Real Climate Science

Extreme weather means more terrifying hurricanes and tornadoes and fires than we usually see. But what can we expect such conditions to do to our daily life?

While doing research 12 or 13 years ago, I met Jim Hansen, the scientist who in 1988 predicted the greenhouse effect before Congress. I went over to the window with him and looked out on Broadway in New York City and said, “If what you’re saying about the greenhouse effect is true, is anything going to look different down there in 20 years?” He looked for a while and was quiet and didn’t say anything for a couple seconds. Then he said, “Well, there will be more traffic.” I, of course, didn’t think he heard the question right. Then he explained, “The West Side Highway [which runs along the Hudson River] will be under water. And there will be tape across the windows across the street because of high winds. And the same birds won’t be there. The trees in the median strip will change.” Then he said, “There will be more police cars.” Why? “Well, you know what happens to crime when the heat goes up.”

And so far, over the last 10 years, we’ve had 10 of the hottest years on record.

Didn’t he also say that restaurants would have signs in their windows that read, “Water by request only.”

Under the greenhouse effect, extreme weather increases. Depending on where you are in terms of the hydrological cycle, you get more of whatever you’re prone to get. New York can get droughts, the droughts can get more severe and you’ll have signs in restaurants saying “Water by request only.”

When did he say this will happen?

Within 20 or 30 years. And remember we had this conversation in 1988 or 1989.

Does he still believe these things?

Yes, he still believes everything. I talked to him a few months ago and he said he wouldn’t change anything that he said then.

Stormy weather – Salon.com

NASA published maps of the red hot Greenland ice sheet in July, and for the first time I can reveal close up imagery of what they were trying to show us.

summit:status:webcam

With temperatures below freezing north of 80N, we expect to see the fifteen foot thick ice along the Canadian coast melt like butter over the next few weeks.

arcticictn_nowcast_anim30d.gif (740×666)

175 MPH winds barreling towards Florida.

Hurricane Andrew – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NOAA is showing more ice than yesterday. Turquoise is gain, red is loss.

With a few days left to the melt season, the Arctic is doomed.

July 15, 2012 at 12:45 pm

It blows in the morning and it sucks in the afternoon.

Vestas to cut 1,400 more jobs as it reports quarterly pre-tax loss | Business | The Guardian

Last  21 days of July vs  first  21 of August. You wont  find a bigger turn around. Consequently AGW crowd has to run to the  4% of the globe that has gotten hot in parts of Europe. Why doesnt that surprise me

That being said,  the nations heartland will have a warm September before cold shots starting pushing into the pattern in October and November, with a dramatic turn possible again then.. but one with more staying power ( I am talking against averages)

You really can’t make this stuff up. Either Romm is an imbecile, or he thinks his readers are.

Perhaps the largest convention of climate science deniers in history — otherwise known as the 2012 Republican National Convention — starts Monday in Tampa, Florida. Unfortunately for the GOP, they are in the bull’s-eye of the latest track for tropical storm Isaac:

Two points on the global warming connection. First, the subject is inevitably going to come up if — as the anniversary of Katrina approaches — we have a hurricane bearing down on a party that in just four years has flipped from running on climate action to running away from climate science

If I remember correctly, the GOP lost the last election, and there have been no hurricanes in Florida since then.

Masters points out that in a worst-case scenario, the “Tampa Bay convention center would go under 20 feet of water, and St. Petersburg would become an island, as occurred during the 1848 hurricane”:

So they had a really bad hurricane in 1848, when CO2 was 280 PPM.

Of course, it’s not too late to avert the worst of climate change, but a certain obstructionist party would have to come to its senses and support preventive action now.

What is he trying to prevent? Hurricanes in Florida are half as frequent now as they were 160 years ago. Romm and his readers have the collective IQ of a turnip.

www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/ushurrlist18512009.txt

h/t to Marc Morano