Real Climate Science

NASA was created in 1958, after the Soviets launched the world’s first satellite. The idea was to make the US #1 in space and aeronautical science, and keep the US from falling further behind the Russians.

You may note that there is no clause about saving the world from global warming, adjusting past temperature data, or improving relations with the Islamic world.

(c) The aeronautical and space activities of the United States shall be conducted so as to contribute materially to one or more of the following objectives:

(1) The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space;

(2) The improvement of the usefulness, performance, speed, safety, and efficiency of aeronautical and space vehicles;

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WHAT DO CLIMATE SCIENTISTS SAY?

Most climate scientists point to increasing evidence that climate change is affecting life on Earth. The 10 key planet-wide indicators of a warming climate as identified in July by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are:

— higher sea surface temperatures

Global sea surface temperatures are below average.

— higher sea levels

Yep, sea level has been getting higher for 15,000 years.

— less sea ice

Total sea ice area has scarcely changed

— less snow cover

2010 had the largest North American winter snow cover on record.

If you have to make up information to get your point across, your point is worthless.

As a result of recent calculations that take the changes into account, many scientists now say that sea level is likely to rise perhaps three feet by 2100 — an increase that, should it come to pass, would pose a threat to coastal regions the world over.

And the calculations suggest that the rise could conceivably exceed six feet, which would put thousands of square miles of the American coastline under water and would probably displace tens of millions of people in Asia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/science/earth/14ice.html

Sea level was 7 mm (one third of an inch) lower at the end of 2000 than the most recent measurement. At that rate, it will take over 2,000 years for sea level to rise six feet.

Which again begs the question – what on earth are these people smoking?

11am ET / 4pm GMT: Happy news! Not long to go before the debut of what will certainly be the television event of the year, the inevitable (and, frankly, surprisingly long time coming) Sarah Palin reality TV show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska.

How many new words will this modern day Shakespeare coin over the course of this eight-part series? How many times will she wink and hint that she may or may not run for president in 2012? And most of all, will we finally get to see whether one can indeed see Russia from her house?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/nov/14/sarah-palin-alaska-reality-tv

The Russia link points to a Tina Fey video.

For the so-called ‘alarmists’ , pointing out what’s wrong with drastic carbon cuts is somehow tantamount to denying the reality of climate change, while so-called ‘deniers’ lambast anyone who accepts the scientific evidence supporting this ‘mythical’ problem.

Nevertheless, there are encouraging signs that the minority of sensible voices in this debate is beginning to get the attention it deserves.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

He must have a movie out or something.

Environ. Res. Lett. 2 (April-June 2007) 024002
doi:10.1088/1748-9326/2/2/024002

Scientific reticence and sea level rise

J E Hansen

NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA

Email: [email protected]

Under BAU forcing in the 21st century, the sea level rise surely will be dominated by a third term: (3) ice sheet disintegration. This third term was small until the past few years, but it is has at least doubled in the past decade and is now close to 1 mm/year, based on the gravity satellite measurements discussed above. As a quantitative example, let us say that the ice sheet contribution is 1 cm for the decade 2005–15 and that it doubles each decade until the West Antarctic ice sheet is largely depleted. That time constant yields a sea level rise of the order of 5 m this century. Of course I cannot prove that my choice of a ten-year doubling time for nonlinear response is accurate, but I am confident that it provides a far better estimate than a linear response for the ice sheet component of sea level rise under BAU forcing.

http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/2/2/024002/fulltext

the latest science says we are facing 3 to 6 feet of sea level rise this century.

Over the last five years, sea level is rising at 2 mm/year according to University of Colorado numbers. That would require 1000 years to reach two metres.