Climatologist: The Sky is Falling!
A news article claims that by the end of this century, sea levels may rise by 20 feet due to Global Warming! Miami will be wiped out. Quick, someone stop all of the federal aid from being wasted in New Orleans! We can’t build levees to hold at current sea levels, it will be impossible to stop the sea 100 years from now!
From Reuters here:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Miami would be a memory, Bangkok a soggy shadow of its former self and the Maldive Islands would vanish if melting polar ice keeps fueling a faster-than-expected rise in sea levels, scientists reported on Thursday.
In an issue of the journal Science focusing on global warming, climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck of the University of Arizona reported that if global trends continue, Earth could ultimately see sea levels 20 feet higher than they are now.
By the end of this century, Earth would be at least 4 degrees F (2.3 degrees C) warmer than now, or about as hot as it was nearly 130,000 years ago.
The Earth will get that hot sometime early in the second half of this century, he said, and once it does, the big ice sheets will start melting “in a more dramatic manner” than they currently are.
“If we decide to keep on the track we’re on now and just keep on warming, because of greenhouse gas pollution, then we could easily cook those ice sheets more rapidly,” Overpeck said.
The earlier ice melt was concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere in the summer months, and was due largely to changes in Earth’s orbit, he said.
“The climate warming we’re in now is global and it’s year-round and it’s due to human influences on the climate system,” he said. “That will be more damaging to the ice sheets than the that warming we had 130,000 years ago.”
Jonathan Overpeck has decided to take the role of DoomsDay Prophet in the religion of the Ecosystem. He is marching around, waving a big sign proclaiming that if Humans do not repent of the sins of consumerism, then the world will be doomed, or at least, the cities of Miami and New Orleans.
I was curious about Mr. Overpeck, and I did a little bit of internet research to determine how he came to take on the role of Prophet for the Eco-religionists. To see the future, he uses tree rings and ice core samples as his crystal ball, and refuses to see any other influence on global warming other than Human Influences.
In fact, he attributes any changes in warming that occurred on the planet prior to the appearance of humans to wobbles in the Earth’s orbit. When confronted with evidence that Mars has been detected to be undergoing global warming, he claimed it was due to a wobble in the Martian Orbit. Undersea volcanoes heating the oceans? nah…. Proven data that shows the Sun is in a period of intense activity? nah….
Overpeck went onto a radio show where he was questioned about his speeches, articles, and posed photos with Hillary Clinton, and Overpeck admitted:
And 1degree F is still going to have some big effect for some people in the Unites States. Will it melt the ice sheet? Will it cause the melting of the glacial ice sheet?, probably not; so, we would be much better off, you know, capping the greenhouse gas emissions as soon as we can.
It seems Overpeck’s biggest goal is to get Humans to repent of their consumerism, stop farming animals (cows produce methane and CO2), stop engineering and stop producing things in factories and stop driving cars.
When asked just how much greenhouse gases were being produced by humans- 1%, 5%, 10%? Overtpeck replied:
OK, the humans right now, the best estimates is that we are driving about 80% of the warming.
Overpeck is way off base politically, and he is letting his religious beliefs get in the way of his scientific research.
We need to expand nuclear/atomic energy & focus on smaller reactors which can be put underground. Smart energy policy requires we use nuclear/atomic energy, hydroelectric and geothermal prudently. All the energy sources including geothermal have their advantages and disadvantages. That is why as known, we have environmental impact studies before a hydroelectric dam, nuclear powerplant, etc. is built and the engineers, physicists build according to this. Nations such as China and India are building hydroelectric dams + nuclear powerplants. Patrick A. Moore of Greenspirit believes that both nuclear powerplants and hydroelectric dams are what must be done to get cleaner energy. The USA does not have the geography to build any more hydroelectric dams-Canada, India and China do. Hydroelectric is better than coal.
If a place can get 100% of it’s energy from geothermal as Iceland does, then again, the need for nuclear/atomic energy is not there. But we must use atomic/nuclear energy when geothermal and hydroelectric are not available. Again those of us who support nuclear energy also support hydro-electric dams, geothermal, etc. and again, all the energies-nuclear/atomic, geothermal and hydroelectric must be used prudently. The main thing here is that we must save fossil fuels such as limiting natural gas to fuel cars and reduce coal usage. That’s why we must use nuclear/atomic power, geothermal and hydroelectric dams (when possible) combined.Nuclear/atomic energy has advanced -they already use less Uranium which lasts longer & more energy. Thorium needs to be perfect. Physicist Kirk F. Sorensen is working to perfect the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor. In places which can get 100% of it’s energy from hydroelectric dams and geothermal, that must also be used.
Nuclear/atomic power did have setbacks in Germany, Italy and Switzerland after Fukushima. Japan has been importing natural gas for energy since Fukushima. Patrick A. Moore criticized what Greenpeace calls a victory after Germany decided in 2011 to phase out nuclear. Germany is building many coal plants to replace their nuclear powerplants and importing gas. Germany will be getting dirtier air from their coal plants, but Greenpeace called it a victory. Austria in 1978 canceled it’s nuclear projects with Stop Zwentendorf and Austria has pollution. Windmills and solar (renewable energies) are old ideas, but as known they require more land, more materials and give less energy. Yes, wind and solar energies does have a role-renewable energies are again not green as it’s based on how much sun and wind you get and when renewables don’t give enough, then coal as Germany does is used.
What happened in Japan in 2011 got the nuclear industry hostility– most of it unjustified. The earthquake forced nations to reevaluate their nuclear powerplants & some nations policies with Germany & Switzerland passing phaseouts & Italy refusing to reintroduce nuclear. Germany in the meantime has built or building more coal, buying more gas, so their energy policy is a joke. But the nuclear topic is not going away. India, China, U.K., Poland, etc. are building new nuclear powerplants. Whether people like it or not, nuclear energy toipic is not going away, just as BP did not go away after the 2010 spill. BP was negligent. It was condemned, got congressional hearings. BP’s business was hurt for a time, but BP is still in business. We need to build newer nuclear powerplants which are more advanced, better structures, etc.