King tides are threatening to wash into Waikiki hotel
lobbies this week—a combination of unusual sea heights around Hawaii
corresponding with super spring tides, plus climate change.
And in the Arctic, just to the left of Superman’s Fortress
of Solitude, the global seed bank at Svalbard is melting,
So, how’s it working for you, that “climate change is a
hoax” business?
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser picked up the king tide story here.
For planning purposes, the king tides are scheduled for May
24-28, June 22-26, and July 20-25, with very high tides a day or two before and
after those peaks.
Meanwhile, in the distant north, Svalbard is a global seed bank established high in the
Arctic at 78 degrees north latitude, where it stays frozen all the time. Or did.
There
are tens of millions of crop seeds stored there, to protect the planet in case
of catastrophe. But now, instead of saving the planet, Svalbard itself is at risk.
Umthinkably, Svalbard is melting. The seeds are still
safe—they’re deep enough that it’s still frozen where they are, but the
permafrost near the surface is melting, and officials are now planning to
waterproof that part of the great vault.
Here’s what the blog Live Science had to say about it.
Climate change denial remains well entrenched in Washington, including
among the deniers the President and the head of the Environmental Protection
Agency. As for Congress, the blog ThinkProgress put it this way:
“Of the 180 climate science deniers in the 115th Congress,
142 are in the House and 38 are in the Senate. That’s more than 59 percent of
the Republican House caucus and 73 percent of Republicans in the Senate that
deny the scientific consensus that climate change is happening, human activity
is the main cause, and it is a serious threat. No Democrats publicly deny the
science behind climate change.”
It’s now understood to be far too late to stop the warming, the acidification of our oceans, the sea level rise and all the rest for our
lifetimes. So, we’re guaranteeing our grandkids a wild ride.
© Jan TenBruggencate 2017
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