An Inconvenient Truth

[Captain Worley]

Snow, you ever read The Coming Global Superstorm?

[peaceloveunderstanding]

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is planning on releasing a report next year saying that the human impact on global warming is 25% less than previously reported, and the degree of warming will be less severe than they had previously decided. Estimates on the sea level increases have been halved.

News Article

The data on global warming is still inconsistent, but there does seem to be a census that humans are impacting the earth's climate. To what degree humans impact the climate, and how and if such changes can be reversed or slowed is unknown.

What I've found interesting (not in the article) is that the governments in Europe are starting to dismantle and ignore the Kyoto treaty, finding that the advantages may be non-existent, or much smaller than the detriments.

[monsoon]

....

What I've found interesting (not in the article) is that the governments in Europe are starting to dismantle and ignore the Kyoto treaty, finding that the advantages may be non-existent, or much smaller than the detriments.

[dgreco]

the movie was good, but it completely skipped the 8 years gore-clinton where in office which bothered me, and he also completely left out the whole paradox of global warming.

[Captain Worley]

Looks like cows create more greenhouse gasses and damge to the environment.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2062484.ece

BAN COWS NOW!!

[monsoon]

Looks like cows create more greenhouse gasses and damge to the environment.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2062484.ece

BAN COWS NOW!!

[Snowguy716]

England has had its warmest autumn in over 300 years. Last week an extremely rare, almost unheard of, tornado hit London and tore out 10 blocks of houses.

The Alps are experiencing their warmest fall in over 1100 years (records beyond that are not real reliable). As a result the ski resorts are not able to open and instead are offering hiking vacations now. More disturbing is that bears can't find places to hibernate because the ground is too warm. It's too mushy and they can't dig dens.

The evidence is there that the earth is warming up. Simple science says that CO2 acts as a heat blanket and mankind is dumping hundreds of millions of tons of the stuff into the atmosphere at increasing rates. It amazes me that people still deny the link.

[Recchia]

One warm winter in the Alps has LITTLE to do with overall global warming. Yes, global warming is happening and we are a big part of that, but we cannot use the argument that it happens to be a warm winter in favor of global warming.

[Snowguy716]

You can when it's the warmest fall in 1100 years. That means there's something happening in our climate system that has pushed the temperature higher than it has been since before the Catholics split with the eastern Orthodox church.

Normal variability doesn't apply here. For example, when we have a record warm winter here, you can't just say "oh, must be global warming" on its own, because we only have 110 years or official records. We have to justify saying that by tying it to global trends, studying tree rings, soil samples, etc.

When you have 1100 years of weather records and this year comes out on top, that's significant.

[Recchia]

When you have 1100 years of weather records and this year comes out on top, that's significant.

[runawayjim]

i'm really curious how accurate the temperatures from 1100 years ago are.

while the alps may be warm right now, there's plenty of skiing in the US, both in the northeast and the rockies. it started a little late in new england, but only by a week or so.

[Captain Worley]

Yeah, its been cold as all get out so far in SC. Columbia has set five record cold days so far this winter. Not only that, the last five summers have been extremely mild. I think there was one day over 100 officially in those five years, which is EXTREMELY rare. I could be remembering wrong, but I don't think so.

The mid-eighties were brutally hot in SC, and that's about the time "The ice age is coming!" changed to "Global warming!" and "Hole in the Ozone!" Coincidence? Probably not.

Anyway, I look forward to the warming, cause I'm pretty darn chilly right now.

[monsoon]

i'm really curious how accurate the temperatures from 1100 years ago are.

while the alps may be warm right now, there's plenty of skiing in the US, both in the northeast and the rockies. it started a little late in new england, but only by a week or so.

[runawayjim]

Why don't you look it up and lets us know.

In terms of skiing, the NC ski resorts are having another tough time as it is well above freezing up there today and rain is predicted instead of snow. What runs are open are barely hanging on. If this keeps up this will be the 4th winter in a row they have had sub par skiing.

[monsoon]

Indeed, the highest peaks in North America east of the Mississippi are in NC so there is skiing here, well.... for now. Global Warming is definately affecting it.

http://www.skinorthcarolina.com/

[Snowguy716]

If every year from now on gets warmer and warmer, then it will be significant. What if next year we have a cooler than average winter? Will we be crying global warming.

I'm all in support of doing something about global warming, and acknowledging that the actions us humans have made in the past have undoubtedly contributed to it, but we need to get our arguments correct or nobody will take us seriously.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

Hey, I'm an atheist and I'm still skeptical of the merits of most anything from the environmentalists (they worship the earth), especially what we are told about Global Warming. Currently, I'd put it in the same batch of scare stories as the Bird Flu Pandemic, DDT, Alar etc; everything that's alarmist is usually less severe - the media hypes things.

The earth is warming, but nothing can be done to reverse what has happened, perhaps it has happened naturally, and to spend money on that is silly.

Personally, I believe the mass of the attack is a way to cripple one industry for another, and/or kill the way of life most people enjoy. The environmentalists hate humanity, and some businessmen see great opportunity in getting their economically insensible products to market through coercion.

[Recchia]

Although I believe there is still a lot more to prove scientifically about global warming, I still think that we need to be doing everything we can now to curb its potential. Pumping CO2 into the atmosphere is not healthy for many reasons, and the fact that global warming could/is arising from that as well makes it a no-brainer that we need to do something now. If we don't start doing something now, perhaps preventative measures, then if/when global warming really starts to accelerate, we'll be screwed.

[Pillsbury]

^ Yeah, even if you aren't completely sold on the idea of global warming, all you have to do is look at all the chemicals we inject into our atmosphere. Whether or not it's directly related to global warming (I believe it is), it's still not helping things. I had no idea until recently, but on bad smog days in Atlanta, the number of people going to the emergency room for Ashtma related severe problems spikes!!!!

[monsoon]

This News came out this week. Many of us will be around to see it happen, unfortunately. I wonder how many people will continue to deny that mankind should have done something while it still had a chance when it does happen?

[peaceloveunderstanding]

Dire Consequences:

Loss of Arctic sea ice would likely take a lethal toll on animals such as polar bears that rely on the ice as a hunting platform.

Local indigenous people would also be unable to fish from the ice, forcing them to adapt.

"That's going to be a big strain on their mode of living," he said.

What's more, the melting ice could open up new shipping lanes through the Arctic and spark a race to exploit newly exposed resources.

[runawayjim]

Is that all? I thought the consequences were much more extreme than that, like much of Europe losing its moderate climate and severe coastal flooding. The last sentence would actually be good.

[Snowguy716]

Dire consequences:

A net loss in arable land for the United States with the loss of ability to grow wheat in the contiguous 48 states except for the northern portions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

The loss of forestland as tree species can't move north fast enough to adapt to warmer temperatures. What was once dense forest because 'savannah' style scrub land, especially in areas where precipitation amounts fall and temperatures rise (the midwest).

More extreme, prolonged droughts in the west that will have a huge impact on our ability to live there.

Desertification of large portions of the earth where humans live in large numbers.

Severe declines in access to safe potable water, especially in developing countries.

Increases in risk of warm-climate diseases in the U.S, including malaria, and an incrased risk of West-Nile virus.

A disappearance of glaciers from Glacier National Park (this is already almost done).

Anywhere from 6" to 3 feet of sea-level rise which, if nothing is done, will turn New Orleans into an island surrounded by dykes by 2040 and turn much of the Everglades into ocean and make coastal flooding (including North Carolina.. bye bye barrier islands) a serious threat.

Increased tropical activity in the form of stronger (though not necessarily more numerous) storms.

The loss of most of the American winter economy as winter becomes warmer and permanent winter snow retreats to the highest peaks and into Canada... millions and millions of dollars lost in snowmobile and ski industries.

Likely not an offsetting gain in summer-like sports as summer would just become unbearably hot in many places.

There are a lot more impacts that would affect you. Global warming is not just a threat to northern Canada... in fact, Canada has everything to gain from global warming in the form of increased farmland and a more livable climate. The U.S has everything to lose, and yet who's on which side here?

[Snowguy716]

Another way to prove that greenhouse gases are causing global warming, and not the sun, is the fact that while the lower atmosphere is warming, the upper atmosphere is cooling.

The increase in GHGs has trapped heat at the surface. What normally is reflected back into space is kept at the surface and the stratosphere cools as a result. WHen large amounts of SO2 are pumped into the atmosphere, the stratosphere warms as the So2 reflects sunlight back into the upper atmosphere before it ever hits the earth.

THe combination of less SO2 (which is a very good thing) and more CO2 (which is a bad thing) has created a blanket effect.

How would natural processes, mostly created by the sun, cause these opposites to occur as more solar energy coming in would surely warm the atmosphere more evenly?

Here's a graph showing balloon and satellite recorded temperatures for the stratosphere (top) and the troposphere (bottom).

Notice that the surface has recorded the most warming while the upper atmosphere has cooled, except in cases of volcanic eruptions, which emit large amounts of SO2 into the atmosphere:

[nowensone]

Scientists and Christian leaders agreeing to put aside their differences and team up to tackle global warming? I think hell just froze over.

"Whether God created the Earth in a millisecond or whether it evolved over billions of years, the issue we agree on is that it needs to be cared for today," said Rich Cizik, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 45,000 churches.