tagged w/ rising seas
-
The New York Times
December 21, 2010
A Scientist, His Work and a Climate Reckoning
By JUSTIN GILLIS
PART ONE…
MAUNA LOA OBSERVATORY, Hawaii — Two gray machines sit inside a pair of utilitarian buildings here, sniffing the fresh breezes that blow across thousands of miles of ocean.
They make no noise. But once an hour, they spit out a number, and for decades, it has been rising relentlessly.
The first machine of this type was installed on Mauna Loa in the 1950s at the behest of Charles David Keeling, a scientist from San Diego. His resulting discovery, of the increasing level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, transformed the scientific understanding of humanity’s relationship with the earth. A graph of his findings is inscribed on a wall in Washington as one of the great achievements of modern science.
Yet, five years after Dr. Keeling’s death, his discovery is a focus not of celebration but of conflict. It has become the touchstone of a worldwide political debate over global warming.
When Dr. Keeling, as a young researcher, became the first person in the world to develop an accurate technique for measuring carbon dioxide in the air, the amount he discovered was 310 parts per million. That means every million pints of air, for example, contained 310 pints of carbon dioxide.
By 2005, the year he died, the number had risen to 380 parts per million. Sometime in the next few years it is expected to pass 400. Without stronger action to limit emissions, the number could pass 560 before the end of the century, double what it was before the Industrial Revolution.
The greatest question in climate science is: What will that do to the temperature of the earth?
Scientists have long known that carbon dioxide traps heat at the surface of the planet. They cite growing evidence that the inexorable rise of the gas is altering the climate in ways that threaten human welfare.
Fossil fuel emissions, they say, are like a runaway train, hurtling the world’s citizens toward a stone wall — a carbon dioxide level that, over time, will cause profound changes.
The risks include melting ice sheets, rising seas, more droughts and heat waves, more flash floods, worse storms, extinction of many plants and animals, depletion of sea life and — perhaps most important — difficulty in producing an adequate supply of food. Many of these changes are taking place at a modest level already, the scientists say, but are expected to intensify.
Reacting to such warnings, President George Bush committed the United States in 1992 to limiting its emissions of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. Scores of other nations made the same pledge, in a treaty that was long on promises and short on specifics.
But in 1998, when it came time to commit to details in a document known as the Kyoto Protocol, Congress balked. Many countries did ratify the protocol, but it had only a limited effect, and the past decade has seen little additional progress in controlling emissions.
Many countries are reluctant to commit themselves to tough emission limits, fearing that doing so will hurt economic growth. International climate talks in Cancún, Mexico, this month ended with only modest progress. The Obama administration, which came into office pledging to limit emissions in the United States, scaled back its ambitions after climate and energy legislation died in the Senate this year.
Challengers have mounted a vigorous assault on the science of climate change. Polls indicate that the public has grown more doubtful about that science. Some of the Republicans who will take control of the House of Representatives in January have promised to subject climate researchers to a season of new scrutiny.
One of them is Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California. In a recent Congressional hearing on global warming, he said, “The CO2 levels in the atmosphere are rather undramatic.”
But most scientists trained in the physics of the atmosphere have a different reaction to the increase.
“I find it shocking,” said Pieter P. Tans, who runs the government monitoring program of which the Mauna Loa Observatory is a part. “We really are in a predicament here, and it’s getting worse every year.”
As the political debate drags on, the mute gray boxes atop Mauna Loa keep spitting out their numbers, providing a reality check: not only is the carbon dioxide level rising relentlessly, but the pace of that rise is accelerating over time.
“Nature doesn’t care how hard we tried,” Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Columbia University economist, said at a recent seminar. “Nature cares how high the parts per million mount. This is running away.”
CONTINUED…The New York Times
December 21, 2010
A Scientist, His Work and a Climate Reckoning... more
-
-
The Maldivian President is asking nations most vulnerable to climate change to take the lead in reducing global warming.The leader of a country threatened by rising sea levels slammed rich countries at a two-day conference for doing too little to prevent climate change.
Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed says countries like his that are most at risk from global warming are looking not for what he called a "global suicide pact," but rather a "global survival pact."
(more at link)
.............................................
I think that asking those nations that are the most vulnerable to climate change to take the lead in reducing global warming is an absolutely brilliant idea. There's an element of "help yourself and God will help you" to this initiative, as well as giving a fine example to those countries which most pollute and most contribute to global warming.The Maldivian President is asking nations most vulnerable to climate change to take... more
-
-
It's part of the Venice scenery during winter months. "Acqua alta," or high water. Water splashes over the quays and bubbles up through the sewers in St. Mark's Square during high tide. It's a progressing problem, as waters levels rise and the seabed recedes.
But, Venice and the Venetians are prepared. Pictures from early October show temporary elevated walkways. It's estimated that 20 million people visit Venice annually. Those who come in the winter months have to be able to get around. There's much to see, starting with St. Mark's Square, where you can see the cafes and pigeons, the Basilica and the bell tower.
The bell tower, called the Campanile in Italian, is leaning three inches. Preservationists are wrapping a titanium belt around the foundation about two yards below ground to keep it from falling over, as the current tower's predecessor did back in 1902. Then, as now, the problem started with a crack. The current one was noticed in 1939 and is seen as a sign that its foundations - thousands of wooden posts driven into unstable ground - are failing to provide adequate support.
A similar problem affects a 500-year-old palace on the Grand Canal, where you can see an opera. It's entertaining, and it lets you experience one of the grand palaces as you move from room to room following the drama. (musicapalazzo.com)
You realize when you're in the building that it's listing a bit toward the canal. There's no danger of sliding out the window, but it's an example of what's happening; Here again, rising water and subsidence are undermining the foundations of Venice's buildings.
Living on the bottom floor of some of the homes is impossible. Bottom floor windows have been cemented over.
Italy has spent billions over the last decades to combat the problem, with mixed results.
But there has been one unexpected benefit to the effort to save Venice. A coral reef is growing at the $7 billion flood barrier under construction and it has become a gathering place for exotic flora and fauna, some of which have ended up there because of global warming.
The waters around Venice are now warm enough to support marine life usually found further south in the Mediterranean and Red Sea. As many as 150 different species have been found, including an endangered shelled creature that can grow to three-feet long.
The project is run by the Venice Water Authority and has the acronym MOSE, a play on the Italian word for Moses (you may remember his relations with water from the Bible). The pictures of jellyfish, crustaceans and rare coral supplied by the project managers are spectacular.
No one is sure of the solution to Venice's sinking problem. The only certain thing is what's there, is worth all the troubleIt's part of the Venice scenery during winter months. "Acqua alta," or... more
-
-
Google Earth has teamed up with the U.K. government to produce a new layer that shows vividly how the Earth will change this century due to global warming.
Over the course of the century, you can watch the earth heat up in an animation that ultimately leaves the Arctic nearly 20 degrees (C) warmer than in 1999. Most areas across the United States appear somewhere between 4 and 10 degrees warmer.
Specific predicted impacts are shown, such as extreme summer heat waves and choking air pollution in Northeastern cities, decreasing water supply in California and increasing wildfire risk across the West.
These projections represent a middle-path scenario. They assume that something is done to curtail emissions of greenhouse gases, but not as much as the scientific community and United Nations has said is necessary.
“Climate change is redrawing the maps of the world. Its impacts will be felt everywhere, as sea levels rise, crops fail, extreme weather increases and more areas are at risk of drought and flooding," said U.K. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn. "This project shows people the reality of climate change using only moderate estimates – both the change of the average temperature where they live, and the impacts it will have on people’s lives all over the world – including here in Britain. Only by enabling people to understand what climate change means for them and for the world can we mobilize the action we need to avoid the worst effects of a changing climate."
~~~~~~~
And as stated, this is only a moderate estimate placing faith in the human race to get its act together in time.Google Earth has teamed up with the U.K. government to produce a new layer that shows... more
-
