Climate Change There is a Change Coming Who can really visualize a 250' to 300' rise in sea levels? It is a hard concept to visualize and seemingly very dramatic.
During the present millennia, which is a period of 1,000 years, there will be dramatic changes to our civilization.
There will be a series of questions to be asked.
What will you do? Where will you go? When is the critical stage? When will the populace agree that there is indeed a rising tide of water or that temperatures are increasing? When will people believe? Do you want to be ahead of this curve or among the panic strickened as they begin to struggle? Is there really anything that we as a civilization can do to offset or prevent these changes? Sea level rise is expected to accelerate due to the warming trend of our planet's atmosphere.
We hear in the news warning signs of a slow disaster that will last for centuries or longer.
Warning Signs or indications of pending change are reported by the news and by groups of scientists all over the world.
Reports of carbon dioxide increasing in the atmosphere (now over 400 ppm), global temperature increases, extreme ice melts in the Arctic, Antarctic and glaciers all over the world, increased droughts, mega storms, fisheries collapsing and the scarcity of freshwater have many of us wondering what is really going on as if we are living in denial.
Naysayers voice there disbelief by pointing out that there is not anything out of the ordinary going on.
Nature and the planet go through cycles and this phase of turbulence is nothing to worry about.
They go on to say that what scientists and government panels report is nothing more than gibberish or cycle variations in nature and that any imposed regulations to the continued burning of fossil fuels is in violation of their rights.
They believe that they have the right to pollute the air and water on which all humans depend.
These people and various groups are backed by a lot of money that can spin any type of news to their point of view and which clouds the reality of the information.
This disparity between factions (the believers and non-believers) results in that most people are being led into a false sense of security in order to appease them or to keep them quiet and this benefits the mega rich and the corporations of our time.
This should be no surprise to anyone.
Some Facts In 2007 scientists associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that there may be a sea level rise of 2' by 2100.
This did not take into account the ice sheets on Greenland and the Antarctic.
Seems kinda silly, but the people making this rough estimate did not want to make a dire projection because they did not have enough information.
Think of it this way, if they cried Wolf and there was no Wolf, then they would never be trusted, even when the Wolf appeared.
So, the prediction seemed low to almost everyone.
Warming trends have continued and more warning signs have come to light.
Time was needed to gather and analyze more information.
In 2013 the IPCC released a report that increased the last empirical prediction to 3' rise and less empirical models predict over 6' rise by 2100, at a minimum.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a report in 2012 that estimates over 6' in sea level rise by 2100 which would impact over 187 million people in the USA.
So, even with these predictive levels, scientists still say that they need more time and information to pinpoint the expected rise.
They need to study further in order to understand the many aspects of this warming trend and other warning signs that have begun and which they are still trying to understand.
Things that scientist look at include weather patterns, the rise and fall of various landforms, thermal expansion of water, the effects of El Nino (the warming of the Pacific Ocean), freshwater drawdown form aquifers, the shifting crust and mantle, ocean currents, the wobble of the Earth on its axis, the orbit of the Earth around the Sun over a period of time, and other attributes related to climate change.
These are some of the topics that scientists still need to better understand in order to make accurate forecasts.
With what they do know and understand of the various factors involved in a warming climate, trends will certainly continue and therefore the rise in sea level is a given.
Recent satellite imagery indicates that during this present warming trend there is 3mm of sea level rise per year on average and it has been increasing.
Along the east coast of the US it is 3 to 4 times that level and in places in China the rate is well over 100 times the average rate because different parts of the world are affected differently.
Looking along the eastern seaboard of the US and seeing 3.
5 times the average global rate we have an increase of.
41" per year and if this were to stay constant, which it will not (it will increase), would translate to 3.
44' in rise in 100 years.
This does not seem dramatic enough to cause an alarm but since the rate is increasing and not staying constant the minimum rise is 3.
44' and the higher end is still to be determined and may well be higher.
Sea level rise as a warning sign has scientists taking notice and NOAA uses many models and the ultra conservative model predicts about 8" of rise while the worst case scenario paints a different picture of over 6' of sea level rise.
Again, many factors still need to be further investigated and tied together but the warming trend is clear.
Whether it rises 3' or 6' is not really the point.
The point is that it will not stop.
All metroplexes along the seaboard, the livelihoods, businesses and families are all under attack and our politicians want us to spend even more money to protect against the inevitable collapse.
Sorry, but this does not make sense.
I liken sea level rise to a cancer because it acts slow at first and then it accelerates and attacks other parts of the body.
Alarmingly, sea level rise may not be one of the first warning signs of things to come.
Increased ocean acidity may become the proverbial "straw that breaks the camel's back".
Ocean acidification has increased by almost 30% as carbon dioxide is absorbed by the oceans and it represents another warning sign.
As the oceans become more acidic this acidity impacts the food chain within the oceans.
Corals begin to die, fisheries have begun to collapse as well as some mollusk and shrimp farms and sulfur is not released into the atmosphere.
Sulfur in our atmosphere is needed because it provides a cooling effect and without it the atmosphere will get warmer even faster, fueling the cycle of events.
Fish simply cannot survive in increasingly acidic waters.
The world population is over 7 billion people and 70% or almost 5 billion get their food and livelihood from the oceans.
It would not be a pretty sight if the oceans become even more acidic and yet nothing is being done about the carbon dioxide.
During the present millennia, which is a period of 1,000 years, there will be dramatic changes to our civilization.
There will be a series of questions to be asked.
What will you do? Where will you go? When is the critical stage? When will the populace agree that there is indeed a rising tide of water or that temperatures are increasing? When will people believe? Do you want to be ahead of this curve or among the panic strickened as they begin to struggle? Is there really anything that we as a civilization can do to offset or prevent these changes? Sea level rise is expected to accelerate due to the warming trend of our planet's atmosphere.
We hear in the news warning signs of a slow disaster that will last for centuries or longer.
Warning Signs or indications of pending change are reported by the news and by groups of scientists all over the world.
Reports of carbon dioxide increasing in the atmosphere (now over 400 ppm), global temperature increases, extreme ice melts in the Arctic, Antarctic and glaciers all over the world, increased droughts, mega storms, fisheries collapsing and the scarcity of freshwater have many of us wondering what is really going on as if we are living in denial.
Naysayers voice there disbelief by pointing out that there is not anything out of the ordinary going on.
Nature and the planet go through cycles and this phase of turbulence is nothing to worry about.
They go on to say that what scientists and government panels report is nothing more than gibberish or cycle variations in nature and that any imposed regulations to the continued burning of fossil fuels is in violation of their rights.
They believe that they have the right to pollute the air and water on which all humans depend.
These people and various groups are backed by a lot of money that can spin any type of news to their point of view and which clouds the reality of the information.
This disparity between factions (the believers and non-believers) results in that most people are being led into a false sense of security in order to appease them or to keep them quiet and this benefits the mega rich and the corporations of our time.
This should be no surprise to anyone.
Some Facts In 2007 scientists associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that there may be a sea level rise of 2' by 2100.
This did not take into account the ice sheets on Greenland and the Antarctic.
Seems kinda silly, but the people making this rough estimate did not want to make a dire projection because they did not have enough information.
Think of it this way, if they cried Wolf and there was no Wolf, then they would never be trusted, even when the Wolf appeared.
So, the prediction seemed low to almost everyone.
Warming trends have continued and more warning signs have come to light.
Time was needed to gather and analyze more information.
In 2013 the IPCC released a report that increased the last empirical prediction to 3' rise and less empirical models predict over 6' rise by 2100, at a minimum.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a report in 2012 that estimates over 6' in sea level rise by 2100 which would impact over 187 million people in the USA.
So, even with these predictive levels, scientists still say that they need more time and information to pinpoint the expected rise.
They need to study further in order to understand the many aspects of this warming trend and other warning signs that have begun and which they are still trying to understand.
Things that scientist look at include weather patterns, the rise and fall of various landforms, thermal expansion of water, the effects of El Nino (the warming of the Pacific Ocean), freshwater drawdown form aquifers, the shifting crust and mantle, ocean currents, the wobble of the Earth on its axis, the orbit of the Earth around the Sun over a period of time, and other attributes related to climate change.
These are some of the topics that scientists still need to better understand in order to make accurate forecasts.
With what they do know and understand of the various factors involved in a warming climate, trends will certainly continue and therefore the rise in sea level is a given.
Recent satellite imagery indicates that during this present warming trend there is 3mm of sea level rise per year on average and it has been increasing.
Along the east coast of the US it is 3 to 4 times that level and in places in China the rate is well over 100 times the average rate because different parts of the world are affected differently.
Looking along the eastern seaboard of the US and seeing 3.
5 times the average global rate we have an increase of.
41" per year and if this were to stay constant, which it will not (it will increase), would translate to 3.
44' in rise in 100 years.
This does not seem dramatic enough to cause an alarm but since the rate is increasing and not staying constant the minimum rise is 3.
44' and the higher end is still to be determined and may well be higher.
Sea level rise as a warning sign has scientists taking notice and NOAA uses many models and the ultra conservative model predicts about 8" of rise while the worst case scenario paints a different picture of over 6' of sea level rise.
Again, many factors still need to be further investigated and tied together but the warming trend is clear.
Whether it rises 3' or 6' is not really the point.
The point is that it will not stop.
All metroplexes along the seaboard, the livelihoods, businesses and families are all under attack and our politicians want us to spend even more money to protect against the inevitable collapse.
Sorry, but this does not make sense.
I liken sea level rise to a cancer because it acts slow at first and then it accelerates and attacks other parts of the body.
Alarmingly, sea level rise may not be one of the first warning signs of things to come.
Increased ocean acidity may become the proverbial "straw that breaks the camel's back".
Ocean acidification has increased by almost 30% as carbon dioxide is absorbed by the oceans and it represents another warning sign.
As the oceans become more acidic this acidity impacts the food chain within the oceans.
Corals begin to die, fisheries have begun to collapse as well as some mollusk and shrimp farms and sulfur is not released into the atmosphere.
Sulfur in our atmosphere is needed because it provides a cooling effect and without it the atmosphere will get warmer even faster, fueling the cycle of events.
Fish simply cannot survive in increasingly acidic waters.
The world population is over 7 billion people and 70% or almost 5 billion get their food and livelihood from the oceans.
It would not be a pretty sight if the oceans become even more acidic and yet nothing is being done about the carbon dioxide.
SHARE
