For this first week of tracking the Climate Index, the measurement of high temperatures in the world’s largest cities has been in negative territory, showing daily averages that are slightly below normal… until now. Now, the cities of the world are warming up. The Climate Index for Friday was 1.79 – that’s 1.79 degrees F. above normal.
No single day high temperatures in any single place proves that global warming is taking place, of course. That’s why I’m tracking the Climate Index day after day after day. Eventually, we’ll be able to look at this data and see some long-term trends.
The predictions of climatologists who built models of likely anthropogenic climate change in the past haven’t come true – they’ve been exceeded. Yesterday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse stood up and advised his colleagues to pay attention to the growing climate crisis. The Senator said:
” Climate scientists predicted the atmosphere would warm, and the atmosphere is warming. Climate scientists predicted the ocean would absorb heat, and sure enough, the ocean has absorbed heat and ocean waters are warming. Climate scientists predicted the ocean would absorb CO2 and that would then lower the pH level of our ocean waters. The ocean is now more acidic than it has been in two million years, threatening coral reefs, shellfish, and the tiny creatures, such as plankton, that make up the base of the entire oceanic food chain. Climate scientists predicted glaciers and Arctic sea ice would melt and, sure enough, we are seeing record melting.”
um , Green Man, we already have data that indicate we’re at the end of our run on Earth – that it was us, in the end, humanity, with our built in flaws and hardwired biological imperatives, that couldn’t contain ourselves or limit our growth, or stop polluting or even start cooperating (on a global scale). But no, we weren’t up to it.
Whatever purpose we had is going to evaporate like it was never here before too long (one human lifetime at the outside, some say). Our little checking the difference between these cities avg temp vs today’s temp is just a way to further come to grips with reality. It will go up and down like chaotic systems will, but the trend will be upward over long periods of time (as we know because this has all been done before). It’s interesting, but the conclusions we can draw from them won’t be very reassuring.
What’s even more relevant is that we haven’t done a goddamn thing about any of it! Despite, global climate “talks” and more and more studies showing that our way of life is going to make us and much of the rest of life on the planet EXTINCT, none of it has changed our ridiculous behavior.
So keep up the good work and i sincerely hope some more people will see what’s right in front of them all the time.
Tom, I think it’s useful to examine the notion that “we haven’t done a goddamn thing about any of it.” The accuracy of this statement depends, of course, on who you mean by “we”. If you mean the governments of the world, and particularly of the most polluting nations, then of course you’re right. But if “we” includes “me” and “you” and other like-minded individuals, then I submit that the claim isn’t correct as stated.
I don’t know about you, but over the past five or so years we’ve done a lot to reduce my family’s carbon footprint. We downsized our home by more than 50%. 50 MPG car, telecommuting, LED lighting, photovoltaics up on the roof. Our acres of pasture and forest sequester many tons of carbon annually. We heat with an efficient wood stove in a carbon-neutral manner, burning down-wood from our healthy forest. These things are hard to calculate, so I’m reduced to just guessing…but I’m guessing we may actually be carbon-negative these days (with no sacrifice in our quality of life, I should add…in fact, quite the opposite). I realize most folks aren’t fortunate enough to be able to go to these extremes, so we’re outliers, but my point is that individuals’ consciousnesses are being raised by discussions such as this one. Photovoltaic installations are growing exponentially in the West. These days you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a Prius or a plug-in vehicle (powered, in part, by carbon-free nuclear or renewable energy). North American forests are expanding. Fly over the High Plains and you see wind farm after wind farm. Carbon fuels (with the temporary exception of natural gas) are becoming so expensive that manufacturers are beginning to find good reasons to move their manufacturing back closer to their markets, instead of manufacturing everything in China and carting crap half-way around the planet to consumers. Western economies nowadays grow mostly through improvements in productivity and technology (i.e., more sustainably), not through population growth. Our cities, once dying, have become magnets for the younger generation (thus trimming the wasteful growth of suburbs). True, for every bit of good news such as these one can point to three bits of ongoing bad news, particularly in the developing world, but my point is that things are starting to happen…and you have to start somewhere, right? My personal opinion…admittedly only an opinion…is that my kids’ generation will witness the inflection point, where carbon-per-person will top out and then decline. Is this all too little, too late? Definitely the former, but the latter remains to be seen. Yes, my kids’ generation will see rising sea levels, substantial biotic shifts, substantially increased violent weather, threats to food production, and plenty of other bad shit and catastrophes. And they’ll survive it, and even thrive, just as mankind has previously survived and thrived in the face of ice ages, global plagues, famines, and world wars. We are tenacious SOBs.
While it is certainly true that we haven’t done nearly as much as we should if we were really smart, and that governments haven’t done squat-all, I would submit that it simply isn’t the case that “we” haven’t done one goddamn thing.
I apologize for being something of an optimist. What can I say? I’m getting old.
moderate this:
http://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2012/12/14/climate-tipping-points-the-global-die-off-of-forests-3/
Point taken Bill. (i too am active in anti-fracking, anti-GMO food, and other environmental concerns and i was just blowing off steam at the whole of human civilization that is about as useful as cancer with respect to the host planet.)
i hope you’re correct in your outlook, but it’s not lookin’ real positive from where i’m sittin’. Sustainability is a myth, it’s impossible to live a carbon-negative life, and nuclear energy has its own inherent problems. i’ll leave you to your optimism and i hope i’m completely wrong in my dire predictions. We’ll know inside of a few more years.