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How quaint that you believe all this. Like billionaires don't own politicians and use them to implement agendas to make them money.
Like people like Tom Steyer don't invest in windmills and solar panels and they would never dream of using politicians they own to pass laws to force us to buy them.
Nope, their noses are clean. Pure as the wind-driven snow!
Follow the money.
As with all Big Lie climate change-denying propagandists, you attempt to diminish anybody who explains the foolish inaccuracies that you expound. Believing in NASA empirical evidence, which clearly repudiates your statements, is "quaint" in your IMO worthless opinion. You apparently prefer the validity of a discredited Twitter post.
In fact, your post 320 is nothing but opaque nonsense, essentially claiming that persons who reject deliberate prevarications (as evidenced by your post 320) are "quaint."
Also, it's patently obvious that many politicians controlled by billionaires are climate change deniers, or "inactivists," as many billionaires are climate change deniers, especially those whose wealth is tied to the fossil fuel industry.
Newsweek isn't nearly as a prominent national publication as it was decades ago, but I wonder if this article won't provide a wake-up call for at least some persons considering migrating to Florida, and/or encourage some more open-minded, informed Florida residents to get out while the getting is good. The Newsweek article prominently quotes Dr. Harold Wanless, the former chair (he's about 80-years-old and perhaps semi-retired as he still is listed as a U of M professor) of the University of Miami geological sciences department and Florida's most prominent sea level rise expert.
<<"Sea Level Rise is the most critical [threat to the state]," Harold Wanless, a geography professor at the University of Miami, told Newsweek. "South Florida has already had over a 1-foot rise in the past century...and sea level is presently rising here at a rate of nearly 3 feet per century and accelerating.
"Peninsular Florida is also projected to have two more months of temperatures above 90 degrees by mid-century. Plus, major hurricanes are increasing in frequency. This latter, combined with sea level rise will make for significantly increased devastation by storm surges, wind and rain damage."
The effects of climate change are already being felt across the peninsula, and they are only expected to get worse. "With our sea level rise to date, low-lying coastal areas are increasingly frequently flooding by even the smaller king spring tides and minor wind surge events," Wanless said. "As a result, salt water in the streets is damaging vehicles, there is increased saltwater intrusion into our groundwater, inundated septic tanks are leaking out fecal pollution into the surface and ground waters, heavy rainfall drains away much more slowly, and ground floors and parking garages are prone to frequent flooding."
The economic implications of this will affect people throughout the state. "As we could well have a further 2 to 3 feet or sea level rise by mid-century, there will come a point where 30 years mortgages are not available, required flood insurance will be either not available or not affordable, and hurricane/flood risk will have dramatically increased," Wanless said. [BF emphasis added]>>
In the beginning of the article, a NASA expert is quoted as saying that Florida will experience on average only a foot of sea level rise by 2050. This quote doesn't accurately reflect the NASA position.
NASA/NOAA in 2022 released a report about MINIMAL sea level rise over the next 30 years, what can be expected at a minimum regardless of mankind's efforts to curb fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
<<Global sea level has been rising for decades in response to a warming climate, and multiple lines of evidence indicate the rise is accelerating. The new findings support the higher-range scenarios outlined in an interagency report released in February 2022. That report, developed by several federal agencies – including NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey – expect significant sea level rise over the next 30 years by region. They projected 10 to 14 inches (25 to 35 centimeters) of rise on average for the East Coast, 14 to 18 inches (35 to 45 centimeters) for the Gulf Coast, and 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) for the West Coast.
Building on the methods used in that earlier report, a team led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California leveraged 28 years of satellite altimeter measurements of sea surface height and correlated them with NOAA tide gauge records dating as far back as 1920. By continuously measuring the height of the surrounding water level, tide gauges provide a consistent record to compare with satellite observations.>>
<<The study, designed as a planning tool to mitigate and adapt to rising sea levels predicted, has a high degree of certainty over the next three decades, regardless of any efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet, NOAA officials said.>>
For those who examine this NASA report and localized projections of sea level rise, NASA predict 14- to 18- inches of sea level rise off of Florida coast, depending upon location.
So Wanless' projections of 2- to 3-feet of sea level rise by 2050 don't disagree with NASA.
Wanless emphasizes the natural feedback loops that are increasingly accelerating climate change. He has repeatedly explained why Florida's sea level rise will be greater than average. For years, Wanless has been concerned about the tipping points, or natural feedback loops, that mankind has unleashed. (See post 234 for a further discussion of feedback loops' disastrous impact on climate change).
<<Every section of coast has regional influences that add to or subtract from the GMSL [Global Mean Sea Level] rise. For South Florida, our future “total relative sea level” rise will include an addition of 15 to 20 percent from projected slowing of the Florida Current/Gulf Stream and 20 percent to 52 percent from redistribution of ocean mass as the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets melt.
Their huge ice masses pull water toward them. As they melt and their mass diminishes, their gravitational attraction diminishes and ocean water redistributes.
This means that South Florida should add 35 percent to 72 percent additional rise to the GMSL projections. The total relative sea-level rise for South Florida by 2046 could thus be 2.7 to 3.4 feet, and within 50 years could be 5.7 to 7.2 feet. This is not an encouraging future when you look at elevation maps of South Florida or most any other coast.>>
As quoted first in post 236. Although the above article is behind a pay wall, if you do a Google search for "Sun Sentinel Wanless sea level" to find the article, you should be able to read the article, published in June 2018.
Mankind continues to increase fossil fuel consumption, despite continued and even very recent stark warnings from the UN climate agency and others about the need to urgently and rapidly reduce fossil fuel consumption.
<<BERLIN (AP) — Humanity still has a chance, close to the last, to prevent the worst of climate change’s future harms, a top United Nations panel of scientists said Monday.
But doing so requires quickly slashing nearly two-thirds of carbon pollution by 2035, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said. The United Nations chief said it more bluntly, calling for an end to new fossil fuel exploration and for rich countries to quit coal, oil and gas by 2040.
“Humanity is on thin ice — and that ice is melting fast,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “Our world needs climate action on all fronts — everything, everywhere, all at once....
the U.N. science report approved Sunday concluded that to stay under the warming limit set in Paris the world needs to cut 60% of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, compared with 2019, adding a new target not previously mentioned in six previous reports issued since 2018.”
Mankind likely is not adequately considering the accelerating impact of global warming, especially ocean warming, on the cryosphere. See post 311 for a discussion of scenarios under which even Wanless is underestimating the rate and levels of sea level rise in Florida and elsewhere, especially regarding the increasing perils posed by the Thwaites "Doomsday Glacier."
If U.S. politicians, especially Florida politicians, let alone the American and Floridian public, aren't paying attention to the warnings of climate change scientists, insurers and other businesses definitely are doing so. Florida already is dealing with an escalating insurance crisis, and, at some point, inevitably the general Florida business environment will be impacted. It likely will be difficult for Florida to remain a tax haven, especially if the federal government, in an increasingly dire budget crisis, cuts back materially on monetary support for climate change impact "resiliency" expenditures in Florida, let alone FEMA expenditures, such as FEMA flood insurance subsidies.
Rising sea levels not only impact the viability of coastal communities, including barrier islands, but also doom Florida's wonderful beaches and coastal nature preserves to inundation. How attractive will an ocean-threatened Florida be to prospective migrants to the state, let alone existing residents?
NASA/NOAA in 2022 released a report about MINIMAL sea level rise over the next 30 years, what can be expected at a minimum regardless of mankind's efforts to curb fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
<<Global sea level has been rising for decades in response to a warming climate, and multiple lines of evidence indicate the rise is accelerating. The new findings support the higher-range scenarios outlined in an interagency report released in February 2022. That report, developed by several federal agencies – including NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey – expect significant sea level rise over the next 30 years by region. They projected 10 to 14 inches (25 to 35 centimeters) of rise on average for the East Coast, 14 to 18 inches (35 to 45 centimeters) for the Gulf Coast, and 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) for the West Coast.
Building on the methods used in that earlier report, a team led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California leveraged 28 years of satellite altimeter measurements of sea surface height and correlated them with NOAA tide gauge records dating as far back as 1920. By continuously measuring the height of the surrounding water level, tide gauges provide a consistent record to compare with satellite observations.>>
<<The study, designed as a planning tool to mitigate and adapt to rising sea levels predicted, has a high degree of certainty over the next three decades, regardless of any efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet, NOAA officials said.>>
For those who examine this NASA report and localized projections of sea level rise, NASA predict 14- to 18- inches of sea level rise off of Florida coast, depending upon location.
So Wanless' projections of 2- to 3-feet of Florida sea level rise by 2050 don't contradict the NASA/NOAA 2050 projections as they were only minimums.
Clarified paragraph:
So, for those who examine the NASA/NOAA report on expected sea level rise by 2050, and the report's localized, almost certain projections of sea level rise by 2050, the report predicts 14- to 18- inches of sea level rise off of Florida coast, depending upon location.
Clarified/addendum paragraphs:
So Wanless' projections of 2- to 3-feet of sea level rise by 2050 don't disagree with NASA/NOAA as the NASA/NOAA projections were only minimums, regardless of mankind's efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
As mankind is doing relatively little to reduce fossil fuel consumption, sea level rise by 2050 may be significantly greater than the current 2050 minimum NASA/NOAA predictions.
Additionally, it's important to keep in mind that sea level rise is projected to rise at accelerating rates of increase and that meaningful additional sea level rise will occur prior to 2050. Coastal residents are expected to experience more flooding and more beach inundation with each passing year than in the recent past, perhaps even a cataclysmic rate of sea level rise as discussed in post 311.
NOAA's Sea Level Rise Viewer can be used to see projections for any available location. Select "Local Scenarios," then zoom in on the map until local options are shown, then search by year or emissions scenario.
For earlier projections, such as 2030, the scenarios overlap, but looking at the left margin axis, the sea level rise viewer seems to project perhaps 9 inches of sea level rise by 2030 for St. Petersburg.
Colorado River basin may become increasingly uninhabitable as water supplies and hydroelectric supplies contract
Many experts already refer to the Colorado River basin megadrought as aridification.
<<The vanishing water, the rising temperatures, and the growing thirst threaten to undo what made the West such an appealing place to live in the first place. With triple-digit summer weather and little water to cool off, life in the Colorado River basin could become untenable for millions without drastic cuts to consumption if a more severe drought parched the landscape. Meanwhile, the powerful river that carved one of the deepest canyons on Earth would turn into a fragmented skeleton of its former self, and the farms, businesses, and industries that relied on its bounty would sputter to a halt.
“Water supplies for agriculture, fisheries, ecosystems, industry, cities, and energy are no longer stable given anthropogenic climate change,” Camille Calimlim Touton, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, told Congress in June 2022....
Based on current trends and commitments to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the planet will warm by 4.9°F (2.7°C) by 2100. Warming has complicated effects on drought though; some parts of the world will get wetter and others drier. Severalstudies, however, show that warming will further dry out the Colorado River Basin, and while droughts do occur in natural cycles, climate change is increasing the likelihood of megadroughts in the region. Factoring this in, the researchers reported in their paper that “even more severe droughts are possible.”>>
<<Drought has driven migrations throughout the world and through history, and could do so again in the West. For people counting on the Colorado River to slake their thirst, that could force them to pull up stakes. >>
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When will Florida migration reverse?
