Temperatures above 50C used to be a rarity confined to two or three global hotspots, but the World Meteorological Organization noted that at least 10 countries have reported this level of searing heat in the past year: the US, Mexico, Morocco, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Pakistan, India and China.
In Iran, the heat index – a measure that also includes humidity – has come perilously close to 60C, far above the level considered safe for humans.
Heatwaves are now commonplace elsewhere, killing the most vulnerable, worsening inequality and threatening the wellbeing of future generations. Unicef calculates a quarter of the world’s children are already exposed to frequent heatwaves, and this will rise to almost 100% by mid-century.
Rivers in Alaska have been running bronzish-orange… because the permafrost is melting.
The ‘perma’ frost, is melting.
That has huge amounts of methane locked up in at.
Which is 8 to 80x more effective at being a greenhouse gas than CO2.
And also ancient bacteria that could cause previously unknown kinds of diseases in wildlife and possibly humans, they now may or may not be seeping into the environment.
…
We have already had a consecutive 12 months at or above 1.5C global average temps, as of last month.
…
Shit’s looking pretty bleak.
Glaciers are reaching tipping points as well. Insane heat waves at both poles. It’s over guys. Most poeple don’t realize it yet but it’s over. Those glaciers and poles took an entire iceage to form, and they are not going to come back.
I haven’t seen anything from climate scientists that agrees with that level of doomerisim. They want to keep fighting against every 0.1C of warming we can, because that’s a worthwhile fight. Succumbing to climate nihilism is unhelpful, unscientific, and a self-fulfilling prophecy.
With the release of this much methane this fast, we might as well be out of equation at this piont. And by this fast, I mean on a earth’s climate timescale, not a human one. How could we possibly stop what is already snowballing? We HAD our chance to stop this and we did nothing. It is too late now to do anything but survive the new world we have made.
What climate scientist agrees that we should give up because of unleashing permafrost methane?
No way man I only use paper straws
I hated that goddamn news cycle. Conservatives poisoned the well so much that you couldn’t argue against that dumb, pointless policy without being labeled a Heritage Foundation shill.
And yet people are having kids…
The entire point of trying to save the climate and environment is to keep the world a nice place for our kids.
In that case, that ship has long sailed.
It can always get worse. There is no rock bottom.
Eh I’d say the last human going in the dirt is probably rock bottom.
We can easily stop having children then
Fucking baffles me.
Nothing baffling about it. It’s just two (or more) people having consensual fun.
Or so I’ve been told…
Definitely don’t watch the Arctic Sinkhole documentary from PBS Nova if you like sleeping at night. It’s all about the trapped methane in the permafrost and the trapped gasses under the permafrost. Shit is getting real scary. It wasn’t even sensationalist.
I can at least alleviate your worries of ancient bacteria.
Even our weakest antibiotics could wipe them out as they have evolved zero resistance to it. That’s assuming they can even infect humans in the first place.
I’m no microbiologist but couldn’t the ancient bacteria hybridize with modern bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance similar to a wolf and dog hybrid having a tolerance to humans?
That’s not how bacteria multiply. There is horizontal gene-transfer, but that would be a very slim chance.
No ancient bacteria aren’t the problem, multi-resistant strains that have already evolved and are evolving in our clinics are the real problem, some bacteria that haven’t been an issue for quite some time, because our antibiotics simply killed them, have now developed resistances and are suddenly becoming deadly again.
E. Coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella, some of the most prevalent bacteria in humans are rapidly becoming multi-drug-resistant and resistant to desinfectants like chlorine. These superbugs already account for a shockingly high number of deaths in healthcare facilities and the situation is only getting worse as more and more countries use increasing amounts of antimicrobials, kickstarting microbial evolution into overdrive.
Have you ever looked up how long it takes for bacteria to evolve resistance after exposure to an antibiotic?
2-3 years… Yeah…
More concerning is a virus in my opinion. Jumping species is common and it’s the novelty to the immune system thats the danger. How much damage would an influenza strain from 3-4000 years combining with modern strains cause?
If that was all there was to it, no bacteria would be affected by antibiotics anymore. And yes, they’re less effective, but it’s far from an obsolete tool. We just have to be smarter about using them.