We are in a state of planetary emergency. The stability and resilience of our planet are in peril. International action — not just words — must reflect this. Timothy Lenton , Johan Rockström , et al,.
The climate is going to hell in a handbasket, and Donald Trump did his best to sabotage every single effort in the global fight against climate change. We all know the man is a traitor, seditionist, pedophile, sociopath, and some say those are his better qualities.
I go further in my estimation of him. He is a monster, the incubus, a man hell-bent on killing every single lifeform on earth if given his way. He and his henchmen had four years to destroy all that was good and he did not waste a minute of it.
But I could rage against him for hours but the climate doesn’t care. It’s physics, and it will do what it’s going to do to our detriment.
When Trump was installed by Putin, Comey, and social as well as traditional media cooing over him for the entire 2016 campaign, one of his first targets to destroy was the agencies tasked with saving the climate and the environment.
The primary target was the EPA, he had all references to the climate, environment, and social justice removed from government websites.
In May, the administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris reinstated and updated and restored the deleted pages.
SueEllen Campbell writes in Yale Climate Connections about the changes and provides valuable links as well:
In some ways, the big picture about climate change right now is obvious. Still, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the data. Trump’s administration took down the EPA’s excellent Climate Change Indicator webpages, but under Biden’s leadership, they have been updated and restored for the public. Here is an informative version of this story (Dino Grandoni and Brady Dennis, Washington Post), and here (Mark Kaufman, Vox) is a good sample of the new graphics, presented with some appropriate modifiers: grim, stark, extreme, incessant, exceptional … For another vivid set of graphics based on NOAA data but with a Canadian perspective, see here (Barry Saxifrage, National Observer).
Such graphics generally show gradual increases in the relevant numbers. But it’s very likely that some changes to our planet will involve tipping points – small increments with disproportionately large effects, as, say, when just a fraction of a degree of warming transforms ice to water. Here (Alexandria Herr, Shannon Osaka, Maddie Stone, Grist) is a terrific look at some of the largest likely “Points of No Return” that may occur not too far in the future.
As usual, whether or when we reach these physical tipping points depends largely on what we humans do in coming years. For that topic, the idea of “social tipping points” is useful, if still underdeveloped. David Roberts (Vox) offers a typically clear explainer here, as does Marlow Hood (Phys.org) here. It’s worth the time to read both.
All of the graphs listed below and dozens more can be found on the EPA’s Climate Change Indicator pages.
Atmospheric Concentrations of Greenhouse Gases
Ocean heat content
Ocean Acidity
U.S. and Global Temperature
Heavy Precipitation
Temperature and Drought in the Southwest
Climate Forcing
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