Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week...
Story of the Week...
Global Footprint Network promotes real-world solutions that #MoveTheDate, accelerating the transition to one-planet prosperity
On July 29, humanity will have used nature’s resource budget for the entire year, according to Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability organization that has pioneered the Ecological Footprint. It is Earth Overshoot Day. Its date has moved up two months over the past 20 years to the 29th of July this year, the earliest date ever.
Earth Overshoot Day falling on July 29th means that humanity is currently using nature 1.75 times faster than our planet’s ecosystems can regenerate. This is akin to using 1.75 Earths. Overshoot is possible because we are depleting our natural capital – which compromises humanity’s future resource security. The costs of this global ecological overspending are becoming increasingly evident in the form of deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, or the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The latter leads to climate change and more frequent extreme weather events.
“We have only got one Earth – this is the ultimately defining context for human existence. We can’t use 1.75 without destructive consequences,” said Mathis Wackernagel, co-inventor of Ecological Footprint accounting and founder of Global Footprint Network.
His just released book, Ecological Footprint: Managing Our Biocapacity Budget, demonstrates that overshoot can only be temporary. Humanity will eventually have to operate within the means of Earth’s ecological resources, whether that balance is restored by disaster or by design. “Companies and countries that understand and manage the reality of operating in a one-planet context are in a far better position to navigate the challenges of the 21st century,” Wackernagel writes.
Global Footprint Network promotes real-world solutions that #MoveTheDate, accelerating the transition to one-planet prosperity. Press Release, Global Footprint Network, July 23, 2019
Toon of the Week...
Hat tip to the Stop Climate Science Denial Facebook page.
Coming Soon on SkS...
- 'No doubt left' about scientific consensus on global warming, say experts (Jonathan Watts)
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #30 (Doug Bostrom)
- The 'war on coal' myth (Karin Kirk)
- What psychotherapy can do for the climate and biodiversity crises (Caroline Hickman)
- How climate change is making hurricanes more dangerous (Jeff Berardelli)
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #31 (John Hartz)
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #31 (John Hartz)
Climate Feedback Claim Review...
Data shows the Earth is currently warmer globally than at any time in the past 2,000 years
CLAIM:
"A graph of the Earth’s mean temperature over the last 2,000 years shows two previous periods when temperatures were warmer than they are now; from 1–200 A.D., an epoch called the Roman Warm Period, and more recently the Medieval Warm Period from 900–1100 A.D.[…] It is worth noting that both of these climate optima occurred centuries before the discovery of fossil fuels and the invention of the internal combustion engine."
SOURCE:
Apocalyptic Sea-Level Rise—Just a Thing of the Past?, Opinion by Gregory Rummo, Town Hall, July 23, 2019
VERDICT:
DETAILS:
Factually Inaccurate: Available climate records show that recent global temperatures are likely the highest of the last 2,000 years and there is no data supporting the claim that, globally, the Earth was warmer during the Roman or Medieval eras.
Flawed Reasoning: Natural climate change events in the past do not provide evidence that human emissions of greenhouse gas are incapable of changing the climate today.
KEY TAKE AWAY:
It's not true that the world has been warmer at other times during the last 2,000 years. But even if that were the case, it would not change the fact that human emissions of greenhouse gases are causing Earth's climate to warm.
Data shows the Earth is currently warmer globally than at any time in the past 2,000 years, Edited by Scott Johnson, Claim Reviews, Climate Feedback, July 26, 2019
Poster of the Week...
SkS Week in Review...
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #30 by John Hartz
- Analysis: How Trump’s rollback of vehicle fuel standards would increase US emissions by Zeke Hausfather (Carbon Brief)
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #29, 2019 by SkS Team
- CCC: UK has just 18 months to avoid ’embarrassment’ over climate inaction by Simon Evans (Carbon Brief)
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #29 by John Hartz
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