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Temperatures Rising Unevenly Across North America
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Climate change caused by greenhouse gases is warming the United States, though unevenly, government researchers said Thursday.
“The continent as a whole is warming, mostly as a result of the energy sources we are using,” William J. Brennan, acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said at a briefing on the nation’s climate since 1951.
But there is a “warming hole” where no change occurred in the center of the country, roughly between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians, added Martin Hoerling of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory.
Last year the International Panel on Climate Change, studying the planet as a whole, concluded that global warming is “unequivocal, is already happening, and is caused by human activity.”
Thursday’s report localized the analysis, concluding that average surface temperatures over the United States have increased 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit since 1951, nearly all in the last 30 years.
Weather observations are the Rosetta stone, Hoerling said, “We see a cause-effect relationship in data.”
He said that human-induced warming is the overall driving factor and also is the major cause of changes in sea-surface temperature.
Sea temperatures, in turn, result in the uneven changes over land by affecting wind and storm movement. Climate experts have learned a lot about this effect in recent years by studying the periodic El Nino and La Nina patterns of unusual warming or cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean and how those changes alter weather.
Currently the Pacific is in a neutral condition between the two extremes, and in a separate report Thursday NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said neutral conditions are likely to continue through early next year.
And in yet a third report released Thursday, NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center reported that November’s average temperature for the contiguous United States was 44.5 degrees, 2.0 degrees warmer than average. It was the warmest November on record for the Western states.
For the January-November period, the average temperature of 54.9 degrees F was 0.3 degree above the 20th century average.
The nation’s January-November temperature has increased at a rate of 0.12 degrees per decade since 1895, and at a faster rate of 0.41 degrees each decade during the last 50 years.
NCDC said precipitation across the contiguous United States in November averaged 1.93 inches, which is 0.20 inch below the 1901-2000 average.
Meanwhile, in Poznan, Poland, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday warned the world against backsliding in the fight against climate change as it battles financial crisis. He called for a renewed sense of urgency in facing “the defining challenge of our era.”
Ban spoke as some 145 environment ministers and other top officials gathered to help push efforts to secure agreement next year on a new worldwide treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which would take effect in 2013.
In addition to the 1.6 degree warming since 1951, key findings of the North America climate change report included:
– Six of the 10 warmest summers in the continental United States since 1951 occurred between 1997 and 2006.
– The largest yearly average regional temperature increases have occurred over Northern and Western North America, with up to 3.6 degrees warming in 56 years over Alaska, the Yukon Territories, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.
– No significant yearly average temperature changes have occurred in the Southern United States and Eastern Canada.
– More than half of the warming averaged over all of North America is probably the result of human activity.
– Regional temperature trends are likely to have been influenced by regional variations in sea surface temperature.
– There has not been a significant trend, either up or down, in North American precipitation since 1951, although there have been substantial changes from year to year and even decade to decade.
– It is unlikely that a fundamental change has occurred in either how often or where severe droughts have occurred over the continental United States during the past half-century.
– However, overall drought impacts over North America have become more severe in recent decades.
– It is likely that warming resulting from human activity has increased drought impacts over North America in recent decades through increased water stresses associated with warming land surface temperatures.
December 12th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Lets not forget that human intervention is not the only cause for climate change. Mother Nature herself has proven to be another cause of climate change. We, as the world, are speeding up climate change with the production of green house gasses, but even without those green house gasses being emitted from man-made sources, global warming will happen, even if we ceased all green house gas emmissions. This isn’t the first time earth has gone through climate change. Its basic science.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Hmmm – and NONE of this is statistically significant – particularly when you go back before 1900. “Global warming” is just more political hogwash to milk more money from taxpayers and control the way we live.
By the way – if “global warming” was proven, supporters would not use terms like “concensus” when it came to evaluating scientific data. There is no such thing as “scientific concensus” – you don’t hear anyone saying, “we have a scientific consensus on gravity” – because true science is about proving or disproving.
December 13th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Summary:
The base year for this study is 1895, probably because there are no reliable older statistics. Global warming in North America is taking place in northern Canada and Alaska, but not in the American South, eastern Canada or the American Midwest from the Rockies to the Appalachians. There has been no measurable effect on precipitation. Lots of anolalmous observations, no convincing explaination for the anolamies. Sole effect of global warming in North America is to make the sub-Artic warmer, which may be a bad thing for polar bears. Big deal.
Half the warming is “probably” the result of human activity. Why “probably”? Insufficient data and uncertain methodology.
Given all this, the case for significant global warming could be merely the “sic hic, propter hoc” fallacy – because one thing follows another, does not mean that one caused another.
Far more study is needed before we give politicians and Green activists the power to reorder our society in a manner they find pleasing.
December 13th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Great. If there is a problem we can spend money on fixing it. If there IS no problem, NOAA and others would be looking for a bail-out or a job. KEEP IT UP…AP! Hope you aren’t looking for a job soon, or there will be no one left to remind us how frikn hot it is getting.
December 13th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
You say that
“For the January-November period, the average temperature of 54.9 degrees F was 0.3 degree above the 20th century average.”
and
“temperature has increased at a rate of 0.12 degrees per decade since 1895″
What is the data from the 7th century B.C.? Or the 3rd century? Or the 12th? Or the even the 16th century? If the earth is thousands (you say billions) of years old, isn’t it necessary to look at more data than just the last 150 or so years.
You are drawing conclusions based on a pinhole view of history and are likely making faulty conclusions because of it.
Be careful.
December 13th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
The choice of temperature records is very carefully crafted in the article. In fact the temperatures in most of the US are below average to normal and not near record highs as suggested. See http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2008/oct/national.html#text
And this is not new. Temperatures worldwide have not been increasing as during the 90s for past 3-5 years but seem to be on a plateau
December 13th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I have problems when people state such minor changes in temperature. I’m a senior engineering lab technician and the closest I can measure something or otherwise said temperature tolerance is +/- 1.8 degrees F or 1 degree C. So when someone says they can measure 0.12 degrees change over a long period I through up the red flag. These temperature stated are all well within the margin of error for most instruments. Those instruments that are more accurate are very expensive and I don’t think the government would spend this kind of money on a large scale. I do tests involving temperture all the time and depending on how the engineer writes the test plan I can very different results or otherwise said I can take data and make the results say anything I want and prove it. In 1951, instruments were somewhat more accurate than they are now and most data was taken by hand so if a scientist took a measurement with a thermometer that had graduations of 0.5 degrees the most accruate his measurment would be is +/- 0.5 degrees. Now did the scientist roung the measurement off. Now all data is collected via data acquisistion or by computers which allows scientists to collect alot of data but the accuracy is not as good as the hand taken data. So alot of data manipulation is done. Bottom line is it is just a educated guess.
December 13th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
It is very unfortunate the level of politics that is driving the global warming movement. Even the liars propagating this misinformation have redefined the terminology to “climate change” caused by man. This became necessary because in the last ten years the planet has been cooling. Just because these pseudo scientist that intimidate the skeptics with their degrees and flawed computer models say it is so, does not make it so. They always qualify their findings with words like “may be” or “probably”, but none of them can state with scientific certainty that the planet is doing anything it doesn’t normally do, yet we are suppose to accept legislation both nationally and internationally that deals with this invented crisis. Common sense tells you that our climate changes, always has, and always will. Drink another glass of the cool-aid people, and watch your freedom disappear faster then the water on the planet evaporates from all this “warming”. Going green is nothing more then a marketing campaign by retail and government to guilt you out of what they are really after, the green in your wallet.
December 14th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Well, someone needs to identify the location of the temperature monitoring stations used to draw any conclusions about warming or cooling. If the measuring stations are mostly in urban areas you may be only measuring urban warming. I have seen some pictures of measuring stations by air conditioning equipment and by airport concrete runways. Hardly a good place for an accurate neasurement. Plus, data I have seen is that the peak temperture was in 1998. That is ten years without “warming”. It has been reported that Geologists do not agree with the idea that CO-2 is related to global warming at all. Problem is that many of these so-called experts are funded by folks with luddite attitudes. The public needs accurate hard core facts devoid of special interests. The third world guys are just trying to get money from US in the form of a tax on air. Carbon credits are the next great SCAM! they do not actually improve the environment at all. They are not regulated and we have all just seen the consequences of poor regulation whether it be too much or too litte. We are in a passive sun-spot cycle. No sun spots. Global cooling, which is worse than global warming!!!
December 14th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Paalease!!!
If anyone would stop and do some research they would find that the Earth’s temperature has been DROPPING since 1998. We have NO SUNSPOT ACTIVITY which historically means lower temps! A large majority of the scientists quoted in the U.N. report didn’t agree with the final report.Can you say “cherry picking”? Many Climatoligists agree that we are in the begining of a COOLING PERIOD due to the lack of solar activity. The warmest decade in the 20th centurt wasn’t the 1990s, it was the 1930s! Can any one say “Dust Bowl” or do they even teach that in school any more? Read the “Grapes of Wrath”! We have mindless morons leading us to destruction. By the way, how much money has Al Gore made off of Global Warming and “Carbon Credits” so far? Any guesses? Go to Scienceandpublicpolicy.org. Learn what the politicians aren’t telling you!!! Why was the Earth warmer in the years of 1000 A.D.-1100 A.D.? Why was the Earth in a “Little Ice Age” from about 1200 A.D. to appproximately 1860 A.D. You can’t blame cars or coal fueled powere plants! They didn’t exist! Folks, open your brains! There are 8 billion people more or less that exhale CO2 every second. One last thing, ice core samples show that CO2 increases FOLLOW temperature increases, not the other way around!!!!
December 15th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
“More than half of the warming averaged over all of North America is probably the result of human activity.” How much more than half? “Probably” the result of human activity? .Classic junk-science AP dreck, meaningless stats and one-liners like,
“However, overall drought impacts over North America have become more severe in recent decades.” What does that mean? More severe than what? More severe than the Dust Bowl? How many decades can be “recent”? Repackaged Weekly Reader articles are hardly a substitute for good reporting and logical writing.
Check junkscience.com for up to the minute global temperature readings and a lesson in critical thinking. Consensus is not science!
December 16th, 2008 at 4:49 am
Global Warming is a fraudulent hoax designed to destroy American jobs, retirement accounts, stock values, and manufacturing base. The media is paid billions to spread this enormous lie as truth in a one sided propaganda campaign. A massive cover up of the truth is necessary to keep America from developing its own natural resources. The Democratic politicians want to keep us completely dependent on foreign oil by blocking US exploration and production.
This hoax is devastating the American way of life as politicians try to switch to expensive, inefficient, and unreliable sources of alternative energy. The government intends to shut down the economy under the guise that fossil fuels are dangerous and are running out. This stupid act will result in a massive flight of jobs to foreign countries. Oil production will exist only in foreign lands. SUV’s will be taxed out of existance. Finally the environment will be damaged as supplies of clean life giving carbon dioxide are destroyed.
It it time to stop the lies of the media and the politicians who are in denial about the damaging environmental and economic effects of the global warming fraud. Only in America would such a massive marketing campaign be conducted to teach false science and scientific hoaxes in our school system.
Politicans who have been involved in the global warming fraud to destroy American industry must be thrown out of office. The financial devastation they have wreaked on the American people is inexcusable.
Windmills and solar panels do not power the transportation industry. Plug in electric vehicles powered by alternative energy will drive up electric rates tenfold. Congressional mandates for electric vehicles and flex fuels are meant to destroy the American Auto industry nothing more. The media is a complete disgrace for covering up the fraud.
Sea level rises when water freezes and declines when the ice melts as evidenced by the glaciers and past ice ages. The hoaxers have it completely backwards in a misinterpretation of physical and chemical laws. The politicians desire to use the global warming fraud to impose massive tax increases and strict government controls over all energy systems.
The only way to stop the fraud is daily coverage of the various aspects of the hoax. The stock market will not recover until the media stops pushing the lie and starts exposing the fraud with as much air time as they have given to create it over the past 2 decades.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:43 am
You can bet it is uneven as in most cases the earth’s temperature is now in decline..
December 16th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
If Quote: – The largest yearly average regional temperature increases have occurred over Northern and Western North America, with up to 3.6 degrees warming in 56 years over Alaska, the Yukon Territories, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.
These areas are primarily the least populated areas of North America. How do we come to the conclusion, Quoted: – More than half of the warming averaged over all of North America is probably the result of human activity.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
If it’s hot -> global warming.
If it’s cold -> global warming.
If it’s dry -> global warming.
If it’s wet -> global warming.
If it’s sunny -> global warming.
If it’s cloudy/foggy -> global warming.
If it’s windy -> global warming.
If it’s calm -> global warming.
So the U.S. has a 1,500 mile wide “hole” in global warming. That sounds more like a 1,500 mile wide “hole” in the theory.
Solar activity and the South Atlantic Anomaly explain global and ocean temperature changes far better than carbon dioxide emissions. We’ve had several monstrous volcanic eruptions spewing more carbon dioxide than all of human production without a rise in global temperatures.
There is global warming on five planets, four of which have no SUV’s.
We had global warming after the last ice age. Who caused that, Fred Flinstone?
We had global warming after the “Little Ice Age”. What caused that, George Washington’s camp fires at Valley Forge?
Here’s a great way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions: Stop talking.
Better yet, stop breathing.
December 16th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I find it amazing how the “human-caused global warming” cry is continually sounded when the evidence is increasingly contradicting this politically correct claim. Just one example from Fox News web: Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Scientists Call AP Report on Global Warming “Hysteria”
According to David Deming, a geology professor at the University of Oklahoma: “The mean global temperature, at least as measured by satellite, is now the same as it was in the year 1980. In the last couple of years sea level has stopped rising. Hurricane and cyclone activity in the northern hemisphere is at a 24-year low and sea ice globally is also the same as it was in 1980.”
Deming said the article (by Borenstein) is further evidence of the media’s decision to talk about global warming as fact, despite what he says is a lack of evidence.
It is WAY past time to stop parroting the “global warming” mantra when better science has shown the earlier analyses to be incorrect.
December 16th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Man am I confused. First the article states that ocean tempetures are higher, then it says no significant weather changes have occured in the south east (atlantic ocean, gulf of mexico) and east canada (read North Atlantic). Drought impacts are more severe- well, yes. Poor civil engineering has placed a strain on water supplies. Take for example Las Vegas– did any one perdict what the population explosion out here would do to the surrounding water supply? No, so, this desert city is running dry at the same time the population explodes– coincidence? Not sold yet on this man made global warming, after all, the earth has been warming and the ice caps receeding since– well the last ice age. hmmmm
December 16th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
wake up and smell the BS. Al gore & the rest of the brainwashed are in panic mode. Read further into the BS, the polar bears have grown in # since I was a kid.Porcupine reindeer have grown in # BS has grown in to more of a mess to destroy my country in recent years.Go ride your bike to work & ride your bike to power your lights on some rig you need to power your house ,not mine!The earth is in a ciclacal orbit, sun spots are decreasing and the sky is falling on your head.
December 16th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
More scare tactics. 0.12 and 0.41 are not degrees.
They are 12 and 41 hundreds of a degree. But those numbers would not scare anyone.
December 16th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Remember, guys, there are dinosaur fossils in Antarctica that are millions of years old, and frozen plants found in the Arctic circle that are over 10,000 years old.
So,depending on which baseline you use, you could argue that that we are now in a period of Global Cooling, when compared with when plants and animals existed in polar regions.
Lets start a new scare; “Global Gravity Reduction”. The loss of earth’s gravitational pull has caused people to falsely believe they are losing weight because their bathroom scales don’t have as much gravitational pull on them. This causes them to see artificially low weights on the scales, which causes them to eat more, which leads to the problem with obesity that we now have. Please Al Gore, SAVE ME!!!!! And Mr. Gore: please email Chicken Little and inform him the sky is still falling. And see if he is still interested in buying some carbon credits so you can fly around the world again.
December 17th, 2008 at 12:55 am
you guys are pure “nuts”…plant some more trees, open your refrigerators at the same time for some time, breathe less/talk less!! 1.6 degrees since 1951…LOL!!!
December 17th, 2008 at 6:40 am
I DON’T BELIEVE A THING YOU IDIOTS ARE SAYING ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING.
THE CLIMATE HAS BEEN CHANGING FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO. HOW ABOUT THE ICE AGE—–HUH ????????????
TELL AL TO GO GET A REAL JOB.
December 17th, 2008 at 10:34 am
The data is all wrong.
The temp. collection points have become over urbanized creating hot cells from parking lots and lack of natural air movement.
The biggest problem is they have failed to take in the most important variable – the sun.
Going green is great – get back to the basics. But stop the garbage science. The scare tactics will back fire hard. The earth climate will always be changing – even if we remove man from earth.
Is Fox just selling what people want to hear or just ill-informed?
December 17th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Do you guys also believe the world is flat? This is total statistically manipulative un-scientific nonsense. Fortunately, most scientists do not buy into the unethical way in which data is reported.
Unfortunately, most politicians see this as an opportunity to collect money to line their coffers.
December 17th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I always like reports that read “…government researchers say…” Things are so frequently taken out of context and misrepresented. Where is the actual research data and conclusions?
If you look at the last 10,000 years of history, there were lengthly periods of time with temperatures greater than present. TOTAL sea ice (polar) has not diminished in the last thirty years. The integral earth surface temperature has not increased in thirty years. The earth has seen many heating and cooling spells over the millenia. The alarmist hype is just that, alarmist. We now have the means to track numerous bits of data and draw conclusions. Noting that historically, by polar ice core analysis, C02 levels LAG long term temperature change begs the question that possibly C02 levels may actually be partially an effect of climate change, not a cause. Certainly man made C02 and other green house gas production is significantly on the rise, though it is unclear how much impact this has compared to the orders of magnitude more abundant greenhouse gas heavyweight, water vapor. This is not exactly man made. The scientific world is not in concensus on the cause, effect, nor the time frame for global warming, if this is is a natural phenomena or not. That fact alone should grant us reason to take pause, before action.
Of course we shold always seek to reduce pollution and conserve our natural resources. We should segway society into renewable energy. Not through hysteria and hype, but through aggresive research and developement.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
This article is just filled with inconsistencies. In fact the following quote can be found in another article on FOXnews.com “The mean global temperature, at least as measured by satellite, is now the same as it was in the year 1980. In the last couple of years sea level has stopped rising. Hurricane and cyclone activity in the northern hemisphere is at a 24-year low and sea ice globally is also the same as it was in 1980.” This quote can be backed up if you google global temperatures.
December 17th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Well, what will the report for December bring out? Winter has not even started and many people are sick of it. Ice storms, arctic cold fronts, and a blizzard in the northwest already this month. We had an unusually cool summer in the northeast this year, several cold winters in a row and you folks still insist that we have a problem.
To me this has always been a way for government, in this case a world government to fleece the public. I really believe if anything we are headed for a period of global cooling. This would be far more serious. Also those ministers will somehow tie that to human activity as well.
December 17th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
It continues to amaze me that agencies like NOAA are putting out reports like this. These “sky is falling” reports must be keeping them all in jobs. For a truly scientific repudiation see http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,468084,00.html
December 17th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
BET THIS IS KEEPING AL GORE UP AT NIGHT !!!!
( WHAT AN IDIOT !!! )
December 17th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
I am a farmer from Iowa. We have just harvested one of the biggest corn crops in history. I am convinced one of the reasons that it was so big is the extra carbon dioxide in the air. Plants use as much carbon dioxide as they can get.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
There are positive results of having more carbon dioxide in the air.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Just more hysteria! Stop it! How do you people sleep at night? Humans have nothing to do with climate change and you should know it. Who burnt coal and drove cars in prehistoric and medeival times?
The earth’s cycles will happen regardless of our presence on it. You people are just opportunists!
December 18th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Other planets have been shown that their temp is also rising. I am pretty sure we have no humans on other planets causing this. Yes there have always been greenhouse gases whether it was fires from millions of persons before electricity. Volcanic eruptions. Asteroids hitting earth. Sun’s activity.
The problem with this global warming talk is that it stems from greed. Search around and see which scientists are screaming about it and also want that extra grant for more research. It’s a money game thats it..So many persons are suckered into thinking its a man-made thing..just so they can collect grant dollars to fund their other activities.
December 18th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Global warming huh? How do you explain the 3 inches of snow in Las Vegas? Some people are ridiculous!
December 18th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Isn’t it more likely that the Sun is the biggest driver of our climate?
Our climate is constantly changing. It’s never static.
I’ve been saying for 30 years we’re probably overdue for an Ice Age. Last one ended 15-20,000 years ago. That’s pretty typical for an interstitial period.
December 18th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Hmmmm….snowfall in Vegas. Global warming..yeah right!
December 18th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Temperatures vary in cycles. Dr. Spencer of Univ. of Al. has shown that we are most likely at the top of a 30 year warming trend, and cooler temps are most likely in the next 30 years.
December 19th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Now we are compariong temperature increses to the
December 19th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Now we are comparing temperature increses to the AVERAGE TEMPATURE. These increses are slight and fall within the high/low area of the AVERAGE. Another way to twist data to reflect what you want it to.
December 19th, 2008 at 2:33 am
Follow the money guys, Follow the money. Yours and mine going up in this global scam
December 19th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
so, a “warming hole” exists right where most power plants burn coal? Interesting. We burn coal for electricity, and our temperatures are not rising. (Rockies to Appalachians) Out west, power is hydroelectric. somebody tell me how using coal is causing global warming? Of course, since most liberals live on the east and west coasts, and that, apparently, is where the temperatures are rising, the primary cause of warming is people talking too much without saying anything important.
December 19th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Thank god for global warming! What would it be like now if it weren’t getting so hot? I think I’ll throw couple of more logs on the fire; the earth needs a bit more CO2.
December 19th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Let’s see now. There’s a temperature rise on the entire continent except for a ‘hole’ between the Rockies and the Appalachians? Isn’t that about 3/4’s of the country?? What a joke. These people will stop at nothing. Probably some of the same people who said we were entering an ice age back in the 70’s.
December 20th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Hysteria is correct.Glacial advance and retreat has been one of a number of major factors in global temperature.Man’s role ( if any ) would
have little impact.I think certain people are
trying to create a for profit ” green industry”
December 20th, 2008 at 5:06 am
Why is it that they started their warming trend right after one of the earths coldest decades ever recorded? I can only wonder.
December 20th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Changes in climate over the course of Earth’s history are a normative event.
The rate of warming occuring now is manmade. Compared to historical climate studies.
Man has been pumping huge amounts of heat into the oceans from nuclear plants engineering, cooling paradigm. Moreover the amount of heat from all of our activities from the first industrial age, slash and burn farming, wars, current industry, auto’s, air travel and such is enourmas and culmative. CO2 is a great way to force the issue of global warming to one suspect. The truth of the matter is all the crap and heat we put into a closed system,over the last 150 years. Man has turned our Garden of Eden into a polluted and heated cesspool. Like a ballon, sooner or later, global warming gases are going to effect the atmosphere. Heating it up in record time and as we further destroy the natural mechinisms, that can no longer deal with our pollutants and industry. And the massive culmulative heat we pour into the ballon.
For all you naysayers, a degree of heating per fifty years is huge. Unprecedented, with significant ramifications.
Gone is summer skiing in France and Italy due to global warming at record rates. The African continent and American West are undergoing record drought. We have lost record ice in Greenland, Iceland,Northern Canada and Alaska. The currents that flow to Antartica at 3000–8000 feet. Have never warmed so quickly.
In your search engines look at the comparisons of glacial retreat from fity years ago until now. Their is nothing in the geologic and ice records, going back hundreds of thousands of years. That equal the warming happening now.
The planet offered man all he needed. Instead we have destroyed our Earth. With a foolish economy based on consumerism, war, enviormental destruction and hunting animals to exstinction and razing our biosphere.
If one does not believe the planet is undergoing manmade global warming and record heating and pollution. That shows you know nothing about the research or science involved.
Go to some science and glacier sites with data. Then find the sites with then and now picture sites of the worlds glaciers. Of which over 90% are in retreat.
If global pollution and warming do not bite you it will kill your children.
WILDCAT!!!!!
December 20th, 2008 at 10:59 am
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=541
December 20th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Forget it. Herb, Harry, Mike et al. Your comments are falling on deaf ears.
The climate has been going through periods of warming and cooling for eons, before SUVs, before Coal fired plants, before humans were in the equation.
The most recent period of global warming began around 790 AD and lasted until about 1300. The next big change is called the “Little Ice Age”, starting in 1300, with increased glaciations, and building of the Arctic ice pack. The impact on humans was dramatic, with population loss in many areas of the northern hemisphere. It did not end until around 1860. We are now in the recovery period from that Ice Age.
Well, here I am using empirical data against something that was “discovered” by a politician, and is being touted by the media. As long as they can make money off this piece of fiction, they will keep it going.
December 20th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Would fox news please get these guys to put their data up on the web. Whenever, their data sets are seen by the public, errors show up that they have overlooked. According to correct data,the last 8 years has been cooling not warming. Also, the method of calculating a “global temperature” does not exist by anyone’s standard. Satellites as a sensor has drift in its data just as do temperature meters.
December 20th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
This is a political issue, not a scientific issue. Those in power or wishing to be in power need a way to promise something to those they wish to control. If a proposed impending global problem cannot be made into a man-caused problem, then those mere men making the proposals cannot convince others they can stop it. If those power-mongers can convince others it is man-caused then they can also impose their financial controls like Kyoto on others for even more long-lasting control, under the guise of saving their complacent sheep-like followers from themselves.
Humans and our greatest effors are but puny ants and ant piles relative to the climate effects of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted naturally and the solar heating effects related to the Earth’s axis tilt, orbit shape, solar activity, etc., and it is nothing but huge egos gone amuck to believe otherwise.
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Agreed
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Junk science at its worst. Garbage in, garbage out. NASA reports that other planets in our solar system are warming also due probably to solar activity. Or are Americans off-roading in their SUV’s there also. There have been periods in the earth’s past when carbon dioxide levels have been 3 times what they are now with temperate temperatures at the poles. Al Gore not only invented the internet, he also invented a phony climate crisis. He is probably getting rich off of suckers buying carbon credits from him.
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:31 am
well lets see, if we go by this nov. were were 5 degrees below normal and so is december. I guess Al baby had better turn on more lights so he can buy carbon credits from his company.
December 23rd, 2008 at 9:51 am
What caused the end of the Ice Age? To my knowledge there were no humans or SUV’s roaming the frozen surface. Anyone can pick and chose numbers to make it look anyway they wish and I don’t see anywhere stating that this is proven to be the cause of anything. The word “probably” is used way too many times in the article. “Probably”, “unlikely”, and “likely” are not scientific fact but a hypothesis. If it is “global warming” doesn’t that imply the whole globe, not just selective parts having increase in temperature. I live in the South where they state the temperature has not increased (as dramatically as they hoped for) but of course they can explain that away. Tell me how living near a large, warm body of water like the ocean, which they say those temperatures are rising and we have people and SUV’s just like everyone else and yet our temperature isn’t changing like everyone else? Is global warming being selective or just inconsistent with observable facts and data?
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Big Algore, the self-serving pied piper of the environuts is making his fortune hyping global warming just as Jesse Jackson makes his money promoting racism. Global warming may indeed be
happening and man may indeed be making some contribution but man will adapt and we will be fine..The sky is not falling and chicken little need not fear. The frozen tundras of Siberia, Alaska, Canada etc. etc. will make great places to grow wheat. If the sea rises, man can simply move to higher ground. The seas have risen hundreds of feet since the last ice age.
I don’t care about global warming. I will be fine.
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:16 pm
the math doesnt even work out in this. if the temperature increased .12 degrees every decade for 11 decades(1.32 degrees), but in the last 5 decades it has increased .41 degrees per decade (2.05 degrees), where is the other .73 degrees coming from? either the temperature decreased since the industrial revolution began or someone made up numbers trying to make an argument.
December 23rd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
What’s the earth’s temperature RIGHT NOW? You can’t just add up all the temperature measurements we collect.
We have lots of weather stations in the US and western Europe, not so much in Russia or China, only a few hundred in the oceans (though that’s 2/3 of the surface). Satellites do not measure TEMPERATURE, they measure radiation or other parameters and infer the temperature based on another model.
But it’s winter in the southern hemisphere, and a storm front is crossing Nebraska, and it’s night time on half the planet, and the orbit eccentric, and the sun is oscillating, and sunspots are up this year! So these guys use models of seasonal variations and weather norms to correct for these patterns to infer an “average temperature”. For the missing data they make “reasonable scientific assumptions”. (But when the results are unreasonable, what makes you think the assumptions are?)
Then use the model-corrected data to validate the models.
We can’t predict the temperature and wind effects on a hurricane five days ahead. How do we validate a model that predicts years ahead? Or centuries?
That’s the root problem with all these reports. It’s always based on someone’s model that is difficult to validate. The models do not agree in any valid detail, but we don’t hear about the disagreements. And they have never published a analysis for any of the dozen models of their sensitivity to variations in their assumptions.
As a theoretical physicist, I can create a model that will match any set of data. And have to re-do its assumptions as soon as any new data shows up; give me a few minutes.
Mose of this is blather to draw politically-motivates research funding. This round started in the Carter administration when an atmospheric scientist joined OSTP (Office of Science and Technology Policy – the president’s science advisor) with the stated intention to increase funding for atmospheric science by making it a political and policy issue.
There may be something here. After all, 70,000 years ago there was 2,000 feet of ice over Manhattan Island, and 6,000 feet over the Rockies – that’s how those glacial valleys and the Great Lakes were carved. Grinell Glacier in Montana is barely 200 feet thick and will disappear this century; it’s been warming up for most of those 70,000 years.
But the honest science has been overwhelmed by the politics and media blather.
December 23rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm
and how did oil get on this planet??? Oh that’s right from previous periods of global warming. So I guess we just haven’t found the automobiles they used billions of years ago that caused that. maybe soon we can discover those.
These people really are morons there is no other way to describe them.
December 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Harry the Farmer. So you agree man has been adding more Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere? Hmmm? Your larger crops certainly couldn’t be attributed to improved farming methods, irrigation, fertilizers or genetically altered or hybrid plants now could it. Let’s immediately go to climate change.
December 23rd, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Just read to interesting things this past fall that have nothing to do with “scientific” study…
1. “The Sagas of the Ice Landers” – in it the stories allude to the Viking Settlers stopping their migrations to Greenland because of … ummm… ICE. So do I assume there was LESS ICE when they began to settle Greenland?
2. In a magazine article a discussion about a Spanish Pearl Ship left in what was formerly a LAKE in the California Desert. Apparently they sailed up the Gulf of California, into this lake from the Colorado River and in the year this lake apparently dried up the Ship (or was it Ships) could not get out. So… how did there become a lake there less than 500 years ago? Was the ocean higher then? Hmmmm…
We have the mini Ice Age of the Middle Ages which explains the Viking abandonment of exploring Greenland…. we have a Spanish Ship in the mid-1500s stuck in a drying up lake in California and we have a bunch of morons so stuck on their ’science’ they cannot fathom (pun intended) a history written in books being printed to this very day.
And you know what is really sad? These guys are our ‘leaders’… the people forming the minds of the future and they don’t have a thimble full of common sense. Scary ain’t it?
December 24th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
We are undeniably using up resources, putting moxious chemicals in the air and food that are not healthy. I’m not one to say it’s all our fualt the earth’s climate is changing, it’s scientific fact it’s gone through these kinds of changes before. But look at a crowded city skyline, see that layer of thick brown muck? Sorry friends, there’s no way you can tell me that breathing that in everyday is great for you.
Nor is it any good for the food we grown, animal and plant alike… to use the growth hormones we do. Nor is it healthy to eat food packed with preservatives .. becuase the market cares more about shelf life of taste than our well being. No theory is perfect, but we definately need to take a look at these unhealthy habits we’ve gained. So whether driving that Hummer or other rediculous SUV to work every day is cuasing polar ice caps to melt, is irrelevent. It’s gluttonous, and ruining our air quality without question.
December 24th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Do you guys realize that even Sarah Palin believes in Global Warming. Do you guys not realize that tulips will begin budding in DC in February? Yes, there have been several instances of climate change in the past, but if you had any concept of chemistry at all you would understand how that carbon dioxide (and methane, water vapor, and a host of other chemicals) absorbs heat and warms up the Earth. That Carbon dioxide came from Humans. The methane came from our cows.
Conservatives talk all the time about responsibility. We should be responsible for our own actions. We shouldn’t make excuses. We shouldn’t blame others. Man up and take responsibility! Our actions caused this. Sorry, but driving the Hummer two blocks to pick your kid up a big mac was a bad thing to do! Make the kid walk or ride his bike for crying out loud. Why can’t YOU take responsibility and take the spec out of YOUR OWN eye. My wife are down to one car. We Now car pool and take public trans where we go. We are taking our own responsibility. Probably not enough, but we are trying. YOU should too!
December 24th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Extreme warming has occurred often in the past – where do we think all the oil and coal, gas and fossils come from? The earth does as it wants and man (puny man) can’t change it. Most likely we will warm for some time. Who knows? But just as surely there will be another ice age in our future.
December 24th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
This is crazy, you people are nuts and guess who is paying for all this! “We the tax payers” Someone needs to put A STOP to all this and refocus thier energy to solving the Hungry! Just would seem more practicle. Have you nopt learned to NOT FOOL WITH MOTHER NATURE!!!!
December 26th, 2008 at 11:45 am
You know, there’s more to Global warming than you Scientists own. As much as the people cause pollution on this planet, it has no effect to the extent it causes Global Warming. The whole Solar System is involved. Maybe it is the miming effect for the other planets involved. The rest of them are jealous Earth is getting all the attention. =-)
But, you gotta give them something or than lose hope and panic.