2007 Shaping Up To Be Another Hot One

By Mimikatz

Everyone is focused on the hot topics in DC, but look at this graphic from Climate Progress.  So far 2007 is shaping up to be as hot as 1998, so far the hottest on record.  The temperature in Siberia is 5 degrees C above normal, but I'm looking at some of the other big red dots on that map--the ones in California, Nevada and Arizona.  The article notes that

On May 29, 50% of the western U.S. was in moderate-to-exceptional drought, 83% in the Southeast, and 34% for the contiguous U.S. 

Perhaps this is related to the story in the morning paper about rapid declines in populations of 20 common birds, such as Meadowlarks and Evening grosbeaks, species whose numbers are now half what they were 40 years ago.

Even more ominously, the Climate Progress article notes that During the past century, global surface temperatures have increased at a rate near 0.11°F (0.06°C) per decade, but the rate of increase has been three times larger since 1976, or 0.32°F (0.18°C) per decade, with some of the largest temperature increases occurring in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

These figures are not from Al Gore or some enviro group, but the National Climatic Data Center.

Time truly is running out to mitigate the damage.  We have lost so much as a result of profit-based and faith-based politics from the Republican Party and its corporate masters and fundamentalist base.  Last year over 100 people died from heat-related causes in California in July.  Here it is already 83 degrees indoors in the shade at 10:30 am, in an area supposedly cooled by the winds off San Francisco Bay.

Those who will live to see even hotter temperatures in another 20-30 years, if not well before, will not look kindly on  the generation who fiddled while the world began to burn, enjoying the last of the good life.

Here's hoping the Dems can find the will to balance future health and well-being with the needs of energy-producing and auto-producing regions today.  This is the first big test of what looks like a very hot summer.

Comments

[randiego]

"Umm, yeah - that's it - it's just like coming out of the last ice age!" [goes back, sticks head in sand].

Dude, go see the movie. As someone who in the past has been the guy taking the data and doing the statistical analysis, the data is devastating. Too bad, so sad. Scientists agree, only the media does not.

[randiego]

lol. I was responding to comments from Climate Progress blog. That's what I get for reading this stuff on my cellphone.

[MarkH]

With a Democracy which responds to business interests (making money) and a public which doesn't notice until it's usually too late what are we to do? It's not like we have a dictatorship or something...er, well a benevolent dictatorship or something.

I wonder what the scientists think we need for a complete package of fixes.

[kirk james murphy, m.d.]

Mimikatz, thanks for focusing on this.

The UK Independent has a great article this week:

The wrath of 2007: America's great drought

" America is facing its worst summer drought since the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression. Or perhaps worse still.

From the mountains and desert of the West, now into an eighth consecutive dry year, to the wheat farms of Alabama, where crops are failing because of rainfall levels 12 inches lower than usual, to the vast soupy expanse of Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida, which has become so dry it actually caught fire a couple of weeks ago, a continent is crying out for water.

In the south-east, usually a lush, humid region, it is the driest few months since records began in 1895. California and Nevada, where burgeoning population centres co-exist with an often harsh, barren landscape, have seen less rain over the past year than at any time since 1924. The Sierra Nevada range, which straddles the two states, received only 27 per cent of its usual snowfall in winter..."

[kirk james murphy, m.d.]

Oops. Link for June 11 2007 Independent article:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2643033.ece

[On the Clock]

Why the gratuitous slap at Al Gore? Why the gratuitous slap at "enviro" groups. To borrow from Judy Miller, Al Gore is being proved fucking right. Gore and these "enviros" (I truly hate that term) are performing a heroic service, based on the state of the science.

[Mimikatz]

On the clock: If you have read my posts from last summer, especially my review of Al Gore's movie, you will see that I am very concerned about climate change and very appreciative of what Gore has done to raise consciousness on the issue. It was not meant as a slam at him (or environmentalists, as I consider myself one; I was trying to interest the trolls who sometimes show up here when people post on climate issues.

The West begins not just at the 100th Meridian, but where the annual rainfall drops below 20 inches a year. The agriculture we have, including in California, depends overwhelmingly on irrigation. All of our urban areas depend on massive water projects conveying water hundreds of miles. Without water, we die. Rising sea levels are also going to be a great challenge on the West Coast.

The whole web of life is in danger of coming unraveled, not just in the West, but in the Southeast as well. And rising seal levels, and hurricanes, will net the Guld Coast even harder than the West Coast. Almost sounds like the Old Testament God is not pleased about something.

Through changes we made last summer, we cut our natural gas usage in half and can keep both it and electric below baseline pretty much all year, even in a hundred-year-old house. Driving is the main culprit for most people; luckily I am retired and only drive about 4500 miles a year. We switched to gas grilling to reduce pollution and have a backup in case of disaster, always a concern here. Recycling as much as possible, buying locally to the extent possible and minimizing things brought in that horrible plastic packaging are the current efforts. Everything helps.

[freepatriot]

at least george solved his "Katrina" problem

nobody's gonna say george bush fucked up the emegency response to a disaster that was predicted by satalite images

george made sure those pesky satalites ain't gonna cause him anymore problems

the weather satalite used to track hurricanes is about to fail, and there ain't no plan to replace it

how can you blame george for a disaster that nobody could have predicted (cuz george got rid of the satalites)

that's freeper logic for ya