Reply #8: Countdown to global catastrophe

[jmcgowanjm]

The danger point of global warming, that is, the temperature
rise beyond which the world would be irretrievably committed
to disastrous changes. These could include
widespread agricultural failure, water shortages and
major droughts, increased disease, sea-level rise and the
death of forests - with the added possibility of
abrupt catastrophic events such as "runaway" global
warming, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, or
the switching-off of the Gulf
Stream.

More ominously still, it assesses the concentration of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere after which the two-
degree rise will become inevitable, and says it will be 400
parts per million by volume (ppm) of
CO2.

The current level is 379ppm, and rising by more than
2ppm annually - so it is likely that the vital 400ppm threshold
will be crossed in just 10 years' time, or even less (although
the two-degree temperature rise might take longer to come
into effect)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=603975

All the trend lines are moving rapidly in the wrong direction.

human pop.
food stockpiles
fresh water usage
oil use, production, depletion (depletion
may stop this)

The strange attractor is oscillating
new steady state inevitable.