Guy McPherson Says We Are all Dead

Guy McPherson

Guy McPherson is a professor emeritus of natural resources, ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. At one time he believed if we put all our resources behind transitioning to renewable energy the planet might be saved. His view now is we are all in palliative care without any hope of being saved. In fact, he sees mankind going in extinct in 2060 through not only will we run out of food and water. The exponentially progressive and irreversible climate changes will increase that will increase in veracity, and will be irreversible as there is a lag of 40 years before the effects of carbon emissions kick in and they will create self-reinforcing feedback loops. So effectively today we are experiencing the impact of the carbon releases of the 70s before we accelerated the emissions significantly.
What are these feedback loops? One is the warming of the permafrost which releases methane, not carbon, which is 80 times more damaging to the climate than CO2. Hugh sinkholes and fissures are opening up in Russia that are exhausting this methane into the atmosphere. In 2010 these fissures were metres wide, today they are kilometres wide.
There are many other climate change impacts that were unknown but now are appearing:
- fountains of methane gas, some a kilometre wide, rising to the surface from the seabed in the Artic.
- Greenlands ice is darkening accelerating the melt of these glaciers.
- Forest fires that are on the increase emit CO2 but unlike normal CO2 emissions the particles emitted are coated soot that focuses sunlight and increases light absorption and therefore heat.
- As sea ice formation recedes in the Artic, more heat is transferred to the open body of water, warming the Artic.
He is not the only one sounding the alarm.
- Record floods from Canada and Russia send large pulses of silty water into the Artic waters turning the water brown, and warming the waters and increasing the melt rate of ice.
- The warming Artic causes the Jet Stream to slow down, this intern creates more extreme weather in the Northern Hemisphere such as droughts, flooding, cold spells and heat waves.
- The presence of white ice reflects heat, but as the ice greys and melts more heat is absorbed further warming the Artic more rapidly.

Poking a Beast with a Sharp Stick 

Image Courtesy CLIVAR

Wallace Broecker one of the world's leading geoscientist and oceanographers characterises climate as an animal capable of acting in unpredictable ways. "If you're living with an angry beast, you shouldn't poke it with a sharp stick," he says. He sounded the alarm in the 70s when he explained how the conveyor belt flow of the oceans could be changed with brutal consequences. His thermohaline circulation system (THC) demonstrated how all the oceans of the world are connected and these connections stabilise the climate by circulating heat. Any change in either temperature or salinity could have an impact on this system. These changes are now with us with CO2 and methane heating up the atmosphere causing massive melts of fresh water at the poles. In addition to this hotter temperatures could cause moisture that normally falls on continental areas to rise to higher altitudes only to rain on ocean bodies.

To Put it in Biblical Terms.

There is an interesting prophecy in 2 Peter 3 which basically says that the earth was flooded in times past but the future destruction of the earth will be by fire.
2 Peter 3:3-7 (NIV) states: ‘First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’ But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and with water. By water also, the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men.’
The difference here is this destruction by fire is being accelerated by mankind. One has only to look at the extreme fire events that are happening further and further north, into areas that are not usually subject to extended seasons of wildfires, to see the impact climate change is halving on forest fires. These forest fires are not only unseasonably early but enormous in size and putting immense amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Climate Change Will be a Never Ending Plague

A plague is a horrific event that kills indiscriminately and decimates populations, fortunately, they usually have a beginning and end. Climate change, unfortunately, may have the killing effects of a plaque but not the end point, it will likely go on killing with no real end in sight. Here is what the leading scientists around the world are saying.
1. In the United States scientist have projected that extremely hot and cold days brought on by climate change will impact 33 large US cities, and significant increases in mortality rates will occur.
2. Climate change mortality from extreme weather, especially cold extremes, is on the rise worldwide and there is a large difference between deaths that occur during normal weather and extreme weather. This will only increase as the impacts of what we have done to date continue to change the climate. Studies of the changes in mortality rates in Europe demonstrate this as well.
3. There is "growing evidence that demonstrates that climatic conditions can have a profound impact on the functioning of modern human societies." "...unmitigated warming is expected to reshape the global economy by reducing the average global income roughly by 23% by 2100..."
4. The warming of the oceans in Australia is worsening Queensland's floods claiming more lives, homes, and billions of dollars damage.
5. Increase atmospheric CO2 has reduced Australians river flows by 28 percent, straining local water resources.
6. The scientific evidence to date tells us man's impact on the climate has created higher CO2 levels, temperatures, sea levels, extreme rainfall, heatwaves, wildfires, ocean acidity, ocean heat content and atmospheric humidity.

Florida Is Even More Screwed Than We Thought

The US Army Corps of Engineers studying the problems brought on by climate change in Florida have suggested up to eight times as much flooding in the Miami-Dade county by 2045. They predict a 10-inch rise by 2030, and it is already impacting the area. The report also says 10,000 miles of coastline from North Carolina to the Mississippi is being impacted. 

Florida, America’s lowest-lying state, faces dire predictions thanks to the accelerated melting of the world’s ice sheets. But a new study says this future is coming sooner and faster than previously predicted, prompting a major survey by the US Army Corps of Engineers to shore up the state’s most vulnerable regions.

Another report on the North Atlantic Coast demonstrates similar issues and outlines extensive structural changes that need to be made to the coastline to deal with the flooding risks brought on by climate change.

A municipal park in Coral Gables, Florida is underwater at high tide. Image by QT Luong/terragelleria.com

In Florida, the Union of Concerned Scientists reported using Engineering Corp data that the Miami-Dade County’s communities would face 380 high-tide flood events per year. These floods would extend throughout the area bringing normal life to a standstill at times. In the end parts of the state would be rendered unusable perhaps up to one-fifth of the urban land in the state. Some estimate this permanent loss at 6.4 billion, which does not include the damage to power plants, drinking water, and many more severe problems.

Are Scientist Silenced?

Let me first say that among scientists who have been trying for years to warn us about climate change that they are an embattled lot and very sceptical about how much they can speak out. Often they are not eager to take on a discussion if they think it might bring on further denial attacks. In otherwords they have been silenced to some degree by the news media and some political parties.
The question is are the other scientist, despite the negative feedback, being irresponsible in not spelling out more clearly to the layman the real dangers we are facing? If a Doctor thought you might be dying it would be communicated in very clear terms to the patient, why does this not occur with the scientific community?
Another good question to ask is why are we not panicking and fully resourcing a solution to this problem? If we looked at climate change the same way we looked at terrorism, which is killing statistically a minimal amount of people compared to climate change, there would be a lot more resources directed to transitioning our energy.
How long will the scientist wait before they start ringing alarm bells with the veracity that it needs to be rung;  after all scientific studies linking climate change to fossil fuels were written in 1847?