Hot July

From the inestimable Miami blog this story of catastrophe not noticed mostly... LINK HERE. I have no idea what to do faced with this sort of catastrophic news but one feels an obligation to say something especially when climate change appears to have fallen out of favor with the headline writers. If you have children pay close attention I would say.

EYE ON MIAMI

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Warmest Month In Human History Edition: Why Non-Linear Change Is Your Future ... by gimleteye

For decades, the GOP denied climate change. The party of Donald Trump made non-linear change your future. This is ugly stuff. In November, vote. When you do vote, remember which political party's candidates are to blame and vote accordingly.

August 16, 2016 

Today in Weather & Climate: Warmest month in human history edition (Tuesday, August 16th) 

by sciencebyericholthaus

Hey all,

Days like this are tough for me, I'm not going to lie. A fresh batch of climate data was released, and it looks like last month continued the current streak of 15 consecutive monthly global temperature records. On Twitter, NASA GISS director Gavin Schmidt went a step further and said "July 2016 was absolutely the hottest month since the instrumental records began." (July is usually Earth's warmest month because most of the land is in the northern hemisphere, and land heats up more than ocean does in the summer.)

We know that July 2016 was the warmest month since we've been watching with carefully calibrated thermometers, but it's also quite likely the warmest month in the history of human civilization, dating back at least 10,000 years. Pyramids, agriculture, cities, Beyonce, all of it.

We are risking everything by continuing on this path. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise. We can't have a stable and prosperous global society without the basics of water, food, health, and stability. Climate change risks all of these, as well as the ecosystems and other species that makes living on a planet so wonderful.

We're past the point of planting a symbolic tree in your backyard or signing a petition. In an interview the other day, a scientist spoke of her remaining hope as rooted in the possibility of "nonlinear success" when so many are worrying about nonlinear collapse and failure—which leads to despair. Some of my journalist colleagues have faulted me for saying things like this, but we live in a time of blunt language. Our generation risks profound change if the climate models are right, and they have been so far. What are you waiting for to make as much noise as you can about this? What's it going to take?

Thanks for reading,
Eric