Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to Professor Markus Rex, we have finally crossed the line – though years of well funded research are required to confirm that we have messed up the planet.
Scientists fear global warming has already passed an irreversible ‘tipping point’
The scientist who led the biggest-ever expedition to the Arctic has warned global warming may have already passed an irreversible tipping point.
The tipping point for irreversible global warming may have already been triggered, the scientist who led the biggest-ever expedition to the Arctic has warned.
“The disappearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic is one of the first landmines in this minefield, one of the tipping points that we set off first when we push warming too far,” said Professor Markus Rex.
“And one can essentially ask if we haven’t already stepped on this mine and already set off the beginning of the explosion.”
Professor Rex led the world’s biggest mission to the North Pole, an expedition involving 300 scientists from 20 countries.
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“Only evaluation in the coming years will allow us to determine if we can still save the year-round Arctic sea ice through forceful climate protection or whether we have already passed this important tipping point in the climate system,” Professor Rex added, urging rapid action to halt warming.
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Stefanie Arndt, who specialises in sea ice physics, said it was “painful to know that we are possibly the last generation who can experience an Arctic which still has a sea ice cover in the summer”.
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Read more: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/scientists-fear-global-warming-has-already-passed-an-irreversible-tipping-point
I’ve experienced arctic ice, I once spent a few days in Bodø. It was cold. The Maelstrom at Saltstraumen was pretty, and the snow capped mountains were glorious. Lots of pretty Scandinavians. There were some odd things for sale in the shops. One of the towns in Bodø municipality would make a great place for a party, if the ice actually melts away, and if you are someone who doesn’t mind if things get a bit weird. But lets just say I’m not exactly rushing to book my ticket.
I am so glad. Now, just as “modern” monetary “theory” obviates any taxation, so Global Whining irreversibility obviates any Cool Kid tyranny.
I myself have been waiting forever to burn truck tires with impunity. Whoo hoo …
”“Only evaluation in the coming years will allow us to determine if we can still save the year-round Arctic sea ice through forceful climate protection”
Hmmm.. A common concern. Just the other day there was another ”scientist” on the BBC commenting on the Pine Island glacier. She said it was reversible. While lying in bed I thought to myself, I wonder if we are we still able to get superman on the line? Maybe he could fly around the Earth really really fast, reverse it’s spin and get us back to the good old days!
I’d call it a reversible anti-tipping point, the AMO and Arctic are normally warmer during a centennial solar minimum.
Did George Orwell leave a list of things future idiots were supposed to do?
“Professor Rex led the world’s biggest mission to the North Pole, an expedition involving 300 scientists from 20 countries.”
Wow, 300 scientists!! 20 countries! Who could deny that much science all concentrated into one mission? Surely this tipping point has indeed been reached!
““Only evaluation in the coming years will allow us to determine if we can still save the year-round Arctic sea ice …”
Oh, wait, the highly concentrated science is going to need years of “evaluation” to determine if this tipping point has been reached . . So, I suppose they need some highly concentrated funding over the coming years. At least till that “forceful climate protection” money gets flowing . .
Hey Griff was right we are doomed …. party time till end of world.
Only in the next few years can we determine whether we can still save the Arctic sea ice through strong climate protection, or whether we have passed the critical point of the climate system. But I know for sure, carmakers like Volvo have been aware of their social responsibilities in recent years.
Oh well, if it’s irreversible then I might as well drive my Escalade to the McDonald’s drive thru and order a methane belching cow burger – 🍔 Make that a double.
This statement is self contradictory. Rapid action need not be taken at all, because the professor already told us that only evaluation in the coming years will work.
So who are you going to believe? The professor or the professor?
There is a dutch “educational” website to scare children with alarmism
https://www.tippingpointahead.nl/
Mosaic expedition was public and nice to follow on the internet.
They predicted to follow with the ice and made a predicted time table.
The actual flow was twice as fast.
My take home on this is that the ice is moving faster and the melting takes place more southerly.
The models overcalculated icemelt in Arctic and underestimate ice melt due to lover latitudes.
It is NOT worse than the thought!
Icebreakers had a hard time to replace the crew. Russia had to send more fuel and one more breaker to reach them.
My takehom on this is that the icecover was more hard to break due to more and thicker ice than anticipated.
It is not less ice!
Submarines surfaced at the North Pole in 1950’s. Light to zero summer ice is unprecedented.
On SBS evening news last night in Australia (16 June),Professor Will Steffen spruiked the result of the Arctic expedition mentioned here.
As Professor Steffen is the principal author of Steffen et al (2018),”Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene”,PNAS,August 14,2018, his excitable commentary was predictable.
Here are the opening sentences of the Abstract of this paper which give one an idea of its calibre-
“We explore the risk that self re-inforcing feedbacks could push the Earth System toward a planetary threshold that,if crossed,could prevent stabilisation at intermediate temperature rises and cause continued warming on a “Hothouse Earth” pathway even if human emissions are reduced.
Crossing the threshold would lead to a much higher global average temperature than any interglacial in the past 1.2 million years and to sea levels significantly higher than at any time in the Holocene…”
If I may quote former Australian PM Billy Hughes from a century ago,spoken about a political opponent-
“If they paved the road from Brisbane to Birdsville with Bibles and he swore an oath on every one of them,I wouldn’t believe a b….y word he said!”
If we have reached the point of no return, great! There’s no reason to worry about fixing the climate any more. And since it is “irreversible,” there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it now, anyway. Think of the money we’ll save by cancelling research grants and clean energy subsidies.
Science fiction: “The zombie apocalypse has begun”.
Science: “The zombie apocalypse may have already begun”.
Nuance is everything.
“the biggest expedition to the Arctic” lasted less than a year. It tells us NOTHING about long term change. All press coverage of this is a total lie.
There is NOTHING new here, just some activist scientist making yet more vague, may-be, could-be possibly claims about what “may” happen at some unspecified time in the future.
In the service industry the “tipping point” is when someone hands you some extra cash because they like what you do. Apparently some “scientists” are hoping for a similar outcome but without actually providing any useful service.
Wait, I’ve heard this one before. Doesn’t it start “A penguin and a naked lady walk into a bar”? But the punch line is always the same.
Caption competition.
What are the penguins saying?
Whilst you were in Bodø I hope you got to visit the wonderful Norwegian Aviation Museum.
Oh, you skeptics! Don’t you realize that this was the biggest-ever expedition – not just big, but biggest-ever. Surely that put the issue beyond doubt.