Rob de Laet’s Post

    HAVE WE LOST IT? SOS TO THE WORLD ABOUT THE AMAZON The Amazon rainforest is experiencing the largest drought in its history for two years in a row now. The tipping point we have been warned about, has set in. Collapse of the Amazon rainforest will lead to catastrophic consequences for the planet. CARBON If it dies back entirely it will release around 280 billion tons of CO2, raising atmospheric concentrations by about 36 ppm, which alone will increase global temperatures by around 0.4°C. This is not in the IPCC models. WATER But the true devastation lies in the loss of the Amazon’s cooling mechanisms. The rainforest acts as a powerful heat pump as a rain maker, exporting latent heat into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration and cloud formation, cooling and hydrating the Americas and even parts of Africa. This ecosystem has evolved to reflect almost all  solar energy that comes in over it, back into space. It is truly the largest cooling organ of our living planet, through the largest atmospheric water recycling pump we have. Without this, Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI) will nearly double, absorbing more heat and pushing temperatures even higher than expected. BIOTIC PUMP The collapse of the biotic pump, which drives moisture inland from oceans, leads to less rainfall, creating a feedback loop of drier conditions, fewer clouds, and more heat absorption.  This is happening as we speak. It is currently drying out and emitting huge amounts of CO2, further exacerbating global warming. This combination of diminished latent heat export, reduced cloud cover, and increased CO2 could drive temperatures up by as much as 2°C or more ON TOP OF IPCC PREDICTIONS, on top the scenarios the climate models give us now. Sure some of the rains will come back in the months ahead because of geo-physical processes like the southward shift of the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Conversion Zone), but it will simply slow the decline a bit of a process that is a self-reinforcing feedback loop. CONNECTED TIPPING POINTS And we haven’t even talked about how its loss will accelerate the other tipping points such as Arctic ice melt and the slow down of AMOC ocean currents, the warming up of the tropical Atlantic and so on increasing the power of hurricanes. SOS Losing the Amazon equals losing the battle on climate change. It will disrupt global food production and make large areas uninhabitable, leading to mass migration of hundreds of millions, war and collapse. There is still a small chance that we can stop and reverse the damage, but then the world must wake up to this horrible tragedy and activate a plan to do so, NOW! #GreenUpToCoolDown

    HAVE WE LOST IT? SOS TO THE WORLD ABOUT THE AMAZON The Amazon rainforest is experiencing the largest drought in its history for two years in a row now. The tipping point we have been warned about, has set in. Collapse of the Amazon rainforest will lead to catastrophic consequences for the planet. CARBON If it dies back entirely it will release around 280 billion tons of CO2, raising atmospheric concentrations by about 36 ppm, which alone will increase global temperatures by around 0.4°C. This is not in the IPCC models. WATER But the true devastation lies in the loss of the Amazon’s cooling mechanisms. The rainforest acts as a powerful heat pump as a rain maker, exporting latent heat into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration and cloud formation, cooling and hydrating the Americas and even parts of Africa. This ecosystem has evolved to reflect almost all  solar energy that comes in over it, back into space. It is truly the largest cooling organ of our living planet, through the largest atmospheric water recycling pump we have. Without this, Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI) will nearly double, absorbing more heat and pushing temperatures even higher than expected. BIOTIC PUMP The collapse of the biotic pump, which drives moisture inland from oceans, leads to less rainfall, creating a feedback loop of drier conditions, fewer clouds, and more heat absorption.  This is happening as we speak. It is currently drying out and emitting huge amounts of CO2, further exacerbating global warming. This combination of diminished latent heat export, reduced cloud cover, and increased CO2 could drive temperatures up by as much as 2°C or more ON TOP OF IPCC PREDICTIONS, on top the scenarios the climate models give us now. Sure some of the rains will come back in the months ahead because of geo-physical processes like the southward shift of the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Conversion Zone), but it will simply slow the decline a bit of a process that is a self-reinforcing feedback loop. CONNECTED TIPPING POINTS And we haven’t even talked about how its loss will accelerate the other tipping points such as Arctic ice melt and the slow down of AMOC ocean currents, the warming up of the tropical Atlantic and so on increasing the power of hurricanes. SOS Losing the Amazon equals losing the battle on climate change. It will disrupt global food production and make large areas uninhabitable, leading to mass migration of hundreds of millions, war and collapse. There is still a small chance that we can stop and reverse the damage, but then the world must wake up to this horrible tragedy and activate a plan to do so, NOW! #GreenUpToCoolDown

    HAVE WE LOST IT? SOS TO THE WORLD ABOUT THE AMAZON The Amazon rainforest is experiencing the largest drought in its history for two years in a row now. The tipping point we have been warned about, has set in. Collapse of the Amazon rainforest will lead to catastrophic consequences for the planet. CARBON If it dies back entirely it will release around 280 billion tons of CO2, raising atmospheric concentrations by about 36 ppm, which alone will increase global temperatures by around 0.4°C. This is not in the IPCC models. WATER But the true devastation lies in the loss of the Amazon’s cooling mechanisms. The rainforest acts as a powerful heat pump as a rain maker, exporting latent heat into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration and cloud formation, cooling and hydrating the Americas and even parts of Africa. This ecosystem has evolved to reflect almost all  solar energy that comes in over it, back into space. It is truly the largest cooling organ of our living planet, through the largest atmospheric water recycling pump we have. Without this, Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI) will nearly double, absorbing more heat and pushing temperatures even higher than expected. BIOTIC PUMP The collapse of the biotic pump, which drives moisture inland from oceans, leads to less rainfall, creating a feedback loop of drier conditions, fewer clouds, and more heat absorption.  This is happening as we speak. It is currently drying out and emitting huge amounts of CO2, further exacerbating global warming. This combination of diminished latent heat export, reduced cloud cover, and increased CO2 could drive temperatures up by as much as 2°C or more ON TOP OF IPCC PREDICTIONS, on top the scenarios the climate models give us now. Sure some of the rains will come back in the months ahead because of geo-physical processes like the southward shift of the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Conversion Zone), but it will simply slow the decline a bit of a process that is a self-reinforcing feedback loop. CONNECTED TIPPING POINTS And we haven’t even talked about how its loss will accelerate the other tipping points such as Arctic ice melt and the slow down of AMOC ocean currents, the warming up of the tropical Atlantic and so on increasing the power of hurricanes. SOS Losing the Amazon equals losing the battle on climate change. It will disrupt global food production and make large areas uninhabitable, leading to mass migration of hundreds of millions, war and collapse. There is still a small chance that we can stop and reverse the damage, but then the world must wake up to this horrible tragedy and activate a plan to do so, NOW! #GreenUpToCoolDown

Since last July, Earth’s average temperature has been at least 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, writes Sarah Kaplan. As global temperatures spiked to their highest levels in recorded history on Monday, ambulances were screaming through the streets of Tokyo, carrying scores of people who had collapsed amid an unrelenting - #heatwave. A monster typhoon was emerging from the scorching waters of the Pacific Ocean, which were several degrees warmer than normal. Thousands of vacationers fled the idyllic mountain town of #Jasper, Canada ahead of a fast-moving wall of wildfire flames. By the end of the week — which saw the four hottest days ever observed by scientists — dozens had been killed in the raging floodwaters and massive mudslides triggered by Typhoon Gaemi. Half of Jasper was reduced to ash. And about 3.6 billion people around the planet had endured temperatures that would have been exceedingly rare in a world without burning #fossilfuels and other human activities, according to an analysis by scientists at the group Climate Central, Inc. 
These extraordinary global temperatures marked the culmination of an unprecedented global hot streak that has stunned even researchers who spent their whole careers studying #climatechange. Since last July, Earth’s average temperature has consistently exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels — a short-term breach of a threshold that scientists say cannot be crossed if the world hopes to avoid the worst consequences of planetary warming. This “taste” of a 1.5 degree world showed how the natural systems that humans depend on could buckle amid soaring temperatures, said Johan Rockström, director of the PIK - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Forests showed less ability to pull #carbon out of the atmosphere. Sea ice around Antarctica dwindled to near record lows. #Coral bleaching became so extreme scientists had to change their scale for measuring it.
 Even as scientists forecast an end to the current record-breaking stretch, they warn it may prove difficult for parts of the planet to recover from the heat of the past year.
 “The extreme events that we are now experiencing are indications of the weakening #resilience of these systems,” Rockström said. “We cannot risk pushing this any further.” 
This week’s broken records come on the heels of 13 straight months of unprecedented temperatures — fueled in part by the planet’s shift into an El Niño climate pattern, which tends to warm the oceans, as well as pollution from burning #coal, #oil and #gas.