Failure to Slow Warming Will Set Off Climate ‘Tipping Points,’ Scientists Say
As global warming passes certain limits, dire changes will probably become irreversible, the researchers said, including the loss of polar ice sheets and the death of coral reefs.
Failure to limit global warming to the targets set by international accords will most likely set off several climate “tipping points,” a team of scientists said on Thursday, with irreversible effects including the collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, abrupt thawing of Arctic permafrost and the death of coral reefs.
The researchers said that even at the current level of warming, about 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, some of these self-sustaining changes might have already begun. But if warming reached above 1.5 degrees Celsius, the more ambitious of two targets set by the 2015 Paris Agreement, the changes would become much more certain.
And at the higher Paris target, 2 degrees Celsius, even more tipping points would likely be set off, including the loss of mountain glaciers and the collapse of a system of deep mixing of water in the North Atlantic.
The changes would have significant, long-term effects on life on Earth. The collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, for example, would lead to unrelenting sea level rise, measured in feet, not inches, over centuries. The thawing of permafrost would release more heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, hindering efforts to limit warming. A shutdown of ocean mixing in the North Atlantic could affect global temperatures and bring more extreme weather to Europe.Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and one of the researchers, said the team had “come to the very dire conclusion that 1.5 degrees Celsius is a threshold” beyond which some of these effects would start. That makes it all the more imperative, he and others said, for nations to quickly and drastically cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases to curb global warming.
The research is in line with recent assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of experts convened by the United Nations, that beyond 1.5 degrees of warming, the threats of climate change grow considerably.
Let the blame game commence
Who or what deserves the most blame? The human species is part of it, for sure. That is fact, despite cynical, lying Republican politicians who to this day still claim to be unsure that humans have much or anything to do with it. Beginning in the 1980s (maybe earlier), the Republican Party decided that it would use its power to protect polluters. It has been successful. Polluters and their profits have been protected.
Of course, there are the major pro-pollution sectors of the economy, oil, coal, gas, chemicals, etc. At least since the 1970s, Exxon-Mobile and its ilk have successfully used a sophisticated, well-funded three-pronged propaganda program, deny, distort, delay, to successfully block nearly all serious efforts to deal with climate change. The pro-pollution propaganda program imitated the successful pro-lung cancer sector's deny, distort, delay propaganda program. That effort protected cigarette sales and profits for decades. It still does today to some extent.
The pro-pollution sector funds politicians, including corrupt ones like Joe Manchin. Those bought politicians protect the polluters from regulation or taxes, allowing maximum profit from polluting to trickle up to the top.
So, how to apportion blame, or credit if you like what is happening with the climate?
Candidates for blame or credit:
Republican Party
The pro-pollution sector
Democratic Party
The radical right crackpot and lies media, e.g., Faux News
The mainstream media
Voters and non-voters
The rest of the business community
Public relations (professional propaganda) firms
Christian churches
Everything and everyone else
As I sit here writing this in San Diego, the city is in grip of the longest heat wave since I moved here about 25 years ago. Not only is it hot and quite humid, the city is waiting for the arrival of a troipcal storm (Hurricane Kay?) that is slowly moving up the Baja coast. It is anticipated to dump a lot of rain somewhere here in the Southwest. Waiting for a hurricane in San Diego is a first for me, if that is what the storm turns out to be. But I do look forward to whatever it turns out to be if it dumps a lot of rain on the city and county, but without tearing the solar panels off the roof of our house.
Now, with that screed out of the way, and it felt good, I feel like this for an assessment of blame, not credit:
Republican Party ~30%
The pro-pollution sector ~20%
Democratic Party ~10%
The radical right crackpot and lies media, e.g., Faux News ~10%
The mainstream media ~5%
Voters and non-voters ~5%
The rest of the business community ~5%
Public relations (professional propaganda) firms 5%
Christian churches ~5%
Everything and everyone else ~5%
That feels about right. I hope the storm or hurricane or whatever just gently dumps water on us.
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