Het volgende bericht vond ik op het blog van Stan van Houcke (6 december jl.) en werd eerder op Truthout (.org) geplaatst.

Hierin aandacht voor de steeds snellere klimaatverandering en de rampen die daarbij zijn opgetreden en nog zullen optreden…. De laatste 3 jaar behoren tot de warmste sinds men temperatuurmetingen vastlegde…. Tegelijkertijd liet 2016 een enorme stijging in de hoeveelheid CO2 in de atmosfeer zien, zelfs 50% hoger dan het gemiddelde van de laatste 10 jaar……..

Wetenschappers worden dan ook bevestigd in hun scepsis ten aanzien van het klimaatverdrag dat in Parijs werd gesloten, geen temperatuurstijging van 2%, maar een stijging die de 3 graden zal overstijgen…… De combinatie van de enorme stijging van CO2 uitstoot in combinatie met El Niño, laat een CO2 niveau in de atmosfeer zien, die in geen 800.000 jaar werd gehaald….. Vergeet voorts niet dat de oceanen CO2 opnemen, maar nu zoveel CO2 te verstouwen hebben, dat hele delen van de oceaan ‘dood zijn’, dit gebied is met 75% vergroot….

Met een stijging van 3 graden Celsius, die we gezien de feiten al ver voor het jaar 2100 zullen zien, zal de zeespiegelstijging niet om te keren zijn, waardoor honderden miljoen mensen zullen worden getroffen door de gevolgen daarvan……..

Eén van de gevolgen van de al optredende klimaatverandering is het verdwijnen van een gigantisch hoeveelheid bladerdak (van bomen), maar liefst een oppervlakte ter grootte van Nieuw Zeeland verdween in 2016, hier was sprake van een stijging met maar liefst 51% t.o.v. voorgaande jaren…… Over Nieuw Zeeland gesproken: dit is het eerste land (!!) dat mensen wil opnemen, die op eilanden leven die zo weinig boven de zeespiegel liggen dat ze door de stijging van de zeespiegel wel zullen moeten verkassen.

Uiteraard jaagt deze afname van het bladerdak de klimaatverandering verder aan, een afname door natuurlijke bosbranden, kap van bomen en het in brand streken van oerwouden/bossen, bijvoorbeeld voor de teelt van genetisch gemanipuleerde soja t.b.v. onder andere onze enorme veestapel (jaarlijks worden hier 500 miljoen dieren groot en doodgemarteld..)…. Ook voor palmolieplantages worden enorme stukken oerwoud in brand gestoken……..

De al gaande zijnde opwarming, laat bijvoorbeeld ook de permafrost in steeds sneller tempo ontdooien, waardoor enorme hoeveelheden methaangas vrijkomen, een gas dat tot de sterkste broeikasgassen op onze planeet behoort en de temperatuurstijging nog verder aanjaagt….. Overigens ook de eerder genoemde Nederlandse veestapel produceert een enorme hoeveelheid methaangas…… (waar een klein land ‘al niet groot in kan zijn…..’)

Jaarlijks worden al miljoenen mensen in hun gezondheid getroffen door de gevolgen van de door de mens veroorzaakte opwarming, dan moet je denken aan zaken als de enorme luchtvervuiling* , ziekten en hittegolven……. Vergeet daarnaast niet dat het aantal orkanen toeneemt en die bovendien steeds sterker worden, waarbij ook nog eens duizenden mensen omkomen……….

Lees het volgende uitgebreide artikel van Dahr Jamail, met nog veel meer informatie:

“Apocalyptic”
Melting Transpires in Antarctica as Earth Wraps Up a Scorching Year

(Photo: Ghost
Presenter;
Edited: LW / TO)

Monday,
December 04, 2017By Dahr
Jamail, Truthout |
Report

The
signs of runaway anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) continue to
mount with each passing month.

2016
saw a record
surge in
the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, according to the World
Meteorological Organization. This means that last year’s increase was
a stunning 50 percent higher than the average over the last decade.
Scientists said this makes obtaining global temperature targets —
such as the often-mentioned 1.5°C and 2°C limits — largely
unattainable. The combination of the increase of CO2 and El Niño
have driven atmospheric CO2 to levels not seen for 800,000 years.

How
is this playing out around the planet?

The
Arctic Ocean is now starting to look more and more
like the Atlantic Ocean,
a shift that is threatening to turn the entire Arctic food web on its
head. This is due to the fact that the summer Arctic sea ice is
melting rapidly and the waters are warming, leading to encroachment
by animals from warmer climates and a reorganization of Arctic
biodiversity.

To
see more stories like this, visit “Planet or Profit?”

Meanwhile,
a recent
report highlights
the fact that planetary warming of just 3°C (a level we are
currently on a trajectory to easily exceed before 2100) will be
enough warming to lock in irreversible sea-level rise that will
impact hundreds of millions of people.

This
year is already on track to be in
the top three hottest years ever recorded,
bearing in mind that the last three years have been the warmest three
years ever recorded for the planet.

2017
has already seen some of the warmest
temperatures ever recorded at
many places around the world, in addition to unusually low Antarctic
and Arctic sea ice levels, along with several instances of extreme
droughts and wildfires.

Earth

Signs
of abrupt climate disruption’s impact have been glaringly obvious of
late.

The
total area of global tree cover lost last year was equivalent to the
area of the country of New Zealand (approximately 73.4 million
acres). This was a staggering 51 percent increase over the previous
year’s loss. The University
of Maryland study that provided this data cited
ACD-driven* forest fires and deforestation as the two leading causes,
and noted that the wildfires were responsible for the massive spike
in coverage loss compared to the previous year.

Wildlife
continues to provide us signals of the global imbalance. In the
Arctic, the black guillemot seabird, which is dependent upon sea-ice
for its survival, is likely
on its way out,
as has been the known case for species such as Arctic Fox, walrus,
hooded seal and Narwhal for quite some time now.

And
as usual, climate impacts on the human front are glaring. A recent
study published
in the Lancet showed how ACD is already damaging the health of
millions of people around the world every year. Pollution, diseases
and heat waves, all linked to ACD, are the primary drivers of the
health impacts.

On
the topic of ACD’s human impacts, some rare good news comes from New
Zealand, where the government is considering
creating a visa category to
assist in relocating people from low-lying Pacific islands being
submerged by rising seas. If this occurs, New Zealand will be the
first country to create a visa for ACD refugees.

Demonstrating
how ACD-fueled extreme weather events are hammering the economy, 2017
is on track to be one
of the most expensive years ever recorded for
the insurance industry in the US. In fact, the strain is evident for
the entire global economy: There is currently a global protection gap
(difference in how much insurance money is actually available and
what is needed) of $1.7 trillion, the majority of which is being
covered by civil society and governments.

Water

Speaking
of ACD-driven natural disaster costs piling up, in November, Alaska
Gov. Bill Walker declared
a disaster in
order to release funding to help pay for repairs of several roads
that were damaged or obliterated from a massive fall storm. The storm
had generated eight-foot waves that breached a dirt berm protecting
the coastal town of Utqiagvik from increasingly intense waves and
erosion. Melting permafrost, coupled with shrinking sea ice that is
allowing winds to generate larger waves that lash the shores, is
causing increasing problems for dozens of northern coastal villages
that will, ultimately, have to be relocated entirely.

Meanwhile,
an MIT
professor of meteorology has warned that
the type of “biblical” rainfall we saw during Hurricane
Harvey will occur more frequently in the future. He explained in
a recently
published study that
the chances of a hurricane flooding parts of Texas have increased
sixfold in only 25 years, and will most likely triple again by 2100
as water and atmospheric temperatures continue to warm.

On
that note, a
study from
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has shown that
within the next 30 years, floods that used to hit New York City only
once per 500 years could happen every five years.

Further
complicating things, the real estate company Zillow
recently released an analysis showing
that nearly two million homes in the US could be flooded by 2100 if
ocean levels increase six feet from ACD. The properties lost would
total nearly $1 trillion, and would represent nearly two percent of
the country’s homes.

The
impacts of sea level rise are especially evident in Antarctica.
A recent
paper from
the University of Melbourne showed that unless coal power is
completely eliminated by 2050, that factor alone could cause melting
in the Antarctic that would contribute 1.3 meters of sea level rise
by 2100. In fact, a British research station there had to move its
location earlier this year due to changes in the ice underneath. Now,
it has had to close
down for a second winter in
a row, as cracks in the ice underneath continue growing. There is
concern that the ice shelf upon which it is located could soon break
off.

Also
in Antarctica, the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, considered
critical in regards to sea level rise, are accelerating
toward the sea.
They alone are holding back ice that will increase global sea levels
by nearly four feet in the coming centuries, an amount that is enough
to submerge several coastal cities.

Meanwhile,
another recently
published study shows
the Totten Ice Shelf in Eastern Antarctica is melting at an
accelerated rate into the Southern Ocean. This glacier alone has
enough ice to raise global sea levels 11-13 feet, enough to
submerge every coastal
city on the planet.

On
the other side of the water coin, we continue to see ACD-fueled
droughts worsening around the world. A recent example of this is in
Sri Lanka, where
droughts are forcing farmers to move into cities to
find work as there is no longer enough money to be made in
agriculture. Meanwhile in
Somalia,
drought has killed 75 percent of the livestock and a pre-famine alert
has been issued.

Fire

2017
was an incredible year of wildfires for California: Nearly 9,000
fires scorched more than one million acres, killed at least 40 people
and destroyed thousands of structures.

University
of California researchers are predicting that
in the coming decades, due to increasing temperatures and
intensifying droughts, the climate in Northern California, along with
that region’s wildlife and vegetation, will come to more closely
resemble that of Southern California.

That
state’s firefighting
agency recently announced that
2017 was California’s worst-ever year on record, in terms of fires.

Across
Europe,
an area nearly the size of Rhode Island burned this year. In one
weekend in June, 60 people died across Portugal as wildfires raged
out of control.

Wildfires also
raged across
Siberian Russia, as well as vast areas of Brazil, South Africa and
New Zealand.

Air

A
new report from the Associated Press confirms
what has been long known: Winter is arriving later and leaving
earlier as the seasons continue their ACD-driven shifts.

The University
of Hawaii released results of
research showing there are at least 27 physiological pathways by
which a heat wave can kill a human being. The study also shows that
if current CO2 emission rates continue, by 2100, 74 percent of people
on the planet will be exposed to deadly heat waves. Even with
dramatic reductions, the number of people exposed to them will hit 48
percent, according to the research.

Meanwhile,
the globe continues
to bake under
swaths of record-setting late fall temperatures. Northeastern Siberia
has seen temperatures
soar to
30°C above average, and overall Arctic temperatures have been
predicted to average 4.4°C above the norm for this time of year.
Even Eastern Antarctica saw temperatures reach a stunning
20°C above
average recently.

Denial
and Reality

The
Trump administration-backed ACD-denial efforts continue apace as of
late.

Oil
and gas lobbyist-turned-EPA-head Scott Pruitt recently
prevented EPA scientists from
speaking out about climate disruption at an event in Rhode Island.
Pruitt, a former fracking lawyer, is also in
the process of weakening EPA
technical committees that have traditionally been beyond the
political fray.

Meanwhile,
the Interior Department, headed by Rick Perry, has scrubbed
ACD from
its strategic plan, and now is saying it is committed to attaining
“American energy dominance.” And the Interior Department is
not the only place this is happening. The Trump administration
has removed
the words “climate change” from
the websites of the Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture,
the EPA and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Furthermore,
a US Forest Service scientist who was scheduled to discuss the role
ACD is playing in wildfires at a conference was recently
denied approval to
attend the event.

Trump’s
climate-denying machinations have also included nominating
a GOP congressman to
head NASA who blames ACD on the sun.

However,
fortunately, there are still those in government who are sounding the
alarm bells of reality.

The
most comprehensive report on
climate science from the US government to date was released on
November 3. It stated it is “extremely likely” that human
activities were the “dominant cause” of ACD.

In
late October, the Government Accountability Office released a report
showing how ACD impacts are already
costing US taxpayers billions
of dollars.

Meanwhile, senior
US military and security experts have warned that
climate refugees could number in the tens of millions in the next
decade alone, creating the “world’s biggest refugee crisis.”

Lastly
for this month’s dispatch, in the middle of November, 15,000
scientists provided a catastrophic
“warning to humanity” about ACD impacts and
overpopulation, and how humankind is facing an existential threat.
They warned that the globe faces untold amounts of human misery and
catastrophic losses of biodiversity without rapid and immediate
actions.

The
group pointed out how in just the last quarter century, the human
population has increased 35 percent while the total number of
mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish have fallen 29 percent.
Global CO2 emissions and average temperatures have consistently
increased, nearly 300 million acres of forest have been lost, and
oceanic “dead zones” have increased 75 percent.

It
is made more clear with each passing month that humans have pushed
the planet off a precipice, and nothing short of immediate, global
actions on a dramatic scale will be able to even slightly mitigate
runaway ACD.

===============================

Zie ook:

‘Niet eerder getoonde satellietfoto’s laten zien dat grote delen van Arctisch gebied in brand staan >> klimaatkantelpunt gepasseerd‘

‘‘Methaangasboer’ ontsnappend uit de Oost-Arctische Plaat kan de wereld zoals wij die kennen vernietigen‘

‘Aantal CO2 deeltjes in de atmosfeer op voor de mens nooit eerder vertoond hoog niveau‘

‘Cruiseschip Zuiderdam urenlang tegengehouden van afvaren door milieuactivisten‘

‘Australië geeft toestemming tot uitbaten enorm grote kolenmijn‘ (zie ook de links in dat bericht over het Grote Barrièrerif)

‘Klimaatverandering: inwoners Bratsk (Siberië) stikken in de rook van bosbranden…….‘

* Alleen in Nederland overlijden jaarlijks al 18.000 mensen vroegtijdig aan de gevolgen van langdurige auto-uitstoot inademing, dit na een akelig ziekbed…….. Daarnaast loopt een groot aantal kinderen jaarlijks long- en luchtwegklachten op door diezelfde uitstoot….. Let wel: alleen al door de auto-uitstoot….