Click on photos to enlarge
King Tide on San
Francisco Embarcadero on Tuesday, January 21, 2015 offers a glimpse into the not too
distant future of Climate Change: Photo
credit, Mike Flippoff, SF Chronicle
~ Michael Carter, Kingfisher's Song: Memories Against Civilization
2014 was the hottest year on record for California and 2015 is starting out on the same track as global warming, like a never ending creeping fog, inevitably changes our coastlines and way of life and ushers in the hard cold reality of Climate Chang
" This is what San Francisco will look like on an average day in 2050," said Marina Psaros, co-founder of the Kings Tides Project, an environmental group that studies the phenomenon. "Water levels are higher because the Earth is warmer ~ there's nothing theoretical about it, nobody with a real stake in the game, people like city planners and insurance underwriters ~ is denying global warming anymore."
But I maintain that we are already beyond the point of no return ~ because the release of previously trapped arctic methane stores into the atmosphere will magnify the gradual effects of feedback loops, climate disruption and the rapid rise of sea levels.
The looming specter of an abrupt methane release in the artic is not only real but likely and could lead to an immediate temperature rise of 5 to 6 degrees ~ possibly within a decade as explained by Dahr Jamail in Truthout;
Excerpt: " Vast amounts of methane lie frozen in the Arctic. It's not news that the Arctic sea ice is melting rapidly, and that it will likely be gone for short periods during the summers starting as early as next year. Losing that ice means releasing larger amounts of previously trapped methane into the atmosphere…..In the simplest terms, here's what an ice-free Arctic would mean when it comes to heating the planet: Minus the reflective ice cover on Arctic waters, solar radiation would be absorbed, not reflected, by the Arctic Ocean. That would heat those waters, and hence the planet, further. This effect has the potential to change global weather patterns, vary the flow of winds and even someday possibly alter the position of the jet stream. Polar jet streams are fast-flowing rivers of wind positioned high in the earth's atmosphere that push cold and warm air masses around, playing a critical role in determining the weather of our planet…In the atmosphere, methane is a greenhouse gas that, on a relatively short-term time scale, is far more destructive than carbon dioxide. When it comes to heating the planet, methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide, per molecule, on a 100-year timescale, and 105 times more potent on a 20-year timescale - and the Arctic permafrost, onshore and off, is packed with the stuff.” See article ~ http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/28490-the-methane-monster-roars
What Dahr is saying is that a 50 gigaton release (Burp) of Methane from thawing Artic Permafrost beneath the East Siberian sea is highly possible at any time ~ "This means that methane releases from decaying frozen hydrates could result in emission rates that "could change in order of magnitude in a matter of minutes," and that there would be nothing "smooth, gradual or controlled about it" ~ as it would affect the whole planet immediately.
A Methane time bomb ticking away in the artic and holding the whole world hostage unless we evolve collectively from ego consciousness to soul consciousness.
Here's more recent evidence of global warming and the effect on rising sea levels ~ Meltwater lakes in Greenland are fast draining off due to rising temperatures in the region, with some of them disappearing within weeks. One of the sub-glacial lakes that once held about 6.7 billion gallons of water disappeared within a single season ~ and the second one has filled and emptied twice in the last two years.
Scientists already know that sub-glacial lakes exist in Greenland, but they were not aware that they drain out to sea at almost 57,000 gallons per second ~ until now; and this appears to be the main cause of rising sea levels. See NY Times article ~ http://www.thetimesgazette.com/due-to-rising-temperatures-greenlands-lakes-are-disappearing-within-weeks/652/
There is something very right about this global warming message ~ Unite and cooperate or perish ~ are we ready for dramatic needed action?
The earth is growing impatient and demands an answer through climate change.
“Men
argue. Nature acts.” ~ Voltaire
“Global warming is by its very nature a threat, but it is a deadly threat only because it fails to trigger the brain's alarm. It leaves us sleeping in a burning bed.”
ReplyDelete~ Dan Gilbert
This is our only home. I truly miss 'Carl Sagan!' He really had the perfect synopsis of us as stewards of this jewel that hangs in space. Our tiny planet suspended in a moonbeam. Wow. Denial seems to have no bounds.... Thank you, for sharing another great essay, Allen. ~Vince
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