Writer
Andrew Glikson
Andrew Glikson, Earth and paleoclimate scientist.
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The short lifespan of technological civilisations and the future of Homo sapiens
In his book ‘Collapse’ (2011) Jared Diamond portrays the fate of societies which Choose to Fail or Succeed. On a larger scale the Fermi’s paradox suggests that advanced technological civilisations may constitute ephemeral entities in the galaxy, destined to collapse over short periods. Continue reading »
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Radioactive portents on a burning earth
According to Fermi’s Paradox, the failure to date to achieve radio communications between Earth and extraterrestrial civilisations can be attributed to the short-term self-destruction of technological civilisation by means of contamination of air, water and land by lethal substances, and the creation of deadly weapons. In the 20-21st centuries this includes saturation of the atmosphere Continue reading »
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The threat of nuclear winter hangs over our warming planet
Even a limited nuclear war would inject enough smoke and dust into the atmosphere to threaten the survival of our species. Continue reading »
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Climate of betrayal: fossil fuel subsidies cost $5.9 trillion in 2020
Despite promises of tackling climate change, governments around the world are still allowing new oil, gas and coal mines. Continue reading »
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The climate change runaway chain reaction process
Amplifying feedbacks are leading to runaway global warming. Continue reading »
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‘Gas-led recovery’: methane and the risk of mass extinction
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum” – Noam Chomsky (1998). Continue reading »
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The unreality of the pledge for “zero emissions by 2050”
Orwellian Doublespeak is a language which deliberately distorts the meaning of words, using contradictory weasel words allowing an assault on reality. In the present, in order to pacify public opinion, authorities are pledging “zero emissions by 2050” (or some other date), an empty promise undermined by current investments in mining hydrocarbons, by large scale export Continue reading »
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ALP climate policy: from the “great moral challenge” to conservative-lite
Deputy ALP leader Richard Marles, seem to studiously avoid any mention of the need for massive action order to avoid a rise towards +4 degree climate warming despite promoting science. Continue reading »
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Snow storms in North America and Europe: real-time consequences of climate change
Snow storms in North America and Europe may give the impression that “global cooling” is taking place. Nothing is further from the truth. The cooling is a consequence of the weakening of the Arctic jet stream boundary, allowing freezing air masses to flow out of the Arctic circle. Continue reading »
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A “gas-led recovery” leads to dangerous atmospheric methane
A US study showed that children born within a mile or two of a gas well were likely to be smaller and less healthy. High levels of methane reduce the amount of oxygen breathed from the air, with health consequences. And still the Coalition pushes its fracking plans for the nation. Continue reading »
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The myth of “zero net emissions by 2050”
It should raise people’s hopes to believe “zero net emissions by 2050” will arrest or at least slow down global warming, had it not been yet another cruel hoax perpetrated in the wake of more than 50 years of obfuscation and denial of environment and climate science. Continue reading »
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Crossing irreversible climate tipping points
If the history of the 21st to 25th centuries is ever written, it will record that while dangerous a climate tipping point was crossed, the powers that be in Australia opened some of the world’s largest coal basins and undertook an Orwellian-titled “gas led recovery”. Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. A climate of betrayal
“During times of universal deceit telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” (George Orwell) Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. Problems with and for achieving the Paris climate accord
Since its inception the Paris climate accord has been in question due, among other factors, to (1) its broad definition, intended to keep mean global temperature rise this century to below +2oC above the pre-industrial level and efforts to limit the temperature increase to below +1.5oC above the pre-industrial level; (2) its non-binding nature, and (3) accounting Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. Portents of continental-scale fires
The effects of encroaching deserts and of fire storms on terrestrial forests, originally developed under moderate conditions distinct from those emerging under rapid global warming and extreme weather events, may have been underestimated. Average global temperatures do not tell the story — it is the increasingly frequent weather anomalies which do. Powerful psychological factors prevent Continue reading »
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CO2 is rising at the fastest rate since 66 million years ago.
As the CO2 level rises to 408 ppm and the total greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, including CO2, methane and nitrous oxide, reaches about 500 parts per million CO2-equivalent, the stability threshold of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, currently melting at an accelerated rate, is exceeded. Under warming drought conditions, firestorms currently engulfing California, large parts of South Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. “The emperor’s new clothes: Greta Thunberg versus the climate contrarians”
It is not an accident that fascist philosophies and movements willfully ignore human-induced global warming leading to the Sixth mass extinction of species, the largest since 56 million years ago. The nature of denialists is manifest in their venting of hate on the 16 years-old Gerta Thunberg, the voice of a generation destined to Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. The ALP and the great moral challenge of our generation
There was a time when leaders fell on their sword if they were defeated in battle or lost their core beliefs. Nowadays they would not resign their privileged positions to take a stand against even the existential danger posed to advanced life on Earth, including their own civilization. While large parts of Earth are burning, Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. From climate denial to planetary arson. The planetary consequences of injecting >910 billion tons CO2 into the atmosphere
Last night (6 September) as fires were raging through the desiccated granite belt of southern Queensland, not a single reporter, politician or anyone else had the “temerity” of pointing out the inevitable relation between coal mining, carbon emissions, global and regional heating and the incendiary consequences. Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. The global significance of the Amazon and Siberian fires
As fires rage across tens of thousands of square kilometers of the Amazon forest, dubbed the Planet’s lungs as it produces some 20 percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere, some 72,843 fires are burning in Brazil this year. Fires on a large scale including through Siberia, Alaska, Greenland, southern Europe and elsewhere, herald a world Continue reading »
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The changing face of planet Earth
With atmospheric CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas concentrations now above 500 ppm and average global warming approaching 1.5oC, there is a clear shift in the world’s climate zones, displayed for example on maps of the expanding wet tropical zones, drying sub-tropical latitudes and polar-ward migration of temperate climate zones. Large parts of southern Europe are suffering from droughts, heat Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. $trillion space games and false prophecies by billionaires while Rome burns
History testifies to powerful rulers’ aspirations for the position of gods, including the Pharaohs and Roman Emperors such as Caligula or Nero, nowadays mimicked by false messianic prophecies of “intergalactic civilization” made by billionaires and their followers in public and the media, including some scientists. This includes predictions of making life interplanetary by giant proprietors of space Continue reading »
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Beyond climate tipping points: greenhouse gas levels exceed the stability limit of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
The pace of global warming has been grossly underestimated. As the world keeps increasing its carbon emissions, rising in 2018 to a record 33.1 billion ton CO2 per year, the atmospheric greenhouse gas level has now exceeded 560 ppm (parts per million) CO2–equivalent, namely when methane and nitric oxide are included. This level surpasses the Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. Greta Thunberg . ‘You lied to us’
“The first law of humanity is not to kill your children” (Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, EU chief climate scientist). Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. The Newspeak road to four degrees Celsius warming.
While a price placed on the Earth, estimated at $5000 trillion (New Formula Values Earth), belongs to the unthinkable, the haggle by conservatives over the price of mitigation of climate change underpins the reality of the Faustian Bargain. Continue reading »
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The climate and the extinction rebellion
“The first law of humanity is not to kill your children.” (Joachim Hans Schellnhuber, Germany’s and the EU’s chief climate scientist.) “We will be in a position where we set off an irreversible chain reaction beyond human control that will most likely lead to the end of our civilization as we know it”… “Now we probably Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. Under a greenhouse atmosphere
According to the UNHCR, since 2008 an estimated 22.5 million people have been displaced by climate or weather-related events. According to researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the University of Wisconsin global warming is already responsible for some 150,000 deaths each year around the world. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that climate Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. At a climate tipping point
According to Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, chief climate advisor to the European Union, “We’re simply talking about the very life support system of this planet”. As fascism and the horror of murderous hate crimes are spreading around the world, governments are presiding over runaway climate change which is leading toward a mass extinction of species, costing Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. Imagining the real: Two minutes to mid-night on the Clock of the Atomic Scientists
On January 24, 2019, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists stated: “Humanity now faces two simultaneous existential threats, either of which would be cause for extreme concern and immediate attention. These major threats—nuclear weapons and climate change—were exacerbated this past year (2018) by the increased use of information warfare to undermine democracy around the world, Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON -The roots of the climate catastrophe
It is not a mere coincidence that extreme right wing movements reject the scientific evidence for anthropogenic climate change, which reflects their connections with the fossil fuel corporations from whom they receive funding, as well as a lack of concern for the living world. In the wake of Benito Mussolini’s adoption of “fasces” (a Continue reading »
