The Dutch are NOT going under...video links from today's class

1/3 of Holland, aka the Netherlands, is below sea level...and sea level is rising. So can their dikes continue to keep the water out? Even the Dutch say NO.

But the Dutch are a very creative people, as I know first hand working with them in Luxembourg , where at a DuPont plant we were making a spunbonded polypropylene geotextile fabric that the Dutch were using to stabilize their dikes.

So on to the links:
#1 which we saw today the TED presentation by  Koen Olthuis
#2 Koen Olthuis on NPR
#3 BBC video, where the Brits are learning from the Dutch  

My perspective?...There is hope....IF Politics do not get too much more in the way.

Me? I am doing the best I can for all of us, especially our children.

Prime Hook NWR and our last Oceans and Climate Change Class, 3/30/15

This short post confirms that the main topic for our last class will be a presentation about Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge coastal restoration plans, given by Al Rizzo, Project Leader, Coastal Delaware National Wildlife Refuge Complex. As I mentioned in our Mar 23 class, the plans, aka Draft Environmental Assessment, are available on-line. See my March 11, 2015 post, or just go directly to Building a Stronger Coast.

Above photo of Fowler Beach at Prime Hook, from Cape Gazette

Al has said his presentation will be 20 to 25 minutes. I have promised him unlimited time afterwards for questions and answers. If his presentation is convincing (which I am sure it will be), and questions are few, I will conclude our last class by presenting information on "Floating Cities"...a topic which, as an engineer, I find both fascinating and applicable to what the World faces.

 Above photo of 3 floating slum buildings from waterstudio.nl

New Washington Post article on Thermohaline Circulation (THC)

Maybe somebody out there is listening...this Washington Post Article was posted at 12:30 pm today...15 minutes after our class ended, and I had asked for updates on this topic.

It is a very concise and easy to read article, mostly based on new research by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, which I had referenced in last week's class.

In a nutshell, the THC did recently slow down, as we saw last week, then it has sped back up for a temporary period of time, and now it seems to be slowing down again. Accelerated melting of Greenland glaciers introducing lower density freshwater into the North Atlantic is the primary suspect for the present THC slowdown.

So please get updated on this situation, and read the above linked Washington Post article. As with most of their articles, it is clear, concise and well researched.

Me?, I am off to design a floating city for Lewes and nearby residents....more on that in our next and last class.

Sub Ocean Volcanism..... and Climate Change

Yes, this is a topic that rarely makes headlines....BUT it appears to be far more important than previously thought. From Columbia University's, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory:

Seafloor Volcano Pulses May Alter Climate
And a few highlight quotes from this link:

Volcanically active mid-ocean ridges crisscross earth’s seafloors like stitching on a baseball, stretching some 37,000 miles. They are the growing edges of giant tectonic plates; as lavas push out, they form new areas of seafloor, which comprise some 80 percent of the planet’s crust.

Some scientists think volcanoes may act in concert with Milankovitch cycles--repeating changes in the shape of earth’s solar orbit, and the tilt and direction of its axis—to produce suddenly seesawing hot and cold periods.

All I can add is that our Earth system is VERY complicated....BUT none of this information takes away from the impact we humans are imposing with hugely increasing greenhouse gas emmissions, especially CO2.