Tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes - linked to Global Warming!

What a disaster for the deniers!

The Guardian has published a peer-reviewed scientific consensus article, which proves that unrestrained fossil-fuel combustion is not only going to turn the Earth into a fiery Hell, but subject those who might survive to the very worst of so-called "natural" disasters, like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and the suchlike.

This is the first time that a positive link has been established between such horrible disasters, and Global Warming.

Money quote, from Professors Bill McGuire and David "Gomer" Pyle:

"Not only are the oceans and atmosphere conspiring against us, bringing baking temperatures, more powerful storms and floods, but the crust beneath our feet seems likely to join in too," said Professor Bill McGuire, director of the Benfield Hazard Research Centre, at University College London (UCL).

Professor McGuire, the best-selling author of "Seven Years to Save the Word", first published 1991, is a leading scientific thinker:

In ‘Seven Years to Save the Planet: The Questions … and Answers’ (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), Professor McGuire asserts that for the first time in the history of the Earth one species has grown so numerous and so technologically powerful that it has the ability to destabilize the narrow range of temperature within which life can flourish: “Ours is the guilty generation, but we will only just begin to feel the consequences of our actions; it is our children and grandchildren who will reap the whirlwind.”

Professor McGuire, a leading scientist at the cutting edge of natural hazard prediction and the impacts of climate change, reveals the reasons why humanity cannot afford to wait, among them:

• slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by mid-century may still not stave off climate chaos


• carbon dioxide levels are rising four times faster than in the 1990s


• warmer oceans have already driven up Atlantic hurricane activity by 40% since the mid-1990s


• the annual number of major floods has shot up from around 100 in the early 1990s to nearer 250 in recent years


• the United Nations identifies 158 flashpoints where wars could be fought over increasingly precious water resources


• even a 1m sea-level rise will threaten the homes of a billion people and put one third of the world’s farmland at risk


• by 2050, a quarter of the world’s land animals and plants could be extinct.
  

Professor McGuire says: “This book is a call to arms. We have time still to halt and reverse the process. However we need to throw our engines into reverse now to have any chance of controlling our carbon emissions and winning the battle against dangerous climate change and potential environmental catastrophe.”

"Maybe the Earth is trying to tell us something," added McGuire, who is one of the organisers of UCL's Climate Forcing of Geological Hazards conference, which will open on 15 September. Some of the key evidence to be presented at the conference will come from studies of past volcanic activity.

These indicate that when ice sheets disappear the number of eruptions increases, said Professor David "Gomer" Pyle, of Oxford University's earth sciences department.

The Earth is indeed trying to tell us something.