More People Need to Know What's Happening Presently, Weather-wise, Across the Planet

I don't think most people are aware just now of what, exactly, is going on, worldwide, with weather and the catastrophes that are taking place just now.

Here's one, the first here today--
“Greenland is home to the world's second-largest ice sheet. And when it melts significantly -- as it is expected to do this year -- there are knock-on effects for sea levels and weather across the globe.

Greenland's ice sheet usually melts during the summer. This year, it started melting earlier, in May, and this week's heatwave is expected to accelerate the melt.

… 2019 could come close to the record-setting year of 2012, said Jason Box, professor and ice climatologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. During that ‘…year’…, Greenland's ice sheet lost 450 million metric tons -- the equivalent of more than 14,000 tons of ice lost per second.”

“…it's already poised to rival the proportions of 2012 -- and we haven't even reached the end of summer. In July alone, Greenland's ice sheet lost 160 billion tons of ice, according to Clare Nullis, spokeswoman for the UN World Meteorological Organization.

‘Normally when you get a temperature record broken, it's by a fraction of a degree,’ said Nullis. ‘What we saw yesterday was records being broken by two, three, four degrees -- it was absolutely incredible.’"

Greenland is in the Grips of a Heatwave; 

Here's What It Means for All of Us 

That alone is huge but then, this is taking place in Siberia, Russia.

Vast Wildfires in Siberia a Potential "Disaster" for Arctic, and the World's Climate

This, too, is happening now in Japan.

11 dead, 5,600 sent to hospitals last week due to heatwave

There is also this from Japan:

Olympics: Dangerous heat, wild weather a major challenge for Tokyo Games

Japan gripped by heat wave, mercury tops 39 C in Hokkaido town

Longer, wetter than usual rainy season ends in Tokyo area

Again, now, this week.

United Kingdom sets all-time high temperature record

Finally, there is this:

A Major River in Europe Hit by Drought Could Create Economic Havoc

“A heatwave in Europe is causing low water levels on the…Rhine…”

At what point do climate deniers give it up? At what point do the get on board, so to speak, and accept our current reality, let alone what is projected to happen across the world, if we don't cut carbon dioxide emissions and pollution?

Face it. We Like Money More

Click on the picture.  Read it.

On Climate Change

A Facebook friend of mine, Steven McCain made this observation:

Climate change is either true or false. We have a 50% chance of being right. That leaves us with only 4 options.

1. It's true and we take action. We leave a better world for our descendants.

2. It's true and we take no action. The world as we know it disappears.

3 It's false and we take action. We leave a better world for our descendants.

4. It's false and we take no action. We leave a more polluted world for our descendants.

It's basically the same as this cartoon:

Think happy thoughts, kids. 

Positive thoughts.

What 2014 Was -- And Why It Matters

According to Scientific American:

2014 to Be Hottest Year Ever Measured

Yes, 2014 was the hottest year ever recorded in the history of humankind (though admittedly, in the "big picture" of things, that's a short time frame--around 150 years or so).

This year will likely be the hottest on record for the planet, with global temperatures 1.03 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the 1961-to-1990 average, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization.

But here's why this is important and why we should do something about it. It's part of a far bigger trend:

This would make 2014 the 38th consecutive year with an anomalously high annual global temperature.

Each year for the past 38 years--nearly 4 straight decades, the new year tops the other in temperature increase.

Clearly, that's a trend.

And it's not a trend sitting there, all by itself. Here's another, rather obvious result:

World's Major Ice Caps Melting at Unprecedented Rate

And satellite images show it, in case there are any disbelievers out there:

Other possible effects this could and will likely have in the future for us:

Major U.S. Cities Face More Blackouts under Climate Change

Final continental drought here: Australia

So we've seen there's widespread drought in China, Iran, here in North America here, as I've posted. There is also a very widespread, devastating, years long drought in Australia, as well, ladies and gentlemen:



The polar ice caps are melting, the glaciers are likewise shrinking, melting, the seas are rising and there are widespread droughts on several of the continents, all at the same time.

If that isn't from an overall rise in the planet's temperatures, then what IS it from?

And if it is, shouldn't we--rather wisely--do something about it?

Especially since it's for our own survival, anyway?

The warming, even hot, drying Earth

It's not just the ice caps and glaciers shrinking that are the problem, as we keep learning.

51 uncontained wildfires in the US right now.

And if you remember last Summer, you know we had wildfires from our Southern, Mexican border, in every US State in the West, all the way to the Northern, Canadian border.

But there's no global warming.

Oh, hell no.

Links:

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Current Wildfire Map & Satellite Images - Wildfire Disaster Interactive Map - View a continuously updated map of US wildfire locations, perimeters, fire potential areas, burn areas, precipitation, and social media: 

Wildfire Map & Satellite Images | Wildfire Disaster Interactive Map

You can back that map off, too, and look at Alaska. They have wildfires raging, too.

And then there's this:

The Next Chapter in Colorado's Water Supply Crisis

Try and have a nice weekend.

Near 90 Sunday?

You got that right. 87 degrees--nearly 90--forecast by NBC 41 Action News this evening, for Sunday's weather. I'm still dying to hear Mike Thompson climb down off his earlier "There's no such thing as 'global warming' or 'climate change'" stance. As Mr. Thompson himself pointed out this evening, this is the normal forecast temperature for--get this--July 3. Yowza. Enjoy your weekend, y'all.

This is mid-March?

While working Saturday, an ice cream truck came by. Today, the 13th of March--still winter--it is forecast to be 82 degrees. Tomorrow? 86 degrees. (Keep in mind that's nearly 90). Now? The lady next door is running her lawn mower. So I ask you---THIS IS MID-MARCH??

Climate change deniers out there?

For any and all climate change deniers out there, please see the above photo. From the internet last evening: "Ghorama is an island located in West Bengal, India, that is eroding into the ocean due to a dramatic increase in the sea level. The photographer posed locals on disappearing segments of the island. According to the artist, locals who still live on the larger segment of the island expect to be relocated within the next 25 years." (Photo: Daesung Lee/Sipa Press) There's the glaciers and ice caps melting and then there's this. Ignore any- and everything else if you wish, but you can't deny these things. Link: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/snapshots-1320966603-slideshow/#crsl=%252Fphotos%252Fsnapshots-1320966603-slideshow%252Fsnapshots111312-photo-1326482674.html

Good and timely question

Is Earth Day Dead?

Here's another good question, to my mind:  don't we need Earth Day now, more than ever, to raise awareness of what we're doing to this planet in so many ways?

Links:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378816/Texas-wildfires-Million-acres-scorched-towns-red-alert.html 

http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_6d48fc16-8edd-591e-acd3-91beac10804f.html

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/21/rick-perry-pray-for-rain/ 

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/04/19/135510923/washing-away-the-arctic-coastline?print=1

Just focus on the glaciers and ice caps

Forget everything else you hear, read or see on high and low temperatures locally or anywhere on the planet, when it comes to global warming or climate change or however you want to refer to it. Let's focus instead on one thing--or one group, anyway. Let's focus on the ice caps and glaciers of the world, shall we? They're both--all, really--melting. And they're melting at unprecedented rates. Sure, a big swath of Russia is on fire and their food crop is severely affected and they're having to move around their missiles and planes and other weapons and, finally, they're experiencing their highest temperatures in the history of record-keeping but let's ignore all that. We're not Russians, after all, right? and we're not there. But pay attention to the glaciers and ice caps and keep in mind that, again, they're both melting to our peril, and they are melting at unprecedented rates. Check this out, today, from The Huffington Post: A giant ice island has broken off the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland. A University of Delaware researcher says the floating ice sheet covers 100 square miles – more than four times the size of New York's Manhattan Island. (See link below) 100 square miles of ice, folks. Can you even imagine that? I know I can't. And it just broke off the rest of the continent. And it's floating away. And melting. We're getting warmer and it's decidedly not a good thing. The way we live is not sustainable. Look around. We need to change. We need to use less. Keep cool this weekend, folks. (Just not too cool.) Link to original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/07/petermann-glacier-giant-i_n_674326.html

This is why scientists think there is global climate change--and why we need to be concerned

Photos show dramatic shrinking of Mount Everest glaciers Glaciers on Mount Everest are shrinking, according to startling new photographs. The two pictures show an "alarming" retreat in ice over more than 80 years. The first was taken in 1921 by British mountaineer George Mallory, who later died trying to conquer Everest. The Asia Society commissioned the same picture to be taken of the main Rongbuk glacier on the northern slope of Mount Everest in Tibet in 2007. The new picture by mountaineer David Breashears show that the glacier is shrunk and withered. A spokesman for the Asia Society said the picture was proof the ice is melting because of climate change, threatening water sources in highly populated areas of India and China. "The photographs reveal a startling truth: the ice of the Himalaya is disappearing," he said. "They reveal an alarming loss in ice mass." It's not because Al Gore wants to benefit commercially from global warming or whatever we call it (though he may, I'm not disputing that---nor do I care). It's because the 2 ice caps and, to my knowledge, all the glaciers on the planet are melting and shrinking at alarming, heretofore unseen rates, folks. And that's hard scientific data--not opinion. Link to original post: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7895611/Photos-show-dramatic-shrinking-of-Mount-Everest-glaciers.html