Things Change. Even Climate.
It's just that in the normal course of things, Climate has not Changed this fast before.
Climate change hots up in 2010, the year of extreme weather
John Vidal, environment editor, guardian.co.uk -- 27 June 2011
[...] According to Masters [co-founder of climate tracking website Weather Underground], 2011 is already on track to be exceptional, with a deepening drought in Texas – where 65% of the state is now in "exceptional drought" conditions – and one of the warmest springs experienced in 100 years taking place across much of Europe. It is also the most extreme tornado year recorded in the US, with Arctic sea ice already at its lowest ever for the time of year.
US and UK government scientists declared in January that 2010 had tied with 2005 as the warmest year of the global surface temperature record – the 34th consecutive year with temperatures above the 20th-century average – but, says Masters, new data on other climatic phenomena suggest that extremes were widespread.
Scientists recorded the second-worst year for coral bleaching (caused by raised sea temperatures), the lowest-ever volume of Arctic Sea ice, highly unusual monsoons in China and a series of abnormal storms across the US and elsewhere.
[...]
Sea ice
Arctic Sea ice volume in 2010 was the lowest on record, with 60% missing in September 2010 compared to the average from 1979-2010.
So what's the big deal if the Arctic Ice Melts ... ?
Back from the dead: 800,000-year-old plankton
by Wynne Parry, cbsnews.com -- Livescience.com -- June 27, 2011
A single-celled alga that went extinct in the North Atlantic Ocean about 800,000 years ago has returned after drifting from the Pacific through the Arctic thanks to melting polar ice.
[...]
"It is an indicator of rapid change and what might come if the Arctic continues to melt," said Chris Reid, a professor of oceanography at the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science in the United Kingdom.
Arctic sea ice has been in decline for roughly three decades, and in several more recent summers, a passage has opened up between the Pacific and Atlantic. In as little as 30 years, Arctic summers are projected to become nearly ice free.
[...]
The diatom is not the only living thing that may have taken advantage of retreating Arctic sea ice to travel.
In 2010, a gray whale appeared in the Mediterranean Sea. This species was thought to be confined to the Pacific Ocean, disappearing from the North Atlantic in the 1700s. This whale's voyage was most likely made possible by shrinking Arctic sea ice, concluded researchers writing in the journal Marine Biodiversity Research.
[...]
"The major thing about this climate change is the rate at which things are happening at this moment. … We had change, we had warming, we had cooling, we had ice ages, but it was always slower than things are going now," said Katja Philippart, a marine biologist with the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and a coordinator for CLAMER. "The rate is unprecedented."
[...]
"Because of the unusual nature of the event [the diatom return to the Atlantic, after 800,000 years], it appears that a threshold has been passed, marking a change in the circulation between the North Pacific and the North Atlantic Oceans via the Arctic," Reid and colleagues concluded in 2007.
When "thresholds get passed" animals, which are slow to adapt, can get left in the dust.
Humans, who depend on finely-balanced distribution systems, can get thrown into chaos.
Global warming continues as greenhouse gas grows
Randolph E. Schmid, AP Science Writer, seattlepi.com -- June 28, 2011
[...] the global temperature has been warmer than the 20th century average every month for more than 25 years, they said at a teleconference.
"The indicators show unequivocally that the world continues to warm," Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, said in releasing the annual State of the Climate report for 2010. [just released]
"There is a clear and unmistakable signal from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans," added Peter Thorne of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, North Carolina State University.
[...]
At the NOAA briefing, Karl added that the Greenland ice sheet lost more mass last year than any year in the last decade. Melting of the land-based ice sheets in places like Greenland, Antarctica and other regions has raised concerns about rising sea levels worldwide.
"The arctic is changing faster that most of the rest of the world," added Walt Meier, a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado. "This has long been expected." In addition, he said, the September Arctic sea ice extent was the third smallest in 30 years, older, thicker sea ice is disappearing, there is a shorter duration of snow cover, and the permafrost is melting.
Things Change. Even Climate.
It's just that in the normal course of things, Climate has not Changed this fast before.
Normally living systems have time to adapt, to change; to adopt new patterns of making a living.
These times, are not normal.
This time, perhaps only the meek shall inherit the earth.
Then again, perhaps not. Perhaps there will be little left worth inheriting.