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The Unexpected

When will climate change turn life in the U.S. upside down?

By Abrupt changes, climate emergency, Climate Policy, Climate Reform, climate restoration, climate solutions, Earth systems, Emissions, Emissions flip, evolutionary boundaries, Myths, The Unexpected

Painting by Henry C. Pitz showing John Wesley Powell and his party descending the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, presumably during the historic 1869 expedition. (Image credit: Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, via Yale Climate connections) When will climate change turn life in the U.S. upside down? A review of: Intensifying extreme weather…

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The “remarkably unprecedented” increase in warming rate in 2023 and 2024

By Abrupt changes, climate emergency, Earth systems, Extreme Weather, Heat, Temperature, The Unexpected, Tipping

The “remarkably unprecedented” increase in warming rate in 2023 and 2024 * All time global temperature records keep falling| * Almost every single day over the last 13 months set a new global daily all-time high temperature records Bruce Melton PE Climate Change Now Initiative, 501c3 ClimateDiscovery.org It’s not just all-time temperature records being broken….

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Temperature Spike – Thirteen Monthly Global High Temperature Records in a Row

By Abrupt changes, aerosols, climate emergency, Heat, Impacts, Temperature, The Unexpected, Tipping

Thirteen Monthly Global High Temperature Records in a Row Current 12-Month average 1.64 C Above Normal Copernicus Report, European Union’s Earth Observation and Monitoring Program Surface Air Temperature June 2024 June 2024 was warmer globally than any previous June in the data record, with an average ERA5 surface air temperature of 16.66°C, 0.67°C above the…

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The Last Year Below 1.5 C – Remarkable Warming Acceleration In 2023 Surpasses the Dangerous Warming Threshold

By Abrupt changes, aerosols, climate emergency, climate restoration, climate solutions, feedback, in-depth and Popular Press, Point of No Return, Temperature, The Unexpected, Tipping, Truthout.org

Image: The “Flats” on the back side of Padre Island in South Texas. Just inches above sea level, these flats are mostly gone today from sea level rise. The Last Year Below 1.5 C – Remarkable Warming Acceleration In 2023 Surpasses the Dangerous Warming Threshold The Global 1.5 °C Climate Change Threshold Was Unexpectedly Exceeded…

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Climate Emergency Hope for 2024

By Extreme Weather, Heat, Impacts, Temperature, The Unexpected, Tipping

Busted: The global 1.5 degree C above normal dangerous climate change threshold Climate Emergency Hope for 2024 A Remarkable Jump in Temperature? Bruce Melton PE, ClimateDiscovery.org Happy New Year all, I want to let you all know about what may to some seem like a perverse perception of “hope” with our accelerating climate emergency. In 2024…

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Climate Change Across America Photographic Review PowerPoint 342 slides)

By Abrupt changes, Arctic warming, Beaches coastal, Climate Catastrophes, climate emergency, Drought, Extreme Weather, Flooding, forest health, Forest Mortality, frozen ground, Glaciers, in-depth and Popular Press, Permafrost, Permafrost melt, Presentations, Sea Level Rise, Shifting Ecology, The Unexpected, Tipping, Winter Weather

A Photographic Summary of Climate Change Across America Healthy Planet Action Coalition November 30, 2023 4:40 ET, 3:30 CT, 1:30 PT From Padre Island to the North Slope of Alaska: beach erosion, desert species mortality, fire, debris flow, native insect infestations, forest regeneration failure, extreme cold, epic drought, greening of the Arctic, and permafrost collapse……

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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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Chihuahuan Desert Walkabout – Desert Mortality from Climate Change

By Abrupt changes, Drought, evolutionary boundaries, Extreme Weather, forest health, Forest Mortality, Heat, Impacts, The Unexpected, Vegetation Response

Ocotillo mortality, Big Bend Ranch State Park, Three Dike Hill. The ocotillo in the foreground  succumbed to bark beetles last season. Many more are in the frame, just hard to tell! It’s the desert ~ ~ ~ Chihuahuan Desert Walkabout – Desert Mortality from Climate Change By Bruce Melton We just returned from filming more…

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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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Glacier Retreat, the Little Ice Age and Climate Change

By Glaciers, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, The Unexpected, Truthout.org
Cover Description: The Kennicott Glacier, Wrangle St. Elias National Park and Preserve, southeast Alaska. The broad and undulating gravel bed that stretches across the valley floor is actually the four mile-wide Kennicott Glacier, a dirt glacier as John Muir labelled such in southeast Alaska in 1879. The gravel layer rides atop the glacier from rockfalls...
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Sequoias Burn: Ongoing Collapse of the Unburnable

By Abrupt changes, adaptation, Emissions flip, Fire, forest health, Forest Mortality, Gigs and Presentations, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, The Unexpected

Sequoias Burn: Ongoing Collapse of the Unburnable By Bruce Melton PE, Director of the Climate Change Now Initiative 2005, ClimateDiscovery.org (Co-published on the Rag Blog for an interview on Rag Radio in Austin, syndicated on Pacifica, September 23, 2022, 2 to 3 pm Central – KOOP 91.7 FM Streaming) The National Park Service says sequoias…

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Giant Sequoias: A Tipping Point

By Abrupt changes, adaptation, Climate Catastrophes, climate emergency, climate restoration, Drought, Earth systems, Fire, forest health, Forest Mortality, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, Legacy Policy, pine beetle, Shifting Ecology, The Unexpected, Tipping

The Sequoia Burn Giant Sequoias: A Climate Tipping Point by Bruce Melton PE Follow MeltOn in the field on Instagram See the abridged version on Truthout.org: August 9, 2022. Summary: Up to 13,000 mature sequoias were killed by wildfire between 2015 and 2021, with a total known population of only about 75,500 mature trees. Sequoias…

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When Normals Are Not Normal: The National Weather Service Is Unwittingly Obscuring the Reality of Global Warming

By Climate Culture, Deniers and Delayers, Extreme Weather, global warming psychology, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, Legacy Policy, Messaging, Myths, Strategy, Temperature, The Unexpected, Truthout.org, What we can do

When Normals Are Not Normal The National Weather Service Is Unwittingly Obscuring the Reality of Global Warming by Bruce Melton PE See the abridged version on Truthout.org, July 17, 2022 In-depth references are below the article. Summary: The National Weather Service has a periodic procedure where they recalculate the “normal” climate data presented to the…

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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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The Texice Disaster, Stories of climate change survival, our current emergency, and new solutions to this existential crisis.

By Abrupt changes, adaptation, Climate Catastrophes, climate emergency, Climate Policy, Climate Reform, climate restoration, climate solutions, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Earth systems, Extreme Weather, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, polar vortex, Solutions, The Unexpected, Winter Weather

Summary: The Texas winter storm disaster was caused by both climate change and poor planning. Climate change is making extreme weather more extreme, and energy generation planning in Texas did not fully take into consideration cascading feedbacks, simultaneous catastrophes, and the extent to which our climate has already created more extreme weather based on warming…

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Austin, Texas: The Blizzard of ’21 – Summary and Photo Tour by Bruce Melton

By Abrupt changes, Climate Catastrophes, climate emergency, Extreme Weather, Impacts, Photo Tour, The Unexpected

Austin, Texas: The Blizzard of ’21 – Summary and Photo Tour by Bruce Melton First published in the Austin Sierran on March 9, 2021, updated March 13. By 10 pm on February 14, this map was updated with winter storm warnings (pink) issued for every county in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. They say it will…

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Rag Radio Podcast, Melton Interview on Covid-19 and Permafrost Collapse

By Abrupt changes, Alaska, Arctic Flip, Arctic warming, climate emergency, Earth systems, Emissions flip, feedback, frozen ground, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, Methane, Permafrost, Permafrost melt, Podcasts, The Unexpected

Rag Radio Podcast July 3, 2020 Environmental Researcher & Activist Bruce Melton On Rag Radio with Thorne Dreyer, Syndicated on Pacifica Melton talks with Rag Radio host Thorne Dreyer about ongoing massive permafrost collapse and the science showing the Covid-19 origina debate is ongoing, with compelling findings on pathogen reanimation from permafrost and long-held hypotheses…

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Covid-19, climate change, and permafrost collapse, and our new, abruptly evolving culture.

By Abrupt changes, Alaska, Arctic Flip, Arctic warming, Climate Catastrophes, climate emergency, Earth systems, Emissions flip, feedback, frozen ground, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, Permafrost, Permafrost melt, The Unexpected

Covid-19, climate change, and permafrost collapse… …and our new, abruptly evolving culture. By Bruce Melton First Published on The Rag Blog on July 7, 2020 ADDITION, JUNE 11, 2021 — Laboratory Origin — In the original article the citation for the academic review citing the virus was “definitively” not of laboratory origin was not included….

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COVID-19: The tale of two graphs – Be careful what you see and believe.

By Arctic Flip, Arctic warming, Emissions flip, feedback, Methane, Permafrost, Permafrost melt, The Unexpected

COVID-19: The tale of two graphs – Be careful what you see and believe. by Bruce Melton First Published on the Rag Blog, April 20, 2020 In my work as a professional engineer, as an environmental researcher, and now as the director of the oldest independent climate science education organization in the world, I understand…

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