After Midnight
By Derrick Crowe
March 26, 2022
This week’s climate news shows that the Doomsday Clock’s setting of “three minutes to midnight” is optimistic to say the least. Nobody in power in D.C. has their eye on the ball.
The bloodless term “anomaly” doesn’t do justice to the stupendous temperature departures seen across parts of both the Antarctic and Arctic in mid-March 2022. With the initial shock now behind them, scientists are taking stock of exactly what happened and what it might portend.
Levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide expected during the 21st century would equal those from a geologic era that saw contraction of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and a substantial rise in sea level, according to a new study co-authored by UNL researchers.
A new model reported in a companion study projects the sea level to rise approximately 100 feet if the current carbon dioxide level of 400 parts per million increases to 500 ppm, as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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Harwood said geological evidence suggests that the planet is already overdue for a 40-foot rise in sea level, based on the carbon dioxide increase from 280 to 400 ppm catalyzed by the Industrial Revolution. That shift occurred so rapidly by geologic standards that Earth’s ice sheets have yet to fully respond as they did in the past, he said.
Calling a self-satisfied worm like Manchin “evil” is cathartic and true, but shame is a register that does not work in American politics right now. Nevertheless, we have to find some way to neutralize him and his allies. We’re way past midnight.