WASHINGTON (AFP) – The harmful effects of global warming are being felt “here and now and in your backyard,” a groundbreaking US government report on climate change has warned.
“Climate change is happening now, it is not something that will happen decades or centuries in the future,” Jerry Melillo of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, one of the lead authors of the report, told AFP.
Climate change, which the report blames largely on human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases, “is under way in the United States and projected to grow,” said the report by the US Global Change Research Program, a grouping of a dozen government agencies and the White House.
The report is the first on climate change since President Barack Obama took office and outlines in plain, non-scientific terms how global warming has resulted in an increase of extreme weather such as the powerful heatwave that swept Europe in 2003, claiming tens of thousands of lives.
Thanks BubbaRay.
The problem lies with making carbon a boogie man. Yes, everyone can agree we can all benefit from more efficiency and less pollution. But our society/industry produces actual factual poisons. This issue seems to take a backseat to the carbon caused climate change.
For example: Everyone is against coal because its a carbon releasing fossil fuel. Why aren’t we more concerned with the millions of gallons of heavy metal poisoned coal ash that every plant produces?
It seems like we have bigger fish to fry.
#60
Ideal should be defined as “What ever it takes to keep the water level on the beach 10 feet from my patio…+- 2feet (no more or less)”!
******
I’m all for government to decide what’s best for it’s citizens….they do such a good job in Toledo!
(from another post for those skipping around)
******
It’s sarcasm Tuesday
(for those with no sense of humor and can’t tell the difference)
# 33 Animal Mother said, on June 17th, 2009 at 7:15 am
Why are climate change alarmists also the most vehemently against nuclear power, the only energy source that could replace fossil fuels and emits zero greenhouse gases?
Solar, wind, and geothermal are all great for limited applications but only nuclear can produces the gigawatts needed to replace coal, oil, and natural gas. Yet, Al Gore and the rest won’t even mention it. Why is that?
—————–
1) Chernobyl
2) Three Mile Island
Oh, and this list for starters:
Major Nuclear Power Plant Accidents
December 12, 1952
A partial meltdown of a reactor’s uranium core at the Chalk River plant near Ottawa, Canada, resulted after the accidental removal of four control rods. Although millions of gallons of radioactive water poured into the reactor, there were no injuries.
October 1957
Fire destroyed the core of a plutonium-producing reactor at Britain’s Windscale nuclear complex – since renamed Sellafield – sending clouds of radioactivity into the atmosphere. An official report said the leaked radiation could have caused dozens of cancer deaths in the vicinity of Liverpool.
Winter 1957-’58
A serious accident occurred during the winter of 1957-58 near the town of Kyshtym in the Urals. A Russian scientist who first reported the disaster estimated that hundreds died from radiation sickness.
January 3, 1961
Three technicians died at a U.S. plant in Idaho Falls in an accident at an experimental reactor.
July 4, 1961
The captain and seven crew members died when radiation spread through the Soviet Union’s first nuclear-powered submarine. A pipe in the control system of one of the two reactors had ruptured.
October 5, 1966
The core of an experimental reactor near Detroit, Mich., melted partially when a sodium cooling system failed.
January 21, 1969
A coolant malfunction from an experimental underground reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, releases a large amount of radiation into a cave, which was then sealed.
December 7, 1975
At the Lubmin nuclear power complex on the Baltic coast in the former East Germany, a short-circuit caused by an electrician’s mistake started a fire. Some news reports said there was almost a meltdown of the reactor core.
March 28, 1979
Near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, America’s worst nuclear accident occurred. A partial meltdown of one of the reactors forced the evacuation of the residents after radioactive gas escaped into the atmosphere.
February 11, 1981
Eight workers are contaminated when more than 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant fluid leaks into the contaminant building of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Sequoyah 1 plant in Tennessee.
April 25, 1981
Officials said around 45 workers were exposed to radioactivity during repairs to a plant at Tsuruga, Japan.
April 26, 1986
The world’s worst nuclear accident occurred after an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It released radiation over much of Europe. Thirty-one people died iin the immediate aftermath of the explosion. Hundreds of thousands of residents were moved from the area and a similar number are belived to have suffered from the effects of radiation exposure.
March 24, 1992
At the Sosnovy Bor station near St. Petersburg, Russia, radioactive iodine escaped into the atmosphere. A loss of pressure in a reactor channel was the source of the accident.
November 1992
In France’s most serious nuclear accident, three workers were contaminated after entering a nuclear particle accelerator in Forbach without protective clothing. Executives were jailed in 1993 for failing to take proper safety measures.
November 1995
Japan’s Monju prototype fast-breeder nuclear reactor leaked two to three tons of sodium from the reactor’s secondary cooling system.
March 1997
The state-run Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation reprocessing plant at Tokaimura, Japan, contaminated at least 35 workers with minor radiation after a fire and explosion occurred.
September 30, 1999
Another accident at the uranium processing plant at Tokaimura, Japan, plant exposed fifty-five workers to radiation. More than 300,000 people living near the plant were ordered to stay indoors. Workers had been mixing uranium with nitric acid to make nuclear fuel, but had used too much uranium and set off the accidental uncontrolled reaction.
(source: http://www.atomicarchive.com/Reports/Japan/Accidents.shtml )
#65 r.i.
Accidents are scary to be sure but nuclear waste is scarier. Accidents can be avoided, nuclear waste cannot, it accumulates constantly and they’ve yet to devise an acceptable storage/disposal method.
#58 – MikeN,
#56, people should see what is happening.
Global warming alarmists see planetary temperatures dropping, and so they shift the focus to another issue that they can spread their message of doom. This time it is ocean acidification, and they really know very little about this subject beyond some modeling. Already they are engaged in putting out false studies on the subject.
This is not a shift. Global warming is real, human caused, and already having severe effects around the world.
Ocean acidification is due to the 525 billion tons (or 275 million full sized cars, if you prefer) of carbon dioxide we have already dumped in the ocean.
The effects are not modeled, but are instead actually observed in tests on sea creatures such as the pteropods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pteropod
I know you don’t want to believe that we are destroying the biosphere and will leave lifeless oceans and enormous deserts for your children and grandchildren, but that doesn’t make it false. It just means you are in denial.
61, So in a nutshell.
Post 37 I say: “What I do see is government at times being an instrument of force to create behavioral changes.”
Post 39 You say: “This is a situation where peoples choices may seriously effect other peoples lives. So in those situations some kind of resolution is ADVISABLE – and it generally involves the modification of some peoples behavior.”
Post 50 I say: “If you truly did not care how others lived, you wouldn’t be saying behavior modification through government legislation is needed whatsoever…. but truth be told, how others lives does seem to bother you.”
Post 61 You say: “In such situations some kind of resolution is advisable, as I said previously. I didn’t say what it was, or how that would be achieved.
I didn’t say anything about government legislation. Although that’s one way of attempting to achieve behavioral change.”
I guess my misunderstanding is that I thought what you said in post 39 is with respect to my post on 37.
But in either case. You believe somehow that consumerism / captialism is somehow comparable to murderers in terms of what’s needed in government forced behavioral changes. Got it. I don’t agree with it. But to each their own.
Sea Lawyer is correct. This planet needs fewer humans.
There will be far fewer humans when the ecosystem cannot support them. Maybe, just maybe, when the human ‘virus’ is removed from this planet, the next species to inherit the dominance on this orb will use its resources more wisely.
#57, Guyver,
So where in that pdf are all the scientists screaming about global cooling?
BTW, so many people like to quote this article. That shows how disparate they are. Dr. James McQuigg, the most oft quoted, is an economist, not a climatologist.
“But in either case. You believe somehow that consumerism / captialism is somehow comparable to murderers in terms of what’s needed in government forced behavioral changes. Got it. I don’t agree with it. But to each their own.”
No. No. No. No. No. Just no.
Go read the post again.
I never claimed or implied anything of the sort.
Moreover – being more efficient will enable us to compete globally, and enable people to improve their quality of life. Both of which are positive for capitalism/consumerism.
So no you don’t ‘get it’, not by a long long shot.
RE #70, geeze I hate it when I do that.
Last paragraph, that should be desperate
instead of the obvious error. this is what it should say,:
BTW, so many people like to quote this article. That shows how desperate they are. Dr. James McQuigg, the most oft quoted, is an economist, not a climatologist.
So, when do we see a rise in sea level. Where I’m at the level hasn’t changed in at least 40 years.
#73 – Patdick,
Check Tuvalu.
http://tinyurl.com/dfradu
#73 – PatDick,
If you have the patience, though I doubt you do, about 3:30 into the vid above, you’ll notice that they have already lost some islands.
#75 Interesting to see local only sea level rise. Hasn’t happened at my fav spot on CA coast. I wonder why?
I fully support Global Warming.
I contribute whenever I can.
The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam
http://kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/38574742.html
Back in the 1960s, this global warming research came to the attention of a Canadian born United Nation’s bureaucrat named Maurice Strong. He was looking for issues he could use to fulfill his dream of one-world government. Strong organized a World Earth Day event in Stockholm, Sweden in 1970. From this he developed a committee of scientists, environmentalists and political operatives from the UN to continue a series of meetings.
Strong developed the concept that the UN could demand payments from the advanced nations for the climatic damage from their burning of fossil fuels to benefit the underdeveloped nations—a sort of CO2 tax that would be the funding for his one-world government. But he needed more scientific evidence to support his primary thesis. So Strong championed the establishment of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC). This was not a pure, “climate study” scientific organization, as we have been led to believe. It was an organization of one-world government UN bureaucrats, environmental activists and environmentalist scientists who craved UN funding so they could produce the science they needed to stop the burning of fossil fuels.
Global Warming: It is a hoax. It is bad science. It is high-jacking public policy. It is the greatest scam in history.
I’m not a climatologist, I’m more of an economist. But I always get suspicious when scientists attempt to solve a scientific problem with economics.
For example, it never occurs to me to put treasuries through an MRI machine when I see economic imbalances, and I’m dubious when climatologists suggest the best solution for climate change is mostly creating a closed economic market system. And then I get even more nervous when I see advocates for this system defend it as though it were a religion.
Anyway a good book by a moderate voice on this is:
Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines, and I would suggest anyone that still has somewhat of an open mind (sadly few Democrats fit this profile) would do well to check this from the local library.
Still waiting for a report from anywhere in the world that sea levels are rising…..
No global warming here in northeast IL, 2 bad winters in a row (30 year cycle just like it was in the 1970’s) and now the coldest June in history with temps 6.8 degrees below normal at O’Hare Airport. Tell Al Gore to move up here and then see how long he lasts with a nice Chicago winter.
It was hot here today. Send my $100 and I’ll plant a tree for you nut bags.
http://tinyurl.com/eleout
This chart from page 58 of the report is another example of people just making stuff up to feed their preferred storyline.
http://climate-skeptic.com/ has more.
I go with #5. Climate is like weather. It is changing and it has always been changing and any one that says that “The climate is changing” like that is news isn’t very well informed.
I’m not sure what the US could do by itself about that fact that would be worth the cost of admission.
What piece of science will we politicize next? How about the inherent bias in quark-gluon color interactions!
STRONG FORCE UNFAIR! STRONG FORCE UNFAIR! STRONG FORCE UNFAIR!
– – – – –
# 46 Guyver said, in part:
“You better have less children so as to lower your personal impact on this planet.”
Done. Your turn.
Global warming or not, our children will inherit a (even more) disgusting mess if we keep polluting the seas and atmosphere at the current rate.
Many of you seem to have difficulty dealing with this fact and have hitched your horses to the pro-pollution anti-environment bandwagon on purely because you perceive it as a liberal tax-scam conspiracy. How convenient. Now you can just pollute as much as you like and stick it up the liberal commie fascist whatevers! And all in the name of freedom! Woohoo!
Time to grow up and treat this seriously. The global warming issue may or may not be being manipulated by those who seek to profit by it, but you cant keep poisoning the planet and expect no repercussions.
We all need to deal with the pollution we create in a responsible and mature manner. Every little bit helps.
Please, wont you think of the children. 😛
#76 – PatDick,
#75 Interesting to see local only sea level rise. Hasn’t happened at my fav spot on CA coast. I wonder why?
For those who are not morans and know that water does not have hills and valleys, it would be obvious that the Tuvalu coasts are not as steep and rocky as the CA coasts of which you speak.
Clearly, rising sea levels is first felt where the land is lowest. It is also felt first during storm tides, like Katrina. Was the hurricane the result of warming? That’s impossible to say. Was the level of damage made worse by global warming? Almost certainly yes.
Many are already calling those made homeless by Katrina the first climate refugees in the U.S.
http://tinyurl.com/le6yvy
#79 – smittybc,
I’m not a climatologist, I’m more of an economist. But I always get suspicious when scientists attempt to solve a scientific problem with economics.
Obviously then, you’d like to go back to our previously high levels of sulfur dioxide, which was solved using economics.
http://tinyurl.com/ksaa6x
#85 – Uncle Patso,
Hilarious!! Let’s also take on relativity. I find it unfair that a beam of light can travel faster than I ever will.
Regarding fewer children, done here too. It won’t be my kids complaining about the world we leave them. My kids are simply bumping up against the tied and cauterized dead ends of my disconnected vasa deferentia screaming “let me out!!”
Sorry kids … really … it’s better this way.
And then there’s global magnetism, why hasn’t anyone mentioned the effects of this? Scientists have proven that the earth’s magnetic field is changing thus affecting climate. Anyone have a guess at how global warming wackos will take a shot at how to fix that? One way the scientists have discussed is to create the world’s biggest nuclear plant, and insert rods along with the waste into the earth core, giving it a polar charge to replace what has dissipated over billions of years. It would also provide enough energy for generations to come. Imagine that, nuclear power as a way to save the planet…how are the pea brain global warming idiots going to handle that idea?
# 87 Misanthropic Scott said, “Clearly, rising sea levels is first felt where the land is lowest.”
Umm, land is the lowest where it meets the sea. How steep the coastline is not relevant. It has not risen here. High tide isn’t any higher. Sea level remains the same in CA. How do you explain that if you say that the sea level has risen?
The report about how the world is burning up was written in the spring and scheduled for June 1 release.
Had to be delayed a week cause, ya know, it SNOWED!