Al Gore's
An Inconvenient Truth discusses the effects of global warming on the world community. A feature article in the front page of the Sunday Oregonian discusses how global warming would affect the Oregon coastline. There would be a systematic pattern of destruction along the Oregon coast which would affect the way millions of people would live their lives. Not only that, it would cost millions of dollars in taxpayer money to fix and replace.
On February 4th, a record rainfall near Astoria produced record 45-foot waves and 75 mph winds that knocked out power to 33,000 people. Furthermore, there were several storms with fierce 40-mph winds in the Olympia, WA area which produced many downed trees and power outages there as well. According to the latest scientific research cited by the Oregonian, storms of this nature will become more common as the earth continues to heat up from the global warming caused by the massive use of fossil fuels.
These storms will destroy highways, beaches, and homes along the Oregon coastline. People would have to evacuate inland and start their lives over again. Given the extremely winding roads in the area, it would be extremely difficult for people to make even short trips to go to work or town. House prices would go up again as more and more people would be in the market for a new house or apartment rental.
Rapidly melting ice caps are expected to raise sea levels by as much as three feet by the year 2100 according to the IPCC. However, scientists now think that is an understatement, given the fact that ice caps are melting faster than expected. So, when so-called "objective" groups like the National Center for Policy Analysis, funded by Exxon, come out and claim that global warming is still a matter for debate, they are presenting a misleading picture. It is not a matter of if global warming will lead to a rise in sea levels, but how high will they rise.
Other findings noted by the article include the the fact that there is widespread thinning of Antarctica's West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the fact that Greenland's glaciers are dumping twice as much ice into the ocean then they were 10 years ago, the fact that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet loses over 30 cubic miles a year, and the fact that Arctic summers would be as warm in 2100 as they were 130,000 years ago. This would mean that the rate of rising sea levels would accelerate beyond 2100 and could raise our sea levels by as much as 20 feet.
This does not seem like much. But in fact, a 20-foot rise in sea levels could wipe out large population areas such as New York, Boston, New Jersey, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco, The Netherlands, London, Seattle, and many other places around the world. It would lead to massive migration, more xenophobia and conflict, skyrocketing housing prices, a massive loss of jobs and income, and a massive rise in poverty as well.
And on top of that, this is not the end of it. If an earthquake were to strike in just the right place, the coastline would drop the Oregon coastline by as many as six feet, which would result in a catastrophe similar to Katrina. Not only would it cause widespread destruction of buildings and loss of life, it would also cause massive flooding. There would be no way for emergency relief to reach the coast - and this is totally on top of the fact that many national guard units are off in Iraq along with their best equipment.
Furthermore, the Canadian Center for Modeling and Analysis found a direct link between more intense greenhouse gasses and more intense storms. Therefore, right-wing groups like the National Center for Policy Analysis can no longer cop out and claim that global warming is up for debate. They will have difficulty even claiming that a systematic pattern of once-in-a century storms will be explainable by anything else than global warming due to pollution by fossil fuels.
Oceans have soaked up 85% of the earth's excess heat, explainable only by the burning of fossil fuels. Water expands when it heats, meaning that the estimates of the rise in sea levels stated by scientists based on the melting of the polar ice caps is low. The mere fact that water expands when it heats means that it will account for an even greater rise in sea levels and an even greater amount of destruction of homes, highways, and beaches.
Storms like the one mentioned at the beginning should have happened only once in 100 years. But in fact, storms like this have happened five times just since 1996. That means that the changes feared by scientists from global warming by fossil fuels have already started to happen. It is not possible, of course, to look at a single storm like Katrina and claim it was caused by global warming. But it can be shown that a systematic pattern of storms that should not have happened that often are only explainable by global warming. We know that warmer water in the oceans can trigger the formation of more cyclones which can cause high waves, winds, and destruction.
Not only will the increased pattern of storms cause the destruction of homes, roads, and beaches, it will also cost millions of dollars in taxpayer money. By the Columbia River alone, the government has had to spend $17 million upgrading the jetties guarding the entrance to keep the waves out. FEMA would have to shell out millions more helping people find new homes after losing their old homes. It would cost state and local authorities millions more in lost tourist revenue from lost parks and attractions.
As an example of the latter, one of the first parks to go might be Cape Lookout State Park, which loses 7-10 feet of beachline a year to erosion. If this park were to go, tons of old-growth forest would go as well.