I got a lot of answers to my questions about global warming last night while watching TV. There was a show discussing the issue on the History Channel. It was not sensationalist; there was no suggestion that we were in for a world of hurt until around the end of the century. But there was an explanation of what happened in the past millenniums when there was an increase in greenhouse gases and global average temperatures increased over 15F. In at least 2 cases there was mass extinction. The same was true when greenhouse gases decreased abnormally, except that it led to ice ages, including one where the entire globe was encased in ice. In all cases so far, the changes in carbon dioxide or methane concentrations in the atmosphere were natural. Cold spells are typically due to a change in the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit around the sun. When the orbit is elliptical, ice ages are more apt to occur. We are in an elliptical period right now, but global temperatures are rising. The most reasonable explanation is that greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide, are increasing at a high rate. How do scientists know the concentration of carbon dioxide over the millenniums? They collect ice core samples from Greenland and Antarctica and determine the carbon dioxide concentrations in the ice strata. Maybe we really do need to make an effort to control greenhouse gases.
Oh, yeah. The hook to cars is that we need to drive smaller vehicles more efficiently and find alternate forms of energy for the cars, like electric motors. There is a pilot coal burning plant in Illinois that exhausts it's vapors underground. Maybe that concept will supply clean energy from a traditional source of electricity.
Even the way the temperatures are taken is a joke now. Way back when, a thermometer was nailed to a tree in the shade a certain height off the ground and so many meters away from any structure. A man on horseback would make his rounds and note the temp by eyeball from horseback. Now it's become digital and more precise.
Many of the thermometers being used have been "conveniently placed" to produce the desired results. In all seriousness here, one thermometer is placed under the eave of a building directly above a central air unit, another is placed on top of a building next to a roof mounted A/C unit, another is placed next to a couple of junk cars where the thermometer receives reflected light from the windshields, etc. Kind of skews things a bit, huh?
For the National Weather Service to accept thermometer readings, they have to be carefully placed to avoid all these biases. For example, at an airport, the thermometer is supposed to be inside a louvered, white-painted housing a certain distance off the ground, and away from artificial heat sources and pavement. In a city, it can get a little more complicated to avoid heat sources, but biases have to be accounted for when compiling data into climatological records.
Those whose jobs are based on climate change would surely wish to elevate the issue to EARTHSHAKING. And they are seeing some success. If the profit were taken our of the issue how important would it be?
Hooray for you and your refusal to buy into the "Greenhouse Gas" illusion. When King James was on the throne in Great Britain, subjects were taxed on sunlight(determined by the number of window panes they had),and for fresh air (determined by the number of windows that would open). Hence the number of boarded windows in many old structures there. Supposedly, this would curb man's detrimental effect on the environment. (and provide a little extra cash-flow (ha-ha)). It's not much different today. The average person is going to be blamed for everything. In the UK, for example, farmers are charged 1 Pound per head for their cows to pay for the methane they produce when they belch & fart....Sorry; I'm ranting. This whole thing is soooo much deeper than most people realize. Yes there is a larger agenda and it involves the political of most nations. I couldn't begin to explain it, but this website does a fine job. http://cuttingthroughthematrix.com . Boy, am I going to take some hits on this!
What about lessening our dependence upon fossil fuels by utilising one of the most costly to produce and inefficient fuels known to man; ethanol?
The increased junking of destroyed vehicles over time, the diversion of grains normally used to produce foods, the resulting increase in food prices and the two to three percent loss in fuel efficiency along with the already high comparative price of producing this stuff should really help us out, don't you think?
Ok man, that is a groovey concept. But lets think about it like this: if you go to the shoe salesman (OK, Sales person) and ask him/her if you need new shoes, what is he/she going to tell you? Right, you deffinetly need new shoes. How come greenhouse gases weren't a real critical issue until Gore lost the Presidency and a real President confronted terrorism for the first time in 8 years instead of being pre-occupied with distracting from infidelity? You're a victim of the media and one track referrencing. Try doing complete research and discover that the amount of change in the environment is insignificant when considered with millenniums of time. Also consider things like modern medicine which the dinosaurs and neanderthal man didn't have. Also, what are we, how is the environment, going to handle spent batteries or whatever fuel cells power alternative cars? How are government officials going to exploit the fundamental power sources for cars, homes, etc in the future just as much as they exploit petroleum. Yet another reason to do truely independant research: how much has past governments taxed fuel sources with King George-type greed? How much financial burden should be put on the people through taxes (As we have seen in the past) to fix a problem because someone sees an issue to exploit?. Sooner or later, they will be burdened for sure. Or, how much will the people be asked to pay for alternative cars, homes, etc. One way or another it all comes out to greed, not actual concern. One of the basic needs for a country like the US is to provide or promote true freedom as much as possible whether it is freedom from financial oppression, religious oppression, whatever from these Gore-type hippie socialists who are only concerned about makeing a buck at anyone's expense. What kind of car was Gore, Jr. busted in when he was caught driving drunk? How much fuel does Gore's lear suck up in one flight, how much energy does the Gore mansion require in comparison to the entire block you live on?
Do your own research with an open mind not with one-track logic as is given to us from the media that used to be free. I refuse to be a continuous victim of a groovey, glassey-eyed, commune living, doom-and-gloom generation. Although, I absolutely agree that we should use our God provided resources wisely - use only as much as needed to sustain life. When will my consumption of air and my personal waste from bodily functions be an issue for someone like Gore to exploit?
It’s truly amazing that all those that discredit the scientific community that does support the global worming thesis, choose to believe the same scientific community when it benefits them and pray for their success in curing deceases, predicting the weather, developing many safety devices, inventing new weaponry, use new tech. to extract oil from deep under sea, put man into outer space, and generally benefit mankind in so many ways.
As soon as the Scientific community disagrees with their politics they are quickly besmirched.
Agree that the case for or against believing in Global Warming is not an easy one, since the WEATHER constantly throws us for a loop. Last year where I live we had an incredibly warm year; this year most of North America has been chilly so far because of La Nina.
On the whole, there is a warming trend when there should have been a cooling trend. However, I believe coping with global warming will be easier than coping with petroleum depletion, because that will come much quicker to drive up the prices to unheard-of levels. Having to scrap about 100 million thirsty vehicles before they are worn out will be an enormous expense.
By Design or not, Greenhouse Gas is just as relevant as Kool Aid, no? The ladle may be sipped or cast away, the choice is ours, by the sip or the chug a glug, glug, whatever shall we do, where shall we go, who shall we be?
I don't pat attention to Gore or anyone specific. I pay attention to ideas and explanations for the phenomenon. Global warming makes a lot more sense than it used to a few days ago.
Logic is a concept that eludes you. You don't have the faintest what logic is.
How come greenhouse gases weren't a real critical issue until Gore lost the Presidency and a real President confronted terrorism for the first time in 8 years instead of being pre-occupied with distracting from infidelity?
WHAT??? Where have you been in the past 30 years. Global warming has been a MAJOR issue in the scientific community for WELL OVER 30 YEARS. Been reported in the press and every single scientific journal since the 70. Gore just brought it out in the open.
It wasn't until the 80's that MOST scientists actually started to believe it. Scientific theories are published for pier review. When global warming was first published MOST scientists disbelieved it...They conducted their own tests to actually prove it wrong...but experiment after experiment after experiment scientists started to come on board the global warming bandwagon. The VAST MAJORITY of the scientific community believes in global warming.
My daughter is finishing up her degree in Chemical Engineering at MIT next year. She's already doing a lot of research with some of the most renowned scientists in the world. Several with nobel prizes.
With that said....
Where Gore has gone too far...is the prediction of what all this means. Global warming is happening...That's a fact. It's no longer theory. We've been taking very very accurate measurements for the past 100 years. It's NOT isolated to just small pockets around the globe. The whole world is affected. Glaciers world wide are shrinking or completely gone. Alaska, Greenland, every single mountain range glacier is either currently shrinking or is completely gone. Scientists who study glaciers have not found a single glacier world wide (of the ones left) that's NOT shrinking.
HOWEVER...That doesn't mean it will stay that way...or if it does what effect it will have on the earth. The earth is a chaotic system. It's almost impossible to predict what will happen. Global warming may actually cause a ice age. The warmer the earth gets..the more the polar ice packs melt..this cools the ocean and sends fresh water in the ocean which causes other problems. It's just too unpredictable to predict what will happen.
Where the scientific community also is at odds is WHY this is happening. A good majority think it's man, but there are many who don't. My daughter and the Professors she works with think it's part man and part just the cycle of nature. Who knows. The problem is...by the time we figure it out...it may be too late. If it IS MAN and we decide to put our heads in the sand like our current Administration does then when things really start to change it will be far to late to do anything about it.
ow much financial burden should be put on the people through taxes
I've heard many many solutions to stem off global warming...and NOT ONE OF THEM included any kind of taxes what so ever. In fact there wasn't one financial burden on anyone. There were several that would actually help.
. Instead of giving Exxon and the oil companies these HUGH TAX RIGHT OFFS (well over 100 million annually)...how about taking that money and invest in other technology like solar. Solar is getting very very big again...especially in Europe. Wouldn't it be great to buy a solar panel for $5,000 that will run ALL or MOST of your electrical needs. Based on the way solar technology has been increasing in the past 10 years that's NOT too far fetched. A $5000 up front investment will pay for itself in less then 5 years. Everything after that is FREE ELECTRICITY. How is that a financial burden on anyone.
FYI- Al Gore has refitted his mansion with equipment to make it use less energy than it did when he moved in.
FYI- The US Government would not need to raise taxes in order to pay for education and address global warming if the Bush Administration wasn't wasting billions on no-bid contracts and reimbursing the families of innocent civilians we have killed in the name of the War on Terror.
I would rather see government officials exploit our noble instincts to survive and breathe clean air than see them exploit the fear of the ignorant.
If Beefy Norm would like to convince anyone of his position he would do well to remember that many people have a great deal of trouble rating George W. Bush as barely competent. Mr. Bush started a war for no reason killing many thousands and promoted the use of torture for what he called "our" purposes. I'm willing to read comments agreeing with and disagreeing with the concept of global warming, but Norm's commentary is not only beefy but insensitive.
I like the political aspects of global warming. I also like the people who think that nothing can or should be done to fight it. They always mention that there were ice ages in the past and we should be grateful for the warming. They make it sound like we could bring on an ice age if we try to fight global warming. Back to my world. I'm in the middle of Maine and I can't wait for Spring to show up. I don't care how bad it used to be. I live here NOW.
We've had extreme heat and extreme cold in the past and a great deal of life on the planet died. I'd rather not be among the species that dies next time, especially if we do it. It certainly could happen due to natural causes as in the past, but we don't need to kill ourselves if we can avoid it.
REAL SCIENTISTS AND THE HEAD OF THE WEATHER CHANNEL HAVE PROVEN THAT GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX PERPETRATED BY AL GORE AND OTHERS TO MAKE THEM MILLIONAIRES, AND THE EARTH GOES THRU THESE CYCLES ALL THE TIME! DON'T YOU ALL REALIZE THAT MAN IS NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH TO CONTROL THE ENVIRONMENT. CHECK OUT THE VOLCANOES!!! THEY SPEW MORE POLUTION THAN CAN POSSIBLY BE DONE BY US MERE HUMANS. JOIN THE CLUB AND TELL THE TRUTH! THANKS.
Certainly all big swings in the Earth's temperature in millenniums gone by was due to natural causes. The current one is not. NASA and NOAA climatologists believe that it is due to man-made carbon dioxide. They believe that we would be in a cooling cycle if not for our carbon dioxide generation. I suggest that you recheck your sources.
Do you remember the NASA scientist that got into trouble with the Bush administration for expressing his professional opinion? He said that global warming is real and due to man-made reasons. He is no longer in trouble and is free to express his opinions.
REAL SCIENTISTS AND THE HEAD OF THE WEATHER CHANNEL HAVE PROVEN THAT GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX PERPETRATED BY AL GORE AND OTHERS TO MAKE THEM MILLIONAIRES, AND THE EARTH GOES THRU THESE CYCLES ALL THE TIME! DON'T YOU ALL REALIZE THAT MAN IS NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH TO CONTROL THE ENVIRONMENT
What real scientists are you talking about??? The ones paid for by Exxon Mobil. My daughter works with some of the TOP SCIENTISTS in the country at MIT. They all believe in Global Warming.
