The climate change impact on your life, your city
The U.S. Global Change Research Program, a congressionally mandated research effort coordinating the work of 13 agencies, has released its projection of climate impact by the end of the century. The report is sobering, or at least ought to be.
Its projection for the Southeast United States, available here, includes the following:
Continued warming is projected, with the greatest temperature increases in summer. The number of very hot days is projected to rise at a faster rate than average temperatures. Average annual temperatures are projected to rise 4.5°F under a lower emissions scenario and 9°F under a higher emissions scenario with a 10.5°F increase in summer and a much higher heat index. Sea-level rise is projected to accelerate, increasing coastal inundation and shoreline retreat. The intensity of hurricanes is likely to increase, with higher wind speeds, rainfall intensity, and storm surge height and strength.
The report comes as Congress debates controversial plans to reduce emissions of climate change gases. And opposition doesn’t seem to be fazed, as the Washington Post reports:
“But Paul Schlegel of the American Farm Bureau said news of the study had not changed his organization’s unhappiness with the House bill. Schlegel said the effects of climate change are still just a forecast, while he believes it is a certainty that the bill would add crippling costs to farmers.”
I wonder whether members of Schlegel’s organization pay attention to predictions about rain and future market conditions.
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200 comments Add your comment
Mrs. Godzilla
June 17th, 2009
8:34 am
Enter the Kings and Queens of DeNial….in 3…2….1
Normal
June 17th, 2009
8:40 am
I don’t know if this global warming is a natural happening, man made or both, but I do know that one day, Mother Earth will swat us off of her back. I remember a story where the Human Race was compared to a virus, intent on destroying its host. Are you there, Neo?
FinnMcCool
June 17th, 2009
8:47 am
Mrs. Godzilla hits it on the head.
Open the floodgates of denial, Jay.
FinnMcCool
June 17th, 2009
8:50 am
George Carlin as the Hippy Dippy Weatherman:
“Tonight’s forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely-scattered light towards morning.”
Dr. No
June 17th, 2009
8:54 am
Well, this just will not do. No. This is just fear mongering at its finest. Something that will not be tolerated. You cannot prove any of the facts that you have presented will do any harm. You are just speculating and trying to scare people into accepting a warped and perverted leftist agenda of reducing energy consumption and pollution and it won’t work. No.
Paul
June 17th, 2009
8:55 am
Just watched a series on – I think the Science Channel – about the devastating effect over a longer time a one degree rise in temp had. And we’re talking multiples of that.
Still gets me, though – there’s still debate over whether or not a problem exists and what the likely effects are.
Yet, at the same time, about the only thing being proposed as a solution to mitigate the effects is a scheme that would earn gazillions for some corporations and hedge fund types. And this is the scheme (cap and trade) advocated by Democrats (well, Mrs. Godzilla, I guess you can add ‘anti Gore bias’ to ‘anti-Obama bias’).
Thanks for the explanation yesterday, AmVet, but I wonder if it’s a combination of being enamored with the first big idea and the great influence of those who stand to make lots of money over those who stand to gain (politicians) from the largesse. Could also be a bit of ‘hey, look at what those wise, progressive Europeans did’ – yet it seems, years later, cap n trade, in Germany, at least, has significant problems.
But back to the temp increases – conservatives fight tax increases to pay for new water, liberals fight desalinization plants for fresh water, and conservatives join forces with liberals (who act quite conservative in maintaining the status quo) in order to preserve their communities the way they are. No way are they going to abandon their beachfront property and urban communities.
Paul
June 17th, 2009
8:56 am
That one degree temp change was back in the dinosaur days. Millions back. But the effects are evident.
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
June 17th, 2009
8:57 am
How’d that unemployment/ Porkulos prediction work out for you libs?
A report commissioned by a liberal Congress, written by liberals for the sole purpose of enabling the liberal goal of destroying the US economy.
duh
ByteMe
June 17th, 2009
8:58 am
You know how you boil a frog, right?
Redneck Convert
June 17th, 2009
9:00 am
Well, I live high enough in the mountains that the seas won’t reach me even if all the ice caps melt. It wouldn’t bother me if a bunch of New Yorkers walked around all the time in four feet of water. Besides, doing something about this climate change costs money. They already raised my taxes on Skoal and Red Man, and I don’t want to be paying more for everything else because of this cap and trade garbage the libruls want to pass.
So I say just keep arguing about if there is climate change or not. If us Conservatives turn out to be wrong about it, well, we’ll be dead by the time the bad stuff happens anyway, and you can’t drown a dead man. Leastwise we’ll die with fat bank accounts. In the meantime, we can let Free Innerprize rip. Heck, as slow as they say this climate change will be, maybe kids will start getting born with fins on their hands and feet.
Have a good day everybody.
Consume-ative
June 17th, 2009
9:03 am
Balderdash! What a load of liberal horse hockey! Pollution is good! We need more of it! In fact, every good American should build a fire pit in the back yard and burn coal in it all the time!
Joey
June 17th, 2009
9:03 am
Your desire to squash opposing views is typical. Attack even before a comment is made. Good strategy. But:
If you know the history and facts of this “science” and still believe in Man-Made-Carbon Dioxide-Driven (or other gas) Global Warming (or Climate Change), that says something unflattering about you.
If you don’t know the history and believe, that also says something unflattering about you.
For us Global Warming Atheist debating this is with Beleivers is a waste of energy. No sane environmentalist wants to waste energy.
Turd Ferguson
June 17th, 2009
9:04 am
BS…complete BS. Dont believe a word of it. This propoganda is just the greenies like Al Goron who are up to no good. The weather experts with their fancy, new-fangled contraptions cant predict the weather 24 hours ahead of time.
And this report, complete with its harvard educated jerk-offs and blustering idiots, is supposed to predict the weather for years ahead of time along with possible future circumstances? HOGWASH!!
You sheeple keep following and swallowing.
Its all smoke and mirrors!!
S GA dem
June 17th, 2009
9:11 am
Once again, it’s can’t be true until Fox News tells me so!!!
FinnMcCool
June 17th, 2009
9:13 am
Myth: Canada is a socialized health care system in which the government runs hospitals and where doctors work for the government.
Princeton University health economist Uwe Reinhardt says single-payer systems are not “socialized medicine” but “social insurance” systems because doctors work in the private sector while their pay comes from a public source. Most physicians in Canada are self-employed. They are not employees of the government nor are they accountable to the government. Doctors are accountable to their patients only.
More than 90 percent of physicians in Canada are paid on a fee-for-service basis. Claims are submitted to a single provincial health care plan for reimbursement, whereas in the U.S., claims are submitted to a multitude of insurance providers. Moreover, Canadian hospitals are controlled by private boards and/or regional health authorities rather than being part of or run by the government.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_12523427
Mrs. Godzilla
June 17th, 2009
9:14 am
It’s snowing somewhere…..Global warming Balderdash!
teheehee
Dr. No
June 17th, 2009
9:17 am
And, like Paul said, the dinosaurs adjusted to things being one degree hotter. So can we. Just crank up the AC a little more. Just say no to all this science and data and stuff. They can’t prove a thing with all their facts and formulas. Demand proof. It’s your God given right. Besides, when the oceans have risen and flooded New Orleans and New York, it won’t be such a great loss. It will just be a shorter ride to get to the beach and that will save fuel, like any good conservative should want to do. So, just say no to all those anti- coal burners and anti-gas burners and such. They don’t know nothing.
Mrs. Godzilla
June 17th, 2009
9:18 am
“Confronting the converging risks of energy security and national security is critical to ensuring Americas national security. Senior retired U.S. admirals and generals examined how the impacts of energy demand and climate change could increasingly drive America’s military missions in this century. In this video, hear the views and share in the expertise of members of the Military Advisory Board.”
more here:
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-06-16-energy-climate-security/
….listening to the General’s on the ground…..
Dr. No
June 17th, 2009
9:23 am
Well,
Mrs. Godzilla. If you are going to go and turn this whole debate into a military matter and a matter of national security and a matter of us fighting to protect our claims on the world’s oil and coal and gas and water and land and such, then that’s an entirely different matter. Have you met my other side, Dr. Yes.
RB from Gwinnett
June 17th, 2009
9:24 am
“I wonder whether members of Schlegel’s organization pay attention to predictions about rain”. Gee, I wonder if YOU, Jay, pay any attention to the accuracy of these same so-called experts predictions about the 17 major named storms with 3 hitting the US every year. None of that crap is ever accurate and nobody ever calls these “experts” on it. Honestly, they would be every bit as accurate by picking marbles out of a bag. Yet you keep listening to them every year and reporting their crap with hysteria attached. Why? Because they call themselves experts???? My guess is they write the horoscope the rest of the year.
Maybe you could try looking at the actual climate evidence over time and make some rational conclusion from it like a sane person would do? They cried ice age in the 70’s and now they’re crying warming; even though we’ve been on a cooling cycle for the last 10 years.
Why can’t we attempt to save energy and reduce pollution because it’s the smart thing to do without all the hysteria and fear mongering from the left?
Turd Ferguson
June 17th, 2009
9:24 am
Just another in a long line of liberals and UN yoyo’s attempting to get The World to follow in their footsteps. Getting The World all scared with their scary prognostications and diatribes so they might strip us of what liberties we do have remaining. Pooting in our faces and at the same time attempting to convince us its perfume. So that we might one day be united under one flag and be one people all happy and united people because we ALL are the same.
Just ask them and they will tell you.
ByteMe
June 17th, 2009
9:25 am
You know how you boil a frog, right?
You put them in cold water and turn up the heat. By the time they notice, it’s too late.
Some people are clearly frogs.
Normal
June 17th, 2009
9:31 am
ByteMe: Some people are clearly frogs. The true definition of the anti-conservation movement…Thank you, I couldn’t put it into words before this
Chicken Little
June 17th, 2009
9:32 am
The sky is falling the sky is falling…Look at my reports, my studies, my conferences, my evidence, my conclusions…Im telling The sky is falling…
mm
June 17th, 2009
9:37 am
Here in North FL we’re already having temps similar to August temps. I guess a company run by Gore built and sold rigged thermometers.
Tell Me Why
June 17th, 2009
9:38 am
Why can’t we attempt to save energy and reduce pollution because it’s the smart thing to do without all the hysteria and fear mongering from the left?
Why! Why, I ask! Why! Can’t anyone tell me why. Carter tried to get us to use less gas way back in the seventies. In fact, some people have been warning for decades that we cannot keep on using more and more fossil fuels and expecting no adverse consequences such as higher fuel prices as resources get more expensive and more people get more greedy. And, then there is the pollution. I mean, it’s not like there is not all the evidence that any sane person would need right outside. Just take a deep breath if you live anywhere near a source of pollution such as a bunch of cars or coal-fired power plants or any number of industries. And sometimes you don’t even need to live near them to feel their effects — the weather will bring it to you. So, just say no to global warming and cap and trade and reducing our dependence on oil and to using less energy and just say yes to saving energy and to reducing pollution. I mean, it’s all in how you say it. You have to come across as a caring person, a conservative person, a person that values family. You cannot sound like some environmentalist nut job and expect to get people to listen to you. That’s like sounding like a right wing nut job and expecting to get people to listen to you. Darned extremists. Why. Why are they always rocking the boat.
Brian
June 17th, 2009
9:40 am
OMG, the temperatures in the US are going to rise 11 degrees by the end of the century, a mere 92 years away. “Somebody has a story they’re trying to pitch, agenda that they’re selling,” James Taylor of the Heartland Institute told Sieberg. “But they’re not necessarily basing their report on the best available science.” Could it be cap & trade? Take this cap & trade along with nationalized healthcare and mandated coverage and shove it!
Who cares if the sky is falling
June 17th, 2009
9:51 am
Who cares! So what if the world turns into a wasteland in a hundred years or if all the coast line is under water in fifty years. After all, even a newborn will be old by then so it’s not like they’ll have a hard time. They’ll even find a way to adjust if things really get as bad as folks claim. We can’t just put our lifestyles on hold because some left wing nut case think that the sky is falling. That’s just crazy talk. If it gets hotter in the summer, it won’t be the end of the world. The planet will still be here. And, if all the ice melts, there will be more water for folks to drink and swim in. We might even be able to travel to more place by boat. What is wrong with that. And, maybe more people will learn how to fish and there will be fewer cows and that will mean less flatulence in the world. So, let things heat up. I’ll just turn up the air conditioner to full power and stay indoors more.
Jay
June 17th, 2009
9:53 am
Brian quotes Heartland Institute about the “best available science.”
This is the same Heartland Institute more or less created by the tobacco industry to claim that based on “the best available science,” smoking didn’t really cause cancer. I wonder how many people they helped to kill with that nonsense.
Same schtick now, just a different issue.
Paul
June 17th, 2009
9:59 am
SA Ga Dem 9:11
[[Once again, it’s can’t be true until Fox News tells me so!!!]]
You’re a few years behind the times. Time to start believin’.
” FOXNEWS.COM HOME > SCITECH
Congressional Scientific Commission: Global Warming Is Real, Caused by Humans
Friday, June 23, 2006
“WASHINGTON — It has been 2,000 years and possibly much longer since the Earth has run such a fever.
The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported Thursday that the “recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia.”
A panel of top climate scientists told lawmakers that the Earth is heating up and that “human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming.”
Their 155-page report said average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about 1 degree during the 20th century.
This is shown in boreholes, retreating glaciers and other evidence found in nature, said Gerald North, a geosciences professor at Texas A&M University who chaired the academy’s panel.
The report was requested in November by the chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., to address naysayers who question whether global warming is a major threat.”
Dr. No 9:17
[[And, like Paul said, the dinosaurs adjusted to things being one degree hotter. So can we.]]
I don’t believe I said that. Didn’t think I implied it. The show was about new evidence for dinosaur extinction – and temp change was a biggie.
mm
[[I guess a company run by Gore built and sold rigged thermometers.]]
I don’t believe so. VP Gore runs an investment firm, not a manufacturing firm. He’s invested billions in companies whose products will be mandated by anticipated legislation. He has an eye on the high-tech, side, too. He’s invested millions in companies who are devising software to track cap and trade. The market’s now about $2.5 billion. If the Democratic Congress and President make cap and trade law, the market will be about $25 billion – and Gore will Score!
Democrats, Big Business and Insider Interests. Taking over from the Republicans in the new century.
AmVet
June 17th, 2009
10:00 am
“Why can’t we attempt to save energy and reduce pollution because it’s the smart thing to do…”
Great question, RB.
I believe the answer is because there are too many HUGE interests with concentrated, unregulated power and wealth who don’t want that outcome and who will do everything they can to ensure it doesn’t happen on their watch.
All the science in the world would not matter to these interests. And every compelling reason in the world to be ethical and wise will fall on deaf ears as simply being too unprofitable.
Which generally means progressives, independents, moderates and non-Republicans are forced to deal with that reality.
So no, we will no longer ask nicely for the money-first, war-first, science-haters and Jesus freaks to quit obfuscating and denying and doing unrelenting damage. And yes, killing even more people.
The rational people who drive this issue to the fore, are gonna do what they have to do. With or without you…
Brian
June 17th, 2009
10:01 am
Good FYI Jay. Wonder why we only hear about the reports coming from the White House team. Can’t we get some independent reports so it won’t look like they’re spreading propaganda to promote cap & trade?
TnGelding
June 17th, 2009
10:02 am
I Report
You Whine 
June 17th, 2009
8:57 am
Since you asked, it was a prediction. The number is just an educated guess anyway, so what does it really matter? The stimulus will accomplish the small goal it was intended. No doubt some of the nearly $800 billion will end up in your well-manicured paws
HSR0601
June 17th, 2009
10:05 am
I’d encourage the skeptics to think of Beijing sky.
The current consumption of dirty, noxious energy reminds me of human smoking habit.
Obama is a nerd/Tom Petty is the coolest
June 17th, 2009
10:06 am
I remember this. Luckyly, my parents didn’t convey the hysteria to innocent kids.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944914,00.html
Obama is a nerd/Tom Petty is the coolest
June 17th, 2009
10:07 am
What about this? Gah!
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS109919+23-Mar-2009+MW20090323
But it's called "Heartland Institute"
June 17th, 2009
10:07 am
By now, Willie Nilly has emerged from Sally Bali’s shadow to become one of the go-to skeptics, appearing as a key speaker at the two recent Heartland Institute’s Denial-Paloozas in New York. Soon is again a featured panelist at next week’s 3rd Heartland Institute Denial-Palooza (wait, didnt they just have the 2nd one about 2 months ago?) Senator Inhofe and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) will join the shrinking but noisy denial crew in DC on June 2nd.
Chloe
June 17th, 2009
10:09 am
Move it or lose it!
Next natural disaster up for grabs by politicians.
Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth.
– Archimedes, circa 235 BC
For a long time now, Earthlings have been threatening to move heaven and Earth in order to get this or that accomplished. Politicians promise to do so before every election. Moms seem to manage, at least metaphorically, to do it every day. Now a group of scientists says it could be done for real.
Well, heaven might have to stay put. But with existing technology, some advance planning and a little orbital energy, courtesy of a redirected asteroid, Earth’s distance from the Sun could be increased by 50 percent in just a few billion years.
It’s a scheme that could save the planet, at least for a while. Because if Earth stays in its current orbit, we are doomed.
Hot death
Just as sure as the Sun comes up every morning, it is scheduled to die. Experts give it some 7 billion years, when it will turn into a bloated red giant. As the name implies, a red giant is a star swelled to gargantuan proportions. Earth would be first engulfed in heat and light, then vaporized.
In the meantime they’ll make big buckOs off cap and trade. Face it earthlings. It’s politicians that are the natural disaster.
Jay
June 17th, 2009
10:09 am
This IS an independent report, Brian. It has nothing to do with the White House.
As I noted, the research group was created by Congress (back in 1990) and reflect the consensus opinion of scientists in 13 agencies. I have seen no claim that the findings were in any way influenced by the White House, which is a change from reports on this topic issued during the Bush years.
Obama is a nerd/Tom Petty is the coolest
June 17th, 2009
10:10 am
I guess the debate is over.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/newsweeks-1975-article-about-the-coming-ice-age
Obama is a nerd/Tom Petty is the coolest
June 17th, 2009
10:11 am
Everyone complains about the weather, but only liberals try to legislate it.
RB from Gwinnett
June 17th, 2009
10:12 am
AmVet, i disagree. I don’t think anybody on the right has any issue with a rataional approach to energy conservation and emissions reductions. The key is “rational”. This fear mongering of a 9 degree increase in this century is not productive to the conversation. It sounds like somebody is about to force a pile of crap on us to stop this tragedy from becoming a reality. Especially when the climate evidence over the last 10 years has shown cooling, not increased temps. Thats exactly why they’ve changed the mantra from “global warming” to “global climate change”. With that lable, they can claim hysteria with every weather phenom from hurricanes to snow storms and milk it for all it’s worth. Rational people can see through the smoke screen and aren’t listening any longer.
Paul
June 17th, 2009
10:14 am
Obama is a Nerd 10:06
Do you think that maybe, in 40 years, science, scientific methods and scientific research (which drive conclusions) have advanced just a wee bit?
But even if it is still a problem, doesn’t RB have a point at 9:24? Will not reducing pollution for the known ill effects also alleviate the impact about which climate change advocates are concerned?
HSR0601
And look at what happened to air quality in Beijing when the authorities took action to clean things up a few WEEKS before the Olympics.
TnGelding
June 17th, 2009
10:16 am
EPA opinion:
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/basicinfo.html
What inflation?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090617/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy
Dr. No
June 17th, 2009
10:17 am
Dr. No 9:17
[[[That one degree temp change was back in the dinosaur days. Millions back. But the effects are evident.]]]
[[And, like Paul said, the dinosaurs adjusted to things being one degree hotter. So can we.]]
I don’t believe I said that. Didn’t think I implied it. The show was about new evidence for dinosaur extinction – and temp change was a biggie.
Paul,
You said that the earth was one degree different millions of years ago, in dinosaur days, and that the effects were evident. I did nothing but agree with you. Dinosaurs adjusted by becoming extinct. We can adjust just as well as they did.
TnGelding
June 17th, 2009
10:21 am
Paul
June 17th, 2009
9:59 am
But what is Gore doing with his score?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/24/gore-sigh-reprised-on-cap_n_191253.html
Turd Ferguson
June 17th, 2009
10:21 am
1st, Global cooling
2nd, Global warming
3rd, Global climate change
Next thing ya know the US liberals and UN chowderheads will be calling it by what it really is…Global Circle Jerk.
Finally the truth has triumphed.
Paul
June 17th, 2009
10:21 am
Dr. No
True – but your conclusion “We can adjust as well as they did” was off based upon the intent of my post. Unless you meant to imply we can adjust by becoming extinct as they did.
Jay
June 17th, 2009
10:23 am
Yes, RB and Paul, rational efforts to reduce pollution and energy consumption — both good goals in their own right — would indeed have the impact you suggest. But our friend RB is being more than a little disingenuous when he suggests that “I don’t think anybody on the right has any issue with a rational approach to energy conservation and emissions reductions.”
Who fought hardest against increasing gas mileage requirements? Who fought hardest against efforts to clean up coal plants, to require more efficient air conditioners and dish washers?
If we’re going to have this discussion, let’s at least do so honestly, shall we?
Turd Ferguson
June 17th, 2009
10:24 am
Perhaps now is the time to send Al Windbag Goron and Jimmy Useless Carter to the Middle East and that would be that…kindve a twofer, so to speak.