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| Downtown tomorrow |
In the previous post of this series, I was reminded of the saying "every disaster movie begins with a media avoidance, government official denial, or general ignoring of a dire warning from a scientist".
In the case involved in the previous post of this Dredd Blog series, it was a warning from "233 [medical/scientific] journals ‘call for emergency action’ to limit global heating" (Medical News Today).
But 'disaster movies are so alarmist' we and our friends might be wont to say.
In the disaster movie they were talking about, the movie you and I are now appearing in, that "233 journals" is a record number of scientists to begin a movie.
Nevertheless, our 'movie' also contains (in real time) "233 [medical/scientific] journals ‘call for emergency action’ to limit global heating" and "media avoidance, government official denial, or general ignoring of a dire warning from a scientist".
The results are the same even when the warning is given under penalty of perjury (under oath) in a major federal court case in the United States (Case No. 18-36082, IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT):
"I, Dr. Eric Rignot, hereby declare and if called upon would testify as follows:..."
"1. I have been researching and studying ice sheets and climate change for nearly 30 years. I have spent decades on the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, watching them transform and decay into rivers..."
"2. I am currently a Professor of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine, and the principal scientist for the Radar Science and Engineering Section at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory..."
"4. I have authored over 385 publications in the area of glaciology and climate science and given dozens of talks on the subject. My research is highly-cited in the geosciences, with my work being cited over 3,100 times in 2018. I have extensively investigated the interactions of ice and climate, in particular to determine how the ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland will respond to climate change in the coming century and how they will affect global sea level, using satellite remote sensing techniques (imaging radar, laseraltimetry, radio echo sounding), airborne geophysical surveys (icebridge), field surveys (radar, GPS, bathymetry, CTD), and numerical modeling (ice sheet motion, ocean circulation near glaciers, coupled ocean/ice sheet models). I have particular expertise in glaciology, climate change, understanding the interactions of ice and climate, ice sheet mass balance, how ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland will respond to climate change, satellite remote sensing, ice-ocean interactions, and current/future contributions of ice sheets to sea level change. I have served on many national and international committees, including National Research Council/National Academy of Science committees, panels and/or boards..."
"5. I have been extensively involved in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) scientific assessment activity, with a particular emphasis on cryosphere science. I was a Contributing Author of Chapter 4 and Expert Reviewer of Chapters 5 and 10, WG1, IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, which was attributed the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. I was a Lead Author of Chapter 4, Cryosphere, IPCC Fifth Assessment Report in 2013. I am currentlythe Lead Author of the IPCC “Special Report on Ocean and Cryosphere,”Chapter 3. In 2018, I was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2016, I was awarded the Louis Agassiz Medal for the Cryosphere Division of the European Geosciences Union. I was also elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2013 and awarded NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2012..."
"6. Ice melt from pole to pole is rising because of past and ongoing human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, which warm the air and the oceans and affect the wind regimes, storm tracks, and ocean circulation around the planet. The increasing surface temperatures melt the ice from above and the warming seas melt the ice from below, where the glaciers touch the sea. Sea levels are rising because of the increasing ice melt on land that discharges into the sea, primarily from Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Antarctica, but increasingly – and already dominantly - from Greenland and Antarctica..."
"7. One critical aspect of the process of ice sheet melt is its irreversible character. Irreversible means that it would take centuries to reverse the process and restore the system back to its initial state. We are in a situation where the extra heat from accumulated carbon dioxide (“CO 2 ”) concentrations has created a ticking time bomb for the planet’s ice sheets. Some of our ice sheets are already in an unstoppable melt and disintegration[state]... We are currently on a pathway that will almost certainly lead to 3 m sea level rise from Greenland if climate warming continues on its present path. The West Antarctic ice sheet is already in a state of collapse, committing us to 1 m sea level rise from the Amundsen Sea Embayment and possibly 3 m from the rest of the marine based sector of West Antarctica. Thus, between the irreversible melting of portions of Greenland’s and Antarctica’s ice sheets, humanity has already committed itself to a 3-6 m rise in sea level..."
"8. Enormous irreparable damage has already been done, but there is even greater damage that is still preventable if we act swiftly. The only way to prevent additional ice sheet disintegration is to prevent further build up of human-caused CO 2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and ultimately to facilitate the drawdown through land-based sequestration of the overaccumulation of CO 2 that is heating the planet. There is only one effective way to stop future planetary heating, and to do it quickly..."
"9. What we do today will influence the stability of ice sheets for the next 30-40 years with enormous consequences for the nation’s shorelines and marine resources. Presently, we are on course to launch the ice sheets of Greenlandand Antarctica into multi-meter sea level rise. While we have passed the point of return for some of these ice sheets, we cannot afford for others, like the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, to follow the same fate..."
(Dr. Rignot Under Oath). Our movie, like the science fiction movies, does not end well either.
The previous post in this series is here.
They (leaders, political hacks, etc.) are not actually "listening" to the science warnings. They're beholden instead to their monied constituents and the so-called "democratic process" which is woefully inadequate to deal with a global emergency.
ReplyDeleteThe reality of this glacial response system (pun intended) to a global emergency reveals the falsehood behind the notion that global warming can be "stopped". That is patently ridiculous (obviously) to anyone who has followed the long progression of failures, delays, denials and obfuscations behind political action to "combat global warming". It's one of the biggest lies still being told.
The world HAS committed itself, collectively to unstoppable sea level rise, excessive heat, rising crop failures and mass immigration. All of this is virtually unstoppable. This we can easily predict with 100% accuracy, but what we cannot predict is just how bad the devastating storms, floods, hurricanes, droughts and wildfires will be. 2021 provided just a taste of what is to come, most likely, every indication is it will be much worse, year by year, until our civilization literally collapses.
A global emergency response team is desperately needed, this has been obvious for years, but without any authority, it wouldn't change anything. This is being resisted by most of the world's governments who think they can still have their cake and ice cream and pay for everything "later". Later means committing our children to a hellish Earth and bare minimum survival as the food crops fail, fresh water supplies fail in large parts of the world and competition for what remains accelerates greatly (war and conflict to follow).
We, this present generation, have erred exceedingly badly and there isn't enough voices shouting for radical, essential, emergency change to forestall the very worst that is sure to come. We already know that it is going to be very bad, but the failure to re-engineer our civilization and put an end to our contributions to planetary destruction destroying habitability guarantees that we are steadfastly on the path to self-extinction.
The insanity of this arrangement and the present belief systems that support this is a strong indication of our failure as a species. Our social structure did not adapt to our economic and technological progression (Toynbee). We've presumed both would be our salvation, when in reality both have become the sword of our execution. ~Survival Acres~
Example: https://phys.org/news/2021-10-brazilian-amazon-savannization-climate-expose.html
ReplyDeleteSuch warnings still go largely unheeded.
The people increasingly get it, to no avail(link).
ReplyDelete“'Climate change is an existential threat to our nation's security, and the Department of Defense must act swiftly and boldly to take on this challenge and prepare for damage that cannot be avoided,' Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement released alongside the strategy, known as the Climate Adaptation Plan" (Pentagon climate plan prepares military for extreme conditions).
ReplyDelete