12 metre sea rise and end of political economy is real : Melbourne Indymedia

Title: Sea level rising 12 metres if Greenland and West Antarctic ice melt – and likely they will

[images in this story via the web link at end]

Yesterday SAM posted its scornful view of local ABC radio and tv parroting of the ‘½ metre sea rise’ don’t scare the political economy mantra sourced to the already out of date IPCC report of February 2nd.

Ironically at the same time as these broadcasts the flagship radio national Science Show in its 32nd year of trusted broadcasting here confirms a 12 metre sea rise if the above suggested melting occurs. And Professor Tim Flannery in Australia agrees it will whether it be 2010, 2020, 2040 or 2050:

7:40: Tim Flannery 2nd Feb Radio National Breakfast with Fran Kelly

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2007/1838822.htm

The summary and links to the Science Show appear below 3rd February 2007 in all its profundity. There are couple of stories about hobbits on Flores, and parthogenetic reproduction in reptiles, but the rest is all rolled gold climate change horror story in gentle tones, which somehow makes it all worse. In particular one UK senior government scientist Chris West Director UK Climate Impacts Programme
http://www.ukcip.org.uk/ states the worst case scenario is unknown but if Greenland and West Antarctic ice melts then its 6 or 7 metre ocean rise each.

This inspires SAM to reproduce these full on images relating to storm surge which also features in the Science Show. The first is of the biggest hurricane yet in North America, cyclone Wilma in 2004, given storms are thought to become extreme.

The second is the huge surf we saw in Sydney from cyclone Wati 1000 km north east of Sydney, with ripples arriving some days later:

The show starts with an amusing grab from this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_West_Wing_(TV_series)

specifically the Republican ‘progressive’ character in this episode about corn generated ethanol:

"King Corn" first broadcast January 26th 2005, which shows corn based ethanol is only a marginal reduction in greenhouse impacts, and compares it with the recent State of the Union speech by George Bush promoting exactly that kind ethanol production.

(We at SAM did a review of the whole insightful series 1 to 5 at the local DVD shop and counting with Series 6 on the ABC Monday nights (now in its last 7th series) first post January 3rd 2007 (see date buttons top right) in a misspent Christmas New Year break.)

ABC Science show follows
Rising sea level in Britain
Listen Now - 03022007 | Download Audio - 03022007
Climate change is causing real problems in England's north-east coast. The ground is water-logged and the rising sea is causing the coast to crumble, taking roads and houses with it.
Naomi Fowler reports from Aldborough in Yorkshire.
Guests
Mike Ball
Principal engineer the East Riding of Yorkshire UK
Chris West
Director UK Climate Impacts Programme
http://www.ukcip.org.uk/
Malcolm Tarling
The Association of British Insurers
http://www.abi.org.uk/
Professor James Curran
Scottish Environment Protection Agency
http://www.hie.co.uk/professor-james-curran.html
Naomi Fowler

http://www.naomifowler.org/
Presenter Robyn Williams, Producer David Fisher