Mar. 19, 2005 - 21:11 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

This was in the mill last night before the servers skewed things a bit.

Tsunami

Wonder what it would take to convince some countries or organizations to get with the program ? An article by Jim Erickson of the Rocky Mountain News Friday brings out some news. In part:

Expert sees world awash

Greenhouse report paints grim picture

"Oceans will rise at least 10 inches per century for several hundred years -- imperiling coastal regions worldwide - even if emissions of heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases were capped at TODAY'S levels, according to a Boulder climatologist."

"Even if the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases being belched into the sky could be stabilized now, sea levels would rise 10 to 20 inches per century for 400 years or more, said Tom Wigley, as senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research."

"Wigley and NCAR senior scientist Gerald Meehl report their latest findings about "climate change commitment" in today's edition of "Science."

"The concept of "climate commitment" has been around for about 20 years. What's new about the NCAR reports is that some of the latest, most sophisticated computer climate models are now confirming the dire predictions of earlier, cruder simulations."

"The idea behind climate commitment is simple:"

"Carbon dioxide gas has a lifetime of about a century, so gases pumped into the air today will continue trapping heat long into the future."

"That heat will warm the air, land surfaces and the ocean. As the heat creeps deeper and deeper into the ocean, the warmed water expands resulting in a sea level rise."

"Because the ocean takes longer to warm up than land or the air, the sea level will continue to rise over several centuries," said Meehl, who used two NCAR's global-coupled models, or GCMS, in his study. Melting of ice sheets and glaciers also will contribute to the rise. "I think people have thought that if the problems gets bad enough, OK, we'll just hit the stop button on the greenhouse gas increases, and that'll solve the problem." Meehl said. "But it's not that easy, over the past century, global temperatures increased about 1 degree and sea levels rose 6 to 8 inches."

""In its 2001 climate change update, the authoritive Intergovernmental Panel on climate change projected a sea-level rise of 3.6 to 35.2 inches by 2100, with a best guess estimate of 19.2 inches."

"It's too late to avoid some future sea level changes. But there's still time to avert the most drastic shifts if worldwide greenhouse emissions are cut below present levels, Meehl and Wigley said."

"It would require a commitment FAR BEYOND the reductions required by the Kyoto Protocol, which went into effect last month without U.S. participation."

"A sea level rise of 20 inches would put at risk tens of millions of people living in low-lying areas and on islands, mainly in the Pacific and Indian oceans and in the Caribbean, NASA's Gornitz said."

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In the article it says, "In the past century, global temperature increased about 1 degree and sea levels rose 6 to 8 inches." So that is roughly from 1905 to 2005 - thinking back, the gas loosed around 1905 and later I would say was miniscule compared to what is being squirted into our skies now. So, wonder what the next 100 years will bring with greenhouse gases being spewed at the yearly rate they are now ?

Once, it seems ages ago now, but was it in the seventies, I think, when we were experiencing a gasoline shortage and our government leaned on the car manufacturers to make cars smaller and more efficient." I guess it was in the 70s, but since then cars have begun to fatten up, get bigger and of course eat gas as if it would last forever. Hummers are seen more and more on our streets, SUVs increasing by the millions, minivans as well. Hell, my wife went for the Saturn VUE which in essence is a mini-SUV, because she sits up higher and can see further ahead. I can sympathize with her, remembering in 1963 when I was running errands in my boss's little Subaru and trying to see what to look out for ahead. Stopped at a traffic light and a huge cement truck pulled up beside me, I looked out my side window, way up to the top of the truck tires on that monster and wondered when I'd get crushed by a behemoth like that.

Perhaps cities someday will establish truck and commercial vehicle routes away from civilian traffic ane we can go back to using small economical cars -- or Segways, motorscooters, motorcycles, bicycles, pogo sticks or busting a long held back aversion and walking now and then.

Now it appears that our country's administration is preparing to mosquito North Alaska for oil some more, kill off or shrink wildlife and flora thereby and bringing up more of the fuelish stuff so that we can merrily blow the results out our exhaust pipes and contribute to the slowly creeping salt water Tsunami . . . . . . . . .

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