Azrainman @ Flicker
Years ago while debating the theory of global warming there were typically three categories that peoples beliefs fell into to: Those who adamantly denied there was even such a thing – claiming that global warming was just a “hoax” – that it just didn’t exist. Then there were those that adamantly believed that global warming was a natural cycle and that man had nothing to do with our changing climate.The last category believed that global warming was indeed happening and that it was caused by mans activity here on earth.
As we fast forward to today there still seems to be some controversy surrounding global warming as to the what’s, how’s and why’s of our changing climate. Ever since the release of Al Gores movie “An Inconvenient Truth”, the subject of global warming has begun to get even more mainstream attention….. which has led us to again look at those beliefs and ask important questions like: Is there such a thing as global warming and if so - who caused it? Is it man-made or is it part of the earth’s natural cycles? If it is caused by us why didn’t we know about this sooner? Why is it that just in the last few years we have begun to hear a lot more about “going green”? Why all of a sudden is everybody talking about global warming anyway? Is there anything we can do to stop or slow down global warming?
These are all very good questions and questions which beg to be answered. Unfortunately there are no easy answers because the subject of climate change is indeed complex and bigger then most of us realize. One thing is a fact though: Our climate is changing and there are more record breaking disasters happening globally because of it. According to data from NASA we have experienced two of the hottest years on record within the past decade, 1998 and 2005. For over 9 years consecutively we have been experiencing temperatures in the top 25 on record for warmth and this is more than a coincidence.
According to a study completed by researchers and scientists at MIT there has been a 100% increase in the intensity and duration of severe storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes since the 1970s. The study found that this is most likely due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions which is then increasing the temperature of the earth. According to the National Climactic Data Centre estimates, $100 billion of damage was caused by hurricanes hitting the
So obviously we do need to invest more time and energy into understanding what is happening so we can make changes that can impact our climate in a positive way.
It’s no secret anymore that man has played a significant part in warming our planet by the burning of fossil fuels . The biggest question now is can we undo some of the damage that has been done or at least slow down the warming process? Absolutely. There is no better time to make changes than the present. Ignoring climate change will not make it go away, and sticking our head and in the sand will certainly only makes matters worse. The time for arguments has passed. Arguing about it will only delay doing something about it. The only course of action we should be on now is one of seeking solutions with a pro-active attitude.
Come join me here at the Examiner to take a look at our changing climate as we look for solutions to make our Earth healthier again. It will be a journey of understanding from an examiners in depth look inside our changing climate – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Comments
every time there are less sunspots its colder. its been colder than normal the past 2 years, overall globally. What a long history of cooling and warming cycles we have had, millions of years. When Gore says there is a scientific consensus he lies, actually the majority of scientists and climatologists think man made climate change is bunk. That is a true fact not painted by any opinion and anyone can research that. There was a lot of fraud involved in the supposed documents signed by scientists calling for CO2 reductions to save the planet. You can research that too.
The biggest lie spread by alarmists is the lie about increasing storm damage due to 'climate change'. This is simply not true. The "studies" that claim there is a relationship are all flawed because they either 1) fail to take into account that better technology allows us to detect more storms than in the past 2) increased population density means the same storms cause more damage.
This is feel-good pap. The simple truth is that science is being manipulated to create a political agenda which favors larger government, higher taxes and less personal freedom. The science tends to indicate that global climate change is a natural phenomenon that is not greatly influenced by mankind and that the solar output, the Earth's orbit around the sun, the rotational dynamics of the Earth, the movement of Ocean currents and the largest greenhouse gas of all, water vapor, play a significant role in the process. The rise in CO2 lags temperature rise by about 600-1000 years and can hardly be a causal factor. In fact, the rise in CO2 can be easily explained by considering that the warming of the oceans produces a greater CO2 concentration in the atmosphere with much the same physical mechanism of a open and warming bottle of beer. But since these factors are beyond man's control, they use CO2 as a bogeyman so as to control the nation's energy providers which dovetails with their political objectives. Where one side models the global climate change using relatively unsophisticated models and hopes to correlate with the existing historical and proxy data (ice cores etc.), the other side wonders if what they are measuring is not the urbanization and industrialization of the planet. It is hardly settled science and worthy of more exploration. Bottom line: who says that our current temperature is optimal and should be preserved? The scientific literature includes a fairly argument-damaging statement which proves my point: if all CO2 production were to stop immediately (unlikely), it would be 1,000 years before we would see a significant reduction in temperature. Not exactly a position I would want to use to make public policy. This is like politicians who always project good or bad results far enough into the future so they are not held personally responsible for their actions. Consider the global warming's main cheerleader, climate activist James Hansen (of NASA) also predicted a mini-ice age (with the same CO2 prescriptive remedies) approximately 40 years ago. To see more search my blog at www.onecitizenspeaking.com for "climate" or e-mail me, the address is under my picture. Cheers.
An excellent first article, but there are a myriad of credible resources you can avail yourself of to dig deeper. I would suggest reading the technical summary of the IPCC Working Group 1 report. It's not edited by politicians and provides a wonderful roundup of the scale of the proof for man-made drivers for the climate changes we see all over the globe.
The comments above are regularly debunked by several credible sources. The important point is, we've been given a choice. We can make the problem infinitely worse by continuing to pollute or we can lower our risk of catastrophe and gain all the co-benefits of a low-carbon economy. Who is more likely to twist research? Thousands of scientists over the last 40 years at hundreds of different institutions or the fossil fuel industry desperately trying to maintain a market for their products and their billions in profits?
I, for one, won't trust my children's future or my retirement to the oil executives. The scientific consensus is clear and the time for action has arrived.
It's delightful to see the Examiner breaking with it's regular climate change obstructionist stance and discussing the issue rationally finally.
Maven,
Just wait until "The One" and his lot has their Cap and Trade legislation upon us and you loose your job because power prices are double dthen tripled then off the charts. Trust me you will not have to worry about your childrens future because they will not have one in this country. We have lost almost all manufacturing jobs already due to stupid legislation. If you will study the papers of true scientist and not the hand picked panel they have chosen to push their agenda of which few are actually climatologist or even scientist, you will see the cycles the earth have had for millions of years. Water Vapor is actually more responsible for global warming than all of the natural and man made CO2. Most of the world will simply not search for the opinions of these scientist but only believ what they hear on TV. This makes it so easy to get control of the entire world! There is a much grander agenda here. Look at Al Gores wealth since 1900 to today. Better yeat liik at his last five
These trends occur over tens of thousands of years. I distinctly remember the late Carl Sagan saying in the late 1960's (on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson) that we are in the early stages of another ice age and temperatures will continue to decline until the 1990's when temperatures in Florida will not go above the high 60's (F). Blue skies will be a thing of the past. Well now the tide has turned 180 degrees. Enough is enough, nature's cycles are stronger than anything man made. Not to say we shouldn't respect the environment, but these calls for the end of the world due to global warming are nothing but a way to get more government money from nations around the world.
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