Summary: SUMMARY: Climate scientist Paul Beckwith from the University of Ottawa rejoins Alex Smith to investigate the latest record heat, melting, and emissions. Are we already entering an extreme climate shift? Among the news covered: * 2015: hottest first 3 months ever * the new highest carbon dioxide levels ever recorded * methane and melting permafrost in Russia * record extreme heat in Spain, Portugal and Italy * will the California drought last 30 years? (and is it time to get out) * Australians lose billions with heat waves (even indoor workers affected) * Canadian scientists protest government muzzling * Arctic sea ice at new record low for May * Obama approves Shell Arctic drilling * even more ice loss in Antarctica then we knew. Listen to or download this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality or Lo-Fi. Or listen on Soundcloud right now! From Pole to Pole, and around the world, climate news is streaming in, and it's not good. We are crashing into the age of global warming. Here to help us is one of our favorite guests, scientist Paul Beckwith. Paul has two Masters degrees, and is currently working on his PHD in climate science at the University of Ottawa in Canada. I began this show by saying: "Paul there's so much hot climate news, it's very hard to keep up. I keep expecting somebody like CNN will start the first 24/7 climate news station. That's the level of coverage we need now, don't you think?" That turned out to be too true. Hardly had we hung up the phone last Friday, that news poured in about more than a dozen killed by extreme flooding in Oklahoma and Texas. Eleven inches of rain fell in the Houston area in 24 hours. Even concrete bridges were knocked out of the way by the raging flood waters. As Scientific American reported, "Climate Change may have souped up the record-breaking Texas deluge." May have? The United Nations IPCC and many other climate scientists released papers on the advent of extreme weather now that the climate system is breaking down. Extreme rainfall events have been happening around the world. We know the role that increased water vapor in a hotter world plays, and we know the heated oceans play a part too. It's not a secret. Maybe it's still a secret in Texas and Oklahoma, who keep voting in climate deniers to Congress, like Senator James Inhofe. I have to wonder what it will take to get the average American to wake up and stop voting for people who stop action to save us from even worse climatic events. Also on the weekend, the supreme heat wave hitting India. It's especially bad in the Southern Indian states, where temperatures hit 48 degrees, and then flirted with 50 degrees C in some places (188-120 degrees Fahrenheit). More than a thousand died. In our interview, Paul Beckwith tells us why babies and seniors tend to die first. The Indian government advised people to stay inside. Let me tell you, I've been to India, and to Southern India. Millions of people must work every day, or begin the process of starvation for their families. Or course they are going to work in the heat. They must. And many die. Air-conditioning? Don't forget at least 200 million people in India don't have any access to electricity. People in developing countries die because of our carbon-rich lifestyles. It makes me angry. Anyway, let's go through just some of the top climate stories, as we move around the globe, starting with two very disturbing records. First this. RECORD LEVELS FOR CO2 "New Records For Atmospheric CO2 "CO2 averaged 404.11 parts per million the week beginning May 3, a new weekly record. Since we are now passing the annual spring peak, this record will probably stand until next spring. The week beginning May 10 averaged just under 404. The reading of 404.54 on May 16 set a new single-day record." My comment: It's no big surprise. This whole civilization is based on transferring fossil fuels from underground into gases in the sky. That's what we do...expect to read this story every year. THE FIRST QUARTER
