Universe Spirit Blogs

Does John Mackey the head of Whole Foods really not understand the consequences of global warming and climate destabilization? Should he stick to being just a grocer and not try to take public positions on global warming until he at least has done his research homework?

On January 22 nd at 10 am on KQED public radio in San Francisco John Mackey head of Whole Foods gave an interview in which he expressed the following opinions about global warming and its consequent climate destabilization.

We are being effected too much by the fear being generated by global warming alarmists. We will adapt to it! And, the poor will be hurt too much by efforts to clamp down too hard on carbon pollution.

Our organization invites John Mackey to study the fee and dividend carbon reduction program created by James Hansen the world most prestigious climate scientist that would not hurt the poor as we reduce carbon pollution.

We also invite John Mackey to read Six Degrees by Mark Lynas and then re-evaluate if fear is completely appropriate to the magnitude of the real threat that all of humanity faces concerning its future.  We also invite John Mackey after reading this book to reconsider his position that "we will adapt" to global warming in light of what will happen to the planet and the 8 billion members of humanity as we reach temperature increases of 4-6 degrees Celsius. (If we reach 4-6 degree Celsius temperature increases, there will be a whole lot less Whole Foods customers on this planet and the ones that remain would be living lives little like their lives now.)

John Mackey's statements to KQED public radio today on global warming were an easily avoidable embarrassment to Whole Foods customers, to Whole Foods and to the other great work in other areas John Mackey has done. They were so bad and harmful to those individuals and organizations working to reverse global warming and climate destabilization that a public apology by John Mackey is absolutely required. 

For more information on the climate destabilization and climate tipping point issues of this posting see the blog at UniverseSpirit.org  

IMHO

Lawrence Wollersheim

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We the citizens of Earth are endowed with certain inalienable rights, powers and obligations. These rights, powers and obligations demand that we act both individually and in concert to protect and preserve the evolution of life on earth as well as the common well-being of current and future generations.

Based on our best current science, we the citizens of Earth recognize that our climate is warming rapidly and is destabilizing due to human-caused carbon pollution of our atmosphere due primarily to the burning of fossil fuels. If we do not stop this warming before irreversible climate tipping points are crossed, this destabilization of our climate will cause unimaginable suffering and devastation for current and future generations and possibly even cause the extinction or near extinction of human species.

We further recognize that this climate destabilization is ultimately the greatest single threat to the current national security of all nations. This is because as the climate further destabilizes (due to human caused carbon pollution of the atmosphere,) first millions, then ten and then hundreds of millions of people (possibly even billions,) will eventually have to migrate to new locations to survive and thrive as the climate destabilizes. We recognize that climate destabilization is a keystone security threat multiplier and amplifier that can also whip saw all of the following global threats into each other causing each individual threat to escalate and become more difficult to resolve. Those current global threats are:

growing economic inequity and instability,

over population,

food and resource depletion,

increasing droughts, floods and wildfires,

peak oil,

water pollution and water table loss,

desertification and deforestation,

ocean fish stock depletions,

war, pandemic,

poverty, and

political injustice and growing political instability.

In spite of 30 years of education and discussion about the potential of irreversible and extinction-level climate destabilization, we not only have failed to stop or slow the human-caused carbon pollution of the atmosphere --- it has now escalated to a new level and critical tipping point!

On the basis of the current climate destabilization tipping point crisis and our inalienable rights, powers and obligations as citizens of Earth, we do officially declare a planetary state of emergency regarding escalating climate destabilization. In and by this declaration, we pledge to act together as one humanity to address and solve this climate destabilization crisis because ---failure to do so is not an allowable option.

Therefore, in order to sustainably protect, preserve and forward the continued progressive evolution of humanity and life on Earth, we the citizens of Earth demand that the leaders of our nations immediately convene an emergency convention to execute the following actions:

1.) to enact enforceable international laws to stop the escalating human-caused carbon pollution of the atmosphere. (The goal of these laws would be to get human-caused carbon pollution at or below 350 carbon parts per million in the atmosphere.)

2.) to fund critical new climate tipping point research needed for the ongoing updates to creating effective and adaptive atmospheric carbon pollution reduction plans.

3.) to immediately expand industrial-scale, green energy generation to replace existing fossil fuels use and to create tens of millions of new jobs in a new third industrial revolution! (With escalating climate destabilization and the immense challenges of peak oil we cannot continue to use fossil fuels as we are now and reasonably hope to sustain and preserve life on the planet.)

4.) to fund the development of earth-scaled carbon pollution reduction technologies to scrub carbon and other destructive greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. (This is the last resort backup plan in case we cannot reduce the existing carbon in the atmosphere fast enough to keep from going off the climate cliff into irreversible climate destabilization.) And finally,

5.) to immediately begin setting aside 5% of each nation's gross domestic product (GDP,) to cover the increasing emergency recovery costs of climate destabilization related to carbon pollution of the atmosphere. (These emergency recovery costs world be for the super-storms, droughts, crop loss, soaring food costs, heat waves, wildfires, losses of infrastructure and the reoccurring coastal, river and lake flooding that will occur as climate destabilization continues to increase in frequency, scale and severity and, we continue to cross key tipping points of the climate's sub-systems.)

(For more information on steps 1-5 listed above and the steps to reverse climate destabilization go to UniverseSpirit.org and read the Job One for Humanity materials at http://universespirit.org/job-one-humanity-preventing-human-caused-irreversible-or-extinction-level-climate-destabilization )

In concert with all Planetary Citizens and those who call also themselves Evolutionaries or Universe Citizens this state of Planetary Emergency was public ally first declared on December 31, 2012 at the 4th annual Universe Day event in San Francisco, California in the USA.

(Please feel free to translate this declaration and pass this declaration on to anyone you feel who should be aware of it.)

For more information on the escalating climate destabilization challenge and what you can do to effectively help resolve it, see the Job One for Humanity program by clicking here.

For more information on the Annual event Universe Day each December 31st go to theuniverseday.org

(This Declaration was Updated Feb 10, 2014.)

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New York Times Environment section (19 SEP 2012), by Justin Gillis

A view of the east coast of Greenland, where the ice sheet meets the sea.

The drastic melting of Arctic sea ice has finally ended for the year, scientists announced Wednesday, but not before demolishing the previous record — and setting off new warnings about the rapid pace of change in the region. 

http://nsidc.org/news/press/2012_seaiceminimum.html

The apparent low point for 2012 was reached Sunday, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, which said that sea ice that day covered about 1.32 million square miles, or 24 percent, of the surface of the Arctic Ocean. The previous low, set in 2007, was 29 percent. 

http://nsidc.org/

When satellite tracking began in the late 1970s, sea ice at its lowest point in the summer typically covered about half the Arctic Ocean, but it has been declining in fits and starts over the decades. 

“The Arctic is the earth’s air-conditioner,” said Walt Meier, a research scientist at the snow and ice center, an agency sponsored by the government. “We’re losing that. It’s not just that polar bears might go extinct, or that native communities might have to adapt, which we’re already seeing — there are larger climate effects.” 

http://nsidc.org/research/bios/meier.html

His agency waited a few days before announcing the low to be sure sea ice had started to refreeze, as it usually does at this time of year, when winter closes in rapidly in the high Arctic. A shell of ice will cover much of the Arctic Ocean in coming months, but it is likely to be thin and prone to melting when summer returns. 

Scientists consider the rapid warming of the region to be a consequence of the human release of greenhouse gases, and they see the melting as an early warning of big changes to come in the rest of the world. 

Some of them also think the collapse of Arctic sea ice has already started to alter atmospheric patterns in the Northern Hemisphere, contributing to greater extremes of weather in the United States and other countries, but that case is not considered proven.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/sc...pagewanted=all 

The sea ice is declining much faster than had been predicted in the last big United Nations report on the state of the climate, published in 2007. The most sophisticated computer analyses for that report suggested that the ice would not disappear before the middle of this century, if then. 

Now, some scientists think the Arctic Ocean could be largely free of summer ice as soon as 2020. But governments have not responded to the change with any greater urgency about limiting greenhouse emissions. To the contrary, their main response has been to plan for exploitation of newly accessible minerals in the Arctic, including drilling for more oil.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/sc...mpetition.html 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/bu...next-year.html

Scientists said Wednesday that the Arctic has become a prime example of the built-in conservatism of their climate forecasts. As dire as their warnings about the long-term consequences of heat-trapping emissions have been, many of them fear they may still be underestimating the speed and severity of the impending changes. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/sc...peraturerising

In a panel discussion on Wednesday in New York sponsored by Greenpeace, the environmental group, James E. Hansen, a prominent NASA climate scientist, said the Arctic melting should serve as a warning to the public of the risks that society is running by failing to limit emissions. 

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/jhansen.html

“The scientific community realizes that we have a planetary emergency,” Dr. Hansen said. “It’s hard for the public to recognize this because they stick their head out the window and don’t see that much going on.”

A prime concern is the potential for a large rise in the level of the world’s oceans. The decline of Arctic sea ice does not contribute directly to that problem, since the ice is already floating and therefore displacing its weight in water. 

But the disappearance of summer ice cover replaces a white, reflective surface with a much darker ocean surface, allowing the region to trap more of the sun’s heat, which in turn melts more ice. The extra heat in the ocean appears to be contributing to an accelerating melt of the nearby Greenland ice sheet, which does contribute to the rise in sea level. 

At one point this summer, surface melt was occurring across 97 percent of the Greenland ice sheet, a development not seen before in the era of satellite measurements, although geological research suggests that it has happened in the past. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/sc...ice-sheet.html

The sea is now rising at a rate of about a foot per century, but scientists like Dr. Hansen expect this rate to increase as the planet warms, putting coastal settlements at risk. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/sc...al-states.html

A scientist at the snow and ice center, Julienne C. Stroeve, took a ride on a Greenpeace ship recently to inspect the Arctic Ocean for herself. Interviewed this week after pulling into port at the island of Spitsbergen, she said one of her goals had been to debark on ice floes and measure them, but that it had been difficult to find any large enough to support her weight.

http://nsidc.org/research/bios/stroeve.html

Ice floes were numerous in spots, she said, but “when we got further into the ice pack, there were just large expanses of open water.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/sc...ref=earth&_r=0

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ScienceDaily June 6, 2012

A group of scientists from around the world is warning that population growth, widespread destruction of natural ecosystems, and climate change may be driving Earth toward an irreversible change in the biosphere, a planet-wide tipping point that would have destructive consequences absent adequate preparation and mitigation.

"It really will be a new world, biologically, at that point," warns Anthony Barnosky, professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead author of a review paper appearing in the June 7 issue of the journal Nature. "The data suggests that there will be a reduction in biodiversity and severe impacts on much of what we depend on to sustain our quality of life, including, for example, fisheries, agriculture, forest products and clean water. This could happen within just a few generations."

The Nature paper, in which the scientists compare the biological impact of past incidents of global change with processes under way today and assess evidence for what the future holds, appears in an issue devoted to the environment in advance of the June 20-22 United Nations Rio+20 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The result of such a major shift in the biosphere would be mixed, Barnosky noted, with some plant and animal species disappearing, new mixes of remaining species, and major disruptions in terms of which agricultural crops can grow where.

The paper by 22 internationally known scientists describes an urgent need for better predictive models that are based on a detailed understanding of how the biosphere reacted in the distant past to rapidly changing conditions, including climate and human population growth. In a related development, ground-breaking research to develop the reliable, detailed biological forecasts the paper is calling for is now underway at UC Berkeley. The endeavor, The Berkeley Initiative in Global Change Biology, or BiGCB, is a massive undertaking involving more than 100 UC Berkeley scientists from an extraordinary range of disciplines that already has received funding: a $2.5 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and a $1.5 million grant from the Keck Foundation. The paper by Barnosky and others emerged from the first conference convened under the BiGCB's auspices.

"One key goal of the BiGCB is to understand how plants and animals responded to major shifts in the atmosphere, oceans, and climate in the past, so that scientists can improve their forecasts and policy makers can take the steps necessary to either mitigate or adapt to changes that may be inevitable," Barnosky said. "Better predictive models will lead to better decisions in terms of protecting the natural resources future generations will rely on for quality of life and prosperity." Climate change could also lead to global political instability, according to a U.S. Department of Defense study referred to in the Nature paper.

"UC Berkeley is uniquely positioned to conduct this sort of complex, multi-disciplinary research," said Graham Fleming, UC Berkeley's vice chancellor for research. "Our world-class museums hold a treasure trove of biological specimens dating back many millennia that tell the story of how our planet has reacted to climate change in the past. That, combined with new technologies and data mining methods used by our distinguished faculty in a broad array of disciplines, will help us decipher the clues to the puzzle of how the biosphere will change as the result of the continued expansion of human activity on our planet."

One BiGCB project launched last month, with UC Berkeley scientists drilling into Northern California's Clear Lake, one of the oldest lakes in the world with sediments dating back more than 120,000 years, to determine how past changes in California's climate impacted local plant and animal populations.

City of Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, chair of the Bay Area Joint Policy Committee, said the BiGCB "is providing the type of research that policy makers urgently need as we work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare the Bay region to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change. To take meaningful actions to protect our region, we first need to understand the serious global and local changes that threaten our natural resources and biodiversity."

"The Bay Area's natural systems, which we often take for granted, are absolutely critical to the health and well-being of our people, our economy and the Bay Area's quality of life," added Bates.

How close is a global tipping point?

The authors of the Nature review -- biologists, ecologists, complex-systems theoreticians, geologists and paleontologists from the United States, Canada, South America and Europe -- argue that, although many warning signs are emerging, no one knows how close Earth is to a global tipping point, or if it is inevitable. The scientists urge focused research to identify early warning signs of a global transition and an acceleration of efforts to address the root causes.

"We really do have to be thinking about these global scale tipping points, because even the parts of Earth we are not messing with directly could be prone to some very major changes," Barnosky said. "And the root cause, ultimately, is human population growth and how many resources each one of us uses."

Coauthor Elizabeth Hadly from Stanford University said "we may already be past these tipping points in particular regions of the world. I just returned from a trip to the high Himalayas in Nepal, where I witnessed families fighting each other with machetes for wood -- wood that they would burn to cook their food in one evening. In places where governments are lacking basic infrastructure, people fend for themselves, and biodiversity suffers. We desperately need global leadership for planet Earth."

The authors note that studies of small-scale ecosystems show that once 50-90 percent of an area has been altered, the entire ecosystem tips irreversibly into a state far different from the original, in terms of the mix of plant and animal species and their interactions. This situation typically is accompanied by species extinctions and a loss of biodiversity.

Currently, to support a population of 7 billion people, about 43 percent of Earth's land surface has been converted to agricultural or urban use, with roads cutting through much of the remainder. The population is expected to rise to 9 billion by 2045; at that rate, current trends suggest that half Earth's land surface will be disturbed by 2025. To Barnosky, this is disturbingly close to a global tipping point.

"Can it really happen? Looking into the past tells us unequivocally that, yes, it can really happen. It has happened. The last glacial/interglacial transition 11,700 years ago was an example of that," he said, noting that animal diversity still has not recovered from extinctions during that time. "I think that if we want to avoid the most unpleasant surprises, we want to stay away from that 50 percent mark."

Global change biology

The paper emerged from a conference held at UC Berkeley in 2010 to discuss the idea of a global tipping point, and how to recognize and avoid it.

Following that meeting, 22 of the attendees summarized available evidence of past global state-shifts, the current state of threats to the global environment, and what happened after past tipping points.

They concluded that there is an urgent need for global cooperation to reduce world population growth and per-capita resource use, replace fossil fuels with sustainable sources, develop more efficient food production and distribution without taking over more land, and better manage the land and ocean areas not already dominated by humans as reservoirs of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

"Ideally, we want to be able to predict what could be detrimental biological change in time to steer the boat to where we don't get to those points," Barnosky said. "My underlying philosophy is that we want to keep Earth, our life support system, at least as healthy as it is today, in terms of supporting humanity, and forecast when we are going in directions that would reduce our quality of life so that we can avoid that."

"My view is that humanity is at a crossroads now, where we have to make an active choice," Barnosky said. "One choice is to acknowledge these issues and potential consequences and try to guide the future (in a way we want to). The other choice is just to throw up our hands and say, 'Let's just go on as usual and see what happens.' My guess is, if we take that latter choice, yes, humanity is going to survive, but we are going to see some effects that will seriously degrade the quality of life for our children and grandchildren."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0606132308.htm

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