Who actually cares about "global warming"? And is cutting CO2 important?

[-What-]

It is very un-scientific to claim a "global temperture". It doesn't work like that.

It is more accurate to chart the temp change over a specific area, not the world.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by -What-

It is very un-scientific to claim a "global temperture". It doesn't work like that.

It is more accurate to chart the temp change over a specific area, not the world.

I produced it as a reply to your statement that earth's atmospheric temperature is not rising. (Globe=Earth)
And of course if you start by making distinctions between different areas (arbitrary chosen??) you will end up with figures where some may show even a downward trend. However, adding up all those areas will give you the average global figure.

Some scenarios actually indicate that the melting of the North pole will result in a deviation of the Gulf Stream, that now reaches North West Europe and caters for the relatively mild wild winters that we have. When the Gulfstream will not reach us anymore it is expected that average winter temperatures may drop considerably. (caused by "global warmimg")

The Switserland based World Glacier Monitoring Service has just issued a report which states that since they started to observe the situation of 80 different glaciers all over the never was so much ice lost as in 2006. The started their measurements on the mass balance of the glaciers at around 1970. This is a much more difficult way of measuring. Previous methods just looked at the location of the glacier front, but this method takes the overall volume of the glacier into account. The WGMS estimates that at around 1970 most glaciers were in balance and were actually accumulating ice. However since 1970 they have only witnessed reductions. The big losers are found in the Alps, Alaska and Patagonia. On the other hand there are increases in Scandinavia.

[nota]

Originally Posted by CapnBoost

, the antarctic ice sheet is thickening,

I've seen this claim often being touted elsewhere but the truth lies opposite, according to the peak scientific body of your country, NASA

January 14, 2008

But a new study released yesterday, based on some of the most extensive measurements to date of the continent’s ice mass, presents a worrisome development: Antarctica’s ice sheet is shrinking, at a rate that increased dramatically from 1996 to 2006.

“Over the time period of our survey, the ice sheet as a whole was certainly losing mass, and the mass loss increased by 75 per cent in 10 years,” the study said.

The results of the research project, led by Eric Rignot, principal scientist for the Radar Science and Engineering Section at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., are appearing in the current issue of Nature Geoscience.

The study said the continent had a net loss of about 196 billion tonnes of ice in 2006, an amount that is equal to more than a third of the water in Lake Erie, up from 112 billion tonnes in 1996.

In addition, researchers found that the rate of ice loss in the affected areas has accelerated over the past 10 years -- as it has on most glaciers and ice sheets around the world.

"Without doubt, Antarctica as a whole is now losing ice yearly, and each year it's losing more," said Eric Rignot.

Another member of the research team, Curt Davis, director of the Centre for Geospatial Intelligence at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said the new study is the “most comprehensive” to date on the status of Antarctica’s ice, and has zeroed in on exactly where the losses are occurring.

[Matt]

Many of you are looking at a rather simple picture of global "warming" as a process in which it gets hot outside. The big picture of global warming is much more complicated than that. The warming process is just the beginning. The warming melts ice sheets, the water from those ice sheets melts into the oceans, ocean currents are changed and the weather globally becomes more extreme and erratic. We're already seeing the early signs of the extremes. More storms during the "wrong" times of the year. The storms are consistently more fierce and more deadly than we've seen in a lifetime.

While it's true that cars aren't the biggest contributor, it's the biggest of our truly changeable and controllable contributors. People breathing is by the biggest contributor. The global population has exploded over the past 200 years to the point where 1/5 of all humans who have ever lived is alive right now. That's ridiculous and reckless.

There are very simple things you can do to do your part without drastically changing your lifestyle.

1. Use a condom. We don't need more people.

2. Don't drink bottled water. And I'm not saying that because of landfill waste or recycling. Don't drink bottled water because the production of that bottle of water is incredibly inefficient. It takes 3x the amount of water in that bottle just to make the bottle itself. The process used to make that one bottle takes more electricity than your home uses in one day. And it does take twice that to recycle that one bottle.

3. Conserve electricity use in your home. Use flourescent light bulbs. Don't leave electronics on when not using them. Did you know just the standby button on your dvd player can cost you over $100/year?

4. Take reusable bags with you to the grocery store. Both plastic bags and paper bags are horrible for the environment. Sure, paper breaks down more easily than plastic. But, not in a landfill. In most landfills, plastic bags are segregated from the rest of the trash. plastic bags take 1/10 the space to store. Paper bags take 100x longer than normal to break down when covered with the rest of the trash, unexposed to air and sun. Paper bags take more energy to recycle than plastic. However, there are fewer recycling centers for plastic bags than paper bags. So, just use neither. Buy a couple $1 canvas bags. They look better, they hold more and they insulate cold goods better.

5. Recycle. Again, easy. Most cities offer recycling pickup. If you can't recycle, reuse. If you can't do either, watch what you buy. See if the packaging is already made from recyclable material. Good for you if it is.

6. Speaking of packaging, buy food items in bulk! Buying one huge plastic bag of a dried food item and storing smaller portions in reusable packages (tupperware) produces much less waste and is, in most cases, cheaper.

None of these are hard things to do! None of them change your lifestyle! They just make you think for a bit before you make your next decision. And I know we can all stand to do that.

[Gt1Street]

I dont have to give up my car for a smaller one cause I already have one of the smallest and most environment friendly ones on the market...

[henk4]

Originally Posted by Gt1Street

I dont have to give up my car for a smaller one cause I already have one of the smallest and most environment friendly ones on the market...

have you got a bicycle?

[Gt1Street]

Originally Posted by henk4

have you got a bicycle?

No, but there are bicycles bigger then my Yaris...

[CapnBoost]

Originally Posted by nota

I've seen this claim often being touted elsewhere but the truth lies opposite, according to the peak scientific body of your country, NASA

No, you misunderstood me. I said it was thickening. You say it's shrinking. It's doing both. It covers less area, but it is thicker.

Furthermore, NASA data claims that 5 of the 10 warmest years on record occurred before WWII. The hottest year on record is 1934, not 1998.

Again, the polar bears are not dying. Beach front property is not going to get swamped. We are not going to desalinate the oceans, etc. Most people haven't even read the IPCC report except for the bit for policy makers which is where all of the Oh Gawd hail mary fire & brimstone is.

You all do know that some of the arctic and antarctic stations have been shut down right? That means that they're not contributing to the numbers and thusly you have a smaller sample. Because of your smaller sample the margin of error increases. Also, I know of at least one occasion where a station moved their air conditioner from the roof to the ground. The week they did this they experienced an increase in the reported temperature from their finely calibrated sensors. Guess what caused it. It's not the only one. Then we've got the urban heat island effect, etc, etc. There's just too much easily found data that makes me question these prophets of the apocalypse.

Ooh, and lets talk about the recently increasing output of the sun.

Science is not a democracy, there is no such thing as a scientific consensus.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by CapnBoost

Furthermore, NASA data claims that 5 of the 10 warmest years on record occurred before WWII. The hottest year on record is 1934, not 1998.

Funny, our three hottest years all occurred in this century....

actually our Royal Meteorological Institute started measurements in 1706, and 2007 was the hottest (highest average temperature) since that year 1706. In fact the 8 hottest years all occurred after 1998....(what did NASA do in 1706??)

[SlickHolden]

Originally Posted by -What-

SlickHolden's stories of destroyed car covers due to cosmic radiation breaching through the raped and gaped ozone and being magnified by globally warming Carbon Dioxide is nothing more than imagination and cheap car covers. THE HARD TRUTH SHOWS THAT THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERTURE IS NOT STEADILY INCREASING. HOW CAN HARD FACTS BE IGNORED?

radiations breachings ozone gaps maginifications global warmiong cheap covers, Hmm you made that on my car cover was torn in harsh conditions?.

Truth is no rain and temps above average and the ozone hole being probably above us wouldn't help, Something eat through that cover and it wasn't chip munks or little ninjas with bottles of acid or a heavy drinker pissing on my roof until he breeched the hull!..

Oh and it wasn't a cheap cover i had 2 of them i actually picked it up for a steal.

South Australia just had a record for march with 30deg + heats for i think 16 days straight?. In Victoria we had a march record 30deg+ 13 days straight both states tossing in some 40deg days. This is not normal.

In 1992-1997 when i was going to the football we had rain almost every 2-3 games it was cold we had special rain coats made.

From 1998-2007 rain is missing and temps are up, I get around in my shorts almost 80% of the year now, Some 10 years ago i didn't own a pair of shorts, Now i have 6. I don't own a rain coat or an umbrella, I have plenty of hats and sunscreen handy.

Brisbane was hit with massive rain floods out of control, Sydney was hit by hail stones the size of tennis balls, So large and heavy when they hit i seen the damage left on a few cars in car mags, Some left deep dints in the C pillars.
Then you zip down to Melbourne and hey no rain warm weather but it's winter feels like summer weather?.
You don't know what's coming next.
So i feel it's real based on over 10 years of living in it one of the worst states hit by it in the world.

And for those that don't believe anything they would be the same that ignored it over 10 years ago, Things could have been different if we did something 10 years ago. But everyone sat on there hands like many still today.
Hey something is wrong i don't care what it's called but it's out of the ordinary.

[roosterjuicer]

lets just say for the sake of discussion that global warming is the real deal...

so the world is getting warmer due to greenhouse gases, some ice melts, the oceans rise, some ecosystems parish, some people have to move their beachfront property inland a little bit, blah blah blah. who here really thinks it would be the end of the world (cause thats how a lot of people act)? and furthermore, who here really truly thinks that we currently or used to live in the earths ideal climate? does anyone actually believe that the earth hasn't warmed and cooled several times in the past?

thats right guys, global warming and cooling has happened before plenty of times and it will happen again and guess what, life goes on. there is no ideal climate, nobody, al gore included knows what the correct temperature or climate is supposed to be because there isn't one, the earth has been and always will be in a constant state of change.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by roosterjuicer

some people have to move their beachfront property inland a little bit, blah blah blah.

just returning from Bangladesh I suppose....

[Kitdy]

This is one of those situations where I would like to post but it is hard for me to begin.

EDIT: henk, what is Royal Meteorological Institute in Dutch?

[kigango123]

The earth's climate has always been changing, fullstop. I would highly doubt that the end of the ice age was due to global warming caused by farting mammoths and the receding ice caps have been doing their receding way before the dawn of the industrial age.

I therefore highly doubt that by driving cars with humongous motors which run on hippie juice you will be able to kill the global warming, very unlikely if possible at all.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by kigango123

The earth's climate has always been changing, fullstop. I would highly doubt that the end of the ice age was due to global warming caused by farting mammoths and the receding ice caps have been doing their receding way before the dawn of the industrial age.

sure, but those changes took many ages to come about, now we are doing everything in 50 years.....