A Must Read: "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" by Tom Friedman

This book, by Pulitzer Prize winning author and NY Times columnist, Tom Friedman, is a must read for anyone interested in global warming and climate change. This book will give Friedman his 4th Pulitzer -- the last one was "The World is Flat." In his new book, he compellingly explains the nexus between global warming, globalization, and the population explosion, and he makes a compelling case for why the new "Energy-Climate Era" offers a great opportunity for America to reassert leadership in the world and economic prosperity. The book is available at Amazon.com and other book stores.

Climatologists Forecast Completely New Climates

ScienceDAILY - September 1, 2007 — Geographers have projected temperature increases due to greenhouse gas emissions to reach a not-so-chilling conclusion: climate zones will shift and some climates will disappear completely by 2100. Tropical highlands and polar regions may be the first to disappear, and large swaths of the tropics and subtropics will reach even hotter temperatures. The study anticipates large climate changes worldwide. More

Researchers Generate Hydrogen Without The Carbon Footprint
ScienceDaily (2008-07-18) -- A greener, less expensive method to produce hydrogen for fuel may eventually be possible with the help of water, solar energy and nanotube diodes that use the entire spectrum of the sun's energy. ... > read full article

Bush Administration finally releases climate report

Today, the Bush administration's Office of Science and Technology Policy finally released a comprehensive report on climate change (see MSNBC article) which concurs with the findings of the IPCC and the vast majority of the scientific community. You can download OSTP's fact sheet, the full report, or the exec summary at OSTP's website. I wonder what the naysayers have to say about this new report from OSTP. Now even the Bush administration has to admit that global warming is real, I wish it wasn't so -- I won't get any pleasure from being right about this. The sad fact is that our President held this report up for 4 years. Not only that, he could have joined the Kyoto Agreement in 2001 and enabled our country to play a global leadership role in doing what is needed to minimize this serious problem. Instead, the world has lost 8 critical years. More damage has been done, it will be more costly and difficult to make the changes needed, and the consequences will be worse and more costly to deal with. On Tuesday May 27, 2008, I was interviewed live on a conservative radio talk show whose host declared that he doesn't believe in global warming. He cited the work of OISM, an obscure medical research lab in Oregon that has been bashing climate change in a program financed by ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute, and the George C. Marshall Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington whose CEO is a former ExxonMobil executive. OISM spearheads the "Global Warming Petition Project" that has signed up 31000 "scientists" who are climate change naysayers. OISM's director Arthur Robinson along with his son Noah and Willie Soon published an article in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons entitled "Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide" This journal is published by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, an ultra-conservative political-economic group of medical doctors. You can find out who AAPS and OISM are at Google.com. I stood my ground in the discussion asserting that global warming is caused primarily by human activity and a serious threat to the global environment. The naysayers are so fast to criticize Al Gore, but I think the world would be in a much better place if he became president in 2001. Besides doing a lot more to avert climate change, we wouldn't be in Iraq. I've included pictures of my 8 grandchildren, aged 10 months to 10 years, in this post. I worry about what the world will be like for them in 40, 50, 60 years. I want to ask the naysayers if they have kids, or grandkids. Are they so sure that global warming is a hoax and that all is going to be ok regardless of what we do about energy that they'd put their kids' and grandkids' futures at risk? Do they put that much faith that Dr. Robinson, the OISM, and the 31000 petitioners know better than the OSTP, NAS, and IPCC? They ought to give it some serious thought.

Misleading article on global warming

The May 19, 2008 Sun-Sentinel article entitled "Study blasts global warming fears" on hurricanes and global warming is biased and misleading, and it encourages complacency when urgent action is needed. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/sfl-flbstudy0519sbmay19,0,5299587.story

Hopefully the number of Atlantic hurricanes will decrease as reported in a new study by NOAA's Knutson, although the study also predicts the possibility that storms will carry stronger winds and much heavier rains. AP reports, "Knutson acknowledges weaknesses in his computer model" and that it "significantly underestimates the increase in wind strength.. Some other scientists criticized his computer model." http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j9YzbkbPjYwP_3-9wZhTNbMcZSAQD90OGDV80 There is still considerable disagreement among leading climate scientists about what the future may actually hold with regard to hurricanes.

What the article also fails to report is that hurricanes are not all there is to fear about global warming. There is no doubt that sea level rise threatens coastal areas worldwide and is being caused by thermal expansion of the oceans and melting glaciers. Vulnerable South Florida will have to adapt to eroded beaches, flooded waterfront and low-lying property, seawater invasion of coastal wetlands including the Everglades, greater impacts from hurricane-induced storm surges, and, most importantly, saltwater intrusion of the Biscayne Aquifer that supplies most of our fresh water. Should we ignore predicted global increases in droughts, wildfires, heat waves, floods, violent weather, extinctions of many animal, plant and marine species, tropical diseases, and the disappearance of mountain ice sheets and glaciers that feed the world's rivers and provide water needed by billions of people and agriculture? We need to understand that global warming is real and it threatens to change life on Earth in fearful ways. Unless everyone everywhere changes the way energy is produced and used, and does it fast, this will be a far less hospitable world for our children and grandchildren. The media has a responsibility to tell the whole story. Barry N Heimlich, President, Florida Energy Imperative, 3650 North 36th Avenue, #55, Hollywood, FL 33021, 954-963-2428, mailto:FLenergy@bellsouth.net

How much evidence do you need to understand that global warming is real?

Do we have to know "beyond a doubt" that our houses are burning down before we try to buy homeowners insurance? By that time, even Citizens won't write it. Here are the facts: the evidence for global warming is compelling. NASA measurements show that 8 of highest global average temperatures have occured in the last 10 years and the trend is accelerating. Satellite measurements of solar irradiance prove that solar activity is not the cause. Concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are at the highest levels in more than 400,000 years and are headed straight up. The primary cause is human activities such as burning fossil fuels. Greenhouse gases absorption of infrared radiation (i.e. heat) that causes the atmosphere to warm is a proven scientific fact. Glaciers and ice caps are melting globally at unprecedented rates. Sea surface temperatures are rising globally. Ocean levels are rising at an increasing rate due to thermal expansion and glacial melt. The number of Cat 4 and 5 hurricanes globally are at new highs. Plants and animals are migrating toward the poles and up mountain tops. Drought, wildfires, heat waves, and torrential flooding are getting worse. Arctic permafrost is softening. The acidity of the oceans is increasing due to increased dissolved carbon dioxide and is threatening marine life. South Florida including Broward County is among the most vulnerable places in world due to its low elevations, rising seas and more intense hurricanes. What accounts for all of this? Before we take action, should we all just go about our business as usual, watch the seas engulf us, and suffer the destruction of one Cat 4 or 5 hurricane after another? Then we will surely know that global warming is real. On the other hand, credit goes to 23 Broward city mayorsand the County Commission for making the commitment to fight global warming in their municipalities by signing the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and take steps to conserve energy and reduce emissions, as have over 800 mayors nationwide. The Broward Charter Review Commission should show that it too takes this threat seriously and makes climate protection a priority for Broward County. One more thought, one of the best things that can be done to reduce energy usage and emissions is mass transit

National Geographic video of calving glacier

National Geographic's website has a remarkable image sequence captures a series of massive calving events at Columbia Glacier near Valdez, Alaska. Composed of 436 frames taken between May and September of 2007, it shows the glacier rapidly retreating by about half a mile (1.6 kilometers), a volume loss of some 0.4 cubic miles (1.67 cubic kilometers) of ice or 400 billion gallons (1.5 trillion liters) of water.

Go to: http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/environment/global-warming/extreme-ice-survey-article.html

Imagine My Surprise and Delight

I was delighted to see that Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle added his name to the list of Broward County mayors who have joined the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. That brings the number of Broward mayors to 23, the largest number of mayors from any one county in the United States. Last year, Mayor Naugle was a vocal holdout and said in the Sun-Sentinel last year that: "I think the planet heats up and it cools down. Human beings have very little influence on that." I guess the mounting evidence finally persuaded him and he has now made a commitment to do what he can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in his city. I wish it wasn't so, but the evidence continues to mount that global warming is caused by human generated emissions of greenhouse gases. Also, South Florida is considered one of the most vulnerable locations in the nation and the world to the consequences of global warming, especially sea level rise and more intense hurricanes. Recent scientific reports indicate that Greenland and Antarctica glaciers are melting and breaking up at much higher rates than previously thought. If this trend continues, much of South Florida will be inundated by rising seas. That is why South Floridians especially must do all they can to set an example to the world.