OT - Is this an example of "global warming"?

[Hector]

It is 5:40 p.m. here in the Baltimore Maryland area, and it's now dark. The current temperature is 66F after a high today of 70F. Today's temperatures match the long-term historical average for May 2nd, and here we are on January 15th. What is going on?

 

Hector

[Cheri McDonald]

Yep just like we have an inch thick of ICE on the trees here and it is 17 degrees when it is normally in the 40's this time of year.

[tanya4]

Yep, we've had more wind here in WA than any year I can remember, and the kids have had 6 snow days already! I'm just waiting for sea levels to rise. Then I'll have waterfront!

[sea4th]

And I'm leaving snowless and rainy NE Ohio to see some snow in So. Cal. Even if it doesn't stick on the ground, it's more than we've seen here most of this winter.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I think it's called weather. We get it sometimes around here too.

[Dixie_Girl]

Rebecca----------BIG THUMBS UP!

[MrSnappy]

We don't get weather! We get rain and not-rain. So why the city is blwing over and now freezing remains a grumpy mystery to me. Or maybe it's me that's grumpy.

 

RDM

[Kat's Dogs]

ditto RDM!

 

100 mile an hour winds, 7 inches of snow, going down to 8 degrees every night, ice on all roads, power lines down....

[sweet_ceana]

The weather has been wacky lately but don't forget it is an EL NINO year and if I remember right it came a little early. I had a final on global warming and tests on El Nino and La nina in my last anthropology class. While global warming is effecting everything, my two blizzards and crazy below 0 weather is a gift from changing Ocean temps. ~~~ I said something about it in my life outside of school, now the tuition was worth it.

[Hector]

For anyone interested in the possible catastrophic effects of global warming, an excellent article is The Discovery of Global Warming .

 

If you doubt that global warming is occurring, take a look at this Glacier shrinking in Austria .

 

Hector

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[DebC]

OK, I have to put my 2 cents in....

If anyone is interested in reading some excellent information concerning global warming theories, check out Junkscience.com - definitely presents a balancing viewpoint!

[sweet_ceana]

A good book on global warming is Field Notes on a Catastophe. Or, a very informative movie is an Inconvienant Truth (Even if you do not like Gore it is worth it. My other half is not fond of him at all but thought the movie was well worth it)

[Hector]

[sweet_ceana]

LOL I love this cartoon!

[Dixie_Girl]

Yeah, global warming. We are just as bad as those horrid cavepeople burning too many campfires that started the last global warming. You know, the one that started the last ice age? For twenty gazillion years this ol earth did what the hell it wanted. Ice ages, warmings, meterorite crashes causing winter in summer, swamps and lush rain forests becoming deserts, etc., but now that we, as humans, have risen to the height of demi-gods, we, and only we control the destiny of the earth! WE control it!

[Hector]

Carbon dioxide is the principal green house gas in the atmosphere. Increasing CO2 concentrations cause heat to be retained which contributes to global warming.

 

A graph showing long term CO2 concentrations is HERE . Cave men didn't do this. The cause is burning of fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

[DebC]

Do I believe that the climate is cyclical? Yes.

Do I believe that we are totally responsible for influencing climate? NO

If we follow the arguement that increased CO2 causes global warming, then what was the earth's temp when the continents were almost totally forested? Higher, yes?

I do not buy into global warming being anything other than a theory. I would strongly encourage anyone to take a serious look at both sides of the arguement before deciding for yourself what is fact. Here is a good place to start: http://www.junkscience.com/challenge.htm

OK, so now I have gone and put 4 cents into this!

[Hector]

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says this:

 

1. An increasing body of observations gives a collective picture of a warming world and other changes in the climate system (The global average surface temperature has increased over the 20th century by about 0.6?C; Temperatures have risen during the past four decades in the lowest 8 kilometres of the atmosphere; Snow cover and ice extent have decreased).

 

2. Emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols due to human activities continue to alter the atmosphere in ways that are expected to affect the climate (Anthropogenic aerosols are short-lived and mostly produce negative radiative forcing; Natural factors have made small contributions to radiative forcing over the past century).

 

3. Confidence in the ability of models to project future climate has increased (Complex physically-based climate models are required to provide detailed estimates of feedbacks and of regional features. Such models cannot yet simulate all aspects of climate (e.g., they still cannot account fully for the observed trend in the surface-troposphere temperature difference since 1979) and there are particular uncertainties associated with clouds and their interaction with radiation and aerosols. Nevertheless, confidence in the ability of these models to provide useful projections of future climate has improved due to their demonstrated performance on a range of space and time-scales.)

 

4. There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.

 

5. Human influences will continue to change atmospheric composition throughout the 21st century.

 

6. Global average temperature and sea level are projected to rise under all IPCC SRES scenarios.

 

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The above information is taken from HERE.

 

 

Hector

[KathyF]

There is some interesting reading at this site:

 

http://globalwarming101.com/

 

Here is an article on Will Steger's efforts:

 

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/janfeb07/steger.html

 

 

Kathy

[DebC]

http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/guide.html

Please don't let the name of the website put you off from checking it out - there are volumes of data which dispute the IPCC's 2001 report. Just don't be so quick to take things at face value - there are 2 sides to this issue. There is also a link at this site to the actual published IPCC report.

[Jack & Co.]

I looked at that website when you first posted it, Deb. You're right, it is well done and informative.

[Dixie_Girl]

I'm sorry but I can't get an accurate 7-day forecast, it's hard for me to believe someone can tell me what will happen 10-20yrs. from now. I still haven't seen PROOF that it is man causing this when this earth has gone through so many weather changes. How do we KNOW this is not simply a change that's "NORMAL"? We have deserts that were once lush rain forests. What did humans do to change that?

[sweet_ceana]

I think weather or not (hehehe) global warming is something one belives is occuring is something important for an individual to look into themselves. I know my opinion was up in the air until recently when I found myself looking deeper into the things that were presented to me about this heated topic.

I do think, while global warming may not be something we all agree on, that we could all agree that people are putting a new strain on the planet today that thousands of years ago people did not. Our populations are massive as well as we have increased the populations of the things we depend on in order to sustain such a large group. This has often been at the expense of other things we are not so dependant upon... no one disputes that the rain forests are dissapearing or that our dumping of waste has killed many an animal. Oil spills can decimate generations of life in a mere 24 hour period.

Like any other species that is overly populated I do think we have the ability to unintentionally destroy our habitat. My concern is that unlike most species, our habitat is virtually everywhere.

[borderlicious]

Whatever the hell it is, I'm liking it. Here in Arizona it's been below freezing every night, and in the 40s during the day. Typically it's in the 70s at this time of year.

 

I hate hot weather.

[Hector]

"Nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1995." NOAA Statement on January 30, 2006.

 

Major study: Global warming will threaten coasts by 2100 if pollutants aren't reduced

 

So what action do we take? Does it seem like a good idea to do nothing and just hope that the scientists are wrong? Or should the human community worldwide take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on the chance that scientists (a majority of whom believe humans are causing global warming) have got it right?

 

Personally I will be gone within 20 years. So I won't live to see what happens to sea level in this century. But I have grandchildren and the planet that we are turning over them is a matter of concern to me.

 

While scientists cannot say absolutely for certain that humans are causing global warming, the evidence is certainly leaning toward that conclusion. And given the seriousness of the problem, I believe that the human race should be heeding the wake-up call from scientists.

 

Researchers in the latest studies believe humans do play a role and say there is time to avert the worst effects if world powers are willing to reduce greenhouse gases and other pollutants believed to contribute to warming. But at a yet-to-be-determined point midway through the century, the process will become irreversible.

 

"We now know enough in advance to stop it from happening," said Jonathan Overpeck, one of the chief researchers on the project and director of the University of Arizona's Institute for the Study of Planet Earth. "If we let it go another couple of decades, we could be in real danger of crossing the threshold."