A place where one woman has gathered resources and information to help her family survive in an uncertain future; together with occasional personal musings.
Earth's Hot Past Could Be Prologue to Future Climate
ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2011) — The magnitude of climate change during Earth's deep past suggests that future temperatures may eventually rise far more than projected if society continues its pace of emitting greenhouse gases, a new analysis concludes.
The study, by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Jeffrey Kiehl, will appear as a "Perspectives" piece in this week's issue of the journal Science.
Building on recent research, the study examines the relationship between global temperatures and high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere tens of millions of years ago. It warns that, if carbon dioxide emissions continue at their current rate through the end of this century, atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas will reach levels that existed about 30 million to 100 million years ago, when global temperatures averaged about 29 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels.
Kiehl said that global temperatures may gradually rise over centuries or millennia in response to the carbon dioxide. The elevated levels of carbon dioxide may remain in the atmosphere for tens of thousands of years, according to recent computer model studies of geochemical processes that the study cites.
The study also indicates that the planet's climate system, over long periods of times, may be at least twice as sensitive to carbon dioxide than currently projected by computer models, which have generally focused on shorter-term warming trends. This is largely because even sophisticated computer models have not yet been able to incorporate critical processes, such as the loss of ice sheets, that take place over centuries or millennia and amplify the initial warming effects of carbon dioxide.
"If we don't start seriously working toward a reduction of carbon emissions, we are putting our planet on a trajectory that the human species has never experienced," says Kiehl, a climate scientist who specializes in studying global climate in Earth's geologic past. "We will have committed human civilization to living in a different world for multiple generations."
The Perspectives article pulls together several recent studies that look at various aspects of the climate system, while adding a mathematical approach by Kiehl to estimate average global temperatures in the distant past. Its analysis of the climate system's response to elevated levels of carbon dioxide is supported by previous studies that Kiehl cites. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation, NCAR's sponsor.
Learning from Earth's past
Kiehl focused on a fundamental question: when was the last time Earth's atmosphere contained as much carbon dioxide as it may by the end of this century?
If society continues on its current pace of increasing the burning of fossil fuels, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are expected to reach about 900 to 1,000 parts per million by the end of this century. That compares with current levels of about 390 parts per million, and pre-industrial levels of about 280 parts per million.
Since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in Earth's atmosphere, it is critical for regulating Earth's climate. Without carbon dioxide, the planet would freeze over. But as atmospheric levels of the gas rise, which has happened at times in the geologic past, global temperatures increase dramatically and additional greenhouse gases, such as water vapor and methane, enter the atmosphere through processes related to evaporation and thawing. This leads to further heating.
Kiehl drew on recently published research that, by analyzing molecular structures in fossilized organic materials, showed that carbon dioxide levels likely reached 900 to 1,000 parts per million about 35 million years ago.
At that time, temperatures worldwide were substantially warmer than at present, especially in polar regions -- even though the Sun's energy output was slightly weaker. The high levels of carbon dioxide in the ancient atmosphere kept the tropics at about 9-18 degrees F (5-10 degrees C) above present-day temperatures. The polar regions were some 27-36 degrees F (15-20 degrees C) above present-day temperatures.
Kiehl applied mathematical formulas to calculate that Earth's average annual temperature 30 to 40 million years ago was about 88 degrees F (31 degrees C) -- substantially higher than the pre-industrial average temperature of about 59 degrees F (15 degrees C).
Twice the heat?
The study also found that carbon dioxide may have at least twice the effect on global temperatures than currently projected by computer models of global climate.
The world's leading computer models generally project that a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would have a heating impact in the range of 0.5 to 1.0 degree C watts per square meter. (The unit is a measure of the sensitivity of Earth's climate to changes in greenhouse gases.) However, the published data show that the comparable impact of carbon dioxide 35 million years ago amounted to about 2 degrees C watts per square meter.
Computer models successfully capture the short-term effects of increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But the record from Earth's geologic past also encompasses longer-term effects, which accounts for the discrepency in findings. The eventual melting of ice sheets, for example, leads to additional heating because exposed dark surfaces of land or water absorb more heat than ice sheets.
"This analysis shows that on longer time scales our planet may be much more sensitive to greenhouse gases than we thought," Kiehl says.
Climate scientists are currently adding more sophisticated depictions of ice sheets and other factors to computer models. As these improvements come on line, Kiehl believes that the computer models and the paleoclimate record will be in closer agreement, showing that the impacts of carbon dioxide on climate over time will likely be far more substantial than recent research has indicated.
Because carbon dioxide is being pumped into the atmosphere at a rate that has never been experienced, Kiehl could not estimate how long it would take for the planet to fully heat up. However, a rapid warm-up would make it especially difficult for societies and ecosystems to adapt, he says.
If emissions continue on their current trajectory, "the human species and global ecosystems will be placed in a climate state never before experienced in human history," the paper states.
Human bodies don’t normally fly through the air, but last year that’s exactly what I witnessed while waiting for a red light to turn green.
I was sitting in my Tahoe at an intersection not far from home when I heard the loud rumble of a truck engine. I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when a green pick-up veered around me, raced into the intersection and plowed into a white sedan. While my mind was registering this violent accident, I saw a scarecrow fly through the air. I took a few deep breaths, tried to remember the details of how the accident happened and waited to give my eyewitness account to the police who appeared on the scene within minutes.
My mind re-played the scene, always with that scarecrow flying out of the truck and into the adjacent field. It wasn’t until a half hour later, when I saw EMTs trying to revive a young man did I realize that what I had actually seen was his body at the moment it was ejected from the front seat. Even now, when I remember the accident, I don’t see a human. Instead, the image of a scarecrow is imprinted in my brain because humans don’t fly through the air!
Normalcy Bias defined
image by jepoirrier
This is an example of Normalcy Bias, a survival mechanism our brains are equipped with that can place us in grave danger when we’re faced with something traumatic. Simply put, it causes our brains to insist that all is okay. Everything will return to normal. For most of us who have never faced true peril, Normalcy Bias tells us that nothing bad will ever happen. “This is America!,” some people insist when I tell them about the possibility of a deeperDepression or hyperinflation. Incredibly, the most obvious warning signs are ignored.
This explains why so many Jews continued living in Germany, even after they were forced to wear identifying yellow stars and discriminatory laws were passed against Jewish people. Life had been so good for so long that, surely, things would get better. Jews who could have easily afforded to move out of the country stayed, and perished.
Oncoming hurricanes and similar disasters elicit similar reactions. We simply expect life to go on as it always has, and our brains are wired to accept that and nothing else. A driver attempts to cross a flooded river. Thousands of New Orleans residents faced with Hurricane Katrina refuse to leave the city, and city officials don’t even make an attempt to evacuate them. One survivor from 9/11 tells of going blind as she saw dozens of human bodies hitting the ground outside the Twin Towers. Our brains can accommodate billions of bits of information each day, but apparently, there are some things too terrible to comprehend.
image by richardmasoner
Those of us who believe in preparedness, whether beginners or veterans, know the frustration of trying to convince loved ones that the future is not at all secure, but the Normalcy Bias isn’t something we can debate. It’s not based on logic or rational thought. It’s the brain, doing its best to help its human owner deal with terrifying events and possibilities, as well as with escalating situations whose logical, final outcomes can’t be accepted.
Here’s another example from just last month…
If you had told me two months ago that American citizens would meekly line up to walk through powerful x-ray machines that would strip them bare before low-level TSA employees, I would have said, “Never!” If you had told me that, as an option, they would stand with arms raised while their crotches were groped and would allow their pre-schoolers to be similarly molested, I would have laughed. Yet, that is exactly what is happening, and we hear of similar searches planned for train stations, hotels, and more.
The water is heating up and most of the frogs are oblivious.
“Life will get back to normal.”
“There’s nothing wrong with this!”
Each week brings another repressive ruling, and still, most American citizens insist there is no reason for concern. New legislators will make everything right again. This is just temporary.
image by jronaldlee
Whatever comes next will, again, be excused and accepted. Darn that Normalcy Bias!
Eleven Tips for Banishing Normalcy Bias
Here’s the bottom line. As SurvivalMoms, we don’t have the luxury of looking at a catastrophe before us and saying over and over again, “I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe this.” If our kids can’t rely on us when all hell is breaking loose, then who can they depend on? Law enforcement and first responders are quickly overwhelmed, and your family is hardly at the top of their list. Normalcy Bias can place those we love most in grave danger.
I think a conversation about overcoming Normalcy Bias will be important and valuable in the Comment section following this article, but here are eleven ways we can begin to condition our minds to accept the unacceptable.
Be willing to go through the painful process of acknowledging the uncertainty of our future. I compare it with the Kubler-Ross grief process: denial (Normalcy Bias rearing its ugly head!), anger (at politicians, circumstances, family members), bargaining (“If I can just buy enough precious metals, we’ll be okay.”), depression (our children aren’t facing the same, sunny future that we did, America is changing before our eyes), and finally, acceptance (I can’t do everything, but I can be proactive and do what I can.)
image by debaird
Face facts, don’t hide from them. Confrontfinancial difficulties, acknowledge your limits. Only when you face reality can you prepare for it.
Trust your instincts. Headlines change on a dime. Take in a much bigger picture than a single, optimistic headline or the words of a politician seeking re-election. Trust your own five senses and what your gut is telling you.
Start where you are with what you have.
Fight feeling overwhelmed with lists and organization. Focus on what you will do today, this week, this month. Little by little it will all come together.
Reach out to others. Start your own SurvivalMom meet-up group. Spend time on preparedness and survival forums, as long as they don’t feed your fears. If there was ever a time for people to come together, this is it.
It’s better to over-prepare than to be under-prepared. Normalcy Bias assures us that everything will be okay. A few extra bottles of water is all you really need. Those ten cans of tuna will be plenty! Go ahead and stock up more than you think you’ll need to. Make plans for scenarios that may be a bit far out but still within the realm of possibility.
image by nedrichards
Make plans. Have an evacuation plan, and prepare for it. Have a hunker-down plan, and prepare for it. Decide ahead of time how you will face the most likely crises and communicate those plans with those who need-to-know. Write down your plans!Panic and stress have a way of erasing the logical parts of our brains!
Be ready to act quickly and decisively. It’s better to take action too soon than too late.
Take time off. Forget you ever heard of the word, ‘preparedness’. Go shopping and blow a few bucks on something completely unnecessary. Go out to lunch. Play with the kids. Spend an hour on the phone gossiping with your best friend. Give yourself a mental break! Your family needs you to be strong. You need to take care of yourself, body, soul, and spirit.
Get physically fit. There is a huge connection between physical and mental fitness. Start with some sort of exercise and start today.
Normalcy Bias, although deeply ingrained in the human brain, doesn’t have to control our futures or place us in harm’s way. The first step in being prepared is becoming educated. Knowing about this bias, what it can do, and how it can be controlled will help you become a SurvivalMom in every sense of the word!
Alas, this guy who is so far out on the fringe he makes me feel normal is quite obviously intelligent, extremely well informed (he's been writing an erudite blog on climate issues for well over seven years), and apparently not crazy. It would be way easier if he were dismissible. But my inner fears, my GUT-CHECK, tells me everything he says is probably right... except the paranoid government handing out explosives stuff. Now, that's just nuts.
aimee
Some time back (this blog is over 5 years old) I wrote about how we would experience wider and wider weather extremes, and eventually, we would reach the point where we would all be having a tough time just trying to survive. This would also have a very real and dramatic effect on world / regional food supplies, prices and the economy. I think it is pretty safe to say that we have definitely arrived at that so-called ‘prediction’.
It was just common sense, already charted in the increasing global temperatures and known effects that this would cause. Climate change has long been known to last for several thousand years into our future, but better science and better data is making these ‘predictions’ more and more accurate all of the time.
Greenland’s ice melt is dramatically intensifying, and is considered by scientist completely irreversible, as are the melting glaciers all over the world. These are not processes that can be easily reversed by humans, or in reality, reversed at all by humans. The geological time scale involved is way beyond human ability to reverse. The outflow of methane from the Siberian permafrost and the Arctic also continues to increase, creating truly “trigger events” that depict irreversible global warming and even more climatic extremes ahead.
Life on earth for all living beings is going to be increasingly difficult, this is now an absolute certainty. The only thing we do not know is how difficult, but a number of studies have been performed showing that most inhabitable regions of the Earth will experience extreme climatic events, with many of these regions becoming totally uninhabitable.
The inexorable rise of C02 cannot be ignored as this video shows:
There is staggeringly clear evidence that humans have created truly inhospitable conditions on Earth for many, many generations to come — and yet this is still being widely denied because of our incredible short-sightedness and arrogance (hubris). It is as if “until it happens to you” that the climatic extremes don’t carry any true weight or meaning. As long as the trucks continue to run and stock the supermarkets and big box store shelves, we simply don’t care how we have treated the planet, or what sort of horrifying inheritance we have given to our children and grandchildren.
Sigh…. I’ve harped on this theme again and again, and believe me, I do realize the sheer futility of telling it like it is. We are not going to make any of the critical changes to our lifestyles and living habits that are necessary in time, and indeed I believe it is far too late already. We are all, every single one of us, living on the last dregs of a once-abundant Earth and the resources that were so easy for us to plunder. We did so with abandon, a truly “the devil be damned” approach to getting as much as we could for ourselves, ignoring the ancient wisdom of indigenous societies around the world that rightly decried our unbelievable greed and arrogance as we turned their carbon-sinks into carbon dumps, desertifying and polluting entire landscapes for thousands of years to come.
It is NOT going to help us now to provide “more proof” and “more evidence” as our corporate-based dominionist culture is so indoctrinated into our lifestyles and ingrained into our way of thinking that anything that refutes this rapacious belief system is instantly denied and rejected. A “kill the messenger” attitude is being widely sponsored by the ignorant and even the informed, because the maintaining the status-quo is the unthinking and irresponsible oft-held “solution”.
Of course, this in is itself absolutely ridiculous, if the status-quo hasn’t worked up until this point, what makes anyone in their right mind think it will suddenly work now? The truth is nothing will now work, and I mean nothing and avoid collapse. We’ve already written the next several chapters, indeed entire volumes of the future human history on this planet already, but most of us are simply too ignorant to realize this. Not everyone of course, but the critical mass of humanity that refuses to comprehend the truly horrifying scale of events that lie ahead for all of us.
Many try to escape into alternative realities, through religion, new age movements or alternative belief systems, all with escape valves being “built-in” to these alternative realities that foster the illusion that we’re going to get out of this mess, somehow, someway. Either a magical rescue from above or a magical transformation of humanity from within that “remakes” us somehow into what we are truly destined to “be”.
It’s all hogwash, every bit of it. If you want to know what we are, and what we will be, just go look into the mirror. Or walk through a crowd. Or sit in the mall and people watch. Or attend any sporting event stadium. Or witness the flocking of humans to televisions, theaters and entertainment venues. Sit in a restaurant or at the bar, and observer. Take any Hollywood program, from sitcom to drama and you will very quickly realize what we are and are “destined to be”. Our future outcome is written right there in the script being played out every single day. I find this all so obvious that I can barely make myself make mention of it.
There will be no magical rescue of any sort, at any time. Any student or study of history can attest to this as a well-established fact — not one single civilization before us was rescued (ever). All either collapsed or were wiped out (same thing) or devastated their environment so badly that the few survivors left had to relocate. We may harbor fanciful illusions of “rescue”, but the truth is already evident. We are here for the duration, long or short, and can only survive here as long as the planet still remains hospitable to life (all life, not just human life). Because we are now truly a global civilization and a terrifying global force capable of extinguishing all life very rapidly, we need to realize just how precarious our situation has now become. But more then just “realize” this, we need to finally live as if life on Earth is a valuable gift to be cherished and protected, but not raped, plundered and consumed with total disregard. But this is not happening.
I’ve also shared my thoughts on how there would be a massive increase in state-sponsored terrorism as governments turn inward against their own citizens. Any transgression to state control would be swiftly and brutally oppressed. This too was self-evident as the fear-state ratchets up higher and higher, manufacturing a state of paranoia and media sponsored fear-mongering. The true terrorists were those who were creating this artificial environment and belief system, the actual number of real terrorists events were unbelievably minuscule, far less dangerous to any American then the risk of simply walking across a busy street.
There was also the auspicious “timing” of certain events that seemed to come just at the appropriate time to gain passage of draconian legislation and political rhetoric. The number of these events and government sponsored bills trying to get passed boggled the mind, but the sleeping public bought it all, hook, line and sinker. Having landed their fatted carp with gaping mouths and sluggish world-views, it was an easy thing to mold them even further into accepting two regional wars,global state-sponsored terrorism and torture, prison camps and renditions, and even the outright assassination of anyone, including Americans that were deemed “enemy combatants” with no proof or evidence required.
This is of course, a situation that continues to exist today, with the nanny state and “Big Sis” reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984 now firmly entrenched into the American psyche and consciousness. I mean, you truly cannot get away from this anywhere as they sniff our underwear and finger our wives and daughters at those places they call “security checkpoints”. Florida is now gathering DNA evidence at mandatory roadblocks, the so-called “sobriety checkpoints” where a judge is now on site in order to issue instant search warrants should anyone refuse. The DNA collected will now go into government databases for life. God forbid you sell some of your useless junk at a garage sale and two years later this shows up at the scene of a crime with your DNA still on it.
Amerika has become a helpless, pathetic country of dumbed-down sheeple, too afraid and too indoctrinated to even begin to comprehend their programmed slavery and support to state-sponsored terrorism. And then we get the blue-moon events of irate Americans who fly their planes into an IRS building or go on a shooting rampage in total but misguided event of frustration and anger, and the rest of us just brace for more draconian bullshit from do-gooder politicians that are convinced that the pathways that they are carving “are for our own good”.
Well, no thank you, I’m not that stupid, and the truth is quite the opposite as I have long shared.
Freedom, true freedom carries inherent risks. It does not require or need or justify whatsoever the nanny state underwear sniffers. It does not need or want surveillance cameras on every street corner, or Wi-Fi eavesdropping on every home or coffee shop. It does not believe that surveillance drones and cell phone eavesdropping is even remotely justified or necessary. The truth is quite the opposite, real terrorism in this country is nearly non-existent as revealed in the Foreign Policy, but the multi-billion dollar inflated budgets of the so-called “security state” being developed, the nanny-state crackdown on Americans is not about terrorism at all, it is about the total control of the Amerikan population.
Like the war on terror, targets must be identified. And if they cannot be readily identified, they must be created, to justify the very existence of the entities (and budgets) involved. Any casual search of history will reveal America’s support for Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and a large number of other notable “terrorists” sponsored by America. A slightly deeper examination will even show CIA support for the so-called terrorists training camps, and of course, especially that notorious American example, the School of the Americas where assassins are trained right here. Hey, if you can’t find them, then make some!
The FBI has been taking lessons here too, funding, training and encouraging deranged individuals around the country to plan “actions”, even giving out real explosives to kill Americans, but has yet to achieve the same level of truly stupid notoriety given to the CIA. It’s not called entrapment when it is the government itself that encourages you to attack someone, it’s called Homeland Security. Nor is it called torture when brutal methods are used on the accused without evidence, this is called National Security.
The security card has been so badly overplayed by these morons that anybody that falls for this deserves my loathing and disrespect. I have NEVER been at risk from terrorists in this country, but am constantly imperiled by these so-called protectors who are convinced that bombs may be found in my underwear or hidden in my socks. The TSA has not caught a single terrorist — or stopped a single plot, but this simple fact remains ignored by tens of millions of sheep.
Of course, I don’t fly and never, ever will as a useless protest to this stupid insanity going on at airports all over the country. But then again, I don’t have to. If I did, I’d change careers in an instant, and refuse to give any credence to the nanny-state protectors that are often-as-not, uncovered to be pedophiles and rapists. Some “security” we have there, where even their own background checks put criminals in charge of our protection.
America has become a nation of dumbed down, shaking-in-their-boots sheep, with their wool pulled up tight around their own eyes. They refuse to see what we have become and where we are going, and they are quite willing to believe anything that they are told. The outcome of all this was also predicted — a massive police-state surveillance society, the likes of which the world has never seen before. We have already surpassed the crimes of Nazi Germany — we export our torture with the approval and support of governments around the world, we bomb whatever countries we damned well please and there is none to put a stop to any of it. Our drones now circle the globe and are even being used against Americans right here in this nation. But the sheep doze on, oblivious and uncaring in the slightest as the tiny shreds of privacy and freedom they have left are vaporized.
Our technological prowess means we can watch everybody, everywhere, all of the time, especially in the digital world where cell phone, Internet, email, faxes, credit card transactions and even GPS systems all entermesh nicely together to give a total picture over an individual life. If you ever want to know “how come” they can find out so much so fast about the figures popping up into the news it is because of this. They are either already tracking everything or have the ability to uncover all the sordid details that they might possibly want.
Our complicit media is either too afraid or too stupid to report what really causes dissent abroad and here at home, we already know for certain that they are working in league with whatever they’re being told to report as “news”. Embedded journalism is the same thing as saying “we’re one of you” with all of its brutality, coverup and corruption as any gangster-led organization.
The sum total of all this is is we are all facing “extreme events” of such magnitude and scale that “coping” will no longer be appropriate terminology, whereas “survival” will be. Ask anybody that has endured any of these events — survival is their #1 thought and how to live through what is happening to them.
I’ve written extensively about personal collapse and how we have engineered the majority of these events right into our way of life. We created them, deliberately and with forethought and a whole lot of arrogance and indifference, but still, these things remain ours and we absolutely must own up to them. Every single grassroot movement in this entire country has been co-opted and derailed from accomplishing any meaningful reform and what lies ahead now only promises to be even worse. I cannot offer anyone any “hope” that restoration, restitution and deregulation will even exist within our lifetimes, there is no evidence at all in my book that we are going to make things even slightly better. The downward slide on the environment, the economy, freedom, tyranny, terrorism and state control is ever-downward with literally no end in sight.
Frankly, I suspect “we ain’t seen nothing yet” to be honest, because the bottom is still a long ways off and I suspect things will get dramatically worse long before we can ever hope for things to get better. You can’t take a grossly overpopulated and polluted, plundered planet existing on limited resources and expect any sort of magical or “legislated” turn-around. Realize that politicians are NEVER the answer and why they cannot fix anything. Our culture was the only answer their ever was, but this is like trying to explain greed to a Wall Street banker. Our corporate-controlled world simply has no interest whatsoever ensuring a habitable future, the instant gratification and profit-motives dominate all else.
So there you have it, again — the ongoing decline of Planet Earth, the Amerikan Empire and the future of man. This is exactly what I shared in the 2010-2020 predictions, my half-attempt to lay it all out there and what I think can happen in our collective futures.
2011 will be bad. The only thing you can do is assess your own life and make the necessary changes for your adaptation and survival. Don’t look for any rescue from government, politicians, religion or pie-in-the-sky answers, they won’t be forthcoming. Do what you can to help yourself because quite frankly, nobody else will do this for you.
There is a plethora of new data coming out all the time - some is more alarming than others, but it all points in the same direction. The guy who compiled this is further along the doomer spectrum than I am, but not really by all that much
Combined global land and ocean annual surface temperatures for 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest such period on record at 1.12 F (0.62 C) above the 20th century average. The range of confidence (to the 95 percent level) associated with the combined surface temperature is +/- 0.13 F (+/- 0.07 C).*
The global land surface temperatures for 2010 were tied for the second warmest on record at 1.73 F (0.96 C) above the 20th century average. The range of confidence associated with the land surface temperature is +/- 0.20 F (+/- 0.11 C).
Global ocean surface temperatures for 2010 tied with 2005 as the third warmest on record, at 0.88 F (0.49 C) above the 20th century average. The range of confidence associated with the ocean surface temperature is +/- 0.11 F (+/- 0.06 C).
In 2010 there was a dramatic shift in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which influences global temperature and precipitation patterns — when a moderate-to-strong El Niño transitioned to La Niña conditions by July. At the end of November, La Niña was moderate-to-strong.
According to the Global Historical Climatology Network, 2010 was the wettest year on record, in terms of global average precipitation. As with any year, precipitation patterns were highly variable from region to region.
The 2010 Pacific hurricane season had seven named storms and three hurricanes, the fewest on record since the mid-1960s when scientists started using satellite observations. By contrast, the Atlantic season was extremely active, with 19 named storms and 12 hurricanes. The year tied for third- and second-most storms and hurricanes on record, respectively.
The Arctic sea ice extent had a record long growing season, with the annual maximum occurring at the latest date, March 31, since records began in 1979. Despite the shorter-than-normal melting season, the Arctic still reached its third smallest annual sea ice minimum on record behind 2007 and 2008. The Antarctic sea ice extent reached its eighth smallest annual maximum extent in March, while in September, the Antarctic sea ice rapidly expanded to its third largest extent on record.
A negative Arctic Oscillation (AO) in January and February helped usher in very cold Arctic air to much of the Northern Hemisphere. Record cold and major snowstormswith heavy accumulations occurred across much of eastern North America, Europe and Asia. The February AO index reached -4.266, the largest negative anomaly since records began in 1950.
From mid-June to mid-August, an unusually strong jet stream shifted northward of western Russia while plunging southward into Pakistan. The jet stream remained locked in place for weeks, bringing an unprecedented two-month heat wave to Russia and contributing to devastating floods in Pakistan at the end of July.
1.73 F degrees may not sound like much — but as the world events show, this is hugely significant. Especially during therecord solar minimum we’ve been experiencing.
The parts of the world heating up the most are the Arctic and Antarctic, where temperature anomalies are far higher - 3 degrees Celsius and even 4.3 degrees Celsius: 2010 Hottest Year On Record For Canada
I recently shared this with a commentator:
There continues to be a steady rise in temperatures all over the world, especially the Antarctic and Arctic, and of course the world’s oceans. We are seeing what was expected — wild weather extremes all caused by heating.
All that evaporation (caused by heating in the hydrological cycle) has to go somewhere… it won’t stay airborne forever and when it does comes down, like it did in Pakistan and Australia, it’s “biblical”.
Don’t forget to include the United States, England, South Africa, Brazil, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines too.
Expect horrific heat waves in the coming summer seasons.
I’ve already written that much of the Southern United States will become uninhabitable in time. Equatorial regions will increase in temperature to truly hellish conditions. The predictions are that our “hottest days” we experience now will become the “norm” for weeks and months on end, and that will wipe out most crops in those regions. I just don’t think it will take that long (2039) to experience these events — more like 2015.
The so-called “scientific reticence” — reluctance to tell it like it is and go out on a limb and risk your career (like I do has proven time and time again to be woefully underestimated by the “experts” on how fast climate change is occurring and to what degree and extent we can expect massive changes to our ability to exist.
We are in the end-game now as far as the Earth is concerned. The timing couldn’t be more auspicious.
has proven time and time again to be woefully underestimated by the “experts” on how fast climate change is occurring and to what degree and extent we can expect massive changes to our ability to exist.