[ExI] libertarian (asteroid) defense

[Kelly Anderson]

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 12:09 PM, Damien Sullivan
<phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 01, 2011 at 10:36:10AM -0800, Samantha Atkins wrote:
>
>> Please point to irrefutable non-fudged evidence of actually
>> dangerous levels of current climate change.  Otherwise could we move
>> on to something actually important?
>
> Islanders are being evacuated because sealevel rise is destroying their
> property.  Next!

Can you prove that isn't happening because their island is actually sinking?

What islanders, where? How many people are being moved?

According to Wikipedia:
"IPCC assessments suggest that deltas and small island states are
particularly vulnerable to sea level rise caused by both thermal
expansion and ocean volume. Relative sea level rise (mostly caused by
subsidence) is currently causing substantial loss of lands in some
deltas.[60] Sea level changes have not yet been conclusively proven to
have directly resulted in environmental, humanitarian, or economic
losses to small island states, but the IPCC and other bodies have
found this a serious risk scenario in coming decades."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_sea_level_rise#Island_nations)

Which I interpret as "we're really worried, although nothing
substantial enough to be non-controversial has occurred to date."

New Orleans and Venice are often cited by the global warming crowd,
but in both cases, the cities are slowly sinking. Sea level rise in
the 20th century averaged 1.8 mm/ year. Or 18 cm for the whole
century. The rise is incredibly stable (see graph in the above
wikipedia article) so why weren't people being moved in 1950? Or were
they?

Correction from yesterday. I repeated the oft reported "fact" that
nobody has ever been killed by an asteroid strike. This is not
correct. Two people were killed in the Tunguska event. Reportedly,
other people have also been killed in other events, but it is very
rare. There was a link to a list of people killed, but it was broken.

This one actually got me out of bed to see what happened...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJFejgd9bSE
Reportedly, it was the size of a washing machine.

-Kelly