Science Snippets: New, Huge Source of Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Draft script:

As I have mentioned previously in this space, the situation regarding abrupt, irreversible climate change keeps getting worse. Just when you think it cannot get worse, it does. As I have indicated, that’s what tomorrow is for: a worsening of the ongoing disaster.

As I have also mentioned a few dozen times in this space, even the designed-to-fail Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded Earth is amid the most rapid change in planetary history. According to the IPCC, this change is irreversible. According to the peer-reviewed literature, we are headed for the extinction of all life on Earth.

What to do, what to do? How shall we proceed, in light of our untimely demise? As I have indicated repeatedly in this space, the conclusion of abrupt, irreversible climate change is not a get-out-of-jail card. Evidence indicating our near-term demise does not suggest we act only with our self-interest in mind. If we accept the overwhelming evidence that we are all going to die, then we must act accordingly. We must act not as unethical marauders, but as the best examples of our species. If your death isn’t a call to decency, then I can’t imagine what is.

With respect to an ever-worsening situation, tomorrow has arrived. An article at Counterpunch published on 6 June 2025 is titled Nightmare of Nightmares – New (Big) CO2 Emissions. The first two paragraphs tell the tale: “Global warming just got a brand-new source for trapping heat as Arctic tundra turns up the dial on CO2 emissions. It’s now in the ranks of cars, trains, and planes as an official emitter of carbon dioxide, CO2. But it distinguishes itself in one critical way. There’s no ‘on/off’ switch. Once turned on, it’ll self-reinforce continued growth, meaning ever-increasing levels of CO2 emissions year-over-year.

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, made the official announcement only recently: 2024 Arctic Report Card: The Arctic tundra is now a net source of carbon dioxide.”

I have reported the Arctic as a net source of carbon dioxide several times in this space. That it comes as a recent surprise to other writers is no surprise to me. Maintaining hope is important to a lot of people. These people do not understand that the definition of hope, according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary is “to cherish a desire with anticipation” or “to want something to happen or be true.” I want a lot of things “to happen or be true.” So far, my wishes have not been resolved by my thoughts. Action seems a much better approach than wishing. As southwestern American writer, speaker, and public figure Edward Abbey wrote, “action is the antidote to despair.” That’s action, neither hoping nor wishing.

As much as I’m a fan of action, it appears there are few actions that could make a difference in this case. Even the designed-to-fail IPCC concluded Earth is amid abrupt, irreversible climate change. There is no turning back this clock. Earth is experiencing the most abrupt event in planetary history. Demonstrating the power of billions of people, we created this mess ourselves. Demonstrating the power of irreversibility, there is no way to fix this mess. We can make it worse, of course. That seems to be our collective goal.

A peer-reviewed, open-access paper in the renowned outlet Nature was published 6 January 2025. Titled Earth shattered heat records in 2023 and 2024: is global warming speeding up?, the paper in Nature asks the obvious question. Seemingly lacking knowledge of the IPCC’s findings about abrupt, irreversible climate change, the article in Nature spends more than 600 words pondering whether warming is accelerating. Furthermore, the peer-reviewed paper posits that “if the climate system is entering a vicious cycle of warming, the severe effects that have long been projected, such as extreme storms and scorching temperatures that could impact migration and food production, will arrive sooner than expected.”

Based on the IPCC’s Global Warming of 1.5°—published on 8 October 2018—and the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, published on 24 September 2019, we have known for more than five years that “extreme storms and scorching temperatures that could impact migration and food production, will arrive sooner than expected.” In short, we have long known that “the climate system is entering a vicious cycle of warming.” We have long known that “the severe effects that have long been projected, such as extreme storms and scorching temperatures that could impact migration and food production, will arrive sooner than expected.”

How shall we respond, as individual vertebrate mammals, to the evidence indicating that habitat is being lost to vertebrate mammals? Again, I argue in this space that even if—especially if—we are the last of our species, then we can represent the best of our species. I cannot imagine proceeding any other way.