February 15, 2009 by mike.

I have tried to spread the word now for years that there are feedback loops that will greatly accelerate global warming that have not been addressed effectively in the scientific literature. If these feedback loops and the possibility of runaway global warming was addressed effectively we would have done much more to reduce the build up of greenhouse gases than we have.

There are many reasons why the scientific literature and its presentation in popular media has not conveyed the speed at which change can occur. One of the main reasons is the political backlash and suppression that has been brought to bear on this existential issue.

The deniers have created a record of their misdeeds. It’s hard to figure out what can or should be done about people who have taken money to slow down effective action on this problem. It is even harder to figure out what to say to human beings who have fallen for the denier stories and who have been used as pawns in a geopolitical game to allow the accumulation of wealth and power for a short term, extravagant lifestyle at the expense of the future of the planet and its diverse and threatened inhabitants.

Shame on you doesn’t seem to cover it.

All that said, there is nothing to do but to continue to make the changes in our lives and work for the geopolitical changes that will keep this small blue planet inhabitable.

The key may be getting back to 350 ppm and everything that we have to do to make that a reality.

That is our work now.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Global warming ‘underestimated’ The severity of global warming over the next century will be much worse than previously believed, a leading climate scientist has warned. Professor Chris Field, an author of a 2007 landmark report on climate change, said future temperatures “will be beyond anything” predicted. Prof Field said the 2007 report, which predicted temperature rises between 1.1C and 6.4C over the next century, seriously underestimated the scale of the problem. The rising temperatures could also speed up the melting of the permafrost, vastly increasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, Prof Field warns. “Without effective action, climate change is going to be larger and more difficult to deal with than we thought,” he said. Prof Field said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report had underestimated the rate of change. “We are basically looking now at a future climate that is beyond anything that we’ve considered seriously in climate policy,” he said.

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February 9, 2009 by mike.

It is true that from a hard line cause and effect view it is difficult to look at Hurricane Katrina or any other weather disaster and say, ah, that’s caused by global warming.

But the truth is that there is little or no question that global warming plays a significant role in these weather disasters. The global warming deniers have made much of the problem with scientific certainty regarding cause and effect and if the deniers’ reservations were truly based on their scientific issues and questions instead of the terms of their employment the deniers would earn more respect. To make a living as spokesmodel for industries and to engage in creating confusion in the mind of the public regarding the climate crisis we face is not right livelihood.

clipped from news.yahoo.com Australian wildfire ferocity linked to climate change: experts by Neil Sands Neil Sands – Mon�Feb�9, 2:22�am�ET SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia is naturally the most fire-prone continent on earth but climate change appears to be making the wildfires that regularly sweep across the country more ferocious, scientists said Monday. The intensity of the firestorm that killed at least 126 people in Victoria state has stunned Australians, even though they have a long history of dealing with bushfires. The government-run Bureau of Meteorology said Australia’s dry climate and naturally combustible vegetation, including oil-rich eucalyptus forest, meant fire was an intrinsic part of the country’s landscape. But the wildfires that hit Victoria on the weekend were the nation’s deadliest and experts believe the problem is linked to climate change.

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