[GWSG] High tides; cod & the AMOC in the NE; slow wave?; Ryan on climate; battling balloting in FL

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Peak high tides, an onshore wind, and a slowing Gulf current among other sources of sea level rise have led to flooding along the US Southeast coast exceeded in the past only in connection with hurricanes.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/10/27/historic-high-tides-from-supermoon-and-sea-level-rise-flood-the-southeast-coast/  Tom Larson sends this from Georgia on the submersion of the Tybee Island access road.  The comments are amusing, if you are in the mood for the outrageous misunderstandings among the concerned observations.  http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2015/10/27/supermoon-rising-sea-levels-put-tybee-island-access-under-water/  I have not seen how much of the flooding is due to sea level rise, but I have been looking.  Since even king tides are predictable, and the onshore wind effect familiar, someone has been analyzing the abundant tidal gauge data and knows or has a good guess.  Please send anything you run across.



2.  Unprecedentedly high warming in the waters off New England has contributed to a collapse of cod stocks.  Lobsters are booming.  Part of the warming is due to a northward movement of the Gulf Stream due to a slowing of the AMOC.  Heightened precipitation, such as last winter's heavy snows, are part of the result.  So is the four inches of sea level rise the area experienced in 2009-10.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/10/29/climate-change-is-doing-some-strange-things-to-the-waters-off-new-england/



3.  Detlef Stammer's slow wave theory, often dismissed but never to my knowledge refuted, predicts that the four inches of NE coast sea level rise from 2009-10 should be making its way slowly southward along the east coast in the intervening five years, augmented by new rise as time goes on.  https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14264-greenland-meltwater-will-take-slow-wave-around-globe/



4.  Incoming House Speaker Paul Ryan is an enemy of climate action (and about anything else which would employ government to benefit the general public).  http://grist.org/politics/paul-ryan-incoming-house-speaker-is-a-right-wing-extremist-who-wants-to-screw-over-the-climate/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed



5.  Every member of the Florida legislature receives money from the fossil fuel industry (including utilities).  Perhaps as a result, Florida has low solar power production and some of the most severe restrictions on solar power.  Under Governor Scott (a million dollar recipient) the state has discarded its renewable energy targets.  A ballot initiative would remove some of the restrictions and allow Floridians to purchase rooftop solar power from a third party.  The Koch brothers have formed their own group with a separate ballot initiative to prevent it from working.  May they fail.  http://ecowatch.com/2015/10/27/koch-brothers-solar-florida/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=7e29a8f048-Top_News_10_29_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-7e29a8f048-85965093  Politico provides more on the competing amendments and the groups backing them, particularly the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (good guys) and Consumers for Smart Solar (creeps).  http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/florida/2015/10/8581174/backer-solar-ballot-initiative-battles-utilities-energy-policy?

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