60 MINUTES: If you missed the show ,please read

[serryjw]

If Bushit or the Bird Flu don't get us...than global Warming certainly will. The show tonight was so depressing. American scientist Bob Corell said basically it's to late. IF we got rid of every car and other producers of green house gases we could not reserve this.OUR polar bears will probably not make it to the end of the century.
quote........
The North Pole has been frozen for 100,000 years. But according to scientists, that won't be true by the end of this century. The top of the world is melting.

There's been a debate burning for years on the causes of global warming. But the scientists you're about to meet say the debate is over. New evidence shows man is contributing to the warming of the planet, pumping out greenhouse gases that trap solar heat
end quote..........
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/16/60minutes/main1323169.shtml

[Blue_In_AK]

1. That was a very disturbing report...

...although, as I've been saying here for the past few days, we've been seeing this happening up here at a more and more alarming rate every year. I'm kind of longing for our good old-fashioned Alaskan winters. The way it's been lately, we may as well be living in Seattle!

[serryjw]

6. WOW! You must be seeing this first hand

My email to friend about this story
quote.......
If Bushit, Terrorism or Bird Flu doesn't get us. Global Warming certainly will. I attached the transcript so you can read and forward to all. It is so important we do something. The Polar Bear will not make it to the end of the century. Katrina is only the beginning. Even the US doesn't have enough money to build the entire US coastline with 30 feet levees.
end quote......

When you see the consequences of our behavior on the Polar bear I started to cry. They will just die off and there is nothing we can do except maybe slow it down. We have known for years this was happening and leadership of BOTH sides didn't take it seriously enough. NOw the generations to come will pay the price. Here in Denver our weather has changed so much in the 7 years I'm here. It was in the 60's until last week than sub zero with snow.

My question is does HAARP have anything to do with this? ARE WE manipulating weather as a weapon?

[Blue_In_AK]

18. Yes, I've been in Alaska since 1975

and the changes are startling. Gardening, for instance ... the old rule of thumb here was that you didn't plant before Memorial Day because of the possibility of frost, and you needed to harvest Labor Day weekend for the same reason. The last few years I've been putting my garden in by mid-May, maybe even a week earlier, and we haven't been getting good frosts until October. People have even been growing CORN up here, for heaven's sakes - something that was unheard of 30 years ago. With the changing climate, we've had more serious spruce bark beetle infestations, which kills the trees. There also has been much more lightning (also something that used to be rare) which has led to record-breaking forest fires (dead trees contribute). Almost 6.6 million acres burned in 2004 and another 4.4 million last summer, which coincidentally raised the carbon monoxide levels all around the globe. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2005/08/02/forestfire-co050802

There are so many issues - Native villages on the Western Alaska coast threatened by eroding coastlines, melting permafrost -- which according to some will end up releasing vast amounts of methane gas from the rotting peat. It just goes on and on. Really, we may be on the verge of a mass extinction. It would seem to me that the very nature of the air we breathe is being radically changed - CO, CO2, methane ... I hope we make it.

[serryjw]

39. ...and so will our health concerns

quote......
EXPERTS: WILDFIRE PROBLEM IN THE U.S. TO GROW AND LEAD TO
MAJOR HEALTH PROBLEMS IF GLOBAL WARMING IS NOT ADDRESSED
Worsening of Adult Asthma, Acute Respiratory Illness in Children Expected;
No Let Up in Fires, Health Woes Until Climate-Changes Issues Are Resolved

snip......
. “The chief concern has to be that global warming, if left unchecked, will mean more intense weather extremes, including drought. The resulting – and worsening – wildfire problems in the United States could well mean a steadily increasing toll in the related health problems.”

snip......
“Global warming is causing much of the world’s water to evaporate, leaving dry vulnerable forests. In addition to this development, the United State’s fire-suppression campaign of the late 20th century left us with a hefty fuel load in the forests … by extinguishing all these naturally burning fires, we’ve halted the natural fire cycle of the forests. Now, they’re primed to ignite. There already are wildfires burning this summer in five Western states – and that’s just as we are getting into the summer months.”
end quote.....
Excellent article
http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/EXPERTS.htm

[demdiva]

21. Anyone know about a scientific connection between Katrina & global warming

I haven't seen any articles or news reports on the subject, but my gut instinct tells me that it can't be a coincidence that we had the Tsunami is Asia and then the horrible hurricane season to follow. Actually, now that I think of it, it's a good question to ask my friend who works for NOAA.

[drfresh]

27. Warmer water temperature --> stronger hurricanes

There's more energy in warm water, And global warming definately warms it.

[demdiva]

29. Yeah that's what I assumed

[TheModernTerrorist]

31. that's not really it

our oceans are actually cooling because of the melting icecaps. The North Pole melting is dumping tons and tons of cold fresh water into the oceans, which is screwing up the warm Atlantic currents, while at the same time, I believe atmospheric temperatures are going up, and it's that increasing divide between hot air and cold water that is sending off some incredible storms. They say that the warm current that is keeping Northern European winters so mild (think Scandanavia, and foggy ol' London for example) is fading, and Eurpoe won't benefit from those warm waters for long.

not a pretty thing to think about.... :-(

[demdiva]

33. Interesting . . . that makes sense to me

[TheModernTerrorist]

36. also

another interesting thing to look up is info on the ice age.
Google "Little Ice Age", and I think you should come up with a few other interesting things to throw into the conversation on this. Of course, this all depends on how MUCH the earth heats up. I'd imagine if it's heating too fast it would nullify any ice age effects that may happen.

I'm a psychology major, not a climatologist. :shrug:

[RazzleDazzle]

91. On the other hand, the lack of ice traps more heat because

ice reflects about 95% of sunlight; without that ice, the sunlight gets absorbed by the water and heats it up.

I don't think you're right about cooling the waters. But in any case, once the water gets south to along the latitudes where hurricanes form, it's definitely no longer cool water, and definitely not in a warming globe situation. All of that equals stronger hurricanes.

[TheModernTerrorist]

94. my mistake

I combined both the North and South Atlantic systems into one model. The glacial melt at the North Pole IS affecting the waters of the north, giving Europe much colder winters, but I haven't looked at what it's doing to the south. My main point is that the extremes in the weather are getting worse... much like the income gap in this country. The rich are richer, the poor are poorer... so it is with the weather, in a sense.

[serryjw]

30. Absolutely...A ton has been written about it

quote.......
Is Global Warming Fueling Katrina?
Warm ocean temperatures are a key ingredient for monster hurricanes, prompting some scientists to believe that global warming is exacerbating our storm troubles
end quote......
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1099102,00.html

quote.....
The path of every present hurricane has been changed, new ones have been brought into existence, and ones that would have existed (without global warming) never happened. Such is the sensitivity of chaotic systems, that we can be virtually certain Katrina would not have struck New Oreans had there been no global warming.

snip.....
Rethinking Warming and Hurricanes For decades, Kerry Emanuel, the meteorologist and hurricane specialist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,asserted that no firm link had been established between warming and the intensity and frequency of hurricanes.

But in August, two weeks before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Professor Emanuel wrote in the journal Nature that he had discovered statistical evidence that hurricanes were indeed affected by global warming. He linked the increased intensity of storms to the heating of the oceans.

"I predicted years ago that if you warmed the tropical oceans by a degree Centigrade, you should see something on the order of a 5 percent increase in the wind speed during hurricanes. We've seen a larger increase, more like 10 percent, for an ocean temperature increase of only one-half degree Centigrade."

''His paper has had a fantastic impact on the policy debate,'' said Stephen Schneider, a climatologist at Stanford. ''Emanuel's this conservative, apolitical guy, and he's saying, 'Global warming is real.' ''
end quote.......
http://zfacts.com/p/108.html

[demdiva]

32. Thanks. That's exactly what I was looking for.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

67. Katrina yes, tsunami no

Computer models of global warming predict stronger, more frequent hurricanes, but tsunamis are caused by earthquakes, which are caused by movements of the earth's crust and which have been happening before there were humans to get killed in them.

Huge tsunami happen every couple of decades in conjunction with especially large earthquakes. This most recent disaster happened to occur in a heavily populated area with no warning system in place.

[northofdenali]

38. Agreed, Blue - rerouting the Iditarod in 2003,

both the Quest and Iron Dog this year, lack of snow, icepack melting. I haven't seen a real Interior winter in 8 years, and none for several years before that as well. The Iditarod may have to be rerouted again this year because of open water on Norton Sound (that's why the Iron Dog had problems). Hardly any snow at all from Carmacks to Whitehorse on the Yukon Quest route, so it's going from Dawson to Pelly Crossing, then back to Dawson for the finish.

The Chena River is open here in Fairbanks about 1/4 mile from where the Quest usually starts. This area is usually frozen solid until about late March.

Anyone who thinks Global Warming isn't coming their way should spend a summer - and a winter - here. Listen to the oldtimers and the elders. They know. Hell, we hit a record of about 92 above in the summer of 2004 in Fairbanks!

[Mr_Spock]

43. Yep, folks in Finland are saying the same thing...

I asked about this when I was there recently. They matter-of-factly (the Finnish way) said that they are seeing the melting first hand - year by year there is more exposed water & land...

The matter of fact way they said it - as if "doesn't everybody know this" was startling to me.


We live in a fantasy world here in the insular USA.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

70. Minneapolis winters ain't what they used to be

When I lived here in the 1950s and 1960s and again in the early 1980s, snow usually arrived in mid-November at the latest and stayed till mid-April. I wore snowboots for Easter as often as not. We often had weeks of subzero temperatures on end--I remember going to seventh grade on a day when the high was 36 below. During my senior year in college, I remember a day when the high was 27 below. One winter in the 1980s, we had two 18" snowfalls on consecutive days.

After 19 years in Oregon, I moved back here in 2003, and so far, I have not experienced a real old-fashioned Minneapolis winter. There has been little snow, and no snowfalls over six inches. Nothing that even remotely resembles a blizzard like the one in 1965, when my school was closed for three days. (My youngest nephew, age 10, has never experienced a "snow day" off from school.) The lowest air temperature has been about 20 below at night, but we have had no double-digit-below daily highs (not that I miss those).

We have to start getting rid of the elephant in the living room: cars. Yet the world is going in the wrong direction, with more cars and more housing being built in places that are accessible only by car.

Sorry folks, we're going to have to stop that. I don't care how much you "love" your car. Your car and mine are killing this planet, and your emotional attachment to a piece of machinery doesn't mean squat in the larger scheme of things.

We need the political courage to slash the Pentagon budget and REALLY defend ourselves by building the infrastructure for non-automotive transportation (trains, bicycles, streetcars, feet, electric buses, even low-fuel scooters) and retrofitting towns, cities, and suburbs for non-automotive mobility (for example, by building paths from housing areas to stores, schools, and services). With the proper infrastructure, a non-driver has as much "freedom" as a driver, perhaps more, because of not needing to worry about parking, fuel, insurance, or other expenses.

I drive as little as possible, and I do so only because the public transit in the Twin Cities is pathetic and doesn't go some of the places I need to go.

[acmavm]

2. Makes you wonder why homo sapiens are located at the top of the

evolutionary ladder since they destroy everything they touch, doesn't it?

edit: by 'they' I mean all of us. I include myself in the mix.

[Bozita]

8. ummm, ... we drew up the evolutionary ladder

We're number one! We're number one!

[depakid]

3. Of course. it could also be a field day for polar bears

Should the Atlantic Thermohaline shut down (as it apparently has- rather rapidly) after certain thresholds are breached.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Conveyor

[hedgehog]

61. I hadn't thought of that.

I was wondering how much the decline in population was due to the fact that polar bears are at the top of the food chain and get a full load of environmental toxins. Most other bears are pretty good at eating whatever is around, so I figure polar bears are smart enough to find something else to eat if the seals are too far away. It makes sense to me that if it's too warm for seals it'll be warm enough for something else.

[depakid]

78. Actually, a Thermohaline shut down

Would send much of Northern Europe back toward an ice age, due to the lack of the warming influence of the Gulf Stream. As I mentioned- it's happened before.

That's why a lot of scientists don't refer to the rise in greenhouse gasses as causing "global warming" per se- although they do cause atmospheric warming by absorbing and radianting infrared back to earth- instead of out into space. The exact effects of that will vary from region to region, and since the process is so complex- and there are so many variables, it can't be modelled very well.

What's certain is that THERE WILL BE climate changes- possibly on a grand scale, and regional ecosystem changes- which will cause a reduction in carrying capacities.

That's why one scenario involves polar bear extinction.

[hedgehog]

87. I've been wondering about a Thermohaline shutdown myself, BUT

what happens when the Pole itself warms up? It doesn't make sense that Northern Europe would be colder than the Arctic regions. What I saw last night suggests we're moving into brand new territory a lot faster than we ever imagined possible. I know at one time the ground under New York State was warm enough to support a tropical lake or ocean. I'm not sure if that ground was at the present location. It sounds like we better prepare for tropical weather again.

[alfredo]

4. I need a drink.

The earth is going to become a much more hostile place. It's times like this that I am glad I am on the down side of my years.

[dysfunctional press]

5. i kinda wanna see the show-

that ma nature is preparing for. and i really want to be around for the third act.

[serryjw]

7. If you can D/L it or buy it, certainly do

it is worth seeing though be prepared with a drink..You will feel helpless.

[dysfunctional press]

9. i saw THAT show-

i'm talking about the decades-long horror show that's coming our way.

[serryjw]

13. It won't be pretty

Take Katrina and multiply across the globe. Can you imagine the horror?

[dysfunctional press]

19. but it's coming- like it or not.

and if since it's unavoidable, i'm at least going to marvel at the spectacle.

[raccoon]

76. You and me both. nt

[Triana]

10. The environmental researchers and scientists I know...

...and work with say the same thing. Sure, global warming will happen anyway. It's partially a natural process. What ISN'T natural is the rate at which is is occurring. Man's activity has accellerated the process immensely and dangerously. The ONLY way to slow it back down (we can't prevent it now, or even slow it back down to its 'natural' normal pace even) is to STOP polluting (and breeding). That will slow the rate, but it won't prevent it. Nothing would prevent it but it would proceed at a more normal, natural pace without man's activity accellerating it at frightenly dangerous speeds.

But we won't stop. People - this race - too stupid - and the governments and money-makers will not give up their profit - not even to save the world. So, here we sit, and will continue to sit, sawing off the very limb upon which this race is perched - and now sawing it off at a much faster pace than ever before - and a much faster pace than would have ever happened by nature alone (without our polluting and other activities here).

May as well stick a fork in us. We're done.

[serryjw]

11. Ironic you should say something about breeding

As I was watching it I got angrier and angrier with the Catholic Church ( not the religion!) but The POPE that has continued to ignore the travesty against humanity in the 3rd world because of his position on birth control until his death. The 3rd world is pro-creating at an alarming rate and the progression of AIDS could have been slowed down.Now millions will die in despair. Sorry, but there is nothing Holy about this.

Rant over!

[Triana]

14. there is absolutely nothing 'holy' about it...

....there is a lot of 'stupid' about it though.

I can't even think about the population issue for too long -- and these pro-birth morons. I guess they "think" (?) the "rapture" will come and we'll all be saved or some such garbage.

*sigh* That old chestnut "God, protect me from your followers" comes to mind.

[serryjw]

16. GW Bushit, The Pope and the Pastors of

the mega churches will all save them...How does anyone believe this garbage?

[suziedemocrat]

47. I'm Catholic and agree - It's completely irresponsible to encourage

people to have as many babies as possible and tell them birth control is a sin.

IMO - most religions today are only making our problems worse!!!

[alfredo]

12. bush's Mars policy is to colonize Mars to escape an earth

made uninhabitable.

[Triana]

15. ...and only the very very rich...

...will be able to afford it. The rest of us - f*cked.

[serryjw]

17. Nah....Maybe Gates & Buffett

but you better be that rich

[alfredo]

52. bingo

Most civilizations didn't die from conquest, they died because of environmental degradation. When the water ran low, the soil played out, they packed up and left for greener pastures. When the population was low, that strategy worked, but now we are running out of places to move.

[hatrack]

50. Rate of GHG releases into the atmosphere now fastest in 55 million years

Greenhouse gases are being released into the atmosphere 30 times faster than the time when the Earth experienced a previous episode of global warming. A study comparing the rate at which carbon dioxide and methane are being emitted now, compared to 55 million years ago when global warming also occurred, has found dramatic differences in the speed of release.

James Zachos, professor of earth sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said the speed of the present build-up of greenhouse gases is far greater than during the global warming after the demise of the dinosaurs.

"The emissions that caused this past episode of global warming probably lasted 10,000 years," Professor Zachos told the American Association for the Advancement of Science at a meeting in St Louis. "By burning fossil fuels, we are likely to emit the same amount over the next three centuries." He warned that studies of global warming events in the geological past indicate the Earth's climate passes a threshold beyond which climate change accelerates with the help of positive feedbacks - vicious circles of warming.

Professor Zachos is a leading authority on the episode of global warming known as the palaeocene-eocene thermal maximum, when average global temperatures increased by up to 5C due to a massive release of carbon dioxide and methane.

EDIT

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article345928.ece

Say goodnight, Gracie.

[Gregorian]

51. Thank you for your post.

Given the rate at which the globe is warming on it's on, we can say that it is not warming. The sun is going to burn out too. But for practical purposes, it's not burning out. There is a think called infinity. For some purposes, it's three inches. The distance required for a magnetic field to have negligible effect on something may be one foot. That is infinity, for that system.

Global warming is primarily due to population. Ten people on earth could have done absolutely anything they wanted to do. But not 7 billion.

On the other hand, now that we are living modern lifestyles, we are not going back. Not unless we are willing to stop doing the very things that we enjoy.


Today is a different morning for me. We're melting. My parent's house in Palo Alto is going to be under water soon. Tell that to a person walking down the street. Oh yeah? Right. Europe went into it's last ice age in a matter of two years, or so.

We're in much bigger trouble than people realize, unless there is some hidden mechanism that will step in and change the direction we're heading.

Damn, I can't even say thank you for your thread without going on. This subject has been the single most important thing in my life since the mid 70's.

[TX-RAT]

59. How many people were on earth the last 3 or 4 times it's warmed?

[Gregorian]

65. You must have children.

This warming is due to people. And there's no reason to defend otherwise unless you have something to prove. The last ice ages were different, and it's uncontested.

[TX-RAT]

72. This warming is due to people.

So what caused the last one, or the one before that? How the hell does me having children have anything to do with it.

[bobbieinok]

20. my son in science has been saying 'it's too late' for 15 years

His 'positive' spin on the W sElection of 2000 was 'with the democrats things might not get real bad for 60-100 years; with the republicans maybe 10-20 years.'

Students and colleagues (most very pro-Bush) just stared when I said this; one did say, blinking slowly, 'he said this to make you feel better?????'

[davekriss]

25. It's been "too late" since the seventies

Scientists like Gregory Bateson and others were lamenting that, even back then, it was already too late to stem the tide of climate change and ecological disruption that they just sensed was beginning back then.

[Twist_U_Up]

22. Ya know I just bought a snowblower too.

perhaps I can alter it into a small plane I can use for migrating north each year.

[linazelle]

23. You will need it. Global warming makes MORE snow, MORE heat,

more hurricanes, floods. Extreme weather in all seasons, especially summer and winter, is to be expected.

[LuCifer]

24. I know one way to MAYBE save out asses...

...MAKE WEED LEGAL AGAIN, and plant it EVERYWHERE, on every last bit of Earth that doesn't already have something growing! Hell, plant it on ROOFTOPS! It would remove buttloads of CO2 in trade for Oxygen, it would absorb HEAT, 1 acre of weed = 5 acres (or so) of trees for paper, and if all else fails, we'll all be nice and stoned when the next Katrina comes through!

Lu

[LibertyorDeath]

35. This I could get behind...All in favor

The aye's have it!

[LuCifer]

53. I can 2nd my own idea, right?!

I tell ya, other than a volcano bleching a buttload of crap into the atmosphere, or a decent size meteroite landing and kicking up dust, enough to drop the overall global temp 1 or 2 degrees, we're SCREWED.
Smoke 'em if ya got 'em.

Lu

[greenman3610]

26. is this report available on line?

I mean the video? I can't see to find it.

[serryjw]

42. Try on the right side

I'm on dial up so I'm not sure what you are going to see!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/16/60minutes/main1323169.shtml

[MISSDem]

82. So you are that other person, besides me, that still has

dial up.

[serryjw]

83. Not for long

I have been fighting this forever but comcast now has a 3 month promo that will cost me about the same as dial up. I miss not being able to see all these video's.....ohhhhhhhh, come on! Switch and join the Pepsi generation

[threadkillaz]

28. Interactive Polar Ice Cap Melter

http://www.everybodysweather.com/Static_Media/Polar_Ice_Cap_Melter/index.htm

1979-2005

[Blue_Tires]

34. sadly, bush thinks michael crichton's book is more truthful

[The2ndWheel]

37. Let's play a game

"OUR polar bears will probably not make it to the end of the century."

One of those words is a major part of the problem. It puts us in a certain mind set. Can anyone guess which word that would be?

[file83]

45. "...probably..." ? No, wait...."...our..."? Which is it!!?

[The2ndWheel]

49. You win

a trip to Greenland!

I know it's a small detail, but the word "our" says it all. I understand the context in which it was used, but it's there. They're not our polar bears. Polar bears exist for their own sake. They don't even know they're called polar bears. We could've called them shoes if language took a different turn at some point.

[serryjw]

90. They are OUR Polar Bears

( Just like they are MY children) I'm very protective of the furrbabies. THEY certainly didn't cause this problem. We need to protect their extinction.

[Nutmegger]

40. And when they speak out KKKarl and Bush Inc silences them

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1555183

Sick bastards don't care. Unless money is involved of course; then it's a different story.:mad::grr::mad:

[Lorien]

41. Yep. I know a scientist in Antarctica who studies climate change

(has for 45 years). What he told me 20 years ago caused me to swear never to have children-because I would be bringing them into a world that will be in very serious trouble by 2030. Resources will be nearly gone, WWIII will rage, and many wonderful non-human species will be extinct. Not a world I will want to live in, so I definitely wouldn't want a child of mine to be facing such a horrific future.

[Nutmegger]

44. I agree / sympathize with you

I know somebody who did work in Antarctica about ten years ago and even then he told me that melting was a major concern! It's really scary to think about.

:scared:

[BeHereNow]

46. As a parent of a nineteen year old- I concur

I will never say I regret the birth of my child,
however, I will say if I had known then, what I know now,
there is no way I would have brought her into this hell of
a world.
She, and the world she will face, is the reason I
wake up screaming.
Seriously, I can't sleep some nights
worrying for her
future.
BHN

[CountAllVotes]

86. I never had any children exactly for this reason

I saw it coming in 1970, hence I never opted to bear any children.

I have no regrets. Period.

:kick:

[serryjw]

55. The progression of the problem

is frightening. This last few years have brought such horror. I don't want to imagine a world where Katrina is a daily occurance.Unfortunately that looks like our future. We love our furrbabies. How can I stand by and let the Polar Bear die such a horrible death? Any ideas?

[marano35]

48. yeah

[NMDemDist2]

58. welcome to DU marano35!

:hi:

[im10ashus]

54. K&R!!!

:kick:

It needs to be at the top of every news show.

[Toucano]

56. The program failed to acknowledge the impact of

a lot of other human activity that COULD be stopped tomorrow.

Deforestation in the Amazon, constant paving of land, etc.

I found it a little weak that the only factors blamed were factories and cars.

[upi402]

62. forests ameliorate car and factory pollution

That's right! They help to clean the pollution made.

[nomatrix]

63. Did they mention the Asian Industrial Revolution?

Japan, Korea, & China are producing steel at record rates. From the people I know who are in all three counties at this moment, you can taste the pollution in the air.

[TX-RAT]

57. How was man involved the last 4 times the earth warmed?

[Gregorian]

66. Now there are two people on my ignore list.

Bye.

[TX-RAT]

75. LMAO

Thats how you handle a discussion?

[hatrack]

68. The last time anything remotely close happened, we didn't exist

The last time anything remotely close to the current situation took place was at the beginning of the Eocene Epoch, about 55 million years ago, and even it wasn't this fast.

GHG releases to the atmosphere are now running about 30 times faster than during the Eocene Rapid Warming, and since horses had just barely begun to diverge from their ancestral species (homo sapiens sapiens was still about another, oh, 48.5 million years down the road), we didn't have much to do with the last time around.


From The Indepedent:

Greenhouse gases are being released into the atmosphere 30 times faster than the time when the Earth experienced a previous episode of global warming. A study comparing the rate at which carbon dioxide and methane are being emitted now, compared to 55 million years ago when global warming also occurred, has found dramatic differences in the speed of release.

James Zachos, professor of earth sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said the speed of the present build-up of greenhouse gases is far greater than during the global warming after the demise of the dinosaurs.

"The emissions that caused this past episode of global warming probably lasted 10,000 years," Professor Zachos told the American Association for the Advancement of Science at a meeting in St Louis. "By burning fossil fuels, we are likely to emit the same amount over the next three centuries." He warned that studies of global warming events in the geological past indicate the Earth's climate passes a threshold beyond which climate change accelerates with the help of positive feedbacks - vicious circles of warming.

Professor Zachos is a leading authority on the episode of global warming known as the palaeocene-eocene thermal maximum, when average global temperatures increased by up to 5C due to a massive release of carbon dioxide and methane.

EDIT

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article345928.ece

[TX-RAT]

71. The sea levels were very interesting during that period.

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/dinosaurs/extinction/sealevels.php

[hedgehog]

60. Can anyone point me to a map of the US coastline before & after?

Something that would show 1 foot, 2foot, 3 foot etc above current sea level.

[WinkyDink]

64. People who have reproduced or hope to reproduce ought to pay attention.

I often wonder about Republicans and whether they actually care a fig about their own off-spring.

[hang a left]

69. I just had a thought.

Once this occurs, where would be the safest place on earth to be? Where will be the last place to go, so to speak?

[Road Scholar]

74. Probably the mountains. nt

[TX-RAT]

77. Heres a map.

These were the only area's in the US and Canada, above sea level during the last big thaw.

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/dinosaurs/extinction/sealevels.php

[hang a left]

84. What about world wide?

[TX-RAT]

88. Well i live at 2300 ft above sea level

And we were at the bottom of the permian basin. Theres outcroppings of old oyster beds as high as 3000ft above sea level, in this area.

[hedgehog]

85. I'm not sure the old map still applies.

I think you'd find that the land thereabouts has risen a little in the intervening years. Essentially, it's now an uphill climb from the Mississippi to the Rockies.

[devilgrrl]

73. So upsetting that I've just about given up

:cry:

[Javaman]

79. The Manhattan Levee breaks...

After Katrina, all the right wing nut job news casters were going on and on about how it was, "the people in New Orleans fault for not leaving" or "why were they living there in the first place?". All that talk made me sick but also made me think of another thing.

As oceans rise, cities will "sink". Thus creating the need for more levees and other ways to hold back the tide.

As my headline indicates, what if oceans rise just a foot or two. Many major cities in the world and the US will "sink". Manhattan, only about 2 feet above sea level in some areas will be one of those.

So when that city "sinks" or it's levees break, will there be there be the same out pouring of stupidity we witnessed by the MSM over New Orleans toward any of these other cities? Will they say,"how could people live in Manhattan when it's clearly below sea level?" or will they say, "why didn't they just leave?" forgetting the fact that it is an island after all.

What we saw in New Orleans is just a precursor for things to come.

[serryjw]

89. Donald Trump won't be happy

not to mention getting 20 million people off the island any given day!

[stepnw1f]

80. Remember: Global Warming was Ignored by the GOP

For generations to come, the GOP will be remembered as part of the biggest problem humanity has experienced. Great resume, dick heads!

[mnhtnbb]

81. Not giving up! My son just rented an apt. 3 minute walk

to work. He's had a 20 minute drive and spent $150 for gas last month.

[stop the bleeding]

92. thank you - so sad - we are way too late - I read articles all of the time

in NG on this and needless to say I am:cry:

[ZRB]

93. Could the effects of global warming actually curb global warming?

Let's say that the destruction wrought by climate change does indeed cause a mass human die-off. And add to that the fact that our oil supply is rapidly on its way out. It seems that in the next few decades, our abilities to cause further pollution and environmental destruction could be greatly diminished. Is there a chance, then, that this could act as a kind of natural check on climate change? Or will the positive feedback mechanisms already be out of control by the time our species is sent back to the (non-polluting) stone age?

Not to diminish the horror that a massive die-off would be (and I'm talking especially about the non-human animal kingdom)--but it seems to me that the distant future may not be as bleak for whatever survives the 21st century.