Tag Archives: global warming

Deforestation in the news

Preface. I wrote in “Life after fossil fuels” that as energy declined, it would be hard to cut down distant forests with limited oil supplies.  I thought this because even in Britain, so denuded of trees people turned to filthy … Continue reading

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The nine boundaries we must not cross or we may go extinct

Preface. This post has excerpts from the famous paper by Rockström et al (2009) as well as a more recent proposal by Running (2012) on an easier measure of how close we’re coming to rendering the planet uninhabitable. The media … Continue reading

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Will global warming drive us extinct? A review of Peter Ward’s “Under a Green Sky”

Canfield purple ocean, Green Sky Preface. Thank goodness for world peak oil production in 2018. We’re out of time to destroy the planet! We’re about to dramatically reduce fossil fuel consumption, unwillingly, as it declines at 8% or more and … Continue reading

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Heat effects on habitability, biodiversity, and invasive species

Preface. Due to limits of human heat tolerance, much of Earth’s surface may not be habitable by 2300 if we continue to emit greenhouse gases at the current rate. But we can’t continue at the current rate. Peak oil production … Continue reading

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Solar panels in the Sahara could cause global warming

Preface. Adding tens of thousands of square miles of solar panels to replace fossil fuels could cause climate change and heat up the planet. Of course this is a fantasy, dust storms would scour the panels rendering them useless, with … Continue reading

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Why we aren’t mining methane hydrates now — or perhaps ever

Preface. Methane hydrates are far from being commercial, and probably always will be. Scientists and companies have been trying to exploit them since the first energy crisis in 1973 to no avail. Nor are they likely to trigger a runaway … Continue reading

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Climate change is already collapsing nations

  Ahmed, Nafeez. 2017. Failing States, Collapsing Systems BioPhysical Triggers of Political Violence. Springer. “The last half century has seen a dramatic increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events in the form of droughts, wildfires, extreme rainfall, … Continue reading

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Clouds may not curb global warming as much as hoped for

The following article, Clouds Play Lesser Role in Curbing Warming, Study Finds, is from climatecentral.org Analysis of the first seven years of data from a NASA cloud-monitoring mission suggests clouds are doing less to slow the warming of the planet than … Continue reading

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Laughing Gas — nitrous oxide — could deplete ozone and cook the planet

2 Sep 2009. Laughing gas set to deplete the ozone layer. NewScientist. 28 August 2009. Lisa Grossman. Laughing gas is biggest threat to ozone layer. NewScientist. 21 July 2012. Michael Marshall.  Laughing gas may cook the planet. NewScientist. The ozone … Continue reading

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Ozone Loss from Storms Increases Skin Cancer, Crop Damage

James G. Anderson, et al. 26 Jul 2012. UV Dosage Levels in Summer: Increased Risk of Ozone Loss from Convectively Injected Water Vapor. Science. Climate change is increasing the number and severity of storms, which is depleting the ozone layer … Continue reading

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