DID YOU KNOW That Sea Level Rise and Climate Change Like a Snowball Are Accelerating?

Earlier today the Obama administration tried to appear as if they were doing something by announcing a new carbon plan that aims to cut carbon pollution from power plants by 30% from 2005 levels by 2030. However they went out of their way to be flexible.  Gina McCarthy, the E.P.A. administrator, who announced the plan said:

“That’s what makes it ambitious, but achievable. That’s how we can keep our energy affordable and reliable. The glue that holds this plan together — and the key to making it work — is that each state’s goal is tailored to its own circumstances, and states have the flexibility to reach their goal in whatever way works best for them.”

But climate change and sea level rise although they may have different effects on different states depending on whether or not they have coasts or where geographically they are located, all impact sea level rise and climate change equally.  Is she saying that if you are a landlocked already essentially desert state like Nevada you don’t need to do anything?  

What makes this carbon plan the smallest of steps forward is the fact that the scientists who do this type of work readily acknowledge that the effects are accelerating.  Kind of like that childhood snowball that took so much work to get started but once you pushed it down the hill just grew and grew and grew.  That is where we are with sea level rise and climate change.

As Dr. C. DiLeonardo, Ph.D., professor of Geology and Oceanography at De Anza College and a Visiting Research Geoscientist at the University of California in Santa Cruz notes: “Sea level rise on the planet, induced by warming of the near surface environment, is neither constant in time or space.  Warmer GLOBAL (emphasis mine) temperatures fueling the rise result in both increases in sea level because of melting ice sheets and thermal expansion of surface waters of the world’s oceans.  Geoscientists have been carefully monitoring sea level rise for decades.  Numerous studies have shown that the trend is that the rate of change is increasing with time.  Much like the math many of you hated in high school that resulted in graphs that were nonlinear, a graph of sea level rise anywhere takes on that nasty upwards curve.”

It is nice to know that our government finally understands we need to do something.  But just doing something isn’t enough.  We need to give a plan a chance to succeed.  Rolling out plans and programs that through their very design are likely to fail is simply a waste of time.  We need leaders who are not only interested in getting their names on supposedly visionary plans but instead leaders who are interested in rolling out plans that stand a chance of succeeding.

The proposal unveiled today was a draft open to public comment. What do you think?  Do you think the carbon plan does enough?  The time to submit your comments is now.