The world has lost one-third of its forests since the end of the last great ice age. Deforestation has continued throughout the last millennia but rates rapidly accelerated in the last few centuries. There was a marked acceleration in deforestation rates in the 20th century, particularly in tropical regions. Global forest loss peaked in the 1980s – losing an area…
May 2020 hit a record high, 417 parts per million (ppm) carbon dioxide as measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory, which has continually measured CO2 in the atmosphere since 1958. The reading of 417 ppm is likely the highest it has ever been in the history of humans on Earth. On top of that, it is likely the highest concentration…
Outstanding work by the ABC team abcnews , storylab, the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes to visualise climate change over time and make the global, very personal. From top to bottom, these stripes use Bureau of Meteorology data to show how temperatures have changed in Australia since 1910. The colours indicate how much…
More of Greenland's ice melted in the summers of 2000-2019 than in the ones between 1979-1999. Some data: Links National Snow and Ice Data Center and the obligatory other links... Five from Five 1.5 - Probably Not... IPCC Global Warming of 1.5c 8th of October Oh, yeah, There’s this… Zero Carbon – The Future Called… The Fork in the…
Consider, once again the current political discourse and *major* issues in the news. Consider the *major* policy announcements of political parties prior to an upcoming Australian Federal Election. Then take a moment to ponder this. The highest weekly average CO2 ever measured at Mauna Loa: 412.4 ppm, almost 4 ppm above same time last year. February seems on its way…
Five “The last five Septembers (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018) rank as the five warmest on record” https://t.co/WMe5rwS1CM — Terry Hughes (@ProfTerryHughes) October 17, 2018 Let's be clear September 2018 and year to date were 4th hottest on record for the globe. The 10 warmest September global land and ocean surface temperatures have occurred since 2003 The last five…
Cross-Roads. After attending a 2016 public lecture at Lab-14 co-hosted by the Australian-German Climate and Energy College, the Climate Institute and the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, I mused [pessimistically] that 1.5 or 2 degrees no longer seemed a choice. The IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C has just been released today. In essence, zero net emissions by…
![IPCC Overshoot [2018]](http://www.billcoppinger.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/IPCC-Overshoot-748x350.png)
Tomorrow [8th of October] is not just another Monday. The 48th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 48) is convening from 1-5 October 2018, in Incheon, Republic of Korea. Consider the state of current general policy response to a warming planet and those that offer 'opinion' or 'identity' as a generational policy vector. We should take Hitch's…