NEW YORK CITY — Islands throughout the world are going under water. It is obvious that human induced climate change is causing the ocean temperatures to rise. The combination of rising sea levels and volatile weather produced from rising ocean temperatures is wreaking havoc across many traditional island nations. In fact, the United Nations is embarking on a mission to understand what the changes mean; however, the location of the United Nations is now looking into the mirror. The islands are going under water… but, not in slow rising water manner. Rather, some of the islands, such as Staten Island, are being slam dunked.
Climate Change And Hurricane Sandy: How Global Warming Might Have Made The Superstorm Worse
From Climate Central’s Andrew Freedman:
As officials begin the arduous task of pumping corrosive seawater out of New York City’s subway system and try to restore power to lower Manhattan, and residents of the New Jersey Shore begin to take stock of the destruction, experts and political leaders are asking what Hurricane Sandy had to do with climate change. After all, the storm struck a region that has been hit hard by several rare extreme weather events in recent years, from Hurricane Irene to “Snowtober.”
Scientists cannot yet answer the specific question of whether climate change made Hurricane Sandy more likely to occur, since such studies, known as detection and attribution research, take many months to complete. What is already clear, however, is that climate change very likely made Sandy’s impacts worse than they otherwise would have been.
There are three different ways climate change might have influenced Sandy: through the effects of sea level rise; through abnormally warm sea surface temperatures; and possibly through an unusual weather pattern that some scientists think bore the fingerprint of rapidly disappearing Arctic sea ice.
If this were a criminal case, detectives would be treating global warming as a likely accomplice in the crime.
Warmer, Higher Seas
Water temperatures off the East Coast were unusually warm this summer — so much so that New England fisheries officials observed significant shifts northward in cold water fish such as cod. Sea surface temperatures off the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic remained warm into the fall, offering an ideal energy source for Hurricane Sandy as it moved northward from the Caribbean. Typically, hurricanes cannot survive so far north during late October, since they require waters in the mid to upper 80s Fahrenheit to thrive.
Climate Change And Global Warming
Greenpeace says:
Stop Global Warming
We are changing our planet in a fundamental way. Our world is hotter today than it has been in two thousand years.
By the end of the century, if current trends continue, the global temperature could climb so high that the climate and weather patterns that have given rise to human civilization would be radically different.
But it didn’t happen on its own. We’re driving climate change by burning fossil fuels like coal and oil. In fact, coal-fired power plants are the single largest U.S. source of global warming pollution.
America’s coal-burning power plants, in addition to causing global warming and climate change, are killing tens of thousands of Americans, poisoning our air and water, and making our children sick.
But a brighter future is possible. Over the next three years, Greenpeace will:
1. Join local communities to shut down dangerous, dirty coal plants all across the United States.
2. Advocate for strong laws to curb global warming and put America on a path to clean energy.
3. Expose climate deniers, like the Koch Brothers, and hold them publicly accountable for providing millions of dollars to lobby against climate and clean energy policies.
4. Kick-start an Energy Revolution by advocating for clean-energy solutions like solar and wind power.