Science Snippets: "If We Start Right Now ..."

Every day, I receive an email message from at least one person with this line, or something like it: “If we start right now …” The message then goes on to say that, if we start right now, we can fix the climate emergency. We can preserve habitat for human animals if we start taking action, collectively, right now.

The latest message came from Bill, of course. Bill knows the message from the corporate media is nonsense. In fact, the content of Bill’s message was one line, followed by a link to an article in Axios. The line written by Bill was, “More hopium soaked BS.” Sure enough, the article in Axios was, and is, hopium-soaked BS. Here’s the title of the paper published 13 June 2023, and then I’ll describe and quote from the article: “Climate extremes raise questions, concerns about faster warming.”

The article begins with a figure of daily global average sea surface temperatures plotted over time. Included in the graph is the 1982-2011 average, as if that’s a reasonable baseline. It includes the average for this period and it highlights sea surface temperature for all of 2022 and the first half of 2023.

Early on, the article includes a section called The big picture. Here’s the big picture, which includes embedded links to four additional stories: “Global surface air and ocean temperatures have spiked sharply in recent months, along with record low Antarctic sea ice, extreme heat events around the world, as Canada’s heat and wildfire crisis grips North America. Along with other developments, the combination of these factors have raised alarms regarding whether climate change is accelerating.”

A few paragraphs into the article, we have meteorologist Brian McNoldy of the University of Miami calling global air and ocean temperature trends, “bonkers.” He backs up the conclusion with these lines: “People who look at this stuff routinely can’t believe their eyes. Some very weird is happening.”

The article goes on to mention the worst heat wave in the history of Puerto Rico, smashed heat records during spring and the early meteorological summer, which began the first day of June, historical Canadian wildfires and the resulting smoke throughout eastern North America, and record heat in Asia and parts of Siberia.

Moving on to a section titled Between the lines, we are told: “At first glance, it might appear to be a sudden and potentially risky acceleration of climate change. But each of the collective trends observed so far may be explained by a mix of natural and human-made factors that are relatively well-known – with a couple of wild cards thrown in, climate scientists told Axios.”

Wait, what? There actually is “a sudden and potentially risky acceleration of climate change.” Does it matter if, “each of the collective trends observed so far may be explained by a mix of natural and human-made factors that are relatively well-known”?

Moving on, we have a quote from climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, who works for Stripe. He attributed some of the warming to the transition out of a cool La Niña phase and into an El Niño phase. He’s quoted in the Axios article thusly: “In general, I think the level of excitement around recent sea surface temperature records in some quarters is a bit over the top. The world is warming rapidly, broadly in-line with climate model projections. It’s going to get bad if we don’t rapidly reduce emissions, with more extreme heat events, record-setting global and regional temperatures, severe wildfires, and other extreme events where there are clear climate linkages. We don’t have any evidence that warming is accelerating beyond the range that scientists have previously predicted it would. What we expect is bad enough.”

“What we expect is bad enough.” Ya got that right, Zeke. What I fail to see is any good news here. Hausfather is saying that “the world is warming rapidly, broadly in-line with climate model projections.” And somehow this is good news? I’ve got three letters for you, Zeke: W, T, and F. I’m pretty sure you can put them together in a meaningful manner.

After paid climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, the story in Axios goes on to quote paid climate scientist Michael Mann. The Lying Michael Mann, “identified abnormally low levels of dust blowing from the Sahara Desert across the Atlantic as a factor in how warm parts of the tropical Atlantic are right now. Dust transport each year tends to hold down Atlantic Ocean temperatures slightly, and also makes the atmosphere less hospitable to tropical storms and hurricanes.” In other words, the article is mentioning aerosol masking, albeit without using the words aerosol or masking.

The bottom line in the story in Axios, according to a section called The bottom line: “Are these trends concerning? Yes. But do they mean climate projections are missing the mark? Not yet, researchers said.”

There you have it. “These trends are concerning.” Furthermore, climate projections are not yet missing the mark. Bear in mind that the climate projections point to a horrible future for us. Specifically, they point directly toward a planet unable to provide habitat for vertebrates or mammals. As vertebrate mammals, you’d think humans would be concerned. Oddly, we are specifically told in this article to not be concerned by the ongoing and projected rates of, “sudden and potentially risky acceleration of climate change.”

As I have frequently pointed out in this space, the ongoing rapid rate of environmental change poses a serious existential threat to human animals. As a result of the very rapid rate of environmental change in our wake, the extinction of Homo sapiens poses an existential threat to all life on Earth. And yet, according to paid climate scientists quoted by Axios, we’ve nothing to worry about.

I’m reminded of a cartoon I will not include in this space because I don’t hold the copyright. The cartoon shows a dog in Hell, surrounded by flames. The dog says, “this is fine.”

As nearly as I can tell, paid climate scientists Hausfather and Mann are quoted in the corporate media outlet Axios as saying pretty much the same thing: “This is fine.” I’m reminded of a bumper sticker I saw many years ago: “Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?”

This is fine.