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Showing posts from August, 2018

Biggest Hits on my Global Warming Blog

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My Prophecy is Coming True The Arctic Will Never Be Frozen Again Four Degrees Celsius Would Be Catastrophic Trump Is An Environmental Catastrophe Current Global Warming Basics New Results From Satellite Data On Global Warming Hot Oceans Goodbye Miami, Goodbye New Orleans Republicans Are Sabotaging The International Climate Negotiations Yes, Global Temperatures Are Currently Rising

Sinking Property Values As Sea Level Rises

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I've broached the topic of sea levels many times .  This is because I believe the rising sea level is going to get the most attention as our biosphere warms. The first indication will be what happens to ocean front property values.  It will be like being in a pot of cool water being brought to a boil, i t's hard to tell how bad it's getting . By comparing properties that are virtually the same but for their exposure to the seas, researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Pennsylvania State University found that vulnerable homes sold for 6.6 percent less than unexposed homes. The most vulnerable properties — those that stand to be flooded after seas rise by just one foot ­— were selling at a 14.7 percent discount, according to the study , which is set to be published in the Journal of Financial Economics.  The temperature is slowing increasing, and Charleston, South Carolina is starting to feel it . Elizabeth Boineau’s 1939 Colonial sits a block and a half

Arctic Sea Ice

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I've posted about the Arctic sea ice numerous times, here, and here , for example.  One important reason I go back to that is because of the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ), at which time the planet, and the Arctic , underwent a similar experience to what we are now experiencing, at a time where greenhouse gases poured into the atmosphere and the oceans acidified producing the largest loss of sea life in our planet's history.  We are pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at a rate that is ten times what happened at the PETM.  An indication of what is going on is the break up of part of the Arctic sea ice that wasn't expected to do so this soon. The Arctic sea ice now appears to be at a tipping point . The oldest and thickest sea ice in the Arctic has started to break up, opening waters north of Greenland that are normally frozen, even in summer.  This phenomenon – which has never been recorded before – has occurred twice this year due to warm

Hothouse Earth

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I've posted before about feedback , global warming causing feedbacks that make it worse.  Also if the feedback causes global temperatures to exceed 2 degrees Celsius , that it would be catastrophic.  Some researchers now have research to support that. Researchers believe we could soon cross a threshold leading to boiling hot temperatures and towering seas in the centuries to come.  Even if countries succeed in meeting their CO2 targets, we could still lurch on to this "irreversible pathway". Their study shows it could happen if global temperatures rise by 2C. Flooding and coastal erosion may be a major problem in a warmer world  "We are the ones in control right now, but once we go past 2 degrees, we see that the Earth system tips over from being a friend to a foe. We totally hand over our fate to an Earth system that starts rolling out of equilibrium." Each year the Earth's forests, oceans and land soak up about 4.5 billion tonnes of carbo

More on Sea Levels

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I've posted many times about sea levels .  Extreme weather is happening now but it will be sea levels rising that will convince people, and it right now, some serious problems are going to happen now even if we start now to do something about it.  Michael Segal interviewed climate scientist Ben Strauss : It is that power of the local that Ben Strauss wants to capture. He is CEO of the non-profit organization Climate Central, which has produced a remarkable collection of flood maps that have captivated me ever since I came across them shortly after Sandy. They let you dial in some amount of sea level or global temperature rise, and then view the effect on most any city in the world. We are unavoidably headed for a 1.5C temperature and Ben Strauss describes what will be happening: At 1.5 degrees of global temperature rise, which Strauss figures is all but inevitable, downtown Jersey City is a five-block-square island in the middle of a sea. New York City is mostly OK, but