Tech | October 02, 2011 | 42 comments

NASA: it rained so hard the oceans fell

source: http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/climatesnapshot/2011/09/27/nasa-it-rained-so-hard-oce...

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JanforGore
"The year 2010 was one the worst years in world history for high-impact floods. But just three weeks into the new year, 2011 has already had an entire year's worth of mega-floods. “ -- Meteorologist Jeff Masters

I spend hours a day researching what New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman calls “global weirding”: the destabilization of our weather system fueled by the three million tonnes of fossil fuel pollution we inject into it each hour. So it is a rare day when something shocks me as much as a recent U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) report on last year’s extreme rainfall.

As most locals know from soggy personal experience, our corner of planet Earth since last spring has been a bit wetter and greyer than normal. And next door, our Washington neighbours donned their gum boots and slogged through their fourth wettest year since 1895.

Still, we got off lucky. Very lucky it turns out.

According to this jaw-dropping NASA report, worldwide rainfall and snowfall were so extreme, in so many places last year, that sea levels fell dramatically.

Sea levels have been rising steadily for over a century as the ever warmer ocean water expands and the world’s remaining glaciers and ice sheets melt. In fact sea levels are rising twice as fast now as they were a few decades ago. As the NASA chart above shows there have been some ups and downs but nothing in the modern satellite record comes close to the 6 mm drop worldwide last year.

While 6 mm might not sound like a lot, when collected from the surface of all our planet’s oceans it adds up to 26,000 gallons of water per human.

So just where did all this missing water go?

The ringleader of the great water heist was one of the strongest La Nina cycles of recent times. La Nina shifted and altered weather patterns causing extreme precipitation to funnel into places like India, Pakistan, Australia, and northern tiers of both South and North America.

In the map below, produced from NASA’s GRACE satellite data, blue indicates areas that gained water last year. The darkest blue areas gained as much as 50 mm in one year.

These dark blue spots are also the sources of the world’s epic floods of the last couple years which not only left tens of millions homeless and destroyed agriculture and infrastructure, but also left behind so much water that global oceans were depleted by 6 mm.

A YEAR OF RECORD FLOODING

Last year 182 floods affected 180 million people, almost double the annual average for the last decade. Here are a few:

snip

NOW WHAT?

Well in the short term the seas will start rising again. As the NASA report states:

“water flows downhill, and the extra rain will eventually find its way back to the sea. When it does, global sea level will rise again. ‘We're heating up the planet, and in the end that means more sea level rise’".

What happens in the medium and long term depends on us. We humans really have only one question to answer: To burn or not to burn?

OPTION A: Leave most fossil fuels in the ground -- forever.

OPTION B: Keep doing what we are doing and dig up every last crumb of carbon and burn it.

The climate science is clear that we cannot burn most of the fossil fuels we already know about and also have a stable enough weather system that we can continue to prosper.

As local Nobel laureate and world famous climate scientist, Andrew Weaver, explained in a talk at UBC the other night, just reducing the rate at which we burn fossil fuels won’t prevent dangerous levels of climate change beyond 2C warming. Instead we must totally eliminate fossil fuel emissions.

Weaver showed that even if humanity cut 90% of our fossil fuel use by 2050 but kept burning that last 10% into the future, then we would still heat the climate by more than 2C. That sends us into the realm of dangerous and dramatic climate changes that Canada, USA and every major nation has stated clearly we must avoid.

As Weaver summed it up:

"At some point we just have to say stop.”

More at the link
  1. groups:
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42 comments // NASA: it rained so hard the oceans fell

  • squarethecircle
  • WakeUpPeople
    • +3
      WakeUpPeople  

    • What do you suppose God is saying with all of these extreme weather disasters?

      I'm sure it has something to do with the economy or politics rather than humans being poor stewards of the planet. //end sarcasm

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • -3
      Gravity_Man  
    • WakeUpPeople:

      God is letting our original decision to live without His rulership play out to its end. We walked off. We have to walk back. The End is Extra Near, the end of the WRONG TIMELINE WE CHOSE. The new timeline is about to be put in place.

      The ones who keep looking to politicians and political systems that have FAILED FOR SIX THOUSAND YEARS are making a poor career choice. The ones who refuse Jesus won't make it.

    • 8 months ago
  • Anonmaly
    • 0
      Anonmaly  

    • I'm still trying to figure out why we are pulling up several million year old decayed plant material to make everything... (And you only see so many flaming water faucets before you give up on natural gas.....)

      There is something creepy about so many products being made out of petroleum, knowing where it comes from. When you consider we can effectively replace it with all sorts of things, get plastics and fuel of an equal or better quality elsewhere. It's really kinda sad.

      As long as we let them though, the oil cartels will continue milking every last penny out of every last drop of fossil fuels. Of course we'll greedily buy up all the newest, shiniest, hippest plastic products...

      Funny thing though, and Gandhi figure it out a long time ago; a boycott can be a very effective thing... If they can't sell that shit, they won't produce it...

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • Anonmaly:

      Mobsters once sold alcohol. Then they went to petrol. One was sold in Speak Easys the other was easy to extract, sitting atop reservoirs of compressed natural gas to pressure it up.

      Solar takes brains. But many people want the kid who didn't study to get the highest grades. It's a crying shame when all we need is solar cookers. A solar cooker-based generator can spin plenty of electric juice to power electric vehicles.

      We've been led away from solar cookers because most every time you see one it has a darkie beside it wrapped in an old sarong, and of course we higher beings don't find that acceptable for our clean white selves you see... so the very answer we need to be using HAS BEEN CHAMPIONED BY BLACKS THE WORLD OVER and we can't see it because our aversion to Blacks BEING SHOWN SMARTER THAN US.

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • Gravity_Man:

      A solar cooker-based generator can spin plenty of electric juice to power electric homes too. Electric computers. Electric water filtration. Electric hot water heaters or tankless water heaters whatever.

      SOLAR POWER CAN DO IT ALL. CRUDE OIL STAYS IN THE GROUND.

    • 8 months ago
  • tverdell
  • JanforGore
  • artemis6
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • artemis6:

      Nature obeys certain rules. The existence of rules calls for a Rule Maker. One great rule is just as you say => SOLAR IS A LOT OF POWER. People have been using cheap solar cookers for a long time but we THE TECHNOLOGICAL CHEST BEATERS want exotic solutions, so we exotic'ed out the time clock pursuing solutions that made us feel great & wonderful and Godless in our wonderfulness.

      All we needed was a Solar Cooker.

      Instead we found solar cells that chew up precious metals we now run short of. Yep, chest beaters. Chest beaters who ran out the clock. And then you have a few who want to lay all this AT MY FEET FOR HAVING FAILED. HAHAHA I had a major 1 1/2 day heart event that began on the 14th and ended the morning of the 16th.

      I don't win races alone. Certainly not with a disability check either. Nice try though. In case no one has noticed Obama is the messiah of the day, and it's HIS OBAMA FACE IN THE MUD.

      Apparently it belongs there. With his failed Jobs Plan.

    • 8 months ago
  • kvb1
    • +1
      kvb1  

    • We must tax energy companies on every dollar spent on developing fossil fuel sources and give them a tax break for every dollar spent on developing renewable energy. Exxon alone spends enough money to build out wind farms of the east cost to cover a quarter for the coastline.

      The "free markets" will never do this on their own. They will have to be forced to do it. As long as it remains cheaper to do one thing over another, no matter how beneficial it is, they will always go with lower costs to keep PROFITS high.

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • kvb1:

      Absolutely. We need a revenue neutral carbon tax. Other countries like Sweden instituted one and their economy improved. I'm sick of oil company obstructionists stopping progress towards renewable energy. It is the MORAL thing to do. But the semantics of it needs to change. You can't call it a tax, so it should be called a "renewable energy incentive."

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      Might work, IF you get everybody on board and on board REALLY FAST. What gives you hope that onboard AND fast will happen anytime soon Jan? Sweden started a long time ago when TIME wasn't a critical issue as it is NOW.

      Now a hammer is needed.

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • Gravity_Man:

      This isnt about Al Gore. HE didn't fail anything. WE ALL DID. And it is not a 25 year ago answer in comparison to the fact that we are still burning an old source. There is no way we can transition to renewable energy at this point cold turkey. There has to be a way to sequester the carbon and also hold those who do not do so accountable, since the real answer to this (moral courage) is a pipedream when applied to the human species.

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      That's exactly true, we all failed. He is one of the ones who failed, all together a FAIL, and now the slow methods you propse are too slow. They are Yesterday's Answer won't work in a crunch. Moral courage? I see lots of people already have that.

      YOU NEED A HAMMER JAN. HAMMER, NOT MARSHMALLOW PUFFS. YOU'RE OUT OF TIME JAN. A HAMMER IS NEEDED.

      SOMETHING FAST NOT 2 YEARS & WE'RE SWEDEN.

      NOR DO WE HAVE TIME FOR "2020".

      2011, U NEED A HAMMER.

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      "Holding people accountable" is a very slow courtroom battle. There isn't time for Hearings & Decisions & Dissent. All the answers you want to work do not have time to sit in a crock pot til 2020.

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Gravity_Man:

      I respect Mr. Gore Jan but this is a time for brutal HONESTY and his answers of Debate Debate Debate have FAILED and now Debate Debate Debate has to give way to a Solar Hammer or some other hammer-fast invention fast to deploy.

      A torpedo is required now..

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • Gravity_Man:

      Then I suggest you get busy with yours and stop harping on me. I mean really, you don't think I understand the urgency of this? However, what we need and what we can accomplish under the circumstances of our existence that WE made are unfortunately two different things. But we have to do something as opposed to nothing, which is the point.

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      You said yourself -MANY TIMES- how many years & decades Mr. Gore has been beating this bush WITH EVERY STICK HE HAD. I have absolutely no need to beat up on Mr. Gore, as some do. I'm not them.

      I'm strictly making the observation that all those efforts GOOD AS THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN haven't worked, that's all. If he had been pushing some new kind of military strategy he'd be highly respected for his great accomplishment.

      The war on fixing this planet is over, and not only does Mr. Gore go down in flames so does everybody else with him. We spent too much time having a stupid CHART WAR.

      As for me I've had different people fighting me, on the religious plane who want people kept ignorant of anything smacking of a solution. And guess what Jan? Everybody listened to them, their taskmasters & their brainwashers.

      We're going down Jan. Jesus saves us or we're toast. Our own people fought us to make it so, and they were Legion.

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      Which result if you recall was exactly what you wanted and Al Gore wanted all along => the Will of the Majority to win. And so it has. The majority took no heed so the majority has chosen lethargy & false pinatas, and Climate Doom.

      Majority Jan. The Majority won.

    • 8 months ago
  • kvb1
  • VoyagerFilms
    • +3
      VoyagerFilms  

    • I really like the idea of changing our agricultural methods to sequester more carbon. This would be a meaningful step in the right direction

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • VoyagerFilms:

      Sustainable agriculture is a definite way to progress. We could sequester 40% of carbon worldwide in soil if we instituted sustainable agriculture ( agroforestry, agroecology), especially in the developing world where farmers would have freedom in regards to food sovereignty as well. Industrial agriculture is killing our biodiversity, our soil and our climate.

    • 8 months ago
  • Milieu
    • +2
      Milieu  

    • btw, some of us old pharts have been doing what we can for a long time now.

      Since 1979, I have never bought a car that gets less than 30 mpg. Clothes lines over auto dryers, etc.

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • Milieu:

      That's true. You don't even see people using clotheslines anymore. In my old neighborhood, someone actually got complaints from neighbors for using one that it was "unsightly." Insanity.

    • 8 months ago
  • artemis6
  • Vic_Romano
  • jim_b
  • JanforGore
  • percipi224
  • JanforGore
  • csmonut
    • +1
      csmonut  

    • The pace of this climate gone crazy is accelerating, no doubt about it. Have we reached the point of no return?
      Probably.
      And I say that only because, as much as I see individuals doing everything they can, governments, special interest groups and those that do not believe we have had such an impact on this planet continue on the same path, continue digging and burning, and continue destroying.
      Why? Money. It will cost too much to convert. Inconvenience. People generally do not like to disturb the status quo and the older people get the harder it is to convince them they really, really, really need to change their habits.
      And...most of the governing bodies of the world consist of a lot of old people. I don't know at what age people begin to resist change more so than when they were younger, but maybe along with term limits in government, we need age limits, too.
      Sounds rather harsh doesn't it?

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • csmonut:

      Well we won't be able to stop effects at this point, but we do still have some time to keep it from becoming catastrophic in our children's lifetimes. I just don't understand how money can even be more important than that.

    • 8 months ago
  • trut
  • JanforGore
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • trut:

      Dam the World! Trut said it! Hmm, I guess at this time in human history we might want to reflect on how the people felt watching the waters rise then turning to see Noah closing the ark door.

      The planet is being inundated with earthquakes and the earthquakes are taking out the old nuclear reactors, just when they got old.

      Our society piled its gold in the wrong sack.

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • Stating we have affected the hydrologic cycle is no overstatement. This is the human fingerprint of climate change. This is the point where we have to say, stop.

    • 8 months ago
  • csmonut
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • csmonut:

      I hope so.That is one battle we must win for the future of our planet and us.There is currently a march going on that will get to DC on Oct 16 to demand labelling of GMOs. China also just refused to grow GM rice. Farmers globally are speaking out against GM wheat. We need to come together and roundly push out these companies looking to control agriculture. It is definitely a big part of solving this.

    • 8 months ago
  • artemis6
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