Episode 434 Help! The Ice is Melting

Peter Wadhams and Paul Beckwith, both climatologists, note that the IPCC has changed its attitude about the urgency of handling global warming, partly because the astonishingly rapid melting of ice in the Arctic and Antarctic. Some experts say they never expected to see warming in their lifetime like we’ve seen in the past week. Paul tells us about the stupendous amount of water in atmospheric rivers, which may turn north and melt the ice, revealing lower levels of volcanic debris from generations past. For the video, audio podcast, transcript, and comments: https://tosavetheworld.ca/episode-434-help-the-ice-is-melting/. After watching, scroll down and share your information on the comment column.

Guests:

  • Peter Wadhams
  • Paul Beckwith

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Podcast 434 was great. I listened to all of it. I love the banter between the three of you.
My interest was peaked by Climate Change in 2000 CA. I wanted to center of one subject within the vastness of Global Warming (OK, I’m old). The problem at that time was simply no one could really agree what or where or how much. I wanted simple.
Sea Rise broke through to my mind and I researched and studied all that I could find on the net. I concluded something that no one had even hinted at: we were pass the point of no return. What was missing in their projections was “Greed.” Looking back and comparing what has happened, everyone knows greed was and still is a factor. To accept that CC was real would be to publicly admit their investments would lose value. A simple direct example would be beach front property on the east coast of Florida. Would anyone want to buy such a property at a high price knowing that they would lose their beach in 20 or 25 years?
All of this started when I overheard at a SciFi convention say, “Reading a book about Global Warming would be as exciting as watching a glacier melt.”
By 2005 CA, I had written a novel. I would love to find who said that remark and ask him to read mine.  Had I waited to write it now, the sea rise projections would be quicker than my estimate and the time line of the novel would be a lot shorter.
My novel, HOMES FOR OUR DESCENDANTS, was based on my conclusions on the speed of sea rise. It was by my own “crystal ball”; so, I started the novel in 2055 CA so that if I was wrong, it didn’t matter, I would be dead.
The progenitor is a family, the Olsens. They work through the centuries to see that humanity is not another extinct species. Their exploits are filled with dreams, drama, extortion, killings, politics, … The last chapter is in 2928 CA with the sea at 55.05 meters.
Most chapters has a vignette showing how the sea rise has effected individuals, cities, states, nations and continents. The first vignette:

Paradise Lost

The rise of the sea had caused a single man in a small village in Norway to trip, and that trip engendered ever increasing ripples that would pass through the ebb of time; elsewhere, entire populations were being affected by the rise, but their suffering would be mere footnotes in the history to come.

Dr. Saunders, on the toilet, stared at the handwritten sign on the wall opposite: TWO ON A FLUSH. He had lived on the Island all of his seventy-three years except for the seven he had spent in medical school. Today was his last day.
He walked through the now deserted ward where in the last three weeks, over a thousand cholera patients had passed through, some leaving through the front door but most out the back and to the incinerators.
“Doc!  Aren’t you coming? The last boat is about to leave. If you don’t go now, you’ll have to come over on one of those damn military helicopters.”
“Yes, nurse. I’m coming. I needed to say good-bye. I’ve known too many who have died needlessly.”
The heavy-set Nurse, her dark skin shimmering with the sweat of the hot Caribbean sun, folded her arms and whispered, “It ain’t fair! Them that lied are healthy and gone for weeks. They should be dead, not my family and some of yours.”
“Now Joan, that’s not the Christian thing to say.” He patted her on the shoulder as he turned her around toward the front door.
Standing outside, looking down the deserted street toward the last boat, she added, “Maybe this is the time to forget being a Christian and wish a just reward to those that deserve it.”
A Navy Captain came walking up the street toward the Doctor and nurse, “Dr. Saunders, is that the last?”
“Yes. We’ve cleared it all. No one…” he turned back to look at the Hospital, and hiding reddening eyes, he put his sunglasses on, “…is left, no one to bury or burn.” The Doctor spun around, and with a firmer voice, “What will you do when we are gone? Are you close to capturing the Mayor and his buddies?”
“They’re gone; the records they didn’t shred show they got away with about 25 million plus or minus. They could have brought in a lot of portable toilets with that.”
“Too late, the deaths had already started. The pumps that they had installed couldn’t keep the sewage plant operating, and the sea took too much untreated sewage out from the plant and spread it back on the beaches. We didn’t know how bad it was. I should have known.”
“Somebody had to have known!” added the Nurse.
The Captain spoke up, “The Mayor and town council, including the plant management, knew. They planned their departure perfectly; they didn’t leave a dime. The Attorney General says if we catch them, they will be charged with capital murder, over three thousand counts.”
The nurse looked out to the sea, “All this and the sea risin’ no higher than the Lord’s good cubit. How can that happen? It seems like such a small amount.”
The Captain answered, “Those three strong storms in a row did it, back-flushed the whole system. It was built 130 years ago. Should have been replaced in 2020.”
As the three walked down the dock to the waiting ship, workers finished putting up the last of the signs fifty meters apart around the whole of the 25 by 30-kilometer island:

!DO NOT LAND!

!CONTAMINATION!

BY ORDER OF

PROVINCIAL

GOVERNMENT

HOME FOR OUR DESCENDANTS, by Woody Hendrick
Available at Amazon Kindle.

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