Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Climate Predictions: Call Off the Quest

Over the past 30 years, the climate research community has made valiant efforts to answer the "climate sensitivity" question: What is the long-term equilibrium warming response to a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide? Earlier this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (1) concluded that this sensitivity is likely to be in the range of 2° to 4.5°C, with a 1-in-3 chance that it is outside that range. The lower bound of 2°C is slightly higher than the 1.6°C proposed in the 1970s (2); progress on the upper bound has been minimal.

©Science Magazine
Carbon dioxide-induced warming under two scenarios simulated by an ensemble of simple climate models. (Left) CO2 levels are stabilized in 2100 at 450 ppm; (right) the stabilization target is recomputed in 2050. Shading denotes the likelihood of a particular simulation based on goodness-of-fit to observations of recent surface and subsurface-ocean temperature trends (7, 8). Simulations are plotted in order of increasing likelihood, so worse-fitting models are obscured. The bar labeled "EQM" shows the models' likelihood against their long-term equilibrium warming at 450 ppm. How these likelihoods are translated into forecast probabilities is controversial, and the more asymmetric the likelihood function, the greater the scope for controversy.

Bizarro Earth

Huge Ash Cloud as Indonesia's Mount Soputan Erupts



©n/a

Mount Soputan volcano on the northern tip of Indonesia's Sulawesi island has erupted, throwing columns of ash 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) into the air, an official said on Friday. Saut Simatupang, of Indonesia's Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, said that the eruption did not appear to pose an immediate threat to residents, although ash had reached the nearest town.

Question

Mystery bee-killing disease returns to Florida

Unexplained honeybee deaths have recently started showing up in Florida, the same state where the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder was first discovered a year ago, the Agriculture Department's top bee scientist said Thursday.

Comment: Something is certainly up with our helpful insect friends. We have discussed this topic here at SOTT several times and recommend you read To Bee or not to Be for plenty of explosive material to ponder on.

Here's a short excerpt:
This really is BIG, people! Do you realize how CLOSE you are to the total collapse of whatever lifestyle you have, including having food on your table (let alone having a table to put it on or a house to keep the table in!)

Don't yawn because the habits of bees might be boring and it certainly isn't as entertaining as TV or whatever mindless thing you do and call it entertainment.

If you read every word I have written and assembled here, you will know more about global agriculture than you probably ever thought you WANTED to know, but just now, you had BETTER know it because YOUR life depends on it!

The fact is, the disappearing bees are giving you a gift, right now, a choice if you will only take the time to read and learn.



Nuke

Earth Is Reaching The Point of No Return, Says Major UN Environment Report

The speed at which mankind is using and abusing the Earth's resources is putting humanity's survival at risk, scientists have said.

The bleak assessment of the state of the environment globally was issued as an "urgent call for action" amid growing concerns of worldwide waste, neglect and governmental inertia.

Fundamental changes in political policy and individual lifestyles were demanded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as it gave warning that the "point of no return" for the environment is fast being approached.

©Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
2 million people are killed each year by air pollution

Comment: A sustainable future can only be possible when equipped with sufficient objective knowledge about the reality we inhabit - for example the knowledge contained in 'Political Ponerology', which details how and why we have come to this "point of no return" and suggests possible solutions to avoid repeating the same mistakes in future.


Bizarro Earth

Indonesia lifts tsunami warning after Sumatra quake

A powerful magnitude 7.1 earthquake jolted the Indian Ocean off Indonesia's Sumatra island early on Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties and a brief tsunami alert was lifted.

©REUTERS/Graphics

Bizarro Earth

Volcanic activity seen as cause of earthquakes in British Columbia

Volcanic activity appears to be the cause of the earthquakes 150 kilometres southwest of Prince George, volcanologist Catherine Hickson said Wednesday, but is stressing that the potential for an actual eruption remains low.

Scientists are continuing to monitor the situation and five seismographs have been moved into the location about 20 km. west of Nazko Cone, a small dormant volcano that last erupted 7,200 years ago.

Cloud Lightning

Record Breaking Temps In NYC For 5th Time In Oct.

City On Brink Of Warmest October Ever

For the fifth time this month, a record high temperature was set at LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday, and it's the seventh record high to be set in the last six weeks.

The temperature Tuesday topped out at 80-degrees, breaking the old record set back in 1995.

Bizarro Earth

California wildfires force historic evacuation

Fierce wildfires raged across Southern California on Tuesday, threatening more than 60,000 homes as night fell and forcing half a million people to flee in the state's largest evacuation.

©Reuters

Bizarro Earth

Geologists: Collier Glacier in Oregon is shrinking

Between the North Sister and Middle Sister in Oregon's Cascade Range, Collier Glacier has advanced and receded for hundreds of thousands of years. But like many glaciers, it is headed in one direction these days: backward.

It is in serious peril, says geologist Ellen Morris Bishop of the Fossil-based Oregon Paleo Lands Institute. "We have basically a really sad picture of Collier Glacier today."

©Glaciers Online

Red Flag

Raging Calif. Wildfires Force 1M to Flee

SAN DIEGO - Faced with unrelenting winds whipping wildfires into a frenzy across Southern California, firefighters all but conceded defeat Tuesday to an unstoppable force that has chased an estimated 1 million people away.