I note that the Pentagon considers it a foregone conclusion that things will be hotter, much hotter. They're already planning for it. It also appears we need to prepare for a lot higher seas levels, soon...we're talking the next year or two.

Wind was also identified as a national security threat as it was forecasted in 2001 that it will keep getting stronger and with periods of longer duration. The basic threat of high wind impacts on Transportation which affects manufacturing.

Unstoppable and significant rise in sea level coming soon to a beach near you. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014...-be-unstoppable


I wonder what climbing Denali will be like once all the glaciers melt.....

Worst case several centuries, best case 900 years according to their computer models? Did they take into account volcano eruptions and Maunder Minimums? Those have a way of drastically cooling things down.
-Blast

Kind of depends on your definition of "significant", does it not?

The IPCC Report suggests a range of .25 to 1 meter by the year 2100. If I were a young person living in Florida or New Orleans, I might consider that significant.

Since you seem to suggest that volcanic eruptions and Maunder Minimums will save us, please give us your predictions for sea level change by the end of the century? Please be specific about your assumptions, and and give us quantitative results and an uncertainty range. That way we can fairly compare and evaluate your model with the others.

Volcanism and sun spot cycles have resulted in short term reversals in the past ("Little Ice Age"), but have not altered longer term trends.

What seems significant to me is the inevitability of their model, feedback loops and all. If only their lower range estimates are valid, profound consequences will result - increased coastal erosion for one.

The current models do take natural factors into account.

Exactly.

Phil Plait's blog has a fascinating graph showing models of natural effects only, natural effects combined with human effects, and the actual observed data. The graph is from the National Climate Assessment, which focuses on effects on the US.


Especially interesting is the section on how changes are effecting local regions.

Gentlemen all,

I have observed that this topic is the deadliest of poisons, particularly in discussion forums. Let us handle it very, very carefully.

Respectfully,
-Doug(wa)

I think climate change is real. I've already seen in my lifetime how we went from 4 to 2 seasons. Its really put a damper on outdoor activities when you go from winter to summer and summer to winter with no spring and fall in between.

Individuals deal with higher water levels by moving to higher ground. Google "alton road flooding" to track the submergence of parts of South Beach. The political aspects of this matter are beyond the ambit of this writer, or this forum. And while the science is important and convincing, it is weather science, which gives us 'weather forecasts', not 'weather promises', and this forum is composed of folks who ignore the forecast and carry a poncho, and an umbrella anyway.