Earth’s Most Famous Climate Scientist Issues Bombshell Sea Level Warning
In what may prove to be a turning point for political action on climate change, a breathtaking new study casts extreme doubt about the near-term stability of global sea levels.
The study—written by James Hansen, NASA’s former lead climate scientist, and 16 co-authors, many of whom are considered among the top in their fields—concludes that glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica will melt 10 times faster than previous consensus estimates, resulting in sea level rise of at least 10 feet in as little as 50 years. The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, brings new importance to a feedback loop in the ocean near Antarctica that results in cooler freshwater from melting glaciers forcing warmer, saltier water underneath the ice sheets, speeding up the melting rate. Hansen, who is known for being alarmist and also right, acknowledges that his study implies change far beyond previous consensus estimates. In a conference call with reporters, he said he hoped the new findings would be “substantially more persuasive than anything previously published.” I certainly find them to be.
To come to their findings, the authors used a mixture of paleoclimate records, computer models, and observations of current rates of sea level rise, but “the real world is moving somewhat faster than the model,” Hansen says.
Of all the excess heat that results from people's emissions, 93.4% goes into oceans.
Israeli Sanhedrin is to put Pope Francis on trial unless he retracts his statement that the Jews have no right to the land of Israel or to Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin has no legal status yet it is comprised of some of the greatest rabbis of the nation.
a series of quotations to illustrate portions of the Pope’s forceful arguments.
Almost half of Israelis would support a unilateral strike to prevent Iran obtaining the atomic bomb. Nearly three-quarters thought the agreement would accelerate Iran's development of a nuclear weapon, not prevent it.
As a society, we’re armed and dangerous – and always at war, both collectively and individually. We’re endlessly declaring bad guys and endlessly protecting ourselves from them, in the process guaranteeing that the violence continues. And the parallels between “them” and “us” are unnerving.
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