As Olympia ponders the development of the waterfront and the downtown area I thought it might be helpful to review the weather report.

The City of Olympia is already attempting to develop plans for sea level rise of 1 foot, 2 feet, and 3 feet and the planners state that these plans will be useless if the Greenland glacial melt speeds up.  I think the quote from Steve Hall and Mike Mucha on Greenland was that all bets are off if Greenland melts.  We have no plan to respond to a sea level rise of that scale.  

Here is a roundup of some of the latest thinking:

from the scientific journal Nature as covered at Wired Science:

Could Methane Trigger a Climate Doomsday Within a Human Lifespan?

The potential problem here is the release of huge amounts of methane that are currently frozen away.  The arctic melt has potential to release the methane and methane is a potent greenhouse gas.  This is not a knife-edge type change where the impact could go either way, this is a tipping point, a feedback loop, that can reasonably be expected to accelerate and contribute to rising temperature.  

Science Magazine printed an article about anthropogenic CO2 impact on the oceans in July 2004.  You can read the article here:  The Oceanic Sink for Anthropogenic CO₂

Some folks, spokepersons for industries who stood to turn a quick profit through environmental destruction, have created lots of smoke to make it less than clear that anthropogenic global climate change is happening and needs to be addresses. The ethics of folks who would choose to draw their paycheck from being part of the smoke machine are in question. 

Other folks, politically motivated, but unsophisticated thinkers, have done their part to prevent needed changes in public policy.  These unsophisticated thinkers are easily manipulated by wedge issues like abortion, gun rights, same-sex marriage etc. and then they can be counted on to mindlessly parrot the industry storyline and make it more difficult for the electorate to understand the situation we face.  We see an endless run of red herrings:  the ice caps on Mars are melting, environmentalists and their catalytic converters caused global warming, on and on.  Some of these smokescreens are more laughable than others, but the impact is not laughable. 

On May 22 2008, the NOAA published an updated article on the acidification problem.  You can read that article here: International Scientists Find ‘Acidified’ Water on the Continental Shelf from Canada to Mexico

from that article:

“Acidification of the Earth’s ocean water could have far-reaching impacts on the health of our near-shore environment, and on the sustainability of ecosystems that support human populations through nourishment and jobs,” said Richard W. Spinrad

Here is a potential teaching moment from this article: 

A friendly gnome by the name of Olim just “walked in” to visit us at einmaleins.

He’s from Gnomediaries.com and comes with a special message about climate change and how you can do your part in making sure this planet stays as beautiful as it was intended to be!

Come and stop by tomorrow during First Friday and say Hi to him!

And visit www.everydayolympia.com for more info. 

mathias & Olim - the Gnome.

einmaleins

Thursday May 8th at 6 pm at Traditions Cafe at 5th and Water street. Contact Beth Doglio for info: 570-8804.

Explore climate change and sustainability issues with Climate Solutions and visiting delegates from Olympia's sister city, Santo Tomas, Nicaragua. Great Family Event!

Findings suggests that politicians aren't aiming nearly high enough to prevent our certain doom. Apparently it is more important to save their jobs then the planet. It appears to be a value judgment wether we want to survive or make money for a few rich white men. Washington Post article

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The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a matter of decades.

Their findings, published in separate journals over the past few weeks, suggest that both industrialized and developing nations must wean themselves off fossil fuels by as early as mid-century in order to prevent warming that could change precipitation patterns and dry up sources of water worldwide.

America's newest security threat: Global Warming

Retired four-star General Zinni calls global warming a serious security threat

Thursday December 27th, 2007

Anthony Charles Zinni (born September 17, 1943) is a retired four-star general in the United States Marine Corps and a former Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). In 2002, he was selected to be a special envoy for the United States to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He has been a public critic of the Bush administration and did not support the decision to go to war in Iraq. While serving as special envoy, Zinni was also an instructor in the Department of International Studies at the Virginia Military Institute. Presently, he is an instructor in the Department of Government at the College of William and Mary, a public speaker, and an author of two best-selling books on his military career and foreign affairs, most recently Battle for Peace. He also is involved in the corporate world, joining M.I.C. Industries as its president for International Operations in 2005. General Zinni also serves on the advisory boards of eight different companies, including the security testing firm, Mu Security, based in Sunnyvale, California. He will begin teaching at Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.