Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by chromas on Tuesday February 26 2019, @07:09PM   Printer-friendly
from the löylyä-lissää dept.

A recent report on climate simulations show that global warming could break up stratocumulus clouds[$], letting in more energy as High CO2 levels break up stratocumulus cloud decks, once the levels rise above 1,200 ppm. Stratocumulus provide no precipitation but do cover about 20% of the low-latitude oceans and are especially prevalent in the subtropics, cooling by providing shade. If they disappear then, according to calculations, the added sunlight hitting the ground or ocean would increase temperatures by over 8°C.

Now, new findings reported today in the journal Nature Geoscience make the case that the effects of cloud loss are dramatic enough to explain ancient warming episodes like the PETM — and to precipitate future disaster. Climate physicists at the California Institute of Technology performed a state-of-the-art simulation of stratocumulus clouds, the low-lying, blankety kind that have by far the largest cooling effect on the planet. The simulation revealed a tipping point: a level of warming at which stratocumulus clouds break up altogether. The disappearance occurs when the concentration of CO2 in the simulated atmosphere reaches 1,200 parts per million — a level that fossil fuel burning could push us past in about a century, under “business-as-usual” emissions scenarios. In the simulation, when the tipping point is breached, Earth’s temperature soars 8 degrees Celsius, in addition to the 4 degrees of warming or more caused by the CO2 directly.

Once clouds go away, the simulated climate “goes over a cliff,” said Kerry Emanuel, a climate scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A leading authority on atmospheric physics, Emanuel called the new findings “very plausible,” though, as he noted, scientists must now make an effort to independently replicate the work.

To imagine 12 degrees of warming, think of crocodiles swimming in the Arctic and of the scorched, mostly lifeless equatorial regions during the PETM. If carbon emissions aren’t curbed quickly enough and the tipping point is breached, “that would be truly devastating climate change,” said Caltech’s Tapio Schneider, who performed the new simulation with Colleen Kaul and Kyle Pressel.

Huber said the stratocumulus tipping point helps explain the volatility that’s evident in the paleoclimate record. He thinks it might be one of many unknown instabilities in Earth’s climate. “Schneider and co-authors have cracked open Pandora’s box of potential climate surprises,” he said, adding that, as the mechanisms behind vanishing clouds become clear, “all of a sudden this enormous sensitivity that is apparent from past climates isn’t something that’s just in the past. It becomes a vision of the future.”


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Sulla on Tuesday February 26 2019, @07:49PM (14 children)

    by Sulla (5173) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @07:49PM (#807203) Journal

    How does someone who is in Russia's pocket start a nuclear war with Russia?

    --
    Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday February 26 2019, @07:56PM

    by Snow (1601) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @07:56PM (#807209) Journal
  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @08:09PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @08:09PM (#807223)

    Indeed, why would he start a nuclear war with Russia when he's offering the entire country up to them on a silver platter.

  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 26 2019, @08:09PM

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @08:09PM (#807224) Journal

    How does someone who is in Russia's pocket start a nuclear war with Russia?

    I have no idea. But, if anyone can figure it out, it's Trump!

  • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday February 26 2019, @08:56PM (2 children)

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @08:56PM (#807252) Journal

    How does someone who is in Russia's pocket start a nuclear war with Russia?

    Russia? Nah, as long as the Trump → Putin fluffing continues, that (probably) won't happen. But, there's North Korea. And Pakistan. India. China. Etc. Plus, who's to say little mushroom dick won't just lob one at $terrorists just "because."

    Should he be so inclined, hopefully, the people around him will tackle him to the floor before he gets to the briefcase, etc.

    Hopefully.

    --
    Have an urge to follow the masses? Careful:
    Sometimes, the "m" is silent.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @11:51PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @11:51PM (#807344)

      Actually, from Trumps actions during his term so far, it's more likely that he'd be tackling some war-monger to the ground. He's the kind of guy that would rather avoid consequences that would come back to bite (or radiate) him in the ass.

      And 'lobbing one at the $terrorists' seems be something that all the other war-mongers in previous governments are more likely to do. They definitely started more wars, invaded more countries, droned more $terrorists. I'm not sure why people are worried that Trump would be anymore likely to start a global thermonuclear war than Hillary would have been.

      • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @11:55PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @11:55PM (#807351)

        Because the people who think that are drones who believe whatever they heard in late night comedy is a fact.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Tuesday February 26 2019, @09:47PM (6 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 26 2019, @09:47PM (#807278) Journal

    How does someone who is in Russia's pocket start a nuclear war with Russia?

    I hear that India and Pakistan might get into a nuclear war. Which might kill over a billion people.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @11:53PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @11:53PM (#807348)

      You say that like it's a bad thing.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @07:46AM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @07:46AM (#807504)

        Dude think of the 24/7 TV coverage... starving dying brown people day after day after day. BORING.

        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday February 27 2019, @02:48PM (3 children)

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 27 2019, @02:48PM (#807612) Journal

          starving dying brown people day after day after day. BORING.

          I suppose it is boring now that we've seen Trump's internment camps for non-white illegal immigrants.

          --
          People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
          • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:25AM (2 children)

            by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:25AM (#810568) Journal

            Who is more responsible for the evils of Apple? Cook or Jobs? If you blame Jobs then you should also be blaming Clinton.

            --
            Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
            • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 06 2019, @02:49PM (1 child)

              by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 06 2019, @02:49PM (#810705) Journal

              I would blame Jobs.

              Now I am definitely interested in why Clinton (which one?) would also share the blame?

              --
              People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
              • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Wednesday March 06 2019, @03:16PM

                by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @03:16PM (#810720) Journal

                President Clinton is the reason we have those internment camps for migrants coming across the border. Whether right or wrong, every president since it was started by Clinton had children in cages to separate them from people who might not be their parents, to prevent abuse. It's wrong and it should be fixed/done different, but the practice is a continuation of old practices and not something new. I'm not saying Cook doesn;t also share some of the blame, but in the case of the border you had three guys following the procedures put in place by President Clinton.

                --
                Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by RamiK on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:47AM

    by RamiK (1813) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:47AM (#807457)

    After an extended reading of no less than three Russian novels, I'm thoroughly convinced Putin is guilt ridden over accidentally running over a cat and successfully fleeing the scene during his service at the KGB. Now, following volumes-long excruciating monologues filled with gray imaginary, masochism and alcoholism, he developed into a fundamentalist misanthrope culminating in a desire to end it all through the Power Of The Atom.

    --
    compiling...