SC20

http://climateark.com/

Amazon at Climate Caused Desert Tipping Point

New research by the highly respected Woods Hole Research Centre reported upon in the UK's Independent has concluded that the vast Amazon rainforest is on the brink of becoming a desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate. They predict the Amazon rainforest cannot withstand more than two consecutive years of drought without "mega-fires" sweeping across the drying jungle, destroying healthy rainforest ecosystems, and resultant denuded soil baking in the sun ultimately becoming a desert. The Amazon is now entering its second successive year of climate change intensified drought, making it likely that widespread forest die-back will start soon. The Amazon rainforests contain 90 billion tons of carbon, enough to increase the rate of global warming by 50 percent........

An Inconvenient Lack of Climate Action

The Washington Post runs an article today entitled "Warming to the Inconvenient Facts" which points out the difficulty in moving beyond the recent surge in climate change awareness in the U.S. to identifying and implementing the myriad of major policy-changes in every aspect of life necessary to maintain a habitable climate and Earth. Americans continue to resist the dramatic personal and societal actions necessary to lower carbon emissions - though denial is starting to crumble.

"If the scientists are right about an apocalyptic future of floods, droughts, dead coral reefs, rising sea levels and advancing deserts, global warming is an existential threat that should affect our approach to just about every issue. To take it seriously, we would have to change the way we think about transportation, agriculture, development, water resources, natural disasters, foreign relations and more." .........

119 degrees in Woodland Hills over the weekend. Record 50,270 mega watt usage today in So Cal. Our aged and ill maintained national power grid system will begin to buckle more and more, under the ever increasing loads that our " progress " will be placing upon it in the coming years. Air Conditioning, not so many decades ago, when first introduced, was seen as a magical marvel of the time. Now it is entertwined completely in the various systems of our lives. Air Conditioners use vast quantities of energy. Imagine the city of Woodland hills, trying to function in 119 degree heat, without air conditioning. The " Inconvenient Truth " is, we will be finding out, more and more, what life without air conditioning is like, as energy supplies worldwide decline, and the heat builds. Many are having this experience already.