During the Republican National Convention in Tampa, climate change became a punch line. "President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet" Mitt Romney said.
(Pause for polite laughter)
"My promise is to help you and your family."
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Meteorologist Paul Douglas |
All well and good. But denying climate change won't help any American family or our fledgling economy. And looking at the world with carbon-colored glasses, or using Solyndra as an excuse to snub renewables and clean-tech, is not only short-sighted, but makes America less competitive on the world stage. According to the World Economic Forum, America's global competitiveness fell from 1st to 7th place since 2007. Should we just accept that most breakthrough energy technologies are originating in China and Europe, where there is no more "debate" about climate trends? Why is America still questioning the science? For political entertainment? Something tells me Mother Nature may get the last laugh.
To be fair, Romney later adjusted his position on climate change. "My best assessment of the data is that the world is getting warmer, that human activity contributes to that warming," he said last week in an online debate with president Obama at ScienceDebate.org, "and that policymakers should therefore consider the risk of negative consequences." Bravo! That's leadership. But then sadly, in the very next sentence he veered into denial when he said "there remains a lack of scientific consensus on the issue." This is simply not true, and a candidate for president needs to be dealing in reality on an issue like this. Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree. That's a consensus.
As a Republican business owner, entrepreneur, meteorologist and father of two upbeat, optimistic boys, I may not fit the stereotype of a "global warming alarmist." I'm an Evangelical Christian. I'm enthusiastic about streamlining government and letting the markets work. But unlike some, I see no inherent struggle between my faith and the ability of science to improve our understanding of the world. The Creator gave me a brain, to think and reason, and react to facts on the ground. And I'm disillusioned, because some in my party are pro-science-denial, and on the wrong side of history.
The word "conservative" no longer applies to the environment. The GOP's new energy platform shows this, in a stunning departure from 2008. Don't get me wrong. My party's focus on the economy and putting Americans back to work is dead on. And America has been blessed with a rich supply of natural resources and innovative technologies to wean ourselves off foreign crude. But our fossil fuel frenzy is impacting the weather floating above our heads. Denying that it's raining doesn't keep you from getting wet, and climate change has gone from theory to reality - while our side fiddles away like Nero.
CEI. Climate Extreme Index. 46% of the USA experienced extremes in temperature and moisture (floods and droughts in 2012, breaking the old record in 1934. Source: NOAA NCDC.
If any climate change skeptic had spent the year I have watching the weather maps - I'm confident they would be saying the same thing. These maps passed "normal" a long time ago. 2012 is the most severe year in recorded history; 46% of the USA has experienced extremes in moisture, drought, temperatures and tropical cyclones, breaking the old record set at the height of the Dust Bowl in 1934. This has been The Year of All or Nothing: drought or flood. And jaw-dropping weather is accomplishing what climate scientists couldn't quite pull off: convincing a majority of reasonable, logical, God-fearing Americans that something is up. Something has changed.
I make predictions every day, and based on the data I'm seeing here's my long-range prognosis. What we just experienced was not an aberration. It's a conservative example (most climate scientists have been, if anything, extremely conservative in their projections) of what's to come. Sizzling summers will become the norm in the years ahead. We may soon look back on 2012 with fondness for its mild weather. We've experienced 7 times more record highs than record lows in 2012; expect that lop-sided ratio to continue. Meteorologists will be spending more precious airtime tracking brushfires -- when they're not warning of impending floods. Nights will trend warmer and fewer subzero outbreaks will reach the continental US, a big silver lining for many. But both Greenland and the Arctic are melting faster than computer models predicted, with the Arctic shattering the old record set in 2007. Scientists were once predicting it would be ice-free in 2080 or 2090. Considering this acceleration we're seeing, they're now saying it could be as early at 2030, and some have even said 2015. You heard right. More water absorbing sunlight and less ice reflecting sunlight is accelerating a feedback effect, speeding the warming we're already witnessing, worldwide.
On Earth Day I wrote a story for a blog post in Minnesota. The Huffington Post picked it up. A Republican concerned about climate change? Rare as a two-headed frog. And I can tell you, I got plenty of negative mail from conservatives. But here's the thing: this isn't a popularity contest. There's too much on the line. Some in the GOP mock climate science, but most voters under the age of 30 take the subject very seriously. Dismissing it out of hand is not only disingenuous, but politically short-sighted, and is a failure to care for our children as our parents cared for us. Your kids are following this issue closely. They vote.
"The weather has always been extreme. Why is this any different?" There's no denying the trends. Actions have consequences. Releasing 90 trillion tons of greenhouse gas, 90 trillion hot air balloons of CO2 and methane in just the last 50 years, is spiking our weather extremes like never before. So rather than focus on the green skin of the messenger, put your ear up to hear what he's saying.
Here's my Top Ten Reasons Why This Isn't Business as Usual for the Climate - things that convince me -- and should convince you too.
10). Shifting Weather Patterns - The jet stream is shifting north over time. I'm seeing things on the weather maps every other day that can't be explained away as "normal extremes".
9). Rising Sea Levels - whatever your skeptical uncle Joe says, seas are warming, and as they warm, they expand and sea level goes up. Most scientists predict 3-4 feet in the next 80 years or so. Think twice about buying that retirement condo right on the beach. Find something 4 blocks inland, and be patient.
8). Warmer, More Acidic Oceans - if you scuba dive, you've probably noticed that corals reefs aren't what they used to be. That's ocean acidification from absorbing carbon dioxide. It's radically changing the ocean ecosystems and fisheries right now.
7). Straining Water Resources - water for drinking, "fracking", farming, ethanol production, soda pop, or energy generation - whatever your flavor, it's getting scarcer. That affects all of the above.
6). Dying Forests - not just by massive, historic wildfires, but by pests like the pine beetle that no longer gets killed off in the warmer winters, turning entire rocky mountains brown with dead pine trees.
5). Extreme Rains and More Severe Local Storms. 4-5% increase in atmospheric moisture - warmer air holds more moisture. That means it gets drier on the ground because more is absorbed by the atmosphere. But it also means when it rains, it rains harder as that higher water content rains out. But dry soil and heavy rains equal floods, and that means more damage and more water lost to runoff.
4). Spike in Wildfires - less water plus pine beetles and other crawly critters that kill trees plus drier soil means more wildfires.
3). More Drought -- more water in the atmosphere means less on earth and thus more drought.
2). Superheated summers -- the above combine to create hot, hot, hot summers. Drier air is hotter without water to moderate it. Hotter air absorbs even more, even quicker. And hotter air means more air conditioners, means more carbon going back into the atmosphere.
And the number one reason:
Arctic Sea Ice Monitor. The latest value: 3,593,750 square kilometers on September 9, 2012. A new record minimum of Arctic sea ice extent was set on August 24, 2012. The four lowest values of Arctic sea ice have been observed since 2007. Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Earth Observation Research Center.
1). Record Arctic Ice Loss. As I said, less ice reflecting means more water absorbing. We used to say the Arctic might be ice free by the middle of the century. Now scientists are saying it may happen as early as 2015. That's in three years, people. The ice is melting this year at an unprecedented rate, and if we have another warm winter, it won't be replenished. This could tip the scales for a lot of larger climate changes to come. A comprehensive article in the Wall Street Journal on September 7 summarized "...the six lowest Arctic sea ice levels on record all occurred in the past six years."
With the problems facing America today, from record deficits to stubborn unemployment to Iran and The Bomb, why fixate on climate change? Because this will impact all our families; your kids and mine, as well as America's competitive footing in the 21st century. If Mitt Romney is genuine about his promise to "help you and your family," he needs to acknowledge this, and work for a solution that will solve both the economic and the climate crisis. He needs to help America to innovate our way into a new energy paradigm, one that will fuel growth, add jobs, and launch new companies focused on cleaner, more sustainable American energy sources.
Will the GOP rise to the occasion, or bet the farm on carbon, and ask our grandkids to deal with the mess? It's time for bold leadership. Climate change is a threat, but it is also an opportunity to transition to a cleaner, greener, more sustainable economy. American Exceptionalism shouldn't stop when it comes to innovating new energy sources. We have the technology and entrepreneurial DNA to mitigate climate change, foster innovative, job-producing clean energy technologies, and reinvent America's economy. Let's put it to work, Governor Romney. As one prominent supporter said at the convention: "Go ahead, make my day!"
Paul Douglas is Founder and President of The Media Logic Group. His company provides weather data, graphics and mobile API's via Ham Weather, advanced forecasts for renewable energy companies with Smart Energy, automated severe storm alerts and daily briefings with Alerts Broadcaster, and daily video forecasts for new and legacy media from Broadcast Weather. Broadcast Weather is providing content for WeatherNation TV, a 24/7 linear channel on multiple platforms dedicated to meteorology and storm coverage across the USA. Minnesota's first Certified Broadcast Meteorologist, Douglas writes a daily print and online column for the Star Tribune.
Follow Paul Douglas on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pdouglasweather
J. Mijin Cha: 'All of the Above' Energy Plans Should Really Be 'Some of the Above'
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| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Josep (Pep) Canadell
Executive Director
Global Carbon Project
CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research
Australia
Natalie Barnett
Project Officer
Global Carbon Project
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Australia
Shobhakar Dhakal
School of Environment, Resources and Development
Asian Institute of Technology
Thailand
Yowhan Son
Professor and Director of GCP-Korea Office
Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering
Korea University
Woo Kyun Lee
Professor and Director of Environmental GIS/RS Center, Hosting Institute
Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering
Korea University
Annette Freibauer
Executive Officer
CarboEurope European Office
Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry
Germany
Gyami Shrestha
Director, Carbon Cycle Science Program Office
US Global Change Research Program
USA
Kathy Tedesco
Project Director, International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP)
UNESCO - Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
France
Guy Midgley
Climate Change Group
Ecology and Conservation
Kirstenbosch Research Center
South Africa
Ye Qi
Professor of Environmental Policy and Management
Director of Institute of Public Policy
Tshinghua University, China
Michael Raupach
Senior Research Scientist
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Australia
Anand Patwardhan
Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay
India
University of East Anglia/British Antarctic Survey
School of Environment Sciences
Philippe Ciais
Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique
Laboratorie des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement. France
Josep Canadell
Global Carbon Project
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Australia
Shobhakar Dhakal
School of Environment, Resources and Development
Asian Institute of Technology
Thailand
Ken Caldeira
Department of Global Ecology
Carnegie Institution
USA
Pierre Friedlingstein
IPSL, Laboratorie des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environment
L’Orme des Merisiers
France
Kevin Gurney
Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Science
Arizona State University
Keisuke Hanaki
Department of Urban Engineering
The University of Tokyo
Japan
Rob Jackson
Nicholas School of the Environment
USA
Thomas B Johansson
International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, IIIEE
Lund University, Sweden
Elisabeth Malone
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Joint Global Change Research Institute at the University of Maryland
Glen Peters
Senior Research Fellow
Center for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo
Shilong Piao
College of Urban and Environmental Sciences
Peking University
Even the EPA Administrator has said that there have been no instances of ground water contamination. That is unless you don't have faith in the EPA that they are a well-run organization meant to protect you.
Then again, I don't think Republicans who make policy doubt science, not really. They just don't care. They figure they'll have a first-class cabin on the New Ark, and the New Flood will simply wipe out all those bothersome poor people. Solves all their problems.
To maintain their voter base, wealthy Republicans make every effort to limit the education of the help. What good does it do to have a gardener, a nanny or a roofer who knows basic science? Knowledge won't make them better mowers of lawns, babysitters or patchers of roofs; it will only make them surly and hopeful of a better future.
Why educate the maid's daughter when that young lady may well take your scion's inherited slot at Harvard or Yale? What if Dan Quayle and George W. Bush had to get into their fine colleges on merit? Can you even get a job at State with a degree from a state school?
In any case, I hope this 'free-market' writer mentions the value of education to his buddies, especially the ones who force high schools to teach our children that the Earth is 8000 or so years old and some bearded deity waved a magic wand to create the first humans in one fell puff.
There is enough solar energy to provide over 10,000 times the energy we currently use.
Stop posting nonsense.
The problem with Thorium nuclear power is that it doesn't exist outside of a handfull of expensive failed experiments. We simply don't have the time or money to waste of expensive proven failures.
There you go posting repeatedly-debunked climate science denier crapolla again, from one of your dozens of HuffPo climate science denier sock puppets.
Classic astroturf activity.
http://www.monbiot.com/2011/02/23/robot-wars/
Other HuffPo climate science denier profiles of yours include:
netdr
NGC2623
Hoosier-Daddy25
leesburg-larry
neptune2
Ptolemy101
Texas-Titan
Texas-Husker
ceasar200
Larry Schneiderwind
falconia
zillaii
ptolemyii
Saturn1
platoii
mars222
jupiter5
mercury999
soctates
earth999
saturn999
Plano-Husker
Pluto-
Neptune-
Bills-
Netdr-
skepticalone-
Plato-
Larryschmidt
net-dr
You are utterly deluded.
Every single data base and temperature we have shows continued warming.
2010 was the hottest year since the ThermalOptimum around 8,000 years ago.
Idiotic remarks such as yours simply reveal you are in an advanced state of pathological denial.
1. Expanding the combined heat power, coupled co-generative, long distance,heat hot water lines. The Munich system saves the equivalent of 5 million barrels of heating oil p.a..CHP
2. Replacing coal with nat-gas and adding an Erskine Cycle-Gas Turbine to the Rankine cycle steam turbine. Upgrading the generator on Rankine Cycle to A +++ boosts efficiency from 20% to + > 65% /plus CHP. Munich converted a coal fired plant that way. feeding ld CHP.
3. Replacing coal with nat gas and adding a fuel-cell- hot Rankine cycle steam turbine.
(Munich replaced coal with nat- gas,on eone plant and is now upgrading to combined cycle fuel cell- on steam- Upgraded generators to A +++.
3. Waste incineration. Sewage sludge metahane recapture firing high temperature garbage and trash incineration - firing the mehtne enriched sludge along with it. Munich´s plant was commissioned in 90. Also feeds CHP. All German cities have followed. Garbage dumps emitting high greenhouse gas methane are prohibited.
(Over half of the cities thermodynamic power comes from that.)
To be continued:. .
5. Home appliance, industrial appliance, and factory production line upgrades. Replacing older motors with A+++, or app,liance replacement.
(cuts domestic power consumption by 30%. With power management systems, cuts industrial power consumption by 50%. The replacement program is still going on.
6. Lighting efficiency s
There are non deficit ways of forward financing all the "green tech" build out.
BRICK - Brazil, Russia, India, China Korea (south) are all building out "sustainable" -
Even the 11 country "Association of SW African States is building out. In wind for example, it just inked a deal with two major wind suppliers for the local tower and blade manufacture- and build out of 24.700 wind turbines. 3 more traunches the same size will follow. close to 100.000 wind turbines in Africa. Really, even Africa will surpass the U.S. in sustainability with the Republican ticket clean tech poilicies.
RUPERT MURDOCH CEO of Fox News/News Corp, who hires the Hannitys who program AGW deniers, said to Fox News staff, May 9, 2007:
“Climate change poses clear, CATASTROPHIC threats. We may not agree on the extent, but we certainly can't afford the risk of inaction. We must transform the way we use energy...”
http://www.newscorp.com/energy/full_speech.html.
Going further, he said in Feb. 2011:
"We have become carbon neutral across all of our global operations and we are the first company of our kind to do so." http://tinyurl.com/74k6c4n
$20 billionaire Republican MICHAEL BLOOMBERG. NYC mayor and Bloomberg News Service CEO:
"You can see "political science" at work when it comes to global warming. Despite near unanimity in the science community there's now a movement - driven by ideology and short-term economics - to ignore the evidence and discredit the reality of climate change."
http://tinyurl.com/yntsyo
$15 billionaire Republican MICHAEL DELL, Dell Computers CEO
2008 AUG 18: Dell has met its carbon neutral goal ahead of schedule, achieving a major milestone in its commitment to be the 'greenest' technology company on the planet...
http://global-warming.verticalnews.com/Dell_Inc.html