To the extended BOZEMAN Family with particular concern for
the Great Grandchildren of C. Howard and Barbara Bozeman, their cousins,
In-Laws and interested friends.
For some time now I have been closely following the Climate
Change situation and the political situation concerning Climate Change and
Economics. I have the time and inclination to do this and my opinions and
suggestions are not shaped or predicated on what passes for “news” in the USA today. I go
to the frontline scientific expeditions and reports particularly from the
Arctic, Greenland, and Antarctica paying particular attention to the most
recognized experts who draw their theories, assumptions and conclusions from
the models and studies of the NSF (National Science Foundation) and IPCC (IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change)
Way early in my later college and life I chose a very
unorthodox path of anti-establishment activity. I managed to avoid work and career with a
conscious choice of entrepreneurial border jumping, concert production, band
management, and booking When forced by circumstance and bad partners I took
over Mountain Sound and got us through the World’s Fair to financial solvency
and then took to the highway as a sales rep and sales manager in the pro audio
field finally achieving a place as the foremost sub-woofer guru in the Bass
Business.
Another bad partnership choice forced me to NY and then back
to Knoxville
but I have remained a hippie at heart with strong anti-establishment roots and
feelings. That does not make me wrong on this so I pray you will read on and
take heed to what I’m telling you. Unlike most of you with jobs, careers,
families and social lives; I have the time and inclination to follow the
details of climate change and I have watched every documentary and video I
could find on the subject while debating numerous deniers online. If you Google
“Best recent climate change documentaries” you will find my picture and listing
on the first page of results. Does that make me an expert? NO, but it does show my intense effort to be
informed along with the 175,000 plus visits my website has achieved. I am very
well informed on this subject and it scares the crap out of me.
Although there is no way to achieve absolute certainty, I
side with the 98% of established recognized peer reviewed scientific papers and
organizations that theorize man made climate change is real and a clear and
present danger to the fabric of civilization as we know it.
Read it with care.
I hope all of you are aware of the political postures of our
“leaders” – On the one side President Obama making concerted attempts to
construct a plan to try to curb the CO2 emissions that increase greenhouse
gasses and exacerbate climate change and in opposition almost every Republican
from those who work for big oil claiming Climate Change to be a “hoax” to
slightly more moderate stances but none who are willing or interested in doing
anything to address the problem (even if they concede it exists)
It’s been over 6 years since I spent 3 months in TN, Colorado and North
Carolina doing everything I could to help Barack
Obama win the Presidency. In some significant ways his failure to achieve what
I hoped he could has led to my recent state of deep depression. Only recently
have I begun to emerge from that state of depression with a desire to do
something again to help our family survive a future I now contend will be
significantly changed from almost everything we have known in our lifetimes.
It’s difficult to imagine that intelligent people cannot
come to grips with the idea that you cannot dig up and pump out the accumulated
fossil fuels built up in millions of years and spew it out as smoke and gas
into our closed atmosphere without significant consequences. But Capitalism has
rarely accounted for cost and profit taking into account the long term
environmental effects of resource depletion and/or pollution.
We have detailed studies of the environmental and waste
byproduct impact of extracting oil from the Canadian tar sands and fracking for
natural gas but big business has made it impossible for an elected Congress to
establish a fair and equitable cost that accounts for waste and pollution.
“Drill Baby Drill” and bring the cost of oil down to insure that business investment
in fossil fuel is secure and hire the same people who kept trying to prove that
tobacco is harmless to confuse the public about the real costs of oil
addiction.
THERE IS NO QUESTION ABOUT IT NOW – CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL
and it is close to unstoppable. These things are certain if nothing is done to
mitigate the problem. The situation is dire verging on catastrophic and there
is no consensus worldwide much less in the US since the Climate Summits have
yielded little in the way of results. No will on the part of the US to adhere to
any reduction in greenhouse gasses.
1) Greenland and massive
parts of the West Antarctic Ice sheets will melt and go into the sea causing
sea level rise of 12 to 30 meters
2) A 2 meter sea level
rise will displace 187 Million homes in areas at or near sea level and the
shifts in rain and weather patterns will create drought and flood conditions
that will significantly disrupt food production.
3) This displaced population will create a strain on
national resources even in a country as rich as ours and large masses of
displaced homeless hungry people will move inland seeking food and shelter in
unprecedented numbers.
4) In the natural cycle of colder and warmer years based on
the Earth’s distance and tilt toward the sun we should be in a cooling cycle –
but we are warming instead. What happens when Earth heads back into closer
proximity to the Sun?
5) Very recent discoveries by OMG and GRACE over Greenland
show that the fiords cutting deep into Greenland
are far longer and deeper than ever imagined so warmer ocean water can now
under cut and melt much more ice than predicted. Back in 2007 Scientists were
reticent to include Greenland and the
Antarctic in their models showing 2050 and 2100 as the timeframe where sea level
rise would become a major problem. Now they are playing catch up with new
technology to get more data in order to accurately model the problem. This story about a 3 meter sea level rise prediction in a faster time frame is just making the rounds in the media:
If you have become interested in the information provided in
this email here is the link to my 2014 website and my list of “BEST RECENTCLIMATE CHANGE DOCUMENTARIES” there are some recent additions I included in
more recent email to the brothers and Allison including the Bill Maher produced
HBO Series VICE that takes us on a
flight over the Antarctic glaciers being studied by NASA and NOAA. This VICE
episode is the one thing I think you should watch so you can see the depth and
detail of the research that supports my argument that we are in deep trouble.
If you don’t do anything else watch this ASAP Sorry but it appears you can only watch
segments of this online for free without an HBO subscription. If you have HBOGO you can watch the entire episode HERE -
This program is the best thus far at showing first hand how
Republican talking points are created and proliferated through the media. Mr
Bast who’s claim to fame was holding back legislation that put warning labels
on cigarettes by claiming the science linking smoking to cancer was flawed –
has taken that “expertise” to the climate “debate”. When scientist show how the
west Antarctic glaciers are melting rapidly and warn of the danger the
Heartlland Foundation puts out a bevy of talking heads claiming that the “big
picture” shows sea ice at record coverage in east Antarctica – as if this is
somehow a balance to the melting on land glaciers. Any fool knows this is just
plain horseshit but the media thinks it is “fair and balanced’ to promote this
as a ‘debate’. Just put an ice cube on
water in a bowl and measure the water level before and after it melts. NO
CHANGE. But add more ice to the bowl and the level goes up. That’s the
relationship that matters so why is the KOCH supported HEARTLAND INSTITUTE so
dedicated to misleading us? Those of you
with some affinity for the Republican Party need to answer that for yourselves.
The American people in the majority want something to be
done about climate change. We have reduced our fuel consumption and switched
out our light bulbs. We know that we could build massive solar arrays in sun
drenched desert locations of power most of our cities. We watch as Germany has led
the way in converting a huge percentage of their energy requirement to solar
sources. We have the technology and we could create millions of jobs while we
convert the country to renewable clean energy. But the big money behind big oil
and coal are, will be and have been doing everything they can to keep us
dependent on their dirty fossil fuels. They own Congress and the media.
The disconnect between the scientific data and the public
awareness of the unprecedented ice melt in the west Antarctic is a case in
point. Prominent Republicans spew doubt citing the strong increase in sea ice
coverage as evidence of cooling when it’s clear that thin ice atop the ocean
has no bearing on sea level rise caused by land based ice going into the ocean.
Ice on or in the ocean has no bearing on sea level and the thin expanse of ice
on the ocean is the result of a change in wind circulation caused by the
warming in the ocean to the west. This
is obvious to even the least educated but Republican politicians seem to have
no problem with being obtuse and misleading their followers as long as it suits
their benefactors with big oil and business.
Perhaps it’s fitting that a nation willing to be misled
suffers the consequences of this willful ignorance – but by in large these
people will not suffer the consequences. It is Cullin, Maci, Kent, Owen, Evan
and Avah along with Bronwyn, Caleb and Ursula that will bear the brunt of the problems created by this insanity.
We as a family have a situation to consider. What if
anything should we do now to prepare for what I predict is inevitable and what
no one can rule out as impossible or improbable. I would love to be wrong about
this – and I can hope like many do that some solution short of collapse will be
forthcoming. But we live in a country
where the preponderance of the Republican party supports Donald Trump for President
followed by men like W’s brother and Mr Huckabee. You can bet that none of these people will do
anything to stem the rise of greenhouse gasses. Florida’s governor would see his state
submerged before he would go against the oil interests and submerged it will
become.
HOW MUCH TIME DO WE HAVE?
We may have 20 years or perhaps even 30 before those neck
deep in water in Miami
are willing to admit they are drowning. But it is quite possible that 10 years
will show us changes that are difficult to imagine. Katrina and Sandy didn’t wake us up. Why
should beachfront in Orlando
make a difference? California and Washington State
are burning while unprecedented drought in Central CA and Texas cut into agriculture and beef
production. But Huckabee wants to use the military to force financially
destitute women to carry unwanted embryos to full term as if increased
populations of destitute children is the most important thing we can
accomplish. Even if a climate change realist is elected President this time
around, he or she will be faced with an intractable Congress owned by the
fossil fuel industry.
The long and short of all that is that there will be no
political solution to this problem. The temperature will rise and the ice will
melt – so the only real question is what will that do to ocean currents and the
world as we know it? Some see a runaway freight train of rising temperatures
that life on Earth will not survive. A second Noah’s flood of Biblical
proportions resulting in Waterworld for real.
We know the oceans are in trouble from over fishing and
increased acidification. It seems likely that the greatest CO2 sink on the
planet (the ocean) is reaching a saturation point and that saturation coupled
with the warming is causing significant decrease in phytoplankton and krill –
the base food that supports life in the seas. The Adelie penguin population in
the west Antarctic is down 85% in the past 5 years and other penguin colonies
in the area seem poised to follow suit. These birds and the krill are the
canaries in the Antarctic coal mine.
In fact the polar regions are the bell weather indicators of
what is coming and the news is ALL BAD. You should become conversant with the
term “tipping point” and understand that once these cycles take hold the
collapse could be sudden and overwhelming. The ice melts in the arctic areas
and the lack of ice removes the reflections that bounce a lot of solar energy
back into space. Instead the darker oceans absorb the heat and this increases
the melting of ice. As the ice melts and
the temperatures inside the Arctic Circle
increase the permafrost begins to thaw. The permafrost is made up of peat and
other organic material high in methane. As it thaws the methane is released and
methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 – this increases the
greenhouse effect and thus increases the warming. The points where these effects become unstoppable and less reflection – more heat absorbed – thawing of permafrost – methane release – more warming – theseare “tipping points’ launching the climate into unknown and unpredictable
territory.
NASA has launched OMG to study Oceans Melting Greenland and
already scientist are surprised and dismayed to find things to be far worse
than predicted. There is enough ice on Greenland
to raise the ocean by over 6 meters and the rate of the melt is accelerating as
the permafrost in the north is now thawing. Turns out the rather dire
predictions from 2007 were nowhere near dire enough. Warmer ocean water is
headed under the ice in fiords that are much deeper than anyone knew and the
glaciers that feed those fiords are now much more vulnerable than thought. The loss of 20% of Greenland’s Ice and the
west Antarctic glaciers could combine for a 2 meter sea level rise in a much
shorter than anticipated time frame. 2030 instead of 2050. The best place forscientific data on Greenland comes from the NSIDC (National Snow and Ice Data Center)
There remains a serious range of probabilities regarding sea
level rise and the models in Antarctica for
instance. Many now predict a 2 meter rise probability – enough to flood 187
million homes worldwide. But measuring sea level is tricky business. We do not
live on a static planet and the oceans are not like a bathtub. The oceans shift
and flow as winds pile up massive amounts of sea water.
An interesting aside to this entry is the Godzilla trailer that accompanies this article. This is one of two trailers I redid with Wiley
Statement of Soundeluxe for the Cary Grant Theater presentation at Sony attended
by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Stargate, Day After
Tomorrow, 10,000 BC, White House Down, and 2012). We spent a week outfitting 2
rows in the theater with Aura Bass Shakers and an omni-directional overhead
speaker to substitute for the Right and Left Center
speakers of 5 behind the screen in the SONY SDDS digital sound system. Wiley
and I spent 2 nights remixing the sound for the trailers in Hollywood so the
seats would shake when Godzilla’s foot hit the ground and the rain and lightning
sounds came from above.
All the bigwigs from SONY PICTURES filed into the two rows
for the demonstration and they all stood up and applauded at the end of each
trailer. Talks immediately began about outfitting 40 or 50 top theaters across
the USA
with the shakers and the overhead and I was tasked with mapping out a business
plan that could accomplish this in 90 days. I was seeing visions of taking the
state at the Academy Awards to receive my Oscar with Wiley for Technical
Achievement in Sound. Then Dean and Roland went a million over budget and a 6
month delay and my big chance fell by the wayside. But I digress.
Despite a clear realization of the relationship between
greenhouse gasses *CO2 and the increase in temperature leading to the problems
considered above, we are increasing our output of CO2 quite dramatically. The
increased awareness of conscious humans concerning the damage possible from
this warming trend has accelerated the use of less power for light bulbs and the
purchase of more fuel efficient cars. So as individuals who vote with their
wallets the people are willing to do what they can. But our leaders who control
policy concerning power generation, mass transportation, alternative energy
applications on the large scale, incentives, and the exportation of dirty coal
to China
are clearly not in step with average American consumers. They are moved by big
contributions from big oil – not the will or desire of individual constituents.
So we are seeing unprecedented ice loss in the west
Antarctic and Greenland that followed
unprecedented glacier loss in high elevations. We are seeing the death of coral
reefs caused by acidity and bleaching and the decline of basic ocean food
stuffs and fisheries. We are seeing unprecedented storm surges and droughts,
fires and winds. But our political system is deadlocked by men who are owned by
the interests of business as usual never mind the signs. There is NO LIKELIHOOD
of a political solution to our situation
SO WHAT CAN WE DO? WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
The only solution I can come up with is a plan to give our
grand children and their families a fighting chance to survive and thrive in a
very dangerous situation. If there is a 2 to 5 year period of upheaval caused
by mass migration and massive food shortages with very restricted law and order
it will be necessary for good people to find a place where they can store
enough food to supplement what they can grow and protect it from starving
masses and gangs. Food, shelter, seeds,
animals, firearms and ammunition will be necessary and in a place that is
difficult to find and easy to defend. It’s the only way to have a chance in a
world where government and order have broken down.
Imagine a situation where the eastern seaboard is flooded
along with half of Florida and all of the Gulf Coast
up the Mississippi to Memphis. Imagine 30 million homeless hungry
people headed for higher ground at a time when grocery stores no longer receive
shipments of food. Forget restaurants or Pilot convenience stores. Who holds an army or police force together
when they are trying to fend for their wives and children or their parents?
Imagine the most powerful entities to be right wing survivalists and gun nuts
armed to the teeth with children to feed?
The first things to go will be access to your cash at any
ATM or bank if your cash is actually worth anything. Even if you have it where
will you find food? Power will shut down and there will be no more TV or news.
Neighbors with generators and stores of food will be forced to defend their
houses against neighbors who failed to store up anything but will die rather
than see their kids starve. Armed thugs will have the best chance at survival
in a world without law enforcement and individual good people will die along
with their families. The more remote and the better prepared for life off the
grid you are, the better the chance for survival.
Small remote towns with cohesive populations will do better.
Even some communities that can act together for protection might make a fight
of it but a family tied by blood on 200 acres way off the beaten track with
solar power generation and 50 acres planted in vegetables and fruit with cows,
goats, llama, chickens and sheep and 2 years of stored foodstuffs like rice,
flour, dried and canned goods could ride out the upheaval alive and well. We
have Doctors and could store up medicines and vitamins to keep well.
Dr Charlie, David and Sam with Linda, Gena and Megan
(Susan, Pat?) Ben, Devin, Scott,
Chad, Bryan and
Caleb with Alison, Leslie, Sarah, Bronwyn and Ursula (Becky)
Cullin, Kent, Maci, Owen, Evan, and Avah make 24
How many of Ben’s, Devin’s, Scott’s , Megan’s, or Gena’s
families might join us?
100 acres with 20 in crops could feed and shelter 60 people
with a clean spring fed water supply. In fact 50 or 60 would be a good number
for protection and sharing the workload.
20 solar panels with battery storage and an ample supply of
hardwoods for wood stoves would supply the energy and heat and light. Small
game, fish and deer could supplement the diet. And we all could become more
proficient at tasks done routinely by our ancestors.
If I sell or get a reverse mortgage on this house I can come
up with $65,000 and provide a significant amount of the tools we might
require. Charlie already owns a
significant number of items that would be very useful. Given enough time there
might be time to transport his trailers from Douglas
and the river to provide additional shelter. If we could acquire a farm with a
sizable house and barn it would be much easier to get started.
A $300,000 farm with a reasonable 30 year mortgage would
give us plenty of property and if we had 10 or 12 people contributing $100 a
month for the mortgage it could be substantial. People like Donnie, Timbs
Jones, The Pipkins, etc could increase the contributors to 10 or 12 and we are
looking at 2 years emergency accommodations for survival – not luxury or
extreme comfort. A bed in the barn would be fine by me but as things become
more clear participants could make deals for campers to provide lodging.
If we can find a suitable small farm with water somewhere
off the beaten path away from significant populations we could make it
accessible by our families and those who want to participate with us. Over the
next 10 to 15 years we make it a retreat and each year we increase the stock of
food and materials while learning the geography and terrain and making
improvements. Once the signs become stronger we make certain those who have to
travel to get there over some distance have plans in place to make it.
A precise budget for something like this would be difficult
to provide but I could make use of the $65,000 reverse mortgage or sale price
of this house as a $60,000 down-payment on a $300,000 farm with a monthly
mortgage cost of 1,266 at today’s rate. With a dozen prime participants we
would have $100 each a month.
We could take advantage of some Solar credits to purchase
and install a $30,000 Solar System and perhaps Chad and I could take up residence
there on a permanent basis in order to work on the property to make it suitable
for the 20 acres in garden and accommodations for the animals. We would
allocate suitable locations for separate trailers, campers or camps up to the
individual to make suitable for their use and would bring in a back hoe and PVC
to pipe water to the locations.
A rifle and archery range would be built and the barn and
animal pens made ready. A small tractor would be acquired to prepare the soil
for the plants and fruit trees would be planted – all from my deal with Kinsey.
All of my computers and electronics would be used for
communication, documentation and entertainment and we would turn the property
into a pleasant retreat for our members on a rotating basis for use until
everyone has their own suitable shelter devised or brought to the property.
This outlay of $$$ would be completely recoverable and
members could sell their membership if they opt out on the basis of acceptance
by the group of the replacement. Once we’ve determined by trial the maximum
capacity for the retreat based on food production and water/power/shelter and
room we could offer additional spaces to new members with a blackball system in
place where any member could vote to exclude potential members.
If we set a yearly contribution cost at 2000 to 2500 per family
unit we could vote on acquisitions of equipment, buildings, and stores of
non-perishable foods to insure food survival in case of garden or animal
failure.
A 1 year 4 person food supply is sold by Overstock
for $3700 providing 20,711 servings of 1300 calories thus my one year supply or
a supply for myself, Alison Ben and Cullin for 2 full years would be $7,500.
The garden and animals would extend this to 3 or 4 years. Thus each participant
would be looking at 2500 per year in mortgage and equipment fees and 3700 per
year in food supply for a party of 4 or 6,500 to insure the survival of
themselves and their family of 4 with most or all of that recoverable if for
any reason we choose to sell the property when a miracle cure for climate
change is found.
NOTE: These 3700 food kits are for reference and I’m certain
we can find less expensive alternatives like 50lb sacks of long grain brown
rice for $60. There are numerous groups selling bulk staples for long time food
storage and as a Social Security minimum individual I can take advantage of
food banks and a number of federal and state programs to purchase this kind of
food for storage as ridiculously low prices.
In fact I’m almost certain we can cut the stored food cost by half with
judicious planning.
AN EXAMPLE OF A TYPE OF PROPERTY FOR OUR RETREAT and REFUGE:
Ed Kinsey owns a farm near Roan Mountain
where he grows the Rhododendron and Azalea plants for his nursery. This 200
acre farm is north across the highway that runs from Elizabethton to Banner Elk
near the NC line and includes a large barn with one 4 BR house one 2 BR house
and a one BR cabin. There is a well stocked lake entirely on the property with
sites that were formerly used for camper trailers prior to his purchase of the
property. The tilled area used for the nursery plants could easily be adapted
for vegetables and a large amount of the property is forest with huge
hardwoods. The lake is perfect for canoes or paddle craft along with the
fishing. Dad and I took Mom for an
overnight visit a few years ago.
As you can see the location is isolated from the main
highways in the center of an undeveloped section of mountains and is at the end
of a dead end road that is difficult to find an well hidden from any casual
passerby. This is the perfect kind of
property for this kind of endeavor because it is a wonderful place to be in
good times as a retreat. Beautiful, isolated, with a good sized lake for
swimming, fishing and unpowered watercraft. It is well suited for DirecTV and
satellite internet or DSL from the phone lines and a fantastic weekend retreat
for folks living in Knoxville.
Trucks can get into the property since Ed picks up truckloads of his plants to
distribute to his nursery including a well built gravel road around the lake to
get trailers or campers to the sites at lakeside.
Two of the participants could pay more to cover the cost of
the houses on the site and that could make up the difference in what I think Ed
and his family might take for the property. The main house is very nice and the
2 BR house is quite new (under 12 years) The barn is used for Ed’s farm
equipment and needs some work but the property is already set with water supply
from springs and septic systems for waste from the houses.
This is just an example of one possible approach to being
prepared. Most of us males are Eagle Scouts for whom “Be Prepared” is a mantra
of familiarity. What I propose is that we collectively discuss and plan a BE
PREPARED solution for our children and grand-children. These changes are coming
and it seems to me after a year of concentrated study that they are coming much
faster than expected. What we thought
might take 50 to 100 years might well start to happen in 10 to 30 years. The eldest among us might have 15 to 25 years
left and the Ben, Allison, Leslie, Devin, Scott, Sarah, Chad,
Bryan, Bronwyn, Caleb and Ursula generation has up to 50 to 70 years. Cullin,
Kent, Owen and their cousins have 80 years or more.
In my opinion discussion and planning need to commence
immediately in order to get ahead of the curve on preparedness. More and more
groups are beginning to purchase and stock refuge locations and there will be a
limit on availability so costs will increase dramatically as it becomes more
apparent that time is running out and changes come more rapidly.
Some of you may be more optimistic that there will be some
solution to the problem that will be able to reverse the trend of warming and
sea level rise but I don’t see much evidence of that in a country that has
become complacent with our use of 25% of the world’s energy and chants “drill
baby drill” while fracking away expending huge amounts of energy to reap oil
from tar sands and shale. The sheer economic and political power of the fossil
fuel industry will continue to thwart the scientific solutions. They killed the
electric car in the 80’s and they will hold back conversion to renewables as
long as they can. All they care about is short term profit.
The KOCH brothers and oil magnates won’t have any problem
buying retreats away from the seething masses of starving dispossessed families
who will be forced to flee their seaside homes in the greatest exodus ever seen
but those of us who live in the real world will not have that capability unless
we plan and prepare for it sooner rather than later.
My intention is to have this document begin a thought
process and a discussion of what we might do to prepare a family retreat that
would double as a refuge if what I predict comes to pass. Co owning a remote
farm – vacation retreat could be a decent investment without a crisis to
consider. If we could collectively purchase and improve the Kinsey property
near Roan Mountain it will certainly increase in
value with the passage of time and be a wonderful place to gather as a family
to enjoy the beauty of that pristine mountain lake removed from the mainstream.
That’s not a bad idea without the prospect of needing a retreat and refuge in
the face of catastrophe.
I want a place where our children, grand children and great
grandchildren can survive if climate change sees a more rapid rise in sea level
and a breakdown in our civilization as a result and I am willing to provide
every dollar I can raise and all of my time to provide this opportunity to be
prepared for any eventuality. As remote
as it is the Kinsey property is only an hour from Johnson
City airport and 2 hours from Knoxville.
But this property is just one example of the type of
location that would provide some security – the reason to start this process of
discussion and consideration is to give us time to find an affordable desirable
location, decide about including friends, and seeing what we might come up with
in terms of commitment.
IMPORTANT SUPPORTING EVIDENCE FOR POTENTIAL CATASTROPHIC
WARMING all AUGUST 2015 Recent Data
Check out the 3-D map of the Greenland Ice Sheet – it is
spectacular
Most informed people think the sea level rise will be very
gradual giving coastal areas some time to construct Netherland style dikes to
mitigate the effects of storm surges and this will be accompanied by significant
migration away from coastal areas in a steady but manageable exodus. Thus
property values in higher elevations will increase steadily while coastal
properties will decrease in value.
Although it will be very costly to construct barriers to the rising seas
and that construction will likely provide only a temporary decade or so of
relief, it seems politicians do have the will to expend our tax dollars for
these types of temporary solutions like rebuilding New Orleans after Katrina or
the efforts underway to rebuild parts of Long Island and Jersey shore areas
post Sandy.
Like throwing 800 Billion at Wall Street to avert financial
crisis these costly plans to keep the coasts above water will drain national
financial resources but they will not solve the problem because a 2 or 3 meter
protection barrier won’t hold back 4 to 6 meter sea level increases. Greenland alone has over 6 meters of sea
level rise trapped in ice but Antarctica holds 90% of the worlds fresh water in
ice and the collapsing west Antarctic glacier mass holds more ice than Greenland..
So there remains this tipping point problem that starts with
melting ice added to the fact that warming seas expend and become less capable
of absorbing more warmth and carbon from emissions. Add to that the problem of
thawing permafrost and the release of millions of tons of methane (a far more
powerful greenhouse gas) and the potential for a catastrophic rapid collapse
becomes very real.
One way this could manifest would be a compressed warming spike
and flash melt that would expand sea level by 3 meters over a single summer
spawning a series of hurricanes and cyclones that send flood waters deep into
Boston, NY, Newport, Portland, Atlantic City, and even Washington DC not to
mention the most populated areas of Florida and cities like Houston, TX. This would be like 30 Katrina events over 3
months.
We all saw how unprepared FEMA was for Katrina and there is
no way it could begin to handle Katrina to the 30th power. And the
rest of the world will suffer even more than the US. Holland will be gone along with
Belgium and the Baltics and Denmark in northern Europe, China’s major cities like Beijing, Kowloon, Guandong and Shanghai
will displace 50 million and Mumbai and Calcutta in India will be worse. Great Britain will suffer the loss of London and Tokyo will be
significantly submerged along with Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and much of Indonesia
and the Philippines.
This kind of worldwide loss of life, food production and shelter will collapse
world order at the same time our military capabilities will be severely
retarded. The chaos would be epic and self reliance will be key to survival for
every American
All of the above becomes possible – even probable – at a 3
degree rise in temperature and this is not outside the parameters of
predictability. Some of our most
prominent climate scientists speak with moderation while privately holding the
view that this kind of catastrophe is inevitable. They only disagree with the
“WHEN” variable and pray that we have 30 or 40 years to get some control. This
is beyond any “HOLY SHIT” revelation. If you carefully read and combine the
accumulated data it is quite easy to provide evidence that this is coming and
coming sooner than anyone could have expected 4 or 5 years ago. We are not
slowing down on CO2 emissions – far from it those emissions are increasing. China and India
are adding over a million combustion engines a year to their highways and China
is putting a new coal fired power plant online every month.
