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Perhaps "candor" would be the better word? If you read the article, you'll form your own opinion...I voiced mine...(as My Dad used to say, "In my opinion,which I value highly"...)
In the end, when all's said and done, opinions and view points are like belly buttons--we each have one...and they're all different...I try to find sources from experts in the field with no particular axe to grind, read the opposing viewpoint, filter it through my own world experience lens and form my opinion..and while my view point might differ from yours, it doesn't mean yours is wrong...just different...
I couldnt agree more and my jury is still out on this one.....thats not to say us humans dont need to seriously clean up our act....but as far as "Man made Global Warming" there are still to many professional opposing view point for me to take sides, except and dispite what my own hypothisis are.
We humans tend to think we are way more powerful and Smart than we really are.
I tend to view climate change as a much grander process than what we have been fed lately. There is, certainly, a natural ebb and flow of global climate as well as an effect due to human pollution.
However, what is interesting to notice is that there is a more prominent greenhouse gas known as methane.
From the EPA website: Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere for approximately 9-15 years. Methane is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 100-year period and is emitted from a variety of natural and human-influenced sources. Human-influenced sources include landfills, natural gas and petroleum systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, wastewater treatment, and certain industrial process.
Humans have been introducing appreciable amounts of methane into the atmosphere ever since the agricultural revolution. This has created a build up of green house gases faster than normal. The recent implosion of CO2 levels only add to this.
Large parts of of Antarctica and Greenland are melting away faster than expected due to some processes that we didn't understand until we could observe them in action. In Greenland melt-water on the top of the ice travels down cracks and gets underneath the glaciers providing a lubricant to make them slide down faster. In Antarctica the ice shelfs are deep enough to avoid lubrication but this leads to water freezing inside the cracks and essentially pushing the cracks wider and breaking apart the ice due to expansion. 10,000 year old ice shelfs have dissappeared within months due to these processes.
Now, the removal of ice, I feel, has an even greater effect because ice reflects sunlight back into space (with some getting trapped by greenhouse gases) whereas open water absorbs most of the solar energy. It is like taking off your white t-shirt and putting on a black one during the summer.
So, essentially what I am getting at here is that CO2 is not the only thing making Earth warmer. In fact, it might be the most minor effect compared to the overall warming effects of methane and ice loss.
I guess I believe the earth is warming, but I have to ask...compared to WHEN? It's plausible that some people with an agenda choose a certain time period so they can point to the calendar and claim that alleged warming is due to the industrial revolution.
If the earth is warming, I don't believe it is man-made. I believe it's cyclical. Unfortunately, pundits, the media, greenies and politicians have declared it to be so and have determined humans to be the culprits. This means that rational discourse and alternative (read "politically incorrect") opinions are not welcome. They don't like to be challenged or questioned and they're not interested in opposing sides or facts supporting the opposing sides.
I guess I believe the earth is warming, but I have to ask...compared to WHEN? It's plausible that some people with an agenda choose a certain time period so they can point to the calendar and claim that alleged warming is due to the industrial revolution.
If the earth is warming, I don't believe it is man-made. I believe it's cyclical. Unfortunately, pundits, the media, greenies and politicians have declared it to be so and have determined humans to be the culprits. This means that rational discourse and alternative (read "politically incorrect") opinions are not welcome. They don't like to be challenged or questioned and they're not interested in opposing sides or facts supporting the opposing sides.
Quite true there. There is a lot of money to be made with this global warming business. Truth is, whether it is man made or we are reaching the end of a 10,000 year cycle, some things are going to change with rising temperatures. Sea levels will rise, though it is debatable by how much, and storm systems will have more energy to draw from. There is also the possibility of the Oceanic Conveyor Belt halting due to lower salinity in the North Atlantic from ice-melt. This could actually cause the reverse of global warming and begin a trend to another ice age.
Point is, whether global climate change is man-made or natural it is something humans must adapt to. Therefore conversation about how to prevent or prepare for it is essential to survival of current society.
EDIT: To answer you question on WHEN the comparison is being made, most popular media focuses on recent history. However, if you look at data found in ice core samples you will see that significant increases in temperature occur rapidly. This would suggest that rapid global warming is more of a natural, yet unknown, occurrence. We have yet to see what causes the rapid warming shown in the historical data (one theory was that massive methane reservoirs in the ocean were disturbed and released into the atmosphere, though this theory is now considered false).
Quite true there. There is a lot of money to be made with this global warming business. Truth is, whether it is man made or we are reaching the end of a 10,000 year cycle, some things are going to change with rising temperatures. Sea levels will rise, though it is debatable by how much, and storm systems will have more energy to draw from. There is also the possibility of the Oceanic Conveyor Belt halting due to lower salinity in the North Atlantic from ice-melt. This could actually cause the reverse of global warming and begin a trend to another ice age.
).
Conveyor belt has nothing to do with temps on Coasts. The US West coast is warmer than the UK and the EU but it has a COLD current off its coast. What keeps the coasts warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer is the air blowing off the Ocean.
"New research shows that the Gulf Stream has little effect on the contrast in winter temperatures between Europe and eastern North America, dispelling a long-held assumption. Instead, atmospheric circulation, augmented by the Rocky Mountains, plays a larger role, say Richard Seager of Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, David Battisti of the University of Washington and their colleagues.
Published in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, this new data suggests that atmospheric circulation is more important to understanding climate variability than is the ocean circulation..."
"Keenan filed a Freedom of Information Act claim to find the source of Wang's data -- a report written jointly by the U.S. DOE and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He quickly found a smoking gun. The data came from only 84 stations, 60% of which had no history whatsoever, and the report claims "details regarding instrumentation, collection methods, observing times ... are not known." Of the 35 remaining, over half had moved large distances (one station moving as many as five times) or had serious, known inconsistencies in the record. The report specifically contradicts Wang's claims, concluding that "even the best stations were subject to minor relocations or changes in observing times and many have undoubtedly experienced large increases in urbanization....The IPCC -- based largely on Wang's research -- concluded the satellite measurements are wrong, and the surface temperatures are accurate..."
In Antarctica the ice shelfs are deep enough to avoid lubrication but this leads to water freezing inside the cracks and essentially pushing the cracks wider and breaking apart the ice due to expansion. 10,000 year old ice shelfs have dissappeared within months due to these processes.
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The antarctic has record ice levels lately.
The Southern Hemisphere sea ice area narrowly surpassed the previous historic maximum of 16.03 million sq. km to 16.17 million sq. km. The observed sea ice record in the Southern Hemisphere (1979-present) is not as long as the Northern Hemisphere. (meaning it has not been tracked as long as the North Pole) Prior to the satellite era, direct observations of the Southern Hemisphere sea ice edge were sporadic.
Alright, we all know that the world is warming, that is a fact. .
Its a fact that its cooling.
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