Something to keep in mind…

Turn off a light
…
save a life
…
says new study
…
Phys Org
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Blog Artic Blue Ocean 7 4 


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THEY NEED HELP
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In Mozambique

“We don’t have anything,” says Josef Marius Jafate, a 29-year-old farmer who, like many of those in this impromptu roadside camp, is surviving solely on the river fish he can catch. “We don’t have rice, or flour or any clothes. We need shelter. When is the help going to come?” he says. Josef explains that he fled his small grass-roofed house on Saturday just over 24 hours after the cyclone had struck. “The water started coming in and we had to escape with what we could carry to the road. We have been here ever since.”

In The Midwest

The Midwest was covered with record snowfall before the ‘bomb cyclone’ dumped record amounts of rain…

Supplies at her house were running low. She had come down with pneumonia. She had a chemotherapy appointment to keep. But her long driveway was blocked by mountains of mud — impassable even for an ambulance or a tractor. So Ms. Red Cloud-Yellow Horse, 59, set off toward the road on foot. She fell repeatedly, almost got swept away in the current of a creek, and became stuck in the mud. Finally, more than an hour later, she made it the half-mile to the highway where she was picked up.

People are compromised because of the massive flooding and insurmountable loss of infrastructure…

In, Iowa and Nebraska hundreds of homes are flooded. There are lakes where fields and roads should be. Local police departments are sending out motorboats instead of squad cars. … Hornick, Iowa, resident Dale Ronfeldt’s basement is flooded with 4 feet of water, Iowa Public Radio reports. “My washer and dryer are floating around down there somewhere,” Ronfeldt said.

 

One couple was rescued in a helicopter after water from three breached levees  swept across 40,000 acres, he said. Another nine breaches have been confirmed in Nebraska and Iowa counties south of the Platte River, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “The levees are busted and we aren’t even into the wet season when the rivers run high,”

 

In addition to losing dozens of calves, her farmland is destroyed. “There’s just been a lot of devastation,” Bloom says. “We are having to travel three miles through pasture and cropland just to get out because our roads are gone,” she says. “And the corn fields are going to be devastating to get in and plant and get that going, because usually we’re planting within the next two weeks and it’s not going to happen.”

In Iran

At least 32 people have been killed in southern Iran as the result of severe flooding that occurred on Monday after a robust storm swept through the Middle East, according to Radio Farda.

In Australia

Many communities remain at red alert status but that warning is expected to be lifted later today. … Karratha Mayor Peter Long yesterday said the strong southerly winds reached 120km/h and caused vegetation damage and destroyed a shed. … “I’m concerned about the cyclone surge because it’s a spring tide which is the highest tide of the year so we’re expecting a surge of two to five metres,” he said.

When a hot air mass meets a cold air mass, precipitation happens either in the form of rain or snow. The hotter the air mass the more water it can hold. If the cold air mass is freezing, snow falls.

The more the jet stream meanders from north to south, the more the weather systems stall causing increased precipitation and extreme weather events.

Blog moss landing tree 

HOT AIR NEWS ROUNDUP

Wow, just wow…

Who keeps buying California’s scarce water? Saudi Arabia
The Guardian 3-15-19

Each month, Fondomonte Farms loads the alfalfa on to hulking metal shipping containers destined to arrive 24 days later at a massive port stationed on the Red Sea, just outside King Abdullah City in Saudi Arabia. … In the wake of the ban, Almarai decided to purchase land wherever it is cheap and has favorable water conditions to produce enough feed for its 93,000 cows. … In 2012, they acquired 30,000 acres of land in Argentina, and in 2014, they bought their first swath of land in Arizona. Then, in 2015, they bought 1,700 acres in Blythe

…

how easy it is to move a commodity like alfalfa, or for that matter lettuce or clementines or iPhones, across more than 13,000 miles of land and sea, how much we rely on these crisscrossing supply lines, and at what cost to our own natural resources.

IPCC is underselling climate change
Science Daily 3-20-19

A new study has revealed that the language used by the global climate change watchdog, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is overly conservative — and therefore the threats are much greater than the Panel’s reports suggest.

Boston City Council Passes Groundbreaking Food Justice Ordinance
Common Dreams 3-20-19

1. Support small and mid-sized agricultural and food processing operations within the local area or region;

2. Support producers that employ sustainable production systems that reduce or eliminate synthetic pesticides and fertilizers …

3. Protect workers’ rights to freedom of association, to organize a union and collectively …

4. Ensure farmers a fair price for their products that covers the cost of production …

5. Provide healthy and humane care for farm animals;

6. Promote health and well-being by offering generous portions of vegetables, fruit, and whole grains;

Great article…

The Future of Climate Authoritarianism Is Now
Truthdig 3-20-19

It was the kind of headline one might encounter in the science fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin or Kim Stanley Robinson. Last month, citing a new study from the British science journal Nature, Quanta Magazine’s Natalie Wolchover explored the possibility of human-caused global warming forging a world without stratocumulus clouds by the end of the century. This would raise the temperature of the planet an additional 8 degrees Celsius (14.4 F)—double the increase for which we’re currently on pace.

Long informative article…

The Great American Cardboard Comeback
New York Times 3-22-19

The reason for the revival has to do with the millions of packages that Amazon and other online retailers ship around the world — specifically, the humble cardboard used to construct them. Over the past five years, e-commerce has fueled demand for billions more square feet of cardboard. … The policy change has disrupted residential recycling programs across the United States, forcing some communities to bury or burn materials they previously recycled. But for American paper companies that make new cardboard out of used boxes, China’s clampdown has been a boon.

Global Banks, Led by JPMorgan Chase, Invested $1.9 Trillion in Fossil Fuels Since Paris Climate Pact
Desmog 3-20-19

The top four banks that invested most heavily in fossil fuel projects are all based in the U.S., and include JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Bank of America. Royal Bank of Canada, Barclays in Europe, Japan’s MUFG, TD Bank, Scotiabank, and Mizuho make up the remainder of the top 10. … This year’s report card also dived deep into lending to shale oil and gas companies for the first time, finding that Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase “are the biggest bankers of fracking overall — and, in particular, they support key companies active in the Permian Basin, the epicenter of the climate-threatening global surge of oil and gas production.”

Great article, great pictures…

See Russia’s massive new gas plant on the Arctic coast
National Geographic 3-22-19

While most of the world is watching the rapidly melting Arctic with increasing alarm and placing the blame squarely on fossil fuels, Russia and its partners in France and China are seeing ruble signs. Billions of them, in fact, to be made selling Arctic fossil fuels to the rest of the world.

Following Monsanto, Exxon Could Be Next US Corporation to Face EU Lobby Ban: “Big Oil is the new Big Tobacco.”
Common Dreams 3-22-19

The oil giant, one of the world’s largest energy companies, was a no-show at a climate change denial hearing in Brussels Thursday, prompting the action. … In a statement, ExxonMobil said that it was unable to attend because of “ongoing climate change-related litigation in the U.S.” … ExxonMobil spent over €35 million on lobbying efforts in the EU since 2010. If the vote goes against the energy giant, it would lose that right in the European Parliament.

This is a very thoughtful article…

‘We were ecologists before the capitalists’: the gilets jaunes and climate justice
Climate Home News 3-20-19

“The social and ecological emergencies are inseparable: the fight against the end of the world and the end of the month are the same. We will not be able to operate the ecological transition without an equitable wealth redistribution,” said Boulot, who has been a prominent figure in the gilets jaunes. “How can you impose another tax on people already rummaging the bins to feed themselves?”

China Is Building up to 20 Floating Nuclear Power Plants
Futurism 3-21-19

and officials confirmed that a prototype reactor is already being tested near the coastline of China’s Shandong province. … China’s first fully-functional floating nuclear reactor should be seaworthy by 2021. … Russia’s floating nuclear power plants are expected to head up to the Arctic Circle later this year. … China wants to use floating reactors to power the entirety of its artificial islands

Methane hydrate exploration is happening…

‘Flammable ice’: Russia to help China lead next global energy revolution
sghuffe 2-27-19

“The Chinese side is looking for methane emissions [in the South China Sea] and links them to the presence of [gas] reserves. They invited us to take part in the expedition dedicated to exploration of gas hydrates, which begins approximately in July,” … China, one of the world’s largest energy consumers, lacks its own natural gas reserves and thus has a huge interest in the mission, the scientist explained. Both countries have their own research vessels for expeditions, which can be carried off China’s south coast

An in depth explanation of methane hydrates…

Natural Gas Hydrates—Vast Resource, Uncertain Future
USGS

Gas hydrates are naturally occurring ice like solids in which water molecules trap gas molecules in a cage like structure known as a clathrate. Although many gases form hydrates in nature, methane hydrate is by far the most common; methane is the most abundant natural gas. The volume of carbon contained in methane hydrates worldwide is estimated to be twice the amount contained in all fossil fuels on Earth, including coal.

Delayed and Over Budget Fracked Gas Pipeline Faces ‘Triple Threat,’ New Briefing Warns Investors
Common Dreams 3-27-19

“The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is an environmental, climate, and human rights boondoggle.” … “The risks and growing costs of this major methane gas pipeline project look increasingly unwise to ratepayers, regulators, and investors alike,” warns the investor briefing (pdf). … The Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) would carry fracked gas 600 miles from Appalachian Basin in West Virginia through Virginia to North Carolina.

 



This giant chunk of ice could break off Antarctica any day
National Geographic 3—15-19

The Brunt Ice Shelf is one of the most carefully monitored ice tongues in the world, because it’s the site of the Halley Research Station, … Chasm 1, has been in place for over 35 years (glaciologists call breaks in the ice sheet that extend all the way from surface to the ocean below “chasms,” while shallower faults are called “cracks” or “crevasses”). It remained relatively stable until 2012, when surveyors noticed that it starting to grow again

Well written and from the heart…

Can Phoenix Remain Habitable?
Sierra Club Magazine 1-2-19 h/t lotlizard

As it happened, a haboob hit Phoenix on the July afternoon that I arrived, the second one of the week and one of the largest in living memory. A mile-high column of brown dust swept into the city from the northeast and then dissolved into a sky-darkening haze when it collided with the hotter temperatures of the urban core. I’d gotten an alert on my phone warning me about hazardous driving conditions. A subsequent alert warned that the dust particles were a health hazard, so I should do my best not to breathe. Shortly after the haboob, a thundering monsoon drenched the city

This article has a short video, just right for kids…

What is nuclear energy and is it a viable resource?
National Geographic 3-26-19

About 450 nuclear reactors provide about 11 percent of the world’s electricity. The countries generating the most nuclear power are, in order, the United States, France, China, Russia, and South Korea. … Dewan, for example, wants to resurrect the molten salt reactor, which uses liquid uranium as fuel, arguing it could be safer and less costly than reactors in use today. Others are working on small modular reactors that could be portable and easier to build.

OIL

This is real. No need to be surprised…

Leaked Audio Exposes Oil & Gas Execs Laughing With Joy Over Cozy Access to Trump Officials
Common Dreams 3-23-19

To a room full of laughter, IPAA’s CEO Barry Russell in the recording described one meeting with Scott Pruitt, the president’s EPA administrator at the time. What was expected to be a simple meet-and-greet, Russell explained, quickly became a friendly opportunity for the fellow industry insiders to provide Pruitt with a wish list for deregulation and agency rule changes.

Green Groups Call Out Big Banks for Pouring Billions Into Fossil Fuel Industry
Common Dreams 3-20-19

The call-out came in Banking on Climate Change (pdf), published Wednesday as the tenth annual fossil fuel report card from the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), BankTrack, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Sierra Club, and Honor the Earth. … “This report is a red alert,”

UK oil & gas production up 20% since 2014
RT 3-23-19

Despite its notoriety as a legacy producing region, the UK’s continental shelf yielded 20 percent more oil and gas in the last five years after 14 consecutive years of production declines. … Exploration in the UK’s North Sea is definitely picking up and this year could see the drilling of up to 15 new wells

‘They Have Lied for Decades’: European Parliament Scrutinise Exxon’s Climate Science Denial
Desmog 3-20-19

During the two-hour session, scientists, campaigners and a historian will examine the history of climate denial and in particular the misinformation spread by Exxon, with MEPs able to ask questions about the role and behaviour of the oil major. … “To my knowledge, this is the first major body of lawmakers, certainly at the national or international level, to hear on record expert testimony about the history of climate denial today,” says Geoffrey Supran, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard who has examined Exxon’s history of obfuscation on climate change, and who will testify at Thursday’s hearing.

Good breakdown of where the money has gone…

Oil Giants Invest $110 Billion In New Fossil Fuels After Spending $1 Billion On Green PR
Huffpost 3-21-19

The world’s five largest publicly traded oil companies are increasing their investments in oil and gas, putting a combined $110 billion in new fossil-fuel production. … Meanwhile, those firms are projected to spend just $3.6 billion on low-carbon investments, such as biofuels and renewables,

Chinese demand leads to huge jump in crude oil exports from B.C.
Vancouver Sun 3-24-19

“Last year you had a doubling of water-borne export to Asia,” said Birn, adding the 62,000 barrels a day of crude exported from B.C. last year was still a small percentage of the four million barrels a day that Alberta exports daily, mostly to the U.S. … “The world is hunting for heavy barrels and Canada has them. It’s just about being able to access it. If they can get it to the Westridge terminal it will go. That’s why they want to twin it,” he said. … Plans to twin the pipeline stalled last year when then pipeline owner Kinder Morgan said it would not go ahead with plans due to a Federal Court ruling that stalled the project,

Southeast Europeans ignore EU rules with €2.4bn coal subsidies
Climate Home News 3-25-19

The European Union’s southeastern neighbours pay around €2.4bn ($2.72bn) a year in subsidies for coal-fired power – contradicting the EU rules they’re supposed to follow, … “Due to the subsidisation of coal, the Energy Community contracting parties are not prepared to follow the EU in its decarbonisation pathway,”

WEATHER

Western Arctic Warm Wave Is Smashing Early-Spring Records
Weather Underground 3-26-19

The result is a phenomenally strong and prolonged “warm wave” that’s vanquishing monthly temperature records across northwest Alaska. … At Utqiaġvik (Barrow), temperatures have hovered between 10°F and 30°F since Saturday. Similar readings are expected almost every day into next week. That may not sound like a balmy regime, but consider that the average high and low for March 25 are –5°F and –18°F. … In 99 years of recordkeeping at Utqiaġvik, no March has ever ended up with a mean temperature above zero.

Tropical storms likely to become more deadly as climate changes
Science Daily 3-20-19

Tropical storms are likely to become more deadly under climate change, leaving people in developing countries, where there may be a lack of resources or poor infrastructure, at increased risk, …”Most indications are that storms are more likely to become more deadly as the climate changes.” … “Most indications are that storms are more likely to become more deadly as the climate changes.”

‘Unprecedented’ US flood season will imperil 200m people, experts warn
The Guardian 3-22-19

The severe flooding in the American midwest is set to only be a prelude to “unprecedented” levels of flooding across the US in the coming months that will imperil 200 million people, federal government scientists have warned. … Scientists say climate change is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme weather such as storms, floods, droughts and fires, but without extensive study they cannot directly link a single weather event to the changing climate.

Record high US temperatures outpace record lows two to one, study finds
The Guardian 3-19-19

Since 1999, the ratio has been two warm records set or broken for every cold one. In 16 of the last 20 years, there have been more daily high temperature records than low. … The AP counted daily records across 424 stations starting in 1920 and ending in 2018.

Climate change’s fingerprints are on U.S. Midwest floods: scientists
Reuters 3-21-19

Climate change played a hand in the deadly floods in the U.S. upper Midwest that have damaged crops and drowned livestock, scientists said on Thursday … He said the bomb cyclone was carrying vast amounts of moisture from the Pacific up to 1,500 miles (2,400 km) away. … Donald Wuebbles, a professor of atmospheric sciences at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, agreed that climate change likely made the Midwest floods worse.

More flooding expected for devastated U.S. plains states
Desmog 3-24-19

once these storms are fueled by ocean heat, warmer ocean conditions will influence their intensity and longevity. This may enable them to travel farther over ocean water at higher latitudes, and farther across the continent after they make landfall. … Climate change projections suggest the number of intense hurricanes will rise. Ocean warming will enable these storms to travel farther, and we may see greater hurricane impacts on coasts in the future. … We may also see more hurricanes reaching large inland lakes such as the Great Lakes, affecting major cities like Toronto and Chicago.

Blohg Sun Clouds 

ADAPTION AND RESILIENCE

Turn off a light, save a life, says new study
PHYS ORG 3-20-19

Their findings show that a 12 percent increase in summertime energy efficiency would reduce exposure to air pollution, specifically ozone and fine particulate matter. In short, cleaner air would save 475 human lives each year in the United States, worth an estimated $4 billion. … That savings translates to almost 5 cents per kilowatt hour of energy used.

Jem Bendell on Psychological Adaption as Deep Adaption

[VIDEO] 

Microgrid system saves tribe $200,000 a year
Yale Climate Connections 3-22-19

Blue Lake Rancheria has a 500-kilowatt solar array, paired with battery storage. … It’s a microgrid, feeding renewable energy to the local utility grid. But if regional power goes out, the system can independently power the tribe’s government offices, casino, hotel, and an emergency shelter.

Russia floats first law to regulate CO2 emissions
Climate Change News 3-22-19

Draft bill would give government powers to regulate CO2 and create carbon markets, but faces stiff opposition inside and outside Moscow administration

Warka Water Tower
Warka Water

Warka Tower is designed to harvest potable water from the atmosphere (it collects rain, harvests fog and dew). It functions only by natural phenomena such us gravity, condensation & evaporation and doesn’t require electrical power. Warka Tower is designed to be owned and operated by the villagers, a key factor that will facilitate the success of the project. The tower not only provides a fundamental resource for life – water – but also creates a social place for the community, where people can gather under the shade of its canopy for education and public meetings.

Jellyfish Barge
Studiomobile

Jellyfish Barge is a module for crop cultivation that doesn’t rely on soil, fresh water and chemical energy consumption. It is a floating agricultural greenhouse, able to purify salt, brackish or polluted water using solar energy. It is built with low-cost technologies and simple materials, also appropriate to the self-construction paradigm. It consists of a wooden base of about 70 square meters that floats on recycled plastic drums and supports a glass greenhouse for crop cultivation. Inside the greenhouse, a high-efficiency hydroponic cultivation method provides up to 70% of water savings compared to traditional hydroponic systems.

Blog Birds in Sky 

WILDLIFE & THE ENVIRONMENT

Predicted deforestation in Brazil could lead to local temperature increase up to 1.45°C
Science Daily 3-20-19

A new model quantifies how forest change affects local surface temperatures by altering sunlight-reflection and evapotranspiration properties, and predicts that Brazilian deforestation could result in a 1.45°C increase by 2050, in a study published March 20, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jayme A. Prevedello from the Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil, and colleagues.

In battle with ‘land mafia’, Pakistan targets win for forests and climate
Reuters 3-21-19

Pakistan’s prime minister has promised to plant 10 billion trees across the country over the next five years … Last month, Khan inaugurated the first nature reserve and wildlife park on such reclaimed land at Balloki Headworks on the River Ravi in Nankana Sahib district, about an hour’s drive from the city of Lahore. … On Feb. 9, he planted the first of 652,500 saplings, mainly local species

Earth’s fish are disappearing
[VIDEO]  

Climate change affecting fish in Ontario lakes, study reveals
PHYS ORG 3-23-19

“As species are changing their behaviour, they are telling us about what’s happening around them in their environment. We can use this information. The behavioural changes we see imply major reorganization of ecosystems.” … The study also includes data from American researchers showing similar ecosystem “rewiring” in grasslands involving grasshoppers and predatory spiders moving down to cooler areas nearer the soil.

Blog Labyrinth 

PROTESTS • EXTINCTION REBELLION • RESISTANCE

Teens protest against climate change – BBC What’s New?

[VIDEO]  

Fridays For Future

Great read…

My Kids Will Skip School This Friday. Here’s Why I’m Letting Them.
Sierra Club 3-1-19

The response from the grown-up world has varied. Some adults have trouble grasping that children—yes, children!—could drive a powerful global movement. In Belgium, the environmental minister was forced to resign after she falsely claimed to have received intelligence briefings that the youths on strike were backed by unnamed adult powers.

Greta Thunberg

Extinction Rebellion

JOIN EX USA: on their website

EX NEWSLETTERS & EVENTS: on their website

Letters to the Earth A Cultural Response to the Climate and Ecological Emergency

This is an invitation  to write a letter of response to this crisis. This could be a letter to or from the Earth, future or past generations, those who hold positions of power and influence, other species. The idea is open to interpretation: it can come from a personal place, be dramatic in form, be a call to action. The invitation is open to all – to think beyond the human narrative and to bear witness to the scale and horror of this crisis. This is an opportunity to ask how this existential threat affects the way we wish to live our lives and the action we take.

Extinction Rebellion: April 15 mass non-violent civil disobedience
Extinction Rebellion 3-20-19

International Rebellion Hosted By Extinction Rebellion Apr 15, 2019 @ 9:00

Our leaders have failed us. This twisted system is killing us. It has us headed for extinction. 
It’s time to rebel. … On April 15th we are calling for a full-scale Rebellion to demand decisive action from governments on climate change and ecological collapse. … Join us as we engage in acts of non-violent civil disobedience against governments in capital cities around the world. This is not a one-off march – we will keep going for as long as we have to, shutting down cities day after day until our demands are met.

Independent XR groups, allies and protestors will take to the streets. A small number of brave Conscientious Protectors, activists from XR affinity groups prepared to lose their liberty for this cause, will commit acts of peaceful civil disobedience to disrupt the business-as-usual which is sending our species on a one-way track to extinction.

Blog snow sculpture 

CLIMATE STUDIES

Changes in ocean ‘conveyor belt’ foretold abrupt climate changes by four centuries
PHYS ORG 3-20-19

Recent evidence suggests that the AMOC began weakening again 150 years ago. However, current conditions are quite different from the last time around, says Muschitiello; the global thermostat was much lower back then, winter sea ice stretched farther south than New York Harbor, and the ocean structure would have been much different. In addition, the past weakening of the AMOC was much more dramatic than today’s trend so far.

Cold water currently slowing fastest Greenland glacier
Science Daily 3-26-19

NASA research shows that Jakobshavn Glacier, which has been Greenland’s fastest-flowing and fastest-thinning glacier for the last 20 years, has made an unexpected about-face. The glacier is still adding to global sea level rise, but at a slower rate. … The team suspects that both the widespread Atlantic cooling and the dramatic cooling of the waters that reached the glacier were driven by the shift in the NAO. If so, the cooling is temporary and warm waters will return when the NAO shifts to a warm phase once again.

Fascinating…

Tall ice-cliffs may trigger big calving events—and fast sea-level rise
PHYS ORG 3-24-19

A slump occurs when mass of rock or sediment loses some of its strength, breaks away from its neighboring land, and slides down a slope. … With slumping, the calving occurs without waiting for the melt. “We’ll go slump… basal crevasse… boom,” he says, noting that when the calving happens it will take the 100 meters of ice above the water—and the 900 meters below the water—very quickly. … And 1000 meters of ice calving at once isn’t the limit. Alley says that in some places in Antarctica, the glacial ice bed can be 1500 to 2000 meters below sea level,

Ocean degradation accelerated by global warming
World Socialist Web Site 3-19-19

Several recently released studies have documented the accelerating changes to Earth’s oceans as a result of climate change, including a reduction in the oxygen content, which is threatening vast swaths of marine life. … This, the scientists note, “is the most pressing issue facing sea animals today.” They specifically compare it to ocean acidification, the increase in ocean water acidity caused by global warming. … The more important cause of oxygen depletion, however, is the ongoing warming of the world’s oceans. Warm water is unable to hold as much dissolved gas.

Global Warnings

Paul Beckwith: “I declare a global climate change emergency to claw back up the rock face to attempt to regain system stability, or face an untenable calamity of biblical proportions.”

Kevin Hester: “There is no past analogue for the rapidity of what we are baring witness to. There has been a flood of articles … 2C is no longer attainable and that we are heading for dangerous climate change”

Guy McPherson: “The recent and near-future rises in temperature are occurring and will occur at least an order of magnitude faster than the worst of all prior Mass Extinctions. Habitat for human animals is disappearing throughout the world, and abrupt climate change has barely begun.”

Magi Amma: We need to turn on a dime at mach nine!

…
Equivalencies:
• 1 gigatonne equals one billion tons
• 1 gigatonne of carbon equals 3.67 gigatonnes of CO2
• 1 part per million of atmospheric CO2 is equivalent to 7.81 gigatonnes of CO2
• 1 part per million of atmospheric carbon is equivalent to 2.13 gigatonnes of carbon