Sunny and nice this Thursday evening here in California’s north coast — summer’s near-about two-thirds gone.
A bit under-the-weather the past few days with a head cold of sorts, a condition which probably started late last week, but came to fruition over the weekend and made my life decently-miserable since Monday. I feel much better this afternoon, even enough to smoke his first bowl in a seemingly way-long time (four days), and can faintly discern being ‘normal‘ again.
As if ‘normal‘ is really normal nowadays — if you have to ask what passes for ‘normal,’ you’re probably on the right track, or just insane anyway.
Of course, I’m talking physical health, through, the mental health arena is where real ‘abnormal‘ really thrives.
As the routine of reality spins out of control, I’ve been paying much-attention to this finger-snapping musical rendition that’s both great fun, and sad-as-shit:
Bowie went way-way too early, and apparently we’re looking to be fucked early, too.
Despite the Bob Mueller episode yesterday, the continuing-distraction horror show of the T-Rump overrides news on our environment. One thing has become perfectly clear, the T-Rump is the right asshole at the right time to inflict the most-severe damage not only upon Americans, but all of mankind (yesterday’s Guardian):
The scientific consensus that humans are causing global warming is likely to have passed 99-percent, according to the lead author of the most authoritative study on the subject, and could rise further after separate research that clears up some of the remaining doubts.
Three studies published in Nature and Nature Geoscience use extensive historical data to show there has never been a period in the last 2,000 years when temperature changes have been as fast and extensive as in recent decades.
…
But among academics who study the climate, the convergence of opinion is probably strengthening, according to John Cook, the lead author of the original consensus paper and a follow-up study on the “consensus about consensus” that looked at a range of similar estimates by other academics.
He said that at the end of his 20-year study period there was more agreement than at the beginning: “There was 99-percent scientific consensus in 2011 that humans are causing global warming.” With ever stronger research since then and increasing heatwaves and extreme weather, Cook believes this is likely to have risen further and is now working on an update.
“As expertise in climate science increases, so too does agreement with human-caused global warming,” Cook wrote on the Skeptical Science blog.
“The good news is public understanding of the scientific consensus is increasing. The bad news is there is still a lot of work to do yet as climate deniers continue to persistently attack the scientific consensus.”
And apparently, a lot of ground to cover in a short space, like months. Just a short while ago, the big cut-off date for getting a precarious handle on climate change was supposedly 2050, then last fall more study-results placed that point at 2030, now it’s the end of next year.. — via the BBC, also from yesterday:
Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that to keep the rise in global temperatures below 1.5C this century, emissions of carbon dioxide would have to be cut by 45-percent by 2030.
But today, observers recognise that the decisive, political steps to enable the cuts in carbon to take place will have to happen before the end of next year.The idea that 2020 is a firm deadline was eloquently addressed by one of the world’s top climate scientists, speaking back in 2017.
“The climate math is brutally clear: While the world can’t be healed within the next few years, it may be fatally wounded by negligence until 2020,” said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founder and now director emeritus of the Potsdam Climate Institute.
The sense that the end of next year is the last chance saloon for climate change is becoming clearer all the time.
“I am firmly of the view that the next 18 months will decide our ability to keep climate change to survivable levels and to restore nature to the equilibrium we need for our survival,” said Prince Charles, speaking at a reception for Commonwealth foreign ministers recently.
…
One of the understated headlines in last year’s IPCC report was that global emissions of carbon dioxide must peak by 2020 to keep the planet below 1.5C.
Current plans are nowhere near strong enough to keep temperatures below the so-called safe limit.
Right now, we are heading towards 3C of heating by 2100 not 1.5.
Hence, this bullshit: ‘Donald Trump’s administration has removed a quarter of all references to climate change from federal government websites since 2016, researchers have found.’
