September 28. 2023
1) much of July was spent at record temperatures +3C
2) the collapse of the Amazon rainforest is likely to happen at +2-4C. The collapse of the Amazon is expected to occur because of changing weather patterns and circulation that result in drought.
3) Today Brazil set up a task force for “unprecedented drought in the Amazon” [A DROUGHT IN THE RAINFOREST]
Low river levels and hotter waters have killed masses of fish seen floating on river surfaces, contaminating the drinking water, Environment Minister Marina Silva said.
“We have a very worrying situation. This record drought has disrupted river transport routes (dropping 30 cm / day) threatening food and water shortages, and a large fish mortality is already beginning,” she told Reuters in an interview.
Silva said this was the effect of a periodic El Niño mixing with changes in weather patterns brought by global warming.
“We are seeing a collision of two phenomena, one natural which is El Niño and the other a phenomenon produced by humans, which is the change in the Earth’s temperature,” she said.
Worsened by climate change, this combination has caused drought not seen before in the Amazon and “is incomparably stronger and could happen more frequently,” she added.
Scientists concur that a rise of 2 degrees will trigger feedback loops and tipping points. Triggering these tipping points results in the CO2 stored in nature to be released. Though we do not know how much carbon is stored in nature, it would be reasonable to assume that the temperature could be pushed from 3 degrees to 6 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Humans cannot thrive above a rise of 1.5 degrees. Humans cannot survive if the temperature rises 6 degrees.
Climate Change Tipping Points
Climate Change: Rate of Acceleration: By 2020, there was enough data to see the “doubling period” of some anthropogenic climate affects had gone from 100 years to 10 years.