Rising Seas & Solutions
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Transcript of Rising Seas & Solutions
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British Data Echoes U.S. Climate ReportBy REUTERS JAN. 26, 2015
--Last year tied with 2010 as the hottest on record, in a new sign of long-term global warming stoked by human activities, British researchers said, backing upAmerican scientists’ findings of record-breaking heat in 2014.
--With 2014, all of the 10 warmest years on record have been in this century.
RISING SEAS & SOLUTIONS
1. Sea levels rises are a Better Measure of Global Warming than Air Temperature.
2. The Greenhouse Effect Drives the Warming.
3. Advances in non-carbon emitting energy sources can reduce global warming
• Melting Greenland
• Melting Antarctica
• Mountain Glaciers
• 50% Thermal
Expansion
SEA LEVEL RISES ARE A BETTER MEASURE OF GLOBAL WARMING THAN AIR TEMPERATURE.
EARTH WILL CROSS DANGER TRESHOLD BY 2036M. Mann. Scientific American, vol 310, April 2014
Faux Pause
6
1880-1980: 0.3 C TEMP INCREASE
1980- 2012: 0.55 TEMPERATURE INCREASE
(Hansen, J., Ruedy, R., Sato, M., and Lo, K., 2010: Global surface temperature change, Rev. Geophys. 48, RG4004.)
LONG TERM CLIMATE AVERAGES REMOVETHE SHORT TERM WEATHER FLUCTUATIONS
IS THE “FAUX PAUSE” STATISTICALLY AND CLIMACTICALLY SIGNIFICANT?OUR PRESENT DECADE HAS BEEN THE WARMEST IN CENTRURIES
U.S. solar industry is creating new jobs at nearly 20 times the rate of the overall economy.
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The rate of sea level increase correlates with the blue line of the CO2 increase that drives Greenhouse warming.
Sea level rise is a proxy for global temperature, since it is due to thermal expansion (50%) and the melting of ice (50%)
SEA LEVEL RISE IS A BETTER MEASURE OF GLOBAL WARMINGTHAN TEMPERATURE
Oceanic heat sink.Evolution of the ocean heat content (OHC) at several depths of the global
ocean between 1980 and 2011.
A Clement, and P DiNezio Science 2014;343:976-978
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6174/976.full
Published by AAAS20
Most of the heat and temperature increase is 100 -700 meters below the surface
Blue: Sea level change from tide-gauge data (Church J.A. and White N.J., Geophys. Res. Lett. 2006; 33: L01602)
Red: Univ. Colorado sea level analyses in satellite era (http://www.columbia.edu/~mhs119/SeaLevel/).
Present Sea level rise rate is 4 times that of 1900. Why?
1 ft./100 years.
7.5 in./100 years
3 in. /100 years
GREENLAND IS MELTING: Reflecting snow replaced by absorbing water & land. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/06/viking-weather/essick-photography
Gravity Satellite Ice Sheet Mass Measurements
MELTING OF GREENLAND & ANTARCTICA IS RAISING SEA LEVELS FASTER
Greenland Ice Sheet Antarctic Ice Sheet
Source: Velicogna, I. Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L19503, doi:10.1029/2009GL040222, 2009
Greenland’s largest glacier is now flowing faster towards the sea 4 times faster than in the 1990s..
Since Sandy, 2012, Federal Coastal Flood Insurance is up 2X - 10X
Richard Alley, a glaciologist at Penn State University and an author of the last IPCC reportsaid, “It involves the physics of ice fracture that we really don’t understand. If the ThwaitesGlacier breaks free from its rocky berth, that would liberate enough ice to raise sea level by three meters—nearly ten feet. The odds are in our favor that it won’t put three meters in the ocean in the next century,” says Alley. “But we can’t absolutely guarantee that. There’s at least some chance that something very nasty will happen.”
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“Felt Surreal” says Jeff with his wife Tracy in their garden in Staines-upon-Thames.
“Drowning World”National GeographicFebruary 2015
INCREASED WEATHER EXTREMES
WET AREAS ARE GETTING WETTER
CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOW A BUSINESS STORYRISKY BUSINESS REPORT
RiskyBusiness.org is co-chaired by titans of American business and former government officials, including Michael Bloomberg, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer.
The Risky Business report talked relatively little about science and more about what this whole threat is going to cost us. With its emphasis on the economic impact of climate change, it broke down each region and endangered economic sectors to assess the looming damage. And with this shift in focus — from the physics of climate change to its financial consequences — came a subtle yet perhaps significant change in media coverage.
CORRELTAION BETWEEN TEMP AND CO2 INCREASE
1880 – 1980: CO2 increased 47 ppm.
1980 – 2010: CO2 increased 52 ppm.
Aerosols
27
CAUSES
2014 CO2 levels
of 400 ppm are
120 ppm above
the pre-
industrial
average
1875
• Carbon
isotope ratios
indicate the
CO2 increase
since1750 is
from burning
~300 million yr
old fossil
fuels.
1. HUMAN INFLUENCE ON WARMING
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Little Ice Age
Increasing CO2 gas density: 1. raises temperature of earth’s surface.
2. reduces temperature of the stratosphere.29
-Outgoing spectral radiance at the top of Earth's atmosphere showing the absorption at specific
frequencies and the principle absorber CO2 at 16 microns.
-The red curve shows the flux from a classic "blackbody" at
294°K (≈31°C≈69.5°F). Schmidt, G.A., 2010 J. Geophys. Res.,115, D20106, doi:10.1029/2010JD014287. 30
1750-2005: Even if
the cloud albedo
effect is assumed to
have the maximum
cooling value, there
would still be a net
warming of the
climate due to
human activities.(UN Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change,
IPCC, 2007Report)
Solar Irradiance
increased by only 0.2%
since 1750.
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Global Temperature Update Through 2012 by J. Hansen, M. Sato, R.
Ruedy
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/719139main_2012_GISTEMP_summary.p
Aerosol pollution from coal burning in Beijing
World Health Organization safe level: 25 mg/m3
Aerosol level in Beijing: 505 mg/m3
http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/news/10.1063/PT.5.4009?utm_source=Physics+Today&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=5229780_Physics+Today%3a+The+week+in+Physics+12-16+January&utm_content=$LINK_KEYWORD$&dm_i=1Y69,343BO,E1O2I6,B5VQT,1
Assessing the effects of anthropogenic aerosols on Pacific storm track using a multiscale global climate model.By Yuan Wanga, et al.
http://www.pnas.org/content/111/19/6894.abstract April 19, 2014
We demonstrate long-range transport of the Asian pollution, large resulting variations in the aerosol optical depth, cloud droplet number concentration, and cloud and ice water paths; enhanced shortwave and longwave cloud radiative forcings; and increased precipitation and poleward heat transport.
The overall increased precipitation frlm intensification of the Pacific storm track by anthropogenic aerosols.
• C02 CONCENTRATION IN THE INDUSTRIALIZED
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE IS GREATER THAN THE SOUTHERN.
• TEMP. INCREASE, SINCE 1880, OF NORTHERN = 1.1 deg. C
• TEMP. INCREASE OF SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE = 0.4 deg C
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2014/2/watching-earth-
HUMAN CO2 FOOTPRINTAtmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) Aboard NASA’s Aquilla Satellite.
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The EXPLODING POPULATION OF 7 B IS INFLUENCING
OUR CLIMATE BY BURNING FOSSIL FUELS THAT EMIT
GREENHOUSE GASES: CARBON DIOXIDE, CO2.
1. THE HUMAN INFLUENCE ON WARMING
Emissions of the greenhouse gas, CO2, are increasing at a
rate of 2.5 ppm per year.
2. CONTRAST THIS WITH SLOWER NATURAL PROCESSES
18K – 10K years ago, C02 increased at a rate 1/300th slower.
3. THE IMPACT OF CONTINUING CLIMATE CHANGE
Melting of the Arctic is increasing our winter climate extremes.
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During the steepest warming, the CO2 released (dots) from the sea preceded the global temperature rise (green line) by several centuries. CO2 RATE OF CHANGE is 1/300 of the PRESENT RISE.CO2 greenhouse effect drove the 3.5 C increase in average global temperature. Sea levels rose ~ 100 meters (~ 328 feet). Flood stories
4 M PEOPLE 7 B
Ice Age
Nature, 484, 49-54 (05 Apr 2012)
CHANGES IN THE EARTH’S TILT & ORBIT TRIGGERD THE ICE AGE WARMING
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At present rate
of 2.5 ppm
rise per year,
humans are
increasing
CO2 at a rate
300 times
faster than
the recovery
from the ice
age 18,000 -
10,000 years
ago.
CO2 CONCENTRATIONS, HIGHEST (33%) IN 800,000 YRS,
COULD REACH ~1000 PPM BY 21OO.
Ice Age
38
• Our present level of 400 ppm could reach ~ 1000 ppm by 2100.
• Arctic became ice-free 8 M years ago when CO2 = 300 to 450 ppm.
• Antarctic melted ~ 40 M years ago, CO2 ~ 700 ppm
-Earth was ice-free, sea levels 100s meters (~300 ft) higher.
Dinosaur Extinction 65M Yr. BP Figure from Dr. James Hansen, NASA GISS
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A darker Arctic is boosting global warmingFrom1979 to 2011, less reflecting ice, more absorbing water made
North Pole warm twice as fast as the rest of the earth. http://www.pnaorg/content/early/2014/02/13/1318201111.abstractProc. National Academy of Science, Feb 18, 2014.
ARCTIC MELTING IN THE LAST 32 YEARSSATELITE PHOTO
40
PAST COLD ARCTIC PRESENT WARMER ARCTIC
Higher pressure sub-tropic constrained the low-pressure arctic
Lower pressure difference allows waves of arctic air to invade the South: Warmer & Colder Winters.
Cold Air Oscillates South from the ArcticThe Arctic is warming faster than the rest of our earth.
Therefore the temperature and the accompanying pressure difference that used to keep arctic air up North comes South, bringing cold air to Atlanta & New Orleans.
The Winters of our Discontent Charles H. Green, Scientific American, pgs 51-55, Dec.2012
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TREADING WATER National Geographic Feb. 2015
Frank Behrens of Dutch Docklands, sees profit not loss in climate change.
In Miami, he is promoting a floating village with 20 private artificial islands, each with a sleek four bedroom villa, a sandy beach, a pool, palm trees and a dock large enough for a 80 ftyacht. The cost $12.5 million apiece.
Each island island would be anchored to the bottom with a telescoping tether, similar to those that enable floating oil rigs to ride out the toughest hurricanes.
http://www.dutchdocklands.com/Development/United-StatesThis Dutch Docklands home could be adapted to build floating
classrooms at Eckerd College that would avoid the ~10 foot hurricane flooding.
SOLUTIONS TO GOBAL
WARMING from CO2
Electric Cars powered by
• Windmills
• Solar Cells
• Nuclear Fission Power
Plants
Electric cars get the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon.
DECREASING COSTS
The cost of Solar PV electricity has come down to 7 cents per kWhrThe average cost of electricity in the US is 12 cents/ kWhr, 19 cents in NH
Topaz Turns On 9 Million Solar Panelshttp://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/topaz-turns-on-9-million-solar-panels
• New grid-scale solar plants now deliver at $0.072/ kWh to $0.086/kWh when subsidies are excluded.
• Efficient natural-gas-fired plants, costs $0.061/kWh to $0.127/kWh (with the higher end including the
cost of CO2 capture).
-160 kilometers NW of Los Angeles.
-550 Megawatts, Cadmium-Telluride thin- film panels made by First Solar.
-Warren Buffet financing
Windspire Vertical-Axis, Grid-Tied Wind Turbine
• Airfoils catch wind & spin the rotor
• Whisper quiet.
• Annual output 2,000+ kWh
• http://www.nelsonsmall.com/alternative_energy/windspire.asp
2012 Chevy Volt:
90 miles/gal running quietly on 40 mile battery
40 miles/gal highway with gasoline generator.
2015 NISSANLEAF®As low as:$27,700*Net value after federal tax credit
106City MPGal81 mi range.®
Mitusbishi i
STORMS OF MY GRANDCHILDREN:The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity (2010)By James Hansen
Legacy to our children and grandchildren.
The Coming Climate Crash:Lessons for Climate Change in the 2008 RecessionBy HENRY M. PAULSON Jr. Secretary of the Treasury under Pres. George W. Bush.Co-Author of www.RiskyBusiness.org JUNE 21, 2014http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/opinion/sunday/lessons-for-climate-change-in-the-2008-recession.html
“We’re staring down a climate bubble that poses enormous risks to both our environment and economy. The warning signs are clear and growing more urgent as the risks go unchecked.
A tax on carbon emissions will unleash a wave of innovation to develop technologies, lower the costs of clean energy and create jobs as we and other nations develop new energy products and infrastructure.
Climate change is the challenge of our time. We’ve seen and felt the costs of underestimating the financial bubble. Let’s not ignore the climate bubble.”