Aa
Preparing for Climate Change, Even as Their Governor Bans the Phrase
".......professionals, many of them scientists, allowed themselves to be cowed from using basic scientific language. After all, that keep-your-head-down mentality has allowed the administration of Republican Gov. Rick Scott to get away with this for the past four years. But perhaps it's also comforting. The employees I've found during my reporting are nonetheless the ones doing the long thinking, working to address the effects of climate change, even as they have to hunker to avoid political interference. They know they'll be here when Rick Scott is gone. So will the problems they're working on.
Until that day, the story has once again made Florida the punch-line state. Several ex-state employees, as well as contractors, researchers and volunteers, have come forward to say that they were told not to use the terms “climate change” and “global warming” in any official communications, reports and emails. References to climate change in Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reports and documents plunged after Scott was elected governor, according to an FCIR analysis.
The extent of what all of this means, we don't yet know. While some inside the DEP have expressed relief that the word is out (pun intended) and sure as hell ain't going back in, they also expressed fear that their projects are now in peril. They worry that they've been outed, and that funding for climate change work will be cut.
This is the ridiculous balance state employees are being asked to perform. The Department of Transportation is studying how to accommodate sea-level rise in future road plans, and how to protect existing infrastructure. The state's water management districts are modeling sea level rise projections. The DEP is managing the damage to the coasts and monitoring saltwater incursions into freshwater aquifers. They're preparing for the effects of climate change … yet to do so without interference, they dare not whisper the very phrase........"
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121341/florida-gov-rick-scotts-ban-climate-change-hasnt-halted-action
Until that day, the story has once again made Florida the punch-line state. Several ex-state employees, as well as contractors, researchers and volunteers, have come forward to say that they were told not to use the terms “climate change” and “global warming” in any official communications, reports and emails. References to climate change in Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reports and documents plunged after Scott was elected governor, according to an FCIR analysis.
The extent of what all of this means, we don't yet know. While some inside the DEP have expressed relief that the word is out (pun intended) and sure as hell ain't going back in, they also expressed fear that their projects are now in peril. They worry that they've been outed, and that funding for climate change work will be cut.
This is the ridiculous balance state employees are being asked to perform. The Department of Transportation is studying how to accommodate sea-level rise in future road plans, and how to protect existing infrastructure. The state's water management districts are modeling sea level rise projections. The DEP is managing the damage to the coasts and monitoring saltwater incursions into freshwater aquifers. They're preparing for the effects of climate change … yet to do so without interference, they dare not whisper the very phrase........"
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121341/florida-gov-rick-scotts-ban-climate-change-hasnt-halted-action
You opened the can, "Banning the words of something doesn't make it disappear. It only makes one sound like an idiot dictator."
So again what do you say about Obama, since you made the statement above.
#winning
So again what do you say about Obama, since you made the statement above.
#winning
Why can't you keep on topic ? This is not about Obama. If you can't keep to the topic, shut up and leave the post alone. Sheesh
Ask Obama that since he has banned his admin from calling Radical Islam what it is.
http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/03/24/atlantic-ocean-current-overturning-circulation-historic-slowdown-climate-change?
"The powerful ocean current that carries tropical warmth from the South Atlantic to northern countries has slowed down to a degree “unprecedented in the past millennium,” according to newly published research. The phenomenon has created an unusual pocket of cooling temperatures in the far North Atlantic, even as global warming heats the world overall.
Yes, it’s the exact climate catastrophe envisioned in The Day After Tomorrow, the 2004 movie about how a slowing current triggers a new ice age and deep-freezes New York City. In real life, the current could cause severe coastal flooding between New York and Boston and affect the distribution of marine wildlife, putting coastal fishing industries at risk.
If the slowdown persists or intensifies, weather could significantly change in parts of the Northern Hemisphere that have traditionally been warmed by this current, affecting everything from agriculture to urban transportation.
“These are the kinds of things that scare me,” said oceanographer Scott Rutherford of Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, who coauthored the new study. “How much is this going to change temperature, sea level, marine ecosystems? We’re starting to mess with big things now.”
“Can we stop this? Yes,” he said. “We’re already locked into a little bit of warming. I would say that we ought to be concerned with minimizing it as much as we can.”
It’s the first time scientists have analyzed trends in the “Atlantic meridional overturning circulation” over such a lengthy period, which allowed them to contrast its contemporary state to preindustrial conditions and beyond.
The slowdown is one more recent sign that burning fossil fuels, the leading cause of global warming, has fundamentally disrupted Earth’s climate.
Last week the National Snow and Ice Data Center announced that less sea ice formed in the Arctic this winter than at any other time in the 35-year satellite record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, meanwhile, announced that globally, the winter of 2014–15 was the warmest ever—except on the East Coast of the United States and in parts of West Africa and Western Europe, all areas that that saw unusually cool or cold weather, and that depend on this current to supply them with heat.
The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, looked at trends in the current, which flows between North and South America, transporting heat northward and cold southward. (The Gulf Stream current that many of us learned about as schoolchildren is a part of this larger circulation.)
In addition to the written record, the researchers used data that came from interpreting nature’s own records—ice and sea sediment core samples, as well as tree rings—to go far back in time.
By deducting sea surface temperatures from averaged land and sea temperatures, they figured out what temperature the current must have been, and based on that, determined its salinity and speed.
“For about 900, nearly 1,000 years, the AMOC stays relatively stable,” said Rutherford. “It bounces around, but it’s not until about 1900 that we start to see a relatively steady decline.”
“From 1970 to 1990, we see a very rapid drop in temperature” in the current, he added, followed by a warmer period from 1990 to 2010. But “from 2010, we’re starting to see a decline again,” he said.
Both current cooldowns happened shortly after large amounts of freshwater appeared in the North Atlantic. The earlier pulse of freshwater came from a load of Arctic Ocean ice flowing into the North Atlantic; the latest came from Greenland’s glaciers, which have been melting faster since the 1990s.
“It really showed up this past winter in the surface temperature maps,” Rutherford said. “That very, very cold spot reappears just south of Greenland.”
Scientifically, “it’s a bit of stretch right now” to link this winter’s record low temperatures and snowfall on much of the East Coast to the slowed ocean current, he said. “But it’s the kind of thing that we might expect to see” based on climate change modeling.
“As a scientist, this is just one more data point to add to our records,” said climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University. “As a human, though, it’s a stark reminder that our choices have consequences, and the door is rapidly closing on our opportunities to choose a different future.”
"The powerful ocean current that carries tropical warmth from the South Atlantic to northern countries has slowed down to a degree “unprecedented in the past millennium,” according to newly published research. The phenomenon has created an unusual pocket of cooling temperatures in the far North Atlantic, even as global warming heats the world overall.
Yes, it’s the exact climate catastrophe envisioned in The Day After Tomorrow, the 2004 movie about how a slowing current triggers a new ice age and deep-freezes New York City. In real life, the current could cause severe coastal flooding between New York and Boston and affect the distribution of marine wildlife, putting coastal fishing industries at risk.
If the slowdown persists or intensifies, weather could significantly change in parts of the Northern Hemisphere that have traditionally been warmed by this current, affecting everything from agriculture to urban transportation.
“These are the kinds of things that scare me,” said oceanographer Scott Rutherford of Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, who coauthored the new study. “How much is this going to change temperature, sea level, marine ecosystems? We’re starting to mess with big things now.”
“Can we stop this? Yes,” he said. “We’re already locked into a little bit of warming. I would say that we ought to be concerned with minimizing it as much as we can.”
It’s the first time scientists have analyzed trends in the “Atlantic meridional overturning circulation” over such a lengthy period, which allowed them to contrast its contemporary state to preindustrial conditions and beyond.
The slowdown is one more recent sign that burning fossil fuels, the leading cause of global warming, has fundamentally disrupted Earth’s climate.
Last week the National Snow and Ice Data Center announced that less sea ice formed in the Arctic this winter than at any other time in the 35-year satellite record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, meanwhile, announced that globally, the winter of 2014–15 was the warmest ever—except on the East Coast of the United States and in parts of West Africa and Western Europe, all areas that that saw unusually cool or cold weather, and that depend on this current to supply them with heat.
The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, looked at trends in the current, which flows between North and South America, transporting heat northward and cold southward. (The Gulf Stream current that many of us learned about as schoolchildren is a part of this larger circulation.)
In addition to the written record, the researchers used data that came from interpreting nature’s own records—ice and sea sediment core samples, as well as tree rings—to go far back in time.
By deducting sea surface temperatures from averaged land and sea temperatures, they figured out what temperature the current must have been, and based on that, determined its salinity and speed.
“For about 900, nearly 1,000 years, the AMOC stays relatively stable,” said Rutherford. “It bounces around, but it’s not until about 1900 that we start to see a relatively steady decline.”
“From 1970 to 1990, we see a very rapid drop in temperature” in the current, he added, followed by a warmer period from 1990 to 2010. But “from 2010, we’re starting to see a decline again,” he said.
Both current cooldowns happened shortly after large amounts of freshwater appeared in the North Atlantic. The earlier pulse of freshwater came from a load of Arctic Ocean ice flowing into the North Atlantic; the latest came from Greenland’s glaciers, which have been melting faster since the 1990s.
“It really showed up this past winter in the surface temperature maps,” Rutherford said. “That very, very cold spot reappears just south of Greenland.”
Scientifically, “it’s a bit of stretch right now” to link this winter’s record low temperatures and snowfall on much of the East Coast to the slowed ocean current, he said. “But it’s the kind of thing that we might expect to see” based on climate change modeling.
“As a scientist, this is just one more data point to add to our records,” said climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University. “As a human, though, it’s a stark reminder that our choices have consequences, and the door is rapidly closing on our opportunities to choose a different future.”
Banning the words of something doesn't make it disappear. It only makes one sound like an idiot dictator. Scott is scarey. His state stands to be majorly affected by climate change and he doesn't want those words said ?
What happened to freedom ?
Wasn't the US supposed to be the land of the free?
What happened to freedom ?
Wasn't the US supposed to be the land of the free?
Well if he has the liberal leanings like you, then of course he would be appalled.
My friend who lives in Florida tells many horror stories about Rick Scott. He is appalled that the people voted him in ~ twice.
Sounds like DC to me.
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