Andrew Glikson

Andrew Glikson, Earth and paleoclimate scientist.

Andrew's recent articles

The world at 90 seconds to midnight

The world at 90 seconds to midnight

What further evidence do apes with apps, the inhabitants of planet Earth, need to have before the liveable climate, the lungs of the Earth, overheat and the mere failure of a computer chip or a brain neuron triggers the sixth mass extinction of species in the history of planet Earth?

The predicament of climate scientists on the road to a supertropical earth

The predicament of climate scientists on the road to a supertropical earth

As temperatures in large parts of the Earth are soaring (cf. 52.3oC in Delhi), flames engulf large regions in California, tornadoes ravage the Gulf of Mexico states, severe drought starve populations in southern Africa and climate extremes continue to take over large parts of the Earth.

Tracking toward a greenhouse atmosphere and acid oceans

Tracking toward a greenhouse atmosphere and acid oceans

Where “Two plus two equals five if the party says so” (George Orwell) and when drilling methane wells reduces global warming.

The Orwellian rules-based climate

The Orwellian rules-based climate

“History is a nightmare from which I am trying to wake” James Joyce

Portents of a nuclear war on a burning planet

Portents of a nuclear war on a burning planet

The 24 hours media news cycle clouds the minds of people, perpetrators and hapless victims alike, to the future dimension, whether that of future generations or of the natural world itself.

Too late? Climate change denial and the rise of fascism

Too late? Climate change denial and the rise of fascism

but they can be sure that they won't be recorded for their crimes in history -- because there won't be any history (Noam Chomsky, 2023, in a letter to the author)

Planet killer: worlds largest asteroid impact crater discovered in Deniliquin, Australia

Planet killer: worlds largest asteroid impact crater discovered in Deniliquin, Australia

Evidence for a 520 km diameter impact crater, 3 times larger than the Chicxulub crater left from the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, has been discovered in Deniliquin, Australia.

Crossing +1.5oC: Toward an uninhabitable Earth

Crossing +1.5oC: Toward an uninhabitable Earth

but they can be sure that they won't be recorded for their crimes in history -- because there won't be any history (Noam Chomsky, 2023)

Climate change terror: Dubais COP-out denial conference

Climate change terror: Dubais COP-out denial conference

The issue, betrayed, is nothing more and nothing less than the future of a multitude of species on Earth, including Homo sapiens.

A climate of insanity

A climate of insanity

Inherent in the nature of insanity is the fact that those inflicted by it are unaware of their mental state.

Act, or die: the climate and nuclear juggernaut

Act, or die: the climate and nuclear juggernaut

When elephants fight the grass dies - African proverb. At 90 seconds to a midnight and a few decades to +4oC will sapiens end up on the beach?

Betrayal: The threat to life on Earth

Betrayal: The threat to life on Earth

It has been overlooked during Garma festival that, under current policies, global warming would render aboriginal lands in central and northern Australia unliveable and the top-end a nuclear target

Planetary Inferno

Planetary Inferno

The fast rise in global warming manifested by current extreme weather events betray a dangerous underestimation of the Earths liveable climate, while governments ignore climate science, claim to set limits on domestic emissions but allow major export of fossil fuels and emissions worldwide on a scale threatening life on Earth.

A climate of betrayal

A climate of betrayal

All grimly true, but they can be sure that they won't be recorded for their crimes in history because there won't be any history (Noam Chomsky)

Nuremberg trials for imperiling mass extinction of species

Nuremberg trials for imperiling mass extinction of species

While leaders fail to protect the people from global warming and nuclear war, they have succeeded splendidly in hiding the truth through the denial of climate change, accounting tricks and claims of reduction in domestic emissions, while in fact opening new coal mines, oil wells and fracked coal seams,exporting hydrocarbons through the entire global atmosphere.

The present risks to life on earth

The present risks to life on earth

The splitting of the atom has changed everything, bar mans way of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophes - Albert Einstein

Insanity: governments betray what climate science demands

Insanity: governments betray what climate science demands

No one knows what was on the mind of Labour leaders discussing emission limits while approving near one hundred new coal mines and gas wells, thus betraying future generations and eroding the life support systems of the planet.

The global climate change suicide pact

The global climate change suicide pact

There was a time when leaders fell on their sword when they were defeated in battle or lost their core beliefs, nowadays most do not even resign their privileged positions to resist the existential danger posed to advanced life, including human civilisation. It is long past time to declare a global climate and nuclear emergency.

The short lifespan of technological civilisations and the future of Homo sapiens

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 Fermis paradox suggests that advanced technological civilisations may constitute ephemeral entities in the galaxy, destined to collapse over short periods.

Radioactive portents on a burning earth

Radioactive portents on a burning earth

According to Fermis 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 by greenhouse gases and proliferation of radioactivity. Lost in the 24 hours media news cycle is a crucial development inherent in the evolution of life on Earth since at least 66 million years ago.

The threat of nuclear winter hangs over our warming planet

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.

Climate of betrayal: fossil fuel subsidies cost $5.9 trillion in 2020

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.

The climate change runaway chain reaction process

Amplifying feedbacks are leading to runaway global warming.

'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).

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 of oil, gas and coal, and by the amplifying feedbacks of greenhouse gases accumulated in the atmosphere. Only intensive sequestration of greenhouse gases may potentially be capable of arresting global warming from reaching a calamitous level.

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.

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.

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.

The myth of "zero net emissions by 2050"

It should raise peoples 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.

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 worlds largest coal basins and undertookan Orwellian-titled gas led recovery.

ANDREW GLIKSON. A climate of betrayal

During times of universal deceit telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act (George Orwell)

ANDREW GLIKSON. Problems with and for achieving the Paris climate accord

Since its inception theParis climate accordhas 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 tricks by vested interests. The goal assumes pre-determined upper limits can be placed on greenhouse gas levels and surface temperatures.

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 many scientists from expressing theirworst fears, a phenomenon dubbed as scientific reticence.

CO2 is rising at the fastest rate since 66 million years ago.

As the CO2level rises to408 ppmand the total greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, including CO2, methane and nitrous oxide, reaches about500 parts per million CO2-equivalent, the stability threshold of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, currently melting at anaccelerated rate, is exceeded. Under warming drought conditions, firestorms currently engulfing California, large parts of South America, Siberia, Australia and elsewhere are a direct consequence of the extreme changes in the composition of the atmosphere.

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 face the global warming calamity perpetrated by sections of humanity.

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, neither do some parliaments, preoccupied as they are with minor political squabbles, declare a climate emergency.

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.

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 Planets 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 where increasing temperatures and droughts overwhelm original habitats, flora and fauna.

The changing face of planet Earth

With atmospheric CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas concentrations nowabove 500 ppm and average global warming approaching 1.5oC, there is a clear shift in the worlds climate zones, displayed for example onmaps 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 waves and fires, the Kalahari Desert is encroaching southward and much ofsouthern Australia is affected by warming and droughts.And yet the worlds governments and media fail to accord these problems the priority they merit.

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 ofmaking life interplanetaryby giant proprietors of space hardware, such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, including plans for space tourism,asteroid miningand permanent human settlements on theMoon and Mars.This would by some estimates be expected to cost about $1 trillionby 2040. These ideas are closely linked to the rise of climate...

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 stability threshold of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The term climate change is thus no longer appropriate, since what is happening in the atmosphere-ocean system, accelerating over the last 70 years or so, is an abrupt calamity on a geological dimension threatening nature and...

ANDREW GLIKSON. Greta Thunberg . 'You lied to us'

The first law of humanity is not to kill yourchildren (Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, EU chief climate scientist).

ANDREW GLIKSON. TheNewspeakroad 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.

The climate and the extinction rebellion

The first law of humanity is not to kill your children.(Joachim Hans Schellnhuber, Germanys and the EUs 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 dont even have a future anymore, because that future was sold so that a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of money. It was stolen from us every time you said that the sky was the limit, and that you only live...

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, theWorld Health Organization (WHO) estimatedthat climate change would lead to about 250,000 additional deaths each year between 2030 and 2050, from factors such as malnutrition, heat stress and malaria.

ANDREW GLIKSON. At a climate tipping point

According to Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, chief climate advisor to the European Union, Were 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 the lives of billions and the demise of much of nature, while children are protesting the betrayal of their future.

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 threatsnuclear weapons and climate changewere exacerbated this past year (2018) by the increased use of information warfare to undermine democracy around the world, amplifying risk from these and other threats and putting the future of civilization in extraordinary danger.

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 Mussolinis adoption of fasces (a Roman symbol consisting of a bundle of birch rods enveloping an axe) as a symbol of his movement, the term fascism, for which there is no precise synonym in the English language, acquired universal consequence (). Although the Nazis were beaten in WWII, a plethora of...

ANDREW GLIKSON. The gathering climate storm: the media cover-up.

Earth is now substantially out of energy balance. The amount of solar energy that Earth absorbs exceeds the energy radiated back to space. The principal manifestations of this energy imbalance are continued global warming on decadal time scales and continued increase in ocean heat content (James Hansen 2018). The people have no voice since they have no information No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent (Gore Vidal) With the exception of the few who comprehend the nature of a Faustian Bargain, some billionaires, captains of...

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