{"id":1429464,"date":"2024-01-05T17:42:56","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T17:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=147176"},"modified":"2024-01-05T17:42:56","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T17:42:56","slug":"antarctica-under-siege-and-xr-takes-a-radical-turn-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/01\/05\/antarctica-under-siege-and-xr-takes-a-radical-turn-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Antarctica Under Siege and XR Takes a Radical Turn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antarctica has finally succumbed to rapid climate change. This past year (2023) brought changes to the icy continent that left climate scientists feeling a \u201cpunch in the gut.\u201d (“Red Alert in Antarctica: The Year Rapid Dramatic Change Hit Climate Scientists Like a \u201cPunch in the Guts“,<\/em> The Guardian<\/em>, December 30, 3023.)<\/p>\n

Antarctic sea ice cover crashed for six months straight to a level so far below anything else on the satellite record that scientists struggled for adjectives to describe what they were witnessing.<\/p>\n

Global warming\u2019s impact on Antarctica is serious, dangerous, threatening, hard to believe, and maybe unstoppable. Warnings like this, but not as serious as this, have been happening for years. As a result, too much negativity has turned the public numb to climate change. It\u2019s been an endless stream of bad news that never gets good, always bad. But, in all honesty, that\u2019s the nature of the beast unless reality is simply ignored.<\/p>\n

Mainstream news recognizes the frustration, for example: \u201cGlobal efforts to reach net-zero carbon emissions are failing in almost every way, with one exception: the boom in electric vehicles.\u201d (Source: “EVs Are the Only Bright Spot in Climate Fight, Study Shows”, Bloomberg<\/em>, November 14, 2023.)<\/p>\n

At the other end of the spectrum, Extinction Rebellion -XR- famous for gluing people to airplanes, roadways, and fossil fuel hdqs doorways, and one of the most famous or infamous (take your pick) internationally organized groups against the root causes of global warming has heard enough bad news. It\u2019s changing strategy by accepting reality.<\/p>\n

Co-founder Roger Hallam just took XR off the streets, so to speak, with his 2024 new year email broadcast: \u201cBalance: Building the Next Civilization in 2024,\u201d which is a brilliant practical strategic change of heart. In Roger\u2019s words: \u201cLook, the carbon regime has totally fucked up, so the climate crisis is now locked in. We don\u2019t need to create massive social disruption because it\u2019s going to happen anyway! The regime will collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. So, what next? We need to build the next civilization and stop fascism from taking us to a terminal hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roger sees the inevitability of what\u2019s already set in motion, including the burgeoning fascist movement, and he sees the rotted failure of UN climate conferences (for over 30 years now) not addressing the root cause of ecosystem destruction. As a result, nothing is going to be done soon enough to make a difference. All the chatter about nuclear power and tripling renewables, blah-blah-blah, at the end of the day, will be greenwashing to appease people who see one \u201cnatural disaster\u201d unfold after another on nightly news over the past couple of years, massive floods, massive droughts, massive storms, massive wildfires, and massive atmospheric rivers. Everything is massive these days.<\/p>\n

In the real world, none of the proposed solutions for climate change meet the \u201cscale of the problem\u201d after more than 200 years of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Climate change is climate change is climate change, the same for eons, but the 21st century brand is radically different from anything in the paleoclimate record because it\u2019s 10 times faster, in some instances 100 times faster. than ever before in paleoclimate history. Humans can\u2019t keep up with the biogeological turbocharged monster. Scientists complain it\u2019s happening so much faster than their models.<\/p>\n

Ipso facto, ecosystems teeter throughout the planet; e.g., Greenland, in bad shape. Some scientists don\u2019t even want to talk about Greenland any longer once it rained for the first time in recorded history at the Summit, 10,551 feet elevation.<\/p>\n

A recent study about Greenland\u2019s past is horrifying: \u201cA recently discovered ice core taken from beneath\u00a0the ice sheet\u00a0decades ago\u00a0<\/strong>has revealed that a large part was ice-free around 400,000 years ago, when temperatures were similar to those\u00a0what we are now approaching. It\u2019s an alarming finding that has implications for sea level rise. The\u00a0<\/strong>study overturns previous assumptions that most of Greenland\u2019s ice sheet was frozen for millions of years. Instead, moderate, natural warming led to large-scale melting and sea level rise of more than 1.4 meters (4.6 feet), according to the report\u00a0in the journal Science.<\/a>\u201d The lead author of the study, Paul Bierman, University of Vermont: \u201cWhen you look at what nature did in the past, as geoscientists, that\u2019s our best clue to the future.\u201d (“Long Lost Greenland Ice Core Suggest Potential for Disastrous Sea Level Rise”, CNN, July 20, 2023.)<\/p>\n

Interestingly, and nerve-wracking, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today are 1.5 times higher than 400,000 years ago when sea levels increased 4.6 feet. Melt events take time but how much time nobody knows.<\/p>\n

According to Copernicus \u2018Ice Sheets\u2019<\/a>, since 1980 the rate of ice mass loss tripled for Greenland (pre-1980s, it was stable and in balance) and Antarctica. And now accelerating. Tripling the rate of ice mass loss of the two largest chunks of ice on the planet is impossible to fathom.<\/p>\n

According to the science, Antarctica is in big trouble, and it may be irreversible. Coastal cities could be under water; it\u2019s just a matter of time; nobody knows how soon or later, but at the current rate of global fossil fuel emissions, it looks grim. After all, the fossil fuel industry has publicly announced intentions to go full-bore, like there\u2019s no tomorrow, they are cranking up oil production big time, according to statements by big oil companies. \u00a0\u201cGlobal fossil fuel production in 2030 is set to be more than double the level deemed consistent with meeting climate goals set under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.\u201d (“Global Fossil Fuel Production Plans Far Exceed Climate Targets, UN Says”<\/em>, Reuters<\/em>, November 8, 2023.)<\/p>\n

Massively increasing oil production conforms to a recent James Hansen (Earth Institute-Columbia University) publication about exceeding the world\u2019s most recognizable threshold, aka: the danger zone, the Climate Maginot Line or 2C above pre-industrial. Hansen\u2019s prediction is way ahead of expectations, the upcoming decade, the 2030s. \u00a0That\u2019s early! It should be noted that scientists claim exceeding 2C wreaks havoc with life-sourcing ecosystems. For example, it\u2019s already happening at above 2C with Arctic permafrost melting 2-4 times the average of global warming. Arctic rivers turn toxic and orange, one of the biggest sore thumbs on the planet, but Antarctica, the Amazon rainforest, Greenland, and the Great Barrier Reef are challenging.<\/p>\n

A British Antarctic Survey found the record drop in sea ice led to a catastrophic breeding failure for animals. Meanwhile, East Antarctica recorded its biggest heatwave ever at 39C above normal. And making matters worse, a major study published in Nature<\/em> found meltwater slowing down, by a nerve-rattling 30%, Southern Ocean Overturning Circulation; this has huge negative implications for global weather, especially for northern Europe, which could lose its warm tropical current flow. And the implications for marine life are a major concern.<\/p>\n

Meantime, West Antarctica melting has tripled, and studies show accelerated melting of the ice shelves has locked in a cascading impact for West Antarctica which is in much worse shape than its eastern cousin.<\/p>\n

Even worse yet for sea level rise expectations, Antarctica\u2019s enormous loss of sea ice was never expected so early. According to Tony Press, former head of the Australian Antarctic Division: \u201cThere\u2019s a chance that it could come back again, but there\u2019s also a very, very high chance that sea ice in Antarctica has moved into a new state\u2026 You would not be an alarmist if you said you were really worried about that. \u201d (Ibid.)<\/p>\n

Researchers claim a permanent loss of sea ice would accelerate ocean warming, as dark water absorbs more heat than ice and amplifies the rate of global sea level rise by removing a buffer protecting the continent\u2019s ice shelves.<\/p>\n

Antarctica, like so many other ecosystems throughout the globe, such as the Amazon rainforest (20% gone for good, 40% severely degraded) no longer adhere to the flow of Mother Nature. Human activity dictates the flow.<\/p>\n

Roger Hallam, co-founder of XR, has seen the future, and it\u2019s an analog of the past but much worse. Now, he\u2019s searching for answers to building the next civilization. Not a bad idea. But where?<\/p>The post Antarctica Under Siege and XR Takes a Radical Turn<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.\n

This post was originally published on Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Antarctica has finally succumbed to rapid climate change. This past year (2023) brought changes to the icy continent that left climate scientists feeling a \u201cpunch in the gut.\u201d (\u201cRed Alert in Antarctica: The Year Rapid Dramatic Change Hit Climate Scientists Like a \u201cPunch in the Guts\u201c, The Guardian, December 30, 3023.) Antarctic sea ice cover [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post Antarctica Under Siege and XR Takes a Radical Turn<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":254,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19874,67392,776,72119,11840,72480],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429464"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1429464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1429465,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429464\/revisions\/1429465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1429464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1429464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1429464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}