Russ Steele
UPDATE: I am sorry that I used such strong language in the headline of this post and in the post below. A simple statement that the Bee had written a misleading editorial and then presented the facts would have been sufficient, but I went too far. I apologize for calling the Editors names. It will not happen again.
National Review Online's, Joel Schwartz takes on the Bee Editors over their global warming scare editorial on Tuesday . The editors wrote:
How high will these oceans rise? Some computer models show that, without a significant reduction in greenhouse gases, the Greenland ice sheet could melt sometime after 2100. Such a steady melt-off would lead to a 7-meter (23-foot) increase in sea levels, according to the IPCC report. That would submerge most of San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Tidal action would swamp most of Sacramento.
Joel writes:
Unfortunately, the Bee's editorial writers left out a few pesky details. First, the computer models that predict melting of the Greenland ice sheet were run with the assumption that the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere starts out and stays at four times the pre-industrial level and nearly three times the current level (IPCC Working Group I (WG I) report, p. 830). Even if humans continue to get their energy mainly from fossil fuels, it would take 150 years or more for atmospheric CO2 to rise this high.
Second, the Bee's "sometime after 2100" really means several centuries after 2100. Even with atmospheric CO2 at three times current level, the models say it would take 270 years for Greenland to lose even 20% of its ice, and more than 1,700 years to lose 80% of its ice (WG I, p. 830).
Are these Bee Editors idiots or are they just refusing to read reports and writing editorial from the political summaries. Or, are they ignoring the facts just to scare the hell out of the Bee readers? Either way it is dishonest and stupid. If they cannot get global warming facts straight, why should we believe anything they write?
Full detains in: Another Day, another California Global Warming Scare
