Letters to the Editor
zzz05
Published Letters: 411 Editor's Choice: 9
-
we are screwed
[Read the article: The cold truth about climate change]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]as long as identifying yourself as a "conservative" requires a blood oath that you will never consider the possibility of the reality of anthropogenic climate change, we are screwed.
as long as the question of dealing with anthropogenic climate change becomes a referendum on Al Gore, we are screwed.
as long as anybody quote inhofe on anything, we are screwed.
as long as 'conservatives' believe in a vast conspiracy by climate scientists to keep their vast wealth and great power we are screwed.
as long as the tactics used to convince Americans that the science is not settled on the health risks of smoking are used to convince Americans that the science is not settled on anthropogenic climate change, by the same people in the same organizations, we are screwed.
as long as 'conservatives' tell us on the one hand that the government should play no part in shifting us from fossil fuels and on the other hand that there's nothing an individual can do without drastically damaging their standard of living, we are screwed.
as long as the American public will lynch any politician who dares suggest a substantial tax on gasoline we are screwed.
and, as other countries continue to take the lead in research and development of alternative energy technologies, our economy will continue to screw itself into the ground.
-
saw that movie
[Read the article: The cold truth about climate change]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"It's like that scene in "Flight of the Phoenix" where the other passengers, after thinking the "engineer" built real planes, well, it turns out he worked at a model plane factory!"
you may have forgotten; the plane flew.
"No. Computer models that are gamed to show that a miniscule amount of something can have some significance do. But no one, at any time, has shown this effect in nature."
yes, until we have a laboratory containing two identical planets where we can vary the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of one, there is no need to worry about climate change. nature will give us a time out until then, because it's just fair.
-
"Put on a sweater and tell me you didn't get warmer."
[Read the article: The cold truth about climate change]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ha! typical warmer chicken little rhetoric! Mars is also getting warmer! did mars put on a sweater? No! It must be the sun that made you warmer, not the sweater!
-
oh, there's plenty of ice
[Read the article: The cold truth about climate change]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"The sea level rises makes some climo people I know cringe; there simply isn't enough ice."
?
Antarctic ice cap: estimated at 62.5 million km3 (Spaulding & Markowitz, Heath Earth Science. Heath, 1994: 195.), 30 million km3 (World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, 1999: 532), 30.1098 million km3 (Williams, Richard S. Jr., & Jane G. Ferrigno. Estimated present-day area and volume of glaciers and maximum sea level rise potential. Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers of the World. US Geological Survey), 25 million km3 (Schultz, Gwen. Ice Age Lost. 1974. 232, 75), 29 million km3 (Erickson, Jon. "Glacial Geology."1996, 161). Minimum estimate of these, 25 million km3.
Greenland ice cap: estimated at 5.1 million km3 (Spaulding & Markowitz), 2.8 million km3 (World Book Encyclopedia), 2.6 million km3 (Williams and Ferrigno), 2.6 million km3(Schultz). Minimum estimate of these, 2.6 million km3.
Total = > 27 million km3 of ice.
Volume of water = 0.9 X volume of ice = > 24 million km3 of water
Surface area of water on earth = 36 million km2
24 / 36 = > 0.6 km depth of water = 2,200 feet.
I'd say there's more than enough to raise sea level 20 feet, even accounting for any large errors on my part. And I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in this estimate:
"Anderson also said that although the volume of ice locked up in Greenland is equal to roughly 23 feet in sea rise, only a small fraction is likely to be "pulled out" during the next century, most of it through outlet glaciers." (Glaciers and Ice Caps to Dominate Sea Level Rise Through 21st Century, NSF Press Release 07-083)
"Antarctica and Greenland, the world's largest ice sheets, make up the vast majority of the Earth's ice. If these ice sheets melted entirely, sea level would rise by more than 70 meters." (State of the Cryosphere, National Snow and Ice Data Center http://nsidc.org/sotc/sea_level.html)
"Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey estimate that If all of the ice sitting on land in Greenland and Antarctica melted it would cause global sea levels to rise by about 215 feet, or about 65 meters." (How much would sea level rise if polar ice melted? Jack Williams, USATODAY.com http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/2004-11-21-melting-polar-ice_x.htm)