According to excerpts provided to the media ahead of a commencement address President Obama will deliver today, he says the challenges of climate change are a matter of national security that “that threatens to aggravate poverty and political instability around the globe”. The extracts come from a speech that Obama will give at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.
“Make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country,” Obama says, “And so we need to act and we need to act now.” His prepared remarks said it was becoming increasingly obvious that “climate change will shape how every one of our services plan, operate, train, equip and protect their infrastructure.” He also noted that “is not just a problem for countries on the coast or for certain regions of the world. Climate change impacts every country on the planet.”
He plans to use examples of recent natural events to highlight climate change, shining a spotlight on Miami, as well as Charleston, South Carolina, noting they flood at high tide and that military bases around the country are already feeling the “negative effects.”
“Around Norfolk, high tides and storms increasingly flood parts of our Navy base and an air base,” Obama said of military facilities in Virginia. “In Alaska, thawing permafrost is damaging military facilities. Out West, deeper droughts and longer wildfires could threaten training areas our troops depend on.”
But according to the NY Times, Norfolk wasn’t built on land but rather on compacted material. “Like many other cities, Norfolk was built on filled-in marsh. Now that fill is settling and compacting. In addition, the city is in an area where significant natural sinking of land is occurring. The result is that Norfolk has experienced the highest relative increase in sea level on the East Coast — 14.5 inches since 1930, according to readings by the Sewells Point naval station here.”
And NOAA has come out with numerous studies showing there has been no increase in droughts and even the multi-year drought in California is a product of nature, and not a warming world. Maybe that’s why Obama’s remarks say “Out West, deeper droughts and longer wildfires could threaten training areas our troops depend on.”
As for thawing permafrost, Alaskan villages have been sinking into permafrost for 70 years, and the United States army has been struggling to “keep the frozen north frozen” as seen in this news item from 1946. And in 1927, an Arctic trip was ruined by “extreme heat, fires, and melting permafrost” according to The Examiner newspaper. For more newspaper clippings showing that melting permafrost has been worrisome as far back as 1880, check out this resources page maintained by Steven Goddard.
Regarding the supposed flooding in the streets of Miami, the land mass the city sits on has actually gotten larger as shown in the photos above (see slideshow). Sea level rise around Florida as measured by tidal gauges show it has leveled off to about 1 mm per year, far less than what the global warming alarmists would have you believe.
According to Joanne Nova, a popular science presenter, writer, and speaker, “hundreds of tide gauges show sea level rising at about a third of the rate than satellites do. Worse, the original satellite raw data showed the same slow rise, until it was suddenly adjusted. … The 68 most stable NOAA tide gauges around the world show about 1mm a year rise.”
And flooding in the streets of Miami and elsewhere has nothing to do with higher sea levels and more to do with a higher density of people living near the coast and outdated drainage systems unable to accommodate Miami’s growing population. Miami is on track to have its ancient drainage system overhauled under Governor Rick Scott’s multi-year program to update Florida’s aging infrastructure systems.
When you strip away the fear mongering that Obama uses to gin up support for his unilateral executive orders and regulations, you realize it’s part and parcel during his reign of regs. After the commencement speech, Obama will visit Stamford, Connecticut, for a fundraiser at a private home. Supporters are expected to pony up at least $33,400 each to hear him speak.
