Fishing from the Capitol Steps

October 30, 2005 – Vol.10 No.32

FISHING FROM THE CAPITOL STEPS.

While the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives stepped closer to approving drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in a budget bill that the President is sure to sign, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory published a report saying that oceans will rise nearly 23 feet by 2300 if every drop of oil, every lump of coal and every cubic foot of natural gas on the planet is burned for fuel between now and then.

Long after current members of Congress are dead, buried, fully decomposed and forgotten, their legacy will be that they voted to increase greenhouse gas levels which contributed to the rising oceans for a year’s worth of oil that, too, will be long gone by then.

How shortsighted these people are. A 23 foot rise could well put the Potomac’s waters at the Capitol steps. If the Capitol is still there that is.

The report says that fossil fuel burning gone unabated will raise global average temperatures 14.5 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) as the concentration of carbon dioxide rises from 380 parts per million (ppm) today to 1423 ppm by then.

Temperature at the poles could rise an astounding 36 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) and allow land masses in the regions to grow boreal forests.

The lead author, Govindasamy Bala, admits that unfortunately the temperature estimate is conservative - it may be even warmer by then - because the computer model used for the study doesn’t take into consideration changing land use patterns such as deforestation and the build-out of cities into outlying wilderness areas.

The question for people today - including those flood-approving politicians - is will ocean rise be linear - rising steadily for 300 years at a rate of less than a foot a decade? Or will the flooding increase at a faster rate as the concentration of greenhouse gases increases? If it’s linear some of those politicians will see the results of their votes in their lifetimes.

For the study visit the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory http://www.llnl.gov/ .