Not enough ice

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Last updated on August 6th, 2017 at 06:53 am

ABC science goblin Robyn Williams believes it is possible for the seas to rise by 100 metres over the next century.

Glaciologist Nikolai Osokin disagrees.

Posted by Tim B. on 03/28/2007 at 01:40 AM
    1. It’s not the density of the ice that matters, it’s the density of all the people drowned by melty-ice sea level rises- if Robyn* is used as the control corpse, it’s entirely possible, as he’s denser than a black hole’s poop.

      *WTF is a male doing with that spelling of Robin, gay enough in its masculine form?

      Posted by Habib on 2007 03 28 at 02:12 AM • permalink

 

    1. I take the last jibe back- Robyn is the butch way of spelling it.

      Posted by Habib on 2007 03 28 at 02:13 AM • permalink

 

    1. If a couple of fatties like David Hicks and Michael Moore took a swim in the Pacific at the same time sea levels may raise to a level Williams is talking about. Hardly a result of CO2 emissions though!

      Posted by Hank Reardon on 2007 03 28 at 02:27 AM • permalink

 

    1. No!  You FOOLS!  Don’t you SEE!

      If the Algore Effect continues to expand its influence, it will begin to pull down asteroids of ice from the rings of Saturn, simultaneously flooding and freezing the earth!  ALL the climate doom prophecies will be fulfilled!

      Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 03 28 at 02:32 AM • permalink

 

    1. #3- there’d be a lot of methane emissions though if they started to scoff krill while they were out there.

      Posted by Habib on 2007 03 28 at 02:34 AM • permalink

 

    1. Friggin’ ignoramus can go find some other religion as far as I’m concerned.

      What would a glazier know anyway – I bet he’s being paid off by big oil.

      Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 03 28 at 02:36 AM • permalink

 

    1. #3 – Guantanamo wasn’t actually on a bay until David Hicks arrived.

      Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 03 28 at 02:40 AM • permalink

 

    1. #5. Habib.
      I think the world is safe from that unless krill now come in pizza, burger or jelly doughnut flavours.

      Posted by Hank Reardon on 2007 03 28 at 02:40 AM • permalink

 

    1. If found swimming they should be towed outside territorial limits and sunk by naval gunfire.

      Posted by Pickles on 2007 03 28 at 02:45 AM • permalink

 

    1. Fairly OT (unless any of the Texans in the comment threads fear being assaulted in their cars or offices by sea levels)

      Texas gets Stand Your Ground Laws extended to cars & offices. Not that carjackings were skyrocketing in Dallas before, but be sure you smile whilst tail-gating and exchanging unidigital salutes, y’all. Drive Texas Friendly!

      I may need to celebrate by buying a new gun. You Ozzies should too. Oh, wait…

      Posted by brett_l on 2007 03 28 at 02:51 AM • permalink

 

    1. Damn,

      Now my wife gonna go crazy with me for fitting that lifeboat to the side of the house.

      Posted by Penguin on 2007 03 28 at 02:57 AM • permalink

 

    1. If there is not enough ice to create a 100m sea level rise then we simply freeze more water that we can later melt.

      Posted by bondo on 2007 03 28 at 03:08 AM • permalink

 

    1. Now, back on topic. 100 meters is ridiculous. That’s like Dr. Evil asking for 100 BILLION 1960 dollars. Tokyo Rose would blush before telling such a blantant lie. The math on a 100 meter rise is ridiculous. The numbers don’t make sense. You’d have to melt everything. Siberia would be paradise. The Bridge To Nowhere in Alaksa would be a Bridge to a Tropical Resort.

      Posted by brett_l on 2007 03 28 at 03:09 AM • permalink

 

    1. It’s a pity Williams has gone over to the dark side. A decade ago he was one of the ABC’s better journalists – always a bit of a lefty but tolerable. Once that AGW goblin get you in its grip you’re a gonna, even if you’re a scientist.

      His CV—

      Although he graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in England, Robyn admits to spending as much time acting as studying. Early in his career he made guest appearances in The Goodies, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Dr Who and stood in for Tom Jones for four months in his TV series. [snip]

      Outside the ABC, Robyn has served in various capacities, including President of the Australian Museum Trust, Chairman of the Commission for the Future, and President of the Australian Science Communicators. In 1987, he was proclaimed a National Living Treasure.

      In 1993, Robyn was the first journalist elected as a Fellow Member of the Australian Academy of Science. He was appointed AM in the 1988 Australian Bicentenary honours list and in the same year received Honorary Doctorates in Science from the University of Sydney and Macquarie and Deakin Universities. The ANU awarded him a Doctorate of Law, and he is a Visiting Professor at the University of NSW and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland.

      A Reuters Fellowship at Oxford University allowed him time to write his autobiography, And Now for Something Completely Different. He was a Visiting Fellow at Balliol College Oxford in 1995-96.

      I think we can see the problem: he’s been designated a “National Living Treasure” and was on the risible Commission for the Future, along with Phat Phil and motor-mouth Barry Jones.  That is, he’s lefties’ lefty.

      Posted by walterplinge on 2007 03 28 at 03:14 AM • permalink

 

    1. As the membership director of the Ayers Rock Yacht Club I cordially invite all of the commentor’s here to our inaugural membership night to be held this Friday.

      Your seaplanes can be moored at the southern end of the rock. Please be aware that although reduced in numbers, dingo’s are still active in the area.

      Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 03 28 at 03:14 AM • permalink

 

    1. Williams is just another climate change carpetbagger, seeking to turn alarm into a fist full of dollars. He is a qualified scientist yet prefers to make outrageous claims not based on any proper science. If he was a doctor, he would be struck off. Williams admits he spent time acting when he should have been studying, appearing in Monty Python’s Flying Circus (he was the halibut in the Fish-Slapping Dance” sketch). This lack of application shows.

      Posted by Contrail on 2007 03 28 at 03:25 AM • permalink

 

    1. on the science show site Robyn recommends (but doesn’t link to ) this piece of   of doom-mongering

      the second half in particular waxes biblical in its armageddony doomsaying

      And don’t think you’re going to escape rising sea levels by getting up high-yea the very mountains will crumbleth into nothing in the face of the warmening

      Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 03 28 at 03:26 AM • permalink

 

    1. Numbers don’t matter don’t matter don’t matter anymore. There is no Truth. There is only the higher truth of feelings, feelings that tell me what I feel is true. WOHWOHWOH FEELINGS!Wohwohwoh feeeeelings…sorry.

      Posted by dean martin on 2007 03 28 at 03:27 AM • permalink

 

    1. So that’s an 8.3 centimetre (3.2 inch) rise every month.
      How can it be possible that anybody believes this shit?

      Posted by Hank Reardon on 2007 03 28 at 03:46 AM • permalink

 

    1. Note to Robyn Williams:

      “Waterworld” was not a documentary.

      Posted by squawkbox on 2007 03 28 at 03:47 AM • permalink

 

    1. Historical changes in sea level on ABC Radio National’s Science Show:

      Jonathan Overpeck: The sea levels on geologic time scales have been about 100 metres higher than today, when we didn’t have the big ice sheets, this is pretty far back in time, and then during glacial periods, we get about 120-metre depressionin sea level as the big ice sheets grow in the northern hemisphere and take water out of the ocean and pile it up on land.

      Posted by egg_ on 2007 03 28 at 03:58 AM • permalink

 

    1. OT – More nefarious bearness.

      Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 03 28 at 04:12 AM • permalink

 

    1. O/T
      Please, can anyone tell me, if someone has their head stuck up their arse is it introspection?

      Posted by kae on 2007 03 28 at 04:16 AM • permalink

 

    1. #23
      No, but the lack of oxygen can lead to impaired
      brain function.

      Posted by lotocoti on 2007 03 28 at 04:26 AM • permalink

 

    1. Yet another science graduate who has discovered that if you can’t get a proper job, there is money to be made in entertainment.

      Posted by Skeeter on 2007 03 28 at 04:42 AM • permalink

 

    1. Slightly O/T

      A student and an ‘enviro-lawyer’ are suing Foster’s Limited over an ‘environmentally unsustainable’ development in Chippendale NSW.

      Drake-Brockman’s claim, prepared by the enviro-lawyer Michael Mobbs, is that the approved CUB concept…will generate up to 84,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year…

      Bring it on I say. The only other such claim tested in court that I know of has failed dismally.

      Posted by CO² max on 2007 03 28 at 04:56 AM • permalink

 

    1. The National Living Treaures or Left-Leaning Tower of Posers.

      Posted by blogstrop on 2007 03 28 at 05:06 AM • permalink

 

    1. #26
      There have been other less high profile failures too.

      Posted by lotocoti on 2007 03 28 at 05:11 AM • permalink

 

    1. Robyn is a bloke?  I thought Robyn as a chicks’ name.

      Posted by murph on 2007 03 28 at 05:33 AM • permalink

 

    1. #23
      Rectosequestration?

      Posted by egg_ on 2007 03 28 at 05:59 AM • permalink

 

    1. Thespian skills prolly aid in the infotainment industry …

      But soft! What warmin’ through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and AlGore is the one!

      Posted by egg_ on 2007 03 28 at 06:17 AM • permalink

 

    1. “Al Gore is The One” He’s going to stop global warming with a combination of kung-fu and stopping bullets with his MIND.

      Carbon offsets are tied in with The Matrix too:

      Gore’s Accountant: Do not try to stop emitting carbon. That would be impossible. Instead, try to remember the truth…

      Gore: The Truth?

      Accountant: *shuffles papers between Gore owned companies* There is no carbon.

      Posted by wreckage on 2007 03 28 at 07:08 AM • permalink

 

    1. Accountant: *shuffles papers between Gore owned companies* There is no carbon.

      LOL! wreckage, that’s sensational!

      Posted by Art Vandelay on 2007 03 28 at 07:47 AM • permalink

 

    1. #22 IT:
      These people have no shame, but if we had any honor, we’d tie the lot of ‘em in a sack, toss ‘em in a deep lake, and shoot any floaters.

      A 28 yo panda is the oldest known living panda, a 22 yo panda dies, and the baby polar bear is blamed. Shooting is too good for that lot. Reality excursions should not be an acceptable form of wastrelism.

      <<Begins work on Rube Goldberg machine involving rifle, seat, string, and sign that says ‘align eye with hole and pull string to have Knut the baby polar bear killed like Gaia requires.’>>

      Posted by brett_l on 2007 03 28 at 07:59 AM • permalink

 

    1. #26- Mobbsy has prior form and a vested interest in this sort of obstructive bullshit- it’s about time civil courts started awarding full costs to defendants in these failed ambit matters.

      I’d love to see Mobbsy having to hock his envirobungalow to pay costs to some pack of venal Pitt St befinned barristers.

      Posted by Habib on 2007 03 28 at 09:35 AM • permalink

 

    1. #34 –

      Too late, the Premier Annihilator of Cuddly Organisms is already on the market in eastern Europe, western Canada, and Bangladesh.

      Posted by Achillea on 2007 03 28 at 10:00 AM • permalink

 

    1. What killed me were the comments.  Just after having it explained that NO, there is ONLY ENOUGH ICE ON THE PLANET to raise the sea level by 64 meters – THEREFORE A 100 METER RISE IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE – the “truthers” and other ‘tards comment like the little children they are.

      “Oh yes it IS possible!”

      Isn’t someone in charge of paddling their bottoms?

      Posted by Hucbald on 2007 03 28 at 10:52 AM • permalink

 

    1. Why does this quote
      Some of this noise won’t stop until some of these scientists are dead,” said James Hansen, head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, and among the first to sound the alarm over climate change. 
      remind me of this quote?
      Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?”

      Posted by Veeshir on 2007 03 28 at 11:35 AM • permalink

 

    1. Robyn has been pushing hard the greenhouse effect on his “Science” show for some time now. It is more like a “Religion” show.
      That raising atmospheric CO2 from 0.058% to 0.075% is going to cause a 100 metre rise in sea level!
      The man seriously talks up “Gaia” but then is not too happy with the “Gaia” inventer’s pro nuclear power plant advocacy.
      What to do? Blame America!

      Posted by Observer on 2007 03 28 at 12:35 PM • permalink

 

    1. I blame Big Ice.

      Posted by Merlin on 2007 03 28 at 03:08 PM • permalink

 

    1. What we need to do, really do, like..emergency do, is to reduce the global over supply of ice!

      We should demand that our governments band together and outlaw the production of ice and the use of ice in the home or in commercial business!

      Posted by Grimmy on 2007 03 28 at 04:20 PM • permalink

 

    1. Ice is crystalized dihydrogen oxide. It is the scourge of the planet, it should be liquidated at once.

      Posted by moptop on 2007 03 28 at 04:49 PM • permalink

 

    1. “Al Gore is The One”

      Heck, as long as all the multi-dimensional Al Gores pick a different universe to fight each other in, I’m fine with that. Wouldn’t really want the inevitable 160 degree drop in temperature in ours when they get going…

      Posted by PW on 2007 03 28 at 04:52 PM • permalink

 

    1. “Al Gore is The One”

      BUAWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

      Irony alert:  If you haven’t watched that movie, one scene shows a TV broadcast with President Bush speaking, while a similar TV in another universe has President Gore speaking.

      Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 03 28 at 05:51 PM • permalink

 

    1. I think any man can rise one hundred metres, especially when women are around.

      Posted by 1.618 on 2007 03 28 at 06:42 PM • permalink

 

    1. I was under the impression that a large component of ocean rise is due to thermal expansion, not simply increased amounts of water. So, in theory, it would be possible for oceans to rise 100 meters, it would just take a hell of a lot of energy to accomplish, and I think if the Earth were receiving that much in the span of a century, humanity would probably be too dead to care about a few submerged cities.

      Posted by JSchuler on 2007 03 28 at 07:49 PM • permalink

 

    1. The average temperature in Antartica where the ice doesn’t melt is -45 degrees.

      So a warmening of Earth by 44 degrees would still not melt it all, but I guess by that stage, we would be investing quite heavily in Mars real estate.

      Yes I have read about that thermal theory of expansion of the oceans – what a lot of rubbish.

      ps I’m a new daddy – to Lucy Grace, born 27 March, 2007 at 4.20pm, 7 pounds 7 ounces, 50cm bundle of joy.  I have next week off just to stare into her gorgeous blue eyes.

      😉

      Posted by peter m on 2007 03 28 at 10:08 PM • permalink

 

    1. I was under the impression that a large component of ocean rise is due to thermal expansion, not simply increased amounts of water. So, in theory, it would be possible for oceans to rise 100 meters, it would just take a hell of a lot of energy to accomplish, and I think if the Earth were receiving that much in the span of a century, humanity would probably be too dead to care about a few submerged cities.

      Yeah, I mentally ran through what it would take to calculate the amount of energy to get a 100 meter rise out of the oceans. As a rough calculation, figure average ocean depth is 3,800 meters. To raise that to 3,900 meters, you’d need to heat the entire volume to 75 Celsius or higher. That’s assuming all the thermal expansion goes up.

      Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 03 28 at 10:09 PM • permalink

 

    1. Yes I have read about that thermal theory of expansion of the oceans – what a lot of rubbish.

      Yeah, running the numbers makes it clearly implausible, even ignoring things like dissipation of heat at night, the amount of light that strikes land, and temperature differences in the oceans.

      Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 03 28 at 10:12 PM • permalink

 

    1. Heck, if the oceans get all swelly from heat, we can just use our nukes to vaporize big chunks of it 🙂

      ps I’m a new daddy – to Lucy Grace, born 27 March, 2007 at 4.20pm, 7 pounds 7 ounces, 50cm bundle of joy.  I have next week off just to stare into her gorgeous blue eyes.

      😉

      Out-freakin-standing!!!

      Posted by Grimmy on 2007 03 29 at 12:24 AM • permalink

 

    1. [FONT COLOUR=“FF1493]#47

      Congrats, Peter M & family.

      Wishing you much love, joy
      and a little sleep![/FONT]

      Posted by kae on 2007 03 29 at 12:34 AM • permalink

 

    1. harrumph

      [FONT COLOUR=“FF1493”]#47

      Congrats, Peter M & family.

      Wishing you much love, joy
      and a little sleep![/FONT]

      Posted by kae on 2007 03 29 at 12:35 AM • permalink

 

    1. … slinks off

      Posted by kae on 2007 03 29 at 12:35 AM • permalink

 

    1. Up-to-Date White Spruce Ring Widths

      “Bring the proxies up to date” was the title of one of my earliest posts. Michael Mann had explained that doing so required the use of heavy equipment (like tree ring borers) and travel to out-of-the way sites such as Bishop, California or even Niwot Ridge, a full 45 minute drive from UCAR world headquarters in Boulder CO. As a result, Mann explained that few proxies were available after 1980 and it was therefore necessary to keep using bristlecone and other series ending in 1980 or so.

      Obviously, given the warm temperatures in the 1990s and 2000s, up-to-date proxies reaching 1998 and later offer an ideal opportunity to test the validity of tree ring proxies out-of-sample. I’ve done a quick calculation of contributions to the North American tree ring data base at WDCP; I counted no fewer than 250 sites where there is data for 1998 or later.

      http://marginalizedactiondinosaur.net/?p=21

      Posted by hollingshead on 2007 03 29 at 01:18 AM • permalink

 

    1. thanks kae – it is the thought that counts, and not the damn html formatting!  Sleep is fine when they take the sprog into the nursery.  Now I have to figure out how to build 1 at home!

      I just saw this and it finally made sense:

      Environmentalist

      Neat isn’t it – no letter re-arranging required!

      Posted by peter m on 2007 03 29 at 01:41 AM • permalink

 

    1. was s’posed to be HOT PINK.

      harrumph

      Enjoy your little girl while she’s little, before too long she will turn into a teenager and then…
      scary stuff!

      Posted by kae on 2007 03 29 at 01:45 AM • permalink

 

    1. #47

      Good on you peter m and all the best to your family.

      Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 03 29 at 03:24 AM • permalink

 

    1. At first glance, I thought this post was about Robbie Williams and his stint in rehab where, naturally, he isn’t getting enough of what they call “the deadly party drug, ice.” Naturally, I was disappointed.

      Posted by Caz on 2007 03 29 at 04:52 AM • permalink

 

    1. But but but guys!

      What about the nukes? All the stock footage used in movies is old rehash. We need new nuke footage!

      We could vaporize whole gobs of pesky ocean overfill with just a couple hundred good nukes!

      What about the nukes? Wont you think about the helpless little nukes?

      Posted by Grimmy on 2007 03 29 at 05:49 AM • permalink

 

    1. Peter M. Congratulations to you and the missus.

      Enjoy.

      Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 03 29 at 07:59 AM • permalink

 

    1. #40 “I blame Big Ice.”

      Movie stars who started out in hip-hop are even less reliable sources of scientific information than your regular run of movie stars.

      Posted by triticale on 2007 03 29 at 10:00 AM • permalink

 

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