Critical climate tipping points are quickly approaching... could we already have passed some of them?

No one knows for sure, because nothing like this has ever been seen before.

There is no true analog for what humans are doing today and have been doing for the past 150 years — pumping hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the air, radically altering atmospheric chemistry in the geological blink of an eye — and so it’s impossible to say with any certainty what will happen next.

But let's take a look at some of the perilous dangers we face...
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Climate change effects usually become clear over decades and centuries, but they seem to be everywhere this summer: temperature records broken constantly, ocean waters as warm as hot tubs and world leaders so alarmed they've called this the "the era of global boiling."

And as concerning as these developments are, scientists have long worried about even more dramatic, looming and irreversible changes to the planet that could happen quickly. Even in the past year, there's evidence some of these scenarios are becoming more likely.

A paper in the journal Science in 2022 looked at several climate "tipping points" – conditions beyond which changes become self-perpetuating and difficult or impossible to undo. While the concept raised the hackles of some scientists, who suggested it was overly simplistic, the paper suggested even the possibility of such no-going-back points provided compelling reasons to limit warming as much as possible.

About a year later, several global systems that scientists have been concerned about are showing signs of becoming increasingly fragile.

Antarctic sea ice is at a record low, fires in Canada are reshaping terrain and polluting the air and record ocean temperatures are threatening coral. There's even new research published in July that suggests critical Atlantic Ocean currents could collapse sooner than expected, which could trigger rapid weather and climate changes.

Here are five tipping points scientists say could start to teeter sooner rather than later...
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Fnation%2F2023%2F08%2F05%2Fclimate-changes-irreversible-impact-earth-ecosystems%2F70492307007%2F

Very scary stuff. But as I've said before, numerous times, my intent is not to frighten anyone into paralysis or despair. We need *action* on an individual level and on a global level.

Demand system change now!

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

Exactly this, this all day, *THIS THIS THIS*.

"That Trump will be tried for his coup attempt is not a violation of his rights. It is a fulfillment of his rights. It is the grace of the American republic. In other systems, when your coup attempt fails, what follows is not a trial." - Yale historian Timothy Snyder via https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-3-2023?utm_campaign=post

Alan Urban warns about the danger of exponential growth in the speed of global warming...
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2023 has been a hell of a year for global warming. We’re just halfway through the year, and yet it’s a virtual certainty that 2023 will be the hottest year in recorded history. And next year is going to be even hotter.

In the Western world, a massive heat dome has settled over Mexico and the Southern US, bringing a heatwave that has lasted for weeks with no end in sight. Phoenix made history with 19 consecutive days of 110-degree or more temperatures. And in Florida, sea surface temperatures have reached nearly 100 degrees, making the ocean feel like a hot tub.

Up in Canada, firefighters are still battling what is by far the worst wildfire season in Canadian history. Millions of hectares have been blackened, countless lives have been ruined, and wildfire season still has a ways to go.

As horrible as all this is, the most disturbing news is what’s happening to the oceans. North Atlantic sea surface temperatures have been at a record high for four months straight. You read that right. The temperatures are *much* higher than the models predicted, and scientists are baffled.

So why does it seem like global warming is speeding up?

Because it is. Many people don’t realize this, but climate change is getting worse not linearly, but exponentially.

Professor Albert Allen Bartlett, a famous mathematician and professor of physics, once said, “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” With that in mind, let’s review the difference between linear growth and exponential growth.

Linear growth is when something increases by the same *amount* over each unit of time. Exponential growth is when something increases by the same *percent* over each unit of time.

At first, exponential growth doesn’t seem much faster than linear growth. Then at some point, it “goes exponential” and begins to skyrocket, taking everyone by surprise...
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There's much more in the article, and I recommend it. But be prepared, because what you will read there is anything but reassuring.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://archive.ph/MaqGv

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Juneteenth should remind us that human trafficking was legal. Slavery was legal. Jim Crow was legal. The US Govt paying reparations to white enslavers who lost their “property” but not to the formerly enslaved who lost their lives, was legal. Indeed, prison slavery is still legal today.

Do not let legality & power be your measure of morality & justice.

i rarely talk about personal stuff on mastodon, but i think this is important

i've seen several people mentioning their mental health issues today. people who have been on medication, who've been to therapy, who've worked at getting better, and are still suffering.

over the weekend, i had my first real meltdown in six years... a combination of stress, anxiety and uncertainty about the future and my place in it. i decided nine months ago to stop attending counselling, because it had done what it was supposed to do: give me a chance to live normally. and i was.

until i wasn't, again.

sometimes we start to think the healing's over, the pain is mostly gone, or we've tried everything and it hasn't worked. i talked with my 70 year old aunt about it - a woman who has been through unbelievable trauma - and she said, "Y'know, I've come to learn that the healing journey is never over. Sometimes I think I'm healed, and then the wrong word or memory hits me, and I'm back at the start again. We just have to keep at it."

i told my wife what i was going through. i told my mom, i called my old therapist, i called my doctor, and booked appointments. i acknowledged that i needed help, again. and it sure as shit hurt to admit it to myself.

don't just tough it out. that's not healing.

#MentalHealth