We continue to find laughable errors in the state-by-state climate impact report released yesterday. Today we have this claim in the White House climate impact report for Georgia about coastline for the State of Georgia being threatened by sea level rise: (h/t Ryan Maue)
For comparison, California has 840 miles of coastline.
Map from NOAA US Tides and Currents website
According to the U.S. International Borders: Brief Facts”, by the Congressional Research Service, Table 3 lists the value for Georgia:
It took me about 20 seconds to locate this data. Georgia has 100 miles of coastline, not 707.
If you use the NOAA method, where they measure the outline of every estuary, inlet, peninsula, etc that touches water, we get a value for Georgia of 2344 miles:
Source: http://coastalmanagement.noaa.gov/mystate/ga.html
No matter which method you use, you can’t get 707 miles.
Add this to the list of laughable data claims already discovered, such as the claim that the president’s home state of Hawaii has 31 counties (it actually has 5), it seems to me that that the White House doesn’t know how to do basic research using a search engine.
Besides, Savannah, GA seems to not have disappeared in the face of its measured sea level rise:
Source: http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_station.shtml?stnid=8670870
Surely it must be embarrassing for the White House that a “flat earther” blogger like me has to point these factual errors out to them.
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They don’t have time for fact checking. They’re busy saving the world!
That explains a lot about the economic stimulus programs. A few zeros here and there quickly add up to real money and a few less to pretty much no jobs created at all.
The White House has a lot of things confused. Help them Lord. Thanks for the info.
aren’t these the same people that draft things like health care, government policy, foreign relations, etc
and no one can proof read
58 states…….I’ve toured 57, with one more to go
It’s not like the White House cares about facts. This certainly isn’t the first time. They’ll say anything to get their way.
obviously Gore “Million of Degrees” is still involved in WH “Greenie” stuff
Latitude @June 27, 2013 at 9:22 am
Proofreading is difficult and boring, especially if you attended government schools. Obviously, just assuming your boss can research and write ain’t cuttin’ it.
Actually, it’s not inaccurate to say Georgia’s coast line is 707 miles long, or even 1,707 miles long.
It all depends on how you measure it. 😉 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox
REPLY: OK, let’s claim a million miles and call it a day then 😉 – Anthony
Maybe they are using Mandelbrot techniques to determine the length of Georgia’s coastline:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Long_Is_the_Coast_of_Britain%3F_Statistical_Self-Similarity_and_Fractional_Dimension
/snark
Welcome to the world of fractal dimensions, where the length of coastline between two points can be legitimately described as anything between the length of the geodesic and infinity. I’m not surprised they used that ambiguity to overstate GA coastline.
I am surprised that they did not assign a coastal length to AZ, based on model projections of SLR. 🙂
Georgia only has 100 miles of coast if you ignore all the islands. Cumberland Island alone has almost 50 miles of shore line.
This is within the error brackets that should be assigned to any White House statement. The only certainty is that the statement is wrong. What we don’t know is whether the error was intentional or not. It may not be a lie (and in this case I’m sure it isn’t). We just know that they don’t care about reality.
Oh yeah, that 57 state thing. He must have read that off a ketchup bottle: “57 varieties”.
“Carbon pollution is contributing to a higher risk of asthma attacks …”
CO2 is causing asthma attacks? How in the hell do they rationalize that?
Err – “Home state of Hawaii”. I thought it was Kenya.
Under the BS for Kentucky they worry about sea level rise. Maybe it comes all the way up the Mississippi and then turns east up the Ohio River. Good grief! Did any of these people ever take geography. I love the way for some states we should destroy the economy, have our electric bills skyrocket and be forever be beholden to OPEC because climate change may make ragweed bloom a few days earlier. I love the way they cherry pick data by picking a particular year for asthma numbers without any comparison to other years or an average. One of the funniest and most pitiful things the government has ever done.
Louisiana has 30 miles more coastline than Texas? I thought this was linear mileage?
And if a few, relatively minor, errors a lengthy report are enough to invalidate the entire report?
Could not the same statement be made about this very blog?
I reference yesterday’s blog post:
NOAA exaggerates 2012 Greenland Ice Mass Loss by 10x
Source: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/06/26/noaa-exaggerates-2012-greenland-ice-mass-loss/
In which, the guest author made a simple mathematical error – which they admitted – and thus his conclusions are inaccurate. Interestingly enough, the title of the blog post has not been corrected, even though it is blatantly wrong.
Should we hold this site to the same standards you apply?
REPLY: Show me where the White House has made ANY correction and you’d have a point. The guest author is preparing a correction, and people can plainly see the announced error at top. The only people that can’t see the correction are pouncers – Anthony
Tarran is correct, the coastline example was used by Mandelbrot to illustrate the concept of a fractional (fractal) dimension.
I just googled for “georgia coastline miles” and saw this:
That’s a lot of miles 😉
Anthony:
Like a modern journalist, you’re not supposed to do any fact-checking, just rewrite the summary of the report as accepted facts. The Ministry of Truth has spoken?
Who do you think you are, anyway?
~more soylent green!
The White House says “more than 85 metric tons of carbon pollution” . Huh? My daughters’ Ford wagon must emit that much in a year. They mean , surely, 85 gazillion tons.
daddyjames says:
June 27, 2013 at 9:49 am
And if a few, relatively minor, errors a lengthy report are enough to invalidate the entire report?
Could not the same statement be made about this very blog?
I reference yesterday’s blog post:
NOAA exaggerates 2012 Greenland Ice Mass Loss by 10x
Source: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/06/26/noaa-exaggerates-2012-greenland-ice-mass-loss/
In which, the guest author made a simple mathematical error – which they admitted – and thus his conclusions are inaccurate. Interestingly enough, the title of the blog post has not been corrected, even though it is blatantly wrong.
Should we hold this site to the same standards you apply?
We will be waiting for the Whitehouse and Obama to admit they made some errors in their reports. Tho I really wouldn’t advise holding your breath until they do. 😐
All 707 miles of Georgia’s coastline was at risk. Obviously 607 miles has been flooded, leaving only 100 miles to go. It’s worse than the White House thought!
Only 85 metric tons of carbon, huh? Boy, they’s gone whole-HAWG down there!