dagblog - Comments for "Jaws and Climate Denial"

When I was living in Las

Beetlejuice — Sun, 13 Jul 2014 17:29:32 +0000

When I was living in Las Vegas, there was a dentist office next to the coffee shop I frequented. One afternoon as I left the coffee shop I noted the dentist was using a water hose to hose off the sidewalk in front of his practice and the parking spaces. I mentioned it would be easier to use a broom instead because water in the desert is not something no one should waste. He laughed and said that he'd be long dead before Lake Mead ever ran dry.

Oddly, two years later when I packed my bags and left the States, Lake Mead was on the verge of running dry, barely passing enough downstream. Seems the dentist had no clue the water in Lake Mead comes from the snow melt in the Rockies and is feed by both the Colorado river and the Green river which comes down from Wyoming. And the last time they had good snow fall was in 1983 ... they actually had to open the spillways on Hoover Dam because there was too much water.

The new Cosmos series had an interest point about climate and temperature ... they're not the same. Temperature has its daily ups and downs but doesn't determine climate. That's because, climate is a trend based on many other factors besides temperature. So temperature is what you see as local, but climate is driven of many global factors which aren't part of the local environment.

So I have to say, those who deny climate change do so because they base their opinion on the weather they observe in their local environment, not realizing there are other forces at work hundreds, if not thousands of miles away that's slowly changing the climate. And slow change is hard to move, but once it's moved it's twice as hard to move it back.

The only problem for climate change deniers is there's only so much land they can move to when the climate changes for the worst.

It's true that the barrier

barefooted — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 20:17:04 +0000

In reply to It's always been a matter of

It's true that the barrier islands we know will one day be gone, and nature will create new ones. They're basically large masses of sand, and when exposed long enough vegetation emerges. It would be impossible to populate them without developers literally molding them into something they were never meant to be. So it only stands to reason that man-made bandages won't stick forever.

I live on the NC coast - grew up here. Like everywhere else things have changed immensely. My area is just shy of Cape Lookout (hello, Arthur!), considered the "southern" Outer Banks. I've watched town councils and state legislators demolish regulations meant to preserve our islands and protect people - in spite of themselves. As it is and likely always will be ... money talks. Sound side marshes have been filled with dirt and littered with condos, while they're simultaneously renourishing the beach. The latter is the epitome of temporary fixes. And everybody knows it.

That's the point. In the grand scheme of things barrier islands are spits of land that will be re-swallowed by water. So economies that vastly depend on their beauty, though doomed to fail in the future, have no choice but to reap the benefits today. Attempts to manipulate the fortunetellers are just sad examples of desperation. Is that the same as climate change denial? I don't know.

It's always been a matter of

Ramona — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 15:21:00 +0000

In reply to Jaws and Climate Denial

It's always been a matter of time before the Outer Banks were obliterated. They're barrier islands and should never have been populated. In some places they're nothing more than long strings of land between the ocean and the sound and hurricanes seem to be drawn to them. Even on a sunny day there is something ominous about their vulnerability. I suspect there aren't many people living there who don't understand that their existence there is tenuous and temporary.

Your use of the "Jaws" story as an analogy is a great one. It serves them to pretend that nothing even off in the near future will hurt them. That's the way it is when the economy depends on the tourists.

It's that way up here where I live, too. The hard winter and late spring has taken its toll. Our tourist traffic is way down in a season that is already short. It runs from around the middle of June, when school lets out, to Labor Day weekend, after which everything stops until the color season, after which everything stops until hunting season, after which everything stops until the following summer, when school lets out. Yet all of our PR shows year-round wonders for everybody. (SO not true!)

Global warming would be good for us, come to think of it, so never mind.

You, sir, are a true scholar

Historiann — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 14:26:16 +0000

In reply to Jaws and Climate Denial

You, sir, are a true scholar of Shark Studies. You should have popped a link into your comments at my place yesterday! Thanks for the shout-out.

I was going for a childish

Doctor Cleveland — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 13:57:34 +0000

In reply to Better than me. I couldn't

I was going for a childish noise meant to represent eating. Num num num.

But you're right: I went the whole post without referencing the famous musical hook for the shark. Should never have left that on the table.

Better than me. I couldn't

Michael Wolraich — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 23:34:18 +0000

In reply to I don't speak shark. Sorry.

Better than me. I couldn't even figure what "nom nom nom" meant.

I would have gone with duh-dum, duh-dum, duh-dum.

Speaking of sharks, how has Quinn resisted the urge to pipe in with a mega-shark reference?

I don't speak shark. Sorry.

Doctor Cleveland — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 21:26:51 +0000

In reply to nom nom nom nom nom I'm

I don't speak shark. Sorry.

Ah, but I've got you cornered

Michael Maiello — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 19:53:10 +0000

In reply to Jaws and Climate Denial

Ah, but I've got you cornered here, Doc... if global warming were real the New England townsfolk wouldn't have to work all summer to survive the brutal winter because islands of the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts would be tropical.

You almost had me fooled but two things remain as true after your post as they were before.

1) Any argument can be turned into a global warming denial argument.

2) I can't spell Massachusetts without spell check.

nom nom nom nom nom I'm

Verified Atheist — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 19:27:13 +0000

In reply to Jaws and Climate Denial

nom nom nom nom nom

I'm surprised that a man of your letters does not know that the correct spelling is: om nom nom nom.