Juan Cole:Candidates flee East Coast as Frankenstorm takes Revenge for their Ignoring Climate Change

[pampango]

Mitt Romney and Joe Biden have canceled campaign events planned for this weekend at Virginia Beach as a massive storm bears down on the east coast of the US. The candidates are fleeing from the East Coast, even though they won’t talk about the key environmental issue of our time.

The candidates in this year’s presidential election completely ignored climate change in their debates and their campaigning, even thought it is the most deadly issue facing this country and all humankind. Human beings are dumping massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning coal, natural gas and petroleum at feverish rates. They have already increased temperatures significantly since 1750, and are on track to put up the average surface temperature of the earth by 5 degrees C. or 9 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century, enough to turn everyplace on earth over time into a sweating tropics, melt all surface ice, and, over the long term, submerge a third of the current land mass.

Big oil is pouring money into the Romney campaign or superpacs supporting him, so as to make sure they keep their tax breaks but those for wind power are abolished. The power of big Carbon money is preventing climate change from being discussed in the campaign, even though it affects every American voter. Romney’s energy policies will cause global disaster, but even Obama doesn’t seem to realize the severity and urgency of the problem (or else he does and feels his hands are tied).

For every increase of 1 degree Fahrenheit, US hurricanes will likely get 2% stronger (i.e. they are already 5% stronger than 2 centuries ago). In hurricanes, a 5% increase in ferocity matters quite a lot.



http://www.juancole.com/2012/10/candidates-flee-east-coast-as-frankenstorm-takes-revenge-for-their-ignoring-climate-change-in-debates.html

[treestar]

1. Or maybe they figure no one is going to go to a campaign event

under such circumstances.

[jdsunflower]

2. I am from Canada but

I was under the impression that the US seaboard was the more educated and more liberal region? Please correct if I am wrong...

[AverageJoe90]

4. For the most part, yes. n/t

[AverageJoe90]

3. Not a bad article, but.......

There's just one problem.

.....and are on track to put up the average surface temperature of the earth by 5 degrees C. or 9 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century, enough to turn everyplace on earth over time into a sweating tropics, melt all surface ice, and, over the long term, submerge a third of the current land mass.

5*C would be pretty bad, but all of Earth turning into the tropics? And a third of the land mass submerged? Last time I checked, all the world's ice melting would raise sea levels by about 200 feet. A disaster to be sure, but a third of the total land mass? Not quite. And you would need significantly more than a 5*C rise for the entire world to turn into tropical hell.
(And we're certainly not locked into a 5*C rise, either.)

Somber warnings are all good, but when we start engaging in this, well, craziness, we risk acting exactly as the deniers and their brethren(the Koch Bros. for example)do. Hopefully, the next time Juan Cole writes an article regarding the climate, he'll try to stick to the facts and stay away from hyperbole.