The Future Laid Bare.

Posted on 14/09/2015 by ixpieth

Scientific research and climate events over the last 2 years paint a different picture to the one the I.P.C.C. provides for COP21 in Paris this November. The U.N. and governments, have championed economic growth and technological development as necessary for a warming world. Sir Nicholas Stern (an economist), speaks as an ‘authority’ on the future “compatibility” of earth systems and economic growth.

“There is no conflict between economic growth and action on climate change.” (1)

The increase of research/data in 2006, compared to 2015, is staggering, as is what the reports say. The UNFCCC has overseen 20 years of COP meetings to limit warming to “under 2 degrees C”. This is not legally binding. (2) There was no penalty when Canada, Russia and Japan withdrew from the “legally binding” Kyoto Protocol.

Scientists such as James Hansen, Michael Mann (3) and Kevin Anderson (4), have since 2006 consistently been critical of the official climate change “doublespeak”, which, with climate denial, has allowed apathy, disinterest and confusion to develop at a grass roots community level towards climate change.

The I.P.C.C. “language” now explains we are “likely to achieve 2C with a 60% probability”(5), even though it now knows 2C is a marker between “dangerous” and “very dangerous” impacts. The IPCC knows that at a 90% “certainty” of staying under 2 degrees there is no carbon budget left, and reduces the “risk” from 90% “must stay under”, to a 60% “probability”. (RCP2.6). (6)

The IPCC announced a “carbon budget” which “allows” us to continue contributing to a cumulative emissions total that is “dangerous” now. (7)

The underlying economic concerns since 2007/8, and a considerably weakened environment movement since the 2009 Copenhagen fiasco, provided a vacuum now filled by Ecomodernism. New age economic “winners”, such as Gates (8), Branson and Musk have thrown their support behind the Ecomodernist movement with heavy research funding, whilst paying lip service to what is left of “the environment”. The centre of the climate denial industry, the Heartland Institute, and the Koch brothers, have recently given support to the Ecomodernist Manifesto, strange bedfellows. (9)

The manifesto’s geo-engineered, “virtual” climate future (business as usual), is nuclear fuelled, negative emissioned, GMO fed, Apple inspired and technologically spellbound by ideas of recreating extinct species and living on Mars. (10)

The recent announcement by the head of the I.E.A. that “decoupling” carbon emissions from growth is hailed as being “on the right track”, came after 46 billion metric tons-e of carbon was emitted. (11)

Along with prosperity, growth and a safe climate through technology, the I.P.C.C.’s “low/zero/no carbon” (RCP 2.6 /4.5 A.R.5), vision of negative emissions technology, “sometime between 2070 and 2100” (12, 13), is completely untried at scale, (or still theory), has unknown consequences and is far too late.

Ecomodernism has wide appeal, wait for technology and the markets, and do nothing for 70 years. The Anthropocene is here. This is the future Christiana Figueres is taking to Paris.

Governments, the I.P.C.C. and neoliberalism cannot control nature and time. Try as they may to control the science, the weight and consistency of proof over time, and nature’s response in the form of climate “events”, is becoming overwhelming, and exposing the doublespeak and lies up to now passed as “information”.

“Earth Will Cross the Climate Danger Threshold by 2036” is a paper by Dr Michael Mann that contains a dire warning. (14)

In Brief

The rate at which the earth’s temperature has been rising eased slightly in the past decade, but temperature is still increasing; calling the slowdown a “pause” is false.

New calculations by the author indicate that if the world continues to burn fossil fuels at the current rate, global warming will rise to two degrees Celsius by 2036, crossing a threshold that will harm human civilization.

To avoid the threshold, nations will have to keep carbon dioxide levels below 405 parts per million.

As the carbon content of the atmosphere is above 400 ppm now, this research indicates that there are 2 or 3 years at most, until we reach the atmospheric carbon content equivalent of 2 degrees of warming above pre-industrial times.

Relevant factors, not publicised in a Murdoch world, include Mann’s “cooling effect” of particles (from coal burning particularly), preventing temperature increases relative to emissions generated. As coal use declines, temperatures rise to equilibrium.

Thermal lag/inertia. Recent research from Katherine Rike and Ken Caldeira, give a 10 year “cause/effect” time, between emissions generation and heat increase. This indicates there is already “built in”, a further 0.5C warming, supported by Dr Mann’s research. (15)

Cryosphere “tipping points” are being reached far in advance (75 years) of IPCC projections at the north and south poles. (16) RCP 8.5 is the do nothing scenario the Arctic is heading for soon.

…………………………………………………..

In an attempt to activate negotiators at the Paris COP21, James Hansen has published a paper open for public comment called “Climate Danger in the Hyper-Anthropocene” and reopens the debate which the IPCC avoided about ice melt and rapid sea level rise over decadal periods. (17)

Climate scientist Paul Beckwith in conversation with Alec Smith examines many of these issues and suggests Arctic summer ice melts could see ice free summers in 5 years. (18)

Author David Spratt, following research by Dr Mann, says the temperature “now”, from pre 1880 modelling, and observations, is 1.17C above pre-industrial times. (19)

Given the “thermal lag” of 0.5C “built in”, we are very close to the 2 degree limit and the 405 ppm stated by Dr Mann.

Spratt also observes the “El Nino” event “brewing” in the central Pacific Ocean, as big at present as the 1998 EN which began a new level and regime of temperature increases.

“These points lead us to an uncomfortable conclusion: we are already at risk of failing to meet a target that is itself inadequate to avoid dangerous climate change”(20). and ;

“The world needs to understand the plausible worst-case scenario for climate change this century and beyond — something that the media and the IPCC have utterly failed to deliver.”(21)

The Low Road.

Posted on 10/09/2015 by ixpieth

Politicians have taken regard of historian Simon Schama’s comment that no one ever won an election by telling voters it had come to the end of its “providential allotment of inexhaustible plenty”. The official policy articulated, in a moment of unusual candour, by Jean-Claude Juncker, the current head of the European Commission, was that when the situation becomes serious it is simply necessary to lie.

For the moment, to paraphrase Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the “permanent lie [has become] the only safe form of existence“.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/satyajit-das-column-20150825-gj7bcy.html#ixzz3kIOC1BVl

The issue of climate change is no different, with the exception that blind faith in technology also incorporates a collective “amnesia” about the problems that we face because of technology. As pointed out to Stewart Brand by Winona LaDuke.

The politics of the “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” are based on the most powerful (U.S.) corporate intellect, the same philosophical basis upon which all governments are run.

The very oil, coal, and gas giants that have brought us to the brink of catastrophe are not just at the negotiating table—they are coming dangerously close to running the show. Examples of Big Energy’s influence in the talks abound: from corporations actually sponsoring the last round of talks (COP19), to industry front groups like the World Coal Association and IPIECA (the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association) gaining official status, to solutions on the table that seek to enrich the private sector above all else.

http://theleap.thischangeseverything.org/rescuing-the-climate-talks-from-corporate-capture-a-roadmap/

Naomi Klein’s book “The Shock Doctrine” on “disaster capitalism” is a stark reminder of what will happen to those who cannot pay, and the institutions on which they rely.

One of those who saw opportunity in the floodwaters of New Orleans was Milton Friedman……He wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal three months after the levees broke. “Most New Orleans schools are in ruins,” Friedman observed, “as are the homes of the children who have attended them. The children are now scattered all over the country. This is a tragedy. It is also an opportunity to radically reform the educational system.”…….. George W. Bush backed up their plans with tens of millions of dollars to convert New Orleans schools into “charter schools,” For Milton Friedman, the entire concept of a state-run school system reeked of socialism. In his view, the state’s sole functions were “to protect our freedom both from the enemies outside our gates and from our fellow-citizens: to preserve law and order, to enforce private contracts, to foster competitive markets.” In other words, to supply the police and the soldiers—anything else, including providing free education, was an unfair interference in the market.

Within nineteen months, with most of the city’s poor residents still in exile, New Orleans’ public school system had been almost completely replaced by privately run charter schools. Before Hurricane Katrina, the school board had run 123 public schools; now it ran just 4. Before that storm, there had been 7 charter schools in the city; now there were 31

For more than three decades, Friedman and his powerful followers had been perfecting this very strategy: waiting for a major crisis, then selling off pieces of the state to private players while citizens were still reeling from the shock, then quickly making the “reforms” permanent.

From “The Shock Doctrine, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”. Introduction

Governments who make the decisions in the IPCC forum have no thought to change the economic/social system to a more egalitarian climate justice base, but the IPCC is complicit by blind adherence to science fiction and the ecomodernist answers, Corporate ideology, and feeding this back into Government thinking as “viable”.

The Papacy turned the eye once more to the “moral” case for climate justice, but known skeptics within the church such as Cardinal George Pell from Australia, said the Catholic Church had no business issuing statements about politics.

The “Precautionary Principle” has morphed into ‘cost /benefit, risk analysis’ where GDP and profit are “privatising” what were once “Human Rights”

Naomi Klein’s book set the debate in the most analytical way possible. The logic is irrefutable, but is answered with silence and has failed to produce the required debate. Read it.

This is the “low road”, but requires more crowdfunding than is possible. Needs more emissions reductions that seem possible, more “Degrowth” than seems possible. It needs new financial taxes, redistribution of wealth and social reforms that don’t seem possible. More than that, it needs a sizeable majority with Climate Justice as its main talking point. Its a road we know instinctively but haven’t travelled before, its starting again.

A fork in the Road to Paris.

Posted on 02/08/2015 by ixpieth

The last 3 posts have centred on the “Road” the I.P.C.C. , U.N.F.C.C.C. , Governments think tanks and business are approaching the near future, and the CLIMATE REALITY which science informs us is developing.

Stewart Brand speaks of the science allowing re-creation of extinct species “The dawn of de-extinction. Are you ready?”

Brand is aligned with “eco modernists” who see a “Good Anthropocene” where (obviously) technology blossoms, geo-engineering, negative emissions technology, carbon capture and storage on a MASSIVE scale and Genetically Modified Organisms miraculously produce twice as much food on the same land for the extra 3 billion people. Its nuclear fueled business as usual, the new normal.

Is this the “new normal” for Iran ? I think a fork in the Road develops when the path advocated by the complete western negotiating process is heading for a climate catastrophe. So much information is missing from IPCC projections in the name of palatability and long term political blindness, that what is happening today is of no consequence until the next 7 year cycle reports are published. As detailed previously, in 2012 the summer Arctic Ice, (which has a MAJOR impact on northern hemisphere weather extremes, through the Polar Jet Stream), was 75% LESS than the average ice cover since measurements began. Bringing into play scenarios that the IPCC had not considered at all until after 2100. Things are happening at a MUCH faster rate than IPCC are arguing. What happens when lots of 150 kilometre diameter methane expulsions begin, or permafrost begins to melt.

The IPCC AR5 details the following ICE COVER IN 2081-2100 !!! (Click image for a larger view)

The IPCC has encouraged the thought of a “carbon budget” since the 5th AR report, and also redefined the terms of urgency of action. To keep temperatures below 2C based on the “science” and “equity”, was the promise of 2009. We MUST NOT exceed 2C is the correct emphasis as 2C has, through more research NOW been determined as “dangerous”. 2C now represents the border between “dangerous” and “very dangerous”.

Prof K Anderson, Climate Change, going beyond dangerous. http://kevinanderson.info/index.php

Emissions reductions trajectories at levels of “Representational Concentration Pathways” (RCP’s) of between 2.6 (which is the only “safe” trajectory), and RCP8.5, (which is the one we are on now), show the details.

The scenarios are used to assess the costs associated with emission reductions consistent with particular concentration pathways. The RCPs represent the range of GHG emissions, they include a stringent mitigation scenario (RCP2.6), two intermediate scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP6.0), and one scenario with very high GHG emissions (RCP8.5). Scenarios without additional efforts to constrain emissions (‘baseline scenarios’), lead to pathways ranging between RCP6.0 and RCP8.5. RCP 2.6 is representative of a scenario that aims to keep global warming likely below 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures. The majority of models indicate that scenarios meeting forcing levels similar to RCP2.6 are characterized by substantial net negative emissions by 2100, on average around 2GtCO2/yr.

IPCC Synthesis Report AR5 p 58

Even the language of the urgency is gone, the change from “not exceeding” to the (only) path “likely” to prevent 2C warming. Recent press releases from Canete and Figueres say, “it doesn’t matter if we don’t reach a binding agreement in Paris as this is an ongoing process”, or “deep and steep emissions reductions AFTER 2050”.

The 2013 IPCC reports have now “reduced the commitment” of NOT exceeding 2C, to >33%, >50%, and >66% “CHANCES of not exceeding 2C, best shot a 1 in 3 chance of failing. Would you cross the road, get on a plane or even leave the house if there was a 1 in 3 chance you wouldn’t return ?

As can be seen from the following table, ONLY when we speak of 33,50 and 66% “chances” IS A CARBON BUDGET AVAILABLE. When we seek a “severe risk” equivalent of 90% “certainty” of AVOIDING 2C we see there is NO CARBON BUDGET.

The IPCC’s AR5 report followed the “path” of 66% chance of staying under 2C but this budget “uncertainty” also brings the possibility of a 3C rise in temperature !!!

David Spratt, Climate Code Red, The Myth of Burnable Carbon.

The idea of a carbon budget and “allowable” emissions is dangerous, according to climate scientist Ken Caldeira: “There are no such things as ‘allowable carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions’. There are only ‘damaging CO2 emissions’ or ‘dangerous CO2 emissions’. Every CO2 emission causes additional damage and creates additional risk. Causing additional damage and creating additional risk with our CO2 emissions should not be allowed. If you look at how our politicians operate, if you tell them you have a budget of XYZ, they will spend XYZ. Politicians will reason: ‘If we’re not over budget, what’s to stop us to spending? Let the guys down the road deal with it when the budget has been exceeded.’ The CO2 emissions budget framing is a recipe for delaying concrete action now.” (Caldeira, quoted by David Spratt, Myth and Reality, 2014)

Prof. Kevin Anderson has been outspoken on this issue for many years. He points out that the single most “crucial” issue facing reductions, IS WHEN WILL EMISSIONS PEAK ? Given the surge in emissions from Chinese modernisation and their attempt to peak their emissions in 2030, it is reasonable to assume that India (similar population) would not peak until 2045, Africa and Sth America in 2060. If Annex 1 countries are still emitting half of the current emissions, it would be very optimistic to assume a peak before 2030, before the remaining “carbon budget” is gone.

You would notice Prof Anderson does not return emissions to zero on these graphs as it is felt impossible to reduce emissions from agriculture. The later the “peak” the harder the reductions, bearing in mind that it is the area under the lines (cumulative emissions) which ensures a 2C outcome. The 2020 peak (below) indicates the “unprecedented” 10% reductions trajectory giving only a 50/50 chance of staying under 2C.

Anderson says there is no longer a non radical option, and for developed economies to play an equitable role in holding warming to 2C (with 66% probability) emissions compared to 1990 levels would require at least a 40% reduction by 2018, 70% reduction by 2024, and 90% by 2030. This would require “in effect a Marshall plan for energy supply”. Low-carbon supply technologies cannot deliver the necessary rate of emission reductions, and they need to be complemented with rapid, deep and early reductions in energy consumption, what Anderson calls a radical emission reduction strategy. All this suggests that even holding warming to a too high 2°C limit now requires an emergency approach. Emergency action has proven fair and necessary for great social and economic challenges we have faced before. Call it the great disruption, the war economy, emergency mode, or what you like; the story is still the same, and it is now the only remaining viable path.

David Spratt, The Myth of Burnable Carbon, Climate Code Red, 2014.

The Road to Paris, What the UNFCCC ISN’T telling us.

Posted on 01/08/2015 by ixpieth

Follow link in top LH corner of screen to view.

This excerpt from “The Newsroom” just about says what needs to be said, but its T.V. right? No, its bang on the money, as Dr Michael Mann stated in this interview:

“If we had acted when we already knew that there was a potential problem [back in 1988],” says Mann. “If we had acted then, then the emissions curve would be a bunny slope…a pretty gradual, smooth transition. It wouldn’t be very hard to do, it wouldn’t be very expensive. Instead, what several decades of delay have bought us is that we now face the black double diamond slope. That’s what we’re confronting now.” http://bradblog.com/?p=11287

“With modern technology humans have become so powerful that we now rival the great forces of nature, so much so that we have diverted the planet from its natural course, taking it out of the Holocene’s 10,000 years of climatic stability and clemency into a new, unstable and dangerous geological epoch, the Anthropocene.

The International Commission on Stratigraphy is now going through a formal process of deciding whether it should add the Anthropocene to the Geological Time Scale, the scale on which the entire 4.5 billion year history of the Earth is divided.”

http://clivehamilton.com/crimes-against-nature-the-banality-of-ethics-in-the-anthropocene/

The last Road to Paris post described the technological basis for the future UNFCCC emissions reductions program. Over the last 2 years there has been a succession of high level reports of how the “Green Economy” would change the world, how the re-wiring of the world would be ‘doable’ at $90 TRILLION, how this would only amount to a small % of GDP. Green jobs, sustainable future and “yes we can” stay under 2 degrees.

The 7 year delay between the IPCC reports ensures that information published can be 4 or 5 years old, and more relevant information can miss the cycle of IPCC inclusion.

What is important to realise about the IPCC process is that it is conservative. Predictions made in past reports have been attributed 100’s years in the future in the reports, when they are happening before our eyes now. Witness the melting of Arctic Sea Ice, described by eminent scientists as being in a “death spiral” and the IPCC’s timescale of melt pushed out to the 2090’s-2100

These graphs of ice melt show the new “normal” as opposed to the IPCC RCP 4.5. (Used as the basis for climate “survival” trajectory. (click to see larger graph).

This overlay of 2012 measured ice melt on IPCC projections of Arctic Ice published in 2013. The delay in collating information, checking and publishing often means the IPCC data is outdated, and projections “optimistic”.

This years ice melt may not be less than the record low of 2012, but the melt season has another month to run in the hottest half-year start ever, for the 2nd year in a row. It is interesting to note that this years “melt” season began with a record LOW ice mass.

EVENTS ARE HAPPENING IN A MUCH SHORTER TIME FRAME THAN IPCC PREDICT.

Another major issue we are misled on is “THERMAL INERTIA”, the time taken for emissions to convert to heat increase. Estimates current in IPCC literature infer many decades difference between “cause and effect”. Previous research seemed to indicate a 40+ “time lag” before temperatures were impacted. This perhaps, as with the IPCC reports, tended to push things out further into the future, leaving responsibility for future generations. Allowing technological development to play catch-up. http://www.skepticalscience.com/Climate-Change-The-40-Year-Delay-Between-Cause-and-Effect.html

Recent research how has brought the “effects” much closer. http://globe-net.com/quickly-co2-emissions-start-cause-harm/

This has an amazing “oh f^+k” immediate impact on me. It appears that the level of warming NOW, (0.8C), that is causing the extreme weather events globally, IS CAUSED BY THE CUMULATIVE EMISSIONS UP TO 2005 !!!!!!

As can be seen, emissions generated in 2005 was 27 billion tonnes, China was a few years into its economic growth spurt which only slowed down when the Financial crisis hit in 2008. This had next to NO impact on emissions rise as the BRICS nations took up the slack of OECD emissions and maintained emissions generation.

Fast forward 10 years and we have hit 40 billion tonnes, A 50% INCREASE. The “carbon budget” is not impacted but the effects of the “locked in” temperature increase of TODAYS CARBON EMISSIONS WILL NOT BE FELT FOR 10 YEARS.

Many scientists are predicting that we have ALREADY 1.2C warming.

2014 saw no increase to this emissions figure, and was hailed by IEA chief Fatih Birol as evidence that the world was finally de-coupling economic growth from emissions generation. everything IS FINE AND WE ARE ON COURSE. http://www.iea.org/newsroomandevents/news/2015/march/global-energy-related-emissions-of-carbon-dioxide-stalled-in-2014.html

Even the best climate sceptic would avoid using 1 years data to predict the future, however, Fatih’s Crystal Ball detailing the continued use and expansion of fossil fuels past 2050, OR the creation of a liquid carbon industry sequestering hundreds of BILLIONS of tonnes (TWICE AS BIG AS THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY), can be achieved without pushing global temperatures past 2 degree before he has a chance to become Emperor. But, Christiana Figures is also “spellbound” after having gazed into the Crystal Ball, and this is the road we are taking to Paris.

” . . . . the 450 ppm level will soon be crossed, the question remains, how will we respond . . . . . ” The Newsroom.

No place like home.

How do we start again?

Tag Archives: Road to Paris

The Future Laid Bare.

The Low Road.

A fork in the Road to Paris.

The Road to Paris, What the UNFCCC ISN’T telling us.

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