Posted on 03/11/2009 4:53:06 AM PDT by Abathar
COPENHAGEN (AFP) – Months before make-or-break climate negotiations, a conclave of scientists warned Tuesday that the impact of global warming was accelerating beyond a forecast made by UN experts two years ago.
Sea levels this century may rise several times higher than predictions made in 2007 that form the scientific foundation for policymakers today, the meeting heard.
In March 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that global warming, if unchecked, would lead to a devastating amalgam of floods, drought, disease and extreme weather by the century end.
The world's oceans would creep up 18 to 59 centimetres (7 to 23 inches), enough to wipe out several small island nations, and wreak havoc for tens of millions living in low-lying deltas in east Asia, the Indian subcontinent and Africa.
But a new study, presented at the Copenhagen meeting on Tuesday, factored in likely water runoff from disintegrating glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica, and found the rise could be much higher.
The IPCC estimate had been based largely on the expansion of oceans from higher temperatures, rather than meltwater and the impact of glaciers tumbling into the sea.
Using the new model, "we get a range of sea level rise by 2100 between 75 and 190 centimetres when we apply the IPCC's temperature scenarios for the future," said climate expert Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Even if the world manages to dramatically cut the emission of greenhouse gases driving global warming, the "best estimate" is about one metre (3.25 feet), he said.
"A few years ago, those of us who talked about the impact of the ice sheets were seen as extremists. Today it is recognized as the central issue," said glaciologist Eric Rignot of the University of California at Irvine.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The hip new buzzwords thrown around now: Tipping Point. They miss a piece of ice the size of California but things like that don't matter, the computer models are seen as gospel.
..that happens when the $$$$$$ truck overturns
If only we could discover what space age technology the cave men used to survive the end of the ice age.
The sooner the better!
So the north east of the US, NY city, San Francisco, Santa Cruz may end up under water .... (scratching head wonder what the down side is).
When you run into one of these -— Just met someone yesterday that said we were all going to be underwater because of this last meter rise. So it’s going around on the kook’s message boards. When I asked him the question ... How much has the sea level risen since the end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago -— Blank stare, when I said 100 meters, another blank stare.
So I inquire, how is paying taxes going to lower the sea level?
Ask people questions, they can’t answer. But they sure know we are all gonna die unless we pay huge taxes to the government. What’s their stake in the game ...
Sounds like our salvation to me. It seems like the colder it gets the faster they ratchet up predictions of global warming! Maybe their thermometers are upside down.
It’s not the validity of the evidence: it’s the fear factor of the threats.
Socialism and islamic radicalism pose a much greater threat to “small island nations” and big ones alike.
A century! That’s too late. I wanna stop having to dredge out my boat channel now.
Note to self: Get cemetery plot on high ground.
I live 10 hours from the nearest beach, this is good news because it’ll only be about... maybe 8 hours away.
But...but...but... they DIDN"t survive, that's the point?
Do you see any cave men around today?
I’ve only been to SF once and that was in the fog, at night, but I remember it being well over a meter above the ocean, in most parts.
Ogg discover fire, start global warming, save Ogg whole clan from extinction by cold.
Then sabertooth tiger eat whole clan...
Ogg understand irony.
Actually they will do that by noon today; and then they will recede again about five and a half hours later.
ML/NJ
Interesting fact - in the 1700's it was thought that COLD was a force (not just the absence of heat). Anders Celsius invented a temperature scale where 0 was the boiling point of water (not very cold), and 100 was the freezing point.
Maybe they found some of these thermometers.
Around here they surge a meter every few seconds.
Then Ogg learn how to build boat, save clan from Sabertooth tiger and Global Warming.
Tiger no like water, go extinct from starvation.
Ogg go back to cave, build bigger fire.
Corollary: Sea levels this century MAY NOT rise several times higher than predictions.
The IPCC estimate had been based largely on the expansion of oceans from higher temperatures, rather than meltwater and the impact of glaciers tumbling into the sea.
Yeah... the meltwater and glaciers tumbling scenario has been thoroughly debunked, they had to come up with some other fake computer model.... (yawn).
Even if the world manages to dramatically cut the emission of greenhouse gases driving global warming, the "best estimate" is about one metre (3.25 feet), he said.
Oh, ok, then no need to spend _Trillions of dollars_ we don't have, and hamstring business with needless regulation and taxes in order to save a few inches.
Among the worst hit countries will be Bangladesh , which would lose some 17 percent of its landmass, displacing nearly 15 million people.
The 'poor' hardest hit... Bangladeshis live in the most fertile land on the planet and they are still married to the jute business through their socialist gov't. They could have been the US or Brazil and feed the world - but they themselves starve... (sigh).
Amazing that they are still on the polar ice cap thing - debunked every year. (ie Arctic only of course - "global warming" doesn't affect Antarctica!) And even the Arctic cap comes and goes. When it goes, it's news; when it comes, it isn't.
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