Another one to file under Apocalypse Now. Althoughhhhh...shrinking glaciers, bark beetle outbreaks, other local examples given may perhaps be part of the normal noises. There are certainly other indicators of a global problem cropping up, however.
OT: A lighthearted moment. For all of the federal funding that has been wantonly passed along on to various Universities for further research into the global warming phenomenon, we have not gotten our money's worth in attaining any conclusive results yet. While one coasts waters are rising, there is no mention that its counterpart coast has receding water. 10 or so years ago the exact opposite scenario was true that the "other" coast had rising waters and we out here had receding waters until the more recent El Niño's and La Niña's. Of course no one seems to remember what those. what to expect predictions were as far back as 5 years ago with either case scenario as it is so much easier to blame everything on the effect of greenhouse gasses for our receding glaciers and our resulting so-called unpredictable weather. No one wants to mention the impact of what 5-10 degree warmer waters can have for marine life but we already know the waters are warmer because the glaciers are receding. Not quite. The warmer waters is more due the fact that our Earth's core is warmer than normal but again that is attributed to global warming. Even some scientists have openly stated that the increased amount of solar radiation is due to global warming and now space is threatened due to my lawnmower and the car I drive (do an online search to find the article). Even some studies have suggested that we had periods of global warming before there were any automobiles and airplanes used for transportation. I guess that means our coal and then wood burning, pre-steam engine, railroads and coal burning factories were our main contributors to greenhouse gasses back in the mid to late 1800's. Now we get to hear about the effects of methane arising from our cattle here used for the dairy industry in that pollution controls must be set in place to discourage having cows that produce milk that we seem to want to buy and drink and use for a variety of by-products. The poor range land cattlemen in Texas of yesteryear never had it so good as due to their way of life's current emissions into the atmosphere that they would perhaps either be taxed per animal for projected methane producing secretions or the animals would have environmental controls placed on them whereby the animals cannot run free in the wild any more because we cannot trap the gasses liberated from their droppings. I guess we may not have "Free Range Wooly Birds" to eat for Thanksgiving now as the cost per bird will skyrocket due to emission controls from a higher percentage carbon, hydrogen, oxygen producer per gram weight than the cattle are. NEWSFLASH from the BBCNN: "The East Coast may have just figured out a way to use methane for their winter heating so now elected officials will be petitioning the federal government to have all taxpayer subsidized produced methane out in the "Left Coast" and in Texas and Oklahoma to be trapped and collected to "return" back East to be used by our environmentally conscious Easterners when their homes get cold due to the lack of supply of petroleum distillate heating oils!" Who cares about global emissions when people are freezing in their own homes? After all the Cowboys are all riding off into the sunset and we out here are all basking in the sun while at the beach keeping the tanning lotion and sunscreen companies in business. Of course how they produce their product does not add to the amount of greenhouse gasses produced in the US do they? Silly me, I forgot, we just had a large shipment of these generic products arrive into the More4Umart's subsidiaries from China so we just cut down on the amount of emissions produced by our US companies. Take that Kyoto! "What do you mean that shipment just put 15,000 Americans out of work, they are Union aren't they?" Guys sitting in their kiosks all day might be better served to get out in the real world and take the blinders off and look around some. It was not that long ago that even Scientific American showed pictures of expansive, denuded forest areas near Spokane as a result of unrestricted logging along with the clear cutting and burning. Of course neither process can be attributed to causing any possible problem in Washington could it? Watershed and erosion control, what is that? How many of those acres were reforested is the question I just received from a 12 year old Naturalist that just hacked into one of my banks databases and is now sending out a series of spoof E-Mails. "Great kid, he is just showing some real creativity and is going places" is what his father a respected 5-term state assemblyman just pronounced to the readers of the BBCNN Times [or was it the BBCNN Dispatch? Doesn't matter!]. "Hey Tom, remember when we had to spend most of our day with our heads in a Dictionary while writing our articles for the paper, boy these spell-checkers are a life saver, how about I give you a ride home as soon as you finish up? We have half the day left now to go fishing or whatever. Sure, no problem. You know Bob remember when this area was all an Apple Orchard? I sure do I met Andrea at that little Apple stand when Apples were only a nickel 30 years ago. The "Cali" fornians never could grow Apples like us. Well, their Fujis are awfully good. I hear that most all of those are sold to Japan. See there, that Orchard is all developed into housing now with blacktop streets and concrete curbs and gutters. Notice all the street lights and we all have water meters. It costs me almost $1 in water just to take a shower now. Yes, Bob that is progress as your home is worth a lot more now than when you first bought it. Make a left here, mine is the second house on the right with the green artificial lawn out front. Remember those Spruce we saw at the casino in Carson City about 15 years ago while we were playing 7 card stud? I had to have those artificial Spruce. I can't get over that professor from Michigan going on and on about how he could not believe he had not seen these Blue Spruce before, wondered what variety they were and how great they looked. Remember the look that other guy, what was his name Shep?, gave to the professor after he kept ranting about those trees and then said back to him "I think you may want to look at them again, a little more up close and personal this time!" That look and the comment was priceless, remember that? Yeah, wasn't that guy there to give some kind of lecture on the bark beetle? I wonder what he would think of our problem here?" I am so confused as to who to believe any more. Maybe I'll go to Antarctica and work on the gaping hole in the ozone layer and study why there? No problem, don't we have ice breakers going there almost year round now? Aren't there many people living there now full time with supplies being flown in almost weekly, monthly when it gets cold? I have greenhouse growing skills so I can help feed myself but I may need to bring some extra alpha-halide lights with me when the weather is overcast or if I have to grow my lettuce and whatever else underground. Isn't the Corps of Engineers supposed to put in a More4Umart there with a D'Mics and a Sunmoney inside just a quick walk away from the housing project? I guess there will be people here more and more with the global warming crisis such as it is. Look at the large ice floe that is breaking up and the other super long one that has separated from the glacier? Those darn greenhouse gasses originating from the US have made it down here and causing havoc I imagine, at least that is what that guy over there from England says. I certainly do not want to be made to feel guilty about contributing to the global warming dilemma. That is why I am going to Antarctica soon, going to be an indoor veggie grower tycoon. What possible harm can we do there? Jolly old irascible mr.shep
Hi Ron: Sorry about using Washington as a reference but I get dismayed that people with forked tongues have not paid attention to what the prognostications were with the various El Niños and the La Niña's. Actually our weather pattern has been the virtually the same for the last 5 years. What makes the difference is where the jet stream is. I'd still like to know how the jet stream could shoot straight across Canada and then in Alberta do a right angle turn and then shoot straight down into Arizona. I took a beating here for a short while because of those pics shown near Spokane in the Scientific American special issue back, I believe, in 1991 of man's impact on the biosphere. I let my minister of our church whom was a proclaimed environmental activist have that issue and the special issue before it so he could go back to General Assembly and for once know what he was taking about. I told him as much also when I handed them to him. I will say some good did come about later on in that one state banned the clear cutting and burning and developed a comprehensive reforestation plan, even for privately owned lands. Tell Germany there is a global warming going on right now with their current temperatures. People at times have absolute gall to proclaim themselves scientists the way they have been acting. There are just a few basics in life that they have either overlooked, never knew or are completely running roughshod because their "buds" are in the game to jump on the global warming bandwagon solely for the money. The poor guy that knows what is going on is just setting him or herself up to be stomped on by everybody. That is not progress by any means and neither is to blacktop what once was prime Agricultural land and for what? For homes packed in like sardines in which the lots are so small they cannot even plant one shade tree in! I'll go back into hiding out as being a "dumb farmer". I tend to prefer being in that position when dealing with the scientific types anyway. Best regards, Jim
Well, that's the thing: individual episodes of local weather, related phenomena may or may not signal a global, long term problem. The analyses to listen to are ones where it is plausibly explained why the indicators they are using are significant.
I do believe the PACNW is heating up. I don't think it's from global warming however. I think it has to do with the Earth still comming out of the last ice age. Even though it has been ~18,000 years ago. There is alot of evidence that the Earth is heating up. *flame suit on* :) From my own oberservations I will say the winters are not the same as they were when I was a kid in the 70s-80s. Snows/frosts were more common back then, winters longer. I remember my grandmother, before she died, talking about Green Lake and how it would freeze over about year back in the 20s-30s. It has not frozen since I've been alive to my knowledge. Winters now seem much more mild yet summers seem about the same. Again these are just my observations. :)
