pft... why's no one talking about global warming anymore?

[RWB]

So why is it no one's bitching about global warming anymore?:D

Maybe because of things like this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_mid-February_Eastern_North_America_winter_storm)? That I've seen more snow this year than my whole life combined, and I live in Texas? I dunno... so strange. ;D

I know it's winter, but it's been a freak of a Winter IMHO.

[CyrixInstead]

Global warming has hardly been out of the public spotlight in the UK for the last month or two. There was a very shocking photo of a Polar Bear on top of a bit of ice, with its home melted away. Over the last few decades more and more snow has been melting, and now there is very little of their habitat left.

Found the story...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=433170&in_page_id=1770

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/02_1/polarbrsDM010207_468x762.jpg

~Cyrix

[RWB]

This isn't really a global warming debate, more like me bitching about it being too damned cold! I hope global warming is real, I like the heat compaired to this crap. ;D

[Aranyic]

Global warming has hardly been out of the public spotlight in the UK for the last month or two. There was a very shocking photo of a Polar Bear on top of a bit of ice, with its home melted away. Over the last few decades more and more snow has been melting, and now there is very little of their habitat left.

~Cyrix

It's the same way here in the US Cyrix. Global warming was about 15 mins of the state of the union address. Thinktanks had a huge conference about it over in europe earlier this month or the end of last I believe. There is also a lot of talk going around of setting up a cap & trade system simliar to what europe (which I'm not a fan of but that's another day).

[checkmate]

Probably because nobody cares about the environment anymore.

[LawnMM]

I'll have to look for the article but I've heard a group of scientists measured the levels of CFC's, greenhouse gases, all that nasty stuff that was released during a recent volcanic eruption...I believe in the south pacific. Apparently there was more pollution and harmful gases released in that eruption than a generous estimate of what the human race has been able to produce in its entire history.

We've had ice ages, this is a warming trend. The planet is pretty complex and I think its a little self absorbed to believe we're having as great an impact as some of the tree huggers would like us to believe. I'm not saying be irresponsible, I'm just saying the planet has been around for a few billion years and its survived a lot worse than pollution in that time.

Its even more naive to think that people will actually change. We'll invent some machine that cleans the atmosphere at a cost into the trillions of dollars before every human being on this planet starts to recycle and use hybrid cars.

[/End Global Warming Lunacy Rant]

[profdlp]

...Found the story...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=433170&in_page_id=1770


Which turned out to be bogus. (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779569/posts?page=167)

There is very little "science" that matters anymore in the debate over climate change, as it has become essentially a political issue.

[RWB]

I thought it was always a political issue? I think it was Global COOLING...(MUAHAAAHA) that came before this right? haha, I didn't wanna start this debate it really was just me venting over this damned COLD weather. But ohh well.

I'm pretty much half and half on this, I am no scientist and I have yet to see any good evidence either way.

[Thrax]

First earth day bemoaned the coming of the next ice age. That was only ~20 years ago. Apparently the cyclical climate changes have moved from a few thousand years to thirty.

[GHoosdum]

I'm going to put my two cents in on RWB's original topic and say that holy crap it's cold. We had an ice storm here that knocked out over 100,000 utility customers... my power has been off since Tuesday night, and I really hope that my water pipes don't freeze inside the house. We had a low of 8F last night.

[Thrax]

8F? Pansy. It was -6 here. -22F with wind chill.

[Aranyic]

hehe we are sitting on 15-16 inches of snow and -1, -15 windchill this morning. I'm loving it though. There are some sweet piles of snow everywhere

[GHoosdum]

Sure, it's great when you have heat/electricity... not so good when the fish tank inside the house starts forming ice floes...

[CB]

Poor fishes :(

[RADA]

During my Bachelors degree I took a couple environmental science classes to fill in my math and science undergrad slots...

...I had a prof that asked everyone in the class to raise their hand if they thought we (humans) were responsible for global warming, she then asked those who though humankind were not responsible to do the same. She then had each of us write a 30-40 page paper trying to prove the viewpoint opposite of our own

I chose we were not causing global warming, so I had to do 13 weeks of research as to why we were causing it..

In 13 weeks of research I did come to these two conclusions:

YES, I 100% agree the earth is getting warmer...

The earth has been getting warmer for the last 10,000 years.

While everyone keeps stating that the facts show we are causing the current increase in global temperatures, I must have spent 8 weeks trying to dig up one of these facts.. I found theories, and studies, and whole thesises that alude to, but never state as fact that humankind is causing global warming. if you look at Al Gore's movie they continuely state their facts pertaining to the last 50 to 100 years.. ..naturally if you look only in the last 50 - 100 years the evidence is irrefutable that we are causing global warming.

Speaking as a Statistical Analyst, tracking aircraft maintenance statistics (2nd Job in Air Force) 1st thing I can tell you is you need a much larger reference pool of data to make such a claim. In order for these numbers to be stastically accurate you would need to compare data for the last 10K - 20K years. Then you look through your data for trends and set your standard deviation for that data pool. All the time we would have aircraft down for maintenance problems, the officers in charge of those aircraft would yell and scream that "there was a grounding level problem". If we looked at the problem under a microscope, it always appeared as if these officers were correct. But when we pulled back, and looked at the last 2, 5, or 10 years of data, we always had to show them that the current problems with their aircraft was within the standard deviation for the time period in question.. Meaning that while the problem looked catastrophic from a miopic standpoint, it always was a minor blip on the overall maintenance characteristics of the aircraft in question..

OK, enough techno-babble...

All this means is we need to look at the big picture, not just the last 100 years. People tend to want to reduce things into this timeframe because 100 years is only one standard deviation above the normal life expectancy of a human. We need to look at this issue in global/universal timescale. 10K, 20K, 100K, 1M, 1B years to properly say YES, this is our fault. In the meantime conserving energy, and protecting the natural places on our little blue marble is not a bad way to pass our time....

[Leonardo]

=============================================

Adjudicator Time (Hmm, that sounds like a poor marketing take-off for a cheap, watery beer!)

Gentlemen, prudence dictates that I ask all of you to make subsequent posts in this thread on the light side. That is, let's limit discussion to wacky weather, the body discovered in the snow bank by your house, or whatnot. I think global climate change and the theory of anthropogenic climate change is worthy of debate, but Short-Media prohibits political and religious debate, to which this topic would certainly degenerate. Everyone so far has been well mannered and appropriate. But nonetheless, it's time to enforce the rules.


by the way, if you only knew Prudence!

[Buddy J]

That's pretty COLD Leo ;)

[RADA]

That's pretty COLD Leo ;)

Yes, its very cold, at least 3 standard deviations below the norm... lol...

[Leonardo]

at least 3 standard deviations below the normSo, check me if I'm wrong - You're saying Norm and Stan, the deviants, were found in a snow bank? (or is Norm and three deviants were discovered under the snowbank?)

[primesuspect]

Leo is the cause of forum cooling!

[profdlp]

I thought it was pretty cool to begin with. :range:

[csimon]

Gore plans to rock! http://liveearth.msn.com/?GT1=9033
Ok ...I bet you guys are really starting to wonder right? loller

[DogSoldier]

It's been statisically proven that Leo is the cause of Forum Cooling. (Ignoring, for the time being, the effects of that volcano out in the south pacific)

[GHoosdum]

I got home last night and the power had finally been restored, but I lost three zebra danios. The tank only had two striped danio survivors. :(

There were so many trees falling in the last few days due to our ice storms, that a little girl was crushed to death while she was out walking her family dog. My fish are surely insignficant compared to that.

Several local people were hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoining because they apparently didn't know that you have to run the generator outside the house...

[godzilla525]

(LOL about the 'indoor' generators. I hate to say it but if they're really that stupid they deserve what they get. Are they really illiterate in the 3 or more languages that are usually on those warning labels?)

Don't take anything I say too seriously... except for the part about FUD.

I don't talk much about global warming because I get sick and tired of hearing the FUD associated with it everywhere I go.

I remember reading someplace that even though we drive many more miles now than we did in the 50s, with more vehicles on the road. pollution is much lower.

That is significant progress. It will continue as long as there is consumer demand for better fuel economy and longer range between fillups.

Incidentally, there are contests ongoing where tiny single-passenger vehicles are acheiving upwards of 1600mpg (with practically zero notice from all but local media). Progress is happening, and it isn't going to happen any faster with people screaming bloody murder over climate changes. I can't speak for anyone else, but all the FUD without citing sources or actual test data is beginning drive this engineer and participant crazy.

Also: This planet has a very long history of being self sufficient. Think about that. I'm not losing any sleep over it.

(Also Also: everyone stop beating on the big three. I need a job that isn't retail or foodservice. ;p)

[BlueDragon]

8F? Pansy. It was -6 here. -22F with wind chill.
;D ;D hehe;D ;D and here i am enjoying a refreshing 73 degrees today man it is nice to be a floridian ;D ;D heheheh;D ;D

[profdlp]

It's freezing here in The Holy City Of Westlake, which means that it feels downright tropical compared to the last month.

I may even take the mutts up to the lake later on. :cool:

[godzilla525]

lol... there's a little pile of snow here *inside* against the aluminum door threshold that hasn't melted in weeks :cool:

I think it melted yesterday though. :(

Going back up to Erie this weekend. I'll have to remember to get a picture of the glaciers in the wally world parking lot.

[Cyclonite]

I was sweating walking to class today. That sun is really beating down. ;)

[godzilla525]

I was sweating walking to class today. That sun is really beating down. ;)

:crazy:

[Crazy Joe]

I was sweating walking to class today. That sun is really beating down. ;)

Yea, no crap... It was 80 degrees over here in DeLand...

[RWB]

I watched something recently and I've heard of it before but I just thought this may have something very much to do with the whole global warming thing.

Basically our planets Magnetic Field is weakening.... it's in a flux where over the next couple hundred years it will actually flip so north is south and south is north... in between though when it really gets down our magnetic field will be just about worthless.... imagine aurora's over Texas and even the equator! This could very well be why our planet is going through this whole ordeal. As the magnetic field weakens it allows more solar radiation through... very very interesting.

This IMHO is a much better explanation than anything I've seen so far explained both ways.

[godzilla525]

As promised... pics.

The parking lot glaciers are somewhere in between pickup truck and RV size in terms of height. You can tell by the height of the sign way on the right. They'll get larger if the weather is bad in March.

There are also a couple of bonus pictures here from the 'pics or it didn't happen' category. There's a swampy area where US-19 and I-79 run parallel next to each other just north of 285. Bald eagles like to show up there in the winter. I'm at the end of the 10x optical zoom (about 350mm) on my camera and I cropped to 800x600.

Google Map of swamp (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Meadville,+PA&ie=UTF8&z=14&ll=41.539036,-80.179167&spn=0.047926,0.10849&t=h&om=1&iwloc=addr)

[TheGr81]

We never get winter weather in winter where I live. Hmm... Speaking of odd weather, we got some rain today! Less than an inch, but still...

[Leonardo]

-10F tonight in Eagle River. Thank goodness I'm not in Fairbanks where it's cold!