New Scientist asked the chief UN climate negotiator, Christiana Figueres, if it was now time for the world to accept that limiting warming to 2 °C is unrealistic and to start preparing for even greater warming. Figueres vehemently rejected this idea.”
“Would you want that for your children,” she responded. “This is about the quality of life on this planet.” The Paris treaty would “build a pathway” to 2 °C, she said, by paving the way for further cuts.
It is time to start preparing for a world more than 2 °C warmer than now, via New Scientist: ‘The climate fact no one will admit: 2 °C warming is inevitable.’
“Computer estimates of current climate sensitivity is demonstrated that they are dangerously low. They are based on an inadequate treatment of the system of amplification feedback which multiplies the effect of human interference of the composition of the atmosphere. The detailed analysis of the historical planetary response to the change in the concentration of carbon dioxide, temperature increase reveals an amplification of the eight times that of CO 2 (in contrast with the amplification of three times predicted by the climate modeling BY COMPUTER SET IPCC). Applying the corrected value of the sensitivity of the climate multiplied by more than 2 ½ times the earlier predictions of the response to any change given in the concentration of CO 2.
“One immediate consequence is the collapse of the “Carbon budget available” and the recognition that all future emissions add to the passing of the atmospheric gases of greenhouse effect. Significant reduction in the current population of CO 2 e is an essential element in the limitation of the increase in the global temperature to 2° c.
“On the other hand, the advances in the understanding of the implicit increase in the level of the sea and the dynamic response of global climate to small changes in the average temperature of the surface, show conclusively that the limit of temperature goal of 2° (C) has been set too high. It has to be reduced below 1° c if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change. Implications of the new analysis are set out for the whole of the promises of reduction in emissions of offered currently before the cop21, as well as with the persistent stage bau high emissions”.
Comment from Chefurka:
“For those with a strong stomach for the bad news, the new paper of Dr. David Wasdell, given to meet before the cop21 in Paris. 7.8 degrees c by duplication of Co2 in place of 3 C? You say “Carbon budget”. Yes, we had one of these, maybe a hundred years ago. We now have a carbon overshoot that we can never pay.
“I firmly believe that Wasdell is correct. The situation that we face is much more serious than what we’ve accepted until now, because it was not taken into account the long term effects almost irreversible atmospheric co2. As usual, we’ve looked into the future only until the confines of our own life, and hemo ignored completely the lingering effects of the actions of today for those who live in the more distant future.”
Here is some additional information, The impossibility of limiting Global Warming to 2C. Brace for Impact: Apollo Gaia Project. The harsh realities of now.
Several great videos: 5 Degrees Warmer: Civilization Collapses and Kevin Anderson – Delivering on 2°C: evolution or revolution?
McKibben’s Divestment Tour – Brought to You by Wall Street | Part XI: 2 Degrees of Credendum. Brought to you, courtesy of Cory Morningstar author at: Wrong Kind of Green:
Excerpt: “Conclusion: We have the United Nations, scientists, governments, global media, corporations, educational facilities, etc. etc. all echoing the three syllable term, the “2ºC target.” This term has been unremittingly reverberated throughout the echo chambers of corporate and so-called progressive media in tandem with the non-profit industrial complex. This constant reiteration did not reflect the 2ºC terminology, rather, it constructed it. Misleading statements, videos, interviews and both academic and scientific papers carefully and deliberately tone down any sense of immediate urgency, lending further “target” legitimacy to the 2ºC target, to which we acquiesce. Remember that the chosen word “target” is defined as “a goal to be achieved,” which strikes a chord, even if only on a subconscious level – which is far more powerful.
It has become normalized. The spectacle, comprised of a single number united with a single letter (with a little circle between them), must be considered a feat in 21st century hegemony – a creation by those whose interests are served by the spectacle; a pasquinade for the impoverished and those not yet born. The 2ºC discourse must be considered perhaps the most deadly game of psychological warfare ever played on human society. Using simple language and steadfast repetition, the acceptance by civil society of this so-called “two-degree target” represents an unsurpassed feat in modern psy-ops.”
After many decades of supporting Greenpeace and 350.org and similar organisations I have come to the conclusion that they are no longer the independent activist organisations I worked in many decades ago, they are now all beholding to the corporate money they receive and use to fund their corporate entities with.
Like Captain Paul Watson and Peter Wilcox, former Skipper of the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior whom I was once arrested with for ” Obstructing a Nuclear Ship in the course of it’s passage”I have moved on.
I will be touring NZ with my dear friend and fellow climate warrior Professor Guy McPherson in November 2016, more details will be available on this blog in the near future;
I’m editing this post on the third of May 2020 to include the latest peer reviewed paper from my co-host on Nature Bats Last showing that we have already exceeded 2C
Kevin Hester 