From Here & Back Again
By Jim Coufal
(Cazenovia NY – April 2013
) In a recent Post-Standard letter, the author implied claims that climate change is occurring are exaggerated. He offered the anecdote that he counted 42 deer, nine turkeys and two pheasants in six miles of driving as proof that this is so.
That is like my saying since I live along a well-traveled road and have observed it for 30 years seeing no accidents, there must be no automobile accidents.
The letter also disparages scientists’ love of measurement and data.
Let’s look at some of those damnable measurements and data and stack them up against the anecdote.
There are many additional reputable sources, I’ll basically cite two, NASA and NOAA. NASA reports – based on scientific studies, of all things – that that CO has gone up in parts per million from about 290 in 1950 to more than 390 today.
NOAA found the global surface temperature has risen about 1.4 degrees since the early 20th century.
Relative to the 1979 to 2000 average, NASA reports the Artic Sea ice is declining about 11.5 percent per decade while Antarctica is losing about 24 cubic miles of ice per year, and Greenland ice is receding at about the same pace. Both report the average sea level rising at about 1.7 mm per year, with the rate of rise increasing more recently.
Both also report glacier ice declining sharply.
NOAA also provided dreaded data to indicate that the number of U.S. climate extremes has been rising over the last four decades.
Some will say any change is due to natural fluctuations, as if that means the change is not important, even if true. A reading of the literature confirms what NOAA concluded that, “A large body of evidence supports the conclusion that human activity is the primary driver of recent warming.”
Regarding the PS letter comments on Mt. Kilimanjaro still having a snow cap, Ohio State University researchers have found that 85 percent of the ice cap present in 1812 was gone by 1907, with 25 percent of ice present in 2000 gone by 2007. In our own Glacier National Park, there were about 150 glaciers in 1850, and they were persisting in 1910.
In 2010, researchers found only about 25 glaciers of 25 acres or larger left in the Park.
Some critics of a “climate-change conspiracy” hold that there is no sea level change to worry about. Tell that to the former inhabitants of the Pacific Island of Kirabati that disappeared in 1998 or those of Vanuatic, who are being evacuated as a precaution.
The Alaska village of Shismaref has made television news recently because it is being prepared to move as the sea level rises. It is 20 miles south of the Artic Circle. Newtok, 370 miles south of Shismaref, is also preparing for such a move because of melting permafrost.
At least 12 Alaskan villages are in the works for moving, at an estimated cost of $200- to $300 million per village.
A German report indicates that a one-meter rise in the ocean level will inundate 21 percent of Bangladesh with saltwater. Poor countries, like Bangladesh, are expected to suffer the most from climatic changes, which will impact crop yields, transportation, communication, health, water, sanitation and increasing numbers of extreme events, all costly to minimize and overcome.
The University College London Institute for Global Health says the poor will suffer “adaptation apartheid.”
Other studies by such groups as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations Environmental Program, the World Meteorological Organization and even the International Court of Justice believe the uneven impact of global climate change calls for a human rights approach, based on sound scientific information.
Many factors play into how climate change will affect any location on earth, and they will be variable. Some places may actually see cooling. There is a song about “my little corner of the world.”
We can’t wait until global climate change finally impacts our little corner of the world while others elsewhere suffer.
Like the saying about the Jews in World War II, someday it will come to our corner, and there may be nobody left to speak for us.
Ain’t it awful when scientific measurements and data don’t agree with your desires?
Jim Coufal of Cazenovia is a part-time philosopher and full-time observer of global trends. He can be reached at madnews@m3pmedia.com.
“Tell that to the former inhabitants of the Pacific Island of Kirabati that disappeared in 1998”
That will be news to the reporters that flew there on Thursday, to attend the Public Hearing on Climate Change organised by the Kiribati government.
Your post is absolutely full of errors and guesses.
Kiribati is a coral atoll, that grows out of a sinking Seamount volcano. All of the similar class of coral atolls on seamounts are low laying and they only exist because the seamount is sinking. You are ignorant.
AntMac,
When was the last time you were on Kiribati? I was on the islands about a year ago, so I am betting I am not ignorant and have a better grasp on the South Pacific than you.
While a mistake was made (and if you take the time to go to NOAA or the Australian Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science you will find Mr. Coufal is not “ignorant” and in fact took facts from these peer-revied and globally respected scientific groups.
But I will also throw out a challenge to you, a rust belt dwelling and angry little man, to meet me face to face and try and call me ignorant. No, I have a PhD in meteorology and glaciology and can tell you exactly what you are, even face to face – you are an ignorant little hick who knows nothing but cheap beer, guns and wrasslin’. But again, challenge issued. Meet me face to face and try calling ME ignorant.
I’ve been known to make mistakes before, and if I blew it on Kiribati I’ll apologize. I’ll also check further.
The “errors and guesses” I wrote about largely came from NASA and NOAH data, or other identified sources, as I said in the article. You had better contact them to tell them of their errors. In the meantime, offer some evidence instead of just making assertions.
AntMac: In one of those interesting coincidences in life, your assertion, “You are ignorant,” came as I was pondering another piece to be called “Stupid.” It has to do with how easy it is to call people stupid, especially when done in writing, at a distance, and anonymously.,which is easily seen as cowardly. “Stupid” and “ignorant” are not the same, but they are both pejorative.
I invite you to meet me over a cup of coffee (my treat) where you can call me ignorant face-to-face and provide evidence that this is true. You have nothing to worry about; I’m 75, debilitated, and overweight, plus, according to you, I’m ignorant.