U-Miami Geologist In Trenches On Climate; 2X Offered To Convene Science Team To Brief Rubio (No)
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But his predictions that put sea level rises in South Florida higher than consensus assessments sometimes triggered skepticism. In its April report, the IPCC predicted a one-to-three-foot rise over the next century. The Miami-Dade County Climate Change Task Force that Wanless co-chairs predicted a three-to-five-foot rise. But Wanless believes the starting point for projections should be four feet.
“It doesn’t mean we are saying different things about the science,” said Leonard Berry, director of the Florida Center for Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University and an author of the National Climate Assessment’s Southeast chapter, published in April. “It means we are making different judgments about the timing of those events. In defense of Hal’s position, every step of the way in the last 10 or 15 years, our projections have moved upwards. So some of the rest of us are where he was 10 years ago.”
Still, Benjamin Kirtman, a UM meteorology and oceanography professor who helped author the April IPCC report, said more studies need to be done to confirm the higher projections for sea rise triggered by melting ice. Wanless has not ducked the contentious politics of the issue and does not hesitate to call out skeptics of manmade climate change, particularly politicians. He said he twice offered to convene scientists to talk to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, but the Miami Republican never took him up on the offers. So when Rubio recently said on ABC News that he was not convinced humans were driving climate change, Wanless called it “horrible.”
Though Rubio later said in an interview with the Miami Herald that he is not denying that climate change is occurring, he also would not answer yes or no when asked whether humans were driving the change. “I understand, politically, the issue is easier to write as ‘He either supports it or he doesn’t. He either believes it or he doesn’t.’ But these are complex issues. Even the science on this has evolved over the past 20 years,” Rubio said. Wanless, however, is unequivocal in his response. “Any elected official who doesn’t understand climate change, who isn’t fully trying to plan for what people and communities are going to have to face,” he said, “shouldn’t be in elected office.”
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http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/24/4136597/university-of-miami-geologist.html
