Global Warming

[CajunCamper]

I haven't heard much about Global Warming in quite some time. Did it go away, or have those that have been doing all the preaching moved on to some other cause?

I saw where over 32,000 scientist worldwide have now signed on to make a statement that any climate change we have experienced has not been caused by us wretched humans.

What an inconvenient truth for some people.

CajunCamper

[dthurk]

I'm no expert on climate changes, but I'm going out to Glacier National Park this summer to see the glaciers before they all melt away.  I understand they've lost quite a bit of glaciation there and are predicting to have all glaciers gone by a certain year in the future if current conditions continue.  

Also going to stop at Yellowstone National Park before it blows up.  That event would certainly return the glaciers to Glacier National Park!  No predictions on that at this point.

[AustinBoston]

Mostly, it's not news any more.  Joe Sixpack couldn't give a rip about global warming or carbon footprints when he and his girlfriend are behind on their mortgage, have to take a job that's 30% off on wages because it's all they can get, their neighbor is being foreclosed on, and her kid is shipping out to Afganistan.

None of that changes the forces of nature (or of what we do/don't do to her), but they seem to pale in comparison.  When things get better for us as a country, the subject will come back up.  Fact or hoax, it's not going to go away.

Austin

[PattieAM]

I don't think the issue has gone away, but, the here and now is of more importance to many of us who have lost jobs, might be losing homes, etc.

Come summer, we will most likely hear more about it.  Our central air conditioning units (the outside one) generate heat, as does all the asphalt we've paved roads/parking lots.  And, while our forecasters never mention it, it does affect our weather.  Ever notice that even in winter on a sunny day, you can stand on the asphalt barefooted and not be frozen?  The sun's heat is absorbed.

[austinado16]

PBS just had a great show on about the glaciers the other night.  I think it was on NOVA.  They followed around a few scientists who spend their time watching what the glaciers are doing.

In one segment of the show, they went to a storage facility here in the US (Colorado maybe?) where they have something like 45,000 ice cores stored that have been drilled out of glaciers.  The scientists are able to read the rings in the ice, like rings in a tree, and they are also able to sample the air content in the trapped bubbles inside the ice.  So they are able to to know how much snow fell in a certain year (on that glacier), how much ice the glacier made that year, and what was the CO2 content of the air, etc.

They posted a time line showing how air tempuratures mimick the amount of CO2 in the air, and how in the past history of the glaciers, high CO2 readings lead to major melting.  The graph showed our current CO2 conditions were about double the content that they've ever been, even during the worst ice melts, in the history they are able to record using these ice cores......like maybe several thousand years.

The prediction was that glaciers will be gone within 50-100 years, and the Greenland ice cap will also be melting away.....not to mention antartica, and the north pole.  Of course the later 3 will take more time.

[LimeJeeeep]

It was all BDS ..........bush derangment syndrome.Now that Obama(he who walks on water) is pres everything going to be alright.........Bush was so powerful he could changed the weather in 8 years ...Wow what a guy......BTW what and how did all the penguins survive and evolve for cold climate if the earths ebb and flow of ice fragile....darn republicans........GO OBAMA GO WORLD CURRENCY NOW :swear:  :banghead:

[coach]

and it will continue to cost more and more to do our part against this evil force!
And you will feel good about doing your part and giving up your greenbacks!

 psychic profit: the perceived benefit one receives from performing an action, even if that action leads to an economic loss.

[Craigtheretired]

Funny you should mention it.  In yesterday's news, (03/27/09) there was an article on the "Entirely man-made global warming myth".  Seems the earth has been cooling for the past eleven years and the cooling is expected to continue for ten more.  The whole global warming myth was made up by the U.N. to transfer the money from developed nations to undeveloped nations.  So says an official U.N. document to be distributed in Bonn, Deutschland on 03/29/09.  This was reported by Fox news and the article is still there this morning.

[SpeakEasy]

Yes; as some have noted, the inconvenient truth is that the warming effect has been absent for the past decade or so. However, that doesn't take the wind out of their sails. Haven't you noticed: the language has shifted from "global warming" to "climate change." You see, with "global warming" you're screwed if the trend reverses itself. But with "climate change" anything that happens (whether warming, cooling, or just nastiness) can be attributed to human influence. It's a very subtle, but very real, and very important shift in language.

-Speak

[PattieAM]

"Earth Hour" is tonight - Saturday 3/28 from 8:30pm to 9:30pm.  Homes & businesses around the world are dimming or turning off their lights during that time.

[brainpause]

Yes; as some have noted, the inconvenient truth is that the warming effect has been absent for the past decade or so. However, that doesn't take the wind out of their sails. Haven't you noticed: the language has shifted from "global warming" to "climate change." You see, with "global warming" you're screwed if the trend reverses itself. But with "climate change" anything that happens (whether warming, cooling, or just nastiness) can be attributed to human influence. It's a very subtle, but very real, and very important shift in language.

-Speak

Agree. I have noticed that key term change, and figured it was because of an ulterior motive.

Larry

[JohnandLeann]

I don't buy any of it.  The earth is constantly changing.  Time is on the side of the planet, not human kind.

[Shredder]

I don't buy any of it.  QUOTE]

If your interested in real scientific research look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_Change_2007:_The_Physical_Science_Basis

or any number of scientific panels, universities, or people who study these things, and have some rational basis for their views.

If you want to believe in conspiracies, theories about secret UN plans, political motives or something else, by all means feel free. Yes it is inconvenient, especially now with the Bush recession in full swing, but is what it is. All our speculating does not change anything.......Shredder

PS I'm glad I live in a northern state with a lot of water......

[Shredder]

I haven't heard much about Global Warming in quite some time. Did it go away, or have those that have been doing all the preaching moved on to some other cause?

I saw where over 32,000 scientist worldwide have now signed on to make a statement that any climate change we have experienced has not been caused by us wretched humans.

What an inconvenient truth for some people.

CajunCamper

Actually the petition was supposedly signed quite some time ago. Here's what a quick check found:

Interesting. I just took a look at their petition and found, by their own admission, that only 40 of the signatories have a degree in climatology (take a look here). By contrast, there are 58 astronomers, 575 mathematicians, 2581 mechanical engineers, 57 entomologists, 2075 mechanical engineers, and on and on. To be considered a scientist, one need only have a BS degree in any field of science whatsoever. I am married to a mechanical engineer. Most of my social circle is engineers of one sort or another. And I'm telling you, they know no more about global warming than the check-out clerk at Wal-mart -- maybe even less.

Not only that, but the signatures themselves are suspect. From Wikipedia:
In 2005, Scientific American reported:

[Shredder]

And this from ABC news

http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsociety/2009/01/a-meeting-of-sk.html

And this from wiki:

Many people simply need AGW to be wrong for political reasons.  They're afraid that global warming will lead to a carbon tax, and for many people (particularly the politically conservative), "tax" is a four-letter word.  Some people have gone as far as to claim that global warming is just a UN or communist plot to create some sort of one world order.  Rather than attempt to make scientific arguments, these people generally make political arguments to justify why they believe humans are not causing global warming.  Or at best they'll repeat the same old global warming myths.

 

However, global warming is a scientific issue.  What we choose to do about global warming is a political issue (except on an individual level), and it is this which can be debated.  At this point, with the overwhelming amount of scientific evidence showing that humans are causing global warming, it's fair to say that the cause of global warming is no longer debatable.  That's not to say that people are unwilling to explain the scientific evidence or why the myths are wrong, but the causes are abundantly clear.  Even the IPCC has decided to shift its focus to practicality and precision - providing more information about the actual impacts of global warming and what can be done to reduce GHG emissions growth, rather than what's causing it.

 

In short, there is no basis to the claim that there's no scientific consensus on AGW.  Putting your faith into these lists trying to prove otherwise is often like asking a chemist to perform open-heart surgery.  Unfortunately we're so heavily reliant (it's fair to say addicted) to fossil fuels that some people simply can't deal with the fact that our oil consumption is having a hugely adverse environmental impact.  They would prefer to cling to any piece of information claiming otherwise to maintain denial on the subject.  Fortunately a large enough majority of the population has accepted the scientific reality of the situation for us to make progress in finding solutions.