Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 30: Heavy breathing tropical forests under record heat

Today the WMO announced that the atmospheric CO2 concentration last year rose at a record high speed: +3.3 ppm – jumping from 400.0 ppm in 2015 to 403.3 in 2016. The annual average rise is close to 2 ppm. A … Continue reading

Real Global Temperature Trend, p21 – Science is ruthless. We have ‘about zero’ years of emissions to stay below 1.5 degrees

That is if you correct for one important piece of scientific criticism to the below graph. But even if you prefer to ignore what may seem the nitty gritty of climatology and accept a maximum global carbon budget of 8.9 … Continue reading

Real Global Temperature Trend, p11 – Under agreed 1.5 degrees target world has 8 years of emissions for rest of century

And that understanding has just ended the Age of Coal. Thank you coal – it’s been great fun. We’ll have to leave the rest of you where you’ve been for the previous millions of years. In our quest to uncover … Continue reading

Mistaken headlines due to IEA report. In fact global CO2 emissions reached dramatic new record in 2015. Good news is ‘Energy’, not ‘Climate’

But the problem is, no one is properly measuring. We again point to the Keeling curve – this time NOAA’s ‘global average’ atmospheric CO2 concentration over the last 5 years. Very easy to conclude world media are annoyingly wrong today, … Continue reading

Comparing CO2 emissions per capita: living a full year in the US, Germany, China, India – or booking 4 random flights from London Heathrow

All right. What we’re gonna do today is hardly science. But it is based on decent World Bank statistics for China, India, Germany and the US (which sadly have not yet been updated since 2011) and a CO2 calculator that … Continue reading

Holiday plans – Plane or Train? Planes are about 20 times as bad for the climate – per kilometre

Yes. We don’t like to talk about it – but it’s high time we did: CO2 emissions of air travel are 20.5 times higher than train, per kilometer*, per passenger, according to the European Environmental Agency. Cars are somewhere in … Continue reading

This is what carbon climate feedbacks look like! Atmospheric monitoring shows dramatic 2015 CO2 emissions record unfolding

Welcome to the future. 2015: The hottest year on record. With a likely coral bleaching record. And sadly also the year with a likely extreme CO2 emissions record. Because, using satellites, we can see the very positive carbon climate feedbacks … Continue reading

Continuation of Indonesian forest fires could increase global CO2 emissions by 29% – as El Niño and drought intensify over rest of 2015

The year 2015 will be the hottest on record. You’ve probably heard that by now. What does not receive media attention is that 2015 is likely to also bring a dramatic peaking record in global anthropogenic CO2 emissions, if we … Continue reading

Graph shows countries urgently need to strengthen 2030 emission targets before Paris climate summit – emissions gap >19Gt CO2

Today’s Graph of the Day has a really sobering message. Within four months of the crucial UNFCCC climate conference in Paris (‘COP21’) countries have submitted grossly insufficient emission reduction targets for the year 2030 – the target year for the … Continue reading