A few thoughts on the weather

[Boyd]

and us being mislead by special and political interests.

Unfortunately I see this as being true for both sides of the argument and unfortunately you are only reinforcing my opinion. I am concerned about the environment and always have been, but this whole debate has gotten far too political for my taste. Eventually I will form my own opinion, but it won't be the result of reading stuff from people with some sort of agenda, regardless of their party affiliation.

I stumbled across this chart and data at the Franklin Institute the other day and posted it in another thread. I'll admit I'm no scientist, but I don't see any clear trend here in 130 years of data, it looks sort of like a sine wave with peaks and troughs that might be getting deeper and higher. Look at how warm the winter was in the early 1890's and again in the mid 1930's: http://www.fi.edu/weather/data2/images/wthrwntr.jpg

Now regarding Al Gore... Furball, what does that have to do with anything? Even if he is a hypocrite (no idea how accurate any of that is), so what? Seems to me the message and the messenger are two completely different things. And no, I haven't watched "An Inconvenient Truth" and I don't plan to. Why? Because so many people keep telling my that I should. I may be missing out on something really great, but whenever people start telling me what to do, what to watch or what to think I generally avoid it. I am totally disillusioned with politics... they're all just a bunch of crooks and liars IMO.

Of course this is an important issue and I will keep an open mind. But for now, I will let you guys "save the planet." I'll be outside enjoying the 71 degree weather myself. Days like that are a gift from God, and are few and far between.

Wow, did you really get ticks? That's amazing.... I have been spending a LOT of time outside for the past couple weeks... 4 and 5 hours out in the woods many days, and I haven't see a single tick yet myself. Maybe they will all come out, die when the cold weather comes back, and we will have a tick-less summer

BTW... welcome to the site Seagull, sorry for the rant, don't take it personally.

 

[Furball1]

Go to Denver

That thing about Gore--just me letting off steam, though I think the messenger and the message ARE one in the same. Some of y'all who think it's the end of the world ( thanks for that great data, Boyd, from the F.I.--I agree) should get out to Denver and witness the impact of ---what??? Well certainly not G.W., it's the weather, which is hard to predict. For example, Florida was predicted to have a worse than normal hurricane season last year, and we had zero hurricanes hit land. Been to Yosemite Valley? You can see the features and evidence of a growing and retreating glacier everywhere---but its nowhere to be found today. I would LOVE it if we could get rid of the internal combustion engine and use H2O fusion--to get a clean environment AND to give the middle finger to the Saudis. It is an emotional, but politicized, subject. I just believe, from all that I read, that it's a trend this earth goes through. And I am sure, with warmer weather there will be less cold-related deaths, which is a thing to be thankful for, eh?

 

[bobpbx]

I tend to kind of stay out of this argument cause I am unsure which way to lean. It gets confusing. I feel the same way about same sex marriage, abortion, the death penalty, and whether 21,000 troops is enough. But this link points to a monumental shift in thinking:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com:80/id/16593606/

 

[Badfish740]

C'mon Bob, obviously ExxonMobil has been infiltrated by the Greenie whackos and must now be dropped from the conservative list of approved fuel providers. They now go on the bad list along with the Dixie Chicks, CNN, and the Episcopal Church.

 

[bobpbx]

The conservative mantra is starting to ring so hollow. Bush and Limbaugh fans should just throw in the towel and admit its real, instead of fighting it so that big business can continue to spew gases into the air without controls:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/02/02/climate.talks.ap/index.html

 

[Monkeywrench]

As much as I believe in global warming, we have far more serious environmental issues to worry about than the melting of our ice caps. Unfortuantly it appears that not too many of these issues are going to get the focus they deserve. From some research that I have done, I really feel soil degredation / erosion is a much bigger issue than the global tempature increase. It affects both land based and aquatic life equally (ever hear of a "dead zone"?). FRESH water conservation, I believe, is equally important.

I would also never believe anything Al Gore says. He's a career politician.. I think that says enough.

 

[BigRedEye]

I don't like to get into the political discussions, but it seems this one is going on forever anyway. I don't know what we should do about climate change , but I understand there are no peer-reviewed(i.e. work checked by other scientists) studies that say global warming is not happening. It seems the only scientists who dispute global warming have connections to the oil industry. Most of the people who say there is no climate change are not scientists anyway, but talk show hosts and politicians.

 

[Monkeywrench]

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/science_al_gore_is_a_greenhouse_gasbag

^ a very good article. Granted, don't take it to be the be all and end all. You should still research the subject. Everyone, instead of searching just regular google, I suggest you use scholar.google or many of the college databases to search scholary journals on the subject.

I believe in global warming (be it caused by man and natural climate cycling), but seriously, there are more imporatant environmental issues that need to be dealt with now!

 

[Bobbleton]

interesting . . . nobody seems to be screaming about global warming now that everyone's freezing their butts off . . .

 

[onehand]

ya want cold come up here !

 

[dragoncjo]

Here is an interesting thought on how to deal with big corporations that may be causing global warming.http://blogs.business2.com/greenwombat/2007/02/report_carbon_t.html

Whether global warming is a man made issue, or a natural warming of the earth I'm not sure. In my opinion there is nothing we can really do about it to drastically change it. However, if a bi product of al gore's movie and all the global warming hype in the media is a more environmentally aware society and world, then its a good thing. Little kids now know what global warming is, they are too young to make an assesment of al gore, or any politicians. But if the young kids out there are more cognizant of what they are doing environmentally then my generation and my parents, then earth is much better off.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

It makes scientific sense to me that it's combustion of fossil fuels that's doing it. It scares me to pieces, and I think we better do something about it before we get ourselves in big trouble. I feel that the melting of the polar ice caps is a VERY VERY serious issue. I lost my house last year because it kept flooding. There was no really good explanation as to why, and it was something that hadn't happened or even come close to happening, even in hurricanes, previously in the 15 years I lived there.

But then again, I'm a card-carrying, left-wing, liberal whacko.

 

[Boyd]

Sorry to hear about your house Sue. But do you really think there's a link to global warming there? I was living in Medford during the "100 year storm" a few years ago. Luckily I was on high ground, but lots of people in Burlington County lost their homes during that one.

I remember watching the weather radar, and it was a big storm that covered a large area. But one really intense area of rain just "parked" above Medford for nearly 8 hours (IIRC) and that was the real problem.

But I also remember going out for a walk the next morning. It was surprisingly dry in the woods. The natural properties of the sandy soil and vegetation had no problem absorbing all that water. But as soon as you approached something man-made, like a house, driveway or road, there was flooding and erosion. So I think little changes to our environment on a local level were responsible for much of the minor damage. And the major problems were caused by man-made dams which broke, releasing huge quantities of water instantly. Another clear example of how our attempt to tame nature backfired. If it weren't for man, there wouldn't be any lakes in the pines (unless the beavers created them )

And look at the situation in New Orleans, where nature never intended a city to exist. Or barrier islands in Florida. Or all the flooding along the Mississippi river where man has built cites, filled in wetlands and changed the river's course.

 

[Stu]

I used some of the links in this thread for an essay for World Physical Geography - aka Global Warming 101. Thanks!