Superstorms
It is an odd and chilling feeling to see Hurricane Sandy called a superstorm. It's going to go down in history as Superstorm Sandy.
I didn't coin the word 'superstorm' but the book I wrote with Art Bell, the Coming Global Superstorm, certainly brought it into the language. And the movie based on it, the Day After Tomorrow, fixed the idea of such storms in the public imagination.
Sadly, my work also added fuel to the false debate about global warming that was being generated by powerful moneyed interests such as the Koch Brothers, big coal and big oil, and put before the public by Rupert Murdoch's propaganda machine and Rush Limbaugh.
They weren't interested in winning the debate. The debate itself was the delaying tactic that they sought, and in that sense, they won the battle.
We have indeed delayed doing anything serious about global warming until this late hour.
While I can and do blame the responsible parties for creating this fake debate, what concerns me more is that the most serious effects of the delay that it caused have yet to be felt. To be specific, there are billions of gigatons of 'frozen' methane on the sea floor of the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. Changes in the Atlantic currents caused by a warming of the water have drawn the Gulf Stream northward. At some point, these waters are going to get too warm for the methane hydrates to remain frozen, and they are going to release, with dire climactic consequences.
They melt back into methane gas at 47 degrees Fahrenheit. It is only a matter of time before the temperature of the water in contact with them exceeds that level.
When it happens, massive amounts of methane will enter the atmosphere. This gas is a far more efficient heat trapper than carbon dioxide, and it will cause dramatic temperature spikes and a climactic upheaval that is likely to be extremely damaging.
Compared to what will happen then, Superstorm Sandy was just a baby. Because we allowed the false debate to go on too long, even if we dropped our carbon dioxide release to zero, it is now too late.
There is more, and worse, to come. And the false debate will not end. Even as the upheaval overtakes us, it will continue. Unlike the methane, we will remain frozen.
I didn't coin the word 'superstorm' but the book I wrote with Art Bell, the Coming Global Superstorm, certainly brought it into the language. And the movie based on it, the Day After Tomorrow, fixed the idea of such storms in the public imagination.
Sadly, my work also added fuel to the false debate about global warming that was being generated by powerful moneyed interests such as the Koch Brothers, big coal and big oil, and put before the public by Rupert Murdoch's propaganda machine and Rush Limbaugh.
They weren't interested in winning the debate. The debate itself was the delaying tactic that they sought, and in that sense, they won the battle.
We have indeed delayed doing anything serious about global warming until this late hour.
While I can and do blame the responsible parties for creating this fake debate, what concerns me more is that the most serious effects of the delay that it caused have yet to be felt. To be specific, there are billions of gigatons of 'frozen' methane on the sea floor of the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. Changes in the Atlantic currents caused by a warming of the water have drawn the Gulf Stream northward. At some point, these waters are going to get too warm for the methane hydrates to remain frozen, and they are going to release, with dire climactic consequences.
They melt back into methane gas at 47 degrees Fahrenheit. It is only a matter of time before the temperature of the water in contact with them exceeds that level.
When it happens, massive amounts of methane will enter the atmosphere. This gas is a far more efficient heat trapper than carbon dioxide, and it will cause dramatic temperature spikes and a climactic upheaval that is likely to be extremely damaging.
Compared to what will happen then, Superstorm Sandy was just a baby. Because we allowed the false debate to go on too long, even if we dropped our carbon dioxide release to zero, it is now too late.
There is more, and worse, to come. And the false debate will not end. Even as the upheaval overtakes us, it will continue. Unlike the methane, we will remain frozen.
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message 1:
by
Cats
(new)
Nov 17, 2012 03:19PM
Scientists have known and have seen the truth for decades. When it all really begins to tilt, it will be too late. We can do what we can until then and pray.
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Twenty years ago or so when I was in grad school, one of my professors said that there was not a climate change coming rather this was just a normal part of the fluctuations of the weather and nothing to be particularly worried about. Ice ages and tropical weather throughout the earth are just normal and will come and go on their own time with no help from us. I wonder if he still thinks the same now?
We vacationed in Door county in Wisconsin in the early 80's. there was talk of boat docks that were covered by water there. They said it was the glaciers melting. People were having to rearrange their lives then.
