"Pompeii Garden of the Fugitives" by Lancevortex, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Reading climate.nasa.gov's 2022 "Key Takeaway: Summer Arctic sea ice extent is shrinking by 12.2% per decade due to warmer temperatures," and recalling President Niinistö of Finland in Joint Press Conference with President Trump, August 28, 2017, “If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe,” I wrote a new poem below. To clarify the problem, visit Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S)'s Climate Pulse (click "Sea temperature"), and see Dave Borlace's Just Have a Think April 7, 20 ..read more

Bad News for Emperor Penguins, Fish, Seals, and Whales in Antarctica Yesterday The Guardian Science Editor Robin McKie reported, "‘Simply mind-boggling’: world record temperature jump in Antarctic raises fears of catastrophe -- An unprecedented leap of 38.5C in the coldest place on Earth is a harbinger of a disaster for humans and the local ecosystem."  McKie quoted Prof. Michael Meredith, science leader at the British Antarctic Survey, “In sub-zero temperatures such a massive leap is tolerable but if we had a 40C rise in the UK now that would take temperatures for a spring day to ov ..read more

In reversal of Abraham Lincoln's famous words, here is my quote for 21st Century Man: “Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a flower and planted a thistle where I thought a thistle would grow.” I thought of this when I read how COP28 President, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber's "UAE Consensus [which included] an unprecedented reference to transitioning away from all fossil fuels in energy systems [ . . . ] to reach net zero emissions by 2050, in keeping with the science" was challenged by Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, as quoted by Spencer Kimball in a ..read more

Readers of this blog know the main obstacle to reducing the climate emergency is political will in developed nations. However, recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) show AI could help decision-makers at all levels, in all places, reduce greenhouse gases/climate impacts as long as climate tipping points are not crossed before we get the chance. I expect you to be skeptical like I was so let me explain. Imagine a space alien with a billion times more intelligence than any human who ever lived arriving to advise humanity. According to some of the world's best computer experts, this is e ..read more

In David Wallace-Wells March 6, 2024 New York Times interview "John Kerry: ‘I Feel Deeply Frustrated’," Kerry was quoted about global public climate apathy, "I’ve likened it to a kind of de facto signature on a suicide pact." Well, yeah. In my 2018 book Carbonfish Blues the end of my poem "Welcome to the Future" noted: "as Arizona’s wild horses die of drought, and sooner or later we must individually decide if we will take suicide pill of apathy with others. The brown eye of a raven up close is enough to convince us otherwise." Kerry's frustration also reminds me of Eisenhower's f ..read more

World 1: Koala scorched in Australia due to massive fires according to a 2019 YouTube by The Sun with over 47 million views. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) noted, "Nearly 6,382 koalas are estimated to have perished during the 2019/2020 bushfires, nearly 15% of the population." My June 5, 2023 post linked a July 28, 2020 bbc.com article, "Australia's fires 'killed or harmed three billion animals.'" I also noted the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome in which over "one billion marine intertidal animals may have perished along the shores of the Salish Sea ..read more

It's all so simple alone on a stream or listening in desert silence. In 2014 I suggested "the term 'climate destruction' from now on -- instead of the much less troubling global warming or climate change." The term never caught on but it's certainly what we are seeing with rapid ice loss in Greenland, Arctic, and Antarctic. My favorite recent climate video is the February 15, 2024, YouTube "Prof. Kevin Anderson, Climate: Where We Are Headed" for its excellent summary ..read more

by René van Westen, Utrecht University; Henk A. Dijkstra, Utrecht University, and Michael Kliphuis, Utrecht University Used with permission. Superstorms, abrupt climate shifts and New York City frozen in ice. That’s how the blockbuster Hollywood movie “The Day After Tomorrow” depicted an abrupt shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean’s circulation and the catastrophic consequences. While Hollywood’s vision was over the top, the 2004 movie raised a serious question: If global warming shuts down the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which is crucial for carrying heat from the tropics to t ..read more

This is the second time I recycled a post video due to first-recorded hurricane winds off Big Sur, California, and widely-reported heavy rains, flooding, and warnings or evacuation orders affecting "over 11 million people" in the state.  February 2, 2024 Los Angeles Times reporters Haley Smith and Grace Toohey quoted UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain explaining the rainstorm, "It’s a combination of El Niño and global warming as to why the oceans are so warm over such a broad region. It’s not 100% clear exactly the extent to which each is a relevant player, but they’r ..read more

German theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder's Youtube "I wasn't worried about climate change. Now I am," with over a million views in the past six days, shows results if James Hansen's warnings of climate sensitivity are correct. She said at 13:14 on the timeline, "It just blows my mind how mind-fucking stupid it is that the lives of all people on this planet depend on an obscure discussion about the properties of supercooled water droplets in a type of cloud whose name I can't even rememeber [ . . . . ] At 12:44 she noted, "If the climate sensitivity is [ . . . as high as James Hansen's ..read more