Divestment and climate change: Thomas Stoner at TEDxHamsphireCollege

TEDx Talks

Published on Nov 19, 2013

Climate change gets clocked : Nature News & Comment

The Indonesian city of Manokwari is poised to become an unwitting icon for climate change. In about 2020, the coastal location will become one of the first places in recent history to adopt an entirely new climate — one in which its coldest years will be consistently hotter than any of the past 150 years.

That is one finding of a study published today in Nature1, which attempts to create a region-specific index of climate change. Researchers sought to identify the point at which temperature oscillations in each area will exceed the bounds of historical variability. Such ‘climate departures’ are predicted to start in the tropics and then spread to higher latitudes. If carbon dioxide emissions continue unabated, Earth’s mean climate could depart from historical averages in 2047.

“Very soon, extreme events will become the norm,” says lead author Camilo Mora, an environmental researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Because temperatures in the tropics vary little between seasons, even a slight increase in the average temperature could lead to unprecedented conditions — with negative consequences for ecosystems that are home to much of the world’s biodiversity. Many tropical nations also have limited economic capacity to adapt or otherwise respond to such threats.

“The rules of the climate game — those governing everything from species interactions to frequency of large storm events — are changing,” says Jack Williams, a palaeoclimatologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who was not involved in the study.

Nature special:

Outlook for Earth

Changing maths

Most climate projections focus on the timing of absolute temperature changes — such as predictions of when to expect Earth to have warmed by an average of 2 ºC compared with pre-industrial times. But little is known about the timing of regional climate shifts.

To establish the historical bounds of climate variability, Mora’s team used 39 climate models to assemble projections on 7 environmental variables, such as near-surface air temperature and precipitation, for the years 1860–2005. The researchers then ran simulations for the next 100 years to identify the years in which climate variables are predicted to exceed historical limits in various locations.

They found that aggressively cutting greenhouse-gas emissions to stabilize the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would delay the timing of Earth’s overall ‘climate departure’ by 22 years, until 2069. “Twenty years is not a lot of time, but it could be a window of opportunity to prepare ourselves to adapt to these new climate conditions,” says Mora.

See related:

• Climate Change – We Now Know The Point of No Return

Climate Change – We Now Know The Point of No Return

The Big Picture RTPublished on Oct 11, 2013

Scientists have now found a way to predict when we’ve reached the global warming point-of-no-return. So – isn’t time we started talking about the “E” word – extinction?

See 2013 study in Nature:

• Climate change gets clocked : Nature News & Comment

Global warming…Do The Math w/Bill McKibben

The Big Picture RT
Published on Sep 20, 2013

Bill McKibben, 350.org/Oil and Honey, joins Thom Hartmann. The fight to save our civilization from global warming and climate change is in high gear – even as 2.4 million pounds of toxic C02 continues to be pumped into our atmosphere every second. Where does the movement to fight back against climate change stand today – and what can be done to increase its influence?

Schiff gives VIRAL response to GOP calls for resignation over Mueller report

Brian Tyler Cohen
Published on Mar 28, 2019

BREAKING: Top Democrat Adam Schiff just went viral with the PERFECT response to Republicans who tried to force him to resign over the Mueller report. He left everyone speechless—including the GOP. Turn your volume up, it doesn’t get much better than this…

NRA’s Playbook Shows Why the US Does not Stop Mass Shootings

The Real News Network
Published on Mar 31, 2019

After the Chistchurch shooting, New Zealand moves to ban assault weapons, while the US is promoting plans to arm school teachers instead. Al-Jazeera exposes NRA’s “playbook” on media responses after mass shootings.

A Debate on Geoengineering: Vandana Shiva vs. Gwynne Dyer

mediagrrl9
Published on Jul 8, 2010

Supporters of geoengineering have proposed radical ways to alter the planet to decrease the level of greenhouse gas emissions. Proposals include creating artificial volcanoes to pollute the atmosphere with sulfur particles, fertilizing the oceans and placing sun-deflecting aluminum foil in the sky. But opposition is growing to geoengineering. We host a debate between Indian environmentalist, scientist, philosopher and eco-feminist, Vandana Shiva, and geopolitical analyst and columnist, Gwynne Dyer.

mediagrrl9
Published on Jul 8, 2010

Climate change 🌁: Are we all doomed? – UpFront – David Wallace-Wells

Al Jazeera English
Published on Nov 11, 2017

This month, the United States released an exhaustive scientific report on climate change, citing humans as the dominant cause of global warming.

Space: the next frontier for war? | The Economist

The Economist

Published on Feb 20, 2019

President Trump has just announced plans to create a new military Space Force, increasing the prospect of a new theatre of war. How might war in space be fought?

The 1,300 active satellites above the earth provide a wide array of services – some of which are vital for emergency response and for the military. An attack on a countries satellites could be catastrophic and many worried that space may become a new theater of war. Large powers have developed various capabilities for destroying satellites

Now companies are building advanced service spacecraft that could become weapons. The purpose of these service craft is to repair and move existing satellites but all it takes is a change of intent for these spacecraft to become warcraft. A Chinese space weapon test which destroyed one of its own defunct satellites in 2007 created a great deal of debris that put other satellites in danger.

If debris from one act of destruction goes on to destroy further satellites, a chain reaction could then ensue, rendering some orbits unusable. This is known as the Kessler syndrome.

Because America’s armed forces gain more capability from satellites than any other country, America has the most to lose from war in space. It is planning to increase its capabilities in the area. President Trump wants a new space force. The world will hope for peace in the cosmos but history suggests that such ideals are not easily maintained.

The new scramble for Africa | The Economist

The Economist

Published on Mar 8, 2019

The past decade has seen a big surge of foreign interest in Africa—involving China, India and Russia. If the continent handles this new “scramble” wisely, the main winners will be Africans themselves.