Extreme Temperature Diary- Wednesday January 31st, 2024/ Main Topic: An Update…What Must Be Done to Turn Back The “CCC” or “Climate Crisis Clock”

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The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track global extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉

Main Topic: An Update…What Must Be Done to Turn Back The “CCC” or “Climate Crisis Clock”

Dear Diary. Four years ago, I wrote another post concerning the Doomsday Clock, which is recalibrated every year by the Bulletins of Atomic Scientists in which I tailored the thing towards the climate issue. You can read that post here:

Extreme Temperature Diary- Sunday January 26th, 2020/ Main Topic: Counting Down To Doomsday…What Must Be Done To Turn Back The “CCC” or “Climate Crisis Clock” – Guy On Climate

So what has changed since 2020? Back then we were told that we must get our climate house in order by 2030 or tipping points would occur such that nearly irrevocable harm would occur to our environment. We had ten years to do this back then. We have a scant six years now, so I suggest that the “Climate Crisis Clock” be moved to six minutes to midnight.

I’m not a “doomist,” many of whom believe that the CCC will strike midnight once the planet’s average gets to +1.5°C above preindustrial conditions. Science according to Dr. Michael Mann suggests that we still have some time to right our climate ship before it hits rocks which could sink it. The planet’s efforts to switch to renewables has proved fruitful since 2020, and you can see that progress in my “News on Sustainable Energy, Traditional Polluting Energy from Fossil Fuel, and the Green Revolution” section if you scroll down through many news items of the day on each of my daily posts.

Still, I don’t see too much overall progress when it comes right down to how much CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are rising from year to year. Back during the 1990s when I first saw tabs on this, concentrations were rising at about 2.5 parts per million per year. As of 1/30/2024, the concentration was 422.33 ppm. On 1/30/2023 it was 419.69 ppm, so the yearly rise was 2.69 ppm…thus my disgust since there hasn’t been much apparent change the past several decades.

We have to do much more in association with limiting fossil fuel extraction and transitioning society towards all electric living powered by renewables. I do suggest that Biden declare a “climate emergency” towards that end.

We will see how much more I change the “Climate Change Clock” the next few years.

Here is a new article detailing the current state of the Doomsday Clock for 2024:

Doomsday Clock resets to 90 seconds to midnight bulletin (nwitimes.com)

Davich: As Doomsday Clock resets to 90 seconds to midnight, what are you doing to pull it back?

  • Jerry Davich 219-853-2563
  • 1/31/2024

From left: Members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Siegfried S. Hecker, Daniel Holz, Sharon Squassoni, Mary Robinson and Elbegdorj Tsakhia stand for a photo with the 2023 Doomsday Clock in Washington, DC, on January 24.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The infamous “Doomsday Clock” has been reset to 90 seconds to midnight, the closest our world has ever been to apocalypse, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

The symbolic Clock was created in 1947 by a group of scientists, including Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer and University of Chicago scientists, who worked on the Manhattan Project. It was designed to demonstrate how close we, as humans, are to self-destruction through nuclear war or man-made technologies. And the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero) to convey threats to humanity and the planet.

The infamous “Doomsday Clock” has been reset to 90 seconds to midnight, the closest our world has ever been to apocalypse, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Provided

When I first wrote about the Clock – on the last day of January in 2000 – Stephen Schwartz, the former publisher of the Bulletin, told me the metaphorical concept of a clock helps people better understand an unfathomable concept – the end of the world as we know it.

“Otherwise, this concept is too abstract and too horrific to understand enough to act on it,” he said.

The Clock wasn’t always so close to midnight in recent memory. In 2007, it was at seven minutes to midnight, where it stood for the five previous years. Today, it’s teetering just 90 seconds away from … something.

“Ominous trends continue to point the world toward global catastrophe,” the Bulletin states.

Is this merely Chicken Little hyperbole or is it an inevitable reality for our species?

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announces the latest decision on the “Doomsday Clock” minute hand, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, at the National Press Club Broadcast Center, in Washington. This year, Jan. 2024, the clock will remain set to 90 seconds to midnight. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)Jacquelyn Martin

A variety of global threats cast menacing shadows in our world while hanging over us like sharpened guillotines. For example: the Russia-Ukraine war and deterioration of nuclear arms reduction agreements; the Climate Crisis and 2023’s official designation as the hottest year on record; the increased sophistication of genetic engineering technologies; and the dramatic advance of generative artificial intelligence which could magnify disinformation and corrupt the global information environment making it harder to solve the larger existential challenges, the organization insists.

“Make no mistake. Resetting the Clock at 90 seconds to midnight is not an indication that the world is stable. Quite the opposite,” said Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin. “It’s urgent for governments and communities around the world to act. And the Bulletin remains hopeful— and inspired – in seeing the younger generations leading the charge.”

A familiar face from an older generation – Bill Nye “the science guy” – attended the Bulletin’s public announcement, saying, “For decades, scientists have been warning us of the dangers facing humankind. We could be facing catastrophe unless we better manage the technologies we’ve created. It’s time to act.”

From left, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists members Asha George, and Herb Lin, science educator Bill Nye, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists President and CEO Rachel Bronson, and Bulletin members Alexander Glaser, and Daniel Holz, pose for a photograph with the “Doomsday Clock,” shortly before the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced the latest decision on the “Doomsday Clock” minute hand, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, at the National Press Club Broadcast Center, in Washington. This year, Jan. 2024, the clock will remain set to 90 seconds to midnight. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Jacquelyn Martin

The skeptic in me says this is merely decades-old hogwash, dragged out of the Cold War closet by a group of overly concerned scientists. Is anybody with any power really listening? I doubt it.

The idealist in me says such stunts may actually prompt global action from lazy and apathetic citizens. Every action matters. Every effort counts. Everyone is in the same sinking Titanic.

The realist in me knows darn well that certain nuclear-obsessed leaders in Iran, Russia and North Korea, for example, couldn’t care less about the time of day on some silly Doomsday Clock.

In 2016: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that its symbolic “Doomsday Clock” remained at three minutes to midnight, citing rising tension between Russia and the U.S., North Korea’s recent nuclear test and a lack of aggressive steps to address climate change. AP

And yet, we quietly wonder if nuclear warfare is a possibility versus an inevitability.

“If an expert offers you a probabilistic assessment of the likelihood of nuclear war breaking out, you should be very skeptical,” states an insightful analysis from The Brookings Institution.

The Washington, D.C.-based think tank and its scholars are known as a trusted resource for rigorous research and innovative ideas across fields such as foreign policy.

“We are likely to overestimate the likelihood of nuclear war when those estimates are informed by public behavior, because we can’t see the private behavior that would decrease our estimates,” the analysis states.

“Make no mistake. Resetting the Clock at 90 seconds to midnight is not an indication that the world is stable. Quite the opposite,” said Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin. “It’s urgent for governments and communities around the world to act. And the Bulletin remains hopeful— and inspired – in seeing the younger generations leading the charge.”Provided

Private behavior is what I’m more interested in because I have little hope in public behavior. I have even less hope in our global leaders, many who lust for power more than they love mankind. They are ruthless scorpions in a proverbial sea of clueless frogs.

“Only the big powers like China, America and Russia can pull us back. Despite deep antagonisms, they must cooperate – or we are doomed,” said Jerry Brown, executive chair of the Bulletin.

Critics of the Doomsday Clock insist that our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years and we will figure out ways to not only survive but to persevere. The Bulletin’s board of directors, including nine Nobel laureates, agrees but only if we change our self-destructive habits.

“Make no mistake. Resetting the Clock at 90 seconds to midnight is not an indication that the world is stable. Quite the opposite,” said Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin. “It’s urgent for governments and communities around the world to act. And the Bulletin remains hopeful— and inspired – in seeing the younger generations leading the charge.”

“The world can be made safer. The Clock can move away from midnight,” the Bulletin states.

In 1945, just after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Bulletin’s founding scientists felt a profound sense of responsibility for the potential consequences of their own work. All of us should feel a similar sense of responsibility for the consequences of our actions, or our inaction.

Tick-tock, everyone.

Here are more “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:

Here is brand new January 2024 climatology:

Here is More Climate News from Wednesday:

(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)

More from the Weather Department:

Today’s News on Sustainable Energy, Traditional Polluting Energy from Fossil Fuel, and the Green Revolution:

More on the Environment and Nature:

More on Other Science and the Beauty of Earth and this Universe:

If you like these posts and my work on record temperature ratios, please contribute via my PayPal widget on this site. Thanks in advance for any support. 

Guy Walton… “The Climate Guy”

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