Climate Reality has had some good moments. Like the moment below, where Paul Higgins, Associate Director of the American Meteorological Society Policy Program tries to answer some pretty easy questions. The first one is how much has the sea level risen in the past 50 years? And how much is it expected to rise in the next 50 years? Easy to get the numbers, as it has risen about 17 cm in the 20th century, so a good reply would be half of that, or about 8.5 cm. And if it is rising at 3 mm/year now, and it is not accelerating, it would rise 15 cm in the next 50 years, less than half a foot…

Higgins didn’t have a clue, but suggested that in the next 50 years it would be in the neighborhood of less than half a meter. Gosh, when scientists don’t have a clue, then the priests just jump in. Meet Allison Rogers, former Executive Director from Green the Capitol. Who is this cute girl, I thought? Well, like she was presented before, she has a degree in Religion and was Miss Rhode Island 2006! These beautiful girls just say whatever they hear, and for her, the sea level can go up 39 feet, well you know because all that ice from Greenland and Antarctica could just melt…

There were more questions. Higgins still didn’t know… We just can’t emit more CO2. You just have to see the video to get an idea how good this Climate Reality was… If you cannot see it below, or want a better quality, just go here, and fast-forward till 52:53

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Allison Rogers, Miss Rhode Island 2006, responds in comments:

Anthony,

The source for the 39 feet reference in my response is here:

“World on the Edge” – Author: Lester Brown, 2011. See page 75.

“How far might the sea level rise? Rob Young and Orrin Pilkey note in ‘The Rising Sea’ that planning panels in Rhode Island and Miami assume a minimum rise of 3.5 feet by 2100. A California planning study uses a 4.6-foot rise by century’s end. The Dutch, for their coastal planning purposes, are assuming a 2.5-foot rise for 2050.

If the Greenland ice sheet, which is well over a mile thick in places, were to melt completely, sea level would rise 23 feet. And if the West Antarctic ice sheet were to break up entirely, sea level would rise 16 feet. Together, the melting of these two ice sheets, which scientists believe to be the most vulnerable, would raise sea level 39 feet. And this does not include thermal expansion as ocean water warms, an important contributor to sea level rise.”

– Allison Rogers