Climate change could mean the extinction of our species

[Stavros]

The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey continues to spread across Texas and Louisiana, and while it is too early to assess the long-term damage and costs, it will be no surprise to some that courtiers to the King have got their dismissal of climate change in before the real scientists have even begun to offer definitive conclusions, for example

researchers are also increasingly certain that the warming of the atmosphere and oceans is likely to fuel longer or more destructive hurricanes. A draft of the upcoming national climate assessment states there is “high confidence” that there will be an increase in the intensity and precipitation rates of hurricanes and typhoons in the Atlantic and Pacific as temperatures rise further.

Contrast this rational view with something Thomas Pyle (he led the President's energy team in the transition):
“It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that the left is exploiting Hurricane Harvey to try and advance their political agenda, but it won’t work
(the left? nobody else?)

Or the Heartland Institute:
“In the bizarro world of the climate change cultists ... Harvey will be creatively spun to ‘prove’ there are dire effects linked to man-created climate change, a theory that is not proven by the available science,” said Bette Grande, a Heartland research fellow and a Republican who served in the North Dakota state legislature until 2014.

“Facts do not get in the way of climate change alarmism, and we will continue to fight for the truth in the months and years to come.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...s-donald-trump

The key point is that extreme weather events either may not happen often, or happen more often, but in both cases as the concept suggests, the impact is greater, in terms of damage, the rising levels of water, the challenge it poses to flood defences and other aspects of the environmental infrastructure. To deal with this it is not just a matter of throwing money at Texas ad Louisiana after the event (will Louisiana get as much as Texas?), but improving flood defences not dismantling them -for two days before the Hurricane landed, the President, in another act of Revenge Against Obama, scrapped the rule
that sought to flood-proof new federal infrastructure projects by demanding they incorporate the latest climate change science
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...s-donald-trump

I guess there is a simple choice: the courtiers to the King, or science. One group dismisses science as mostly bullshit and dismantles safeguards because the man who authorised them is Black and anyway, America can afford to pay the repair bills. The other argues that precautionary measures save lives and reduce costs. One would think a man experienced in business would know which of the options makes sense. But we live in unusual times, and swimming with sharks has always been risky, and not just in waterlogged Houston.

[sukumvit boy]

Excellent article on what we can learn from the Dutch approach to dealing with floods and climate change.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...m.html?mcubz=1
Funny comment I heard today on National Public Radio was that the Dutch model would never work in the US because "the Netherlands was a Socialist Democracy and the Dutch a rational people " as opposed to Americans , LOL.
Another factor is that The Netherlands is such a small country that floods affect everyone as opposed to the USA which is so spread out and divided.

[sukumvit boy]

Perhaps unnoticed by most people and the news media polymath genius Nathan Myhrvold has teamed up with Bill Gates on a plan for a safer nuclear ,self contained and sealed power plant based on using the "mountain" of low grade nuclear waste that we have accumulated so far which could "power the planet for 750 years".


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerraPower

[sukumvit boy]

Here's the rest of the Bill gates TED Talk above.

[Stavros]

We have known for many years now that when earthquakes, hurricanes and extreme weather events destroy buildings and homes, it is most often due to their poor construction, and it is mostly poor people who live in and use them. The Caribbean islands badly affected by the recent storms are a case in point, just as the lack of even more destruction in Florida may be due to the superior quality of the buildings there.

But what climate change and extreme weather events do is ask a different question -should coastal areas and some inland areas of Florida be inhabited by humans? Florida has a particularly fragile geology, the result of millions of years of change which have seen it wrenched from the land masses of Pangea and Gondwanaland to end up stuck on the end of the continental US like a tail that doesn't wag so much as sag. There are minerals, and fertile soils but while geologists define the state as stable a lot of the underlying rock is limestone and clay which results in more sinkholes than any other State, plus subsidence, and a coast line that has risen and fallen over thousands of years. Just as New Orleans begs the question -should there be an urban settlement in this part of the US? So too it may be time to either engage in coastal defences that inhibit tsunami style inflows of seawater, or concede defeat and stop building homes with a sea view, not least because one day the sea might be in your bedroom. There may also come a time when the abundance of water in Florida and Louisiana may need to be shared with those states, like California, where there is a shortage of it, but that all assumes long term planning and an appreciation of the science of climate change that is lacking in the current US administration. There may not be another major hurricane in the next five years, but in year six a hurricane and storm longer and more powerful than what came before. One hopes in the meantime sound minds will address the longer term impact of climate change and human geography or lives will be put at risk.

https://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/land/land.htm

[sukumvit boy]

I grew up in South Florida in the 50's and 60's . With regard to the Florida Building Code
(known by residents as "the FBC ") I can tell you first hand that they made a tremendous difference . My family owned a home and a business and we never feared the kind of catastrophic wind and rain damage seen from hurricanes and even tornados in other areas of the United States. Trailer homes are , for some reason , exempt .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Building_Code
I lived in New Orleans for a few years and would just scratch my head in amazement and think "if there is ever a real hurricane here it's going to be a disaster".
This was before Katrina

[Stavros]

I think the long term concern is that climate change without a deep cut in carbon emissions that will themselves take a decade or more to take effect, will produce more extreme weather events, and that low-lying coastal areas are particularly vulnerable. Florida and the Caribbean islands are thus more likely to face challenges than others, so that even a robust building cluster may not be able to hold back winds if they are 180-200mph in strength and the volumes of water they bring with them. But what their breaking point might be I don't know. However, I suspect that people are drawn to sunny climates and sea views and that unless there is a cultural change then human populations will put themselves at risk. Deep cuts to carbon emissions, a transition away from the use of fossil fuels, reformed resource management, a stabilization of population growth -all these will be part of the mix in positive terms, but they do need committed policy makers who understand the science as well as the politics. In spite of the current phase the US is going through, I think the US has more committed people to change than is found in many other countries, so all is not yet lost, though the next few years do not look good. Maybe if it is really just about headlines and tweets change on that basis is possible, given that the President doesn't understand anything much other than headlines and apparently can now be swayed to abandon previously held positions, which, it seems, are more fragile than the Florida coast.

[sukumvit boy]

Fortunately wind and solar power as well as other innovations such as carbon sequestration and electric vehicles are coming on line much faster than anyone expected 10 or even 5 years ago ,as described in some detail in the first half of the Bill Gates TED talk in post #1303 above .
However, until we begin reducing greenhouse gasses climate change will continue , which means more frequent and more severe weather events.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?427029-2/drawdown

[Ts RedVeX]

I guess nobody expected that commies would be supporting implementation of all the inefficient "green" technologies...

Oh and what makes you think that it is humans that are responsible for global warming? The same commies telling you so on mass media and facebook?

[filghy2]

Yeah, those commies are such fanatical greenies http://thefederalist.com/2014/01/13/...e-environment/