Life Support

Our beautiful planet is dying. I'm an old man so it is likely I won't see it in its final death throes and truth be told, I don't want to. Still I am doing what I can to make a difference because I can see the effects of human activity everyday in my garden. You can make a difference as well. Since it was written about a month ago, 520 global scientists have signed on to this statement. You can also sign it as I have.  Maybe if enough of us do someone will pay attention. There is a lot more information, including ideas for solutions, at Stanford University's Millenium Alliance for Humanity & the Biosphere website.

Earth is rapidly approaching a tipping point. Human impacts are causing alarming levels of harm to our planet. As scientists who study the interaction of people with the rest of the biosphere using a wide range of approaches, we agree that the evidence that humans are damaging their ecological life-support systems is overwhelming. We further agree that, based on the best scientific information available, human quality of life will suffer substantial degradation by the year 2050 if we continue on our current path.
 Science unequivocally demonstrates the human impacts of key concern:

• Climate disruption—more, faster climate change than since humans first became a species.
• Extinctions—not since the dinosaurs went extinct have so many species and populations died out so fast, both on land and in the oceans.
• Wholesale loss of diverse ecosystems—we have plowed, paved, or otherwise transformed more than 40% of Earth’s ice-free land, and no place on land or in the sea is free of our direct or indirect influences.
• Pollution—environmental contaminants in the air, water and land are at record levels and increasing, seriously harming people and wildlife in unforeseen ways.
• Human population growth and consumption patterns—seven billion people alive today will likely grow to 9.5 billion by 2050, and the pressures of heavy material consumption among the middle class and wealthy may well intensify.

By the time today’s children reach middle age, it is extremely likely that Earth’s life-support systems, critical for human prosperity and existence, will be irretrievably damaged by the magnitude, global extent, and combination of these human-caused environmental stressors, unless we take concrete, immediate actions to ensure a sustainable, high-quality future.
As members of the scientific community actively involved in assessing the biological and societal impacts of global change, we are sounding this alarm to the world. For humanity’s continued health and prosperity, we all—individuals, businesses, political leaders, religious leaders, scientists, and people in every walk of life—must work hard to solve these five global problems, starting today: 1. Climate Disruption 2. Extinctions 3. Loss of Ecosystem Diversity 4. Pollution 5. Human Population Growth and Resource Consumption.
The full statement has been signed by 520 global scientists from 44 countries. Those signatures were obtained within a month of completion of the statement, by direct email requests from the authors and their close colleagues to a targeted group of well-regarded global change scientists.   The signers include 2 Nobel Laureates, 33 members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences,   42 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and several members of various European scientific academies.
PEOPLE WISHING TO READ THE FULL SUMMARY OR THE ENTIRE REPORT CAN FIND THEM AT http://mahb.stanford.edu.
AT THE SAME SITE PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO ENDORSE THE REPORT IF YOU AGREE WITH IT.  THE MORE ENDOSEMENTS THERE ARE FROM PEOPLE IN EVERY WALK OF LIFE, BETTER THE CHANCE THAT DECISION-MAKERS WILL PAY ATTENTION AND START TO TAKE ACTION.
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD AS FAR AS POSSIBLE AND URGE THOSE YOU KNOW TO SPEND A COUPLE OF MINUTES TO REGISTER THEIR SUPPORT.

Welcome to 400 Parts Per Million

A very sobering event happened yesterday. We hit a new carbon dioxide milestone of 400 ppm:

Scientific monitors reported that the gas had reached an average daily level that surpassed 400 parts per million — just an odometer moment in one sense, but also a sobering reminder that decades of efforts to bring human-produced emissions under control are faltering.
The best available evidence suggests the amount of the gas in the air has not been this high for at least three million years, before humans evolved, and scientists believe the rise portends large changes in the climate and the level of the sea.

In case you are wondering this means that we are on track to possibly see a rise in the average temperature of 4 degrees C towards the end of the century. If 4C doesn't sound so bad consider that scientist think it means the extinction of about half of the species now living on our little spaceship. We are so screwed.

Hummingbirds Are Early

We read that the hummers were returning to the Atlanta area earlier than usual this year and so put out the feeder a couple of days ago. So far we have had one male ruby throated feeding regularly so odds are there are more out there. If you are a hummer feeder you might consider putting the feeder out a little earlier that usual. We don't usually put ours out until early May but that routine is going to have to adjust to the new "normal".

Just like the King snake that appeared the other day Mother Nature seems to be moving up her schedule a bit...no doubt because Al Gore is still fat I would guess.

Another Drop In the Bucket

No worries right? Nothing to see here just move along.

The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air jumped dramatically in 2012, making it very unlikely that global warming can be limited to another 2 degrees as many global leaders have hoped, new federal figures show.

Scientists say the rise in CO2 reflects the world's economy revving up and burning more fossil fuels, especially in China.

Carbon dioxide levels jumped by 2.67 parts per million since 2011 to total just under 395 parts per million, says Pieter Tans, who leads the greenhouse gas measurement team for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That's the second highest rise in carbon emissions since record-keeping began in 1959. The measurements are taken from air samples captured away from civilization near a volcano in Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

This is not good and if you have been paying attention this isn't the first drop in the bucket and the bucket is rapidly getting full and when it does actually fill it will be the end of mankind on this little planet.
What is so frustrating is that the world is facing two big problems right now...climate change and shrinking employment/economies and addressing climate change with investment in non oil based energy resources, clean industry and other pro-environment initiatives would solve both these problems at once. The frustration being that our leaders are focusing on exactly the opposite. How to get more oil. How to get the dirtiest oil out of Canada and ship it down through the U.S. for export to China. Oh and reducing and already shrinking deficit. Idiots.

What's A WakaWaka?

On the environmental front there some small but good news. The good news is that individuals are not waiting for governments and have developed a solar powered solar lamp also capable of recharging cell phones to replace kerosene lamps among those without electricity. This will have a good effect on both poor people and climate change. They are called WakaWakas and more information can be found here.

 Unfortunately, the "gooberments" of the world are still way behind the curve and have dropped the ball spectacularly with repsect to addressing global climate change and while individual initiative is needed and may help force "gooberment" action it will not be enough. The people that make big money off fossil fuels have an advantage with all the money they have poured into their misinformation campaign and a lot of the public are highly misinformed about the seriousness of the problem. For a nice insight on how the bad guys are working against the world in the Netherlands take a look at Galileo and the Fireflies by NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen.

I thought I had come up with the term "gooberment" but I checked the Urban Dictionary and found that it is already out there. Still, I think it might be worthwhile to use the term when it applies.
 
 gooberment -Useless Government, political systems with their heads in the sand and/or not to be trusted. Slang term for Government being Gooberment.

Full Disclosure: I am a backer (via Kickstarter) of WakaWaka.

Not just Hot But Dry

A lot of people use the phrase Global Warming when referring to the ongoing changes in our climate. Increasing temperatures, decreasing polar ice caps, rising ocean levels are all a part of the global climate change process. Being a serious gardener I am extremely focused on rainfall and especially the lack of it. We had a good winter and spring and lake levels are pretty much normal but we are nearly 5 inches behind on rainfall for the year and we haven't had any significant rainfall in weeks and weeks. The AJC has declared that we are in a minor drought and that the La Nina this year is mostly the cause.

Kevin Drum points out something this morning that we really should be paying attention to.

Here are a few recent data points for you: (1) The New York Times reports that "skepticism and outright denial of global warming are among the articles of faith of the Tea Party movement." (2) In the National Journal, Ron Brownstein notes that "The GOP is stampeding toward an absolutist rejection of climate science that appears unmatched among major political parties around the globe, even conservative ones....Of the 20 serious GOP Senate challengers who have taken a position, 19 have declared that the science of climate change is inconclusive or flat-out incorrect." (3) It's not just Senate candidates. ThinkProgress notes that an analysis by Wonk Room "finds that 22 of the 37 Republican candidates for governor this November are deniers of the scientific consensus on global warming pollution." (4) The Wall Street Journal reports that "extreme drought" has taken hold in parts of nine states stretching from the Southeast to the lower Midwest.

One of the most glaring effects of climate change is the change in rainfall patterns around the world. And if predictions for the upcoming election hold true then we are electing a wave of "climate change deniers" that will make it virtually impossible to take any positive action to ameliorate the effects of the coming "Mega-drought". There are a lot of problems facing us in the short term...health care, defensive spending, unemployment. stagnate economy, and climate change and we are electing people that don't want to do anything about any of it. There is going to be much sadness and pain.

It's Hot In L.A.

Of course the jury is still out on climate change but yesterday, in what should be a pleasant September day in  autumn, the weather station in central L.A. recorded a temperature of 113 degrees. That's the hottest temperature ever recorded since they started keeping records in 1877. The last time the record was broken was in 1990. Just saying.