Past the Tipping Point

The climate change science conference in Copenhagen next week is going to update the emerging and very concerning science since the release of the IPCC report last year: methane bubbling up from melting permafrost and from the Arctic ocean bed, ocean and forest greenhouse gas (GHG) sinks turning to sources, the previously underappreciated long life and long term effects of GHGs (akin to a financial deficit as a weight on future generations), the unpredicted and tipping point nature of the melting Arctic ice cap, the soaring increase in GHG emissions in spite of two decades of attempts at mitigation, and the already manifesting impact of rising temperature upon vulnerable species with a new appreciation of the threat of abrupt climate change to all species including man.

full article by Bill Henderson, countercurrents.org

The possibility of runaway global warming is not as distant a threat as we may wish. It is a threat which worries some of the greatest minds living among us today. Stephen Hawking, physicist, best selling author of A Brief History of Time, and claimant of the Cambridge University post once occupied by Sir Isaac Newton (the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics), has been quoted as saying, "I am afraid the atmosphere might get hotter and hotter until it will be like Venus with boiling sulfuric acid."

The renowned physicist was joined by other notables such as former President Jimmy Carter, former news anchor Walter Cronkite, and former astronaut and Senator John Glenn in drafting a letter to urge President Bush to develop a plan to reduce US emissions of greenhouse gases. Former British Environmental Minister Michael Meacher is also worried about the survival of the human race due to global warming.

Article by Dale Allen Pfeiffer - © Copyright 2004, From The Wilderness Publications, www.fromthewilderness.com. All Rights Reserved. May be reprinted, distributed or posted on an Internet web site for non-profit purposes only.

"You will have a refugee crisis like we've never seen."

Story by Bill Blackmore, ABC News

"...it started most likely with a volcano, the authors think, which pumped enough greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to trigger a modest amount of warming, similar perhaps to the amount we've seen over the last several decades.

"What happened next is the important part. The earth became warm enough that icelike structures in the ocean melted, releasing massive amounts of methane that bubbled up, fueling rapid warming of the atmosphere. While carbon is more long-lived, methane is more than 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas."

Article by Dan Shapley, thedailygreen.com

"there will be an unambiguous new global temperature record during the first term of the Obama administration."

Article by Michael Le Page, New Scientist