Climate Explained: What the World Was Like the Last Time Carbon Dioxide Levels Were at 400ppm: EW

climate change

What was the climate and sea level like at times in Earth’s history when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was at 400ppm? 

 

The last time global carbon dioxide levels were consistently at or above 400 parts per million (ppm) was around four million years ago during a geological period known as the Pliocene Era (between 5.3 million and 2.6 million years ago). The world was about 3℃ warmer and sea levels were higher than today.


We know how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere contained in the past by studying ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica. As compacted snow gradually changes to ice, it traps air in bubbles that contain samples of the atmosphere at the time. We can sample ice cores to reconstruct past concentrations of carbon dioxide, but this record only takes us back about a million years.


Beyond a million years, we don't have any direct measurements of the composition of ancient atmospheres, but we can use several methods to estimate past levels of carbon dioxide. One method uses the relationship between plant pores, known as stomata, that regulate gas exchange in and out of the plant. The density of these stomata is related to atmospheric carbon dioxide, and fossil plants are a good indicator of concentrations in the past.


Another technique is to examine sediment cores from the ocean floor. The sediments build up year after year as the bodies and shells of dead plankton and other organisms rain down on the seafloor. We can use isotopes (chemically identical atoms that differ only in atomic weight) of boron taken from the shells of the dead plankton to reconstruct changes in the acidity of seawater. From this we can work out the level of carbon dioxide in the ocean.
The data from four-million-year-old sediments suggest that carbon dioxide was at 400ppm back then.

Sea Levels and Changes in Antarctica 

 

During colder periods in Earth's history, ice caps and glaciers grow and sea levels drop. In the recent geological past, during the most recent ice age about 20,000 years ago, sea levels were at least 120 meters lower than they are today.


Sea-level changes are calculated from changes in isotopes of oxygen in the shells of marine organisms. For the Pliocene Era, research shows the sea-level change between cooler and warmer periods was around 30-40 meters and sea level was higher than today. Also during the Pliocene, we know the West Antarctic Ice Sheet was significantly smaller and global average temperatures were about 3℃ warmer than today. Summer temperatures in high northern latitudes were up to 14℃ warmer.


This may seem like a lot but modern observations show strong polar amplification of warming: a 1℃ increase at the equator may raise temperatures at the poles by 6-7℃. It is one of the reasons why Arctic sea ice is disappearing.

Impacts in New Zealand and Australia  

 

Read the complete EW article

A First Dog on the Moon live action cartoon! Will the coronavirus save us from climate change?: Guardian Australia

The UK government was ready for this pandemic. Until it sabotaged its own system: UK Guardian

"We were second in the world for preparedness. Then Boris Johnson et al deliberately de-prepared us.

............

"Exercise Cygnus, a pandemic simulation conducted in 2016, found that the impacts in care homes would be catastrophic unless new measures were put in place. The government insists that it heeded the findings of this exercise and changed its approach accordingly. If this is correct, by allowing untested patients to be shifted from hospitals to care homes, while failing to provide the extra support and equipment the homes needed and allowing agency workers to move freely within and between them, it knowingly breached its own protocols. Tens of thousands of highly vulnerable people were exposed to infection.

In other words, none of these are failures of knowledge or capacity. They are de-preparations, conscious decisions not to act. They start to become explicable only when we recognise what they have in common: a refusal to frontload the costs. This refusal is common in countries whose governments fetishise what we call “the market”: the euphemism we use for the power of money.

Johnson’s government, like that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, represents a particular kind of economic interest. For years politicians of their stripe have been in conflict with people who perform useful services: nurses, teachers, care workers and the other low-paid people who keep our lives ticking, whose attempts to organise and secure better pay and conditions are demonised by ministers and in the media.

This political conflict is always fought on behalf of the same group: those who extract wealth. The war against utility is necessary if you want to privatise public services, granting lucrative monopolies or fire sales of public assets to friends in the private sector. It’s necessary if you want to hold down public sector pay and the minimum wage, cutting taxes and bills for the same funders and lobbyists. It is necessary if corporations are to be allowed to outsource and offshore their workforces, and wealthy people can offshore their income and assets.

The interests of wealth extractors are, by definition, short term. They divert money that might otherwise have been used for investment into dividends and share buybacks. They dump costs that corporations should legitimately bear on to society in general, in the form of pollution (the car and road lobbies) or public health disasters (soft drinks and junk food producers). They siphon money out of an enterprise or a nation as quickly as possible, before the tax authorities, regulators or legislators catch up.

Years of experience have shown that it is much cheaper to make political donations, employ lobbyists and invest in public relations than to change lucrative but harmful commercial policies. Working through the billionaire press and political systems that are highly vulnerable to capture by money, in the UK, US and Brazil they have helped ensure that cavalier and reckless people are elected. Their chosen representatives have an almost instinctive aversion to investment, to carrying a cost today that could be deferred, delayed or dumped on someone else.

It’s not that any of these interests – whether the Daily Mail or the US oil companies – want coronavirus to spread. It’s that the approach that has proved so disastrous in addressing the pandemic has been highly effective, from the lobbyists’ point of view, when applied to other issues: delaying and frustrating action to prevent climate breakdown; pollution; the obesity crisis; inequality; unaffordable rent; and the many other plagues spread by corporate and billionaire power.

Thanks in large part to their influence, we have governments that fail to protect the public interest, by design. This is the tunnel. This is why the exits are closed. This is why we will struggle to emerge.

• George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist"

Read more

14 ways to turn your coronavirus cabin fever into climate action: Grist

In these times of unprecedented uncertainty, my to-do list helps me stay sane.

It doesn’t matter that I have no places to go or people to see. With COVID-19 tossing normal life down the drain the world over, the shred of normalcy helps me stave off apathy, paralysis, and my sudden aversion to wearing proper pants.

I’m not the only one desperate for a little structure in my life in the age of social distancing and sheltering in place. Many of us who are fortunate enough to stay home during this crisis have been busy establishing work-life boundaries, maintaining an exercise routine, and staying in touch with loved ones. While these are all great ways to break up the monotony of sheltering in place, it’s also possible to pencil climate action into your newfound daily routine.

 

To get started, Grist put together a to-do list of daily climate-related activities that are compatible with social distancing for two weeks straight.

Day 1: Stock up — thoughtfully. Before you speed out to the store and panic-buy everything in sight, stop and take inventory. Check out everything you already own, notice what should be consumed soon, and write down what you really need. Bulk beans, lentils, and grains are solid options: They’ll stay good for ages, are healthy and versatile, and are climate-friendly foods. And having a consolidated, well-planned list and an organized fridge will prevent food waste — a major contributor to climate change — and save you unnecessary trips to the store. You can even take a first step towards growing some of your own food by buying an herb to grow on your windowsill — mint, sage, oregano, parsley, and rosemary are all pretty hard to kill. (Before you finalize your shopping list, check out the action items for Days 2, 5, and 10.)

Day 2: Power strips to the rescue. Now that you’re working from home (alongside a partner, perhaps, or kids home from school), consolidate your outlets and save electricity by plugging your chargers into power strips that can be switched off when you don’t need them. Ditto if you have a toaster, coffee machine, and electric kettle all plugged in on the kitchen counter. If you don’t own power strips, add them to your list for Day 1 — lots of essential stores sell them. It’s easy to forget about all the appliances we leave plugged in to suck up power like vampires, but now that you aren’t rushing off to work, it’s easy to stop wasting power.

Day 3: Junk mail begone! By your third day indoors, it’s probably become apparent just how much junk mail piles up when left to its own devices. Why companies still send snail mail advertisements addressed to “Current Resident” is beyond me, but asking to be taken off their lists will save paper, energy, and your time. The website Catalog Choice makes it easy to get off the mailing lists of businesses that just won’t leave you alone. Now’s also a good time to switch all your monthly bills and medical statements to online only if you haven’t already.

Read the original Grist article

Sick of compromises and wary of those who suggest compromise

Soft words

Softly, softly approaches

Compromises, are fit for negotiating colour schemes, diets, games,

Not when talking of the need for crisis climate action

When the science is clear

When you can’t compromise on facts.

When human existence is at stake.

Can we cease our headlong, headstrong rush to species annihilation

Prevent the greedy destruction of our only planet, and

Call out those who trust in prayers and loving thoughts to clean up a man-made catastrophe.

Sick of compromises and wary of those who suggest compromise

And ‘sweet’ pieces of research that nudge us towards a gentle, soothing, less challenging way to swing opinions?

Have the advocates of compromise been duped, dudded, diddled or paid off in some way?

Let’s act NOW.

If the Climate Change Crisis were World War II, it’s 1939: Medium

"The question is really, as Superchunk observed, “how fast?” Can we make this transition in time to prevent clathrate collapse or the popping of Yellowstone park? How many billions will die from famine, disease, water-shortages and toxic air pollution before we clean up the place? How many need to die before head-in-the-sand deniers get out of the way of those of us trying to make a difference?

To me a “climate emergency” means a war footing; and that means waging war against the deniers first, as they are the real obstacle. I’d be very happy to see a lot of our current senior political and corporate leaders hauled up in The Hague and charged with crimes against humanity, and I’d regard that as entirely appropriate. But that’s a fantasy and is, alas, unlikely to happen.

In various countries citizens are resorting to the courts to force their governments into action, and that’s certainly a pathway to progress in places where laws are designed to enforce the rights of ordinary people, rather than simply there to block action against climate change.

The sad truth is that almost no-one really believes that global warming, and the myriad other issues that stem from humanity’s abuse of the planet, are truly anything to get too worried about.

Most people I know, even those who completely accept that climate change is real and happening, continue to act as if they believe, deep-down, despite what they say, that the risks are overstated and, if impacts are going to be felt, they’ll be felt by other people and way in the distant, to them, future.

People may say that they accept the science, but they act as if they

don’t. A lot of people subscribe to a kind of magical thinking, wherein some hitherto undreamed of technological fix will just make the whole problem go away, so we can just continue polluting.

The emergency is upon us. We must urgently and radically change the way we generate power, fuel, and food, while putting in place adaptation measures to deal with the global warming already locked into the planetary system. If we do hit the runaway global warming tipping point, then no amount of adaptation will be possible. But simply explaining the facts clearly is usually written off as being alarmist. And that’s the core of the climate crisis."

 Read the much larger Medium article

See also

Climate change is a health emergency, RACGP declares: News GP

You Can't Say You Haven't Been Warned: Green Market Oracle

Despite an unremitting stream of warnings and studies we still are not doing what we must to protect the natural world and keep temperatures from warming beyond critical upper temperature limits. We were warned about our impact on nature seven years ago in the GEO-5 report. Undeterred we continued to perpetrate genocide against nature.  In 2012 scientists warned us that our oceans are dying but we did not respond.  We have now decimated entire aquatic ecosystems and all around the world coral reefs are dead or dying.
We were warned not to surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial norms. We ignored these warnings and we keep pumping climate change causing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at record breaking rates. We are now at 1 degree C above preindustrial norms, two thirds of the way to the point of no return.
Everyone from Stephen Hawkings to President Obama have warned us of the urgent need to act on climate change. The world's leading scientific organizations have also repeatedly warned us about climate change. This includes the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society, the Royal Institution, NASA, the US National Academy of Sciences, the US Geological Survey, and the national science bodies of dozens of countries.
We have amassed an unparalleled body of research that convincingly demonstrates we are on the cusp of an apocalypse. "By now, we know all we need to know" Anne Olhoff said recently. Olhoff is the head of strategy, climate and planning and policy for the UNEP DTU (Technical University of Denmark) Partnership. "The science is pretty clear, and very frightening," she said. 


Read the original article
These warnings are not new. A half century ago climate models accurately predicted global warming. A brief review of climate science shows us that we have known about the dangers of a warming planet since the 1950s. In the last couple of decades scientists have added to these warnings. In 2006 the Stern Review warned us that we had to urgently reduce our emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. By 2012 dozens of studies made the case for anthropogenic climate change including a report from UNEP that warned that we are on the brink of a climate catastrophe. In 2013 The U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA) report and an IPCC study reaffirmed that anthropogenic climate change is a real and growing problem.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) issued a climate warning in 2012 and so did the World Bank. We have seen countless scientific warnings including reports from PwC, AGU and the WMO, all of which have told us that we are are running out of time. Seven years ago the IEA and the WRI warned that we need to stop burning fossil fuels. Investors are continually being warned about the dangers of hydrocarbons and even oil companies have issued their own climate warnings. In fact, in the 1960s the fossil fuel industry's own science revealed that they are causing global warming.
We fail to act despite the preponderance of economic evidence indicating that the benefits of climate action far outweigh the costs. According to the Global Energy Transformation report, there are 160 trillion dollars worth of savings from climate action. Five years ago the wisdom of action was explained in the Risky Business Report.  Climate change has also been the hot topic at the World Economic Forum (WED) in Davos Switzerland.
In 2017 two scientific warnings stand out, the U.S. Global Change Research Program's fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) and an open letter from the Alliance of World Scientists. The letter is titled "Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice" and it was published in BioScience. It was signed by more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries. It warned humanity about the dangers of climate change. The warning specifically said that humanity must change its ways in order to protect the planet. It specifically points to rising greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation.
A 2018 UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) study reaffirmed that we are teetering on the cusp of a man-made climate calamity. The  IPCC report warned that governments must take urgent action to avoid "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society". The report warned that by 2030 we will will breech the upper threshold limit (1.5 C). A 2019 IPCC report warned that we are seeing accelerated ice melt and sea level rise. 


Read the original article
In 2019, more than 10,000 scientists from 153 countries declared a "climate emergency". The study is called "World scientists' warning of a climate emergency". The seriousness of the threat was addressed by biologist Jesse Bellemare who said "the climate crisis is real, and is a major, even existential, threat to human societies." Bellemare is an associate professor of biology at Smith College who is a signatory of the study’s emergency declaration.
Researchers have warned us that we are facing the end of civilization. The well documented effects of catastrophic warming includes cataclysmic flooding from sea level rise, more frequent and devastating extreme weather, massive wildfires, and chronic food shortages. But there may be an even worse fate awaiting us in a world ravaged by runaway climate change. Simply put, if we fail to act we are headed for a horrific disaster that will adversely impact life on Earth.
Climate change is here and the only question that remains is just how bad it will get. That is still up to us, but with each passing year we ebb ever closer to tipping points from which we may not be able to recover.  The window of opportunity to act is closing  and the longer we wait the harder it will be. 

Read the original article

Climate Action: I don’t know jack shit about activism I need guidance

Question:

 

Yo! So it’s been established that most pollution issues are caused by corporations and organisations, rather than individuals. 

What now? How does one go about putting pressure on them/getting things to change? Start where?? I don’t know jack shit about activism I need guidance

hope-for-the-planet  answered:

 

This is a great question and I’m sorry I took so long to get to it.

The short answer is: Find other people working on the same problem you want to tackle and join them.

It doesn’t matter if you aren’t sure how to start making a difference if you can find a group/organization that has been working on it for a while and already knows what they are doing.

Two additional pieces of advice: 1) I recommend joining a cause that you’re passionate about/interested in or that fits your skill set. 
 It will be more rewarding for you and easier to stick with it. 2) If you’re joining/supporting/fundraising for a bigger organization it doesn’t hurt to do a little research on them to make sure they’re reputable and actually making a difference with the resources they are given.


If you’re interested in boots-on-the-ground political activism in particular, checking out the Sunrise Movement and Extinction Rebellion would probably be good places to start (I believe the Sunrise Movement is fairly US-centric).

However, environmental activism can take many forms: You could volunteer with a tree planting or habitat restoration project. You could help campaign for environmentally friendly politicians or laws. You could volunteer at a local nature center, zoo, or aquarium to educate people about conservation and habitat loss. You could fundraise for or donate to an environmental cause.


To quote environmental activist Bill McKibben:

“Part of the problem is that climate change seems so big that it’s hard to conceive that any individual action on our part could work. When people ask me ‘What can I, as an individual, do to save the planet?’ I say, ‘The most important thing you can do is be less of an individual’”

 wewantclimateactionnow

#criminales climáticos de la cárcel
#criminalesclimáticosdelacárcel
#jailclimatecriminals
#gaolclimatecriminals

 

Climate change sceptic Liberals let down Canberra’s most vulnerable say Rattenbury

The Canberra Liberals have no plan to address climate change, are waging a fearmongering campaign about the ACT’s climate change actions, and oppose measures to financially assist Canberra households as we transition to a sustainable future.

“The ACT is making nation-leading efforts to tackle climate change and make Canberra a modern, green, and highly liveable city. These initiatives are already bringing extensive environmental, social, and economic benefits to Canberra, and Canberrans are rightly proud of them,” ACT Greens leader and Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability Shane Rattenbury said today.

Why does the Amazon matter?: Al Jazeera

"The Amazon is the largest tropical forest in the world, covering more than five million square kilometres across nine countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.

 
It acts as an enormous carbon sink, storing up to an estimated 100 years worth of carbon emissions produced by humans, and is seen as vital to slowing the pace of global warming.

"The Amazon is the most significant climate stabiliser we have, it creates 20 percent of the air we breathe and it also holds 20 percent of the fresh flowing water on the planet," Poirier said."

Read the Al Jazeera story 

Related:

Amazon rainforest fire: Five things you need to know: ABC

Climate Action Rally in Bellingen August 17, 2019

See also:

Australia coal use is 'existential threat' to Pacific islands, says Fiji PM 

 

 What does your local community do to mitigate climate change?

Read about:

Forests, logging and climate change: IA

Related: Can Earth be saved? Climate change is threatening the world's food supply, according to a UN panel.: Al Jazeera

Meet the Money Behind The Climate Denial Movement: Smithsonian

Climate Criminals

Nearly a billion dollars a year is flowing into the organized climate change counter-movement

The overwhelming majority of climate scientists, international governmental bodies, relevant research institutes and scientific societies are in unison in saying that climate change is real, that it's a problem, and that we should probably do something about it now, not later. And yet, for some reason, the idea persists in some peoples' minds that climate change is up for debate, or that climate change is no big deal.
 
Actually, it's not “for some reason” that people are confused. 

There's a very obvious reason. There is a very well-funded, well-orchestrated climate change-denial movement, one funded by powerful people with very deep pockets. In a new and incredibly thorough study, Drexel University sociologist Robert Brulle took a deep dive into the financial structure of the climate deniers, to see who is holding the purse strings.

Go to original Smithsonian article

See also:

Climate impact must be measured in new major developments: Greens

Oil And Gas Giants Spend Millions Lobbying To Block Climate Change Policies [Infographic]: Forbes

By Niall McCarthy 

 

Every year, the world's five largest publicly owned oil and gas companies spend approximately $200 million on lobbying designed to control, delay or block binding climate-motivated policy. This has caused problems for governments seeking to implement policies in the wake of the Paris Agreement which are vital in meeting climate change targets. Companies are generally reluctant to disclose such lobbying expenditure and late last week, a report from InfluenceMap used a methodology focusing on the best available records along with intensive research of corporate messaging to gauge their level of influence on initiatives to halt climate change. 

Go to Forbes article

2040 film starts June 6 in Sawtell

Spread the word. This "climate change/global heating awareness" film starts June 6 at the Majestic Cinema in Sawtell.

2040

In Cinemas Now

"Documentarian Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film) explores what the future would look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us. Structured as a visual letter to his 4-year-old daughter, Gameau blends traditional documentary footage with dramatised sequences to create a vision board for his daughter and the planet."

2040

Opening 06 June 2019
Rated G (General), 92 mins
Starring Damon Gameau, Eva Lazzaro, Zoe Gameau.

Award-winning director Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film) embarks on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them rapidly into the mainstream. Structured as a visual letter to his 4-year-old daughter, Damon blends traditional documentary with dramatised sequences and high-end visual effects to create a vision board of how these solutions could regenerate the world for future generations.

Session Times

Thursday, 6 June 2019

12:10pm  

4:30pm  

Friday, 7 June 2019

12:10pm  

Saturday, 8 June 2019

12:00pm LS

Monday, 10 June 2019

12:00pm LS

Tuesday, 11 June 2019

12:10pm  

4:30pm  

Wednesday, 12 June 2019

12:10pm LS

4:30pm LS

Will the world end because of climate change?

Cartoon: Mr Churchill Comments

Public Money Propping Up Fossil Fuels: Market Forces

Your Australian taxes funding fossil fuels

"Each year, the Australian government spends billions of dollars of your money on programs that encourage more coal, gas and oil to be extracted and burned. Market Forces estimates that tax-based fossil fuel subsidies cost almost $12 billion a year federally. This includes subsidies that support both the production and use of fossil fuels.

But tax-based subsidies aren’t the only government financial backing for fossil fuels. Direct handouts and contributions to the industry are doled out at both federal and state levels. 

On top of this, public money is used to finance fossil fuels through our national export credit agency EFIC, as well as our involvement with international financial institutions.
Australia has built a bad reputation as one of the world’s biggest backers of the dirty fossil fuel industry, a stance made clear at the 2015 Paris climate talks when it refused to sign an agreement that would phase out fossil fuel subsidies. 

This came despite Australia having committed on multiple occasions to phase out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.”

Your Australian taxes are funding fossil fuels.

Read the Market Forces article

 Related:

The World's Poor are Hurt Not Helped by Fossil Fuel Subsidies

#fossil fuel industry  #fossil fuel subsidies  #fossil fuel subsidies, poverty  #climate action   #Australia,  

A record share of Australians say humans cause climate change: poll: SMH

More Australians than ever believe human activity is entirely or mainly responsible for climate change, new polling shows.

But only 13 per cent say the Morrison government is doing a good job tackling climate change.

A survey by social research firm Ipsos shows 46 per cent of Australians now agree climate change is “entirely or mainly” caused by human activity. That is the highest share since Ipsos began asking the question in an annual survey of Australians’ attitudes to climate change in 2010.

Read the Sydney Morning Herald article

Climate change impact on Australia

 

Students Strike for Climate Action in Regional NSW

Students in Bellingen, NSW

"School strikes were held across Australia today, 15 March 2019, but it was the students, not the teachers, leading the charge. The strikes were held to demand more meaningful climate action from the government; something the organising students believe to be truly lacking." Student Edge

Bellingen Students

Bellingen student strike for climate action

Bellingen Student Strike for Climate Action in park

Adults supporting student strike for climate action

Grey Power supporting the student strike

Be careful who you vote for in the NSW state election

Climate change strikes across Australia see student protesters defy calls to stay in school: ABC NEWS

#climateaction #climatechange #climatecatastrophe #youth #students #globalheating

Students Marching in Coffs Harbour

March preparations in Kempsey

'Change now or pay later': RBA's stark warning on climate change: SMH

"The Reserve Bank has warned climate change is likely to cause economic shocks and threaten Australia's financial stability unless businesses take immediate stock of the risks."

"Dr Debelle said the bank was speaking about the issue because of the size of the impact climate change would have on the economy.

"Some of these developments are actually happening now," he said.

Dr Debelle said the current drought across large swathes of the eastern states has already reduced farm output by around 6 per cent and total economic growth by about 0.15 per cent.