Climate Change 101

Um, Governor, how can you fix the problem, if you don’t accurately assess the causes?

 

I don’t want to argue about the causes,” she said in St. Louis. “What I want to argue about is, how are we going to get there to positively affect the impacts?”

 

To Biden, a Democratic senator from Delaware running with Sen. Barack Obama in the November 4 election, knowing the cause is critical to finding a cure.

 

“If you don’t understand what the cause is, it’s virtually impossible to come up with a solution,” Biden said. “We know what the cause is. The cause is man-made. That’s the cause. That’s why the polar icecap is melting.”

 

Are we really still having this argument? My god…

 

VP Environmental Cage Match

 

As I become more familiar with Joe Biden’s policy positions, he seems increasingly to be an eminently reasonable and credible fellow. Evidence his environmental stance:

 

I’m… in the best position to make it clear to the United States Congress that this is not merely an environmental issue, it is a security issue. I held hearings this year pointing out that if we do not do something of consequence about global warming, drastically and soon, we literally are going to find ourselves reconfiguring our entire military to deal with occasions for new wars, which are going to be about territory and arable land.

…

To deal with global warming, you have to change the attitude of the world, particularly China and India, the two largest developing nations. But in order to do that, to have any credibility, you have to begin here in the United States by capping emissions, increasing renewable fuels, establishing a national renewable portfolio standard, requiring better fuel economy for automobiles.

…

These measures would put us in a position to be able to actually attempt to lead the world. But we have no credibility right now.

 

OK, that’s fairly solid, pragmatic reasoning – certainly headed in the right direction given the gravity of the problem. As Daily Kos frontpager Plutonium Page puts it:

 

His ideas are not perfect, but they are more than a good start, and will be a sound way to kick off the next four years.

 

Enter moose hunting Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

 

“I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can’t drill our way out of our problem or that more supply won’t ultimately affect prices. Of course it will affect prices.”

…

“Alternative-energy solutions are far from imminent and would require more than 10 years to develop.”

…

“When I look every day, the big oil company’s building is right out there next to me, and it’s quite a reminder that we should have mutually beneficial relationships with the oil industry.”

…

“A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location,”… But, she added, “I’m not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made.”

 

Ok then.

 

Game, set, match.

 

Summer Snow and Ice

Who knew we even had a National Snow and Ice Data Center? Well, it’s a good thing we do, because they have some bad news about the state of arctic sea ice:

 

The National Snow and Ice Data Center has reported that sea ice in the Arctic now covers about 2.03 million square miles. The lowest point since satellite measurements began in 1979 was 1.65 million square miles, last September.

 

With about three weeks left in the Arctic summer, this year could wind up breaking that record, scientists said.

 

A record, how exciting!  Well, not exactly:

 

Arctic ice always melts in summer and refreezes in winter. But over the years, more of the ice is lost to the sea with less of it recovered in winter. While ice reflects the sun’s heat, the open ocean absorbs more heat, and the melting accelerates warming in other parts of the world.

 

What about the locals, what do they think about all this?

 

Sea ice also serves as primary habitat for threatened polar bears.

…

Federal observers flying for a whale survey on Aug. 16 spotted nine polar bears swimming in open ocean in the Chukchi. The bears were 15 to 65 miles off the Alaska shore. Some were swimming north, apparently trying to reach the polar ice edge, which on that day was 400 miles away.

 

Polar bears are powerful swimmers and have been recorded on swims of 100 miles, but the ordeal can leave them exhausted and susceptible to drowning.

 

Polar bears swimming in the open ocean looking for an ice flow that’s 400 miles away from where it should be? Jesus, can we please get serious about this stuff? I use canvas bags, recycle and walk a lot, but somehow I don’t think that’s going to be quite enough to help out our disoriented friends up north. And from the sounds of things, it’s getting awful far along:

 

Five climate scientists, four of them specialists on the Arctic, told The Associated Press that it was fair to call what was happening in the Arctic a “tipping point.”

 

Maybe this guy can get something done, if it’s not already too late.

 

Update: More on this from NPR, focusing on the very real tragedy of polar bears with little to no sea ice.