Cross this place off my tourist list. I don’t care how inviting, it will be now the “island of stupid” in my memory. Watch the video below the “read more” line for today’s dose of silliness. Look for more stunts like this leading to Copenhagen.
Maldives Cabinet Signs Climate Change Document 20 Feet Under Sea
From Fox News:
Excerpts: GIRIFUSHI, Maldives —
Members of the Maldives’ Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals Saturday at an underwater meeting staged to highlight the threat of global warming to the lowest-lying nation on earth.
President Mohammed Nasheed and 13 other government officials submerged and took their seats at a table on the sea floor — 20 feet below the surface of a lagoon off Girifushi, an island usually used for military training.
With a backdrop of coral, the meeting was a bid to draw attention to fears that rising sea levels caused by the melting of polar ice caps could swamp this Indian Ocean archipelago within a century. Its islands average 7 feet above sea level.
“What we are trying to make people realize is that the Maldives is a frontline state. This is not merely an issue for the Maldives but for the world,” Nasheed said.
Read the complete article at Fox News here
Members of the Maldives’ Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals Saturday at an underwater meeting staged to highlight the threat of global warming to the lowest-lying nation on earth.
h/t to WUWT reader Steven Skinner
In the meantime, readers might benefit from reading this WUWT post:
Despite popular opinion and calls to action, the Maldives are not being overrun by sea level rise
This Maldives publicity stunt is getting plenty of mainstream media coverage.
It’s been pointed out here for quite some time that alarmist blogs [particularly those funded by G. Soros] censor opposing points of view as a matter of policy.
Now it appears that the Administration’s stated policy is the same: click
I would say that the consensus opinion on this blog is that the maldives have adjusted themselves to rising sea levels. However, it was noted (Chris Schoneveld) that once they became paved over then they have effectively been fixed with respect to the sea level.
Should Maldivians be worried? Probably, but this has nothing to do with accelerating sea level rises. In fact, the solution is simple. Tear down all the buildings and rip up all the paving, thus returning the islanders back to the role of noble savage, muched beloved by warmists.
Deceptive reporting all over the media, from the Maladives to Hong Kong:
http://www.iceagenow.com/Deceptive_reporting_hides_truth.htm
Clive – you responded to my query by repeating the same allegations to which I was responding. I’m trying to point out that the proper question to ask is not “how much money do scientists stand to make from researching AGW,” but rather “how much MORE money could they make doing something else – e.g. writing global warming denial pieces?” What’s the opportunity cost of agreeing to the global warming consensus?
Climate scientists are some of the world’s most brilliant minds. If they were really in it for the money (instead of seeking truth), there’s much more money to be made modeling risks at investment banks than modeling climate for universities.
Another argument is that research wouldn’t get funded if it didn’t conform to the consensus. Really? I can think of a funding source that would gladly support anti-AGW research (and has). Hint: it’s a multi-trillion dollar industry with a vested interest in CO2 production. Think they could outbid universities for scientists?
Moreover, basic economics teaches that there’s no profit to be made doing the same thing everyone else is doing. Competition drives profits down, so the only way to make money is through differentiating your product or message (I do sales and marketing consulting, and this is what we teach our clients). There’s a large market – 40% of the US who don’t believe AGW – desperate to lap up any talking point that confirms their views. Publish a book with the words “global cooling” in the title (i.e. the latest Freakonomics book), and you’ve got a guaranteed audience ready to buy your book; publish a book about global warming, and you’re competing with hundreds of others.If scientists were driven by money, you’d expect their published views to be roughly 50-50 as they competed to capture share of the “AGW idea market.” The fact that the breakdown is closer to 97-3 proves that climate scientists are either not motivated by money, or that the market isn’t working. Controversy sells, consensus does not.
Now we know for sure!
White House controls our media and they are proud of it too.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=113347
Mr Watts,
I think now would be a good time to repost your historical images and maps of Boston’s coast line to demonstrate how humans adopt to slowly rising sea levels using far less technology and resources then we currently have at our disposal today.
RR Kampen (01:22:02) :
“Mark, coral grows harly these days on account of acification of the oceans. Now there’s a typo that’s worth its weight in gold.
They won’t be turning back the sea, they’ll be turning back refugees from the mid latitudes who are fleeing the cooling.
“This might mean the Islands are safe for now, but I lived there I’d be a bit worried for my grandchildren… Too many uncertainties and too many scenario’s to neglect.”
Not to worry RK, they were down there working on legal reforms, and those living there will understand that it’s just “Allah’s Will” if they sink and all die.
A couple of quotes from the news,
“Suood said difficulties arose when there were conflicts between the three. “Some Islamic sharia punishments are not enforced in the Maldives. For example, there is no amputation for thieves or death for apostates.””
“Several MPs said Islamic sharia should take precedence in specifying offences and punishments and spoke in favour of introducing the death penalty.
Ungoofaru MP Dr Afrashim Ali of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) said the penal code did not include offences specified in Islamic fiqh or law, adding it was obligatory to enforce punishments set out in Islam.
Apart from the Qu’ran and the hadiths, said Afrashim, the consensus (ijmah) of religious scholars should be taken into account when drafting such laws.
“Before looking at the laws of England or France, we have to look at the principles of sharia in Islam,” he said. “I am not saying at all that we should not benefit from laws developed in England or France in 1,000 or 2,000 years.””
http://www.minivannews.com/news_detail.php?id=7488
Being a big un-believer in the supernatural, I don’t quite follow how a “consensus of religious scholars” would have anything of value to add to a discussion of legal reforms.
Of course the term “religious scholars” being one of those oxymoron’s that seldom sees the light of day, perhaps it is the “consensus” that is so powerful.
WAG (09:55:18) :
“Climate scientists are some of the world’s most brilliant minds.”
Ri-i-i-i-ght. That’s why Michael Mann looks at his data upside down.
There are a few brilliant minds in the climate sciences. But not a single one exists on the alarmist side. Not one.
“Wild Ass Guess” is accurate.
RR Kampen (05:45:56) :
Sorry mate. Being old, I didn’t even realise that 1998 was that warm.
DaveE.
Sea level rise leads Temperature?????????????????????
http://climatesanity.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/sea-level-rise-rate-leads-global-temperature/
WAG (09:55:18) :
“Climate scientists are some of the world’s most brilliant minds. If they were really in it for the money (instead of seeking truth), there’s much more money to be made modeling risks at investment banks than modeling climate for universities”
==========
I always start to question things, especially ‘new’ and ‘creative’ things, when I am told they are the products of ‘brilliant minds’. Such a phrase is not often in harness with the concepts of ‘common sense’ and ‘practical solutions’. Normal things are just not always interesting enough for ‘brilliant minds’.
My guess about earnings potential is that the Banks already have their quota of ‘brilliant minds’ as the last 2 or three years probably illustrates. Having cherry picked ‘the best’, the rest get to go elsewhere. Maybe.
Alternatively some of the minds may be more attracted to the concepts of an academic life and prefer the promise of tenure to the lure of the pressure dollar. Plus I would imagine they get longer holidays and stuff.
No doubt some would explicitly turn down jobs with banks or other major businesses on the basis of the moral or political beliefs and of those a few may wish to use their academic position to promote their personal beliefs in some way. After all other people making a success of their careers – politicians, business men, bankers, etc., – can and do do just that. So why not academics?
With businesses and politicians one gets some choice about who one trades with and how much you are prepared to allow them to influence your life. Individually it may not be much but at least the choice is there. In other areas we don’t have that choice at all.
So, in order to ‘save’ this artificially populated ‘land’ known as the Maldives our leaders, ‘brilliant minds’ all no doubt, seem more than prepared to embark on a journey based on wishful thinking and, one has to say, self aggrandizement in the eyes of … well, I was going to write ‘their peers’ but since they are all at it on a competitive basis one must assume they are doing this mostly for themselves and their egos.
Hence the pranks.
I don’t ‘do’ holidays and I don’t travel much at all these days. I find I don’t have the need. Sadly this means I am unable to offer much help to the Maldives by deciding not to go there. Hopefully other will do so in my stead.
It seems to me that ‘the science’ has been bleached out of the current rush to claim seniority in the hair shirt game of CO2 targets. It would be a pity for humanity if CO2 was simply the chaff and the wheat that could feed prosperity for all was being left unsecured to be eaten by rodents.
WAG
“Climate scientists are some of the world’s most brilliant minds. If they were really in it for the money (instead of seeking truth), there’s much more money to be made modeling risks at investment banks than modeling climate for universities.”
And how do you know that the best of them have not already chosen that option in the past? 🙂
Money? It’s about insitutional funding and that affects things like tenure. It’s also a good idea because you get to sit on lots of administrative boards, government quango’s and other such highly lucrative positions (ok, not lucrative in a Goldman Sachs bonus kind of way, but relative to, say, a lowly teaching position). So, in my view, you love being an academic, you enjoy your subject, but you want the security of tenure and perhaps the opportunity to Holiday once a year in the Maldeves and maybe drive a pretty decent middle of the road sportscar. The kind of aspirations a lot of us have ;).
WAG,
“If they were really in it for the money (instead of seeking truth),….”
Is exactly the touching gullibility that charlatans from time immemorial have been able to bank on.
From religious scammers to financial ponzi schemes, the sort of faith you have towards AGW is the chief tool that con artists take advantage of.
AGW is no different at all from any other phony scheme.
DennisA (01:02:22) :
[quote] Given the sea level record is relatively short, it is still too early to deduce a long-term trend. [unquote]
Sorry for a tardy response. Japan Meteorological Agency began sea level measurement on the Japanese coastline with tide gauges in 1906, and the temporal evolution of anomaly (from 1971-2000 average) for 1906-2008 was found as shown here:
http://www.data.kishou.go.jp/shindan/a_1/sl_trend/sl_trend_graph.png
The Agency states (1) there’s no definite trend for over 100 years, and (2) a 20-year oscillation is clearly present.
Philip B:
Thankyou for your comment.
Please note that I am not claiming undersea volcanism is the main cause of the recent rise atmospheric CO2 concentration, but I am pointing out that it is one of several possible main causes that cannot be discounted on the basis of presently available data.
You say to me:
“richardscourtney (04:44:37) :
I’m sceptical volcanic activity in the recent past has produced sufficent S and Cl to produce a measurable effect on ocean acidity on the scale of the world’s oceans.”
I am certain that variations to volcanic S and Cl in sea water cannot produce such a measurable effect. Indeed, the main point of my post was that variation to average ocean pH is so small that it cannot be measured.
However, very small variations to the concentrations of S and Cl ions will have a much greater effect than large change to concentration of carbonate ions in ocean waters. This is because the S and Cl ionic concentrations are relatively very large. Ions in typical ocean water are:
chemical ion valence concentration
ppm, mg/kg part of
salinity % molecular
weight mmol/
kg
Chloride Cl -1 19345 55.03 35.453 546
Sodium Na +1 10752 30.59 22.990 468
Sulfate SO4 -2 2701 7.68 96.062 28.1
Magnesium Mg +2 1295 3.68 24.305 53.3
Calcium Ca +2 416 1.18 40.078 10.4
Potassium K +1 390 1.11 39.098 9.97
Bicarbonate HCO3 -1 145 0.41 61.016 2.34
Bromide Br -1 66 0.19 79.904 0.83
Borate BO3 -3 27 0.08 58.808 0.46
Strontium Sr +2 13 0.04 87.620 0.091
Fluoride F -1 1 0.003 18.998 0.068
Please note that the CO2 is present as bicarbonate and sulphur is present as sulphate.
Also, pH is a logarithmic scale of free hydrogen radicals. However, on concentration alone, Cl and SO4 are thousands of times more prevalent than bicarbonate.
It is argued by some that the recent increase to atmospheric CO2 concentration change has altered the bicarbonate composition of ocean surface waters to alter the pH of the surface waters by 0.2.
I have said no more than that it is equally plausible for such a small pH change to have been induced by variations to volcanic emissions of S and Cl.
And the ionic composition of ocean waters is altered by volcanism. I cite
Seyfried WE and Mottl MJ, Hydrothermal alteration of basalt by seawater under seawater-dominated conditions, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 46, Issue 6, June 1982, Pages 985-1002.
Its abstract says:
“Fresh mid-ocean ridge basalt glass and diabase have been reacted with seawater at 150–300°C, 500 bar, and water/rock mass ratios of 50, 62, and 125, using experimental apparatus which allowed on-line sampling of solution to monitor reaction progress. These experiments characterize reaction under what we have called “seawater-dominated” conditions of hydrothermal alteration.
In an experiment at 300°C, basalt glass undergoing alteration removed nearly all Mg2+ from an amount of seawater 50 times its own mass. In the process, the glass was converted entirely to mixed-layer smectite-chlorite, anhydrite, and minor hematite. Removal of Mg from seawater occurred as a Mg(OH)2 component incorporated into the secondary clay. This produced a precipitous drop in solution pH early in the experiment, accompanied by a dramatic increase in the concentrations of Fe, Mn, and Zn in solution. As Mg removal neared completion and the glass was hydrolyzed, pH rose again and heavy metal concentrations dropped.
At water/rock ratios of 62 and 125 and 150–300°C, the mineral assemblage produced was similar to that at a water/rock ratio of 50. Solution chemistry, however, contrasted with the earlier experiment in that Mg concentrations in solution were greater and pH lower. This caused significant leaching of heavy metals. At 300°C nearly all of the Na, Ca, Cu, Zn, and CO2 and most of the K, Ba, Sr, and Mn were leached from the silicates. H2S, Al, Si, and possibly Co were also significantly mobilized, whereas V, Cr, and Ni were not. Little or no seawater sulfate was reduced.
Although submarine hot spring solutions sampled to date along mid-ocean ridges clearly come from rock-dominated hydrothermal systems, evidence from ocean floor metabasalts and from heat flow studies indicates that seawater-dominated conditions of alteration prevail at least locally both in axial high temperature systems and in ridge flank systems at lower temperatures.”
Please note that the experiment did not inject Cl and S into the water but it found severe variations to pH were induced and;
“H2S, Al, Si, and possibly Co were also significantly mobilized, whereas V, Cr, and Ni were not.”
So, volcanic effects do make substantial alterations to the chemistry of the water that contacts them. And volcanic effects at any geologically active site vary over time.
I remind that I wrote:
“The undersea volcanic outputs of sulphur and chlorine affect the pH of the water the sulphur and the chlorine enter. And that water returns to the surface at a much later date. This must alter the pH of the surface water where the deep ocean water upwells to the surface. And altered pH of ocean surface waters alters the atmospheric and oceanic equilibrium concentrations of CO2.”
and
“So, a variation to ocean surface layer pH could have induced the observed rise to atmospheric CO2 concentration over recent decades by reducing the ability of the surface waters to extract CO2 from the air (as they do seasonally each year).”
And
“And the changes to ocean pH are so small that observing their global variation is not possible at present. The following listed points are pertinent to this.
1.
Ocean pH varies from 8.2 to 7.6 between localities. A change in average ocean pH of less than 0.2 would account for all recent observed rise to atmospheric CO2 concentration (and some of that CO2 rise must have resulted from temperature rise).
2.
Changes to upwelling cold water do alter global atmospheric CO2 concentration as is demonstrated by ENSO.
3.
Small changes to the pH of the upwelling water would have much greater effect on global atmospheric CO2 concentration than the changes induced by temperature effects of ENSO.
So, it is not known if or how much the ocean surface layer pH has changed globally over the last century and/or decade(s), and if it has changed then it is not known why it has changed.”
I stress that I am not claiming volcanism is the main cause of the recent rise atmospheric CO2 concentration. I am merely pointing out that it is one of several possible main causes which cannot be discounted on the basis of presently available data.
Importantly, undersea volcanism must have at least as great an effect on ocean pH as atmospheric CO2 concentration.
Richard
Jason (00:17:10) :
Yo, tallbloke – the Greenland ice sheet is an ice cap, and that’s melting. And have you ever stopped to consider that low backlighted oceans are practically black, and would no longer be white if it melts?
Do keep up. Greenland was losing about 250km3/year of ice during the height of the warming in 1998. But it was also gaining a bit more than that in new snow. Since 2007 the melting slowed right down and the overall trend is up for Greenland ice mass. Check the official data.
Despite what you may have been led to believe by alarmists, Greenland is fine.
DaveE (12:03:45) :
Sorry mate. Being old, I didn’t even realise that 1998 was that warm.
DaveE.
This is a double positive answer to my query. I thought so. Thank you.
RE: richardscourtney (18:08:24) :
You should chat with Dr. Doug Erwin. He’s a specialist regarding the big extinction ~ 60M YBP. I think he’d be quite fascinated with your perspective.
I agree that mid ocean ridge volcanism may have an influence in ocean pH per what you wrote.
Sorry, a correction, Erwin studied the extinction ~ 250 – 260 MYBP, not the one ~ 60 MYBP.
Well I think that Abraham or whatever his name is, is all wet.
I seem to recall an old cowboy western music song, about a dawg that was howlin. Apparently the pooch was howlin cos it was sittin on a thorn and was too darn lazy to move.
Seems like old Abraham and his cronies have a touch of Canut’s fever.
Most people with some common sense (which ain’t all that common) when they see the sea rising, they head for the high ground. In this case there isn’t any high ground in the Mal Dives (aptly named).
I can suggest some good desert locations in Saudi Arabia, where Abraham and his folk can go and be guaranteed to not be under water.
Only a fool or a whole bunch of fools, would choose to hang around some place where the water is rising; which incidently is not happening in the Mal Dives.
Maybe Abraham can go and join that 12th Imam at the bottom of that dry well in the desert that he fell into; but leaver us out of your future financing plans mate; we ain’t interested.
Nice reply to the circus from Nils-Axel Morner, Leader of the Maldives Sea level project (small .pdf)
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/OpenLetter.doc.pdf
They still haven’t shut down that international airport. Considering the threat they are under, they should be taking down those 747s full of European tourists on approach.