Between about 55.5 and 52 million years ago, Earth experienced a series of sudden and extreme global warming events (hyperthermals) superimposed on a long-term warming trend. The first and largest of these events, the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), is characterized by a massive input of carbon, ocean acidification and an increase in global temperature of about 5 °C [9°F] within a few thousand years.

Thawing permafrost

So begins an article in the journal Nature that offers an unsettling explanation for one of the great climate mysteries: What caused the PETM?

The article’s title gives away the answer: “Past extreme warming events linked to massive carbon release from thawing permafrost” (subs. req’d).

The lead author, climate scientist Rob DeConto, explains in a news release:

“The standard hypothesis has been that the source of carbon was in the ocean, in the form of frozen methane gas in ocean-floor sediments,” DeConto says. “We are instead ascribing the carbon source to the continents, in polar latitudes where permafrost can store massive amounts of carbon that can be released as CO2 when the permafrost thaws.”

The new view is supported by calculations estimating interactions of variables such as greenhouse gas levels, changes in the Earth’s tilt and orbit, ancient distributions of vegetation, and carbon stored in rocks and in frozen soil.

While the amounts of carbon involved in the ancient soil-thaw scenarios was likely much greater than today, implications of the study appear dire for the long-term future as polar permafrost carbon deposits have begun to thaw due to burning fossil-fuels, DeConto adds. “Similar dynamics are at play today. Global warming is degrading permafrost in the north polar regions, thawing frozen organic matter, which will decay to release CO2 and methane into the atmosphere. This will only exacerbate future warming in a positive feedback loop.”

Indeed, the recent scientific literature suggests that the permafrost is poised to be a major amplifying feedback if we are self-destructive enough to ignore yet another dire warning and stay anywhere near our current path of unrestricted carbon pollution:

• Nature: Climate Experts Warn Thawing Permafrost Could Cause 2.5 Times the Warming of Deforestation!
• NSIDC: Thawing permafrost feedback will turn Arctic from carbon sink to source in the 2020s, releasing 100 billion tons of carbon by 2100

A 2010 study found our oceans are acidifying 10 times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred.

In short, whatever we do, we don’t want to duplicate the conditions of the PETM.  But, tragically, we are. Indeed, a 2011 study that found humans are releasing carbon to the atmosphere 10 times faster now than during the PETM.  “Rather than the 20,000 years of the PETM which is long enough for ecological systems to adapt, carbon is now being released into the atmosphere at a rate 10 times faster,” one of the authors of that study explained. “It is possible that this is faster than ecosystems can adapt.”

Here’s more on this important new study:

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Arizona State Senator Judy Burges believes efficiency programs are a way to create a one-world government

Citing conspiracy theories about “a one-world order,” the Arizona Tea Party is attempting to slip a bill through the legislature that could strip programs designed to help residents in the state become more energy efficient.

The bill’s sponsor, Arizona State Senator Judy Burges, says her goal is to wipe out any environmental program administered or funded by the government to prevent “social engineering … including where we live, what we eat.”

Burges’ bill, Senate Bill 1507, is based upon an unfounded conspiracy theory about “Agenda 21,” a non-binding international plan for environmentally-sustainable development crafted by the United Nations. The plan was adopted in 1992 by 178 countries, including the United States under the George H.W. Bush administration.

Burges and other members of the Tea Party believe that clean energy programs in Arizona are a plot by the United Nations to create a single world government in order to control people’s lives. AZ Central reported on SB 1507:

The bill would bar the state and Arizona counties and cities “from adopting or implementing the United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.”

Under the provisions of Burges’ bill, the state, counties and cities could not accept funds from, spend funds from or give funds to “certain non-governmental organizations,” including non-profit groups and contractors, for any of the declaration’s initiatives.

Wes Harris, a Phoenix resident and tea-party member, also testified with Burges, repeating theories about the declaration that have been floated among conservative organizations such as the John Birch Society, which refer to the declaration as “Agenda 21.”

Harris claimed the declaration “is an attempt to implement a one-world order. It’s been going on for 20 years. It has not been ratified by the U.S. Senate. It has been snuck around the back door by the Clinton administration.”

The Arizona conspiracy bill has already moved through the Senate, through a House committee, and is now set for discussion on the House floor. If passed by the House, the bill could block state and municipal programs that help home and business owners invest in energy efficiency improvements.

Chad Campbell, the Democratic House Minority Leader called the legislation “the most ludicrous … I’ve seen in six years…. You could pretty much shut down any form of government sustainability” program.

An onlooker with the Sierra Club called it “wacky.”

The bill was crafted through a “strike-everything” amendment, which allows a legislator to re-write an existing law with limited scrutiny. Burges has substituted language in an unemployment bill with the Agenda 21 wording that would severely limit Arizona’s ability to adopt efficiency and clean energy programs.

This isn’t the first conspiracy theory Judy Burges has been involved in. She is also a fierce “birther” who questions President Obama’s citizenship, despite being presented with a certificate of live birth.

Her previous attempts to pass legislation demanding Obama’s long form birth certificate have failed. But this latest conspiracy-laden bill actually has momentum in the Arizona legislature — threatening to derail the state’s valuable clean energy programs in the process.

by Andrew Freedman, reposted from Climate Central

By showing that Arctic climate change is no longer just a problem for the polar bear, a new study may finally dispel the view that what happens in the Arctic, stays in the Arctic.

The study, by Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University and Stephen Vavrus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, ties rapid Arctic climate change to high-impact, extreme weather events in the U.S. and Europe.

The study shows that by changing the temperature balance between the Arctic and mid-latitudes, rapid Arctic warming is altering the course of the jet stream, which steers weather systems from west to east around the hemisphere. The Arctic has been warming about twice as fast as the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, due to a combination of human emissions of greenhouse gases and unique feedbacks built into the Arctic climate system.

The jet stream, the study says, is becoming “wavier,” with steeper troughs and higher ridges. Weather systems are progressing more slowly, raising the chances for long-duration extreme events, like droughts, floods, and heat waves.

“[The] tendency for weather to hang around longer is going to favor extreme weather conditions that are related to persistent weather patterns,” said Francis, the study’s lead author.

One does not have to look hard to find an example of an extreme event that resulted from a huge, slow-moving swing in the jet stream. It was a stuck or “blocking weather pattern” – with a massive dome of high pressure parked across the eastern U.S. for more than a week – that led to the remarkable March heat wave that sent temperatures in the Midwest and Northeast soaring into the 80s. In some locations, temperatures spiked to more than 40 degrees above average for that time of year.

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by Clint Wilder, reposted from Clean Edge

In the Canadian province of Alberta, the Athabasca Oil Sands and the Keystone Pipeline are not the only important energy stories. In Alberta’s capital of Edmonton, Montreal-based Enerkem is building a full-scale commercial plant that will use a thermo-chemical process to convert up to 100,000 metric tons of municipal solid waste into syngas, which is then converted into methanol and ethanol.

Enerkem’s project partners, the city of Edmonton and an NGO called Alberta Innovates, contributed $20 million to the project, which will be one of the world’s largest waste-to-energy facilities when it begins operations next year. In the heart of fossil-fuel country, the target output of the plant is 10 million gallons of biofuels per year, from one of the most sustainable feedstocks on the planet: garbage.

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According to leaked documents, telecommunications giant AT&T gave at least $100,000 to the Heartland Institute — a tax-exempt organization which promotes conspiracy theories about climate scientists, distorts climate science, and attacks regulation of air and water pollution. In a statement to ThinkProgress Green, AT&T says its contributions are now “past.”

AT&T’s support for the science-denying Heartland Institute contradicts the image the company projects as a leader on environmental sustainability and climate change:

AT&T: Climate change is a fact, and the scientific evidence so far seems to implicate greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, as the cause of climate change. [AT&T whitepaper]

Heartland: On the most important issue, the IPCC‘s claim that ―most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid- twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations [emphasis in the original], we once again reach the opposite conclusion, that natural causes are very likely to be dominant. [NIPPC summary]

AT&T’s website boasts of several environmental awards it has received, including being listed as the top company in its category for its answers to the Carbon Disclosure Project’s “survey on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well as risks and opportunities associated with climate change.” The company makes public its annual greenhouse gas emissions and claim they use the data to help their “improvement efforts.”

The telecom giant also funds the American Legislative Exchange Council, a right-wing organization that provides Republican state legislators with model legislation, including bills to block climate science in the classroom and deny the threat of carbon pollution.

In a statement to ThinkProgress Green, Beth Gautier Alm, director of public relations at AT&T, defended its past contributions to the Heartland Institute:

We are not currently contributing to the Heartland Institute. Our past contributions were earmarked for their technology and telecom efforts. Heartland keeps its specific project areas completely separate, in terms of staff, publications, events and budgets, so our contributions were strictly limited to supporting their work in the technology and telecom area.

AT&T’s $100,000 contribution was earmarked for Heartland’s “information technology & telecom news” project (ITTN). On those issues too Heartland opposes government regulations of business. The think tank’s website says it believes “rules for the Internet and electronic commerce should result from private collective action, not government regulation.”

The company spokesperson did not address whether it would give future contributions now that the Heartland Institute has acknowledged its plan to develop a classroom curriculum denying climate science. She also did not address whether AT&T has any disagreement with Heartland’s climate denial.

In contrast, General Motors recently announced it would no longer fund the Heartland Institute, because “we’ll continue to run our business as if climate change is real and believe we have a role to play in developing new cars, trucks and technologies that can make a difference.”

NOTE: One in a series of posts about the Heartland Institute’s inner workings, from internal documents acquired by ThinkProgress Green. ThinkProgress is among several publications to have published documents attributed to the Heartland Institute and sent to us from an anonymous and then unknown source. The source later revealed himself. Heartland Institute has issued several press releases claiming that one document (“2012 Climate Strategy”) is fake and asserting other claims regarding the other documents. ThinkProgress has taken down the “2012 Climate Strategy” document as it determines the document’s authenticity.

CNN meteorologist Alexandra Steele said Tuesday that in fact all this extreme weather we are seeing is due to climate change.

Host Carol Costello said, it’s “such a strange spring,” leading Steele to say

“It really is. That’s kind of the climate change we are seeing. You know, extremes are kind of ruling the roost and really what we are seeing, more become the norm.”

Costello said it made her “afraid” about what might happen next spring, to which Steele replied:

“This global warming is really kind of a misnomer. It’s global climate change. So the colds are colder and warms are warmer and severe is more severe.”

Watch it:

Thanks to this off the charts extreme weather and the growing body of scientific literature attributing it to human-caused global warming, we are starting to see more and more journalists, meteorologists and climate scientists make the connection.

Martin Hoerling, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologist, argues that the freak March heat wave which most climate scientists are attributing to global warming is something to be celebrated. In an interview with the Associated Press, Hoerling said that the record-shattering warmth was a “darn good outcome“:

Why wouldn’t we embrace it as a darn good outcome? This was not the wicked wind of the east. This was the good wind of the south.

The record warmth has already led to pervasive drought in Colorado, an early wildfire season across much of the country, a record-breaking onslaught of pollen. The heat has fueled an early and destructive tornado season and crippled ski areas and maple-syrup producers.

Hoerling’s sentiment was shared by President Barack Obama, who said “we really have enjoyed the nice weather” even though it makes him “a little nervous.”

Hoerling says that global warming was “certainly a minor factor” in causing the March madness.

Hoerling — who clearly accepts that man-made global warming is making weather hotter and more extreme — has published several non-peer-reviewed reports as the lead of NOAA’s Climate Scene Investigators that claim global warming did not influence recent catastrophic extremes, such as the 2009-2010 Snowmageddon, the 2010 Russian heat wave, and the 2011 tornado outbreak. Hoerling’s team did conclude, however, that “human-caused global warming was a factor in the Midwest flooding disaster” of 2008. Hoerling’s method of ascribing attribution to global warming relies primarily on statistical analysis of weather records. His method can miss phenomena that occur because of non-linear changes in the climate system, such as how the decline in Arctic sea ice caused by global warming is influencing large-scale circulation patterns.

Peer-reviewed studies that don’t rely on a single test for attribution have found a clear link between global warming and the 2009-2010 Snowmageddon and the 2010 Russia heat wave.

In a peer-reviewed work, Hoerling did find that the increasing frequency of Mediterranean droughts is caused by global warming.

by Mark Izeman, via NRDC’s Switchboard

Nearly seven years ago, the first hybrid yellow taxis rolled onto the streets of New York City as part of an effort to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions. Today, about 5,000 of these cleaner, greener taxis—nearly 40 percent of the total fleet—are in operation, working to cut air pollution, lower noise levels, and lessen our dependence on fossil fuels. The city’s hybrid taxi program was one of the first of its kind, and has served as a model of urban sustainability for other cities around the country.

But these cleaner cars could soon become obsolete when — and if — New York City’s new “Taxi of Tomorrow” hits the streets.  Last spring, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the Nissan NV200 was the winner of the City’s Taxi of Tomorrow competition.  And today in New York City, Nissan is scheduled to officially unveil the NV200 Taxi prototype, which is slated to become the new standard.

The initial NV200 vehicle design, despite safety and other enhancements, is a conventional, non-hybrid vehicle.  Thus, based on air emissions and fuel efficiency, it is unquestionably a step backwards environmentally compared to the hybrids already on the road.

But all hope is not lost.

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by Kiley Kroh and Erin Gustafson

Maryland has the opportunity this week to go where no state has gone before. Not exactly deep space, but a big leap into uncharted territory nevertheless.

The Maryland Offshore Wind Energy Act of 2012, spearheaded by Gov. Martin O’ Malley, places a good bet on offshore wind by incentivizing the development of what could be the nation’s first offshore wind farm—providing stable, renewable wind power to the state’s residents and positioning Maryland to become a leader in the manufacturing and development sectors for decades to come. The measure passed the state House of Delegates last week and moves to the Senate for this, the final week of Maryland’s 2012 legislative session.

Though Europe and even China have realized the vast economic and environmental potential that accompanies harnessing the power of offshore wind for years, there are currently zero turbines operating in U.S. waters. The upfront costs of creating an entire industry are high, but the prize for winning the race to develop the nation’s first offshore wind farm will be gaining a foothold for tremendous potential economic development opportunities in turbine manufacturing and maintenance that will come to a regional hub for a burgeoning industry.

Here’s a look at what Maryland has to gain from the state’s Senate passing a law promoting offshore wind.

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Other stories below: A Tour of the New Geopolitics of Global Warming

Photo: RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

98% of Colorado in a drought, say climatologists

Scarred by destructive wildfires and an arid March, Colorado needs a cold, wet shot of moisture. State water managers are begging for it. They are already eyeing dwindling snowpacks and wondering whether water restrictions should be clamped on the state’s towns and cities as warm temperatures persist. “This always makes us nervous,” said Aurora Water spokesman Greg Baker.

Many reservoir levels are actually in better shape than they were in 2002 — Colorado’s last significant drought year, Baker said. But Baker said he worries that a hot, dry 2012 would drain reservoirs and other water sources so much that not much could be left for 2013.

“It’s really next year we are concerned about,” he said. “We need the water — every little bit helps.”

Denver Water gets about half of its supply from the Colorado River and half from the South Platte River, and snowpack levels in both basins are very low. According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, both basins are at about half their typical averages for this time of year.

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