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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sdgla who wrote (842478)	3/13/2015 12:55:30 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577179

"So your position is ignore the data ?" Quite the opposite. Only deniers ignore the data. Entering the Middle Miocene — CO2 Likely to Hit 404 Parts Per Million by May The Pliocene. A period of time 2-5 million years ago hosting carbon dioxide levels ranging from 350 to 405 parts per million and global average temperatures that were 2-3 degrees Celsius hotter than 1880s levels. The great ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica were feeble, if they existed at all. And seas were about 25-80 feet higher than today. (CO2 hit above 401.84 parts per million on March 9, 2015, and above 403 parts per million on March 10 — levels that test the upper boundary of CO2 last seen during the Pliocene and entering a range more similar to the Miocene. Image source: The Keeling Curve.) In the context of human warming, the amount of heat forcing we’ve added to the global atmosphere from carbon dioxide emissions alone has been hovering in the range of the Pliocene for the past two decades. A heat forcing that, if it remained steady over a substantial period of time, would almost certainly revert the world to a climate state last seen during that time. But by 2015, the global human heat forcing from carbon dioxide emissions had begun to exit the period of the Pliocene. Now we are entering a period in which atmospheres are more similar to those seen during the Middle Miocene Climate Optimum — the last time CO2 measures exceeded a threshold of roughly 405 parts per million (see here and here) The Middle Miocene Climate Optimum occurred between about 15 and 17 million years ago. It hosted an atmosphere in which carbon dioxide levels varied wildly from 300 parts per million to 500 parts per million. Temperatures were between 3 to 5 degrees Celsius hotter than the 19th Century. And sea levels were about 120 to 190 feet higher. During this period, the world was still cooling down from the heat of the Paleocene and Eocene epocs. Carbon was being sequestered. And it was the first time the world broke significantly below a 500 part per million CO2 plateau that had been established during the Oligocene 24 to 33 million years ago. The great glaciers in East Antarctica were mostly well established, even though their scope was a mere shadow of what we see today. The Greenland and West Antarctic glaciers did not exist. They would have to wait for about another 5-10 million years for the Earth to cool further. (Glaciation since PETM. Image source: Dr James Hansen.) As of March 9, 2015, atmospheric CO2 levels had reached 401.84 parts per million. Already a level testing the Pliocene-Miocene boundary, this measure will continue to increase through the rest of March, on into April, and keep rising until middle or late May. At that point, global CO2 levels will have reached around 404 parts per million. At least the highest levels seen in the last 3 million years and possibly the highest levels seen in 15 to 18 million years. If the greater portion of this range is correct, then we are now breathing air that none among our species or even our hominid relatives have ever breathed since their setting foot on this world. But CO2 alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Equivalent CO2 levels (CO2e) including all human emitted greenhouse gasses — methane and a host of industrial gasses — will reach about 484 ppm CO2e this year (see here and here). And that forcing puts us easily within the range of the warmest periods of the Miocene. A brew of heat trapping gasses including exotic chemicals that no creature has likely ever breathed while living on the Earth. robertscribbler.wordpress.com

To: Sdgla who wrote (842478)	3/13/2015 2:00:03 AM
From: Broken_Clock	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577179

speaking of ignoring data… How's that ME war policy working out? Iraq’s Sectarian Purges Throw a Wrench in US War StrategyPentagon Repeatedly Warned Iraq About Troops' Atrocities by Jason Ditz, March 12, 2015 Print This \| Share This Taking back ISIS-held towns for the Iraqi military has become a much bigger long-term problem than anyone expected. It’s not just the fighting that’s the problem, it’s the brutality that comes afterward. A Shi’ite dominated military, backed by Shi’ite militias, chased ISIS out of a Sunni town, and atrocities are soon to follow. Sunnis are rounded up on flimsy pretexts by the winning troops, tortured and sometimes killed. Publicly, the US has tried to downplay this, but officials are conceding that privately the Pentagon has repeatedly warned Iraqi leaders about atrocities. Iraq claims they’re investigating reports of atrocities carried out by the Shi’ite militias, but those investigations never go anywhere. It’s not just the militias, either, with Iraqi troops getting involved oftentimes. With the US couching their entire Iraq strategy on religious unity, an admittedly unrealistic plan in the first place, regular sectarian massacres are really leaving that plan in tatters. Iraqi Sunnis may not like living under ISIS control, but they may look fondly back on that if living under Shi’ite occupation is too brutal. The US had, after all, already claimed “victory” in Iraq before, only to see the increasingly violent crackdowns on Sunnis by the Maliki government give ISIS an opening to make huge gains. Any new military gains, then, are likely to similarly be temporary with the purges that follow. +++++++ Rights Group: US Airstrikes Killed More Than 100 Civilians in Syria51 Killed in Single Attack on ISIS Prison by Jason Ditz, March 12, 2015 Print This \| Share This The Syrian Network for Human Rights has issued a new report, in which they determined US warplanes have killed over 100 civilians in airstrikes in Syria since September Nearly half of the 103 deaths were the result of a single strike, on December 28, when US planes attacked a makeshift ISIS prison in al-Bab, killing 51 civilians held therein. The al-Bab incident was initially denied by the Pentagon, and only confirmed two weeks later after an investigation by McClatchy. The Pentagon then conceding leveling the building, but said they didn’t consider the death toll credible. Many of the civilian deaths in the Syria attacks have been the result of the US targeting refineries in ISIS territory, which are being run by civilians. The strikes are meant to be hurting ISIS’ revenue streams, but are killing civilians and crippling the civilian infrastructure of the region.