A World Under Water, Already Drowned

"Jesus, even had he been Yahweh incarnate, could not have apprehended or comprehended a globe that might seem to him a world under water, already drowned, as if even Yahweh's first covenant, with Noah, had never been cut." ["Jesus and Yahweh - The Names Divine" by Harold Bloom.]


The following are just a few comments from readers of an AOL story on global warming:

Man made global warming is a myth created by marxist ecofreaks to bring down capitalism.

Dumb asses......this past winter one of coldest on record........!!!!!!!
Get a real job. Eleminate social programs and get this country back to work.
Stop Whining you frickin libs....

What a waste of time, seriously, if global warming is happening (hard to believe since this was the coldest and snowiest winter in 20 years) its not caused by humans. besides in the 60s and 70s they were predicting GLOBAL COOLING and said that the average temperature would DROP by a few degrees...make up your damn mind already you so called "scientists" or else just go back to making robot girlfriends and leave the way people run their lives alone.

DUH DUH DUH..... Last night Ted Turner said within thirty years we will become cannibals because of Global Warming...
When I hear people Like Ted Turner or Al Gore speak it makes me want to start my SUV and let it run in my driveway..
Perhaps if you find spokes people that are not insane, perhaps people like me might takeit seriously....

Hey, the founder of the Weather Channel - a noted meteorologist - rebukes the Global Warming scare... look it up!!! Global warming is not a new or 'emissions' related event. The Earth has many cycles of warming and cooling as natural occurrences. Right now, we are in COOLING! Greenland got it's name because it used to be ...well.... GREEN during the warming period of the 500-1000 AD. Do you homework people!


From the moronic quality of those comments, you would be hard-pressed to believe that their authors even read the article.

The story described how a group of state attorneys general are suing the Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to force the EPA to obey a 2007 ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supremes said that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses are air pollutants as described under the Clean Air Act, and therefore the EPA must follow the procedures outlined in that act to reduce those pollutants.

In the court filing, 17 states said the EPA has done nothing to comply with the Supreme Court's order, and asks that the EPA be forced to take action within 60 days.

Amazingly, there are still people in the United States who believe global warming to be a myth or, if a problem, not a serious problem. From the comments noted above, it is likely that these are people who obtain their information from the Republican National Committee, Fox News, or Rush Limbaugh.

Consider, if you will, information related to global warming from real scientists.

National Geographic Magazine tells us that the Arctic sea ice is melting at a record rate. As of September of 2007, the ice cover had shrunken from its previous low in 2005, "by an area larger than Texas and California combined, opening sea routes usually limited to ice breakers. In 1979, September ice extended 2.78 million square miles; last year it was 1.65 million.

Up until just recently, scientists believed that global warming would melt the year-round polar ice cap by late in this century. New studies indicate the meltdown is coming much sooner, and that the polar region could be open water by the summer of 2030. Another oceanographer, using another model, claims the Arctic as we know it will end in 2013.

AOL noted that a record amount of Greenland's ice sheet melted this summer -- 19 billion tons more than the previous high mark. And for the first time on record, the Northwest Passage was open to navigation.

Here are other prognostications from that report as to what the future holds:

* A climate change report from earlier in 2007 predicts that sea levels will increase seven to 23 inches by 2100, speeding erosion and threatening coastal land. We will discuss this as it affects Florida a bit later.

* A U.N. report also estimates that global warming will cause a temperature increase between 3.6 and 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, with the best estimate around 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

* Uncommonly warm winter weather will play havoc with many European ski resorts. A University of Innsbruck study suggests that due to an average 3 percent decrease in Alpine ice, glaciers in the Alps will melt away by 2050.

* Britain's Meteorological Office reported in January that 2007 is likely to end up the warmest year ever recorded to date. El Nino and high levels of greenhouse gasses have raised global temperatures enough to break the record set in 1998.

* More than 100 cold-dependent species are in trouble. Polar bears have started dropping in numbers and weight and emperor penguin populations have shrunk by a factor of 30 in some areas.

* Central American harlequin frogs have lost 67 percent of their population in the last 20 to 30 years. Their warming environment has become a breeding ground for a fungus that is deadly to the frogs.

* One study says that the average global temperature has risen to the warmest level of the past 12,000 years. Temperatures are only 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit below the maximum temperature of the past million years.

* Two studies released in March 2006 found that despite the increasing snowfall that comes with global warming, Antarctica's ice sheets are losing far more surface area than the snow is adding.

* The rate of ice melting doubled between 1996 and 2005.

* Some 4 million acres of mature trees in Alaska have been killed by spruce bark beetles. Scientists believe that warmer temperatures have allowed the beetles to breed and mature twice as fast as normal.

* Sugar maple trees are migrating farther north out of New England as temperatures rise, putting a dent in the maple syrup industry.

* Mosquitoes that carry malaria or dengue fever are moving into formerly inhospitable areas at higher elevations. Global warming is expected to increase the range of mosquitoes and the virulence of their diseases.

* More than 250 people died in a heat wave that baked much of the United States in 1999, and in 2003 extreme heat waves killed 20,000 people in Europe and 1,500 in India.

* Scientists believe global warming will increase the risk of wildfires, such as this 2003 California blaze that burned more than 300,000 acres, by raising temperatures and causing an earlier spring.

* Rising temperatures are to blame for increased rainfall and more extreme flooding. In the United States, annual precipitation has increased between 5 and 10 percent since the early 20th century.

* "Bleached" coral reefs that protect coastal areas and harbor some of the most colorful life on Earth are dying prematurely because of warming ocean waters and higher levels of carbon dioxide.


Back to rising sea levels. If you live in a coastal region, this information is not to be taken lightly. All indicators are that global warming is melting glacial and sea ice much more rapidly than previously thought, which is one reason the seas are rising to levels unprecendented in recent millenia. Thermal expansion plays a role also. Water expands as it warms. As the upper level of the ocean gains warmth, the sea level is pushed higher.

Along Florida's gulf coast these are some observable changes occurring now: In Levy County, at the Waccassassa State Park, palm trees are falling over dead due to rising saltwater. Near Naples, at the Rookery Bay Preserve, freshwater marshes have been invaded by salt-water mangroves. Inland marshes are being replaced by salt water ponds in the western part of Everglades National Park.

According to an article in the St. Petersburg Times, "...scientists studying the phenomenon see it as a harbinger for major changes in the state's geography submerging islands and turning swamps into open bays. Those changes alone can create a serious economic impact on businesses such as fishing."

The Tampa Bay area is also noticing a rapid increase in rising sea levels. Mike Savarese, a marine science professor at a Florida Gulf Coast University, says that the increase can be difficult to notice because of replenished beaches and sea walls. But the evidence is quite clear in wilderness areas such as state and national parks. Savarese said "...we're seeing some real indications of change out there."


It's time to sound the sirens! Those states with long coastal areas are going to be the most affected by climate change in the near future. As we've seen, the changes are ongoing at present and it appears they are increasing more rapidly previously believed.

Unlike the moron who thinks so little of Al Gore that if Al Gore talks about global warming he wants to go start up his SUV and let it run, there are things we can do, and we've heard about them a number of times. Besides our personal actions to use less fuel and conserve more energy, perhaps the most important thing is to elect people to our local, state and national offices who understand the problem and intend to take action to deal with the problem.

Al Gore is setting the pace for most of us. He is about to reveal a $300 million climate change program, known as "The Alliance for Climate Protection," which is a public advocacy thrust to get the facts to the people which will then lead to a push for national policy changes. At the moment, our elected officials are overcome with inertia, and appear incapable of and/or unwilling to deal effectively with the problem.

Gore is putting his money where his mouth is. He is donating all the proceeds "from the Oscar-winning documentary, 'An Inconvenient Truth,' the best-selling companion book, his salary from the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and several international prizes, such as the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which adds up to more than a (sic) 2.7 million. Paramount Classics, the documentary's distributor, has pledged 5 percent of the film's profits to the group, and some of the money raised through the 2007 Live Earth concerts will help the campaign, along with Gore's proceeds from an uncoming book on climate change."

Private donors have already come up with about half the money needed for the entire campaign.

It is distressing and sad that global warming, or climate change, has become a political issue. Instead of playing a leadership role in facing up to what is undoubtedly the greatest threat ever to the well-being of our planet, the Bush administration chose to not only deny the fact of global warming, but to actively hinder efforts to deal with it. The reason, of course, is that what is required, such as emission controls of greenhouse gasses, would have cut into the bottom line of Bush's corporate cronies!

Can you imagine what it would be like to have a president who received international acclaim and was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing to the world's attention the incipient threat of unmitigated disaster in the form of global warming?

Instead, we have a president who is a complete doofus, who has failed at every single thing he has tried, and instead of solving problems, has created new ones and who, instead of international acclaim, has become an international pariah, and deserves the only prize that accurately describes his tenure in the White House -- the Booby Prize!

One last thing: If you are planning to buy a home or condo along Florida's coastline, you may want to rethink that decision, for we are soon to be a "world under water, already drowned." You see, Yahweh may yet cancel the covenant with Noah.