Climate Change must be tackled NOW

Scrat, The statement by O'Rourke makes a lot of sense. I wonder if that is also true on this forum. c.i.

Yes, the skeptics live in a scientific twilight zone.

Translation: "Don't post what you think is right, post what I think is right"

Most of this alert is old news. The list of recent weather extremes, which gives the report its rhetorical power, only establishes that something extreme always happens somewhere in the world. It provides no evidence about the most important thing to know: whether there have been fewer such extremes observed in the past, and whether this reflects on an increase in the number of actual extremes or just an increase in the number of observations. The WMO asserts that there has been an increase in the number of actual extremes, but makes no attempt to account for the increase of observations and provides no links to sources that do. (At least I haven't found any on the WMO's web page. Please tell me if you had more luck.)

Concerning global warming, the report basically repeats the IPCC scenarios, which are consistent with my view: Global warming is real, but not necessarily worth fixing. Concerning predictions about weather extremes, they also refer to the IPCC and appropriately hedge their claims by generously adding the word "may" to them. Again, lots of old news here.

-- Thomas

Your hairsplitting response once again demonstrates that you're scientifically offline. You just go on with your laughable empty shelled rhetorics, I'll trust the WMO's warnings, thank you.

PS: I guess you take Tom Ridge's terror alert veeery serious, though, don't ya?

On the contrary. Tom Ridge produces so much hot air he probably contributes significantly to global warming. Environmentalists should try to make him illegal. But that's a topic for another thread.

-- Thomas

Historic "Climate Change Action Plan" becomes law




Source

Alaska is melting. Glaciers are receding. Permafrost is thawing. Roads are collapsing. Forests are dying. Villages are being forced to move, and animals are being forced to seek new habitats.

National Resources Defense Council

...and yet life goes on.

We'll talk again in half a century.

Poor P.J. always spouting....

Hello pot, meet kettle.

Last time CO2 levels went high, the dinosaurs disappeared. Plants loved it, but it took 20 million years before mammals developed that liked the low 21% O2 levels.

Myopia feeds mediocrity, makes it into something great. They really give fools PhDs now, don't they? I mean, really, the same guy Philip Stott,probably practices penis phrenology while giving his slack-jawed students the reach around.

http://www.researchmatters.harvard....php?topic_id=98

(For example)

Polar bear research shows global warming is real
Report from world's scientific community concludes problem is worse than originally thought

Harvard Professor James McCarthy was among a handful of top scientists who coordinated a remarkable report by the world scientific community in 2001 that said global warming is real, it's here, and it's going to be worse than we thought.

"We already see effects that [indicate] the change in climate has occurred," said McCarthy, who co-chairs one of three working groups of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). "And the projection of some of those [effects] into the future are not a pretty scene."

John Holdren, Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, credited the IPCC with largely ending the debate over whether human-induced climate change is happening.



AND ANOTHER...

Oceans key to global warming:
How much man-made carbon dioxide can the Earth handle?
By Elizabeth Gehrman
Special to the Gazette

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, these are a few of the things we know about global warming: The average land-surface temperature of the Earth has risen by 1 degree Fahrenheit in the past century. Precipitation has increased by about 1 percent, and the sea level has risen 6 to 8 inches, in part due to the melting of mountain glaciers.

What we don't know is what these numbers - seemingly tiny increments - mean to the ecology and to human society. How will global warming affect plant growth? What about animal populations? Will entire cities be buried by seawater? Will we have to give up our cars?

One of the largest unknowns about global warming is, How much of an overload of man-made carbon dioxide can the Earth take? And the answer to that question probably lies in large part in the deep salt waters that cover approximately 71 percent of the planet. The oceans are the largest global-storage reservoirs of carbon on Earth besides rocks, and our first line of defense in any short-term process affected by human interference.

Mind you, the vikings found grapes on the rock of Canada - Nfld of all places...

So in reality we don't know anything.

The Brits are doing the wise thing:

UK government plans massive investment in offshore wind power.

Save the Tongass National Forest

Bush' buddies are cutting forests in Alaska.

Interesting that it seems to be the State of Alaska itself that sued the feds over the roadless rule. Somehow enviro-indoctrinated college students in the lower 48 know better what's best for Alaska than the people and government there.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/ro/projects-plans/roadless/index.shtml

Yes, the earth's weather has always varied over time...

Forest fires continue to burn all over Europe, river navigation is nearly stopped, rising water temperatures have forced to close nuclear power plants or/and to cut output at two others, Germany has reportedly recorded its highest temperature in over a century (London its highest, too) ...

+ there is urban O3 pollution due to heat and CO2 from traffic. Critical levels of ozone concentration in our cities have never before been so severely broken.

Stop that oil burning please. Anyone?

And as an ultimate result I just heard certain water reservoirs in Holland are running empty due to overusage. Global warming's effects dramatically summarized in only one small week. Fires, heat waves, ozone pollution, nuclear plant overheating, ... and this is only the beginning.

At a get-together last night a couple of men were talking about how global warming could quickly initiate an ice age. It was something about an increase in sea water destabilizing a warming current in the Atlantic. Can anyone explain that or why it's wrong?

just watched an interesting interview with mr. ballard(formerly of ballard power - he is no longer with the company). he worked on the development of the hydrogen engine to replace the internal combustion engine - now daimler-chrysler and ford motor company are also involved in the further development. he was asked how soon the hydrogen engine might replace the internal combustion engine in the automobile.he said that he really did not know, but since there are about 800 million cars on the road now and another 50 million added every year, he figured that it would be at least another 30 years even IF a major effort would be started RIGHT NOW to replace conventional engines(and that assumes that the infrastructure would be in place just about IMMEDIATELY - such as fuelling facilities for hydrogen cars). at this time an additional (or perhaps major) problem is the high cost of producing hydrogen power and the large amouts of conventional power(electricity or methane gas were mentioned) required to produce the hydrogen. nevertheless he is still optimistic and believes that hydrogen engines will take over the place now held by the internal combustion engine. (being a retired beancounter, i have no idea of the technical side of this, but as long as the cost of hydrogen power remains excessive there is not much of a chance that it will replace conventional fuels for the time being). hbg

Mr. Ballard is probably correct, but if and when everything clicks, step back and remind yourself of how long it took CDs to replace LPs in the recording business.