I know there is a big difference between local weather and the global climate, but with the massive heatwave frying the air around Kansas City, I can't help but make the connection in my head. Of course, the local talking-head teabagger, Chris Stigall (710 KCMO AM) made some comments about it this morning, too. He said he hadn't heard any news or commentary about what he calls a "fraud and coverup".
Hmmm, I do seem to recall a number of stories, articles and reports about it -- and all of them have indicated the global climate is warmer this year than just about any other. 2009 ended the warmest decade ever recorded. 2010 had the warmest January. 2010, the warmest March, April and May. The hottest spring ever just ended in June. June was hotter worldwide than any previous year. We're on pace to have the warmest August worldwide.
The Arctic ice is thinner and less extensive than ever. A 100 square mile chunk of Greenland's glacier just broke off this weekend.
It sure seems like there's been a lot of news and information out there about the climate and how warm it's getting. Of course, since Chris apparently only gets his news from Fox, they must not be reporting it. Oops -- I guess he wasn't reading very close:
Global Warming Continuing
Climate Report Reaffirms Global Warming
Of course, there isn't much else about global warming on FauxNews, probably because they don't want to admit when they're wrong. They've spent so much time over the last couple years touting the short-term slight downtrend in global climate, they forgot to notice that even during that timeperiod, the global temps were still higher than ever before.
I wonder if Chris will read this and comment?
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2 comments:
Actually, Chucky, on a serious note, I think Global Warming is serious problem.
But the real question is, what are we going to do about it?
Nothing, because there is nothing, AS A PRACTICAL MATTER, that we can do about it because it is not all just about human activity, with can acerbate it, but also about Solar activity and the like.
This kind of stuff has happened before.
My dad says that back in the 70's the big thing was "the Coming Ice Age' which all turned out to be hoopla.
I think its going to happen, but politicians are going to use it to raise new taxes and obtain and maintain more control.
First, the 70s "coming Ice Age" thing was a topic much discussed in the popular press, but not so frequently by the scientific community. It had to do with the CFCs and sulfuric gas pollution causing particulate obscuring effects in the upper atmosphere. It's pretty clear from the evidence that this did happen (cooling slightly during that time), but that once the pollution effects dwindled, continued warming (at a greater pace) continued.
And the suggestion that the solar activity is causing the warming is a crock, especially considering that total solar irradiance over the last 5 years is at a historic low, but it's occurring in the hottest decade ever recorded.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/01apr_deepsolarminimum/
That sort of blows the whole "it's the sun" argument out of the water, don't you think?
As to your claim that there is "nothing we can do about it", I have to disagree. While it's not likely that we can halt the temp increases at the present time, by reducing/mitigating the factors that exacerbate and extend the problems we can alleviate some of the future increases. We can also begin some planning for the expected changes -- such as better storm surge prevention technology along the coastlines, increased awareness of the vulnerability of coastlines as the sea levels rise, adaptation and movement away from vulnerable areas, increased education on birth control and family planning (to reduce the overall human population increase), etc.
The cynicism and despair echoed in your comments are lamentable. I can only hope that you'll awaken to the possibility that you might just have more of an impact on the world than you currently think you have.
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