“All I Want is Truth (for Christmas),” written and performed by Laura Burhenn with her band The Mynabirds.
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Methane and other greenhouse gasses are heating up the world’s atmosphere, fueling global warming. 18% of those gases come from the burps and farts of the billions of cows in the vast herds feeding the world’s growing appetite for meat. Face it, Earth’s human population isn’t going to go Vegan, and cow-mounted catalytic converters just don’t cut it. What’s to be done?
New Yorkers learned about Storm Surge last month after a visit from Hurricane Sandy. But with climate change causing rising sea levels, Tidal Surge will be a more frequent threat to coastal cities. If you want to see New York’s future, look at Venice.
Climate change means extreme weather. When it’s stormy there will be some monster waves, but there will also be long periods of flat water. The really bad news is that climate warming causes sea level rise:
“Even a foot change in the tide line can mean the difference between great and mediocre waves…. Researchers believe sea levels could rise six inches by 2030, and a foot by 2050, or more.”
Except in North Carolina, of course, where sea level change is against the law.
At beaches where the water has a sandy bottom, there will still be some slope and maybe some decent wave formation. Where the bottom is rocky or made of coral, the outlook is not so good.
More:
“Will Climate Change Wipe Out Surfing?” Sam Kornell, Pacific Standard
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Image (“The Great Wipeout Off Kanagawa, after Hokusai”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Following the lead of the North Carolina Senate, the Commonwealth of Virginia has decided to legislate against the inevitable rise of the sea level along the coastal Atlantic shore. Sounds like King Canute is moving from Hatteras to Virginia Beach.
More:
“Virginia Lawmaker Says ‘Sea Level Rise’ Is A ‘Left Wing Term,’ Excises It From State Report On Coastal Flooding,” Rebecca Leber, Think Progress
“Sink or Swim,” The Colbert Report
“Sea level rise 101,” John Bruno, SeaMonster
“Understanding Sea Level Rise: Why a linear extrapolation is the least reasonable predictor of future changes,” Southern Fried Science
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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
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North Carolina’s Coastal Resources Commission, using current scientific data, estimated a 39-inch rise in sea level by the year 2100. Developers of beach houses, marinas, and seaside resorts don’t want to hear about it, so a bill has been introduced in the state legislature making scientific estimates of changes in sea level illegal.
Just like legendary King Canute, North Carolina’s politicians want to order the sea to stop rising. Maybe Canute was really a Tarheel Republican climate change denialist.
More:
“Climate Change: North Carolinians Hope to Stop It in Its Tracks,” Bill Chameides, Huffington Post
“NC Considers Making Sea Level Rise Illegal,” Scott Huler, Scientific American blog
Read Knight Science Journalism Tracker post here.
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Image (“King Canute Tours North Carolina Shoreline”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
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Santa in a Capitol Hill CVS in early November.
Global Warming has really disturbed the seasons here in Washington DC. Christmas started breaking out before Halloween. It’s not even Thanksgiving, but Christmas is in full swing all over town.
Actually, it’s not Christmas, it’s Xmas, the annual high holiday of retail. Here’s the early scouting report from the neighborhood:
Texas Governor Rick Perry used the occasion of the Republican Presidential Debate & Quiz Show to announce his running mate:
“The idea that we would put Americans’ economy at . . . jeopardy based on scientific theory that’s not settled yet, to me, is just nonsense I mean . . . and I tell somebody, I said, just because you have a group of scientists that have stood up and said here is the fact, Galileo got outvoted for a spell.”
– Rick Perry, via ABC News.
This is a controversial position for a Tea Party Republican in these sceptical times. It might even be taken to mean that Mr. Perry actually believes that the Earth revolves around the Sun, when anyone can plainly can see it’s the other way ’round. The Perry campaign has not responded to questions about those provocative implications.
Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R, TN-7) has performed a remarkable scientific feat, eliminating the polluting and climatic effects of carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. She did so at a single stroke by introducing H.R. 97, the “Free Industry Act.”
The act would deny the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to enforce control of those harmful substances by declaring the overwhelming body of scientific evidence to be erroneous. The Republican justification for H.R. 97 is the claim that EPA regulation of the aforesaid substances would be “job-killing.” As Dean Baker puts it, “Republicans call … policies ‘Job Killers’ because the media might ask for evidence if they called them ‘Baby Killers.’”
The art-infested Italian city of Venice got a good cleaning this weekend as the acqua alta high tide sloshed over ancient squares and into palazzo basements. Okay, if palazzos don’t have basements, where do they keep all that wine?
In areas of Venice that are under water, tourists and other pedestrians crowd together on narrow wooden walkways (passerelle). Water depth can range from 1 to 2 meters (about 3 feet, 3 3/5 inches to 6 feet, 6 7/10th inches). Good thing high-heeled boots are in fashion; there’s never a vacant gondola around when you need one.
