Climate Letter #628

Elizabeth Kolbert provides an excellent explanation of the latest sea level study for readers of the New Yorker.  The main point is that science can now explain how a rapid rise in sea level can occur in a brief period of time for reasons that go well beyond any corresponding rise in air temperature, as circumstances become just right for a certain series of mechanical processes to unfold.  During the last interglacial period, 120,000 years ago, there was an abrupt rise of 20 feet (or more) when temperatures were not much different from those of today, that has previously been difficult to explain but is now being resolved, to our own discomfort.

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Discussion:  The recently published study from the James Hansen group came to a similar but even more frightening  conclusion by putting extra emphasis on the disturbances caused by high volumes of glacial meltwater.  The link below describes the effects in Hansen’s own words.  Meltwater effects are not something easily grasped by intuition, but the Hanson team has obviously done a lot of imaginative work to come up with a more complete understanding.  Greenland’s meltwater and that of Antarctica each has its own set of consequences.  Cold, low-density meltwater floating on the surface has a way of cooling the air temperature above while preventing warmer water below from releasing heat as it normally would.  This is especially the case around Antarctica.  More of that heat ends up melting ice shelves and deep-sitting glaciers from below, helping to cause disintegration to an extent going well beyond the considerations established by DeConto and Pollard.
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A newspaper in Virginia has already gotten the message.  Norfolk and surroundings are heavily exposed to rising seas combined with sinking land.  Now, instead of worrying about a three or four foot change by the end of the century the locals can imagine what it is like to deal with seven feet.  The new calculations will provide a jolt that cannot be avoided in low-lying regions everywhere.
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Images of ice cap changes on Ellesmere Island, far north in the Canadian Arctic.  Satellite images show the reduced minimum summer extent of these caps between 2004 and 2015, with more results from a survey made in 1959.
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How rapid growth in renewable energy has trouble keeping up with rapid growth in global consumption.  Providing electricity in developing countries is a humanitarian goal that is picking up momentum, just like renewable energy.  The trouble is that the energy demand side has such a large base compared with supply, if stated in terms that are limited to renewables.  Policies that somehow limit demand cannot easily be dismissed.
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Ikea has big plans for retailing solar energy products globally.
Carl

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