“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” JRR Tolkein
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) found that the heating effect of greenhouse gases rose fifty percent between 1990 and 2022. CO2, a long-lasting atmospheric greenhouse gas, accounted for eighty percent of the increase.
The Guardian's WMO reporting found that methane levels are rising due to a possible active wetland methane feedback loop currently underway.
WMO
"An alarmist is someone who yells fire in a crowded theater if there is no fire. But if the building is ablaze, they’re just telling the truth"Methane concentrations also grew, and levels of nitrous oxide, the third main gas, saw the highest year-on-year increase on record from 2021 to 2022, according to the Greenhouse Bulletin, which is published to inform the United Nations Climate Change negotiations, or COP28, in Dubai.
This WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin devotes its cover story to the Global Greenhouse Gas Watch, which was approved by the World Meteorological Congress in May. This ambitious initiative envisages sustained greenhouse gas monitoring in order to be able to account for both human activities related and natural sources and sinks. It will provide vital information and support for the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C and aiming for 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
The abundance of climate-heating gases in the atmosphere reached record highs in 2022, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has reported.
The WMO said “there is no end in sight to the rising trend”, which is largely driven by the burning of fossil fuels.
The concentration of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, is now 50% higher than before the start of the Industrial Revolution.
The Earth has not experienced similar levels of CO2 for 3-5 million years, when the global temperature was 2-3C warmer and sea level was 10-20 metres higher than today, the WMO said.
The concentrations of the two other key greenhouse gases, methane and nitrous oxide, also grew, according to the report, published ahead of the UN’s Cop28 climate summit, which begins on 30 November.
Speaking of COP 28, the US To Call For Tripling Nuclear Power Capacity Worldwide By 2050 At COP 28 while Brazil's Lula to present pastureland recovery policy.
Climate people: please don't leave Twitter unless your mental health demands it. We need you here where the politicians and journalists are.The fossil fuel industry and their bought and paid-for governments want you to die plan no serious reductions in fossil fuel extraction. On the contrary.
But oil and gas producers have pushed back against the report and say gas in particular will be needed for decades to back up renewable energy.
They also said gas would help underpin the mineral processing and manufacturing required to clean up the economy.
The latest Production Gap Report, released today, suggested the "plans and projections" of governments implied coal production would continue to increase until 2030 and that oil and gas output would rise until "at least 2050".
Governments around the world, including Australia's, are planning to expand the fossil fuel industry to about twice what would be consistent with their pledge to try to stop warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, a United Nations report has found.
The report found governments are not only planning to breach production levels consistent with global 1.5 and 2C warming limits, but also their own announced emissions pledges and stated policies.
Coal must be phased out seven times faster than is now happening, deforestation must be reduced four times faster, and public transport around the world built out six times faster than at present, if the world is to avoid the worst impacts of climate breakdown, new research has found.
Countries are falling behind on almost every policy required to cut greenhouse gas emissions, despite progress on renewable energy and the uptake of electric vehicles.
This failure makes the prospect of holding global temperatures to 1.5C above preindustrial levels even more remote, according to the State of Climate Action 2023 report. The authors advise that world needs to:
Retire about 240 average-sized coal-fired power plants a year, every year between now and 2030.
Construct the equivalent of three New Yorks’ worth of public transport systems in cities around the world each year this decade.
Halt deforestation, which is happening to an area the size of 15 football pitches every minute, this decade.
Increase the rate of growth of solar and wind power from its current high of 14% a year to 24% a year.
Cut meat consumption from ruminants such as cows and sheep to about two servings a week in the US, Europe and other high-consuming countries by 2030.
I’m not sure about you, but I have yet to hear one politician advocate that we need to shut down fossil fuels now, end the agricultural and automotive industries, or rewild the planet. That is what it will take to turn this fuckery around, and even then, we need to suck carbon out of the atmosphere. It will be an apocalypse if we do and an apocalypse if we don’t.
The time to stop colonialism was in the 1600s.
The time to stop carbon-based industrialization was the 1800s.
The time to stop climate change was at least 100 years ago.
The time to research and plan for worst-case scenarios is now.