a taste of things to come


It was forty-one degrees in Melbourne yesterday. It’s supposed to be forty-three today and the same again tomorrow. Weather is not climate and swallows don’t make summers and so on and so forth.  Nonetheless, it’s a context that encourages one to pay attention to this little cheery press release (ht Robert Merkel at LP):

A new scientific study led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reaches a powerful conclusion about the climate change caused by future increases of carbon dioxide:  to a large extent, there’s no going back.

The pioneering study, led by NOAA senior scientist Susan Solomon, shows how changes in surface temperature, rainfall, and sea level are largely irreversible for more than 1,000 years after carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are completely stopped.

Jeff Sparrow

Jeff Sparrow is a Walkley Award-winning writer, broadcaster and former editor of Overland.

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