Drown Your Town!

This is WAAAAYYYY to much fun.  From Scientific American, a cool tool to see what sea level rise will do to your fine city or hamlet.

"Andrew David Thaler (@SFriedScientist) took to Google Earth to visualize what 80 meters of sea level rise would look like."

(Hint: not like this picture.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I've been tweeting for a month or so now, and have 81 followers!

My handle is silly - it's Da's nickname for me when I was a little girl (SninkyPoo - which he stopped using after some of his friends thought he was saying STINKYpoo) - and I need to change it.

Scratching my head over what to call myself.  I am committed to the concept that America can lead on climate change - that America HAS to lead on climate change - and that the key to getting action is to get climate change out of the "green ghetto" and into the top priority lists of conservatives.

In the same vein, I am thinking I need to scrap this blog, with its silly title, and craft something that looks All American and Bi-Partisan, so I don't come off as the Eco-Liberal who was Raised By Hippies that I probably am.

Go under cover?

Hmmmm....

to be continued

Stop dithering!

Thanks, the Guardian.  Sub-head: "Call to 'stop dithering about fossil fuel cuts' as expert panel warns entire globe is affected."

And it isn’t just dithering. It feels like dithering + panic + confusion + political calculations + this is the FIRST TIME in human history when we all have to stand together – every single one of us 7 billion souls – to act in unison against a common enemy.

And who is that enemy? You tell ‘em, Pogo: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

And there are so many fronts to this battle!

There’s the strictly political front – and I can only speak to how that plays out here in the good ol’ US of A – and here, it’s a left vs. right issue. The left has “owned” climate change and “global warming” and Earth Day and conservation and all of that lovely save the whales and bears and tigers and lions and birds and aren’t the penguins pretty and I can’t see you through the smog and stop littering! and so on.. the right hasn’t been with us on these issues, but they need to get on board pronto! 

To do that, the left needs to welcome the right with open arms. No snark. No ironic eye-rolling. Just – welcome, comrades (well, they won’t like that word!) to the One Huge Global Issue We Have To Address. Or perish. Or at least a lot of us perish.

Then there’s the operational front. As in… what do we even DO? And how do we even PAY for it? And who – if anyone – takes the lead? And do those with the most to lose get help from those with the most to spend – or is it every country for themselves? And where does that leave Tuvalu?

And there’s the frontline with the ever-fickle media, who are already letting the IPCC report sink beneath the waves as the new new newer newest news cycles come crashing in like waves on the beach of time. We cannot let this issue be relegated to the “green ghetto” – the “green breadcrumbs” on the top nav bar! This can’t be out of anyone’s mind for a day!

And of course there is the front along which we take on the free riders.

And the front where we are battling deniers.

And the front where we deal with issues of global parity, and the agonizing choice to potentially ask people in the under-developed world to deprive themselves of the excesses of consumer-driven luxury and labor-saving devices that we in the developed nations have happily (and selfishly) wallowed in for so long – “for their own good.” Would you buy it? It will be a hard sell.

And on and on. And I’m supposed to be drafting up a banner for an e-newsletter. Better get back to it!

Bonus Pogo pic! Look how cheerful!

Lots of folks 'dis Al Gore...

But this website of his looks SWEET!  Check it out.

So, what's so bad about climate change, anyway?

I mean, most folks love summer, right?

Back in July, Climate Progress ran an interesting top ten list of the things climate change is making worse RIGHT NOW.

In August, Science published a study on climate change impacts on global food security. So - climate change is powering a potential return to mass food insecurity - and we aren't even yet close to fixing food insecurity for the first time so we can "return" to it!

Here's an excellent resource from National Geographic on the sometimes surprising effects of climate change - it's been up for awhile, but is very worth revisiting.

Today, the Guardian reports on how climate change is sending the health of our oceans "spiraling downward faster than previously thought." Oceans = seafood, for one thing. Also immense food webs that power life across the planet. You know - little things like that.

Here's a picture of the view from the approach to the Deception Pass Bridge. It's a lovely picture. Can't say how long Deception Pass will look like this.