Ice shelf collapse was biggest for 10,000 years

Discussion in 'Politics' started by ZZZzzzzzzz, Aug 4, 2005.

  1. nitro

    nitro

    ok.

    nitro
     
    #31     Aug 7, 2005
  2. I grew up at a time when there was no skinblock, and hardly anyone got skin cancer.

    I grew up at a time when it was safe to eat tuna and other fish from oceans, lakes, and streams.

    I grew up at a time when you could drink from our lakes and streams.

    I grew up at a time when the ocean shore smelled like fish and sea creatures and sea vegetation, not sewage.

    Call me a conservative if you must, but I would like to regress to those environmentally safe days.

     
    #32     Aug 7, 2005
  3. No, I don't think so. This is subjective distortion.

    m
     
    #33     Aug 7, 2005
  4. I remember when i was a little.... they used to make really huge refrigerators...like towers, nowadays they are small...hardly any taller than me :p
     
    #34     Aug 8, 2005
  5. Global-Warming Discrepancy Solved
    Reuters

    Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/planet/0,2782,68510,00.html

    09:10 AM Aug. 12, 2005 PT

    WASHINGTON -- A dispute over whether global warming is really happening may have been caused by the placement of sensors on weather balloons when studies were done in the 1970s, researchers said on Thursday.

    Very few scientists now dispute that the Earth's temperature is rising and that this is caused by human activity, including burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil.

    But there have been some discrepancies that have troubled experts. For instance, some measurements show that atmospheric temperatures have been unchanged since the 1970s, while temperatures at the Earth's surface are rising.

    "Even though models predict a close link between atmospheric and surface temperatures, there has been a large difference in the actual measurements," said Steven Sherwood, an associate professor of geology and geophysics at Yale University in Connecticut, who led the study.

    "This has muddied the interpretation of reported warming."

    Working with a team at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Sherwood and colleagues said they found the key to the differences lay in where the sensors were placed on equipment.

    With exposed sensors used in earlier designs, measurements taken in daylight read too warm. Later equipment reduced this effect.

    "It's like being outside on a hot day -- it feels hotter when you are standing in the direct sun than when you are standing in the shade," Sherwood said in a statement.

    "We can't hang our hats on the old balloon numbers."

    Writing in the journal Science, Sherwood and colleagues said this helps explain why temperatures in the troposphere -- the lower atmosphere -- appear not to have risen.

    After taking this problem into account, they estimate there has been an increase of 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) in the average global temperature per decade for the last 30 years.

    "Unfortunately, the warming is in an accelerating trend -- the climate has not yet caught up with what we've already put into the atmosphere," Sherwood said. "There are steps we should take, but it seems that shaking people out of complacency will take a strong incentive."

    Two other papers published in Science support this conclusion.
     
    #35     Aug 13, 2005
  6. Updated: 08:30 PM EDT
    Senators Attest to Alaska Climate Change
    By DAN JOLING, AP

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Anyone doubting the effects of human activity on global climate change should talk to the people it affects in Alaska and the Yukon, U.S. Sen. John McCain said Wednesday.

    Fresh from a trip to Barrow, America's northernmost city, McCain said anecdotes from Alaskans and residents of the Yukon Territory confirm scientific evidence of global warming.

    "We are convinced that the overwhelming scientific evidence indicated that climate change is taking place and human activities play a very large role," McCain said.

    McCain, accompanied by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., spoke to villagers in Canada whose spruce trees are being attacked by the northward spread of spruce beetles. On Alaska's northern coast, they met Native Alaskans dealing with melting permafrost and coastal erosion.

    "I don't think there is any doubt left for anyone who actually looks at the science," Clinton said. "There are still some holdouts, but they are fighting a losing battle. The science is overwhelming, but what is deeply concerning is that climate change is accelerating."

    Graham, who declared himself "on the fence" about climate change legislation, said an academic debate about global warming is different in the North.

    "If you can go to the Native people and listen to their stories and walk away with any doubt that something's going on, I just think you're not listening," he said.

    McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., are sponsoring legislation that would limit greenhouse gas emissions from utilities and industry. The Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act would cap U.S. emission levels at levels recorded in 2000.

    Opponents of the legislation, including Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, attribute warming to cyclical geophysical forces.

    McCain said the trip has been valuable for the accumulation of evidence that can be used to push the bill. Ultimately, he said, Americans will demand laws to decrease emissions, just as they demanded campaign financing reform.

    "It's coming up from the bottom," he said. "It's the special interests vs. the people's interests and I still have enough confidence in our system of government that the people's interest will ultimately prevail."

    Collins said the senators were approached by Alaska guides who thanked them for taking time to look at how climate change affects Alaska. They echoed what indigenous people in Canada told the senators.

    "I don't think anyone who has talked to these individuals as well as the scientists would have any doubt that this is a real and growing problem," she said.

    McCain said his bill continues to face opposition from industry, but that may change from businesses that operate overseas.

    "They have to do business in Europe, and thereby comply with the requirements for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," he said. "You will see more and more international corporations going in that direction because they have to."

    Graham couched the argument for climate change, as well as another major Alaska issue, petroleum drilling of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as a national security measure. Continued dependence on foreign fossil fuels makes America vulnerable, he said.

    "The sooner we get started with alternative energy sources and recognize that fossil fuels makes us less secure as a nation, and more dangerous as a planet, the better off we'll be," Graham said.

    Opponents who ignore evidence of humans contributing to climate change, Clinton said, are participating in a trend of turning Washington, D.C. into what she calls an "evidence-free zone."

    "You just keep saying something no matter how untrue and unfactual it might be, over and over and over again, and try to drive the politics to meet your ideological or commercial agenda," she said. "That is a grave disservice to our country."

    The senators planned to travel to Seward later Wednesday.

    08/17/05 20:27 EDT
     
    #36     Aug 18, 2005
  7. Ricter

    Ricter

    Only cretins who don't know, or refuse to learn, the difference between weather and climate still doubt there is a global warming trend. It's the cause we disagree about.
     
    #37     Aug 18, 2005
  8. check out these 3 videos. the idea is that the earth, moon, etc. may have grown. and if you think about it, maybe that's why the dinosaurs were so large...because the earth may have had less gravity.

    http://www.nealadams.com/nmu.html
     
    #38     Aug 18, 2005
  9. Ricter

    Ricter

    Oh, there's no doubt they've grown. We're picking up space dust continuously.
     
    #39     Aug 18, 2005
  10. nitro

    nitro

    #40     Mar 29, 2006