kottke.org posts about Eric Holthaus

Scientists warn of dramatic climate shift much sooner than expectedMar 22 2016







Hansen also released a 15-minute video about the paper:

Climate change: we're past the point of no returnAug 10 2015

In Rolling Stone, Eric Holthaus writes that as far as climate change is concerned, we are already past the point of no return. The things climate scientists have warned against are already beginning to happen...and faster than predicted.



You might also like to read Adam Sobel's reaction to this piece. As I wrote in reaction to James Hansen's recent paper: "That's the thing about nonlinear systems like the Earth's climate: things happen gradually, then suddenly."

Update: A group of climate scientists at Climate Feedback analyzed Holthaus' piece at his request for accuracy.

While the information within the article is mostly accurate, the main issue for scientists is the article's framing of the information. More specifically, the article implicitly attributes many weather events to human-induced climate change, while the influence of human activity on these events is not always supported by science, or is at the frontier of scientific knowledge and still debated.

Sea level may rise much faster than previously predictedJul 21 2015

James Hansen, NASA's former top climate scientist, is joined by 16 other leading climate scientists in a paper with some alarming conclusions. The gist is that the glaciers in Antartica and Greenland are melting so much faster than previously predicted that the global sea level will rise more than 10 feet in as little as 50 years, rendering many coastal cities uninhabitable. From Eric Holthaus in Slate:

The study -- written by James Hansen, NASA's former lead climate scientist, and 16 co-authors, many of whom are considered among the top in their fields -- concludes that glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica will melt 10 times faster than previous consensus estimates, resulting in sea level rise of at least 10 feet in as little as 50 years. The study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, brings new importance to a feedback loop in the ocean near Antarctica that results in cooler freshwater from melting glaciers forcing warmer, saltier water underneath the ice sheets, speeding up the melting rate. Hansen, who is known for being alarmist and also right, acknowledges that his study implies change far beyond previous consensus estimates. In a conference call with reporters, he said he hoped the new findings would be "substantially more persuasive than anything previously published." I certainly find them to be.

That's the thing about nonlinear systems like the Earth's climate: things happen gradually, then suddenly. This is much more terrifying to me than the Pacific Northwest earthquake. BTW, as a reminder, here's what NYC and the surrounding area looks like with 10 more feet of water. Goodbye JFK Airport.

Update: The paper is now available online.

Update: In the New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert provides a bit more explanation and context about Hansen's paper.

What the new paper does is look back at a previous relatively warm period, known as the Eemian, or, even less melodically, as Marine Isotope Stage 5e, which took place before the last ice age, about a hundred and twenty thousand years ago. During the Eemian, average global temperatures seem to have been only about one degree Celsius above today's, but sea levels were several metres higher. The explanation for this, the new paper suggests, is that melt from Antarctica is a non-linear process. Its rate accelerates as fresh water spills off the ice sheet, producing a sort of "lid" that keeps heat locked in the ocean and helps to melt more ice from below. From this, the authors conclude that "rapid sea level rise may begin sooner than is generally assumed," and also that a temperature increase of two degrees Celsius would put the world well beyond "danger."

"We conclude that the 2°C global warming 'guardrail,' affirmed in the Copenhagen Accord, does not provide safety, as such warming would likely yield sea level rise of several metres along with numerous other severely disruptive consequences for human society and ecosystems," Hansen and his colleagues wrote.

The coming American megadrought of 2050Feb 13 2015

MegadroughtA recent paper by three climate scientists concludes there's a high risk of an unprecedented drought in the Southwest and Midwest United States later this century, even if we manage to get our carbon emissions under control. The scientists say it'll be drier in the Western US than at any point in the past 1000 years.


Eric Holthaus has the layperson's explanation of the study and its implications.

Smerdon's study is the first to examine the future risk of "megadrought" in the southwest and central United States in the context of historical episodes of drought in the same regions. Smerdon's study suggests that the coming years are likely to see droughts worse than the epic dry periods that are thought to have caused profound changes to human settlement in the region over the last millennium.

"They're 'mega' because they are droughts that lasted in these regions for multiple decades," said Smerdon in an interview with Slate. "We haven't seen anything like this since at least the 1400s." In comparison, the current California drought is four years old, though drought has been present in most of the last 15 years somewhere in the West.

Update: This NASA video provides a quick overview of this study and what it means for our climate.

Arctic ice continues to disappearDec 03 2014

The headline from Eric Holthaus' latest piece is arresting: The Last Time There Was This Little Arctic Ice, Modern Humans Didn't Exist.

Ice has been a relatively constant feature of the Arctic for most of the past 36 million years, but there have been some gaps. Scientists aren't exactly sure what happened during the most recent major ice-free period, but it's often considered an analog to our future, warmer Earth. The only difference is, this time, the gap in Arctic sea ice is being caused by us.

Greenland's alarming black iceSep 18 2014





Big Thanksgiving storm brewing on the east coast?Nov 22 2013






Essential winter storm reportFeb 08 2013




Tags related to Eric Holthaus:
global warming James Hansen weather science video

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