UN climate scientist: Sandy no coincidence and they are covering DOHA. Sandy's horrific consequences on the people who's lives were torn apart has hopefully gotten some attention from the mainstream.
Though it's tricky to link a single weather event to climate change, Hurricane Sandy was "probably not a coincidence" but an example of the extreme weather events that are likely to strike the U.S. more often as the world gets warmer, the U.N. climate panel's No. 2 scientist said Tuesday.
We're learning the hard way that Climate Change is expensive, it costs billions in dollars and can cost lives. The damage it does in far away lands can only be held arm's length away for so long when it lands on our shores as extreme weather. Tricky or not, as more extreme weather becomes more consistent and more extreme it becomes not just weather, it becomes CLIMATE CHANGE.
There is just no other issue more pressing than the environment in my generation or my daughter's generation. There is nothing else.
It is not correct to say Sandy was caused by global warming, but "the damage caused by Sandy was worse because of sea level rise," said Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer. He said the sea level in New York City is a foot higher than a century ago because of man-made climate change.
Ignoring the crisis before has consequences and just because those consequences don't fit our models of what we think it should look like, that more snow in winter must mean it's not getting warmer or fewer hurricanes must mean it's just not that big of a deal boggles my mind.
What needs to happen is that the people who support science need to be talking to those who are still skeptical. It has to come down to those of us who want to listen to scientists to actually start selling reality to our fellow doubters. Right now, this is what needs to happen. It's got to be grassroots and it needs to be on street corners.
And how can you convince people?
He said the scientific backing for man-made climate change is now so strong that it can be compared to the consensus behind the principles of gravity.
"It's a very, very broad consensus. There are a few individuals who don't believe it, but we are talking about science and not beliefs," Van Ypersele told AP.
Emphasis mine
I'm getting a bumper sticker made:
Climate Change, as strong a theory as gravity.
That's your money quote there and it's important to get it out far and wide.
I know it's naive to believe that we can somehow make a difference but it's obvious what were doing now is not working and change needs to happen sooner than later. The push has to come from the bottom up and it needs to happen now.
This is a great short film by National Geographic on Global Warming.