Succumb to Greenland – CounterPunch.org

Since the turn of the new century, every aspect of climate change has become ballistic, high, high and far without looking back, leaving the 20^e fairly harmless century, but only on a relative basis, especially compared to rip-snorting 21^st century. It’s a whole new ball game, starting with this new century.

Society is witnessing a sharp acceleration in climate change far beyond modeling by climatologists, and it can be frightening.

This century is about to be named as an inflection point of radical change with strong evidence of down the line problems most recently found in a rapidly melting phase of the Greenland ice sheet, an far too big target to be missed. It is melting faster and faster beyond the reach of climate models, which, for reasons not fully explained, cannot follow the cascading mass of ice.

From this decade, the collapse of Greenland took off. This is indisputable as its acceleration has a familiar ring found among all of the major ecosystems on the planet. In short, the acceleration of climate change is universal. It is a horribly dangerous threat to the integrity of vital ecosystems, like the Great Barrier Reef, three unprecedented massive bleaching events in just five years; all of this is the result of rising ocean temperatures driven by global heat, with up to 90% mortality in some places. (Source: Australian Academy of Sciences).

Greenland is 23 feet of sea level encased in ice up to two miles thick and it will likely take hundreds or thousands of years to melt completely, but for current purposes that doesn’t count! What matters are the years to come on the 23 foot path. And that’s a risky proposition when you consider how far apart scientists’ models have been. It is better to prepare for the worst.

Over time, the sea level will rise to above 1-2-3-4-5 feet and above, but within an unknown time frame. Keep in mind even a footing of increasing coastal disasters around the world. A Noah’s Ark scenario is not necessary to overthrow the coastal cities of the planet.

The rule of thumb for sea level rise is this: One inch of sea level rise submerges 50 to 100 inches of shoreline from the beach. So in plain English, if one inch equals 4 to 8 feet of submerged beach, in turn, one foot will submerge 48 to 96 feet of coastal beach. (Source: NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory). That’s a lot, especially for Miami Beach, where the city has had to raise streets before (Google: “Miami Beach raises streets 2 feet to fight rising seas” for a photo).

No one knows how high the seas will rise soon, but the seas will rise well beyond the average increase of the last century, count on it. In fact, write it down in a timeline so you don’t forget, maybe 2025 or 2030 or no later than 2050, but these are just guesses and not part of the most recent collapse study. of Greenland, as follows:

“A new study reveals that the acceleration of the retreat and thinning of Greenland’s glaciers that began 20 years ago is accelerating the ice sheet towards total melting. (Source: Going, Going… Gone: the melting of the Greenland ice sheet crossed a point of no return in the early 2000s, Inside Climate News, August 15, 2020).

Effectively, the study identifies this century, the year 2000, as the start of an “accelerated retirement”, which encompasses a major inflection point for climate change disaster scenarios that are popping up everywhere, for example, the Siberia, Antarctica, the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic. They experience bizarre climatic events that threaten to alter entire ecosystems.

And, interestingly, the Greenland ice cap withstood over 200 years of the industrial age, as snowfall each fall / winter rebalanced the ice loss from the previous spring / summer, until 2000. Then , things have changed. Now, the aforementioned study claims that the old rhythmic balance in the nature of ice loss, followed by ice build-up for eons afterwards, is lost forever. Let’s go!

Alas, the situation is only getting worse, according to Ian Howat, co-author of the study, even if the warming has stopped today, the ice melting will continue: “The retreat of the glaciers has tipped the dynamics of the entire ice sheet in a constant state of loss, ”Ibid.

A “constant state of loss” means: There is no effective solution to the great meltdown. Yet, according to scientists, by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, such as CO2 emitted from automobile exhaust pipes and other fossil fuel-consuming devices, the smelting process could be delayed, giving so people have a lot more time to build dikes like the 21^st century inaugurates a new genre, “The Seawall School of Architecture”.

After all, there is no way the emissions will be reduced. In today’s real world, that’s just not on the agenda. Greenhouse gases have accelerated since China decided to mix a cocktail of high-end capitalism and the Chinese Communist Party; thereafter, building a brand new coal-fired power plant every week like clockwork to meet capitalist demands for cheaper goods for America and the world, starting in the late 1970s.

For the purpose of perspective on how quickly the weekly construction of Chinese coal-fired power plants will impact climate change, keep in mind the lag effect of 10 / year to 20 / year between emissions released into the atmosphere and the impact of climate change, for example, record temperatures. in the Arctic and Greenland and Antarctica, coinciding with a noticeable acceleration in climate change during the first two decades of this century, in the wake of China building a new coal-fired power plant every week, starting 20 years before the new century. The dots connect.

According to The Economist, May 21, 2020: “A glut of new coal-fired power plants is endangering China’s green ambitions.” China loosens the brakes on building coal-fired power plants. Does this mean that the IPCC should call on China not to respect the 2015 Paris climate agreement?

Not only China, but also Japan, is planning to build 20 new coal-fired power plants, and India is planning many new coal-fired power plants. And, that’s only half of today’s fossil fuel renaissance.For this decade, oil barons like Saudi Arabia and the United States intend to increase production. of oil and gas up to 130% by 2030, which means significantly higher CO2 emissions, leading to warmer temperatures leading to sea level rise leading to increased flooding of coastal towns.

Where is the IPCC when it’s really needed or is it hopelessly flawless?

In truth, Greenland’s underlying message is not subtle; it is simply a matter of building dikes, thereby protecting hundreds of millions of people, businesses and urban environments against massive flooding, soil contamination and deterioration of aquifers via salt water. Coastal cities around the world need to start building huge sea walls, in some cases stretching for miles beyond city limits, perhaps all the way to a coastline, as rising waters find voids in structures.

Remarkably, the planet continues to roll.