Saturday, February 19, 2022

One foot sea level rise by 2050 according to U.S. government study

I had a feeling I might not blog about World Pangolin Day yesterday, when I told my readers to "Stay tuned to see if I actually celebrate it." Something bigger came to my attention, another dire warning about risks related to climate change. I begin with MSNBC's Climate Expert Discusses Sobering New Sea Level Rise Report.

A new report from NOAA shows alarming new predictions for sea level rise. Katy Tur sat down with Michael Mann, Penn State Distinguished Professor & Director of their Earth Systems Science Center, to talk about the report and what can be done to protect the climate.
First, those maps of selected coastlines are horrifying. The one of Florida seems to show more of Tampa Bay being flooded than Miami, which the third video explores. Second, Dr. Mann's comments about melting ice sheets reminds me of "Chasing Ice," which seems to be a successful replacement for An Inconvenient Truth" to show my classes. Third, I agree with both Mann and Katy Tur about the aptness of "Don't Look Up" as a metaphor for the reaction to climate change.

CNN described the report's findings as 'Mind boggling': See how rising sea levels will affect the coasts.

Rising sea levels could impact the world's coasts by 2050, a new study says. CNN meteorologist Tom Sater shows "astonishing" images of what that might look like.
While the maps of flooding MSNBC showed were horrifying in the abstract, the depictions of what sea level rise would look like in major U.S. cities from Climate Central were much more concretely scary. So were the projections of both temperature and sea level rise by the end of the century if climate change continues at its current pace. In its own way, I found the news that Indonesia was moving its capital to escape sea level rise to be the most stunning. It would be as if the U.S. moved its capital from Washington, D.C., to Columbus, Ohio. Brazil already did that 60 years ago, moving its capital from Rio De Janeiro to Brasilia. The Brazilians didn't do that for climate change, but it will work for that, too.

Both MSNBC and CNN described the causes and effects of sea level rise. WFTS-TV, ABC Action News in Tampa, Florida, which I already noted would be one of the more adversely affected areas, examined the adaptation measures needed to cope with sea level rise in Sea level to rise up to a foot by 2050, Interagency report projects.

An interagency sea level rise task force that includes NASA, NOAA, and other federal agencies said Tuesday the ocean height is projected to rise by up to a foot over the next 30 years.
As CNN's Tom Sater pointed out, if trying to prevent climate change is expensive, imagine what the price of having it happen will be.

Money for mitigation was also a subject of CNBC's Rising Risks: The race to save America's treasures from climate change.

CNBC's Diana Olick joins Shep Smith to report on the impact climate change could have on America's museums, where priceless American artifacts are housed.
I'm glad the Smithsonian Institution is preparing for climate change, but it would be better if the rest of us did more to reduce our contribution to it.

That wasn't the only climate change news to come out this week. There was also a report that serves as an update to Western drought likely worst in a millennium and may be the beginning of 'aridification'. I plan on getting to that Monday after the Sunday entertainment feature — unless Russia invades Ukraine in the meantime. Stay tuned.

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