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Scenarios

It’s not the heat, it’s the warming beyond evolutionary boundaries.

By Abrupt changes, Climate Culture, climate emergency, Climate Policy, Climate Reform, climate restoration, climate solutions, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Emissions, Emissions Scenarios, evolutionary boundaries, Extreme Weather, feedback, Flooding, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, Legacy Policy, Negative emissions, Point of No Return, Scenarios, Shifting Ecology, Solutions, The Unexpected, Tipping, Winter Weather

It’s not the heat, it’s the warming beyond evolutionary boundaries. Bruce Melton ClimateDiscovery.org First published as an abridge version on The Rag Blog, as a part of an-in-depth radio interview on the Rag Radio syndicated on Pacifica on 7/21/2023 There’s a quote that has been around forever, variously worded and attributed to many. The origin…

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Faster than forecast, climate impacts trigger tipping points in the Earth system

By Abrupt changes, Climate Catastrophes, climate emergency, Earth systems, Emissions flip, evolutionary boundaries, feedback, Impacts, Point of No Return, Scenarios, The Unexpected, Tipping

Permafrost collapse, Glenn Highway, Alaska. Though permafrost has been thawing slightly since the end of the Little Ice Age, the rate of thaw today is so great that in combination with Amazon collapse and collapse of Canadian forests, natural feedback emissions rival all of transportation globally. Faster than forecast, climate impacts trigger tipping points in…

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Failed Legacy Climate Strategy – IPCC 2023 Synthesis Report Review

By Climate Culture, Climate Policy, Emissions, Emissions Scenarios, Legacy Policy, Myths, Point of No Return, politics, Reports, Scenarios, Tipping
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  Synthesis Report 2023, AR6 Failed Legacy Climate Strategy - IPCC 2023 Synthesis Report Review by Bruce Melton First published in the Austin Sierran on April 7, 2023 Summary: IPCC says climate  change is worse, but they do not recognize tipping activation. The say emissions reductions and carbon dioxide removal must be...
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Risky Feedbacks – Not In Models; Understated Solutions

By Abrupt changes, Arctic Sea Ice, Arctic warming, Climate Catastrophes, climate emergency, Climate Policy, climate restoration, climate solutions, Earth systems, Extreme Weather, feedback, Impacts, Scenarios, Solutions, Tipping

Risky Feedbacks – Not In Models; Understated Solutions Feedbacks are best understood by example. Austin’s 2023 ice storm that caused massive tree damage and excessive power outages was caused by a feedback. The ice storm stalled in a classic climate change-caused effect, creating a longer ice accumulation time than in our old climate. This additional…

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Like an Avalanche – Extremes Beyond our Earth’s Systems’ Evolution

By Abrupt changes, Climate Culture, climate emergency, Climate Reform, climate restoration, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Earth systems, Emissions flip, Extreme Weather, Impacts, Negative emissions, Scenarios

Onion Creek Flood 2013, US 183 bridge, Austin, Texas – new record flood depth. Climate change has returned to the news in full force with the Council of Parties meeting COP26, the 197 nation meeting of the United Federation Convention on Climate Change. What will come from the meeting is hopefully a more aggressive agreement…

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Dragon’s Mouths, Permafrost and Earth Systems Collapse Blindness

By Abrupt changes, Alaska, Arctic warming, climate emergency, Climate Policy, climate restoration, Emissions flip, frozen ground, Impacts, Permafrost, Permafrost melt, Scenarios

(cover image: Permafrost thaw, Glenn Highway, Southeastern Alaska) It is nothing short of amazing that scientists consistently find that ecological collapses have been activated, but do not connect that existing warming today, that activated these impacts, allows these collapses to cross the “point of no return” into irreversible collapse. That they believe these ecologies or…

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Climate Change – Where do we move?

By Abrupt changes, adaptation, alternatives, Climate Catastrophes, Climate Culture, climate emergency, Climate Policy, Climate Reform, climate restoration, climate solutions, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Earth systems, Emissions flip, Extreme Weather, feedback, migration, Negative emissions, Scenarios, The Unexpected, What we can do

“Where do we move?” Retirees want to know where  they can escape climate change impacts. Those seeking to give their kids the best life they can want to know. The folks from where I live in Austin want to get out of this infernal heat that has come to dominate our lives with 100-degree days…

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Microsoft on climate: The game changer

By Abrupt changes, adaptation, Climate Policy, climate restoration, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Earth systems, in-depth and Popular Press, Negative emissions, politics, Psycho, Scenarios, Temperature, The Unexpected, What we can do

Microsoft on climate: The game changer Historic climate pollution emissions almost everyone missed. By Bruce Melton First published on the RagBlog.org, February 3, 2020 Microsoft going net zero by 2030 is a tremendously insightful action, but what’s truly groundbreaking and ever so much more important today, 30 years after we began trying to solve the…

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Climate Change 2018 Review: The Good and Bad, What Have We Learned?

By Abrupt changes, adaptation, Agriculture, Climate Catastrophes, Climate Policy, climate solutions, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Extreme Weather, Fire, flood, forest health, Forest Mortality, Healthy Climate, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, Negative emissions, Permafrost, pine beetle, politics, Reports, Scenarios, Solutions, Trump, Uncategorized

Climate Change 2018 Review:  Part 1 – The Bad  by Bruce Melton Climate Change Now Initiative, 501c3 (Link to Article) So much happened in our climate change world in 2018 that we are printing this article in two parts: The Bad, and The Good. We start with the bad, and as bad as it was…

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Global Environmental Sustainability and a Healthy Climate: Climate Policy 2.0

By adaptation, alternatives, Climate Catastrophes, climate change counter movement, Climate Culture, Climate Policy, Climate Reform, climate restoration, climate solutions, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Deniers and Delayers, Emissions, Emissions Scenarios, Extreme Weather, global warming psychology, Healthy Climate, Impacts, Legacy Policy, Messaging, Negative emissions, politics, Psycho, Scenarios, Solutions, Strategy, What we can do

  Global Environmental Sustainability and a Healthy Climate: Climate Policy 2.0 We all want a healthy climate and assume that emissions reductions will give us this healthy climate, but emissions reductions alone allow triple to quintuple the warming we have already seen. Today, the public and policy makers –almost completely– believe emissions reductions strategies can…

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Abrupt Sea Level Rise Warning From NOAA: Paris Inadequate

By Abrupt changes, Beaches coastal, Climate Culture, Climate Policy, Climate Reform, climate restoration, climate solutions, economics, Emissions, Emissions Scenarios, Healthy Climate, ice sheets, Impacts, Negative emissions, Scenarios, Sea Level Rise, Solutions, West Antarctic Ice Sheet

NOAA’s new sea level rise report in January 2017 is a dope slap that describes 17 inches of sea level rise in Florida by 2030. You can see the report here, or check out our review that summarizes the important parts here.  The continuing publishing of sea level rise research on emissions reductions and resultant…

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Very Large Negative Emissions: Beyond Paris Emissions Reductions to a Safe and Healthy Climate

By Abrupt changes, Climate Catastrophes, Climate Policy, Climate Reform, climate solutions, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Emissions Scenarios, Extreme Weather, Impacts, modeling, Negative emissions, Scenarios, Sea Level Rise, Strategy, West Antarctic Ice Sheet

James Hansen, 32 year director of the U.S. national climate modeling agency, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (1981-2013, now retired), has had a new fundamental piece of climate work published. His team looks at the negative emissions required–in addition to various scenarios for emissions reductions–that are needed to achieve “non-dangerous” warming. Under Hansen’s…

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New Climate Culture

By Abrupt changes, alternatives, Climate Culture, Climate Policy, Climate Reform, climate solutions, Emissions, Emissions Scenarios, global warming psychology, Legacy Policy, Messaging, Negative emissions, politics, Psycho, Scenarios, Solutions, Strategy, What we can do

  New Climate Culture Our climate culture of the last two or three decades, very bluntly, not working out . Yes, carbon emissions are decreasing, or at least they are not increasing as fast a they were or as fast as projected. Possibly, they are even decreasing. But the bottom line is that current warming…

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Falling Emissions: With Offshored Goods and Fugitive Emissions — Not So Much

By Climate Policy, climate pollutants short-lived, Climate Reform, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Emissions, Emissions Scenarios, Legacy Policy, Negative emissions, politics, Scenarios, Solutions, Strategy, What we can do

Observations on Declining U.S. Emissions: It’s a widely held belief that the U.S. has been reducing emissions since the peak  2005-2007 before the recession. This is just barely valid today, but several years back it was not. The last time we reported on this, U.S. emission had not fallen as the EPA had insisted, but…

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Large Negative Emissions of 80 Gt Annually Allow Dangerous Warming

By Abrupt changes, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Emissions, Emissions Scenarios, Legacy Policy, Negative emissions, Scenarios, Sea Level Rise, Solutions, Strategy, Temperature

The greatest climate dude of all time has done it again. James Hansen, 32 year director of the U.S. national climate modeling agency, the NASA Goddard institute for Space Studies, published a new fundamental piece of climate work last month. He looks at the additional negative emission on top of Paris reductions that are needed…

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Climate Change: What Should We Do?

By Abrupt changes, Climate Catastrophes, Climate Policy, Climate Reform, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Emissions Scenarios, forest health, Forest Mortality, ice sheets, Myths, Negative emissions, pine beetle, Scenarios, What we can do

One of the biggest myths about climate change is that emissions reductions cool Earth. This is nowhere close to reality. Even the Paris Commitments of 80 percent emissions reductions by 2050 allow warming to triple by 2050 and quintuple by 2100.  We (the royal we) have great challenges as climate reform decision makers. If our…

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Fundamental Climate Science:  Time Frames, Net Warming and Implications for Strategy

By Abrupt changes, Climate Reform, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Emissions, Emissions Scenarios, Legacy Policy, Negative emissions, Scenarios, Solutions, Strategy

The IPCC changed their fundamental philosophy on how they evaluate scenarios of our future climate in their 2013 reporting, but they have yet to acknowledge the most common and meaningful way our climate usually changes, implying negative consequences for traditional climate reform strategies. Popular science however, continues on the path of traditional climate reform strategies…

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Paris Warms, Not Cools, for Thousands of Years

By Climate Policy, Emissions, Emissions Scenarios, Legacy Policy, Myths, Negative emissions, Scenarios, Strategy, Temperature

It’s a widely held misconception that implementation of Paris Climate commitments would tame the climate beast. This has no more been the case in the past than it is today. Our culture of climate policy has always relied on overshoot, or additional increase in temperature as we implement greenhouse gas regulations and reduce the amount…

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Warm Winter, Early Spring: Is Climate Change a Mixed Bag or are we Kidding Ourselves?

By Abrupt changes, adaptation, Beaches coastal, Climate Catastrophes, Climate Policy, Climate Reform, Deniers and Delayers, Drought, economics, Emissions, Emissions Scenarios, Extreme Weather, forest health, Forest Mortality, Glaciers, Gulf Stream, ice sheet, ice sheets, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, modeling, Negative emissions, Oceans, pine beetle, politics, Psycho, Scenarios, Sea Level Rise, Shifting Ecology, West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Winter Weather

President Trump it seems, has given us permission to backslide with our thinking about climate change. Until we have rule or law that tells us we must do something about climate pollution, “those that would rather it not be real” have won. This allows the debate to rage encouraging doubt. The Clean Power Plan and…

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Why Swapping Coal for Gas is Really Bad Policy

By Emissions, Emissions Scenarios, Methane, Scenarios, Solutions

Coal definitely creates less net warming in the short-term because of aerosols. Aerosols pollution emitted from coal is basically smog. The sulfates in smog rom burning fossil fuels are global cooling pollutants. Coal has far more sulfate pollution than oil and oil has far more sulfates than natural gas. Though natural gas emits less CO2…

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