‘Stunned’ scientists say there is little doubt global heating is to blame
for the loss
A total of 28 trillion tonnes of ice have disappeared from the surface of the Earth since 1994. That is stunning conclusion of UK scientists who have analysed satellite surveys of the planet’s poles, mountains and glaciers to measure how much ice coverage lost because of global heating triggered by rising greenhouse gas emissions.
The scientists – based at Leeds and Edinburgh universities and University College London – describe the level of ice loss as “staggering” and warn that their analysis indicates that sea level rises, triggered by melting glaciers and ice sheets, could reach a metre by the end of the century.
“To put that in context, every centimetre of sea level rise means about a million people will be displaced from their low-lying homelands,” said Professor Andy Shepherd, director of Leeds University’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling.
The scientists also warn that the melting of ice in these quantities is now seriously reducing the planet’s ability to reflect solar radiation back into space. White ice is disappearing and the dark sea or soil exposed beneath it is absorbing more and more heat, further increasing the warming of the planet.
In addition, cold fresh water pouring from melting glaciers and ice sheets is causing major disruptions to the biological health of Arctic and Antarctic waters, while loss of glaciers in mountain ranges threatens to wipe out sources of fresh water on which local communities depend.
www.theguardian.com/...
The level of ice loss revealed by the group matches the worst-case-scenario predictions outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), he added
Loss of sea ice Google images
Climate restoration:
Climate restoration consists of a goal and associated actions intended to reverse the current trends of climate change[2] and, on some timescale and trajectory, to restore the Earth system[3] to a safe, sustainable and productive state, for the well-being of future generations and all humanity. Such actions include the carbon dioxide removal from the Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, and increasing biosequestration and carbon sequestration, which, in combination with emissions reductions, will reduce the level of CO
2 in the atmosphere and thereby reduce the global warming[4] produced by the greenhouse effect of an excess of CO
2 over its pre-industrial level.en.m.wikipedia.org/...
Climate engineering approaches are sometimes viewed as potential options for limiting climate change or its impacts, alongside mitigation and adaptation.[10][4] There is substantial agreement among scientists that climate engineering cannot substitute for climate change mitigation. Some approaches might be used as accompanying measures to sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.[11] Given that all types of measures for addressing climate change have economic, political, or physical limitations,[12][13] some climate engineering approaches might eventually be used as part of an ensemble of measures, which can be referred to as climate restoration.
"Fraser wants people to feel not alarmed but activated, and he takes a relentlessly positive, solutions-oriented attitude. “We got trains all the way across America in a few years, and people on the moon in a few years”
www.newyorker.com/...
Margaret Klein Salamon, who trained as a clinical psychologist before founding a climate-advocacy organization, takes the opposite view. She doesn’t see fear as paralyzing but as a necessary response that activates people to recognize danger and take action. What’s more, given the state of the atmosphere, she argues that acute fear is rational. “It’s important to feel afraid of things that will kill us—that is healthy and good,” she said. She believes that reckoning with the scope of the emergency is required, both to activate responsible behavior and to reap the mental-health benefits of “living in climate truth.” Salamon, who grew up in a family of psychoanalysts and considers therapy to be “something of a family business,” is writing “Transform Yourself with Climate Truth,” a self-help book on the subject.
www.newyorker.com/...
Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy promoting the inherent worth of living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, plus a restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas.
Deep ecology argues that the natural world is a subtle balance of complex inter-relationships in which the existence of organisms is dependent on the existence of others within ecosystems. It argues that human interference with or destruction of the natural world poses a threat therefore not only to humans but to all organisms constituting the natural order.
Deep ecology's core principle is the belief that the living environment as a whole should be respected and regarded as having certain basic moral and legal rights to live and flourish, independent of its instrumental benefits for human use. Deep ecology is often framed in terms of the idea of a much broader sociality; it recognizes diverse communities of life on Earth that are composed not only through biotic factors but also, where applicable, through ethical relations, that is, the valuing of other beings as more than just resources. It is described as "deep" because it is regarded as looking more deeply into the actual reality of humanity's relationship with the natural world arriving at philosophically more profound conclusions than those of mainstream environmentalism.[1] The movement does not subscribe to anthropocentric environmentalism (which is concerned with conservation of the environment only for exploitation by and for human purposes), since deep ecology is grounded in a quite different set of philosophical assumptions. Deep ecology takes a holistic view of the world human beings live in and seeks to apply to life the understanding that the separate parts of the ecosystem (including humans) function as a whole. The philosophy addresses core principles of different environmental and green movements and advocates a system of environmental ethics advocating wilderness preservation, human population control, and simple living.en.m.wikipedia.org/...
Links:
Sunrise Movement demands a new chapter in this country and encourages other groups in the climate and environmental movement to join us in speaking out. As climate activists, we imagine a world that looks nothing like our own, one where we stop climate change by transforming our whole economy.
sunrisemovement.org
The climate crisis has already arrived.
Just look to California’s abnormal wildfires
In the last decade, amid drought and searing heat, California has entered the ‘era of megafires’ and has become the ‘examplar for climate change extreme events today’www.theguardian.com/...
Google
A campaign by the Center for Biological Diversity is intended to start a debate about how overpopulation crowds out species and hastens climate....
Save the Planet:
*Turn out the lights *Don't waste water *Avoid creating nighttime light pollution *Avoid burning wood (or other things), as wood fires are both pollutant and carcinogenic *Don't use harmful pesticides *Limit your use of cars and planes (if possible) *Don't use gas powered vehicles *Take out grass and put in a garden or pond (or xeriscape ) *Mow, blow, and whack with electric *Plant for the animals (bees, birds etc) *Plant a tree *Don't micro manage yards, go wilder *Try to use solar *Take a trolley or train *Use energy efficient products or products that work on clean fuels *Reduce dependence on non-biodegradable items* Walk or carpool *Turn down the heat or AC *Reuse items- give to Goodwill or Craig's list rather than dumping *Ride bikes instead of using cars *Cut down or cease eating meat *Use reusable carry bags for groceries not their plastic; second choice, paper bags *Compost *Save the bees *Be an insect friend *Be informed *Write your representative *Elect pro-environment candidates and demand action *Support the Green New Deal *Sign petitions *Get involved *March *
*Projects:Carbon sequestration, reforestation, conscious consumption*
*control population* Blog about the environment*start a group*
*vote greenish*Tell a friend!*
"SPOTLIGHT ON GREEN NEWS & VIEWS"
EVERY SATURDAY AT 3:00 PM PACIFIC TIME ON THE DAILY KOS FRONT PAGE.
IT'S A GREAT WAY TO CATCH UP ON DIARIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED. BE SURE TO RECOMMEND AND COMMENT IN THE DIARY.
(Link at):
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