Climate Change Explained - The Impact of Temperature Rises
Less than 2C
Arctic sea icecap disappears, leaving polar bears homeless and changing the Earth's energy balance dramatically as reflective ice is replaced during summer months by darker sea surface. Now expected by 2030 or even earlier.
Tropical coral reefs suffer severe and repeated bleaching episodes due to hotter ocean waters, killing off most coral and delivering a hammer blow to marine biodiversity.
Droughts spread through the sub-tropics, accompanied by heatwaves and intense wildfires. Worst-hit are the Mediterranean, the south-west United States, southern Africa and Australia.
2C-3C
Summer heatwaves such as that in Europe in 2003, which killed 30,000 people, become annual events. Extreme heat sees temperatures reaching the low 40s Celsius in southern England.
Amazon rainforest crosses a "tipping point" where extreme heat and lower rainfall makes the forest unviable - much of it burns and is replaced by desert and savannah.
Dissolved CO2 turns the oceans increasingly acidic, destroying remaining coral reefs and wiping out many species of plankton which are the basis of the marine food chain. Several metres of sea level rise is now inevitable as the Greenland ice sheet disappears.
3C-4C
Glacier and snow-melt in the world's mountain chains depletes freshwater flows to downstream cities and agricultural land. Most affected are California, Peru, Pakistan and China. Global food production is under threat as key breadbaskets in Europe, Asia and the United States suffer drought, and heatwaves outstrip the tolerance of crops.
The Gulf Stream current declines significantly. Cooling in Europe is unlikely due to global warming, but oceanic changes alter weather patterns and lead to higher than average sea level rise in the eastern US and UK.
4C-5C
Another tipping point sees massive amounts of methane - a potent greenhouse gas - released by melting Siberian permafrost, further boosting global warming. Much human habitation in southern Europe, north Africa, the Middle East and other sub-tropical areas is rendered unviable due to excessive heat and drought. The focus of civilisation moves towards the poles, where temperatures remain cool enough for crops, and rainfall - albeit with severe floods - persists. All sea ice is gone from both poles; mountain glaciers are gone from the Andes, Alps and Rockies.
5C-6C
Global average temperatures are now hotter than for 50m years. The Arctic region sees temperatures rise much higher than average - up to 20C - meaning the entire Arctic is now ice-free all year round. Most of the topics, sub-tropics and even lower mid-latitudes are too hot to be inhabitable. Sea level rise is now sufficiently rapid that coastal cities across the world are largely abandoned.
6C and above
Danger of "runaway warming", perhaps spurred by release of oceanic methane hydrates. Could the surface of the Earth become like Venus, entirely uninhabitable? Most sea life is dead. Human refuges now confined entirely to highland areas and the polar regions. Human population is drastically reduced. Perhaps 90% of species become extinct, rivalling the worst mass extinctions in the Earth's 4.5 billion-year history.
• Mark Lynas is the author of Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet
April 14, 2009
for complete article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/14/climate-change-environment-temperature
15 April 2009
World Will Probably Not Meet 2C Warming Target
World Will Not Meet 2C Warming Target, Climate Change Experts Agree
Almost nine out of 10 climate scientists do not believe political efforts to restrict global warming to 2C will succeed, a Guardian poll reveals today. An average rise of 4-5C by the end of this century is more likely, they say, given soaring carbon emissions and political constraints.
Such a change would disrupt food and water supplies, exterminate thousands of species of plants and animals and trigger massive sea level rises that would swamp the homes of hundreds of millions of people.
The poll of those who follow global warming most closely exposes a widening gulf between political rhetoric and scientific opinions on climate change. While policymakers and campaigners focus on the 2C target, 86% of the experts told the survey they did not think it would be achieved. A continued focus on an unrealistic 2C rise, which the EU defines as dangerous, could even undermine essential efforts to adapt to inevitable higher temperature rises in the coming decades, they warned.
April 14, 2009
for complete articles:
World will not meet 2C warming target, climate change experts agree
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/14/global-warming-target-2c
Scientists fear worst on global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/14/scientists-global-warming-conference-poll
Almost nine out of 10 climate scientists do not believe political efforts to restrict global warming to 2C will succeed, a Guardian poll reveals today. An average rise of 4-5C by the end of this century is more likely, they say, given soaring carbon emissions and political constraints.
Such a change would disrupt food and water supplies, exterminate thousands of species of plants and animals and trigger massive sea level rises that would swamp the homes of hundreds of millions of people.
The poll of those who follow global warming most closely exposes a widening gulf between political rhetoric and scientific opinions on climate change. While policymakers and campaigners focus on the 2C target, 86% of the experts told the survey they did not think it would be achieved. A continued focus on an unrealistic 2C rise, which the EU defines as dangerous, could even undermine essential efforts to adapt to inevitable higher temperature rises in the coming decades, they warned.
April 14, 2009
for complete articles:
World will not meet 2C warming target, climate change experts agree
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/14/global-warming-target-2c
Scientists fear worst on global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/14/scientists-global-warming-conference-poll
Thermitic (Explosive) Material Discovered in 9/11 World Trade Center Dust
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
"...Based on these observations, we conclude that the red layer of the red/gray chips we have discovered in the WTC dust is active, unreacted thermitic material, incorporating nanotechnology, and is a highly energetic pyrotechnic or explosive material."
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
The Open Chemical Physics Journal. pp.7-31 (25)
Niels H. Harrit, Jeffrey Farrer, Steven E. Jones, Kevin R. Ryan, Frank M. Legge, Daniel Farnsworth,
Gregg Roberts, James R. Gourley, Bradley R. Larsen
doi: 10.2174/1874412500902010007
for complete journal article:
http://www.bentham-open.org/pages/content.php?TOCPJ/2009/00000002/00000001/7TOCPJ.SGM
for news interview with author Niels Harrit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_tf25lx_3o&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infowars.com%2Fdanish-scientist-on-tv-nano-thermite-behind-collapse-of-wtc-buildings-on-911-not-planes%2F&feature=player_embedded
Abstract
We have discovered distinctive red/gray chips in all the samples we have studied of the dust produced by the destruction of the World Trade Center. Examination of four of these samples, collected from separate sites, is reported in this paper. These red/gray chips show marked similarities in all four samples. One sample was collected by a Manhattan resident about ten minutes after the collapse of the second WTC Tower, two the next day, and a fourth about a week later. The properties of these chips were analyzed using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (XEDS), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The red material contains grains approximately 100 nm across which are largely iron oxide, while aluminum is contained in tiny plate-like structures. Separation of components using methyl ethyl ketone demonstrated that elemental aluminum is present. The iron oxide and aluminum are intimately mixed in the red material. When ignited in a DSC device the chips exhibit large but narrow exotherms occurring at approximately 430 °C, far below the normal ignition temperature for conventional thermite. Numerous iron-rich spheres are clearly observed in the residue following the ignition of these peculiar red/gray chips. The red portion of these chips is found to be an unreacted thermitic material and highly energetic.
...
"...Based on these observations, we conclude that the red layer of the red/gray chips we have discovered in the WTC dust is active, unreacted thermitic material, incorporating nanotechnology, and is a highly energetic pyrotechnic or explosive material."
...
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
The Open Chemical Physics Journal. pp.7-31 (25)
Niels H. Harrit, Jeffrey Farrer, Steven E. Jones, Kevin R. Ryan, Frank M. Legge, Daniel Farnsworth,
Gregg Roberts, James R. Gourley, Bradley R. Larsen
doi: 10.2174/1874412500902010007
for complete journal article:
http://www.bentham-open.org/pages/content.php?TOCPJ/2009/00000002/00000001/7TOCPJ.SGM
for news interview with author Niels Harrit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_tf25lx_3o&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infowars.com%2Fdanish-scientist-on-tv-nano-thermite-behind-collapse-of-wtc-buildings-on-911-not-planes%2F&feature=player_embedded
Abstract
We have discovered distinctive red/gray chips in all the samples we have studied of the dust produced by the destruction of the World Trade Center. Examination of four of these samples, collected from separate sites, is reported in this paper. These red/gray chips show marked similarities in all four samples. One sample was collected by a Manhattan resident about ten minutes after the collapse of the second WTC Tower, two the next day, and a fourth about a week later. The properties of these chips were analyzed using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (XEDS), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The red material contains grains approximately 100 nm across which are largely iron oxide, while aluminum is contained in tiny plate-like structures. Separation of components using methyl ethyl ketone demonstrated that elemental aluminum is present. The iron oxide and aluminum are intimately mixed in the red material. When ignited in a DSC device the chips exhibit large but narrow exotherms occurring at approximately 430 °C, far below the normal ignition temperature for conventional thermite. Numerous iron-rich spheres are clearly observed in the residue following the ignition of these peculiar red/gray chips. The red portion of these chips is found to be an unreacted thermitic material and highly energetic.
...
09 April 2009
Health Risks of Shipping Pollution Have Been 'Underestimated'
Health Risks of Shipping Pollution Have Been 'Underestimated'
Britain and other European governments have been accused of underestimating the health risks from shipping pollution following research which shows that one giant container ship can emit almost the same amount of cancer and asthma-causing chemicals as 50m cars.
Confidential data from maritime industry insiders based on engine size and the quality of fuel typically used by ships and cars shows that just 15 of the world's biggest ships may now emit as much pollution as all the world's 760m cars. Low-grade ship bunker fuel (or fuel oil) has up to 2,000 times the sulphur content of diesel fuel used in US and European automobiles.
Pressure is mounting on the UN's International Maritime Organisation and the EU to tighten laws governing ship emissions following the decision by the US government last week to impose a strict 230-mile buffer zone along the entire US coast, a move that is expected to be followed by Canada.
The setting up of a low emission shipping zone follows US academic research which showed that pollution from the world's 90,000 cargo ships leads to 60,000 deaths a year in the US alone and costs up to $330bn per year in health costs from lung and heart diseases. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates the buffer zone, which could be in place by next year, will save more than 8,000 lives a year with new air quality standards cutting sulphur in fuel by 98%, particulate matter by 85% and nitrogen oxide emissions by 80%...
Shipping by numbers
The world's biggest container ships have 109,000 horsepower engines which weigh 2,300 tons.
Each ship expects to operate 24hrs a day for about 280 days a year
There are 90,000 ocean-going cargo ships
Shipping is responsible for 18-30% of all the world's nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution and 9% of the global sulphur oxide (SOx) pollution.
One large ship can generate about 5,000 tonnes of sulphur oxide (SOx) pollution in a year
70% of all ship emissions are within 400km of land.
85% of all ship pollution is in the northern hemisphere.
Shipping is responsible for 3.5% to 4% of all climate change emissions
April 09, 2009
for complete article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping-pollution
Britain and other European governments have been accused of underestimating the health risks from shipping pollution following research which shows that one giant container ship can emit almost the same amount of cancer and asthma-causing chemicals as 50m cars.
Confidential data from maritime industry insiders based on engine size and the quality of fuel typically used by ships and cars shows that just 15 of the world's biggest ships may now emit as much pollution as all the world's 760m cars. Low-grade ship bunker fuel (or fuel oil) has up to 2,000 times the sulphur content of diesel fuel used in US and European automobiles.
Pressure is mounting on the UN's International Maritime Organisation and the EU to tighten laws governing ship emissions following the decision by the US government last week to impose a strict 230-mile buffer zone along the entire US coast, a move that is expected to be followed by Canada.
The setting up of a low emission shipping zone follows US academic research which showed that pollution from the world's 90,000 cargo ships leads to 60,000 deaths a year in the US alone and costs up to $330bn per year in health costs from lung and heart diseases. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates the buffer zone, which could be in place by next year, will save more than 8,000 lives a year with new air quality standards cutting sulphur in fuel by 98%, particulate matter by 85% and nitrogen oxide emissions by 80%...
Shipping by numbers
The world's biggest container ships have 109,000 horsepower engines which weigh 2,300 tons.
Each ship expects to operate 24hrs a day for about 280 days a year
There are 90,000 ocean-going cargo ships
Shipping is responsible for 18-30% of all the world's nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution and 9% of the global sulphur oxide (SOx) pollution.
One large ship can generate about 5,000 tonnes of sulphur oxide (SOx) pollution in a year
70% of all ship emissions are within 400km of land.
85% of all ship pollution is in the northern hemisphere.
Shipping is responsible for 3.5% to 4% of all climate change emissions
April 09, 2009
for complete article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping-pollution
Thousands Gather for Street Protests Against Georgian President
Thousands Gather for Street Protests Against Georgian President
Thousands of protesters were today gathering in Tbilisi to demonstrate against the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Demonstrators in what will be the largest anti-government protest in Georgia since last summer's disastrous war with Russia are demanding Saakashvili's immediate resignation.
They have pledged to continue staging street protests until he quits.
Opposition politicians accuse Saakashvili of presiding over an increasingly authoritarian and repressive regime.
They have also attacked him over his handling of the conflict with Russia last August, sparked when he attempted to recapture the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
The move provoked a punitive invasion by Moscow and the loss of additional territory previously controlled by Georgia.
Opposition leaders predicted 150,000 people would attend today's rally outside the parliament building in the Georgian capital.
April 09, 2009
for complete article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/09/georgia-protests-mikheil-saakashvili
Thousands of protesters were today gathering in Tbilisi to demonstrate against the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Demonstrators in what will be the largest anti-government protest in Georgia since last summer's disastrous war with Russia are demanding Saakashvili's immediate resignation.
They have pledged to continue staging street protests until he quits.
Opposition politicians accuse Saakashvili of presiding over an increasingly authoritarian and repressive regime.
They have also attacked him over his handling of the conflict with Russia last August, sparked when he attempted to recapture the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
The move provoked a punitive invasion by Moscow and the loss of additional territory previously controlled by Georgia.
Opposition leaders predicted 150,000 people would attend today's rally outside the parliament building in the Georgian capital.
April 09, 2009
for complete article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/09/georgia-protests-mikheil-saakashvili
07 April 2009
Thinning Arctic Sea Ice Alarms Experts
Thinning Arctic Sea Ice Alarms Experts
Volume of Arctic sea ice last summer may have been lowest on record – and possibly worst in 8,000 years
The total volume of sea ice in the Arctic is likely to have reached a record low last summer, despite previous reports that the area of ice recovered slightly from the previous year's dramatic decline, leading experts have warned.
The latest alarm about the fate of the Arctic sea ice, due to an unusually high proportion of thinner "first-year" ice, raises the prospect of an acceleration in the loss of ice during the warmer summer months, considered a key indicator of climate change.
Adding to the concern, Nasa and the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC)in the US today warned that even in the colder winter months sea ice is failing to recover substantially. The most recent winter maximum, reached on 28 February this year, was the fifth lowest since satellite records began in 1979, and meant the last six years were the sixth lowest on record, the organisations said.
April 06, 2009
for complete article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/06/arctic-sea-ice-warning
Volume of Arctic sea ice last summer may have been lowest on record – and possibly worst in 8,000 years
The total volume of sea ice in the Arctic is likely to have reached a record low last summer, despite previous reports that the area of ice recovered slightly from the previous year's dramatic decline, leading experts have warned.
The latest alarm about the fate of the Arctic sea ice, due to an unusually high proportion of thinner "first-year" ice, raises the prospect of an acceleration in the loss of ice during the warmer summer months, considered a key indicator of climate change.
Adding to the concern, Nasa and the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC)in the US today warned that even in the colder winter months sea ice is failing to recover substantially. The most recent winter maximum, reached on 28 February this year, was the fifth lowest since satellite records began in 1979, and meant the last six years were the sixth lowest on record, the organisations said.
April 06, 2009
for complete article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/06/arctic-sea-ice-warning
06 April 2009
Antarctic Wilkins Ice Sheet on Verge of Collapse
Antarctic ice shelf half the size of Scotland on verge of collapse
This picture shows part of the WIlkins ice shelf as it began to break apart.
Jim Elliott/British Antarctic Survey/AP
A huge ice shelf in the Antarctic is in the last stages of collapse and could break up within days in the latest sign of how global warming is thought to be changing the face of the planet.
The enormous Wilkins ice shelf is now barely attached to land. The latest reports show that a thin sliver of ice attaching it to the Antarctic's Charcot Island is rapidly collapsing and threatening to break.
The Wilkins shelf is about half the size of Scotland, or the same size as the US state of Connecticut. It is the largest slab of ice so far to disintegrate and retreat in the Antarctic. Pictures from the European Space Agency show that fresh rifts have appeared in Wilkins' 'ice bridge' to Charcot Island and that a large chunk of ice has broken away, though the shelf still remains attached to other pieces of land. ESA estimated that the loss of the ice bridge could see the northern half of Wilkins break free, representing up to 1,400 square miles of ice floating off on the ocean in a gigantic ice berg.
Though the collapse of Wilkins shelf will not raise sea levels directly - as ice shelves float on the sea surface - its demise is a warning sign of potentially disastrous changes in the earth's climate. Change at Wilkins has come fast, often taking scientists by surprise with the speed of the break-up. In February last year a 164- square-mile chunk broke off. Then in May another slab of ice, this time measuring 62 square miles, fell away. The ice shelf has lost a total of 694 square miles over the past 12 months, representing some 14 per cent of its size. That shrank the vital ice bridge to just 984 yards at its narrowest location. Now that bridge too is coming under huge strains.
The news comes hot on the heels of the release of a survey by British and American researchers warning of the perilous state of Antarctic ice shelves and fast melting glaciers, and laying the blame firmly on global warming.
April 05, 2009
for complete article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/05/ice-shelf-wilkins-antarctic
This picture shows part of the WIlkins ice shelf as it began to break apart.
Jim Elliott/British Antarctic Survey/AP
A huge ice shelf in the Antarctic is in the last stages of collapse and could break up within days in the latest sign of how global warming is thought to be changing the face of the planet.
The enormous Wilkins ice shelf is now barely attached to land. The latest reports show that a thin sliver of ice attaching it to the Antarctic's Charcot Island is rapidly collapsing and threatening to break.
The Wilkins shelf is about half the size of Scotland, or the same size as the US state of Connecticut. It is the largest slab of ice so far to disintegrate and retreat in the Antarctic. Pictures from the European Space Agency show that fresh rifts have appeared in Wilkins' 'ice bridge' to Charcot Island and that a large chunk of ice has broken away, though the shelf still remains attached to other pieces of land. ESA estimated that the loss of the ice bridge could see the northern half of Wilkins break free, representing up to 1,400 square miles of ice floating off on the ocean in a gigantic ice berg.
Though the collapse of Wilkins shelf will not raise sea levels directly - as ice shelves float on the sea surface - its demise is a warning sign of potentially disastrous changes in the earth's climate. Change at Wilkins has come fast, often taking scientists by surprise with the speed of the break-up. In February last year a 164- square-mile chunk broke off. Then in May another slab of ice, this time measuring 62 square miles, fell away. The ice shelf has lost a total of 694 square miles over the past 12 months, representing some 14 per cent of its size. That shrank the vital ice bridge to just 984 yards at its narrowest location. Now that bridge too is coming under huge strains.
The news comes hot on the heels of the release of a survey by British and American researchers warning of the perilous state of Antarctic ice shelves and fast melting glaciers, and laying the blame firmly on global warming.
April 05, 2009
for complete article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/05/ice-shelf-wilkins-antarctic
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