+- +-

+-User

Welcome, Guest.
Please login or register.
 
 
 

Login with your social network

Forgot your password?

+-Stats ezBlock

Members
Total Members: 48
Latest: watcher
New This Month: 0
New This Week: 0
New Today: 0
Stats
Total Posts: 16867
Total Topics: 271
Most Online Today: 1023
Most Online Ever: 1208
(March 28, 2024, 07:28:27 am)
Users Online
Members: 0
Guests: 300
Total: 300

Author Topic: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️  (Read 117230 times)

0 Members and 10 Guests are viewing this topic.

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #330 on: September 29, 2015, 10:54:15 pm »
Could forests store more carbon as the climate warms? 

http://grist.org/climate-energy/could-forests-store-more-carbon-as-the-climate-warms/


Agelbert COMMENT: The problem of biosphere CO2 handling capacity is over simplified by the article. Studies have already proven that increased CO2 levels will actually reduce plant productivity.
 

QUOTE
An argument made by those who prefer to see a bright side to climate change is that carbon dioxide (CO2) being released by the burning of fossil fuels is actually good for the environment. This conjecture is based on simple and appealing logic: if plants need CO2 for their growth, then more of it should be better. We should expect our crops to become more abundant and our flowers to grow taller and bloom brighter.

However, this "more is better" philosophy is not the way things work in the real world. There is an old saying, "Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing." For example, if a doctor tells you to take one pill of a certain medicine, it does not follow that taking four is likely to heal you four times faster or make you four times better. It's more likely to make you sick.
UNQUOTE

Here's the full story for readers of WHY CO2 excess HARMS plants in general and phytoplankton, the greatest generators of oxygen and absorbers of CO2 on the planet, in particular.

Global Warming Reduces Plant Productivity

Over 50% of the photosynthesis of planet Earth is done by phytoplankton.
Ocean acidification from an excess of CO2 is an existential threat to phytoplankton, which just happen to be the base of the ocean food chain. 

The forests, as is plainly stated in the link above, will have reduced productivity as the planet warms, despite the added CO2 concentration. So they will not be able to take up the slack, so to speak.

A human can drink water at a pH of 7.4 and not consider it a problem. In general, a water with a pH < (less than) 7 is considered acidic and with a pH > (greater than) 7 is considered basic. The normal range for pH in surface water systems is 6.5 to 8.5 and for groundwater systems 6 to 8.5.

The oceans have a far more narrow range of pH due to the calcium carbonate forming chemistry of mollusks, coral and phytoplankton.

In vivo laboratory studies detailed in the link below have proven that phytoplankton die at a pH of 7.4 or lower. CO2 caused ocean acidification will kill them if we do not stop burning fossil fuels.

That means we will lose over 50% of the biosphere's ability to turn CO2 into oxygen, cause the extinction of countless species that feed on the phytoplankton marine food chain base, and accelerate the warming of the planet, all at the same time.
Quote

As the Royal Society of the United Kingdom concluded in its study of ocean acidification, "Without significant action to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, this may mean that there will be no place in the future oceans for many of the species and ecosystems that we know today."

The Other CO2 Problem

Unless we are planning to set aside a land area full of duckweed ponds, equivalent in size to one fifth the size of the global oceans (the present phytoplankton coverage that will die from a CO2 caused acidification pH of <7.4), we are engaging in wishful thinking to think forests can take up the slack from phytoplankton extinction.

I am not being facetious when I mention duckweed. Duckweed is the fastest growing flowering plant known to man. It is conceivable that, if you threw several trillion dollars at buying land about the size of South America and putting duckweed ponds all over it, you could replace the dead phytoplankton. 90% of the marine species would go extinct, (Sarcasm alert) but you can't have everything, right?

I think we should all agree that eliminating the use of fossil fuels is smarter, cheaper and more humane.

Distinguished Professor Emeritus Richard Somerville, world-renowned climate scientist and author of "The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change," discusses the scientific case for urgent action to limit climate change.

The Scientific Case for Urgent Action to Limit Climate Change
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #331 on: September 30, 2015, 03:23:03 am »
Climate Change: Have We Reached the Point of No Return?
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #332 on: September 30, 2015, 02:56:09 pm »
This is why some people like Alaskan mountains.  ;D


The REALLY inconvenient truth about the IPCC projections:




The following alarming, but still too conservative, study EXCLUDES the ABRUPT climate change positive feedback loop effects we are now beginning to experience.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #333 on: September 30, 2015, 11:31:33 pm »
The new EL NIÑO of 2015 is far worse than the 1997 EL NIÑO.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #334 on: September 30, 2015, 11:42:21 pm »
Quote
The combination image below shows that sea surface temperature anomalies still are very high. The left panel shows that anomalies on September 25, 2015 were as high as +6°C (+10.8°F) in the North Atlantic (location marked by green circle), compared to 1901-2011.

The right panel shows anomalies on September 26, 2015, in the North Atlantic of +0.81°C (+1.46°F) and in the North Pacific of +1.02°C (+1.84°F), compared to 1971-2000.



http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #335 on: October 01, 2015, 12:49:27 am »
Satellite image of a massive bloom of phytoplankton off the coast of Oregon and Washington on July 26, 2014. Image courtesy NASA Earth Observatory.

This summer’s West Coast algal bloom was unusual. What would usual look like?

September 30, 2015

Quote

Previously, I described a record-breaking algal bloom that is ongoing off the West Coast of North America, stretching from California to the waters of the Gulf of Alaska. High levels of the algal toxin domoic acid led to the closures of recreational razor clam harvests in Oregon and Washington and large portions of Washington’s Dungeness crab fishery.  Health advisories were issued to sardine and anchovy fishers along part of the California coastline.  NOAA scientists are investigating the toxic bloom as one of many possible causes of death of over 30 whales.

This May 22, 2015, photo shows a fin whale calf floating off Marmot Bay in Kodiak Island, Alaska. This calf is one of an unusually large number of whale deaths in the Western Gulf of Alaska since May. Photo by Rob Baer, Alaska Department of Fish and Game.



https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/summer%E2%80%99s-west-coast-algal-bloom-was-unusual-what-would-usual-look
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #336 on: October 01, 2015, 10:21:37 pm »
This might have something to do with why Hurricane Joaquin is getting stronger...




And YEAH, that is a lot hotter than it's supposed to be and was throughout the 20th century. CO2, the gift that keeps giving while the fossil fuel industry profits keep coming in. 
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #337 on: October 01, 2015, 11:16:44 pm »
As the image below shows, nearly all the thick (over 3 m) multi-year sea ice has now disappeared, setting up a dangerous situation for the future that is much more dangerous than the situation was back in 2012. The thicker sea ice used to act as a buffer, consuming ocean heat in the melting process.

Without thicker sea ice,
ocean heat threatens to melt the sea ice from below right up to the surface, causing the entire sea ice to collapse as more open water will go hand in hand with stronger winds and waves.

In case of such a collapse, sunlight that was previously reflected back into space will instead be absorbed by the water, causing rapid rise of the temperature of the water. In places such as the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, the water is on a average only 50 m deep, so warmer water is able to reach the seafloor more easily there.




Quote
The water of the Arctic Ocean is very warm, not only at the surface, but even more so underneath the surface. The danger is that strong winds will mix warm water all the way down to the seafloor, where it could destabilize sediments that can contain huge amounts of methane in the form of hydrates and free gas.

Arctic News Thursday, October 1, 2015

http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/





He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #338 on: October 02, 2015, 12:39:14 am »
Professor Gerardo Cebellos is the lead author of the latest study on the evidence that we are in the Sixth Mass Extinction.

I prepared a post to counter Ashvin's view that concentrated feed operations are a bigger threat than CO2 pollution. I will post it here soon.

The point is that that meat eating is a subset of our unsustainable activity, not the proximate MAIN cause of environmental degradation.

We do have to switch to insect protein, of course. That's a no-brainer. But you are dreaming if you think that is going to stop the Sixth Mass Extinction in any significant way.

WHY?

Because there is a LOT more going on out there, due to the CO2 build up, that is contributing to the main cause of BOTH land and marine mammalian vertebrate species extinctions.

Yes, eliminating the concentrated animal feeding operations and all the crop land needed to raise food for them from the energy mix would reduce our CO2 emissions. So we must do that. But, if we don't go 100% renewable energy, it will not be enough to STOP the mass extinction going on now that threatens vertebrate mammals,  which we just happen to be, in particular. WE are destroying OUR habitat by burning fossil fuels, along with the habitat of countless other species.

Since Ashvin appears to have gone away for a while WITHOUT answering the question I asked him on the last post, I'll just post the abridged version of my post. I'll post the whole enchilada with references in an article when I get to it.  ;D Enjoy the short version:

I am all for switching to insect protein powder for yummy hamburgers. I am all for putting wildlife corridors on all agricultural land where humans (biologist caretakers armed to deal with trespassing humans excluded) are not allowed and will be shot on sight with arrows and used for owl and eagle species recovery efforts.

We need to do that. We need to free range whatever animals we raise and we need to severely cut back on how many of them we raise. We need to make more efficient use of farmed animal droppings for the express purpose of totally eliminating chemical fertilizers.

But if we do all that BEFORE we address the CO2 problem, and continue to burn off present estimates of global carbon reserves, the wildlife extinction will accelerate, not slow down.

WHY?


Figure 6: The Paleocene-Eocene boundary thermal maximum.

THIS was February of 2013:
Another link between CO2 and mass extinctions of species

In February 2013, CO2 levels had risen to near 396.80ppm at Mauna Loa Atmospheric Observatory, compared to 393.54ppm in February 2012. This rise - 3.26ppm per year - is at the highest rate yet recorded. Further measurements show CO2 is at near 400ppm of the atmosphere over the Arctic. At this rate the upper stability threshold of the Antarctic ice sheet, defined at about 500–600ppm CO2 would be reached later this century (although hysteresis of the ice sheets may slow down melting).

Our global carbon reserves - including coal, oil, oil shale, tar sands, gas and coal-seam gas - contain considerably more than 10,000 billion tonnes of carbon (see Figure 5). This amount of carbon, if released into the atmosphere, is capable of raising atmospheric CO2 levels to higher than 1000ppm. Such a rise in atmospheric radiative forcing will be similar to that of the Paleocene-Eocene boundary thermal maximum (PETM), which happened about 55 million years-ago (see Figures 1, 2 and 4).

Ashvin, please digest the following sentence about the 3.26ppm per year rate referenced above.

But the rate of rise surpasses those of this thermal maximum by about ten times.

Now please look at this graphic:
Mass extinctions due to rapidly escalating levels of CO2 are recorded since as long as 580 million years ago. As our anthropogenic global emissions of CO2 are rising, at a rate for which no precedence is known from the geological record with the exception of asteroid impacts, another wave of extinctions is unfolding.

Ashvin, the most important issue of our time is the existential threat we face from CO2 pollution. The other empathy deficit disordered activites humans are foolishly, greedily and stupidly pursuing need to be addressed. Those activities produce habit a destruction.

But CO2 is the elephant in the high extinctions rate room.

The MOST negatively impacted areas of our biosphere (i. e. THE TROPICS from land deforestation and desertification and ocean acidification plus heat  MORE than from atmospheric temperature increase) from CO2 pollution are PRECISELY where the our biosphere's BIODIVERSITY is concentrated.









The evidence is clear. That is, along with the increase in CO2 ppm, the annual RATE of rise of annual CO2 is increasing too.

The most important issue of our time is the existential threat we face from CO2 pollution. That is causing far more habitat destruction than all the other unsustainable human activities.

CO2 is the elephant in the high extinctions rate room. If the above has not convinced you of that, I fear hard experience starting around 2040 will.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #339 on: October 02, 2015, 03:22:37 pm »
Since June 2006, we have experienced an influx of juvenile Guadalupe fur seals, Arctocephalus townsendi, in the Pacific Northwest. This species is typically only found along the coasts of Southern and Central California and Baja California.

Endangered Fur Seals Dying at Alarming Rate Along California Coast

Taylor Hill, TakePart | October 2, 2015 11:17 am

The threatened Guadalupe fur seal is getting stranded on California’s coastline in record numbers, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Of the 80 fur seals, 42 were found dead and only 16 of the 38 found alive survived. Photo credit: Shutterstock

The marine mammals typically spend their time off Mexico’s coast, but at least 80 of the pinnipeds have ended up on California’s shore emaciated, dehydrated or dead. That’s a rate eight times higher than what’s documented in a typical year.

Of the 80 fur seals, 42 were found dead and only 16 of the 38 found alive survived.

The unprecedented occurrence has led NOAA to declare an unusual mortality event for the seals, meaning its scientists will devote more time to studying the species and more samples from rescued animals will be evaluated.


The fur seal’s struggles come during the same year that a record 3,500 California sea lions have washed ashore along California’s coast.

Scientists think the unusually warm waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean could be affecting the health of marine mammals. The large swath of unseasonably hot water is wreaking havoc on everything from Washington’s crabs to Oregon’s algae and it could be pushing fish species that seals and sea lions rely on as food sources farther north than the animals can travel.

At the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, California, the rescue facility took in four Guadalupe fur seals between January and May. Executive Director Keith Matassa says there haven’t been any reports since then.

“That’s actually more than we typically rescue in a year anyway,” he said and 2015 has been a record year for overall marine mammal recoveries for the facility. “Look at our averages from 1998 to 2014 and we rescue about 188 sea lions and elephant seals a year. For 2015, we’re already at 535 rescues.”

Right now, it’s the slow season. Adult seals and sea lions are out at their rookeries, taking care of their newborn pups, most of which were born in June and July. At about six months old, the pups start to venture out on their own and that’s when the reports start flooding in.

“Hopefully they wait until November or December—when they’re a little more capable of taking care of themselves,” Matassa said.

http://ecowatch.com/2015/10/02/fur-seals-dying/

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #340 on: October 02, 2015, 08:33:04 pm »


Dahr Jamail on May 15, 2015 tells it like it is.

For more information on Dahr Jamail please visit http://dahrjamail.net
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #341 on: October 03, 2015, 03:34:58 am »


The following Sea Surface Temperature (SST) screen shot was the eight day average BEFORE Joaquin gained strength. Notice how hot the ocean was then:



It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that a hotter ocean means MORE HURRICANES in the Atlantic and MORE TYPHOONS in the Pacific. Get used to it.  :(
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #342 on: October 03, 2015, 09:30:22 pm »
The PLUS 2 degree C world, now locked in according to the IPCC, is BAD NEWS.


Quote
The year 2014 was the warmest year across global land and ocean surfaces since records began in 1880. The annually-averaged temperature was 0.69°C (1.24°F) above the 20th century average of 13.9°C (57.0°F), easily breaking the previous records of 2005 and 2010 by 0.04°C (0.07°F).
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201413


THAT IS, 2014 had an AVERAGE global temperature of 58.24°F = 14.58°C.

In 2015 an EL NIÑO began. EL NIÑOs always flush a LOT of heat from the oceans into the atmosphere. They can last more than just one year.

So, 2015 will top 2014. It is safe to add another 0.04°C (0.07°F) for an estimate of 2015 temperature. That will bring us to  58.31°F = 14.62°C.

If we continue to rise  0.04°C per year, we will reach the IPCC plus 2 degree C red line (NOW inevitable according to them), in about 28 years.

That is assuming we are ONLY 0.85°C above the pre-industrial baseline.

If we are at 1.00 °C above the pre-industrial baseline, as some claim is the case, we will reach plus 2.00°C of 15.62°C = 60.12 °F in about 25 years.

This, though lower than the previously set IPCC  plus 2.00°C mark of 16.49 oC  (IPCC, 2007), doesn't sound too bad. That sounds like we have that much time to deal with it. But that reasoning has a problem. 

All that ASSUMES a LINEAR annual temperature increase of 0.04°C.

All that IGNORES the feedback acceleration of heat reinforcing now going on. 

All that IGNORES the sink (ability to absorb CO2) degradation the oceans are undergoing which is guaranteed to increase the RATE of heat entering the atmosphere from the oceans, irrespective of any additions in CO2 input we add.


What's the big deal about a 2 degrees C increase?

Quote
The 1990 global atmospheric mean temperature is assumed to be 14.49 oC (Shakil, 2005; NASA, 2002; DATAWeb, 2012) which sets the 2 oC anomaly above which humanity will lose control of her ability to limit the effects of global warming on major climatic and environmental systems at 16.49 oC  (IPCC, 2007).

The major Permian extinction event temperature is 80 oF (26.66 oC) which is a temperature anomaly of  12.1766 oC above the 1990 global mean temperature of 14.49 oC (Wignall, 2009; Shakil,  2005).

Global Extinction within one Human Lifetime as a Result of a Spreading Atmospheric Arctic Methane Heat wave and Surface Firestorm


He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #343 on: October 04, 2015, 12:57:13 am »



Published on Mar 31, 2014

Join the movement and stay up to date by visiting: http://www.indigochildfilms.org/

Watch this documentary and learn from a selection of Canada's foremost Climate Scientists as they discuss their research relating to our changing planet.

Dr. Kimberley Strong (U of T) explains how we can see CO2 emissions traveling from their source around the world.

Dr. John Smol (Queen's) recounts the decades of years spent in the arctic watching ancient ponds evaporate before his eyes.

Dr. Richard Peltier (U of T) gives a thorough explanation of sea level rise through melting land ice, glacial isostatic adjustment, and plate tectonics.

Dr. Rich Petrone (Waterloo) accounts for the importance of forest systems and peatlands, then gives us an ominous warning about CO2 emissions.

Dr. Jason Gerhard (Western) explains the importance of groundwater and the danger and realities of contamination.

Dr. Gordon McBean and Dr. Slobodan Simonovic (Western) outline the dangers of flooding and the probability of extreme weather events.

Dr. Sean Kheraj (York) provides a historical look at Canada's environmental history in the distant and recent past.

Dr. Jennifer Lynes, Dr. Johanna Wandel (Waterloo) and Dr. Manuel Riemer (Wilfrid Laurier) hint at solutions to this problem going forward.
----------------------------------------­----------------------------------------­--------------
It is not enough to know the data and pat ourselves on the back.

Year by year we see the evidence mount and the dots interconnect on a global scale, but knowledge is not power unless it is applied in a productive way.

We are past the point where climate change can be reversed and (more importantly) we are capable as individuals and as a species to adapt to the inevitable shift in climate and reduce the possible impacts through sustainable practices.

Understanding climate science means also understanding your own emissions, and therefore your complicity in the destruction of our environment and ecosystems. When faced with such harsh truths it's easier to seek the inner safety of apathy.

The idea is: if I don't care it can't hurt me.

We choose not to think about something distressing because it almost feels like it doesn't exist, but like a smoker trying not to cough in the morning: one clear breath doesn't mean the lungs are healthy.
Quote
Our climate does not discriminate; everyone is and will continue to feel its effects. The cure for apathy is empowerment. Human beings are designed to care about things.
We only stop caring when we feel that we are powerless.

Music
"Giving Up The Ghost" by DJ Shadow ( •  •  • )









He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 36274
  • Location: Colchester, Vermont
    • Renwable Revolution
Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #344 on: October 04, 2015, 05:50:00 pm »
Hurricane Sandy Storm Damage and repair
How much longer will insurance companies be willing to cover damages, as above, in coastal areas?  ???


U.S.’ Atlantic Coast Likely to Take Worse Battering With Warming

Posted on Oct 3, 2015

By Tim Radford, Climate News Network


Hurricane Sandy Storm Damage

This Creative Commons-licensed piece first appeared at Climate News Network.

LONDON—Sea level rise and global warming spell danger for New York as average flood heights have risen by 1.25 metres along that part of the US coast—and new research warns that the devastating flood that arrived with Superstorm Sandy in 2012 could happen again.

A flood height of 2.25 metres would once have happened only every 500 years. Now scientists say it could recur every 25 years.

And a second study finds that almost the entire US Atlantic coast is increasingly at risk from the combined hazards of storm surge and sea level rise, and that this risk rises dramatically with time. According to one scenario, it could increase 350-fold.

The two studies are based on different approaches, but they reinforce each other’s conclusions.

Historic approach

Andra Reed, a researcher in the Department of Meteorology at Pennsylvania State University in the US, and colleagues report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the devastation of Sandy prompted them to take the historic approach.

They did this by using fossil evidence to reconstruct the history of flooding along the coast where New York City now stands.
NYC plaza - Hurricane Sandy

The 2012 hurricane breached the sea walls at Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan, and flooded the city’s subway tunnels, but the city’s record of such surges goes back only to 1850.

So the researchers used a mix of climate models and evidence from sediments and tiny marine organisms to build up a picture of sea level change between AD 850 and 2005.

“In the pre-anthropogenic era, the return period for a storm producing a surge of 2.81 metres or greater, like Sandy at the Battery, would have been about 3,000 years,” Reed said. “We found that, in the anthropogenic era, the return period for this same storm surge height has been reduced to about 130 years.”

Quote

“A storm that occurred once in seven generations is now occurring twice in a generation.”

Her co-author, Benjamin Horton, professor of marine and coastal sciences at Rutgers University, put the same findings another way. “A storm that occurred once in seven generations is now occurring twice in a generation,” he said.

The 1,200-year reconstruction of sea level change showed that sea level rise had risen at its steepest rate in 1,000 years in the last century. This meant that “an extra 100,000 people flooded in the region during Hurricane Sandy who would not have been flooded if sea level had not been rising”.

Hurricane Sandy Flooding

Sandy caused an estimated $50 billion worth of damage and destroyed 600,000 houses. But concern about storms and floods—especially along densely populated coasts—is not new.

In the last three years, researchers have warned that maritime cities could by 2050 face an annual toll of $1 trillion in flood defences and damage, and this may have risen to $100 trillion by 2100.



America’s eastern seaboard already experiences sea level rises above the global average, and routine high tide flooding presents an increasing hazard.

Taxis during Hurricane Sandy

But the unholy mix of rising seas and more intense coastal storms presents special dangers, according to Christopher Little, a climate scientist at Atmospheric and Environmental Research in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Climate models

He and colleagues report in Nature Climate Change journal that they analysed 15 climate models at five locations—Atlantic City in New Jersey, Charleston in South Carolina, Key West and Pensacola in Florida, and Galveston in Texas—to see not just what would happen to sea level rise, and to the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, but also the chances that the two could coincide.

They calculated what might happen if the planet greatly reduced the emissions of greenhouse gases—produced by the combustion of coal, oil and natural gas—and what could be expected if the humans went on burning them in the “business-as-usual” scenario.

Even if the planet voted for severe cuts in fossil fuel use, the combined heights and durations of future floods could increase at least fourfold, and perhaps as much as 75-fold. If humans carry on pumping oil and shovelling on the coal, this “flood index” could increase by 35 to 350 times.

Quote
“When you look at hazards separately, it’s bad enough, but when you consider the joint effects of two hazards together, you can get some surprises,”
says one of the report’s co-authors, Radley Horton, a climate systems researcher at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. “Sometimes one plus one can equal three.”




Agelbert NOTE:
CO2, the fossil fuel industry "gift" that keeps giving.  Hurricane Sandy makes an amusement park look very unamusing:
... amusement park, after the pier beneath the Star Jet coaster collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean during Hurricane Sandy.


http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/us_atlantic_coast_set_to_take_a_worse_battering_20151003







He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

+-Recent Topics

Future Earth by AGelbert
March 30, 2022, 12:39:42 pm

Key Historical Events ...THAT YOU MAY HAVE NEVER HEARD OF by AGelbert
March 29, 2022, 08:20:56 pm

The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth by AGelbert
March 28, 2022, 01:12:42 pm

Electric Vehicles by AGelbert
March 27, 2022, 02:27:28 pm

Heat Pumps by AGelbert
March 26, 2022, 03:54:43 pm

Defending Wildlife by AGelbert
March 25, 2022, 02:04:23 pm

The Koch Brothers Exposed! by AGelbert
March 25, 2022, 01:26:11 pm

Corruption in Government by AGelbert
March 25, 2022, 12:46:08 pm

Books and Audio Books that may interest you 🧐 by AGelbert
March 24, 2022, 04:28:56 pm

COVID-19 🏴☠️ Pandemic by AGelbert
March 23, 2022, 12:14:36 pm