Guest “Scale and context” by David Middleton
I just noticed this 2019 Time magazine cover in a LinkedIn post this morning. CTM covered it back in 2019 when he reposted Michael Bastasch’s Daily Caller article highlighting the fact that Tuvalu has actually grown in area over the past fifty years, while it was supposedly being inundated by catastrophic sea level rise.
UN Chief Poses For TIME Cover Off ‘Sinking’ Pacific Island Nation That’s Actually Growing In Size
MICHAEL BASTASCH
CONTRIBUTOR
June 13, 2019The newest TIME magazine cover features United Nations chief António Guterres standing in water off the island nation of Tuvalu, which the outlet called “one of the world’s most vulnerable countries” to global warming.
The photo, taken during Guterres’ four-country tour of Pacific nations in May, is meant to illustrate one point — that island nations are sinking in the face of global warming-induced sea-level rise.
TIME titled it’s Thursday cover story, “Our Sinking Planet.” There’s just one problem: Scientific studies show Tavalu’s islands, indeed most Pacific islands, have actually grown in the face of sea level rise.
[…]
The Daily Caller
Mr. Bastasch thoroughly demolished Time magazines climate porn, but he never applied scale and context to the magazine cover. The Daily Caller article included a modified version of the cover, showing Mr. Guterres in nearly shoulder-deep water.
The actual cover only showed Mr. Guterres in knee-deep water. Either way, the implication seems to be that sea level was rising faster than Mr. Guterres could move inland, however there was still no context… How much had sea level risen while Mr. Guterres was standing there and how long did it take? As a geologist, I just had to apply scale and context to the photo… Whenever a geologist takes a photograph of a person, it’s only for scale.
Assuming that the Time magazine cover is implying that Mr. Guterres was standing at sea level before ExxonMobil caused the seas to rise so fast that he’s now up to his knees in catastrophic sea level rise, we should be able to calculate how long he had been standing there.
We need to know two things:
- Mr. Guterres height
- The water depth at his location
According to this source, his height is 170 cm (~5’7″). Using this chart of short actors from Quora, we can estimate that the water depth is ~1’6″ (~46 cm)… Mr. Guterres falls right in between Iron Man (5’8″) and Jack Black (5’6″).
So, now we know that sea level must have risen by about 46 cm (460 mm) while Mr. Guterres was standing there.
Unfortunately, Tuvalu doesn’t have a very good tide gauge record.
Fortunately, NOAA lists a tide gauge station about 4 miles southwest of the UN Headquarters at The Battery, with a continuous long-term record. Since Mr. Guterres probably spends more time in New York City than he does in Tuvalu, we’ll go with The Battery.
Sea level at The Battery has been steadily rising at the terrifying rate of 2.89 mm/yr since at least 1856.
At this rate, it would have taken just over 158 years for sea level to rise from the soles of Mr. Guterres shoes up to his knees.
- 457.2 mm ÷ 2.89 mm/yr = 158.20 yr
What would Mr. Guterres’ loitering for this photo op have cost the US taxpayer? The UN Secretary General’s salary is $227,253 per year. Amazingly, the Secretary General hasn’t gotten a raise since 1997. US taxpayers foot about 22% of the UN’s bill.
- $227,253/yr x 158.2 yr = $35,951,582
- $35,951,582 x 22% = $7,909,348
Compared to the return we normally get on our UN “investment,” spending about $8 million to relocate the Secretary General to Tuvalu, seems like a bargain.
What did Mr. Guterres have to say about climate change?
“We seem trapped in a world where fossil fuel producers and financiers have humanity by the throat. For decades, many in the fossil fuel industry has invested heavily in pseudo-science and public relations – with a false narrative to minimize their responsibility for climate change and undermine ambitious climate policies. They exploited precisely the same scandalous tactics as Big Tobacco decades before. Like tobacco interests, fossil fuel interests and their financial accomplices must not escape responsibility. The argument of putting climate action aside to deal with domestic problems also rings hollow. Had we invested earlier and massively in renewable energy, we would not find ourselves once again at the mercy of unstable fossil fuel markets. So let’s make sure the war in Ukraine is not used to increase that dependency. Today’s most pressing domestic problems – like inflation and gas prices – are themselves climate and fossil fuel problems”
LinkedIn
What a load of horst schist!
Fossil fuels and cigarettes have one thing in common: They are both perfectly harmless until you stick them in your mouth and light them on fire. [Note to OCD commenters: Google “sarcasm” before making a dumb comment.]
Had we invested earlier and massively in renewable energy, we would not find ourselves once again at the mercy of unstable fossil fuel markets.
LinkedIn
Investing massively in altering the laws of physics would have been as pointless as standing in knee-deep water for 158 years and scowling at ExxonMobil.
We’ve never transitioned from one form of energy to another; we just pile new sources on top of the old sources and use them more efficiently, with less impact on the environment. We burn almost as much biomass now as we did when we started burning coal; we just no longer rely on whale oil as a major component of that biomass.
Mr. Guterres… This is a plot of average global life expectancy overlaid on per capita energy consumption, mostly fossil fuel-derived energy, since 1800:
Energy Consumption: Bjorn Lomborg, LinkedIn
From 1800 to 1900, per capita energy consumption, primarily from biomass, remained relatively flat; as did the average life expectancy. From 1900 to 1978, per capita energy consumption roughly tripled with the rapid growth in fossil fuel production (coal, oil & gas). This was accompanied by a doubling of average life expectancy. While I can’t say that fossil fuels caused the increase in life expectancy, I can unequivocally state that everything that enabled the increase in life expectancy wouldn’t have existed or happened without fossil fuels, particularly petroleum.
Our modern society would not exist without fossil fuels and it would collapse in a heartbeat if fossil fuels were made unavailable and/or unaffordable.
Mr. Guterres… This is Data laughing at you:
Who the Hell is António Guterres anyway?
Apparently he’s a Marxist politician who has never held a real job in his entire life.
He attended the Camões Lyceum (now Camões Secondary School), where he graduated in 1965, winning the National Lyceums Award (Prémio Nacional dos Liceus) as the best student in the country. He studied physics and electrical engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico – Technical University of Lisbon in Lisbon. He graduated in 1971 and started an academic career as an assistant professor teaching systems theory and telecommunications signals, before leaving academic life to start a political career.[6]
[…]
Guterres’s political career began in 1974, when he became a member of the Socialist Party. Shortly thereafter, he quit academic life and became a full-time politician. In the period following the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 that put an end to Caetano’s dictatorship, Guterres became involved in Socialist Party leadership…
Wikipedia
For many years Mr. Guterres was active in the Socialist International, a worldwide organization of social democratic political parties. He was the group’s vice-president from 1992 to 1999, co-chairing the African Committee and later the Development Committee. He served as President from 1999 until mid-2005. In addition, he founded the Portuguese Refugee Council as well as the Portuguese Consumers Association DECO, and served as president of the Centro de Acção Social Universitário, an association carrying out social development projects in poor neighbourhoods of Lisbon, in the early 1970s.
United Nations
Mr. Guterres and the editors of Time magazine have jointly earned a Billy Madison lifetime achievement award.
He’s auditioning for a job at CNN!
Now there is a real human turd.
David Middleton: “Whenever a geologist takes a photograph of a person, it’s only for scale.”
All those vacation photos of the wife and kids? Better hope the Mrs. never finds out what you were really up to. 😉
The Mrs. is also a geo and our official vacation photographer. When we go hiking, I serve as navigator, pack mule for the camera gear and provide scale when a quarter, lens cap or rock hammer are too small… 😉
So a couple of geos got married? Y’all must have rocks in your head. 🤣
My parents were both geologists.
You must have had a rocky childhood.
Just a chip off the old block.
Only 431 years and another $21,531,003 to put him completely under.
He already looks rather prosperous.
Can we crowd fund that?
431 seconds would be entertaining, especially if he could hold hands with Our (other) Beloved Leaders.
I am willing to hold him under for less than that 🙂
“Only 431 years and another $21,531,003 to put him completely under.”
… always looking on the bright side, huh?
As with any propaganda, the damage is done when the bomb is dropped. Whether or not it was on target is irrelevant.
From the article: “He attended the Camões Lyceum (now Camões Secondary School), where he graduated in 1965, winning the National Lyceums Award (Prémio Nacional dos Liceus) as the best student in the country. He studied physics and electrical engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico – Technical University of Lisbon in Lisbon.”
So Mr. Guterres has some very good technical chops. But he’s in love with Marxism/Socialism and instead eschews data, logic, and the scientific method in favor of spreading socialism. From this photo shoot, it appears he’s of the typical socialist “end justifies the means” camp. He has to know that sea level rise is so slow and steady that humans can adapt and have plenty of time to do so. He is not stupid.
I think all of that brainpower of his way back when analyzed how to get rich, and the obvious answer was to be one of the “more equal animals” at the top.
We have a Troll-Bot in the ratings… 3 votes, 3.7 average… That’s two 5’s and one 1.
You hurt some warmunist’s feelings by being irrefutably sarcastic. Good job.
Only one… I was hoping for more.
Your reputation probably precedes you. Good job again.
Nick will be along shortly to redefine everything and point out your error 🙂
I rather like it as a put down but perhaps Google Oscar Wilde in relation to sarcasm.
Thanks, David, for catching this and presenting it so that it made me smile.
The change to the cover art made me want to say, D’OH!
Regards,
Bob
Gutierrez exemplifies the useless futility of the UN, the UNFCC, the derivative IPCC, and the COPs. But it appears that despite Tuvalu propaganda the AGW ship is about to founder on the rocks of energy reality.
Going to be a very tough winter in Europe without Russian natgas.
And Biden admin saying high gas prices are good because accelerates transition to EVs (yes, Granholm was that dumb on the record) isn’t going to play well in the midterms.
The UN can’t even help to transport grains from a member state Ukraine to a member state Egypt.
Apparently Ukraine wasn’t prepared to transport grain other than by sea – the train rails are a different gauge to EU and there’s no provision for storage silo’s at the border where they could transfer to an EU train. Ukraine has also vetoed removal of the mines around their ports as it’s keeping Russian warships out and transport planes are also not an option as Kyiv can’t guarantee it won’t shoot at them by mistake. Trucks are also in very short supply as well.
UN has failed to meet its Charter. The last sorry chapter is Russian aggression against Ukraine and that followed closely behind its failure to follow Taiwan’s advice on keeping Covid-19 in China. As a consequence, all human rights of freedom of movement for citizens were tossed aside by signatories to the Charter on human rights.
UN’s sole purpose now is survival. That requires a guaranteed income stream. Their proposed 1999 tax on emails failed – a good thing too. Trump made a positive move in defunding the UN WHO.
Energy poverty is now presenting as a serious global risk. It will be interesting to see what emergency measures are taken by various countries. UN agreements get cast aside when people are dying from hunger or cold. Sri Lanka’s about face on fertiliser a recent example along with new found love for coal as an energy source in Europe.
On the other side of the coin, as an Australian it is disappointing to see the charge to Net-Zero stumbling. The declining demand for wind turbines has hit iron ore prices in a big way. Nothing short of a collapse from a year ago:
https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/iron-ore-price?op=1
You would be shocked at the hour and a half expose of the outrageous conduct of UN most senior staff exposed in the BBC2 documentary aired in the U.K. a couple of days ago. I am very critical of the Beebs climate propaganda, but credit where it is due, they skewered the UN for its systemic misconduct – corruption, sexual predatory behaviour riddling the organisation in its offices and unforgivably against hapless poor people worldwide, betrayal of activists to regimes, etc etc.
I expect the documentary will be largely quietly disappeared – though why the UN and it’s staff should require immunity against criminal sexual assault and financial corruption worldwide is beyond me.
BBC2 The Whistleblowers: Inside the UN
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018ljw
Real Clear Politics’ average of all the polls has the Republicans leading House races by 230 to 180 with 32 districts classified as toss-ups. Of these 32 districts, 28 of them have incumbent Dimocrats. 217 seats are needed to control the House.
Unless something major changes it’s going to be a blue bloodbath. Hard to imagine what will change in favor of the Dims – they’re losing to the Republicans in polling on the vast majority of issues.
Can you imagine how busy the globalists’ minions in the press will be, trying to dig up (or invent) anything they can to discredit the “deplorable“ conservatives who win? After all, they’re going to need to distract people from investigations of Hunter’s laptop and the pedophile island thing, not to mention Obummer and Hillary’s faking of Russian collusion by Trump.
The Dems will have to “produce” more votes than ever to pull this off, so expect media propaganda to become more extreme and emotional in order to to legitimize tens of millions of new voters who appeared from nowhere to support the new globalist socialism.
are you joking Queen meab?
Who do you think will stuff the ballot boxes and count the votes? Not the ligitimate Presidents supporters, thats for sure.
IMO The UN and its acolytes such as the UNFCC, the IPCC, the COPS, and recently DAVOS , have morphed into little more than MARXIST/COMMUNIST organisations with and agenda to replace the capitalist system with a Communist type planned economy, with has proved so disastrous in the past.
There is nothing futile in this organisation; for it is outright dangerous with tentacles reaching deep into much of our society, trampling over the norms of ethics in their behaviour.
Don’t take my word for it; ask Christiana Figueres in one of her honest modes.
All Western governments are dancing to the UN tune, WEF is the orchestra. WHO, WMO, World Bank, International Labour Organisation are all UN bodies. Search for “UN Structure”, tentacles everywhere. ECOSOC, suitably Orwellian name, the Economic and Social Council, is also well worth a visit.
I am sure this assessment is all wet. Having anybody standing there for 158 years is not reasonable.
So what would be a good explanation?
We have ENSO the PDO and La Nina with El Nino.
We know a strong El Nino event causes warm water from the Pacific Warm Pool to flow Eastward along the equator to the Americas. This causes a drop in sea level in the areas surrounding the warm pool of as much as 1 full meter and persisting for as long as several months. At the time there was a strong El Nino underway.
So here is what happened.
The native population, fed up with UN meddling in their affairs grabbed the UN head. They then outfitted him with “concrete galoshes” or cement overshoes. Now, little better than a potted plant, they placed the illustrious head of the UN on the beach right at sea level. Shortly thereafter, the El Nino maxed out and the sea flowed back to return to it’s normal level. Much to the satisfaction of the locals, the exalted leader of the UN was left in half a meter of water.
The locals were so happy that they wanted to have a feast in honor of the event. They thought it best to have the head of the UN for dinner. Sadly the chieftain had to put a stop to that, reminding the tribe that they do not partake of cannibalism any more. Too bad, so sad.
And that is really what happened.
Science!
While standing in the water off Funafuti, if he was a curious man, he might contemplate why the temperature is so consistent month-to-month and year-to-year.
No open ocean surface can sustain a temperature above 30C. The boringly consistent monthly average of 28C is testament to that basic limit.
The level of precipitation provides a clue for those wanting to understand climate on Earth.
The Earth conducts an experiment in evaporation, convection and precipitation, all to demonstrate some basic principles of atmospheric science. All for our benefit.
Mr. Middleton,
I did not know that Guterres was an actual, honest-to-god, self-declared socialist.
I always thought he was a dimbulb. Now I know it.
Absolutely, and Christiana Figueres is his Costa Rican Marxist soul-mate.
When head honcho of the UN Environment Programme in control of the IPCC, she admitted that, actually, ‘Climate Change’ had little to do with the Environment, but was the way to destroy Capitalism.
Maybe the only honest words she ever uttered.
I’m too old to wait 431 years.
How about we followed the Extinction Rebellion mob but super-glued the feet of all the UN Marxists and virtue signalling kleptocrats to the bottom of an Olympic swimming pool somewhere, nailed up the ‘facilities’ and held a BIG free beer party?
Much cheaper than what we have now and more likely to finish the job than waiting for sea level rise.
I’d be happy to take a leak in that swimming pool, for the sake of suffering humanity.
Two WUWT posts on floating atolls like Tuvalu, the first by Willis E, the second by Jim Steele, with
references to & comments from Willis E. Very insightful!
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/27/floating-islands/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/07/19/islands-of-truth-emerging-from-the-murky-depths-of-sea-level-science/
Mr. Guterres is the saddest looking in the bunch, probably quit smoking too soon. We demonize everything now, OK smoking ain’t the safest thing in the world, but nicotine is an amazing substance. Probably essential in WWII and others. Demonizing alcohol probably proved a curse worse than the disease, maybe there are other examples, as the old adage says the road to hell is paved with good, and not so good, intentions. I added the ‘and not so good’ as they always need amending like the one about we get too soon old and too late smart, rough German translation. ‘Not so sure about the smart’ needs added also.
I wonder if Biden even realizes he can not have his Evs or wind farms and solar and backup without using a lot of crude oil.They are all built on the back of what he is trying to ban!
Don’t forget the coal that is necessary for refining the raw minerals.
Yes, as well as over 6,000 products interwoven in modern life that originate from the compounds and chemicals derived from refining the oil.
Also don’t forget the Chinese ethnic slaves and children who mine and process the lithium and Neodymium for use in so-called renewable and non-polluting green tech. They are an invaluable resource to the brave new world.
Consider this too-
We can’t dare make radioactive waste from a plentiful and dense source of energy like Plutonium, but it’s okay to produce it while making Neodymium to glean a megawatt of power from the wind with a device that will never harness enough energy to reproduce itself.
The UN has possibly turned out to be the most misconceived global fraternity to date, having been seized by dictators and bureaucrats demanding money to equalize their failed systems with the west.
Easy fix … move UN Headquarters to Tehran, at nearly 4000′ elevation even the craziest forecaster does not predict Tehran under the ocean any time soon.
Never underestimate the crazy in true believers, Frank.
When I read “Had we invested earlier and massively in renewable energy ….” I immediately thought that the statement should end with “… we would now be freezing in the dark in the winter“
When my father (R) warned me about communists back in 1980 I thought he was daft, but now I have the full picture, they are dangerous parasites – I hate the Left. I would love to rid the world of them.
Some interesting insight into the linkage between academia and the political class. Guterres brings shame to the engineering profession.
An engineering degree assesses suitability for productive employment in the field of study. If someone does not progress beyond academia they have never been exposed to economic decision making.
No electrical engineer, who put a few hours of observation into weather data, could possibly be a CO2 demoniser.
It must be all those oscillators & other non-linear circuits that never allow you to see “straight”
again. The two years of calculus didn’t hurt either! 😮
If Arrhenius was around today I’m pretty sure he would be horrified at what the Scientologists have extrapolated from his lab experiments: he would undoubtedly disavow them.
Especially as to their total distortion of control system theory.
So, the people of Tuvalu have been forewarned. Which begs the ultimate impending catastrophic question. How many Tuvaluans have moved off their Idland(s) to escape the climate crisis?
It’s a tiny island you would think they would just ask China to come build it a bit higher they have plenty of expertise in doing that. Probably all it would cost them is to host a military base 🙂
Raises the question. Not begs the question.
No. Begs the question, since we already know the answer, being no one has left Tuvalu due to rising sea levels because the crisis doesn’t exist as conveyed by the alarmist. Tuvalu has actually seen a population growth rate of 1.2%. So, no mass exodus.
When life expectancy was low prior to 1900, scientists had to become productive early and did not have time to be side-tracked by becoming global do-gooders.
Fossil fuels extended life spans with the downside that more people have time to become ‘experts’ with the aim to take us back to the 1900s and that much shorter lifespan.
Darwinism at its harshest, maybe.
Word salad Bob where are you?
I need more of your it’s Trump’s fault or Putin’s fault.
Where is word Salad?
Short fat and ugly = the classic outward signs of sugar poisoning.
…..and what goes on inside the heads of such people is no less ugly.
I cannot supply links, there are none what would be the point anyway.
The information within them would go straight through because The Only Thing, the thing constantly on the minds of sugar eaters is, when & where is my next meal (of sugar) coming from.
They are constantly totally preoccupied
The results as we all see are:
all those things rolling into the complete destruction, mentally and physically, of The Children, of the future generation. And they the next……
It is an experiment you have to do yourself. There is no instant result or gratification, unlike what you get from sugar, carbs and booze.
Give those things up and, inside 12 months typically, you’ll see…….
Sorry Peta, not trying to be mean but, I can’t help but notice that you seem to be the one totally preoccupied with sugar. Nobody else ever mentions it. Based on some of your previous cryptic writings, I’m not sure giving up sugar was such a good idea for you. Just sayin’.
There is a British television show called “Pointless”. It is on every weekday from 17:15 till 18:00 hrs and it is very popular The idea is to give correct answers to questions that few or no others would give. Tuvalu often features and in the early days was almost always pointless when mentioned as a correct answer. Sadly, as the show is run by the BBC, there will never be a question “Name an island nation that has been growing in surface area in the last 20 years”.
“Name any UN official that enjoys long walks in the sea?”
It is time for Western democracies to stop funding this Marxist led, and controlled, organisation.
Trump was most definitely not a fan. Here is just one of his comments relating to them:
“Which brings me to my next point, the utter weakness and incompetence of the United Nations. The United Nations is not a friend of democracy, it’s not a friend to freedom, it’s not a friend even to the United States of America where, as you know, it has its home. And it surely is not a friend to Israel.”
It’s ‘not fit for purpose’.
This is apt
“Apparently he’s a Marxist politician who has never held a real job in his entire life.”
Hmmm. How do you define a ‘real job’?
And where’s the evidence that he is a Marxist?
Well his membership in the Socialist party is a very big clue and since he has only worked for academia and political/governmental agencies is another big clue. Night-&-Day, IceAge-&-Cretaceous difference working for a company vs others.
So smart that no business wanted to hire him so he hates capitalism forever after.
He is a hate-filled con man in a long line of angry socialist con men (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot…Biden?) leading the world to disaster.
We have a winner!
The Battery has no correlation to CO2:
When he was born the riserate was faster than today!
https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_station.shtml?plot=50yr&id=8518750
I really hate to admit it, but he looks pretty good for a dude who’s been standing on a beach for 158 years. I don’t like his climate prescriptions, but I’d be willing to listen to his diet advice.
“Apparently he’s a Marxist politician who has never held a real job in his entire life.”
Just like Karl Marx himself then.
“Apparently he’s a Marxist politician who has never held a real job in his entire life”
As time goes on this description is, increasingly, doubly redundant
For many years Mr. Guterres was active in the Socialist International…
As was Obama’s appointee, Carol Browner, who became director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy in the Obama administration in December 2008. Prior to joining the Obama administration, she was a member of the Socialist International “Commission for a Sustainable World Society” and was still listed as such as of January 5, 2009, as shown in this cached page from Google. She was a speaker at the 2008 XXIII Congress of the Socialist International, Athens – Acting Now on Climate Change: “How do we strengthen the multilateral architecture for a sustainable future?”
List of Speakers – Socialist International
She was EPA administrator in the Clinton-Gore administration, famously deleting her files before leaving.