When someone tells you, “The climate is always changing,” show them this cartoon: GRIST

We’ve all heard it before: “Yeah, but the climate has ALWAYS changed.”

Oh, really? Well, this timeline of Earth’s average temperature shows just how much we’ve influenced the climate. This epic webcomic was created by Randall Munroe, the artist behind xkcd, one of our favorite places for simplifying complicated scientific concepts.

It’s pretty long, but bear with us.

 Go to the original GRIST article to see the cartoon.

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

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

 

Why Growth Can’t Be Green

"New data proves you can support capitalism or the environment — but it’s hard to do both."

"But ending growth doesn’t mean that living standards need to take a hit. Our planet provides more than enough for all of us; the problem is that its resources are not equally distributed. We can improve people’s lives right now simply by sharing what we already have more fairly, rather than plundering the Earth for more. Maybe this means better public services. Maybe it means basic income. Maybe it means a shorter working week that allows us to scale down production while still delivering full employment. Policies such as these — and countless others — will be crucial to not only surviving the 21st century but also flourishing in it."

Read the Medium article

Global warming is increasing the chances of worldwide harvest failure on the scale of the tragic 19th century drought and famine that claimed 50 million lives.

Awaiting aid in drought-ravaged Somalia in 2011. Image: Stuart Price/UN Multimedia

"LONDON − Climate change driven by human-induced global warming could recreate the conditions for a re-run of one of the most tragic episodes in human history, the Great Drought and Global Famine of 1875 to 1878.

Those years were marked by widespread and prolonged droughts in Asia, Brazil and Africa, triggered by a coincidence of unusual conditions in the Pacific, Indian, and North Atlantic Oceans.

The famine – made more lethal by the political constraints linked to 19th-century colonial domination of three continents – is now thought to have claimed up to 50 million lives.

And the message contained in new research published in the Journal of Climate is stark: what happened before could happen again."

Read the Climate Change blog article

#foodshortages  #famine  #global heating  #climate action  #asia  #brazil  #africa  

See also  New Report Warns Geoengineering the Climate Is a '...

We have already created extreme extreme weather

Hurricane Michael, October 9, 2018. Source: NOAA

The Human Fingerprints on Extreme Weather

 

"Climate change is already taking a massive toll, and it’s only going to get worse."

"Hurricane Michael broke records Wednesday, when it became the most powerful cyclone ever recorded to make landfall along the Florida Panhandle. Abnormally warm waters fueled winds up to 155 miles per hour, which laid waste to homes and businesses caught in the storm’s path. As multiple outlets noted, climate change likely fueled the record-breaking wind speeds. That fact is notable given that both reporters and researchers have historically been reticent to link any one storm to climate change.

Five or ten years ago, if you asked a scientist how climate change figured into a particular hurricane, she would demur, saying that it was impossible to blame any single event on the overall warming trend. Those days are over. In the last decade, scientists have developed sophisticated tools for finding the human fingerprint on extreme weather. The emerging field of attribution research, as it’s known, investigates the role of climate change in specific events. A newly published report amassing more than 200 attribution studies makes clear that heat-trapping carbon pollution is already making the weather measurably more severe."

Read the Medium article

See also: Risks of 'domino effect' of tipping points greater...

#extremeweatherevents  #humancausedclimatechange  #hurricanemichael  #cyclones  #climatechange  #climateactionnow 

Busting Climate Change Myths / Answers with Joe

Check out my interview with John Cook from SkepticalScience.com: https://answerswithjoe.com/science-cl...

Follow me at all my places! Instagram: https://instagram.com/answerswithjoe Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/answersw... Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/answerswithjoe Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/answerswithjoe LINKS LINKS LINKS: More about the Robbers Cave Experiment: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2... More about the fossil fuel industry and tobacco companies using the same tactics: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar... Peter Doran's Climate Science Survey: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.c... Climate change consensus same as smoking and cancer: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar... Why CO2 alone won't help plants grow: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-... Lori Fenton's paper on Mars warming: https://www.nature.com/articles/natur... On the single cause fallacy that climate change in the past is the reason why it's changing now: https://www.skepticalscience.com/clim... Sulphur Dioxide trends in relation to volcanic activity: https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/sulfur... An article about Debbie Dooley: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/bu... Military Times article about pentagon planning for climate change: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/yo... Exxon Mobil new CEO embracing the carbon tax: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl... Study on Exxon Mobil scientists and internal communications: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22...

Video: What is climate change? - Met Office climate change guide

Met Office - Weather  Published on Mar 11, 2011

 

The Earth's climate has changed many times in response to natural factors. But over the course of the last century we have seen an unusual rise in the average global temperature that can not be explained by natural causes alone. Here we explain what aspects of our climate are changing and what may be causing these changes.  

 

More information can be found online at http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-c...

NBC News Video: Climate Change Is Worsening And Will Have Economic Impact, Federal Report Warns

NBC News

Published on Nov 24, 2018

"Evidence of human-caused climate change is strengthening, a new report from 13 federal agencies says. It could cost hundreds of billions of dollars from rising sea levels and infrastructure damage, among other impacts."

Published on Nov 24, 2018

Evidence of human-caused climate change is strengthening, a new report from 13 federal agencies says. It could cost hundreds of billions of dollars from rising sea levels and infrastructure damage, among other impacts.