Have feedbacks taken over?

[Brenda]

For about one year now, global temperature anomalies have been extremely high, as illustrated by the image below, created with a screenshot from Copernicus, showing an anomaly from 1991-2020 of 0.86°C on June 1, 2024.

Despite pledges by politicians to ensure that temperatures would not cross 1.5°C above pre-industrial, the growth rate of the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere appears to be accelerating, as illustrated by the image below, adapted from NOAA and showing concentration of carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

There are numerous tipping points and non-linear, self-amplifying feedbacks that can all contribute, interact and start to kick in with greater ferocity, amplifying and further accelerating the rise, as discussed at the feedbacks page.

What could push up temperatures dramatically is loss of Arctic sea ice, as discussed in earlier posts such as this one. Ominously, the North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomaly has risen strongly recently, as illustrated by the images below.

https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2024/06/have-feedbacks-taken-over.html

[Think. Again.]

1. That's extremely frightening...

As far as I knew, the major feedback loop scenario isn't (or wasn't) expected to start kicking in until after the 1.5c threshold has been permanently breached.

Of course, as study after study keeps proving, our predictions have all been much more conservative in both timeframe expectations and occurance severity than the experiences of reality as it unfolds, but the fact that we may already be seeing indications that the game is over due to runaway feedback already happening is... terrifying.

[Brenda]

2. yes

[markodochartaigh]

3. I remember Guy McPherson talking

about feedback loops fifteen years ago. Most of his predictions haven't come to pass, but I see the feedback loops that he has talked about in the news more and more.

[CoopersDad]

4. Right click Copy image address

That's how to embed an image into your OP on DU if the image is part of the article you're reading.



K/R thank you!

[Brenda]

5. Thanks CoopersDad!

I just now saw your response. Yeah, I've embedded images many times before in my posts but for some reason when I tried with this one it was not working. Guess it was a glitch on the intertubes.

Appreciate your feedback and thanks for posting the chart.

[ramapo]

6. Disturbing but don't expect anyone to take it seriously

None of this has a direct effect on the day-to-day existence of people.

Basically nobody cares. Since nobody cares, politicians certainly don't care. They'd much rather bloviate on the absolutely absurd crap that they spend their days bloviating about.

Maybe you'll find a podcast about this but you won't see hours of coverage by any of the media. After all, Hunter Biden's trial is far more important and then there is the ongoing schtick of the former president. He's busy bringing his standup act to a venue near you.

Maybe the grandkids will have to take this seriously...unless the other ignored subject of nuclear proliferation and saber-rattling ends up being a society-ending problem.