Thread: Any doubts about Climate Change?

Agreed.

There will always be a lunatic fringe who believe the world is flat, smoking is good for you, Elvis is alive and well, we never landed on the moon, and that global warming is real.

Yes and who was behind those 97% of the papers?? Global Warming (er Climate Change) people.

Just like in the old days when people working for tobacco manufacturers published tons of papers minimizing the health effects of cigarette papers.

Is Climate Change real? Of course. It has been happening since the planet Earth was created. Is there anything people can do to stop it? Of course not. We can't control the weather (or volcanic eruptions or earthquakes).

We can only try and adapt to the inevitable changes.

RickThai

Nebraska conservatives demand flawed climate study; scientists refuse


First, Virginia’s legislature calls for a $50,000 climate change study that omits the words “climate change” and “sea level rise” from the study’s description. Then, North Carolina decides to ignore a study predicting the sea will rise on its coast.
Now, Nebraska’s legislature has asked its state climate scientists to look at climate change … but apparently without accounting for human activity on the climate.
The bill for a Climate Assessment Response Committee allocates up to $44,000 for a study of “cyclical” climate change — a term that has no scientifically-defined meaning, the state’s scientific community noted in response to the request. The legislation asks the committee to “provide timely and systematic data collection, analysis, and dissemination of information about drought and other severe climate occurrences to the Governor and to other interested persons,” and to supply advice for requests for federal disaster declarations.



Nebraska has been in a severe drought for about two years. Recent flooding in Colorado has somewhat mitigated the drought conditions, but the state’s climatologists worry that a dry winter may return the state to drought conditions.
The Omaha World Herald reported that State Sen. Beau McCoy, a Republican candidate for governor and anthropogenic climate change denier, added the word “cyclical” to the legislation.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln scientists said they wouldn’t participate in the climate study if it didn’t take human activity into account, refusing to be political pawns, as Al Dutcher, Nebraska state climatologist, told the legislative committee.



Nebraska conservatives demand flawed climate study; scientists refuse | The Raw Story

U.S. Tornado Count So Low That It’s Invaded The Legend.

Hurricanes seem awfully scarce, too. This isn’t what Al Gore was telling us would happen...

^ Cherry pick much?

Choosing to make selective choices among competing evidence, so as to emphasize those results that support a given position, while ignoring or dismissing any findings that do not support it, is a practice known as "cherry picking" and is a hallmark of poor science.


There is no legitimate debate about the REALITY of climate change. The debate now is what we're going to do about it.

Climate Change Report Sees Violent, Sicker, Poorer Future


SETH BORENSTEIN 11/02/13 04:23 PM ET EDT

WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — A leaked draft of an international scientific report forecasts that man-made global warming likely will worsen already existing human tragedies of war, starvation, poverty, flooding, extreme weather and disease.


The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will issue a report next March on how global warming is already affecting the way people live and what will happen in the future, including a worldwide drop in income. A leaked copy of a draft of the report's summary appeared online Friday. Governments will spend the next few months making comments about the draft.
The report details specific effects of warming and how countries and people can adapt to some of them. The American scientist who heads the report, Chris Field, says experts paint a dramatic contrast of possible futures.

There are more than five million cubic miles of ice on Earth, and some scientists say it would take more than 5,000 years to melt it all. If we continue adding carbon to the atmosphere, we’ll very likely create an ice-free planet, with an average temperature of perhaps 80 degrees Fahrenheit instead of the current 58.

Interactive map of what maximum ocean level rise will do to our coastlines.

Rising Seas - Interactive: If All The Ice Melted

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

U.S. Tornado Count So Low That It’s Invaded The Legend.

Hurricanes seem awfully scarce, too. This isn’t what Al Gore was telling us would happen...

Did he not tell you the Pacifc would overcompensate when all is quiet in the Carribean?

Originally Posted by Umbuku

There are more than five million cubic miles of ice on Earth, and some scientists say it would take more than 5,000 years to melt it all. If we continue adding carbon to the atmosphere, we’ll very likely create an ice-free planet, with an average temperature of perhaps 80 degrees Fahrenheit instead of the current 58.

Interactive map of what maximum ocean level rise will do to our coastlines.

Rising Seas - Interactive: If All The Ice Melted

screen shot from your link:

Anyone looking for some nice property in Florida?

Anyway your post reminded me of a story I was reading awhile back related to the same subject but happening now in my hometown.

“If you live in South Florida and you’re not building a boat, you’re not facing reality.”

It seems nobody talks about climate change, but everybody wants to do something about it. Consider this head-in-the-wet-sand piece from the Miami Herald, “Rain or no rain, beachfront streets flood due to ‘spring tide’.”

You probably think it would be impossible for an entire news article on worsening street flooding in Miami to omit any mention whatsoever of global warming or even sea level rise. Think again.

“It gets super flooded from the tide every couple of months,” said [Moses] Schwartz who lived on the island for more than 20 years before moving to the Brickell area on the mainland. “It’s getting worse and worse as the years go by.”

Hmm. Why is it getting worse? The Miami Herald offers no explanation. This is all it has to say about the cause of the flooding:

The current levels of high tide are caused by an astronomical event known as “spring tide,” according to Chuck Caracozza, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service.

See, nothing to worry about. It’s just high tides. Except the article runs with this quote from Schwartz:

“It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Miami Beach in 10 to 20 years,” he said.

Why? Why? Why? Why will it be interesting to see? Why does he think it’s going to get worse? Why did the reporter include that quote? No explanation is given.

Indeed, while the article fails to mention climate change or sea level rise, it does quote one “Nanette Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the city,” explaining that Miami is studying how to deal with this apparently inexplicable plague of street flooding.

Rodriguez said the city is thinking of short-term fixes to deal with the issue.
“We’re looking at improving our sea walls and raising some of them,” she said.

In search of a long-term solution, a delegation recently returned from the Netherlands, Rodriguez said, and the city will determine which of that country’s strategies to hold back high tides can be used here.
“Some of their ideas we can do, others we can’t as we are in different geographic areas,” Rodriguez said.

That last quote from Rodriguez is quite the euphemism given the reality of the region’s topology and geology. As the must-read June Rolling Stone piece, “Goodbye, Miami,” explains:

Even worse, South Florida sits above a vast and porous limestone plateau. “Imagine Swiss cheese, and you’ll have a pretty good idea what the rock under southern Florida looks like,” says Glenn Landers, a senior engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This means water moves around easily – it seeps into yards at high tide, bubbles up on golf courses, flows through underground caverns, corrodes building foundations from below. “Conventional sea walls and barriers are not effective here,” says Robert Daoust, an ecologist at ARCADIS, a Dutch firm that specializes in engineering solutions to rising seas.

D’oh.

But, undaunted, Rodriguez and the Miami Herald end with this reassuring line:

Rodriguez said the tide should be back to normal by early next week.

#FAIL

For a dose of reality, let’s end instead with the Rolling Stone piece:

But the unavoidable truth is that sea levels are rising and Miami is on its way to becoming an American Atlantis. It may be another century before the city is completely underwater (though some more-pessimistic¬ scientists predict it could be much sooner), but life in the vibrant metropolis of 5.5 million people will begin to dissolve much quicker, most likely within a few decades. The rising waters will destroy Miami slowly, by seeping into wiring, roads, building foundations and drinking-water supplies – and quickly, by increasing the destructive power of hurricanes. “Miami, as we know it today, is doomed,” says Harold Wanless, the chairman of the department of geological sciences at the University of Miami. “It’s not a question of if. It’s a question of when.”

… “If you live in South Florida and you’re not building a boat, you’re not facing reality.”

Now I can go along with that! ^ !

Stupid scaremongering bollox.

Even if you don't believe man is causing it, you'd better believe the climate is getting hotter and the ice is melting, otherwise you're a fucking idiot.

That total melting of the antarctic scenario is real. But it is about 1000 years from now, at least. So in some way it IS scaremongering.

Well from what I've read they can't say that for certain, since their models seemed to understate land ice loss compared to what they actually saw. And they can't accurately gauge the rate of acceleration.

I think I'll be OK working out my time in the Middle East and then watching it sink while I up sticks and move to dry bit of Thailand.

Britain is playing its part in a worldwide bid to reduce emissions and should not weaken its proposed cuts, says a report to the UK government.

The Committee on Climate Change says no change in global science or policy justifies a slackening of effort.

The report was compiled after Chancellor George Osborne said the UK's competitiveness might be put at risk by leading the world in curbing emissions.

The CCC research challenges this assumption.

"It is not accurate to say that the UK is leading the world on this," the CCC’s chief executive David Kennedy told BBC News.

"We aren’t acting alone. We have made ambitious commitments, but other countries have too – they are acting on them and developing low-carbon technologies.

"Some of our European counterparts are discussing targets stricter than ours for 2030 so if we want to be part of the low-carbon revolution we will have to make sure we aren’t left behind."

Mr Kennedy said China was now clearly global leader in clean technology: "China is leading the low-carbon revolution. It has committed to invest in 700 Gigawatts of renewable power generation by 2020 – that’s 10 times the whole UK power system.

"They are investing in five million electric vehicles – in multiples of what we are doing here.

“Even the US is cutting its emissions and is committed to doing so in coming years.”

The shale gas revolution in the US has forced down emissions because gas is much less polluting than coal; the report says it is likely that the US will meet its commitment to reduce 2020 emissions by 17% on 2005 levels.

It points out that China has committed to reduce carbon-intensity by 40-45% from 2005 to 2020, and introduced policies to deliver in its 12th five-year plan. With ongoing action, China’s emissions could peak in the early 2020s, the report says.

Not enough
It says Germany has also made medium-term commitments in line with the UK.

But Mr Kennedy admitted that the world’s efforts were still nowhere near enough to keep the world on track for a high likelihood of a stable climate.

More here;
BBC News - Wavering on UK climate policy 'not justified'

Supertyphoon Haiyan: Why Monster Storm Is So Unusual

The massive typhoon striking the Philippines is both big and late in the season.



Jane J. Lee

National Geographic

Published November 8, 2013

A fairly normal typhoon season in the western Pacific has spawned a real monster—supertyphoon Haiyan—which made landfall in the Philippines at around 5 a.m. local time.

The storm, described by some as "tropical cyclone perfection" and "off the charts," packed sustained winds of 195 miles (315 kilometers per hour), with gusts as strong as 235 miles (380 kilometers per hour). Experts predict the typhoon—also known as Yolanda in the Philippines—could end up being the strongest storm to ever make landfall since modern record-keeping began, according to The Washington Post.

"It's knocking our socks off," said Jim Kossin, an atmospheric scientist with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climatic Data Center. (Related: "What's a Typhoon, Anyway?")

But what happens to create such a megastorm?

There are several environmental factors that play into how strong a storm can get, Kossin explained. The storms thrive on warm water that goes deep into the ocean and consistent wind speeds in the atmosphere, he said.

"When all those things align in a certain way, then you're going to get something like [Haiyan]," Kossin added.

More Storms on the Horizon

Haiyan is a strange storm in both its strength and because it comes very late in the typhoon season, which officially ended November 1, said Colin Price, head of the geophysical, atmospheric, and planetary sciences department at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Although the overall number of hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons—all the same weather phenomenon—hasn't increased over the past decades, the proportion of more intense storms has, Price explained. (See "Typhoon, Hurricane, Cyclone: What's the Difference?")

"All typhoons feed off the warm ocean waters," he said. The moisture-laden air above these regions is the fuel that fires the engines in these storms.

"We've seen in the past decades the oceans are warming up, likely due to climate change," said Price. "So warmer oceans will give us more energy for these storms, likely resulting in more intense storms."

Haiyan dipped down near the Equator, where it likely picked up some more steam, before heading to the Philippines, he said.

It's similar to what happened when Hurricane Katrina picked up steam as it passed over the warm pool of water in the Gulf of Mexico in August 2005.

Supertyphoon Haiyan: Why Monster Storm Is So Unusual

Warm in the Northern Pacific at the moment...

2 weeks of climate talks among 190 countries opened in Warsaw today

Originally Posted by S Landreth

2 weeks of climate talks among 190 countries opened in Warsaw today

^ Respect!

Connect the dots folks.........

I give it thirty years before the earth dries up.

Like those few fires were a match for a billion vehicles, hundreds of thousands of coal or gas fired plants, and tens of thousands of cement factories and smelteries. That cave fire is possibly smaller than even one of those.

Will extreme weather like super typhoon Haiyan become the new norm?

Typhoon Haiyan may have been the strongest storm ever recorded; a fact that has triggered an array of stories discussing its possible links to climate change.

Global Warming Fuels Hurricanes

Climate scientists are confident in three ways that climate change will make the impacts of hurricanes worse. First, global warming causes sea level rise, which amplifies storm surges and flooding associated with hurricanes. As a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Aslak Grinsted and colleagues concluded,

"we have probably crossed the threshold where Katrina magnitude hurricane surges are more likely caused by global warming than not."

Second, as climate scientist Kevin Trenberth has noted, global warming has also increased the amount of moisture in the air, causing more rainfall and amplifying flooding during hurricanes.

Third, warmer oceans are fuel for hurricanes. Research has shown that the strongest hurricanes have grown stronger in most ocean basins around the world over the past several decades, and climate models consistently project that this trend will continue. Chris Mooney recently documented the past decade's worth of monster hurricanes around the world, and Jeff Masters estimates that 6 of the 13 strongest tropical cyclones on record at landfall have happened since 1998.

________________________

Josh Willis is an oceanographer at NASA JPL who has published a lot of peer-reviewed scientific research on the current warming, and rise, of the global oceans. In the NASA: Ask a Climate Scientist video below he gives his uniquely humorous take on the frequently asked question on whether there has been a pause in global warming. Like Josh says, when the world is still warming and global sea level is rising "like gangbusters", pawses are strictly for kitty cats and puppy dogs.

Global Warming Paws Fails to Materialise: Earth Still Warming and Global Sea Level Rising Like Gangbusters