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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>President Obama took a number of strong positions on climate in his state of the union address.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/13/us-obama-speech-climate-idUSBRE91C09T20130213"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/13/us-obama-speech-climate-idUSBRE91C09T20130213</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>There is much to applaud, but it might have been stronger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>I was disappointed to hear him supporting further development of oil and gas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>We should leave all we can in the ground, for we have frittered away our time for an orderly transition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Here is a transcript of the president’s comments on climate:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/breaking-news/20130213/obama-energy-and-climate-state-union-address?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+solveclimate%2Fblog+%28InsideClimate+News%29"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://insideclimatenews.org/breaking-news/20130213/obama-energy-and-climate-state-union-address?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+solveclimate%2Fblog+%28InsideClimate+News%29</font></a>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>As the Arctic permafrost melts, the landscape is disrupted, exposing yet more permafrost to decay and producing more carbon than we had anticipated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112782408/carbon-dioxide-released-by-arctic-permafrost-melt-021213/"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112782408/carbon-dioxide-released-by-arctic-permafrost-melt-021213/</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The big question is what the new findings do to our schedule for runaway methane emissions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>We should be hearing about that soon.<o:p></o:p></font></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font size="3" face="Calibri"> </font></o:p></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Sea level rise along the upper US east coast is currently 3-4 times larger than the global average.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Sea level rise in the region is said to be the highest in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/06/120625-sea-level-rise-east-coast-us-science-nature-climate-change/"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/06/120625-sea-level-rise-east-coast-us-science-nature-climate-change/</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font size="3" face="Calibri"> </font></o:p></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">A new study supports the theory that the slowing of the Gulf Stream is behind the greater sea level rise along the US east coast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.climatecentral.org/news/east-coast-faces-rising-seas-from-slowing-gulf-stream-15587?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.climatecentral.org/news/east-coast-faces-rising-seas-from-slowing-gulf-stream-15587?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Another factor is decreased gravitational hold on surrounding waters as Greenland loses mass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.climatecentral.org/news/the-secret-of-sea-level-rise-it-will-vary-greatly-by-region"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.climatecentral.org/news/the-secret-of-sea-level-rise-it-will-vary-greatly-by-region</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Yet another factor may be the coriolis effect on wind and water circulation patterns, along with the alterations in salinity and heat from release of Greenland freshwater melt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14264-greenland-meltwater-will-take-slow-wave-around-globe.html"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14264-greenland-meltwater-will-take-slow-wave-around-globe.html</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></font></font></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">Detlef Stammer’s 2006 paper (published 2008) set out his slow wave theory, modeling a buildup of water along the northern East Atlantic coast which would last more than 50
years and bring much higher sea levels for that time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The rise takes time to travel south and diminishes as it goes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Ten years after melt water is released from Greenland, it reaches the coast of North Florida and the sea rises about 8 times as high as the eventual world average for the release.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font><a href="http://ecco.mit.edu/pdfs/reports/report_42.pdf"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://ecco.mit.edu/pdfs/reports/report_42.pdf</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Stammer revisited the topic in a joint 2011 paper. </font></font><a href="http://www.journalogy.net/Publication/48429667/response-of-a-coupled-ocean-atmosphere-model-to-greenland-ice-melting"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.journalogy.net/Publication/48429667/response-of-a-coupled-ocean-atmosphere-model-to-greenland-ice-melting</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font size="3" face="Calibri"> </font></o:p></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Greenland is now losing mass 5 times faster than it was in the early 1990s.
</font><a href="http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/29/15518574-antarctica-greenland-ice-definitely-melting-into-sea-and-speeding-up-experts-warn?lite"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/29/15518574-antarctica-greenland-ice-definitely-melting-into-sea-and-speeding-up-experts-warn?lite</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font size="3" face="Calibri"> </font></o:p></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">We have every reason to anticipate that the melt from Greenland will continue to increase, and to expect much higher than average sea level rise effects on the east coast of
the US.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Yet no public account of differential sea level rise has been taken in planning efforts in Florida (and perhaps elsewhere along the east coast—I do not know of an instance, and have not seen a realistic set of
planning figures from any source).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We have an urgent need for sound regional projections of sea level rise for the Atlantic east coast in the northern hemisphere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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