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Bill Nye Explains That the Flooding In Louisiana Is the Result of Climate Change (qz.com)
Reader mspohr writes: Our favorite science guy has an interview (and video) in Quartz where he explains how Louisiana flooding is due to climate change:
"As the ocean gets warmer, which it is getting, it expands," Nye explained. "Molecules spread apart, and then as the sea surface is warmer, more water evaporates, and so it's very reasonable that these storms are connected to these big effects."
The article also notes that a National Academy of Sciences issued a report with the same findings: "Scientists from around the world have concurred with Nye that this is exactly what the effects of climate change look like, and that disasters like the Louisiana floods are going to happen more and more. According to a National Academy of Sciences report published earlier this year, extreme flooding can be traced directly to human-induced global warming. As the atmosphere warms, it retains more moisture, leading to bouts of sustained, heavy precipitation that can cause floods."
"As the ocean gets warmer, which it is getting, it expands," Nye explained. "Molecules spread apart, and then as the sea surface is warmer, more water evaporates, and so it's very reasonable that these storms are connected to these big effects."
The article also notes that a National Academy of Sciences issued a report with the same findings: "Scientists from around the world have concurred with Nye that this is exactly what the effects of climate change look like, and that disasters like the Louisiana floods are going to happen more and more. According to a National Academy of Sciences report published earlier this year, extreme flooding can be traced directly to human-induced global warming. As the atmosphere warms, it retains more moisture, leading to bouts of sustained, heavy precipitation that can cause floods."
You nailed the reason for the sinking Mississippi delta we're hearing so much about today. Because deltas are made of silt, all of them slump and sink over time. In nature, they are kept alive by annual flood depositions of fresh silt from upstream. Because of Corps of Engineers reclamation, the Mississippi is flowing clean and the delta, even the part that is not built on, is no longer getting fresh silt.
If we want to save New Orleans, why not drill a grid of injection wells citywide and pump fresh mud at an even rate into each one to keep the city afloat?
I suffered a few minutes of NPR over the weekend while they happened to be covering the flood news. Apparently the only officials from Louisiana or the feds that NPR has any interest in hosting are climatologists. No FEMA, no state first responders; just climatologists.
Sounds like a problem with your sample size. A few minutes? Really?
Why don't you just admit you hate what the media is saying, you don't want to hear it, and it bothers you, because it's not what you want to be told.
You want some fairy tales.
While discussing the floods with the climatologists, both the federal and state climate guys made the mistake of mentioning the fact that the high costs and displacement are as much to do with recent property development as the amount of water. You could clearly detect the host's frustration as he attempted to get these hapless officials back on the rails speculating about climate and saying disparaging things about fossil fuels.
Sure dude, maybe you just heard what you wanted to hear. It's clear that you're quite angry and frustrated yourself.
Whatever. You people want to eat all the crap they're feeding you and furnish your rulers with the ammo to manage you're decline, go ahead. Enjoy. I don't care anymore. Bill Nye lives in a nice $1,000,000+ home in Studio City and I'm all set with my nice property and neither one of us are giving it up for the benefit of your virtues, so fuck off.
Well, that's ok, we probably don't want you to give it up for our virtues. But your choices may have consequences, as numbers of hedonists have found out to their sorrow.
It may be that your sins come with a price.
You want to buy underwater front, well, you just have to expect it to go underwater :/.
It can be turned around, it is just a choice. Forget trillions of dollars in sea walls (the biggest being the one to keep sea levels down in the Mediterranean, serious dollars). Just use nuclear power stations to desalinate sea water and then irrigate the worlds deserts to produce food and this is the important part, turn the worlds current farm lands into dense, rich bio-diverse forest, problem solved and at far less cost that all those sea walls (you get mass water retention in those forests and new farmlands, improved reflectivity and heat absorption, mass carbon sinks and cities would be surrounded by air cleaning forests). Depending upon where the irrigated desert farmlands are, altered precipitation patterns as a result of transpiration should also flood below sea level, especially the newer higher one, current deserts (think places like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...).
So just a choice, now what one do you think they will make, the care and share one, or trillions of dollars in sea wall profits or losses, depending upon who spends the money and who gets the money and losses, which regions get no protection and of course how many die when those walls fail and they will, one after another with tens of thousands drowning.
In the interim, absolutely do not invest in underwater front property, seriously bad choice. Now the worse prediction still does not allow for a mass methane release from once perma frost regions where decades become mere years.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen