The church bells toll for global warming

[tex-wyo-dem]

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

Generations ago, church bells would toll to let local residents know of any emergency.

Now, United Church of Christ churches are ringing them to alert its members - and the world - to the climate crisis.

Last Sunday, four churches in the four corners of the state pledged to toll their bells 350 times, a number that stands for the amount of carbon dioxide that scientists consider a safe level in the atmosphere. Today, the atmosphere holds about 385 parts per million of CO2, a high level brought on by the release of heat-trapping gases from power plants, cars and factories.

“As the largest Protestant denomination in the Commonwealth, as congregation after congregation decides to ring its bell 350 times, more and more of our 82,000 members will learn why the number 350 is so important,” said Rev. Jim Antal, president of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ.

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http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2008/06/the_church_bells_toll_for_glob_1.html

The second comment under this story has a couple of striking quotes that I thought worth copying here...

"Few seem to realise that the present IPCC models predict almost unanimously that by 2040 the average summer in Europe will be as hot as the summer of 2003 when over 30,000 died from heat. By then we may cool ourselves with air conditioning and learn to live in a climate no worse than that of Baghdad now. But without extensive irrigation the plants will die and both farming and natural ecosystems will be replaced by scrub and desert. What will there be to eat? The same dire changes will affect the rest of the world and I can envisage Americans migrating into Canada and the Chinese into Siberia but there may be little food for any of them." --Dr James Lovelock's lecture to the Royal Society, 29 Oct. '07

"Leemans and Eickhout (2004) found that adaptive capacity decreases rapidly with an increasing rate of climate change. Their study finds that five percent of all ecosystems cannot adapt more quickly than 0.1 C per decade over time. Forests will be among the ecosystems to experience problems first because their ability to migrate to stay within the climate zone they are adapted to is limited. If the rate is 0.3 C per decade, 15 percent of ecosystems will not be able to adapt. If the rate should exceed 0.4 C per decade, all ecosystems will be quickly destroyed, opportunistic species will dominate, and the breakdown of biological material will lead to even greater emissions of CO2. This will in turn increase the rate of warming" --Leemans and Eickhout (2004), "Another reason for concern: regional and global impacts on ecosystems for different levels of climate change," Global Environmental Change 14, 219–228

We've warmed at a rate of 0.2 C/decade for the last two decades.

[Javaman]

1. ask not for whom the bell tolls...nt

[Shoelace]

2. what doesn't burn will flood apparently given our present climate

it's absolutely sad to see the extreme weather scenarios play out now before our very eyes. Flooding in the Midwest, the worst floods EVER! Fires in California, hundreds of them all at once, stretching the firefighting capabilities beyond hope of containment, especially with more lightening strikes predicted soon.

Before the Chinese migrate to Siberia, they'd better consider this:

Last Updated: 10:57am BST 01/08/2007

Devastating forest fires in Siberia that send a pall of smoke worldwide are happening more frequently because of climate change and in turn accelerating the pace of global warming, scientists claim.

In Central Siberia alone fires destroyed 15,000 square miles in 2003, triggering plumes which were linked with air pollution measured as far away as America. The forest fires send as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as the total EU reduction commitment under the Kyoto protocol.

In the Journal of Climate, an international team concludes that Siberian fires are influenced by climate change. The study was led by the Professor Heiko Balzter of the Department of Geography at the University of Leicester.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/08/01/scisiberia101.xml

Canada? It has 10% of the world's forests but they are burning up too:

Climate change could drive the natural forest fire rhythm out of control. Climate scientists predict that pouring billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide (CO2), into the atmosphere will increase global temperatures, change precipitation and atmospheric and ocean circulation patterns. (2 ) These changes are expected to lead to drier conditions in the boreal forest, with some models predicting a 40 - 50 per cent increase in the area burned each year in Canada, as well as more frequent fires of higher intensity in the forest-tundra. (3 )

These changes may already be upon us.
http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/atmosphere-energy/climate-change/climfire.html

Where will our children and their children go? Beats the hell out of me! Wake up world!!