CLIMATE CHANGE
20 February 2004
VERY HOT NEWS !!
Michael
INDY-NEWS UPDATES
mtneuman
Steadily increasing combustion of fossil fuels in the U.S. for
energy uses -- in product manufacturing and consumption, in increased highway
driving, in jet flying and commercial trucking, in lighting, in agricultural
production, in heating, road construction, lawn mowing, car racing,
recreational flying, motor boating, water heating, pumping and distribution of
bottled water, shipping goods to China, Australia and Japan, motorcycling, and
other uses of energy derived by combustion of energy sources within the U.S. --
has pumped so many billions of tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse
"heat-capturing" gases into the finite atmosphere that the average
temperature level of the entire planet is now increasing, noticeably.
Rising temperatures on
the planet could ultimately threaten the very ability of Earth to continue
providing for, and sustaining, life, within as early as the close of this
century, and certainly within the next century.
Earth's temperatures are, in fact, rising, and rising dramatically, already.
The
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The 2004 energy bill that will soon emerge is expected to again contain huge
tax exemptions for the oil, gas and coal industries, liability exemptions for
the nuclear power industry, no increases in the Corporate Average Fuel
Efficiency(CAFE) Standards for automobiles, SUVs and trucks, and fall way short
on providing enough incentives for renewable energy, new energy technology
development and increased energy conservation in the industrial, commercial, residential
and transportation sectors of the U.S.
economy=========================================
The transportation bill provides huge indirect subsidizes the fossil fuel
industry by greatly expanding the capacity of y's
highway and freeway systems to accommodate increasing volumes of motor vehicles
traffic.
=======================================================
The current version of the bill would sharply boost guaranteed funding for
highways, cut guaranteed public transportation program funding, significantly
weaken vital environmental and health protection laws and limit opportunities
for the public, local officials and resource protection agencies to influence
transportation decisions.
Of growing concern for the world environment is the problem of rising
greenhouse gas accumulations in the atmosphere.
http://madison.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/4580
In fact, the transportation
sector in the U.S. burns more fuel and emits more greenhouse gases to the
atmosphere, than do the entire economies of numerous countries in the world.
Meanwhile, Earth's surface temperatures continue to steadily rise, reflecting
increased global warming.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2003/ann/glob_jan-dec_pg.gif
Using the world's largest statistical weather database, including a network of
more than 7,000 land surface observing stations, scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center
(NCDC) have recently reported that 2003, 2002, 2001 and 1998 are the top four
warmest years in the 124-year period that the National Atmospheric and Oceanic
Administration (NOAA) has been keeping track of land and ocean surface
temperatures.
In the
NOAA's National Climate Data Center
(NCDC) has concluded that 2003's globally averaged land and ocean temperature
was 1.01 degrees Fahrenheit (F) above the globally averaged temperature of 56.9
for the period 1880 - 2003, which places 2003's temperature in a tie for second
with 2002's globally averaged land and ocean temperature of 57.91 degrees F.
The warmest year on record is still the strong El Nino year 1998, which had a
globally averaged land and ocean temperature of 58.03 degrees F.
The 2003 globally averaged temperature above land surfaces (only) was 48.8
degrees F, 1.5 degrees F above the long-term average, while 2003's globally
averaged ocean temperature came in at 61.7 F, or .8 degrees F above the
1880-2003 mean for the oceans.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2003/ann/global.html#Gtemp
Humans burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) and other combustibles
(wood, ethanol, dung) for energy purposes -- heating, electricity generation
and use, motorized travel, locomotion and shipping, air flight -- have
contributed additional hundreds of billions of tons of greenhouse gases to the
atmosphere since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. These
"anthropogenic" (human-caused) emissions add measurably to the
background (naturally occurring) greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, making the
combined concentration levels of those gases (eg.,
carbon dioxide) increase substantially above their naturally occurring
background levels.
http://carto.eu.org/article2546.html
As can be viewed graphically as the link above
shows, the current levels of atmospheric CO2 are higher now than at any point
during the past 420,000 years -- almost 30% higher than they were in preindustrial (before 1840) times. The
concentration level of CO2, the most abundance of the greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere and the gas other GHGs are compared to,
has risen from approximately 280 parts per million (PPM) in the atmosphere
prior to 1900, to a concentration level today of above 375 PPM.
During the past century, global surface temperatures have increased at a rate
near 1.1 degrees F/century, but this trend has
increased to a rate approaching 3.6 degrees F/century during the past 25 to 30
years.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2003/perspectives.html
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2003/dec/global.html#Temp
This means globally averaged temperatures have been
increasing faster in the last 25 years than they had increased in the earlier
75 years, by a factor of 2-3 times.
NCDC further reports that 2003's annual temperatures over much of
the contiguous United States as well as most of
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2003/ann/global.html#Ttrends
A National Academy Press report ("Abrupt Climate Change:
Inevitable Surprises", National Research Council (NRC), National Academy
Press, 2002) suggests a precedence already exists for "abrupt"
climate changes to occur on the planet, and that such changes are not only
possible, but moreover likely in the future as humans continue to alter the
climate system measurably by burning too much fossil fuel and other
combustibles:
"Large, abrupt climate changes have repeatedly affected much or all of the
earth, locally reaching as much as 10 degrees C. (18 degrees F.) in 10 years. Available evidence suggests that abrupt climate
changes are not only possible but likely in the future, potentially with large
impacts on ecosystems and societies".
The NRC report continues: "Abrupt climate changes were especially common
when the climate system was being forced to change most rapidly. Thus,
greenhouse warming and other human alterations of the earth system may increase
the possibility of large, abrupt and unwelcome
regional or global climatic events."
The report concedes that abrupt changes of the past are not fully explained
yet, but that climate models typically underestimate the size, speed, and
extent of those changes.
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074347/html/
...
Meanwhile, the large fossil fuel industries in the U.S. hired public relations
firms and think tanks to employ PR tactics through the mass media and public
forums, and in meeting privately with White House officials, which were
designed to purposefully downplay the severity of the global warming problem,
confuse people about its causes, and to effectively underestimate the likely
hood of occurrence of global warming and the magnitude of public threat created
by continuing to burn increased quantities of fossil fuels throughout the
United States.
Physical and biological evidence of the warming global
temperatures of the planet from too much fossil fuel burning can be found on
all the continents, in ocean water temperatures increases, in record melting
rates of mountain glaciers located throughout the world and record thinning of
Antarctic and
More frequent and longer lasting heat waves and periods of increasing humidity
are also forecast with increased buildup of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the resulting increased warming of the
troposphere (the lower 5-6 miles of the atmosphere where most of the greenhouse
gases will naturally preside). For example, most of
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update29.htm
Two of the more obvious signs of global warming are:
(1) rates of ice and snow melting increase over the year, and (2) the
geographic extent (acres) of snow and ice melting increases from year to year.
In both 2002 and 2003, the Northern Hemisphere registered record low ocean
ice cover. NASA's satellite data show the Arctic region warmed more during
the 1990s than during the 1980s, with
On the opposite end of the globe, sea ice floating near
http://cooltech.iafrica.com/science/280851.htm
On Greenland, once-stable glaciers are now
melting. The Jakobshavn Glacier on the
island's southwest coast is thinning four times faster now than it did during
most of the twentieth century. Each year,
Glaciers in
The
Antizana Glacier in
Scientists say glaciers are melting so fast in
parts of
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3077422.stm
The Patagonia Icefields of Chile and Argentina, the largest non-Antarctic ice
masses in the Southern Hemisphere, are thinning at an accelerating pace and now
account for nearly 10 percent of global sea-level change from mountain
glaciers, according to a new study by NASA and Chile's Centro de Estudios Cientificos.
The Patagonia Icefields (2,140 sq. mi.) lost ice at a rate equivalent to a sea
level rise of 0.04 millimeters per year during the
period 1975 through 2000. This is equal to nine percent of the total annual
global sea-level rise from mountain glaciers, according to the 2001
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Scientific Assessment. From 1995
through 2000, however, that rate of ice loss from the icefields more than
doubled, to an equivalent sea level rise of 0.1 millimeters
per year.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2003/138.cfm
percent, and glacial ice has declined in volume by more than half since 1850.
Researchers at the University of Alaska recently
surveyed 67 major glaciers and found the rate of melting in the last five years
is rapidly growing
This summer saw the biggest melt yet in Alaska's sea ice, and winter in the
interior was unprecedentedly mild - for the Arctic.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mkx/heatwave.php
Global warming will also contribute to higher levels of air pollution and
increased health risks, because warmer temperature adds to ozone formation, a
dangerous air pollutant at ground level. High ozones
levels are especially risky to elderly people and children who may have
sensitive respiratory and circulatory systems, or who may be impaired by other
health conditions.
Children normally spend more time outdoors than adults. They inhale more
pollutants per pound of body weight. Their bodies, lungs and immune systems are
still developing. When they are active in sports they are breathing harder
which increases the amount irritants received in their lungs.
Exposure to pollution at an early age puts children's' health at risk for years
into the future. Not only will the higher temperatures from more heat extreme
periods increase the risks from pollution, but more pollution itself results
from an increasing number of motor vehicle miles driven and flown, because of
the associated increased fuel burning along highways and in the vicinity of
airport runways.
Three-hundred-fifty million pounds of smog-producing chemicals (nitrogen oxides
and volatile organic compounds) are released by airplanes landing and taking
off from
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/30/science/30POLL.html?ex=1076742160&ei=1&
en=2964c1f503fd468d
Humans won't be the only animals adversely impacted by increased amounts of
fuel burning in transportation and other fuel burning sources. Recent research
shows the warming likely to occur in the Southern Hemisphere will cause
hundreds or even thousands of plant and animal extinctions in the
A study by Paleo-Ecologist Mark Bush from the Florida
Institute of Technology predicts that those species which can migrate readily,
such as birds and butterflies, may be the least affected; however, species that
are less mobile will be vulnerable to extinction.
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/feb_04/EDU_news_020604.php
Climate change could drive a million of the world's
species to extinction as soon as 2050, another scientific study says. Lead
author professor Chris Thomas, of the
The United Nations says the prospect is also a
threat to the billions of people who rely on such essential goods and services
as food, shelter and medicines -- all from nature.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3375447.stm
" December 5 issue of the journal "Science"'s "State of the Planet" series, the
authors conclude that industrial emissions have been the dominant influence on
climate change for the past 50 years, "overwhelming natural forces".
The likely result is more frequent heat waves, droughts, extreme precipitation
events, and related impacts, e.g., wildfires, heat stress, vegetation changes,
and sea-level rise, which will be regionally dependent.
If societies could successfully cut emissions and stabilize carbon dioxide
levels in the atmosphere, temperatures would still increase by an estimated 0.9
F over a period of decades, Karl and Trenberth warn,
claiming the reason is that greenhouse gases are slow to cycle out of the
atmosphere.
In a NCAR release on the study, Carlye Calvin states
that unless this is done soon, the world will face the fastest rate of climate
change in at least the last 10,000 years, which could potentially alter ocean
current circulations and radically change existing climate patterns.
http://www.ucar.edu/communications/newsreleases/2003/trenberth.html
Reports are showing now that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's
earlier predictions that sea level could rise by nearly 1 meter during this
century may be understating the problem, since ice is melting much faster now
than reported earlier, suggesting that the actual sea level rise might be much
higher.
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