Renewable Revolution

Quote from: agelbert on December 07, 2017, 08:24:35 pm

Wildfires are Leveling LA Neighborhoods, Is There More to Come?

Yes.  Further high winds and dry conditions expected tomorrow, then all week next week.

One has to wonder how CA musters up the money to pay the overtime to all these firefighters?     

RE

Many of the firefighters are prison labor paid one dollar per hour.  When slavery was abolished in the USA over a century ago, the Capitalists left an exception for prison labor. LEGAL Prison (SLAVE) labor is a growth industry in the United Fascist States of America.   

 

http://grist.org/briefly/inmates-are-risking-their-lives-to-fight-californias-raging-fires/



As wildfires tear through the greater Los Angeles area, destroying hundreds of homes, officials have warned nearly 200,000 people to evacuate.

Thousands of firefighters have arrived on the scene — many of them inmates, who make up about a third of the state’s wildfire-fighting force. Since the 1940s, California has relied on inmates to combat the flames by digging containment lines and clearing away brush. In return for this difficult and dangerous work — which has been compared to slave-era labor conditions — inmates get credit toward early parole and $2 per day in camp plus $1 per hour for their time on the fire line.

Roughly 250 women inmates serve on California’s firefighting force, risking their lives to get out of prison faster.

“I’ve seen women come back with broken ankles and broken arms, burns, or just suffering from exhaustion, you know, the psychological stress that people go through trying to just pass the requirements,” Romarilyn Ralston, a former firefighter trainer, told PBS.

As climate change makes wildfires worse, state officials are scrambling to recruit more inmates to fight them.

Quote from: agelbert on December 09, 2017, 07:40:42 pm

Eddie, if a person comes to you with such severe problems in his teeth and gums that you, as an experienced dentist, KNOW he has a 93% chance of losing all his teeth, plus possible blood poisoning and God knows what else, you will, of course, tell him the bitter prognocis. But that does NOT mean that you would avoid learning WHAT HE DID to cause the diseased condition so he will not CONTINUE TO DO IT. That does not mean that, RIGHT NOW, you will not do your best to save some of his teeth.

Actually, what you do in this situation is avoid going to a Dentist who charges as much as Eddie does and fly down to Mexico to have the offending teeth yanked for 10 cents on the dollar by a Mexican Dentist.  Then you adjust to the new way of life by eating mostly soft foods.  My diet consists of stuff like Brie Cheese, Cottage Cheese, Bananas, Berries, Sashimi, Soups of various kinds, Raw Meat (either ground sirloin or thin sliced filet mignon if I feel like spending), rice & beans, etc.  When I do have enough of an appetite to actually eat, I have no problem fulfilling my nutritional requirements with the 6 teeth I have left at the top front of my mouth.

To extend the analogy, when your teeth are so far gone you can't fix them, don't waste your money getting expensive implants from an expensive Dentist.  Get rid of the fu ck ing teeth and adjust to the New Reality.

We need to adjust to the new reality here, not try to fix a terminally broken set of teeth.

RE

RE,
I understand what you did with your dentition and I'm glad it worked for you. But can you honestly say that you solved all your health problems with that decision? Can you honestly say that your diet did not contribute to PAD and other health woes you are now experiencing? If you want to push the analogy, I must say to you that you cannot simply cherry pick a symptoms solving therapy that solved the teeth issue but did not address the root causes in your overall health problems.

Reality IS. I ALWAYS deal with it. Sometimes I do not deal with it all that successfully , but I will not pretend it ain't there.

I disagree strongly with you if you think that I am the one "not adjusting to reality". The costs here are not just measured in dollars and cents; they are measured in quality of life and longevity. You are experiencing the effects of everything you have eaten and all the toxins you have been exposed to throughout your life. A decade ago, when I was a year older than you are now, I had to have a pacemaker implanted. I did not just treat the symptoms; I changed my activites to prevent further problems. It has worked well. That's all I'm saying we should do. I know you long ago made some decisions that you KNEW would shorten your life (like refusing to stop smoking). You have accepted that the consequences of that decision are inescapable. Accepting that REALITY is worthy of respect. It shows that you, unlike Palloy, understand that there ARE CAUSES, ROOT CAUSES, to any health problems we have now.

As to the inescapable reality of the accelerating deterioration of our environment and our society, Palloy is the one who cannot handle it. This la la land view that global warming and catastrophic climate change is "all going to go away with collapse" is the ultimate in wishful thinking and straw grasping.



RE, what part of the following do you not agree with?

Even if carbon dioxide emissions came to a sudden halt, the carbon dioxide already in Earth’s atmosphere could continue to warm our planet for hundreds of years, according to Princeton University-led research published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

I refuse to engage in Palloy's magical thinking, PERIOD!


Eddie said:

I think you make good points. I think the "silver lining" of collapse (if there is one) though, is that there is some truth to Palloy's thesis, which is that collapse will be what limits climate change.

I don't know whether immediate collapse tomorrow or next week would limit climate change ENOUGH to save humans or the higher animals, but I think it's possible. I'm not optimistic that it would, for the reason you stated. And I agree with you that reducing carbon emissions immediately is still a good idea.

As of now, it seems to still be getting worse instead of better, and those who should be leading us into a lower energy future are instead in complete denial, and doing all the wrong things.

It's seems more likely to me that collapse will do more to limit climate change than all the governments and al the elites and al the current lip service to change. that's a pessimistic view, I know, and I wish I had more reason not to be such a pessimist.

Eddie,

NO, Palloy's point is without any logical or rational foundation whatsover. A collapse WILL NOT stop global warming for several centuries. Until you can somehow prove that humans can routinely live under horrendous climate conditions for over 200 years, you do not have any basis whatsoever to assume that a collapse will "improve" the climate during those 200 years (2018-2218 at least!). Sure, after 1,000 years or so, the average global atmospheric temperature will start going down from ABOUT 10º C ABOVE Pre-Industrial!

It's wishful thinking that Palloy is engaging in. It's irrational to think otherwise.

Earth’s ecosystems support all life, though collapsed ecosystems would be like stepping outside of the international space station not wearing a space suit. Pop! Bam! Gone!

A recent academic study about signals of ecosystem collapse throughout history fits the space suit analogy. Terrifying truth is exposed: The all-important biosphere is sending out warning signals of impending crises… worldwide. It does not seem possible that ecosystems collapse and life dies off. That’s too hard to believe… but, what if it does collapse?

“The Earth’s biodiversity is under attack. We would need to travel back over 65 million years to find rates of species loss as high as we are witnessing today.” (James Dyke, The Ecosystem Canaries, Which Act as Warning Signs of Collapse, The Guardian, Aug. 19, 2016).

“Biodiversity increases resilience: more species means each individual species is better able to withstand impacts. Think of decreasing biodiversity as popping out rivets from an aircraft. A few missing rivets here or there will not cause too much harm. But continuing to remove them threatens a collapse in ecosystem functioning. Forests give way to desert. Coral reefs bleach and then die,” Ibid.

It’s already happening! Imagine flying in an aircraft while watching the rivets pop, one by one. At some point in time screaming overrides thinking. But, thank heavens; we’re not quite there yet.
Scientists from University College London and the University of Maryland studied 2,378 archeological sites and discovered that every society for thousands of years gave early clues to its own demise. Of course, demise happened precisely because those early warnings were ignored, while thinking: “it’s impossible, can’t happen.”

The determinate signal of upcoming demise is referred to as “flickering,” which is a change in society’s responses to perturbations resulting in a society caught in a socio-ecological trap that reinforces negative behavior that started the issue in the first instance, thus, preventing adaption. (Source: Sean S. Downey, et al, European Neolithic Societies Showed Early Warning Signals of Population Collapse, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 113, no. 35, March 2016.)

The formula: Every time a society flickers, losing rivets, it loses recovery time, thereby moving closer to collapse. In every case study, with nearly 100% accuracy, researchers found flickers precedent to eventual collapse All but 2 of 27 test cases showed statistically significant results. Every case experienced massive population growth as a result of the emergence of agriculture followed by technological advancements. Sound familiar?

Societal decline is empirically signaled by any number of drivers such as (1) changing climate, (2) declining environmental productivity, (3) disease, (4) warfare, or (5) combinations thereof. Today, we’ve got’em all.

Rivets are popping all across the globe, e.g., the Great Barrier Reef, the largest living structure in the world, is signaling its demise like there’s no tomorrow. “Many scientists are now saying it is almost too late to save it. Strong and immediate action is required to alleviate water pollution and stop the underlying cause: climate change.” (Source: Michael Slezak, The Great Barrier Reef: A Catastrophe Laid Bare, The Guardian, June 6, 2016.)

According to David Attenborough, the world’s most famous naturalist: “The Great Barrier Reef is in grave danger… The twin perils brought by climate change – an increase in the temperature of the ocean and in its acidity – threaten its very existence,” Ibid. In point of fact, Attenborough’s remarkable new film Blue Planet 2 details the damage wreaked in the seas by climate change, plastic pollution, and overfishing. This final episode of his series lays bare shocking damage.

Compared with what was happening before the 20th century, three-times as much sediment, twice as much fertilizer and 17,000 extra kilograms of herbicide wash over the reef each year. When the coral dies, the entire ecosystem gets hit. Fish that feed on the coral, use it as shelter, or nibble on the algae die or move away. The bigger fish that feed on those fish disappear. But the cascading effects don’t stop there. Birds that eat fish lose their energy source, and island plants that thrive on bird droppings are depleted. And, of course, people who rely on reefs for food, income or shelter from waves lose their vital resource, as the final rivets pop followed by high-pitched screaming.
The signal or flicker of the Great Coral Reef is not nature’s way. It is an anomaly. It is easy to read about it and dismiss it and go on with life, but, in large measure, that’s the problem haunting and overriding ecosystem disintegration. It’s easy to read but punishingly painful to fix. Unwavering commitment is simply not there but for a select few like David Attenborough or Sylvia Earle, the world famous marine biologist.

Alas, groundswell of public opinion is not extant for collapsing ecosystems. It’s just not there at all. Yet, one hundred million people will be glued to TVs watching Super Bowl LII on Sunday, February 4th 2018, whilst the fate of the world’s largest and most important ecosystem rest in the hands of Attenborough, Earle and a handful of dedicated naturalists/marine biologists. Singularly, as well as unfortunately, ecosystem collapse is warranted based upon mathematical calculations alone: One hundred million (100,000,000) watch football while a handful of scientists work at fixing the world’s seas. Football’s more immediate.

Ad interim, massive environmental degradation flickers around the world, including climate change-derived crop losses for which the Federal Crop Insurance Program pays out $17.3B.

Meanwhile, heavily sprayed agrichemical pesticides and fertilizers bring about the absolutely shocking discovery that parts of the ecosystem are dropping dead right before society’s eyes, seventy-five percent (75%) insect loss detected in a major 27-yr. German study. How in the world is it possible for a 75% insect die-off, if not for chemically infested environmental degradation?

As it happens, the list of collapsing/flickering ecosystems is a very long list indeed. Here’s only a smattering:

Oceans have lost 40% of plankton production over past 50 years, threatening loss of one of the major sources of oxygen for the planet. (Boris Worm, Dalhousie Univ.)

If the same amount of global heat that went into top 2000m of ocean from 1955-2010 went instead into atmosphere, temps would warm by 36 C and destroy all life (Grantham Institute).

“Ocean seasons are changing as a result of too much heat and CO2… The scale of ocean warming is truly staggering with numbers so large that it is difficult for most people to comprehend.” (D. Laffoley, IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme).

The ocean’s acidification rate of growth is unprecedented in Earth’s known history. (Jane Lubchenco, NOAA).

Ocean acidification occurring at least 1oxs faster than 55 million years ago based upon paleoclimate record. (C.L. Dybas, Oxford)

Nearly all marine life that builds calcium carbonate show deterioration due to increasing levels of CO2 and acidification. (Richard Feely, NOAA).

A foreboding flicker haunts the Arctic Circle, as permafrost melts away as a result of anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming, awakening forgotten pathogens from the depths. A Russian team analyzed material from 125 feet below surface in permafrost. They found extremely abnormal viruses, e.g., Pithovirus Sibericum, which survived 30,000 years frozen in ice. All of which brings to mind John Carpenter’s spectacular film The Thing (1982), and likelihood that zombie pathogens are buried in super-charged-melting-like-crazy permafrost.

Seven thousand (7,000) pingos discovered in Siberia… new development in permafrost science, never reported before, there could be 100,000 explosive methane pingos extant. (Vladimir Romanovsky, geophysicist Univ. of Alaska)

The East Siberian Arctic Shelf has reached “thaw point,” the turning point from linear to exponential release of CH4 leading to runaway global warming. (Natalia Shakhova, Int’l Arctic Research Centre)

Methane emissions in East Siberian Ice Shelves are 100xs higher than normal. (Igor Semiletov, Int’l Arctic Research Centre)

Tibetan Plateau headwater glaciers for Lancang River (Danube of the East) down by 70%- similarly for Yellow River and Yangtze River- that flow into Mekong Delta, which feeds the entire SE Asia basin of countries. (Yang Yong- Senior Chinese Geologist)

According to YaleEnvironment360: “As Oceans Warm, the World’s Kelp Forests Begin to Disappear,” Nov. 20,2017: “Kelp forests – luxuriant coastal ecosystems that are home to a wide variety of marine biodiversity – are being wiped out from Tasmania to California, replaced by sea urchin barrens that are nearly devoid of life.” Tasmania’s kelp forests hit by a devastating loss of 95%. In northern California, magnificent bull kelp forests along hundreds of miles of coastline have collapsed into an ecological wasteland, ocean desert.

Venice, Italy risks going on the UN’s endangered heritage site list unless it bans humongous cruise ships from the city’s lagoon, which is rapidly deteriorating into a state of utter disrepair.

Greenland’s entire surface experienced melt for the first time in scientific history. (Jason Box – Geologic Survey of Denmark & Greenland)

Greenland 2012 melt of the entire island not expected by scientific models for decades ahead, but it hit in 2012. (Michael Mann)

The all-important Atlantic ocean conveyor belt circulation pattern, aka: Thermohaline, has already started to slow down way ahead of schedule as predicted by scientific models – a result of global warming. This has strong negative ramifications for Europe. Models claimed it wouldn’t start slowing until 22nd century. It’s already started slowing down and could be sudden, maybe within decades! (Michael Mann)

In 2017, the Gulf of Mexico’s Dead Zone, where oxygen is so weak that fish die, is the largest ever at 8,800 square miles. (NOAA)

Positive Climate Feedbacks just starting to influence the warming process, meaning the planet itself is now emitting one molecule of CO2 via positive feedback for every two molecules of CO2 emitted by human activity. (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)

The scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has reported that the Earth is already in the stages of the sixth mass extinction, which will see the world’s wildlife and plants die out. The research found that species, including those, which are not endangered, had reduced in number due to habitation shrinkage, hunting, pollution and climate change.

The deadly trio, or fingerprints, of mass extinctions, including global warming, ocean acidification, and anoxia or lack of ocean oxygen at current rate of change are unprecedented in Earth’s known history. (Alex Rogers, Oxford, scientific director State of the Ocean)

According to YaleEnvironment360, d/d April 2017, a survey of 12,000 adults and children shows that people have lost a closeness or connection with nature. “It is increasingly normal to spend little time outside.”

In the face of people mindlessly staring at very small and/or super large screens, the planet’s ecosystems are flashing signals all the way from Patagonia to Burrow, Alaska with bells clanging, alarms blaring, sirens screeching, but not a word on Good Morning America. Ergo, people really do not know what’s going on, which in a strange, twisted macabre fashion may be a blessing in disguise, until the final rivets pop. Then, loud screaming will register all across the land: Off with their heads! But whose?

Postscript: For each of the past 5 mass extinctions the one common factor has been massive increase in CO2, but none of the mass extinctions in the past compare to the spike in CO2 today. (Jen Veron, Australian Institute of Marine Science)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/11/dying-ecosystems/

Earth's Melting Glaciers Captured in Stunning Before-and-After Images 1
 

Earth's Melting Glaciers Captured in Stunning Before-and-After Images 2
Retreat of the Columbia Glacier, Alaska, USA, by ~6.5 km between 2009 and 2015. Credit: James Balog and the Extreme Ice Survey


Earth's Melting Glaciers Captured in Stunning Before-and-After Images 3
Stein Glacier, Switzerland, retreat of ~550 m from 2006 to 2015. Credit: James Balog and the Extreme Ice Survey


Earth's Melting Glaciers Captured in Stunning Before-and-After Images 4
Solheimajokull, Iceland, retreat of ~625 m from 2007 to 2015. Credit: James Balog and the Extreme Ice Survey

Agelbert OBSERVATION: I just want to point something out I noticed yesterday on Google Earth. In those hills just west and north of Ventura (where there is still a lot of fire) there are umpteen Fracking pads. Every single one of them (active or not) has several varieties of hydrocarbon gases leaking ALL THE TIME. Hydrocarbon gases are, of course, known to aid combustion...

What goes around is comin' around for those Frackers in California. Maybe these fossil fuel fools will  finally learn to stop Fracking around with mother nature.

...and the Mansions just keep on burning!   


RE

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-thomas-fire-ledeall-20171214-story.html

LOCAL L.A. Now

'This fire is a beast': Massive inferno keeps growing despite all-out battle

Firefighters try to stop the forward march of the Thomas Fire

Firefighter Chris Black with the Sacramento Fire Department douses flames Tuesday in Toro Canyon in Carpinteria. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Joseph Serna, Javier Panzar and Matt HamiltonContact Reporters

More than a week after the Thomas fire ignited in Ventura County, destroying hundreds of homes and displacing thousands as it grew into a massive inferno, firefighters are now in a race to protect the pristine coastal communities of neighboring Santa Barbara County before a shift in powerful winds forecast for this weekend.

Across the mountain ridges above Santa Barbara, Summerland and Montecito, firefighters Wednesday were building containment lines, clearing brush, digging breaks and setting small backfires to burn fuel, all in an effort to create barriers to stop the forward march of the fire.

Conditions so far this week have been favorable, allowing firefighters to attack the flames on the southwestern flank of the blaze as it moves west toward the Santa Ynez Mountains.

But the National Weather Service was forecasting sundowner winds blowing southeast at up to 35 mph Friday night, followed by Santa Ana winds Saturday that, at up to 45 mph, could steer the fire toward the southwest.

“When the wind starts pushing it, we can throw everything we have at it and it’s not going to do any good,” Mark Brown, an operations section chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told Santa Barbara residents Wednesday night.

The stakes are high. If the fire moves into Santa Barbara and Montecito, nearly a quarter million residents and 62,000 structures worth $46 billion would be at risk.

Dozers build containment lines as fire approaches

A dozer from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department clears a fire break across a canyon from atop Camino Cielo down to Gibraltar to make a stand should the fire move in that direction. (Mike Eliason / Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP) (at article link)

“When the wind starts pushing it, we can throw everything we have at it and it’s not going to do any good." — Mark Brown, Cal Fire operations section chief

As firefighters well know, sundowner winds are notoriously unpredictable. The winds occur when hot air from the Santa Ynez Valley rises and swiftly pours over the mountain passes toward the Pacific Ocean, as if a person pressed a thumb over the end of a hose.

“It creates very erratic wind conditions, which are very difficult to predict and very difficult to fight fire in,” said Capt. Brendan Ripley, a fire behavior analyst with the Ventura County Fire Department. “It moves fire in different directions. It changes throughout the day.”

If crews can’t finish the containment line across a roughly six-mile stretch in the mountains fast enough to stop the fire’s march west, firefighters may have to burn the fuel themselves — a risky proposition and a scary sight for residents.

“It’s a proactive approach to fight the fire on our terms instead of on Mother Nature’s terms,” Brown said. “It’s well-coordinated if we do it. We’ve had numerous subject-matter experts put the plan together. It’s been vetted at all levels. All the local authorities have looked at it and approved it.”

Fire officials stressed that this plan would be used only if the weekend wind events occur as predicted and if crews can’t make a stand and fight the fire directly. The controlled blaze would burn up to 4,000 acres and be started when winds are favorable for firefighters.
Massive Thomas Fire Threatens Santa Barbara County
The Thomas Fire, feeding on thick chaparral brush which hasn't burned in generations, approaches homes in Montecito. (David McNew / Getty Images)

Meanwhile, firefighters hoped to slow the blaze by building breaks into areas with less vegetation because those areas burned in the last decade, said Chris Childers, a battalion chief with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

About 600 fire engines are jammed into the narrow, winding roads in the Santa Barbara County foothills. Trucks are spraying retardant on grassy hillsides and firefighters are wrapping small, indefensible buildings in protective metallic sheeting that looks like tinfoil to reduce the chances they ignite.

As smoke cleared and visibility improved, a conga line of low-flying helicopters started arriving at a county park in Santa Barbara off Highway 154 to pick up fire retardant. Officials said 33 helicopters and eight airplanes were dropping water and retardant on the blaze.

As of Wednesday night, the Thomas fire had burned more than 238,000 acres and was 30% contained. It has destroyed more than 900 homes in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties since it began Dec. 4 near Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula. In its first day, the fire spread southwest, toward Ventura, and northwest, eventually hugging Ojai before pushing to the Central Coast.

With containment lines now protecting Ventura and Santa Paula, firefighters there have been on a “seek and destroy” mission for any lingering hot spots that could threaten avocado groves, fire officials said Wednesday.

“This fire is a beast and you’re gonna kill it,” Martin Johnson, Santa Barbara County fire division chief, told fire crews at a morning briefing. “I have no doubt."

Authorities said it will probably take months for fire officials to determine the cause of the Thomas fire.

Serna from reported from Ventura, Panzar from Santa Barbara and Hamilton from Los Angeles.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

javier.panzar@latimes.com

matt.hamilton@latimes.com


Track the key details on Southern California’s fires

THIS is what the RCP 2.6 is all about:

QUOTE:

RCP2.6 was developed by the IMAGE modeling team of the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

The emission pathway is representative of scenarios in the literature that lead to very low greenhouse gas concentration levels.    It  is a “peak-and-decline”  scenario; its radiative forcing level first reaches a value of around 3.1 W/m2  by mid-century, and returns to 2.6 W/m2  by 2100.

In order to reach such radiative forcing levels, greenhouse gas emissions (and indirectly emissions of air pollutants) are reduced substantially, over time (Van Vuuren et al. 2007a). (Characteristics quoted from van Vuuren et.al. 2011)

UNQUOTE

https://www.skepticalscience.com/rcp.php?t=3

Agelbert Explanation: First of all the emissions have not shown ANY tendency to slow down yet. But let us say that wishful thinkers (or perhaps fossil fuel industry propgandist status quo defending liars and crooks   ) are counting on a collapse to get the radiative forcings down to the RCP 2.6 level, INSTEAD OF ABOVE THE RCP 8.5 scenario, as they are NOW tracking.

Let us say that on January 1, 2018, we stop all polluting emissions of fossil fuels. Yeah, I know, RIDICULOUS. But here is where you are missing the pitch that the defenders of RCP 2.6 heaven are using. As long as the EVENT when fossil fuels use SLOWS DOWN is somewhere in the future (i.e. 2050) the BASTARDS that push this BALONEY can contiue urging us to burn fossil fuels with the CON that the radiative forcings are going to go WAY DOWN in 2050 and make everything better. That is BULLSHIT.

WHY? Because the radiative forcings DO NOT GO DOWN, as projected in RCP 2.6, just because emissions slow down! How can that be? It IS because CO2 doesn't just "go away" when you stop pumping more of it in to the atmosphere. It STAYS there for CENTURIES.

The whole CON here is the incredibly mendacious claim that there is a DIRECT cause and effect climate warming relationship to emissions. The FACT is that there is about a 40 year LAG. But the defenders of the RCP 2.6 do not want to talk about that.

For those who still cannot wrap their "collapse solves the problem" head around this inconvenient 40 year lag reality, that means that in 2017 plus 40 years - 2057 (if we come to a dead STOP on January 1, 2018 - you know that ain't gonna happen!), the radiative forcings we have TODAY, which are ABOVE RCP 8.5 (the number is related to the W/m2 of radiative forcings) will THEN begin to descend.

Oh, but there is MORE that those fine "honest"  fellows like Palloy do not want to discuss. You see, The radiative forcing scenarios are IRRELEVANT when a runaway greenhouse (several self reinforcing warming loops absent ANY added emissions) is in progress. THAT is where we are already at.

Consequently, for the two reasons I just stated, there is not a snowball's chance in hell that we will EVER get to a radiaitve forcings level of between 3.1 and 2.6 W/m2 by 2100. Our radiative forcings NOW are ABOVE 8.5 W/m2 and they ARE NOT going to go below that for at least 40 years, no mattter what the Palloys of this world otherwise mendaciously claim.

So why to the bullshitters pushing the RCP 2.6 scenario persist? BECAUSE they IGNORE the CO2 already in the atmosphere AND the 40 year lag while they give ALL THEIR ATTENTION (and they want YOU to look NOWHERE ELSE) at the amount of ENERGY generated by fossil fuels each year. That is just plain BONKERS. The other two factors are even MORE important at this stage of the runaway greenhouse!

But, as I said, the method in that madness is to make you and I believe the CON that collapse is going to make everything just dandy. Don't worry about a thing   . Just use that polluting fuel all you want. It's gonna run out soon, real, real soon and it will all work out.

Don't swallow the con. All these fossil fueler crooks and liars want is to keep you USING fossil fuels for profit over planet! Stop using them wherever you can. The only good Fossil fuel corporation is a BANKRUPT fossil fuel corporation.