Jessica Corbett at Common Dreams writes—UK's Met Office Warns Global Temperature Could Soar Beyond 1.5°C Threshold Within Five Years. Experts say that would be temporary "but it does ring an alarm bell”:
As NASA on Wednesday confirmed that the past five years have been the hottest on record, the United Kingdom's national weather service warned that the next five years could see global average surface temperature temporarily surpass the end-of-the-century target of the Paris climate agreement.
The Met Office forecasts that the average for 2019 to 2023 will likely be between 1.03°C and 1.57°C above pre-industrial levels, fluctuating each year depending on variations in human activities that produce greenhouse gas emissions as well as natural phenomena such as La Ninã and El Niño.
The global average reached 1.0°C for the first time in 2015, "and the following three years have all remained close to this level," Adam Scaife, head of long-range prediction at the Met Office, noted in a statement. If that trend continues as expected, the decade from 2014 could be "warmest in more than 150 years of records."
While the U.K. researchers predict there is currently a 10 percent chance that the global average will soar beyond 1.5°C—the Paris accord's lower limit—in the next five years, Met Office research fellow Doug Smith pointed out that "a run of temperatures of 1.0°C or above would increase the risk of a temporary excursion above the threshold."
"Although it would be an outlier," the Guardian reported that scientists see the potential excursion as "worrying, particularly for regions that are usually hard hit by extreme weather related to El Niño," including western Australia, South America, south and west Africa, and the Indian monsoon belt.
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”People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.”
~~John Kenneth Galbraith, The Age of Uncertainty (1977)
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On this date at Daily Kos in 2007—CSI: Federal Reserve:
Yesterday Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, stated that the US would be better off not imposing trade barriers. In other news: water still wet. But there was something of a dry spot in Bernanke's talk, a little cloud of unease scudding across the blue sky of the billions corporations are raking in.
An economic mystery that worried the top money guy.
Income inequality has increased in the United States over the last three decades, Bernanke said. Income at the 90th percentile of wage earners ‚those close to the top—rose 34 percent between 1979 and 2006, while the wage at the 10th percentile rose a scant 4 percent in that period, he said.
The percentage of total income for the top 1% doubled over that period, going from 8% to 16%, and making it a larger portion of overall income than in any period this side of the Great Depression. This inequity is becoming so severe, that the folks in charge of the economy are now worried that it's making our economy inflexible and leading to instability.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: House Trump probes begin. 2020 candidates take their knocks. Blackface is terrible & everywhere. No, really. Everywhere. Cindy McCain thinks she spots trafficking. Green New Deal outlines taking shape. A pared-down, simplified Trump-Russia theory.