UK Met DG - Climate Change Now "Irreversible" As Signals Flicker From Shropshire To Tibet

[hatrack]

A birdseed factory in Shropshire, a holy lake in China, Baltic Sea fish and new-born hedgehogs have emerged as the first tangible victims of climate change in the year which forecasters predicted this week would be the warmest on record. The CJ Wild Bird Foods company near Shrewsbury has announced that the demand for its products has all but disappeared, because the mild winter had maintained an alternative supply of berries for finches, tits and other species. Some species, such as the dunlin and purple sandpiper, are disappearing from Britain as they can find enough warmth in Scandinavia. The company, which said fears of bird flu has also discouraged the public from setting up bird feeders, has laid off 22 workers.

The warmer environment is also contributing to the gradual disappearance of the vast Lake Qinghai, a holy site for Tibetans in the remote western province of Qinghai. Despite a Chinese government pledge of £442m to stop the lake shrinking, it will have vanished in two centuries, according to a report by the China Geological Survey Bureau (CGSB). Glaciers on the nearby Qinghai-Tibet plateau have also shrunk by 131.4 sq km annually in the past 30 years. "What that means is that an area of glacier equivalent to twice the size of the Beijing downtown area disappears every year," said the CGSB. A further 13,000 sq km of glacier - nearly 28 per cent of the total glacier area - will disappear by 2050 if no protective measures are taken.

These disparate indicators of the effects of a changing climate surfaced at the end of a week in which Sir John Houghton, director general of the UK's Met Office, told a farming conference in Oxford that climate change was now irreversible. The Secretary of State for the Environment, David Miliband, said yesterday that Britons would have to change every aspect of their lives if they are to tackle climate change. In an interview with the children's newspaper First News, Mr Miliband admitted that people had been "short-sighted" in tackling environmental problems.

More evidence of the consequences of failure arrived yesterday from conservation groups who reported that climate change was causing the deaths of hundreds of baby hedgehogs, born out of season. Confused by the milder autumn months, the creatures are continuing to breed rather than hibernate. This is causing the death of the young who need to grow before they hibernate. Those born in late autumn are finding less food and, rather than hibernate, find themselves at the mercy of cold weather. More than 70 ailing young have been handed in to a centre at Fife, in eastern Scotland, and the Withington Hedgehog Care Trust in Manchester has had a similar experience.

EDIT

http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=66078

[Stephanie]

1. oh god

don't say that! irreversible? oh god.

[hatrack]

2. At this point, some warming is almost certainly irreversible

The question is a matter of degree - an irreversible 2F or an irreversible 12F.

What we do with the rest of our lives and how we live them will decide the difference.

[Stephanie]

3. this should be in GD where more people will see

won't you repost?

[meow mix]

19. greenland ice = toast

even under the best case scenario of 2 degrees.

i tend to like realclimate.orgs "95% chance of 3 degree's and not surpassing that by very much, ever" type of model.

[nam78_two]

4. K&R

[silverweb]

5. That sinking feeling.

It's taking hold again.

My greatest fear is that people will read this and say, "Well, if it's irreversible, then let's party while we can because there is no future -- and fuckitall with trying to fix anything."

We still must do everything we can to try to reverse the process -- if only in the hope of mitigating its effects and giving younger generations some hope for a liveable future.

K&R.

[kineneb]

6. save the hedgehogs!

they are cute and eat bugs

[IndyOp]

7. We need a whole lot more messages like this one. Every aspect of our lives?

What does that mean?

:scared:

[Reterr]

8. So depressing.nt

[villager]

9. "Step It Up 2007" -- National Day of Action on global warming

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=3065738&mesg_id=3065738

So we can keep it at a "mere" 2F...

[Jcrowley]

10. K&R n/t

[Lex]

11. Another K & R.

[Skittles]

12. very alarming

check out this: http://www.arborday.org/media/mapchanges.cfm

[Delphinus]

22. As we see from that map,

none of them got any colder. How much more is it going to take before people wake up?!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

13. Thank you hatrack for your continued

diligence.:thumbsup:

[autorank]

14. This is a great post.

What a desperate state we are in. All that gives hope is the "unknown" of technological or atmospheric correction that may be out there. Since we're doing nothing on an oranized basis, we're probably screwed.

I found this on a US Geological Survey site and ran it a while ago. I took a ration for it...glad to see that the professional naysayers are not showing up here.

USGS Worst case scenario

KR

[Dems Will Win]

15. We're going to need Crutzen's Global THermostat Plan

We could turn the temp down a half degree worldwide in a few months... '


Almost zero repercussions...

You can look it up!

[GliderGuider]

16. Now combine this with irreversible oil depletion

Oil depletion will start to bite within 5 to 10 years according to most scenarios.

Combine the effects of a reduced oil supply and increasing oil prices with a worsening climate and you get a massive impact on the world's food supply.

We are already eating more grain than we grow and global reserves are down to 57 days, from 130 days twenty years ago. Now factor in higher costs for fertilizer (made from declining natural gas), higher fuel costs for planting, harvesting and transportation, increases in droughts like they're seeing in New South Wales in Australia (98% of the state in affected), declining water tables and depleting aquifers, and reduced soil fertility (the nutrient content of the Great Plains soil is half what it was 100 years ago). I hear the ghost of Thomas Malthus weeping in the night.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay.
There are frail forms fainting at the door.
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.
'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered all around my cabin door.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.

'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered all around my cabin door.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.

[rman]

18. Good thing our 'leaders' know how to deal with such crisis

That's perhaps the biggest crisis of all.
We might be able to deal with global warming and peak oil somewhat gracefully if it wasn't for the oligarchs driving us in another direction.

[Marie26]

17. K&R nt

[Raster]

20. And as global warming continues to change the planet in ways we cannot even yet imagine,

let's not forget that the petroleum industry, especially exxon-mobile, has fought to deny global warming at every turn. Let us not forget that the auto industry and the petroleum industry conspired to deny us more fuel efficient automobiles and only met emissions standards when forced to. And finally, let us not forget that this pResident of the United States allowed a liar and scoundrel into the White House, paid for by White House payroll, whose only purpose was to "sanitize" and falsify scientific information and report on global warming. Once he was discovered, he slunk back to North Texas and back into the exxon viper nest. Let us NEVER forget that this pResident of the United States is OWNED lock, stock and oil barrel by the international petroleum gangsters. The same people who would murder innocents to access their almighty crude. The same people who would wage war based solely on lies. Never forget.
:kick:49! And let me join the chorus of the many who appreciate the diligent efforts of hatrack. Salute!:yourock:

[earth mom]

21. We need Gore to run President now more than ever ya'll! eom