A pair of new studies released on Monday share a same ominous message -- that our planet's ice is melting at an alarming rate, which is bad news for global sea levels. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/14/world/climate-change-antarctica-ice-melt-twin-studies/index.html

Antarctic ice-sheet sensitivity to obliquity forcing enhanced through ocean connections https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0284-4

Four decades of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass balance from 1979–2017 https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/01/08/1812883116

A record-low start to the new year in Antarctica http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2019/01/a-record-low-start-to-the-new-year-in-antarctica/

Evolution of #Antarctic melt season since November - its sea ice extent is currently around 1,000,000 square kilometers below average https://twitter.com/ZLabe/status/1086296356551979010

Catherine Walker: Global Warming and Changes in East Antarctic Glaciers #AGU2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P9X7lLl5Iw

Support Climate State http://patreon.com/ClimateState

Jim White (University of Colorado Boulder) talks January 17, 2019 about past and future climate progress, at the Weather and Climate Summit 2019. The talk is titled, "A look back and forward: 30 years of crying in the wildness."

Watch the full live stream recording by StormCenter Communications https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw5SFTJktTM

November 8, 2018 - Tim Lenton of University of Exeter presents "Tipping Points in Climate and Biosphere Function".

Release via the National Academy of Sciences https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F4ET3sQXW4

The world is facing the increased risk of political confrontations between major powers, which is hindering solutions to challenges like climate change, according to the The WEF report, called the Global Risks Report 2019. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/16/davos-founders-warn-of-rising-tension-between-the-worlds-superpowers.html Read the report https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-risks-report-2019

Speakers:

Aengus Collins, Head of Global Risks and Geopolitical Agenda
Alison Martin, Group Chief Risk Officer, Zurich Insurance Group

In 2014, as part of the Discover the Physical Sciences Breakfast Lecture Series at the University of California, climate researcher Eric Rignot (NASA/JPL) outlined our understanding of changes in the major cryosphere hotspots in Antarctica and Greenland, in his talk titled "Response of the Great Ice Sheets to Climate Warming".

Read about his newest 2019 study, "Antarctica ice melt has accelerated by 280% in the last 4 decades" https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/14/world/climate-change-antarctica-ice-melt-twin-studies/index.html

Source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd_e7UiZHow&list=PLs90LflN6k43OQLi4J8Vfz67zeApb8bU2

Marshall Burke (Stanford University) discusses the impact of climate change on human behavior with Russ Altman (January 2019).

Obscured behind the better-known impacts of climate change are a host of potentially more serious effects global leaders have yet to reckon with.

Via Stanford University School of Engineering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0DfR0FEZdU

On June 29th, 1988, the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittees held a joint hearing on the threat of global warming. James Scheuer, Jessica Mathews, and Daniel L. Albritton discussed how to act on climate change on an international scale.

Current Drought and Global Warming https://www.c-span.org/video/?3246-1/current-drought-global-warming

On June 29th, 1988, the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittees held a joint hearing on the threat of global warming. Here the segment of Jessica Mathews's (World Resource Institute) statement.

Current Drought and Global Warming https://www.c-span.org/video/?3246-1/current-drought-global-warming

Jessica Mathews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Mathews

On June 29th, 1988, the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittees held a joint hearing on the threat of global warming. Here the segment of Daniel L. Albritton's (Director Aeronomy Laboratory NOAA) statement.

Current Drought and Global Warming https://www.c-span.org/video/?3246-1/current-drought-global-warming

D. L. Albritton's research https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/76163582_D_L_Albritton

Tim Rumage (Coordinator Environmental Studies), speaks at the Sustainable Communities Workshop November 29, 2018, the talk is titled, "The Shrinking Timeline for Global Warming."

Source Sarasota County Government (Official)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWYl3o3bWgg

Climate Science Breakfast with James Anderson (2016). EPS/SEAS Climate Science Breakfast: “Coupled Feedbacks in the Climate Structure That Set the Time Scale for Irreversible Change: Arctic Isotopes to Stratospheric Radicals" with James Anderson, Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry, Harvard University.

Harvard on Climate Change https://www.harvard.edu/tackling-climate-change

Release https://vimeo.com/126306925

In 2009, climate scientist Richard Alley (Pennsylvania State University) held the talk, "The Biggest Control Knob: Carbon Dioxide in Earth's Climate History" (Bjerknes Lecture), at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.

CO2 is, and has always been, the biggest climate control knob in the Earth’s history https://mind.ofdan.ca/co2-is-and-has-always-been-the-biggest-climate-control-knob-in-the-earths-history

2015 release by AGU https://youtu.be/3UVb--2-PBg

What happens in climate pollution does affect a global scale -- According to @SenWhitehouse, 60 of the 70 billion $ spent by conservative interests to keep the U.S. Senate in Republican hands was connected to fossil fuel interests. They bought the U.S. Senate to block climate action. https://twitter.com/MichaelEMann/status/1083449934706282497

Senator Whitehouse on Twitter https://twitter.com/SenWhitehouse/status/1083448349661908992

Source www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0ZWKirKNo0a

Teaser by
Jackson Douglas https://unsplash.com/photos/L3HrRyVyINo

A brief outline of CO2 emissions, based on global trends, with a focus on China by Zeke Hausfather (Berkeley) and U.S. CO2 emissions by Trevor Houser (Rhodium Group), as well as an outline on reductions by Drew Shindell about various emissions, including SLCP's (Short Lived Climate Pollutants).

Sources:

Global release of greenhouse gases has increased in two consecutive years. University of California Berkeley expert, and Carbon Brief writer, Zeke Hausfather, has analysis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqvUw6OcE8M

NPR: U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Are Once Again On The Rise https://www.npr.org/2019/01/08/683258294/u-s-carbon-dioxide-emissions-are-once-again-on-the-rise

Drew Shindell (Duke University) via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnOCDpPPeSY

Teaser https://pixabay.com/en/china-antiquity-girls-1572774/

Oslo's (Norway) race to car free city. https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/05/oslos-race-to-become-a-major-bike-haven/559358/ Norway is banning cars from the centre of Oslo.
Parking spaces are to be replaced with flower beds.
60km of cycle lanes are being built.

We have solutions to the #climate crisis. Let's implement them. https://twitter.com/MikeHudema/status/1082068913586929670

Robert Constanza (Australian National University), speaks about planetary boundaries and ecological economy at the Club of Rome 50th Anniversary Meeting in Rome, October 2018. Watch the full panel via https://www.facebook.com/clubofrome/videos/1885081848213161/ and https://50thclubofrome.com

Parts of the talks slides can be viewed here in more detail http://www.idakub.com/academics/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2016_Costanza_SDGs-EcoEco.pdf and at http://www.robertcostanza.com/research-projects/

Modelling and measuring sustainable wellbeing in connection with the UN Sustainable Development Goals http://www.comitatoscientifico.org/temi%20SD/documents/COSTANZA,%20GIOVANNINI%20Wellbeing%20and%20SDG%2016.pdf

Robert Costanza https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Costanza

Johan Rockström (Stockholm Resilience Centre), talks about planetary boundaries and tipping points, "Living in the Anthropocene", at the Club of Rome 50th Anniversary Meeting in Rome, October 2018. https://www.pik-potsdam.de/news/in-short/new-report-updates-201climits-of-growth201d-pik-experts-speak-at-club-of-rome-anniversary-conference And briefly outlines the report, "Transformation is feasible – How to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals within Planetary Boundaries" https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2018-10-17-a-smarter-scenario.html

Source https://www.facebook.com/clubofrome/videos/321777088377685/ and https://50thclubofrome.com

Johan Rockström https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Rockström
http://twi2050.org

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), speaks October 2018 at the 50th Anniversary Summit of the Club of Rome, Aurelio Peccei Lecture, in Rome. The talk is titled, "Climate, Complexity, Conversion". The talk briefly discusses the 2018 landmark study, "Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene" https://www.pnas.org/content/115/33/8252 , delves into societies attention to climate change, and Schellnhuber touches on synergistic future challenges, such as artificial intelligence. #ClimateState

Related: New report updates “Limits of Growth”: PIK experts speak at Club of Rome anniversary conference https://www.pik-potsdam.de/news/in-short/new-report-updates-201climits-of-growth201d-pik-experts-speak-at-club-of-rome-anniversary-conference

Source: https://www.facebook.com/clubofrome/videos/2165242850384304/ and https://50thclubofrome.com

Ugo Bardi (University of Florence), speaks at the 50th Anniversary Summit of the Club of Rome, October 2018. "Fortune is of sluggish growth, but ruin is rapid."

Toward a General Theory of Societal Collapse. A Biophysical Examination of Tainter s Model of the Diminishing Returns of Complexity - In this paper, we present a simple biophysical model which we link to the concept that societies collapse because of the diminishing returns of complexity proposed by Joseph Tainter. https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.07056

Source https://www.facebook.com/clubofrome/videos/781049835559853
and https://50thclubofrome.com

Teaser image by Hubert Robert https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hubert_Robert_-_Landscape_with_the_Ruins_of_the_Round_Temple,_with_a_Statue_of_Venus_and_a_Monument_to_Marcus_Aurelius.jpg

See also, Seneca the Younger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger

Das ganze Interview von Tilo Jung mit Fefe, einem bekannten blogger und Hacker, kann hier geschaut werden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKmvLvqUuBg

Fefe's blog http://blog.fefe.de

Chaos Computer Congress 2018 / 35C3, How Data Scientists can help to avoid a sixth global extinction

As humans have a large negative impact on ecosystems all around the globe, we are approaching a major extinction event in which around 70% of all species will go extinct. This talk will give an introduction to a data-driven and system-based view of ecology.

Since life emerged on this planet around 3 billion years ago, five global extinction events took place, that are characterized by over 60% of all species disappearing within a geologically short time interval. The last decades of environmental research, however, made it evidently clear that anthropogenic impacts on the global ecology could lead to a sixth global extinction. Being caused by the destabilization of ecosystems due to climate change, poaching, fragmenting of habitats, species invasions, pollution and other human activities, this extinction event would be the first induced by a species and not by natural catastrophes.

Two general paths of action seem available to mitigate this threat or at least limit the damage: One consists of radically limiting anthropogenic influence on nature by restricting human habitats (to, as argued by E. O. Wilson among others, half of the earths surface), which, however, seems politically infeasible. A second strategy aims to effectively re-stabilize ecosystems by selective and specific intervention, but this would require a much deeper knowledge of ecosystem processes and how to modulate them.

In this talk, I will provide an overview of the declining quality of ecosystems worldwide and argue that data-driven approaches as well as a hacker mindset will be essential to tackle open questions. I will support this argument by examples from my own research, in which I aim to identify important interactions between microbes in lake ecosystems. Finally, I will try to start a discussion on how to create citizen science projects that will help us understand our natural environm..

NSW Hail Storm: The worst hail storm in 20 years lashed Sydney last night. https://twitter.com/7NewsSydney/status/1075824292934213632

#Heatwave conditions are being experienced across large parts of the country. Temperatures peaked at 49.1°C at Marble Bar (WA). Heatwave conditions occur when both maximum and minimum temperatures remain well above average for the time of year http://ow.ly/sQDo30n6Ur5 https://twitter.com/BOM_au/status/107817815381690368

South Australia's hot spell might have eased, but emergency crews have been run off their feet responding to incidents of heat-stressed trees dropping their branches. https://twitter.com/7NewsAdelaide/status/1078921469285945344

Floods hit Camarines Sur due to 'Usman' http://www.cnn.ph https://twitter.com/cnnphilippines/status/1079242089374703617

Truck sinks in flood waters after driving around safety barrier! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8DFDV8tHJQ Vehicles, U-haul inundated by flood waters off Mud Creek in Hendersonville, NC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z3nRiHXyNs

Australia suffers extreme heat wave up to 14 C above average https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/26/australia/australia-heat-wave-intl-wxc/index.html

Widespread warmth (relative to average) projected over the next 7 days for many continental (land) areas. The greatest negative departures are shown over Alaska & parts of Siberia. This is quite a change from last month in North America. https://twitter.com/ZLabe/status/1074411525509664768

Arctic outbreak is expected across the E-CNTRL Europe, Balkan peninsula and partly into Mediterranean through early January. Strong ridging across the N Atlantic and W Europe will establish meridional flow and bring very cold weather to the E half of our continent. @wxcharts https://twitter.com/severeweatherEU/status/1079302533397577729

Spectacular winter in Dombay, Russia yesterday, December 26. Report: Meteo Reporter Storm https://twitter.com/severeweatherEU/status/1078401945809965058

Another view of the bi..

Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity is the measure of how much the planet will warm in response to a given amount of Greenhouse gas pollution. It is the most important number in climate change science, and past estimates of increased warming may have been too low.

Production: Peter Sinclair / Yale Climate Connections
Year: 2018

Speakers: Patrick Brown (Stanford University), Michael Mann (Penn State University), Bill McKibben (350.org), Andrew Dressler (Texas A&M University)

Publication: Yale Climate Connections https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtZdUYUZr493AUh_EInBYxQ

After protests from the oil industry, the Trump administration repealed limits on methane flaring and leaks on federal and Indian lands, a practice that creates pollutants that can cause respiratory problems and fouls the air with carcinogenic chemicals https://nyti.ms/2EOHLcT via https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1078003694619291648

Zack Labe https://twitter.com/ZLabe/status/1078027141890166787

Germany just launched the world's first hydrogen-powered train. It emits nothing but water and steam! World first as Alstom’s hydrogen trains enter passenger service in Lower Saxony https://bioenergyinternational.com/storage-logistics/world-first-as-alstoms-hydrogen-trains-enter-passenger-service-in-lower-saxony

Via Mike Hudema, video by World Economic Forum
https://twitter.com/MikeHudema/status/1077796239922610176