Quote:I wouldn't worry about tidal waves.


"Insurance giant Swiss Re has estimated that the economy in southeast Florida could sustain $33 billion in damage from rising seas and other climate-related damage in 2030, according to the Miami-Dade Sea Level Rise Task Force."


From the article^^


15 yrs from now. 33 billion. One community. Do the math, friend, and you will see why Scott rather bury his head in the sand.

<b>Within a few years "children just aren't going to know what snow is." Snowfall will be "a very rare and exciting event." </b><i>Dr. David Viner, senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, interviewed by the UK Independent, March 20, 2000.</i>

Ten years later, in December 2009, London was hit by the heaviest snowfall seen in 20 years. And just last week, a snowstorm forced Heathrow airport to shut down, stranding thousands of Christmas travelers.

 

My brother in law had 5 inches of fresh snow last Friday. I am sure there has been more places then just Nebraska being hit over the last week or so.

 

<b>"[By] 1995, the greenhouse effect would be desolating the heartlands of North America and Eurasia with horrific drought, causing crop failures and food riots…[By 1996] The Platte River of Nebraska would be dry, while a continent-wide black blizzard of prairie topsoil will stop traffic on interstates, strip paint from houses and shut down computers." </b><i>Michael Oppenheimer, published in "Dead Heat," St. Martin's Press, 1990.</i>

 

<b>"Arctic specialist Bernt Balchen says a general warming trend over the North Pole is melting the polar ice cap and may produce an ice-free Arctic Ocean by the year 2000." </b><i>Christian Science Monitor</i><i>, June 8, 1972.</i>

Ice coverage has fallen, though as of last month, the Arctic Ocean had 3.82 million square miles of ice cover -- an area larger than the continental United States -- according to The National Snow and Ice Data Center.


 

<b>"Using computer models, researchers concluded that global warming would raise average annual temperatures nationwide two degrees by 2010." </b><i>Associated Press, May 15, 1989.</i>

Status of prediction: According to NASA, global temperature has increased by about 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit since 1989. And U.S. temperature has increased even less over the same period.

The group that did the study, Atmospheric and Environmental Research Inc., said it could not comment in time for this story due to the holidays.

But Oppenheimer said that the difference between an increase of nearly one degree and an increase of two degrees was "definitely within the margin of error... I would think the scientists themselves would be happy with that prediction."

Many scientists, especially in the 1970s, made an error in the other direction by predicting global freezing:

 

<b>"By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half." </b><i>Life magazine</i><i>, January 1970.</i>

Life Magazine also noted that some people disagree, "but scientists have solid experimental and historical evidence to support each of the following predictions."

Air quality has actually improved since 1970. Studies find that sunlight reaching the Earth fell by somewhere between 3 and 5 percent over the period in question.

 

<b>"By the year 2000 the United Kingdom will be simply a small group of impoverished islands, inhabited by some 70 million hungry people ... If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000." </b><i>Ehrlich, Speech at British Institute For Biology, September 1971.</i>

Ehrlich's prediction was taken seriously when he made it, and New Scientist magazine underscored his speech in an editorial titled "In Praise of Prophets."

"When you predict the future, you get things wrong," Ehrlich admitted, but "how wrong is another question. I would have lost if I had had taken the bet. However, if you look closely at England, what can I tell you? They're having all kinds of problems, just like everybody else."

 

<b>"In ten years all important animal life in the sea will be extinct. Large areas of coastline will have to be evacuated because of the stench of dead fish." </b><i>Ehrlich, speech during <a class="" href='http://www.foxnews.com/topics/earth-day.htm#r_src=ramp'>Earth Day</a>, 1970</i>

"Certainly the first part of that was very largely true -- only off in time," Ehrlich told FoxNews.com. "The second part is, well -- the fish haven't washed up, but there are very large dead zones around the world, and they frequently produce considerable stench."

"Again, not totally accurate, but I never claimed to predict the future with full accuracy," he said.

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