I keep vigil. The video embed below is a comparison of human global gas emissions and warming due to greenhouse gas emissions from organic matter that caused the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), and today.
If global emissions are not contained, it will take just 140 years that we earthlings will endure a climate not seen for 56 million years. Not us of course, but your great grandkids will.
During the PETM ocean waters were as hot as a hot tub. There is a must watch video at the bottom of the diary. Don’t miss it.
Brian Kahn writes in Gizmodo:
Humans have pushed atmospheric carbon dioxide to heights unseen in our short (geologically speaking) existence. But give us another few generations, and our geologic impact on the planet will be clear.
New findings released on Wednesday show that at current emissions rates, we’re just five generations away from creating an atmosphere the likes of which hasn’t been seen in 56 million years. The last time carbon dioxide levels were as high as we’re headed for, it helped create one of the greatest die offs in recent Earth history.
The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is a period of planetary history as ominous as it sounds. Scientists have studied it for years, looking at carbon isotopes, fossils, and other clues buried in the Earth. Their findings show that carbon dioxide spiked rapidly, causing Earth to warm 5-8 degrees Celsius (9-14.4 degrees Fahrenheit). The tropical Atlantic was likely 36 degrees Celsius (96.8 degrees Fahrenheit), up to half of the microscopic foraminifera that inhabit the seas died, animals on land perished or shrunk, and it took 150,000 years for Earth to recover from the shock. It’s not exactly a dream climate and yet it seems to offer the closest analog to what humans are doing to the climate today.
The new research, published in Geophysical Research Letters, shows just how close we are to reaching the extremes of the PETM and in some ways, how we’ve already surpassed it. Drawing on a suite of studies about when the PETM began and how fast carbon dioxide piled up in the atmosphere, Philip Gingerich, an emeritus professor at the University of Michigan’s earth science department, used models to project human carbon emissions into the future.
While the PETM pulse of carbon dioxide was rapid in geological terms, it pales in comparison to what humans are doing to the atmosphere. Modern rates of emissions are up to 10 times faster than they were during the PETM. But whereas PETM emissions were likely the result of a mix of volcanism, wildfires, and methane seeping out of permafrost and the seafloor, the current situation is almost entirely due to carbon emissions from human activity. And those emissions still climbing, with the world setting new high water for carbon pollution last year. Based on that bleak trend, Gingerich projected emissions into the future and found that in just 140 years, at current rates, we’ll have created the beginning of PETM atmosphere v2.0. At 259 years down the road, we’ll hit peak PETM.
The Most Powerful Evidence Climate Scientists Have of Global Warming
It’s all about the water. Sabrina Shankman and Paul Horn write in Inside Climate News:
Earth's temperature is rising, and it isn't just in the air around us. More than 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed into the oceans that cover two-thirds of the planet's surface. Their temperature is rising, too, and it tells a story of how humans are changing the planet.
This accrued heat is "really the memory of past climate change," said Kevin Trenberth, the head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and co-author of a new paper on ocean warming.
It's not just the amount of warming that is significant—it's also the pace.
The rate at which the oceans are heating up has nearly doubled since 1992, and that heat is reaching ever deeper waters, according to a recent study. At the same time, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been rising.
snip
Scientists say the accumulation of heat in the oceans is the strongest evidence of how fast Earth is warming due to heat-trapping gases released by the burning of fossil fuels.
Oceans have enormous capacity to hold heat. So ocean temperatures, unlike temperatures on land, are slow to fluctuate from natural forces, such as El Niño/La Niña patterns or volcanic eruptions. Think night and day, said Trenberth. As night falls on land, so do air temperatures. But in the oceans, temperatures vary little.
This makes it easier to tease out the influence of human-caused climate change from other possible causes of surging ocean heat.
This what our great grandchildren will face if we don’t decarbonize quickly.
We have no time to waste, and no more debate from political leaders. This is serious, Democrats must have the plans in place to move quickly to begin the process of saving ourselves, from ourselves, after the Trump regime is finally removed from power in 2021.
Thursday, Feb 21, 2019 · 2:29:27 PM +00:00
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Pakalolo
Senators Not Backing Green New Deal Received On Average 7 Times As Much Fossil Fuel Cash
The 12 senators co-sponsoring the Green New Deal resolution that Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) unveiled earlier this month have accepted nearly $1.1 million from oil, gas and coal companies since entering Congress.
But the 88 senators who have declined to support the measure have collected far more from those industries ― close to $59 million, according to nonprofit Oil Change International, which analyzed 30 years of data. That comes out to about $670,000 per nonbacker, or more than 7 times what the average sponsor took in.
The disparity illustrates what advocates say is a glaring conflict of interest for lawmakers deciding how to move forward on the only proposal yet to emerge that matches the scale of the climate crisis. The donations come from the powerful, deep-pocketed industry with the most to lose from any policy that restricts the sources of planet-warming emissions.
“The Green New Deal shows the level of ambition that climate and energy policy could have if Big Oil, Gas, and Coal’s grip on Washington were weakened,” David Turnbull, a spokesman for Oil Change International, said in an email. “The cosponsors of the Green New Deal have by and large bucked the influence of the out-of-control fossil fuel industry, and that shows in their willingness to stand up for bold climate solutions like what we see in the Green New Deal resolutions.”
The Green New Deal resolution, jointly released with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), proposes an outline for future legislation that could radically reshape the U.S. economy by aggressively working to phase out fossil fuels and expand access to high-wage jobs, union representation and health care to millions of Americans. The resolution quickly gained more than 70 co-sponsors in the House and a dozen in the Senate, and signaled a dramatic shift in the way climate policy is framed for voters.