GOP lawmaker says rocks falling into ocean to blame for rising sea levels

A Republican lawmaker on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee said Thursday that rocks from the White Cliffs of Dover and the California coastline, as well as silt from rivers tumbling into the ocean, are contributing to high sea levels globally.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) made the comment during a hearing on technology and the changing climate, which largely turned into a Q&A on the basics of climate research.

Climate scientist Philip Duffy testified before the panel, addressing lawmakers’ questions about climate change, according to E&E News. “The rate of global sea-level rise has accelerated and is now four times faster than it was 100 years ago,” Duffy told the panel.

Brooks said that erosion played a factor in that.

“Every time you have that soil or rock or whatever it is that is deposited into the seas, that forces the sea levels to rise, because now you have less space in those oceans, because the bottom is moving up,” Brooks said at the hearing.

“I’m pretty sure that on human time scales, those are minuscule effects,” responded Duffy, president of the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts and a former senior adviser to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, responded.

It’s gotten to the point where I have a hard time paying attention to what politicians are saying and doing these days.

Rocks and erosion made the sea level go up? Really? That’s logic a child would use and not someone on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

#climatechange #politics

Florida Will Be Underwater Soon but Republicans Won’t Do Anything About It

If you think concerns about climate change are overblown, or if you have it in your head that global warming is still an abstract concept, go down to Florida. “In the past century, the sea has risen 9 inches in Key West. In the past 23 years, it’s risen 3 inches. By 2060, it’s predicted to rise another 2 feet, with no sign of slowing down,” reports an editorial that ran in South Florida’s major newspapers Friday. It’s the kind of climate warning that terrifies the reader just by listing facts:

It’s not just a matter of how much land we’re going to lose, though the barrier islands and low-lying communities will be largely uninhabitable once the ocean rises by 3 feet. It’s a matter of what can be saved. And elsewhere, how we’re going to manage the retreat.

The editorial is part of a package called the Invading Sea that is a collaboration between the Miami Herald, the Palm Beach Post, and the Sun-Sentinel, with reporting help from public radio station WLRN. All of those outlets—and many more—have been banging on the climate change drum for years, but the collaboration represents a new level of urgency.

The problem isn’t just that the sea is rising, which could result in falling home prices, health problems for residents, and eventually daily flooded streets in Miami. The problem is that while some coastal counties and businesses are taking sea rise seriously, Republican ideologues at the top of the state and federal governments are ignoring it. Florida governor Rick Scott made some vague noises about thinking about climate change after 2017’s Hurricane Irma, but he’s still the same guy who a few years ago reportedly banned officials at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from using the terms “climate change” and “global warming.” His inaction on the issue prompted a suit last month from eight children who accused the governor of “deliberate indifference.” (Scott is now running for US Senate.)

If the government won’t do or say much about climate change, it’s good to see the newspapers talking up a storm. They’re representing the people of Florida much more than the politicians are.

#climatechange

Maggie and I were watching/listening to a comedy something or another this past week.

Someone said something along the lines of…

Change is good? No, no, change is bad.
Just ask climate change.

😅😂🤣 … 😢

#weather #climatechange

The Gulf of Mexico is 4-5° warmer than average. The oceans are higher than they were a century ago. I don’t remember by how much.

Climate change just isn’t about just the air. It’s also about the icebergs and the polar bears and the oceans and the fish.

And the weather.

So to those who say that “global warming is a myth” or that “it doesn’t affect me” I say that it had an effect on Hurricane Harvey and the people that live in Texas.

#climatechange

White House reviewing new report that finds strong link between climate change, human activity

A climate report based on work conducted by scientists in 13 federal agencies is under active review at the White House, and its conclusions about the far-reaching damage already occurring from global warming are at odds with the Trump administration’s views.

The report, known as the Climate Science Special Report, finds it is “extremely likely” that more than half of the rise in temperatures over the past four decades has been caused by human activity — in contrast to Trump Cabinet members’ views that the magnitude of that contribution is uncertain.

Good. Views are subjective, facts are the opposite.

#politics #climatechange

The EPA just buried its climate change website for kids

The Environmental Protection Agency has sidelined a climate site aimed at educating students, a public watchdog group has determined, as part of the agency’s ongoing review of what online content matches the new administration’s values.

This is old news but still utter bullshit.

Again let me direct you to the EPA’s mission statement: protect human health and the environment.

The current administration’s values should not supersede an agency’s mission.

#politics #climatechange

Larsen C calves trillion ton iceberg

A one trillion tonne iceberg – one of the biggest ever recorded - has calved away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The calving occurred sometime between Monday 10th July and Wednesday 12th July 2017, when a 5,800 square km section of Larsen C finally broke away. The iceberg, which is likely to be named A68, weighs more than a trillion tonnes. Its volume is twice that of Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes.

In other words an iceberg bigger than Delaware just broke away from Antartica and is now freely roaming the ocean.

#climatechange

Solar energy is killing coal, despite Trump’s promises

The rapidly falling cost of solar energy is going to make it difficult for President Trump to deliver on his promise to put coal miners back to work.

Trump has taken steps to ease the burden on coal country by ripping up environmental rules and pledging to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord.

But those deregulatory steps do little to offset the mounting long-term challenge that coal faces from cleaner forms of energy, especially solar.

Good.

#politics #climatechange #lettherebehope

EPA Removes Climate Science Website, Announces ‘Changes’ to Reflect Trump Administration

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) removed several web pages about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions from its homepage as the agency announced Friday that it would be “undergoing changes” to better reflect the Trump administration’s priorities.

…

The climate change website now redirects to a page that says that “this page is being updated” and that “we are currently updating our website to reflect EPA’s priorities under the leadership of President Trump and Administrator Pruitt.”

Let me redirect you to the EPA’s mission statement: protect human health and the environment.

That should supersede any administration’s “priorities.”

#politics #climatechange

#weather #climatechange