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Scientists Explain Why Chairman of House Committee On Science Is Wrong
Lasrick writes "Michael Oppenheimer and Kevin Trenberth take apart Rep. Lamar Smith's (R-Tex.) Washington Post op/ed on climate science saying: 'Contrary to Smith's assertions, there is conclusive evidence that climate change worsened the damage caused by Superstorm Sandy. Sea levels in New York City harbors have risen by more than a foot since the beginning of the 20th century. Had the storm surge not been riding on higher seas, there would have been less flooding and less damage. Warmer air also allows storms such as Sandy to hold more moisture and dump more rainfall, exacerbating flooding.'"
We have to make poor people pay more for energy, deepening their everyday poverty, so rich people with beachfront houses don't have to worry about quite as much flooding from a storm once every 25 years.
Not even gonna check who the scientists in question are. This is going to be another disappointment. "Warmer air also allows storms such as Sandy to hold more moisture and dump more rainfall" is such a misleading argument that no one with even a modicum of understanding of science would make it. Warmer air in local vicinity of a specific hurricane can cause the stated effect. Warmer average temperature on the globe would not necessarily cause warmer temperature in the locality of Sandy. This argument is sooooo misleading. They are local vs global effect (temperature increase at particular locality vs average temperature on the planet) and they are mixing hypothetical vs observed effect (warmer air in SOME locality vs warmer air in the locality of the specific hurricane Sandy). Experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weren't talking about impossibility of any hurricane getting worse because of warmer air. They said Sandy. And so did Lamar Smith. Oh vey. Sometimes I just wish I understood less science. Joining pop science pitch forking seems to have become a litmus test for being "nice." Somehow "nice" doesn't include "sane" anymore.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Was there some freak storm somewhere? Let's blame it on global warming. It's the secular equivalent of the Westboro Baptist outfit blaming every single bad thing that happens in America to God hating something about America.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
If the "threatening" now-faster-rate of sea level rise is on the order of a 3.3 mm/year, then how is it that the sea levels in NY harbors have "risen more than a foot since the beginning of the 20th century (which would be 1900AD.)
1000mm / cm ...we're talking 30 centimeters.
2.54 centimeters / inch
12 inches / foot
Wikipedia (linked above) says the *current rate*, which is *faster* than previous, is 3.3 mm / year. 113 years (since 1900) is 372.9 mm if we count 3.3 mm / year for EVERY year since then. That's a total of 3.72 cm (isn't metric easy?) or between one and two inches.
And actually, Wikipedia reports sea level rise this way: "Between 1870 and 2004, global average sea levels rose 195 mm", which is less than an inch.
So, a foot, how? [grumble]
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.