Global warming is highly dressed up, and alhough there are many different conflicting facts and sorts of research over the topic, I don't think we're going to have a Day After Tomorrow anytime soon. Having said that, I do believe a lot of the hype over global warming is created to try and push people to be more careful and efficient in their gas/petrol/electricity consumption and be more concerned over the state of the environment. So whilst it's simply a small developing issue, it is evident that the scare tactics have worked well on a lot of people and many are taking matter such as this much more seriously. <A88>
I can't help but sometimes wonder about global warming, and how much of an issue it really is and whether its importance is being overstated - I mean there doesn't even to be much in the way of consensus amongst the scientific community as to whether its actually happening or not, so to expect politicians to agree on measures to reduce the 'problem' is asking a bit much. Nonetheless, I think its only prudent that scientists continue to investigate the phenomena and something be done to reduce greenhouse emissions 'just in case'. Normally I'm not so cautious, but after all, it is the entire planet thats supposedly at risk here!
I don't know, I have definatly seen climate change happening even within my lifetime. Case in point, it snowed here last night. Normally we would never have snow much past the first of March, but this is the second time in a week. Human causation is a thornier issue, but the mounting evidence indicates to me that indeed the changes we are seeing today are the result of human activity.
There's certainly been a change to milder winters and more windy weather in my lifetime. It's most obvious in the plants I can grow and leave out over winter that were once classed as tender in the UK. Is it just part of a natural cycle? http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/Key_Topics/Climate_Change/index.html So we humans are making a difference. I note the Telegraph author is an Australian scientist, the second-largest per capita energy-consuming nation. Hardly a neutral observer. At the moment, the UK seems to be getting warmer. But if the Gulf Stream should be disrupted, we're on the same latitude as Newfoundland, not known for it's mild winters. Interesting times for the great-grandkids.
The telegraph has mis-interpreted CRUs findings and they arent very happy with it btw. Global warming is still happening, the ice caps are stil melting and the climate is still changing.
I'm not surprised, here's the graph. An Australian might expect the weather to be perfectly predictable, a Briton knows better. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4761804.stm Don't bother rebuilding New Orleans. Stilts. We have the technology.
I work for The UEAs School of Environmental Sciences, of which CRU is a part! There were some rather p!ssed off researchers at that article.
This is what I've been saying to all my friends and family. Last year was the most active hurricane season in recorded history, with several of the storms forming after the season officially ended. Here in Houston we had an extrememly mild winter (considering it snowed the year before). Our winter was unusually mild, and in April we're already breaking summer heat records (was 101 in Dallas yesterday, predicted 101 for Dallas and Austin today). The Gulf of Mexico didn't get an opportunity to cool down. I'm predicting that we'll see more storms this year, with a higher percentage of severe storms. Because we had so many storms last year, I'm hoping that they churned up the waters enough to bring cool water to the surface. We'll have to wait and see - hurricane season begins June 1. -monkey
Personally I can feel how hot it is here. It felt like we skipped spring straight into the heat of summer. Global warming is fact, the only controversy is if it is being caused by humans or is a natural cycle. Regardless, there is no reason why we should be spewing so much pollution into our atmosphere, whether or not it is changing things. In the mean time, whilst most of the developed world sits on its ass waiting for the apocalypse, the coast lines will disappear, Britain will get colder than hell, and the midwest US will turn into a dustbowl. Goodbye polar bears, hello sweaty balls! Actually most of the scientific community agrees that global warming is occuring, the only issue on which they disagree is whether humans are the cause. There are of course fringe scientists that think global warming isn't occuring, but the same can be said with most theories that we acept as true.
As much as I enjoy skipping spring and going right to riding season I know that it isnt right. At least there was a decent snowfall last winter but not as much as there should be. Even if global warming is all hype isnt it still a good idea to cut back on certian bad habits, I can think that getting the 9mpg commuter vehicles off the road would be good.
Well for what it's worth, I'm of the opinion that humans aren't the direct cause, but are contributing our fair share. To put it another way, anytime I read about global warming the topic invariably talks about greenhouse gasses and CO2, and generally involves some discussion about big SUVs and fuel consumption. But one thing I almost never see discussed is terraforming. The Earth is an amazingly complex system, of which we still don't fully understand, and our continual terraforming has to have some effect on the natural cycle of things. Take Texas, for example. 100 years ago Houston wasn't terribly spread out. You could see fields for miles. Now, you can drive for over an hour in one direction and not leave the city. All those roads and buildings are deflecting heat back into the atmosphere, moreso than the land that used to occupy those sprawling miles. Also, Texas has a great number of lakes, but only 1 or 2 are naturally occurring lakes. Consider that at least 1/3 of the homeowners here have swimming pools, and add in the number of lakes that have been created for one reason or an other. That's a lot of water that ends up as water vapor, significantly altering the natural water cycle that was in place not too long ago. Now, take that example and multiply it across the US, and then accross the world. All that construction and terraforming has to add up. I think humans are definitely changing the world. I don't know that we can necessarily determine whether it's good or bad at this point. It's just change. One could almost consider it part of the natural, changing cycle of Earth, and of life. Lots of animals manipulate their environment, humans just use heavy machinery (though many times in a destructive manner). -monkey
Actually the weather over here has been extremely random. It's Hong Kong, it's suppoed to be humid and hot since it's rapidly approaching Summer or should I say it is summer since we don't really have autumn or spring unless you count 1 week differences as a season. Anyway it's supposed to be getting very hot now around 28+C and around 90%+ humidity, yet about 4 days ago it was very cold (for Hong Kong during this time), really random. I've also noticed we have had hardly any typhoons at all during the typhoon season, spontaneous weather patterns really..
