Arctic sea ice is vanishing far faster than anyone thought possible Robert Ferris | @RobertoFerris Friday, 19 Aug 2016 | 4:57 PM ETCNBC.com Paul Souders | Getty Images Melting water pours from ice face of Brasvellbreen Icefield on stormy summer morning. Arctic sea ice is melting at a rate far faster than anyone thought, and it is already wildly, and perhaps permanently, changing the region, and the planet. Historically, sea ice forms every winter across the top of the planet, and covers much of the Arctic Ocean. Every summer, the ice melts a bit and retreats, only to repeat the cycle again. But since the 1980s, the ice has been retreating further and further overall, contributing to sea level rise, changes to ecosystems, and erosion so severe it is biting off chunks of coastlines in Alaska, Canada and elsewhere. As 2016 continues apace to be one of the warmest years on record, Arctic sea ice levels appear to be among the lowest on record, said Tom Wagner, program manager for NASA's cryosphere research — a name given to the study of frozen regions of the planet. "It doesn't look like the ice is healing or growing back."... http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/19/arct...-far-faster-than-anyone-thought-possible.html
Changing opinions on climate change, from a CNN meteorologist "...I write this article not to change your mind about global warming; I simply want to show you why I changed mine..." http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/24/opinions/chad-myers-climate-change-weather/index.html
Boom! It is the sun stupid! https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160825113235.htm Solar activity has a direct impact on Earth's cloud cover A team of scientists from the National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Space) and the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has linked large solar eruptions to changes in Earth's cloud cover in a study based on over 25 years of satellite observations. The solar eruptions are known to shield Earth's atmosphere from cosmic rays. However the new study, published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, shows that the global cloud cover is simultaneously reduced, supporting the idea that cosmic rays are important for cloud formation. The eruptions cause a reduction in cloud fraction of about 2 percent corresponding to roughly a billion tonnes of liquid water disappearing from the atmosphere.
Why are India's farmers killing themselves? John D. Sutter is a columnist for CNN Opinion who focuses on climate change and social justice. Follow him on Snapchat,Facebook and email. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. (CNN)Harsha Vadlamani knows India's drought cycles. As a photographer, he's documented life without water. But then he heard about crops turning to dust and farmers committing suicide. How could this have happened? "People here, they're used to water shortages and they know how to deal with it," Vadlamani told me by phone from Hyderabad, India, where he's based. "But these last three years, it's gotten worse." He set out to document the conditions that would lead farmers to kill themselves because of the debt and crop loss caused by the changing weather. It's a crime scene that likely has all of our fingerprints on it. "If this is not climate change, I don't know what is," he said. Photographer Harsha Vadlamani Vadlamani's photographs of drought in Maharashtra, India, which were taken between March and May of this year, stand as evidence of the human toll of climate change. By burning fossil fuels and chopping down rainforests, we humans are destabilizing the climate. That has life-changing consequences for all of us. We're too hesitant to connect these dots. Floods in Louisiana, fires in California, towns in Alaska voting to move because the Earth is melting out from beneath them. While it's somewhat difficult to pin any individual weather event on climate change, it's clear that in the last two years we are getting a peek at what a warming world looks like. We ignore these warnings at our peril. The writer Bill McKibben has called for an all-out war on climate change. While that language is strong, I have to agree. Climate change is a war we're fighting against ourselves. We've become slaves to fossil fuels. We think the energy we're using is cheap, but its costs are actually deferred. Or they're passed on to the world's poorest people. That's certainly visible in Vadlamani's photographs and stories. He shows wells that are all but dry, or that must be replenished by tankers carrying water for hundreds of kilometers. Crop yields that are one-fifth of normal. One woman collapsed and died in front of a well as she struggled to get water, he wrote. He tells of men borrowing money to remove kidney stones, which can form without proper hydration. And families being chased off the land they cherish only to find themselves living in squalor in India's megacities.... http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/21/opinions/cnnphotos-sutter-india-drought/index.html
The reason India's farmers are committing suicide is because of DEBT. It has very little to do with climate change. The land where they live has gone through cycles of floods and droughts for hundreds of years. What has changed recently is the staggering debt burden and government policy changes that no longer protect their market. The issues with debt and farmers committing suicide in India has been widely documented. Attempted to put forward an article blaming "climate change" without even mentioned the primary debt problem is absurd. Crushed by Debt and Neoliberal Reforms, Indian Farmers Commit Suicide at Staggering Rate http://www.navdanya.org/news/166-cr...ian-farmers-commit-suicide-at-staggering-rate Farmers' suicides in India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers'_suicides_in_India "Activists and scholars have offered a number of conflicting reasons for farmer suicides, such as monsoon failure, high debt burdens, government policies, public mental health, personal issues and family problems."
(CNN)The Oklahoma Corporation Commission is telling operators to shut down 35 disposal wells that may have played a role in a 5.6-magnitude earthquake that shook at least six states Saturday, Gov. Mary Fallin said. The disposal wells, which are linked to fracking and other industries that need to dispose of toxic waste water by injecting it deep into the earth, have recently drawn concern that they may actually induce earthquakes. "This is a mandatory directive," Fallin said.... http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/03/us/oklahoma-earthquake/index.html
21 Kids suing Obama - Saving the planet for future generations By John D. Sutter, CNN Updated 10:21 PM ET, Tue September 13, 2016 John D. Sutter is a columnist for CNN Opinion who focuses on climate change and social justice. Follow him on Snapchat, Facebook and email. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. Eugene, Oregon (CNN)Jayden Foytlin, a shy 13-year-old from Rayne, Louisiana -- who loves K-Pop and science class -- sat in front of a federal judge here Tuesday. She wore a choker necklace and Weezer glasses. She wasn't here to observe. Foytlin is one of 21 young plaintiffs suing President Obama and various federal agencies over what she calls the United States' failure to protect her right to a future not wrecked by climate change. It's a lawsuit that has been called the "biggest case on the planet" -- one that makes a constitutional argument that young people and unborn generations are being discriminated against because they don't have the right to vote but will be most affected by runaway warming. The kids also are making the claim that their rights to life, liberty and property are being infringed upon by the stronger storms, scarier droughts and rising seas that come with warming. It's a case that some would call a long shot but that I see as a heroic attempt to force the government to do what the science calls for: nearly eliminating fossil fuels this century. President Obama deserves credit for tackling climate change as no other US president has. But scientists will tell you that isn't enough -- not even close... http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/13/opinions/climate-kids-federal-lawsuit/index.html
Massive Cover-Up Exposed: Lying Alarmists Rebranded 70s Global Cooling Scare as a Myth Everyone knows that before the global warming scare began in the 1980s, scientists were much more worried about global cooling and the coming ice age. At least everybody did till a cabal of lying climate alarmists – one then a senior administrator at NOAA, now a president at the World Meteorological Association – hijacked Wikipedia, published a lying paper, and rewrote history by painting the 1970s Global Cooling Scare as an urban myth. Now the full extent of these activists’ skullduggery has been uncovered by researcher Kenneth Richard, writing at No Tricks Zone. more: http://www.breitbart.com/london/201...ists-rebranded-70s-global-cooling-scare-myth/
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2016/09/15/arctic-ice-growing-rapidly/ It is now safe to confirm that the minimum Arctic sea ice extent has now been passed this year, with an area of 4.083 million sq km on 7th September. This is 22% greater than in 2012, despite two major storms in August that led to break up of ice. The ice has been regrowing remarkably rapidly for the last week, and already stands above the start of the month. Tentatively, we may be seeing one of the fastest September growths on record. Hmmmmm......... http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml Although the observations were not as extensive as in later years, the Sun was in fact well observed during this time and this lack of sunspots is well documented. This period of solar inactivity also corresponds to a climatic period called the "Little Ice Age" when rivers that are normally ice-free froze and snow fields remained year-round at lower altitudes. There is evidence that the Sun has had similar periods of inactivity in the more distant past. The connection between solar activity and terrestrial climate is an area of on-going research. _________________________ I am calling it now. The next theory put forth by the CO2 alarmist within the next couple of years will be that CO2 causes cooling.