What You and Others Think About Climate Change

"Scientific Agreement: While approximately 97% of publishing climate scientists agree that climate change is occurring and that it is caused primarily by human activities, this high level of scientific agreement is understood by only 44 percent of the Alarmed, 18 percent of the Concerned, 12 percent of theCautious, and 5 percent or fewer of the Disengaged, Doubtful and Dismissive." Andrew Revkin

Sea Level Rise and the Pine Island Glacier

The title link is to an article about the Pine Island glacier in West Antarctica which based on 2009 studies is loosing ice mass 1.5x as fast as it was in 1994. The cause is not simply ocean warming, but rather a reduction in grounding of the glacier on the land below it so that warm water is getting up under the glacier enabling the land based portion to slide into the ocean at a faster rate.

This mechanism has the potential to continue to accelerate leading to a faster rise in sea level than has been predicted. A more detailed review of this study can be found at Science_MSNBC.

VERGE

This is a very short post about VERGE, a concept and program that sound's very good and very timely as regards sustainability and the environment. RE the latter, below is a photo of a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird on her nest very near to where I live, and which I and friends are protecting from disturbance, that is, we are protecting her small breeding environment.

Geoengineering - Brightening Ocean Clouds

From Mark Guenther's title-linked post: "Marine cloud brightening is one way to manage solar radiation; others include injecting sulfate particles into the stratosphere. [See my 2010 post, Geoengineering research, getting real]  Marine clouds cover roughly one-fifth of the earth’s surface, Latham told me, and they already play a role in keeping the earth cooler by reflecting the sun’s rays away from earth. If their surface area could be enlarge, they would be even stronger cooling agents."

John Latham is the scientist who first proposed this approach, and at 73, he is still very actively pursuing it. "Latham says his group has in mind a three-day experiment conducted over an area of about 100 square kilometers. Because of its limited size and scope, it would not affect the global climate, he said. It’s entirely unclear who, if anyone, has the authority to regulate such an experiment. And, in any event, Latham said his group won’t be ready to go forward for several years."

What, Latham was asked, needs to happen to get the U.S. Congress to take the climate crisis seriously?
“Major flooding in New York would probably focus the right attention,” he replied. “I don’t mean to be cynical about that. But Bangladesh could go under with a billion people, and I’m not sure that would provoke the wealthy countries to act.”