Simple arithmetic doesn't add up to claims of global
warming
by Richard C. Savage
The Rocky wasted 36 column inches on Wednesday, 19 Dec, advertising the global warming nonsense ("Anti-warming strategy outlined") of Charles Kutscher, spokesman of Environment Colorado, and unnamed "Boulder scientists" who, according to Mr. Kutscher, claim the Arctic could be "completely ice-free within five to 20 years."
Really? The Greenland ice cap is 3000 meters (9,000 feet) thick. It's melting at the rate of 20 millimeters (less than an inch) per century, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. At that rate, it'll melt in a mere one and a half million years. And Antarctica, much larger than Greenland, is gaining - not losing - ice.
Oh, wait, perhaps Mr. Kutscher just meant floating sea ice. But melting of floating ice causes no rise of sea level. In spite of that, Mr. Kutscher asserts sea level will soon rise "at the rate of more than a foot per decade." Ahem, Mr. Kutscher, sea level has risen 400 feet since the end of the last Ice Age, 20,000 years ago. That's an average of 2 feet per century, or less than 2 and a half inches per decade. In the recent 50 centuries, the rate has been half a foot per century, much, much less than Mr. Kutscher's claims of "a foot per decade."
Why does the Rocky continue to bombard us with this ignorant nonsense? Mr. Kutscher and the rest of Environment Colorado seem unqualified to do simple arithmetic. I see Mr. Kutscher is a past president of the American Solar Energy Society. Now I understand what Kutscher is selling. What is the Rocky selling? Tax increases??
The Rocky wasted 36 column inches on Wednesday, 19 Dec, advertising the global warming nonsense ("Anti-warming strategy outlined") of Charles Kutscher, spokesman of Environment Colorado, and unnamed "Boulder scientists" who, according to Mr. Kutscher, claim the Arctic could be "completely ice-free within five to 20 years."
Really? The Greenland ice cap is 3000 meters (9,000 feet) thick. It's melting at the rate of 20 millimeters (less than an inch) per century, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. At that rate, it'll melt in a mere one and a half million years. And Antarctica, much larger than Greenland, is gaining - not losing - ice.
Oh, wait, perhaps Mr. Kutscher just meant floating sea ice. But melting of floating ice causes no rise of sea level. In spite of that, Mr. Kutscher asserts sea level will soon rise "at the rate of more than a foot per decade." Ahem, Mr. Kutscher, sea level has risen 400 feet since the end of the last Ice Age, 20,000 years ago. That's an average of 2 feet per century, or less than 2 and a half inches per decade. In the recent 50 centuries, the rate has been half a foot per century, much, much less than Mr. Kutscher's claims of "a foot per decade."
Why does the Rocky continue to bombard us with this ignorant nonsense? Mr. Kutscher and the rest of Environment Colorado seem unqualified to do simple arithmetic. I see Mr. Kutscher is a past president of the American Solar Energy Society. Now I understand what Kutscher is selling. What is the Rocky selling? Tax increases??
Permission to reprint granted to Good Neighbor 12/24/2007 by:
Richard C. Savage
Ph. D., Meteorology
PO Box 908
Franktown, CO 80116-0908
luckyleif@colo-earthfriends.org
(303) 660-0018
Fax: 660-1428
Richard C. Savage
Ph. D., Meteorology
PO Box 908
Franktown, CO 80116-0908
luckyleif@colo-earthfriends.org
(303) 660-0018
Fax: 660-1428
To read more on Global Warming and other matters that matter,
go to: www.GoodNeighborLaw.com