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Reposted from Joe Romm's Climate Progress Blog

Study Shows 'Clear Indications' That Climate Change is Impacting European Fish Stocks

By Stephen Lacey on May 11, 2012 at 2:10 pm

From the news and political beat, you could easily think that a lot of Americans doubt the premise, facts, and urgency of dealing with the climate change crisis. Apparently that's simply not true. An authoritative new study last week gave some very encouraging news -- that is really quite surprising. Yale's Center on Climate Change Communication published the latest in their sophisticated study of public attitudes in the US.

72% of the American people are concerned about the issue. Amazingly, there is majority support, across all political lines.  

The YCCCC tracks six different attitudes about climate change, twice each year, ranging from "Hugely Critical-Act Now" to "Not a Problem/ Don't Do Anything".  Amazingly only 10% are in the last category.  But somehow they have a disproportionate voice in certain media and in Congress.

Sea Level suddenly rose more than 65 feet (20 m) in about four centuries––more than a foot a decade. That astonishing event happened over 14,000 years ago. A new study this week in the scientific journal Nature points the finger at Antarctica as the probable cause. It is rare for academic articles about something so ancient to get much interest. The story by Climate Central  was picked up by mainstream media London to Oregon, for good reason. It may shed some light on the modern rise in sea level that is now underway.  Even five feet of sea level rise would be disastrous for most coastal cities.

Today I had the privilege to dive in the ultra-sophisticated submarine "Super Aviator" named beause it operates more like an airplane than a typical research sub. I was looking for ancient shorelines, hundreds of feet down, as evidence of sea levels being far below the present.

Our base of operation was Kihei, on Maui.  We were towed to the tiny island of Molokini a favorite site for snorkeling in the flooded ancient crater. The pilot of my sub was John Jo Lewis, the senior pilot and one of the Directors of Sub Aviators.

Although I was getting trained as the co-pilot of the two-person vessel, I was content to let him do most of the piloting, so that I could concentrate on looking for the geologic formations.

A news report yesterday in NATURE that the Himalayan glaciers are not disappearing as anticipated has caused a flurry of discussion in the scientific community -- and also fueled those that want to assert global warming is not happening.

My take is that while interesting, and good science, it is not that surprising, nor does it in any way contradict the larger climate change scenario.  Consider:

97% of the world's water is locked up in Antarctica and Greenland (the "cryosphere"). Since those two ice sheets are in melt mode, the impact is clear in terms of the trend for the amount of ice, and the impact on sea level. 

The chart below is adapted from a similar graph in Dr. Peter Ward's book, "Under a Green Sky." It plots all the mass extinction events of the last 500 million years against the best estimate of carbon dioxide levels (CO2) at the time. According to his analysis, all major extinctions occured when CO2 levels exceeded a thousand parts per million (ppm). 

This is a fascinating and ominous correlation, which I will explain in a moment. First, a word about Peter and the book cited above. He is well - qualified, beyond being an emminent professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has received many honors; was featured on some television shows; gave a talk at the highly reputed TED conferences; and has written 17 books. (Although we have recently become friends, I was a reader and fan for several years prior.)