Global Warming Watch

[Tao_Equus]

Originally Posted by wil

Is China part of the 'west' yet? 2005 2% less CO production than US, 2006 8% more...that sleeping giant will be going through what the US did in regards to pollution 40 years ago if they continue down the path they are going they'll be making all the mistakes we did...but twice as fast and double in volume...

Well since the US is in debt to China to the tune of close to a trillion dollars I'd say even if it is not part of "the west", it owns a great deal of it

[wil]

Originally Posted by Tao_Equus

Tibet is one of the places experiencing some of the most dramatic changes.
The Hindu News Update Service

It makes sense that any highly glaciated site would have more dramatic changes...

When the first rock is exposed in Antarctica the subsequent change and growth will be dramatic. Not being a scientist this is just me surmising of course...what I do often... but I see a vast white ice area...cold and reflective....melt our way down to one rock being exposed and one day's sun exposure on that one dark rock will become the beginning of a heat sink and as it melts the ice around it and exposes more...the heat sink will increase in size and duration above freezing as it absorbs and doesn't reflect and subsequently transfers the heat to the surrounding soil which is then sucked out by the ice and more melt.... I think we'll be watching that on the web when it occurs...

[Tao_Equus]

I agree such a sight is not far off. When shelves of ice the size of Wales are breaking off its a sign that profound change is afoot.

Tao

Edit, you touched upon that old map of Antarctica as ice-less Islands, be an interesting subject of discussion in its own right.

[spiderbaby]

Global warming isn't out of the woods yet. Apparently there could still be a really long lag between solar activity and changes in climate. So sayeth the man who wrote the study, see below. Plus thirty years is not sufficient data to go on. I'm still not giving up on a sudden onset ice age...we're due one quite soon. Maybe the sea cooling off the west coast of South America that caused this summer's low pressure adverse weather bonanza over Europe is due to global cooling not global warming?

Originally Posted by New Scientist 11th July

Measurements of the Sun's brightness – which indicates of the amount of energy coming from the sun – only began in 1977. Yet here too the data suggests solar activity is playing a negligible role in current global warming: irradiance rose between 1977 and 1985, but has been dropping since. Lockwood says the only way of reconciling the data with the idea that solar activity is causing global warming is to propose that there is a time lag between the Sun's activity changing and those changes affecting the Earth's climate.

[wil]

Originally Posted by spiderbaby

Global warming isn't out of the woods yet. Apparently there could still be a really long lag between solar activity and changes in climate. So sayeth the man who wrote the study, see below. Plus thirty years is not sufficient data to go on. I'm still not giving up on a sudden onset ice age...we're due one quite soon. Maybe the sea cooling off the west coast of South America that caused this summer's low pressure adverse weather bonanza over Europe is due to global cooling not global warming?

the pentagon commissioned a worse case scenario to which a movie was inspired regarding the salt content of the water changing due to the melting ice causing the gulfstream to drop, immediately cooling the earth and us entering the next ice age...one thing is certain is uncertainty in this regard...we sure haven't completely figured out how this big terrarium operates...

[cyberpi]

I suggest that man can control the temperature of the planet like the thermostat in a house. Is the house temperature controlled by trimming the energy into the house? Or is it by powering up an air conditioner or a furnace and thus using directed energy to control the temperature?

Similarly man can control the entropy of the planet like that of a house. Is the house cleaned by using less energy in fear that it will make it dirtier... or does cleaning the house require directed energy?

I find that the thermostat is clearly on the planet in plain sight, and surely it was provided by God. The thermostat that I refer to is often green.

A parcel of land will only provide so much fruit. Similarly energy should not be wasted... but I suggest that preventing global warming or global cooling requires the use of energy. Somewhat differently. The air conditioning in a house is a disaster maker because the outside air has to be heated up more than the heat that is removed from the house. It is kind of a mechanized fight with neighbors and with nature for the most comfortable living conditions. To get better conditions locally you have to make the condition for others even worse. Furthermore when the air conditioner dies it offers nothing good. The freon air conditioner is NOT green... it does not complete a carbon cycle and it does not utilize the atmosphere's natural air conditioner. As the planet's natural air conditioner is used, is there equally a place where the wasted heat is dissipated to? Yes... outer space.

I can feel the barbs of the alleged energy peaceniks now... there simply is not enough energy to go around, right? From the Sun's profile how big is the Earth and all of the little planets relative to the energy that the massive sun throws away into outer-space? What percentage of the Suns energy arrives on the planet? What, do I think too big? Imagine someone suggesting 200 years ago that a person could drive from coast to coast within a week, could fly there within a day, and that man could walk on the moon?

But we need impact on a large scale now, don't we. My recommendation? Teach basic thermodynamics, carbon cycle, and water cycle in grade school before Newton's old school of gravity... because children can and do learn what many adults and scientists apparently can not.

[Muslimwoman]

In one way I am quite pleased that global warming has come home to roost. Our energy guzzling societies were never going to get the message while it only affected other people at the other side of the world. Now, just maybe, our governments will start to take this seriously.

My concern is that in order to reverse the damage we have caused, we need to change our lifestyles and people are not going to like that idea. Also, huge corporations are driven by money and care little for the damage they cause but do our governments have the guts to take on these corporations and make them responsible/accountable for this issue? I doubt it, after the packaging regs fiasco, where corporations were allowed to pay for someone else to deal with their responsbilities and carry on as normal.

[Snoopy]

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | S Asia floods: Worst-hit areas

"Hundreds of people have died and millions have been left homeless across South Asia since the start of the annual monsoon season in mid-June."

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Why Bangladesh floods are so bad

"Climate experts also believe global warming is partly to blame, by increasing monsoon rainfall and speeding up the melting of Himalayan snows."

Islamic Relief Home


s.

[Muslimwoman]

Thanks for the links Snoopy, depressing reading.

Isn't it amazing that so many are dying and whole areas of land are being swept away by floods and we just carry on regardless. I am rapidly running out of faith in the human race (if I had any left).

[flowperson]

Hi...About 10-15 years ago when climatologists started to do early versions of weather pattern modeling "what ifs" on supercomputers, it was predicted that Bangladesh would be among the first low lying countries to be severely affected by the rising waters. But of course most people ignored the studies and the experts who developed them.

BTW, I've been contributing to Islamic Relief for while now, and they do excellent work IMO.

flow....

[Muslimwoman]

Originally Posted by flowperson

BTW, I've been contributing to Islamic Relief for while now, and they do excellent work IMO.

flow....

Alhamdolillah, thank you Flow. I personally feel they are one of only a handful or relief agencies that actually manage to get the help to where it is really needed. Thank you so much for your support and not allowing stereotypes to cloud your vision of their good work.

Was it not only this year that the US finally accepted that global warming in fact exists? I seem to remember they denied it for the longest time, despite the compelling evidence.

Salaam

[wil]

This house I am in has more down lights (light cans built into the ceiling) than a commercial building... I just bought 50 20w fluorescent bulbs and had my son start replacing them...

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by Muslimwoman

Thanks for the links Snoopy, depressing reading.

Pick a subject, any subject, and I'll provide a depressing link.

s.

[flowperson]

Originally Posted by Muslimwoman

Was it not only this year that the US finally accepted that global warming in fact exists? I seem to remember they denied it for the longest time, despite the compelling evidence.
Salaam

Yeah...well most of us who have been following this fiasco for lo these many years were happy to see Al Gore's movie come out and become internationally popular. But I believe it to be unfortunate that this all had to be made into a political footbal before it was recognized as a "real problem".

It pretty much drowned out the naysayers here in a final way I hope. Some will continue to deny the reality of it all though, especially here in the USA. All they have to do is to tune into one of the fantasy channels (ie Fox News) to reinforce their ignorance of reality on a regular basis.

flow....

[greymare]

Our prime minister, jh, said at the last election, that basically global warming was jsut the greenies trying to get the vote off of his party and that there was no scientific evidence to back up the THEORY of global waarming. Then he does an about face and realises the folly of his ways because now it seems to be a popular subject. Im not into politics but he didint want to believe it because it wasnt popular. (picture smallchild with his head under the pillow....if i cant see it it cant be there). Now we are in the worse drought in history. things are pretty grim. but I feel the planet is really trying to fix itself up. weve jsut gotta get out of the way or get hurt trying. love the grey