'Astonishing' Antarctica heat wave sends temperatures 50 degrees above normal

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: cnn Climate

Published 2:00 PM EDT, Sat August 3, 2024


CNN — A record-breaking heat wave unfolding at what should be the coldest time in Earth’s coldest place has scientists concerned about what it could mean for the future health of the Antarctic continent, and the consequences it could inflict for millions of people across the globe.

Temperatures since mid-July have climbed up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit above normal over parts of Antarctica and unseasonable warmth could continue through the first half of August.

The latest data shows high temperatures in portions of East Antarctica – where the most abnormal conditions are ongoing – that are typically between minus 58 and minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit are now closer to minus 13 to minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s cold, but Bismarck, North Dakota, has reached minus 20 degrees at least once a year in almost every year since 1875. Antarctica’s typical winter cold should be operating at a level unfathomable to most people in the US.

Summerlike heat in the dead of winter – even if much of the continent is still below freezing – is an alarming development for a place more capable than any other of generating catastrophic sea level rise as fossil fuel pollution continues to drive global temperatures upward.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/03/climate/antarctica-heat-wave-sea-level-rise/index.html

[Evolve Dammit]

1. We are failing at saving our own existence.

[Think. Again.]

2. Just the beginning.

[questionseverything]

3. we are so screwed

i hate to admit, i am glad i'm old so i miss the worst of it

[surfered]

4. I tend to agree with you, the impending end doesn't seem so bad knowing it will be hell in earth after I'm gone

And it’s Republicans’ fault for preventing us from doing anything about it. They have sealed the fate of their kids and grandkids.

[BComplex]

5. But think of the great young people who vote almost completely on this issue. They've given it their all to

try to reverse the stupidity of unregulated capitalism in our country, and competition around the globe.

[calimary]

6. The GOP's denial of reality and the facts will doom us all.

Hope it was worth it…

[moniss]

9. It's always short term gain they value

so the long term investment to mitigate problems is always shoved aside as they go for the money and power they can grab today.

[LudwigPastorius]

7. Atmospheric CO2 is at the highest level it has been in 800,000 years.

[PSPS]

8. This is "The Great Filter" in action. It seems humanity's "filter" will be cooking ourselves out of existence.

https://earthsky.org/space/avoiding-the-great-filter-earth-alien-civilizations/

[NickB79]

18. Worse, closer to 14 MILLION years ago

https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/12/07/a-new-66-million-year-history-of-carbon-dioxide-offers-little-comfort-for-today/

A massive new review of ancient atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels and corresponding temperatures lays out a daunting picture of where the Earth’s climate may be headed. The study covers geologic records spanning the past 66 million years, putting present-day concentrations into context with deep time. Among other things, it indicates that the last time atmospheric carbon dioxide consistently reached today’s human-driven levels was 14 million years ago—much longer ago than some existing assessments indicate. It asserts that long-term climate is highly sensitive to greenhouse gas, with cascading effects that may evolve over many millennia.

The study was assembled over seven years by a consortium of more than 80 researchers from 16 nations. It appears today in the journal Science.

At that time, seas were 100' feet higher and Antarctica still had shrubby forests of beech, and marsupials inhabiting them.

https://www.sciencealert.com/there-were-trees-at-the-south-pole-the-last-time-there-was-this-much-co2-in-the-air

A group of scientists have came together to discuss what we can learn about the environment by peering back into Earth's history.

Looking back to the last time Earth's atmosphere had this much carbon dioxide in it, the scene is rather dramatic: there were trees growing at the South Pole, sea levels were up to 20 metres (66 feet) higher, and global temperatures were 3-4°C above what they are today.

That paints a worrying picture about how much CO2 we've got in our air, and how our world might continue to change as temperatures go up.

Hang on, it's gonna get bumpy.

[ZonkerHarris]

10. we had a good run.

[FakeNoose]

14. Actually only a few white males had a good run

... but I get your point that it's all over now.

The psychics like Edgar Cayce and others were predicting this over a hundred years ago, and now here we are.

[nealr]

11. existential threat

Our carbon exhumation problem has created an existential threat for our species. We could have ... SHOULD HAVE done something about it and I think the 2000 election/911 attack was sort of an inflection point. We ignored reality and made choices based on religion.

Now a quarter of us are going to just cook in our skins before the century is out. The arc from the Persian Gulf through Pakistan into South Asia already gets too hot for human tolerance. Just a little bit more and folks are going to start dying in large numbers.

[Delphinus]

16. The Kim Stanley Robinson book,

Ministry for the Future, started off with that and it impacted me greatly. If it happens in real life, will it wake up people?

Belated welcome to DU.

[LymphocyteLover]

12. As climate science deniers, Trump and Republicans are an existential threat to our existence

[Mr. Mustard 2023]

13. Methane is 20 times worse

than C02 emissions and methane emissions are drastically increasing.

It's going to happen much faster than scientists predicted. The cascade effect has begun and each year will cause damage, which will cause damage, etc.

But hey, I saw a really cool SUV commercial on ABC News last night.

We're toast.

[CousinIT]

15. I remember chatter about this in the 1970s.

Last edited Sun Aug 4, 2024, 12:55 PM - Edit history (1)

Nothing has been done. The fossil fuel industry and the politicians and courts/judges/justices they & control own won't let it happen. They will get filthy rich, and the rest of us will burn in our own self-made Hell.

Billionaires will survive the longest or leave the planet to a space station others are not allowed on. Elysium, as it were. Art imitates life.

[Polybius]

19. Crazy how it took until the 2010's for electric cars to become truly commercially available

And even today they are less than 10% of the driving population.

[Kid Berwyn]

17. Mother Nature calling.

Humanity, please pick-up the phone.