Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Dahr Jamail: The Arctic Is Melting Down as the Antarctic Food Chain Is Breaking

An excellent and vitally important article by Dahr Jamail. — Molly


A draft UN report has warned that missing the 1.5°C warming target set by the Paris Climate Accords will multiply hunger, migration and conflict around the globe. The 1.5°C target means limiting atmospheric temperatures from rising more than 1.5°C above what they were prior to the industrial revolution when humans began emitting greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
The report, slated to be finalized this coming September, provides several sobering points (the draft summary of the report can be read here):
• The UK's Met Office predicts a 1 in 10 chance the global average will flicker over 1.5°C within five years, meaning, we're already very close to the 1.5°C line, although the conservative estimate is that we could reach it by 2040.
• At 1.5°C tropical reefs are at "high risk" of no longer being dominated by corals, the Arctic could become nearly ice-free in September, and there will be "fundamental changes in ocean chemistry" that could take several millennia to reverse.
• 2°C warming brings with it an additional 10 cm of sea level rise by 2100, and increases the risk of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets collapsing, ensuring future generations will see multi-meter sea level rise.
Meanwhile, much evidence signals that catastrophic change is already upon us.

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