Beach Front Property

On Wednesday, The New York Times had a front page article on the threat of rising sea levels on Americans. The article was in response to a new study that has predicted that 3.7 million Americans living along the coastline will be greatly impacted or displaced by the rising water. Those of us who understand climate change know that sea level rise is an inevitability, as it has already been occurring. 99% of our politicians are unwilling to prepare now for such changes.

The article points out that flooding in coastal areas that commonly occurred with many decades in between episodes will see an increase of flooding episodes to every few years. What this means, in reality, is that these areas will become uninhabitable. Taxpayers and insurance companies will not pay for homes and other buildings to be continually replaced every three or four years. Cities will run out of funds to constantly repair roads and utilities damaged by flood waters. Unless your city, of course, is willing to through a lot of money at building a "wall" to keep out the ocean.

Skeptics continue to say there is no danger, and if sea levels are rising, it's because of natural climate processes, and we will be more than able to handle the problem. If the situation we are in wasn't so dire, those kind of words would be comedic. However, these skeptics continue to have influence over policy implementation, which continues to hold back even the most believing of politicians from developing a plan to help the 3.7 million of our own citizens who will be affected by this symptom of global warming and climate change.

Sure, some of us wouldn't mind the beach front coming to us, instead of the other way around. But we would all feel the impacts of 3.7 million refugees, even residents in tightly land-locked states such as Iowa. We would all see the impact on our taxes and national budget. With this information - based on facts - fresh in our brains, it's time we tell the skeptics to be quiet so we can now present the truth to those who create policy and urge them with all the passion one can muster, to develop and implement a plan to deal with this problem. Let's tell them it's time to do something well before the eleventh hour and the fifty-ninth minute. Maybe then they can have our trust back.

What The Stats Say

Climate change infographic

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Take a look for yourself at the stats. Do you think the "debate" is balanced? Or is there even a need for an ongoing debate?

Duh

I saw this article on the msnbc.com website this morning and had to laugh. The article speaks of a study that confirms that global warming is happening. This is how bad it's gotten with the denialists, despite all the evidence that has been amassed over the years that detail the warming globe and subsequent climate change caused by human activity. Now they have to sponsor a study to see if global warming is real and can be attributed by man. We've done this before, we are constantly getting new information on how our activities are changing the global climate. Why are we wasting time doing a study that confirms what has already been confirmed. Will the skeptics be appeased by this? I doubt it. I could be wrong, but I highly doubt it. The science is there. The proof is in the pudding. When will the denialists own up to the truth?

One nice thing that the article points out is the study showed how one area can seem to be cooling while other areas can be warming. Cooler trends encourage people to deny global warming, but the study showed that the areas of the world that were warming more than made up for the fact that some areas were cooler. The average temperature for the globe has once again been shown to be on the rise from the records dating back several decades. So let's stop wasting our time confirming what we already know and put our funds and efforts into developing solutions to the problem we have created. No more committees to determine if we need a committee. Just do it already!