I live in the eastern Midwest and on many days I seem to hear a faint voice in the back my head telling me to build an arc. Arable lands are being impacted both by drought in the West and by flooding in the East - just as climate scientists predicted they would years ago.
When these topics come up I feel compelled to repost a comment which has periodically been updated with new information but has not changed very much at all over the past few years.
I encourage anyone who has not read it, to do so as well as anyone who feels a need for a refresher.
REPOST:
Our earth is finite and can no longer be thought of as an infinite place where we can simply dump this or that. There are too many of us and our collective actions impact the finite earth. The use of fossil fuels must be greatly limited because it is impacting our finite earth at a rate that the climate changes occurring due to increased CO2 is accelerating and causing a self-sustaining chemical reaction that will become increasing difficult to stop. When it reaches a critical threshold of the global average temperature increasing by 1.5 degrees centigrade in a decade or so, it will become impossible to stop by no matter what we try to do to stop it. Here is why: … … …
We are currently beginning to feel the impact of climate crisis. Quantitative measures of shifting precipitation patterns and weather are matching or exceeding climate scientists’ predictions. New studies in Greenland and other locations are showing that the rate of climate change has been under estimated. When for example, the Greenland ice pack melts (one to two miles deep in some places) ocean levels will have risen by 24 feet. The ice cover around the world is melting much faster than predicted because climatologists did not anticipate the soot deposits coming from the recent world wide wildfires causing surface ice to absorb more sunlight which would have otherwise been reflected back into space. And this is not about free-floating sea ice, it is about the land supported ice. Never before recorded temperatures of seventy degrees in the Antarctic threaten miles deep ice packs as well, over a much larger land mass. The same is true for thawing permafrost in Alaska and even Siberia, which also had record high temperatures of 70 degrees last year. Shifting precipitation patterns will threaten water supplies for literally millions of people. (For those who did not realize, our administrations withdrawal from the climate accord and the threat to India’s potable water supply was the reason why India ‘ceremonially’ levied tariffs against us). The factors driving climate change are essentially a run-away global chemical reaction. We have began to reach the temperature threshold levels required to initiate the self-sustaining chemistry which will rapidly accelerate the rate of climate change. Climate warming increases ocean temperatures which disrupt prior stable currents. The disrupted currents and warmer ocean changes weather severity and precipitation patterns as well as increases the release of methane from the huge amounts of methane sequestered in the oceans and the permafrost. The increased methane which is 34 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, continues to accelerate the process. The increased acidity of the warming ocean kills off phytoplankton which effects the ocean’s ability to absorb CO2, increases the net CO2 emission rates and also effects the roots of the food chain for marine life. The ocean photosynthetic life currently processes something like 50% to 70% of the CO2 that the earth converts into carbon based sugars and free O2. The longer-term effects to humanity are well, catastrophic. If only a fraction of the predicted 20-year impacts were to be realized, the humanitarian costs will be too high for us or the world to ignore. We and other countries are critically interdependent on food and other resources supplied by others- and increasingly fragile and critical supply chains are being put at increasingly extreme risk. Countries around the world are at risk. Millions of people in countries with nuclear arsenals will see watersheds they depend upon dry up. Some South American Countries are already seeing their food chains destroyed by current climate change. Midwest farmlands are at risk due to increased flooding. The west coast, Australian and Siberian wild fires are direct consequences as well. We need to take action now. We have to begin addressing the issues and come up with solutions. Time is running out and we have to do this right the first time. Addressing Climate Change is much more important than politics, and all the bull crap rhetoric associated with politics. … … …
Climate change is NOT part of some natural paleontological cycle; It is about increased rate of CO2 emissions, which are at the highest rates ever seem in recorded history, or even in geological measures going back to when CO2 processing, oxygen emitting life first originated on earth. A single gallon of gas contains five pounds of carbon which results is 18.3 pounds-mass of CO2. A single car driven 30,000 miles a year puts 92,000 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. Human activity alone currently puts 48 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year - and it takes thousands of years for natural processes to remove the excess CO2. The total CO2 left in the atmosphere by all of the past human activities currently exceeds more than a trillion tons of carbon – that is over 7.3 quadrillion pounds or 7,300,000,000,000,000 pounds of CO2! Only life extinction events such as major asteroid impacts and super volcanoes have resulted in higher CO2 levels. Moreover, the rate of CO2 additions to our atmosphere is greater than at any time in any of our accessible geological history including the life extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, making even the precedents established for prior CO2 emission events pale compared to what is probable. It is not about the precessional ‘wobble’ of the earth’s axis, fluctuating solar output nor alignment of the planets. It is about runaway greenhouse gas emissions. Sunlight hits the earth’s service and is either reflected or absorbed. Absorbed sunlight heats the ground or ocean. The heated surfaces radiate the absorbed light as infrared radiation, which is still light but in a non-visible ‘color’. CO2 in the atmosphere absorbs this radiated heat and it then re-radiates back to earth as well as into space in roughly equal measures. This is similar to how your blanket keeps you warm at night. It re-radiates your heat energy emissions back to your body to keep you warm. Increased CO2 emissions form a blanket around the earth to hold in heat captured from the sun. That causes global warming and climate change. The warming causes ocean currents changes which change weather intensity, precipitation patterns, ocean acidity, melting of ice cover, and releases huge stores of sequestered methane from the oceans and the permafrost. Atmospheric methane is 34 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas ‘blanket’. Melting ice cover accelerates the process since this reduces the amount of sunlight that is simply reflected back into space without heating up darker surfaces. Greenhouse gas emissions are at the core of this runaway global ‘chemical reaction’. This needs to be drastically reduced and the excess CO2 needs to be removed from the atmosphere. It has reached levels that truly threatens life as we know it and if it is not reversed threatens to be a life extinction event in the short geological future. Even when the world reaches net zero CO2 emissions, we will be stuck with a climate defined by that future and we still have to remove the excess CO2 still held in the atmosphere. This is a big problem- truly a BFD. … … …
For those climate change deniers- I would love to see any consensus view of credentialed scientists that support your view. I hope you can find this. Opinions of uncle bob who done saw a bad storm back in ‘86 are not enough. To those who say #fakenews- I would love to hear what aspects of any of this is fake and what facts you have to support your conclusions. For those who say it’s too late, I guess you’ll just have to blindly kiss your sorry ass goodbye. To those who say it’s not man-made, you are wrong but so what? Who cares about fault? We need to be concerned about potential consequences and meaningful solutions. To those who think the potential threats are overstated, “are you feeling lucky?”- if the impact would even be 20% of that predicted, the monetary and human costs are still way too high to not take action now. Would you not jump out of the way of a truck speeding toward you? From my view, that is what this is all about- meaningful survival of myself and family without being needlessly crippled because I was too blinded by my optimistic beliefs to even attempt to began moving out of the way. … … …
This is a complex problem with many interacting processes and parts. There is much to do to deal with the increasingly inevitable loss of coastal communities, world population migration in search of potable water and arable land, and the potential life extinction event that all of this represents. There are international, sociological, geopolitical and technological issues that must be addressed concurrently. There must be global cooperation and coordination and very carefully made decisions because anything done in-scale could have unintended consequences.
The problem is too complex, too demanding and too consequential for there to be any second chances to get it right. There are scientific studies underway to address solutions to piece-parts of this complex puzzle, and common-sense piece-part solutions as well, but they all must work fit properly together, in particular, when they are used at the scales required to be effective. Our country needs to make a concerted effort to get this process started and stop all of the asinine politicking to save the fossil fuel industry’s bottom line. Climate change will force industrial, economic, and political change – let’s just admit that and figure the best way to get a little ahead of the problems that we can daily see the beginnings of. This is not a liberal vs conservative issue or problem; it is not a this-or-that country problem; this is a survival of human beings on this planet problem – and we really do not have a lot of time left to deal with it. … … …
There are number of things that must be organized and started now. I have some thoughts, but that is for a later comment.
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I live in the eastern Midwest and on many days I seem to hear a faint voice in the back my head telling me to build an arc. Arable lands are being impacted both by drought in the West and by flooding in the East - just as climate scientists predicted they would years ago.
When these topics come up I feel compelled to repost a comment which has periodically been updated with new information but has not changed very much at all over the past few years.
I encourage anyone who has not read it, to do so as well as anyone who feels a need for a refresher.
REPOST:
Our earth is finite and can no longer be thought of as an infinite place where we can simply dump this or that. There are too many of us and our collective actions impact the finite earth. The use of fossil fuels must be greatly limited because it is impacting our finite earth at a rate that the climate changes occurring due to increased CO2 is accelerating and causing a self-sustaining chemical reaction that will become increasing difficult to stop. When it reaches a critical threshold of the global average temperature increasing by 1.5 degrees centigrade in a decade or so, it will become impossible to stop by no matter what we try to do to stop it. Here is why: … … …
We are currently beginning to feel the impact of climate crisis. Quantitative measures of shifting precipitation patterns and weather are matching or exceeding climate scientists’ predictions. New studies in Greenland and other locations are showing that the rate of climate change has been under estimated. When for example, the Greenland ice pack melts (one to two miles deep in some places) ocean levels will have risen by 24 feet. The ice cover around the world is melting much faster than predicted because climatologists did not anticipate the soot deposits coming from the recent world wide wildfires causing surface ice to absorb more sunlight which would have otherwise been reflected back into space. And this is not about free-floating sea ice, it is about the land supported ice. Never before recorded temperatures of seventy degrees in the Antarctic threaten miles deep ice packs as well, over a much larger land mass. The same is true for thawing permafrost in Alaska and even Siberia, which also had record high temperatures of 70 degrees last year. Shifting precipitation patterns will threaten water supplies for literally millions of people. (For those who did not realize, our administrations withdrawal from the climate accord and the threat to India’s potable water supply was the reason why India ‘ceremonially’ levied tariffs against us). The factors driving climate change are essentially a run-away global chemical reaction. We have began to reach the temperature threshold levels required to initiate the self-sustaining chemistry which will rapidly accelerate the rate of climate change. Climate warming increases ocean temperatures which disrupt prior stable currents. The disrupted currents and warmer ocean changes weather severity and precipitation patterns as well as increases the release of methane from the huge amounts of methane sequestered in the oceans and the permafrost. The increased methane which is 34 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, continues to accelerate the process. The increased acidity of the warming ocean kills off phytoplankton which effects the ocean’s ability to absorb CO2, increases the net CO2 emission rates and also effects the roots of the food chain for marine life. The ocean photosynthetic life currently processes something like 50% to 70% of the CO2 that the earth converts into carbon based sugars and free O2. The longer-term effects to humanity are well, catastrophic. If only a fraction of the predicted 20-year impacts were to be realized, the humanitarian costs will be too high for us or the world to ignore. We and other countries are critically interdependent on food and other resources supplied by others- and increasingly fragile and critical supply chains are being put at increasingly extreme risk. Countries around the world are at risk. Millions of people in countries with nuclear arsenals will see watersheds they depend upon dry up. Some South American Countries are already seeing their food chains destroyed by current climate change. Midwest farmlands are at risk due to increased flooding. The west coast, Australian and Siberian wild fires are direct consequences as well. We need to take action now. We have to begin addressing the issues and come up with solutions. Time is running out and we have to do this right the first time. Addressing Climate Change is much more important than politics, and all the bull crap rhetoric associated with politics. … … …
Climate change is NOT part of some natural paleontological cycle; It is about increased rate of CO2 emissions, which are at the highest rates ever seem in recorded history, or even in geological measures going back to when CO2 processing, oxygen emitting life first originated on earth. A single gallon of gas contains five pounds of carbon which results is 18.3 pounds-mass of CO2. A single car driven 30,000 miles a year puts 92,000 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. Human activity alone currently puts 48 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year - and it takes thousands of years for natural processes to remove the excess CO2. The total CO2 left in the atmosphere by all of the past human activities currently exceeds more than a trillion tons of carbon – that is over 7.3 quadrillion pounds or 7,300,000,000,000,000 pounds of CO2! Only life extinction events such as major asteroid impacts and super volcanoes have resulted in higher CO2 levels. Moreover, the rate of CO2 additions to our atmosphere is greater than at any time in any of our accessible geological history including the life extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, making even the precedents established for prior CO2 emission events pale compared to what is probable. It is not about the precessional ‘wobble’ of the earth’s axis, fluctuating solar output nor alignment of the planets. It is about runaway greenhouse gas emissions. Sunlight hits the earth’s service and is either reflected or absorbed. Absorbed sunlight heats the ground or ocean. The heated surfaces radiate the absorbed light as infrared radiation, which is still light but in a non-visible ‘color’. CO2 in the atmosphere absorbs this radiated heat and it then re-radiates back to earth as well as into space in roughly equal measures. This is similar to how your blanket keeps you warm at night. It re-radiates your heat energy emissions back to your body to keep you warm. Increased CO2 emissions form a blanket around the earth to hold in heat captured from the sun. That causes global warming and climate change. The warming causes ocean currents changes which change weather intensity, precipitation patterns, ocean acidity, melting of ice cover, and releases huge stores of sequestered methane from the oceans and the permafrost. Atmospheric methane is 34 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas ‘blanket’. Melting ice cover accelerates the process since this reduces the amount of sunlight that is simply reflected back into space without heating up darker surfaces. Greenhouse gas emissions are at the core of this runaway global ‘chemical reaction’. This needs to be drastically reduced and the excess CO2 needs to be removed from the atmosphere. It has reached levels that truly threatens life as we know it and if it is not reversed threatens to be a life extinction event in the short geological future. Even when the world reaches net zero CO2 emissions, we will be stuck with a climate defined by that future and we still have to remove the excess CO2 still held in the atmosphere. This is a big problem- truly a BFD. … … …
For those climate change deniers- I would love to see any consensus view of credentialed scientists that support your view. I hope you can find this. Opinions of uncle bob who done saw a bad storm back in ‘86 are not enough. To those who say #fakenews- I would love to hear what aspects of any of this is fake and what facts you have to support your conclusions. For those who say it’s too late, I guess you’ll just have to blindly kiss your sorry ass goodbye. To those who say it’s not man-made, you are wrong but so what? Who cares about fault? We need to be concerned about potential consequences and meaningful solutions. To those who think the potential threats are overstated, “are you feeling lucky?”- if the impact would even be 20% of that predicted, the monetary and human costs are still way too high to not take action now. Would you not jump out of the way of a truck speeding toward you? From my view, that is what this is all about- meaningful survival of myself and family without being needlessly crippled because I was too blinded by my optimistic beliefs to even attempt to began moving out of the way. … … …
This is a complex problem with many interacting processes and parts. There is much to do to deal with the increasingly inevitable loss of coastal communities, world population migration in search of potable water and arable land, and the potential life extinction event that all of this represents. There are international, sociological, geopolitical and technological issues that must be addressed concurrently. There must be global cooperation and coordination and very carefully made decisions because anything done in-scale could have unintended consequences.
The problem is too complex, too demanding and too consequential for there to be any second chances to get it right. There are scientific studies underway to address solutions to piece-parts of this complex puzzle, and common-sense piece-part solutions as well, but they all must work fit properly together, in particular, when they are used at the scales required to be effective. Our country needs to make a concerted effort to get this process started and stop all of the asinine politicking to save the fossil fuel industry’s bottom line. Climate change will force industrial, economic, and political change – let’s just admit that and figure the best way to get a little ahead of the problems that we can daily see the beginnings of. This is not a liberal vs conservative issue or problem; it is not a this-or-that country problem; this is a survival of human beings on this planet problem – and we really do not have a lot of time left to deal with it. … … …
There are number of things that must be organized and started now. I have some thoughts, but that is for a later comment.
Nevada has been in a drought for quite some time. The bathtub ring around Lake Mead grows bigger each year, while there appears to be no end to the building of new homes in our valley. Without intervention, it is simply unsustainable.
The only way this is a winning situation, is if this was a game of limbo It's not.
https://www.estormwater.com/conservation/lake-mead-water-levels-reach-new-low
cruz, planning another trip to Cancun? You going to join him, cornyn and abbortt?
https://www.khou.com/mobile/article/news/local/ercot-conserving-energy/285-858d02ff-0d0a-49e3-968e-e95c9c131bef
#TakeoutTheTexasTaliban
Oil and gas deposits are the remnants of many millions of years of prior life on this planet. It is the packaged energy created by the processes of millions of years of prior life that has been ‘congealed’ into oil and natural gas deposits within the earth’s crust.
Human activity alone puts over 48 Billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually. The CO2 stays in the atmosphere and today, at unprecedented rates never before seen in earth’s geological history. Natural processes to remove this CO2 cannot come close to being able to remove the CO2 emissions at the rate that they are accumulating.
Since the industrial revolution, mankind has burned the fossil fuels derived from the remains of many millennia of past life on this planet. It has been carefully estimated that over 7.3 quadrillion pounds or 7,300,000,000,000,000 pounds of CO2 still remain in the atmosphere - an amount so large that even the relatively healthy natural living processes of today, which removes CO2, will take well over a thousand years to process it all - and those natural processes are already breaking down due to the climate crisis.
Climate scientists have determined that we have already crossed the threshold where, if the world were to reach net-zero CO2 emissions today, the best we can hope for is for the current climate, as bad as it may be, to not get worse. Also, if the world’s average global temperature increases by 1.3 degrees there is no currently known manmade way to safely stop climate change from continuing to accelerate.
Bottom line - the best we can hope for at this time is that the ravages of climate change will not get worse. It will be best to prepare for that consequence now.
Reversing the ravages of Climate change will require intense research to develop man-made technologies that can safely extract CO2 from the atmosphere at the rates and scales needed. This cannot happen quickly. We have already wasted way too much time trying to preserve big-oil’s profit margins instead of even beginning to deal with these problems.
Drought is here to stay. Congress is ignoring the greatest problem Americans will face. Water shortages will lead to massive fires, fewer crops, price increases, food shortages, water rationing, power outages and lack of housing. Will the feds control what little water we have? Will states? It's time to elect real leaders. Not politicians who are ignoring facts, obsessed with gay cartoon characters and who plays girls sports. #yourvotematters
Southern California is a desert and always has been. Humankind finds ways to thwart natural laws, thus Los Angeles.
We've been informed there's not enough water to last through the summer, yet still many idiots here maintain non-native green lawns year-round. Wake up, people. The scales have tipped. Mother Nature is now insisting WE adapt, not the other way around.
The fires here are terrifying. It happens every year now, and throughout all four seasons, but Summer and Fall are the deadliest.
90 - 95 here in Spring, TX, high humidity AND A/C DIES. Been a fun 36 hours, not to say expensive, and STILL trying to cool down. But Causes missed some really 'important' events! Like this one ...
The first YouTube link shows this major US crisis in Alabama. Second link just shows the same story but identifies the white ignorant dumbass who has been charged committing this 'disaster'.
Maybe just a little sarcasm here ....
https://youtu.be/_poRrGVZ1Jg
https://www.tmz.com/2022/05/18/man-arrested-shooting-johnny-cash-water-tank-kingsland-leak/
Bad guys can't afford matches to start fires. One good thing Joe did I suppose.
not exactly where i am, but california is a tinderbox.
We live in Oklahoma and we are experiencing drought conditions. The worst being in the western part of the state which is very agricultural. Those areas are also experiencing the worst wildfires. The month of April was the windiest on record for Oklahoma which compound's the fire danger!
I live in Washington State and we are in a drought, and we have been having terrible Wild Fires. Climate change is real and we need to take action now.
We are experiencing huge swings from massive rain dumps to drought. It is only a matter of time that we will get huge wildfires and major flooding. All because, money and one party is trying to kill this beautiful planet for greed and power by blocking everything to move forward in protecting this amazing world we all rely on to life. So sad, .
Water shortage on the Colorado River results in reductions to lower basin agriculture users. More coming in August. Economic retraction will follow in 2023. No relief in sight for 24-year drought, worst in 1200 years per tree ring records.
The entire western half of the country is in drought, meaning the loss to farmers will aggravate worldwide shortages of food crops. Maybe global warming is speeding up, and we are too slow in mitigation.
Not at the moment, but I know Illinois had quite a bit of a drought towards mid to end of summer.
Causes asks: "Is your area experiencing droughts and wildfires?" ME: Yes indeed. In terms of drought, we've had no rain/snow in my specific location for months; instead of the city's average 5+" of snow last month we got next to nothing, of anything; and not much the month before. The entire state is in Exceptional to Abnormally Dry (NOAA designations) drought. In terms of wildfire, last week there were grass fires (properties destroyed) to the north, south and east of me, and a 1000+ acre forest fire (barely contained) in the county to the west of me (where I used to live) that is threatening the County seat. Been here many, many years, and this is the worst I've seen this early in the year, and it WILL get worse. [see: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CO]
I am on the Central Coast of California. We have been dealing with drought conditions since the 1990s and it keeps getting worse. We conserve water in the house to water plants outside; time showers inside and sprinklers outside; we have lost trees and bushes and if we replace them we plant drought resistant ones; we have not had a vegetable garden in 20 years. We expect mandatory water rationing to return soon.
We plan for wildfires year round. In the fall of 2020 we had 5 major fires burning around us and air quality was dangerous for many weeks. There were days that were so dark you thought it was evening.
We are a major agricultural area which makes water usage a big problem. Farms cut back on what and how much they plant and raise; supply of produce, meat and milk go down; prices go up.
Climate change is real everywhere. We all must conserve our resources, be mindful of things we do and use, make changes wherever we can (we have solar panels on a fire resistant roof), encourage others to do so, and push government to unite and pass meaningful legislation to affectively deal with climate change now and for the future.
No I live in the north east. We are getting a lot of rain. Butthe drought is a huge problem in other areas. Something needs to be done. Climate change is causing it.
We don't have another planet to go to. We need to save our current one. No more fossil fuels
Yes, but to be fair, I live in Southern California. We've been experiencing drought and wildfires for a while now.
It's a shame those people suffering can't draw a connection between climate change and their having spent the last 20 years voting for people who deny climate change.
Must do something about Climate Change. Congress: individuals can't do this alone! Help! One planet.... no do overs!
We have record rain measures and extremely cold weather requiring us to wait longer than normal to plant a vegetable garden. Sharply increasing grocery prices mans we must rely on a larger garden this year and most likely in future years.
This is not a drought!
Although my area is not experiencing droughts and wildfires directly, they are not far from us, and the effects across the nation are indeed affecting the entire nation. It is rapidly becoming too late to take effective action against climate change. We cannot let our last best chance get away.
We have rising seas and potential flooding. Why can't we send our water there?
No just outrageous fuel and fertilizer prices all brought on by this incompetent administration. Not covid not Putin.Joe Biden. We the people know who caused this and not the bs he is spewing. Congress and Senate you are to blame also.There will be a reconing in November like you have never seen. We the people will not tolerate this bs agenda of the left communist party.
Oh no! Who could have seen this coming? Except the thousands of American protestors and hundreds of scientists and Democratic politicians that have been warning to us all that the Climate Crisis was real! Droughts and high temperatures in the American Midwest were simply the logical results of farmers who voted in GOP politicians who never believed the Climate Crisis to be a serious threat and allowed CO2 and greenhouse gases to continue to be produced by corporations, thus resulting in skyrocketing temperatures. Who we vote into power matters, people! Now the red states of Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas are reaping what they sow. My home state of Texas is now endangered of not being able to keep its power grid running in the summer due to unprecedented heat waves that, lo and behold, its energy companies did not build their power plants to endure! So much for being a self-proclaimed "energy capital"! Ugh, when will rural Americans finally stop voting against their best interests?