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Interesting article on global warming and climate change.
December 25, 2010 Bundle Up, It’s Global Warming By JUDAH COHEN Lexington, Mass.
THE earth continues to get warmer, yet it’s feeling a lot colder outside. Over the past few weeks, subzero temperatures in Poland claimed 66 lives; snow arrived in Seattle well before the winter solstice, and fell heavily enough in Minneapolis to make the roof of the Metrodome collapse; and last week blizzards closed Europe’s busiest airports in London and Frankfurt for days, stranding holiday travelers. The snow and record cold have invaded the Eastern United States, with more bad weather predicted.
All of this cold was met with perfect comic timing by the release of a World Meteorological Organization report showing that 2010 will probably be among the three warmest years on record, and 2001 through 2010 the warmest decade on record.
How can we reconcile this? The not-so-obvious short answer is that the overall warming of the atmosphere is actually creating cold-weather extremes. Last winter, too, was exceptionally snowy and cold across the Eastern United States and Eurasia, as were seven of the previous nine winters.
For a more detailed explanation, we must turn our attention to the snow in Siberia.
Annual cycles like El Niño/Southern Oscillation, solar variability and global ocean currents cannot account for recent winter cooling. And though it is well documented that the earth’s frozen areas are in retreat, evidence of thinning Arctic sea ice does not explain why the world’s major cities are having colder winters.
But one phenomenon that may be significant is the way in which seasonal snow cover has continued to increase even as other frozen areas are shrinking. In the past two decades, snow cover has expanded across the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Siberia, just north of a series of exceptionally high mountain ranges, including the Himalayas, the Tien Shan and the Altai.
The high topography of Asia influences the atmosphere in profound ways. The jet stream, a river of fast-flowing air five to seven miles above sea level, bends around Asia’s mountains in a wavelike pattern, much as water in a stream flows around a rock or boulder. The energy from these atmospheric waves, like the energy from a sound wave, propagates both horizontally and vertically.
As global temperatures have warmed and as Arctic sea ice has melted over the past two and a half decades, more moisture has become available to fall as snow over the continents. So the snow cover across Siberia in the fall has steadily increased.
The sun’s energy reflects off the bright white snow and escapes back out to space. As a result, the temperature cools. When snow cover is more abundant in Siberia, it creates an unusually large dome of cold air next to the mountains, and this amplifies the standing waves in the atmosphere, just as a bigger rock in a stream increases the size of the waves of water flowing by.
The increased wave energy in the air spreads both horizontally, around the Northern Hemisphere, and vertically, up into the stratosphere and down toward the earth’s surface. In response, the jet stream, instead of flowing predominantly west to east as usual, meanders more north and south. In winter, this change in flow sends warm air north from the subtropical oceans into Alaska and Greenland, but it also pushes cold air south from the Arctic on the east side of the Rockies. Meanwhile, across Eurasia, cold air from Siberia spills south into East Asia and even southwestward into Europe.
That is why the Eastern United States, Northern Europe and East Asia have experienced extraordinarily snowy and cold winters since the turn of this century. Most forecasts have failed to predict these colder winters, however, because the primary drivers in their models are the oceans, which have been warming even as winters have grown chillier. They have ignored the snow in Siberia.
Last week, the British government asked its chief science adviser for an explanation. My advice to him is to look to the east.
It’s all a snow job by nature. The reality is, we’re freezing not in spite of climate change but because of it.
Judah Cohen is the director of seasonal forecasting at an atmospheric and environmental research firm.
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unfortunately that explanation is too complicated for your average conservative voter...
you can take a glass of ice water, add a little salt, set it on the table at room temp, and you can, if the conditions are right, get ice on the outside of the glass... that still doesn't change the fact that the ice water is warming up....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: unfortunately that explanation is too complicated for your average conservative voter...
you can take a glass of ice water, add a little salt, set it on the table at room temp, and you can, if the conditions are right, get ice on the outside of the glass... that still doesn't change the fact that the ice water is warming up....
Glass, when you have things like climate-gate, people have every right and reason to be suspicious.
Now, am I saying something is not going on? No. However, when "scientists" emails are exposed and they are caught red handed emailing eachother to alter data to support what they were told to produce...you have to wonder.
You have to wonder when big business is making big bucks on scaring the hell out of people. When people are making millions giving speeches on it, and flying around in corporate jets. In fact, we are so green glass, that we manufacture "green" bulbs to fight global warming. These bulbs are soooo green they are made in China where there are little to no restrictions, shipped across an ocean, and then trucked to your local store. Hell, they are so green you have to be careful not to break them because of the mercury content.
So, it is not out of reason to want the alarmists to shut up.
What I personally believe is the earth is not invincible, and that we DO have to do our very best to just be clean and move towards a cleaner earth. You ever see all that trash that floats around the ocean currents? Japanese whaling makes me sick, deforestation in Brazil angers me as well. What else makes me mad is how bad liberals in this country trash energy production and say how bad the US is, but then ignore China's and India's MASSIVE pollution that makes its way to our west coasts. San Francisco would rather ban wood burning fireplaces and say that will help clean the air....give me a break.
We just need to do the right thing instead of making up lies and shoving it down peoples throats. They just need to come out and say "we need to move to clean energy because its just the right thing to do"
as opposed to making money off fear mongering and trashing industry with smears and oppressive regulation. America could ban all combustible engines, and coal burning and the planet would still be in a death spiral because of everyone else.
BTW, China this year passed the U.S. in energy consumption so now we cant blame the big bad United States anymore.
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sorry cash, climate gate is simply a news srtory with no legs, i've posted this before i'll repost it..
the guy wrote the paper and said right in the paper that his data was flawed, he said emphatically that he could not use the MODERN tree ring data because it would not match up to the actual recorded data. now, when a Scientist writes a paer like that? It is assumed by him and other Scientists that their work will be read and understood by other people.. Scinetists still report their findings and analyses even when they are flawed so that other people can read and learn, and IMPROVE the methods.. get what i am trying to tell you? the scientific method is not about Proclamations, it is about putting forth ideas and asking, no begging for someone to come along and improve them...
it is not the scientists fault that the Journalist write whatever they want about his article and post in the news, and then other Journalists try to say the Scientist was wrong and call it "climate-gate"..
i actually read the article when it came out in it's original from, and the guy most certainly did not lie about anything...
the liars are on TV...
caught red handed emailing each other to alter data to support what they were told to produce...you have to wonder.
actaully the emails i saw were very typical emails in all science, nobody was doing anything that isn't doen everyday by most everybody int he course of business, whatever business they are in
why do you think so many drug co's get sued for selling bad drugs so often?
Scientists are HUMAN BEINGS smarter than the average person maybe, but still political animals... climate gate is a joke.
oil is running out, that's no joke, we need to develop alternatives to make the oil we have last... and yes most likely we will not find a real single or simple replacement that is as convenient for at least 20 more years- and that will be 20 yrs of hard research, but the fact is that there is no excuse for not spending the money to find suitable replacementS for oil...
as to blaming other countries? we consume 25% of the earths oil right now, so i'm not interested in hearing about how bad other people..
adults fix their own problems before they look to other peoples problems, we have problems we are not fixing..
when oil spikes to 4$+ again? people will once again start clamoring for better alternatives, but you and i both know that as long as it is "cheap"? people will not be bothered. and that "cheapness" is ending right now... as we exchange posts here..
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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The United States produces 3 times as much pollution as China does and we have 1/5th their population consuming resources.
Be angry at China for the pollution they create. Then be three times as angry at ourselves for the pollution that we create, and then multiply that anger by 5 to make up for the population difference.
For every denunciation of China's environmental problems there should be 15 denunciations against the United States.
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quote:Originally posted by The Bigfoot: Again CCM, as I said last week...
The United States produces 3 times as much pollution as China does and we have 1/5th their population consuming resources.
Be angry at China for the pollution they create. Then be three times as angry at ourselves for the pollution that we create, and then multiply that anger by 5 to make up for the population difference.
For every denunciation of China's environmental problems there should be 15 denunciations against the United States.
We produce 3 times the pollution that China does? Well, I have to look that one up because from what I have seen...its just nasty. Also, I would not put any merit into what statistics the Chinese government puts out on pollution. China is opening 1 new coal fired power plant PER DAY. Eventually people are going to not be able to continue blaming the U.S. for everything, but we arent to that point yet. Our consumerism will get outpaced too. HISTORICALLY, yes we consumed more oil, used more resources, etc. Times are changing folks. Those people in China and India are getting more and more buying power per person rather quickly.
China does not regulate environmental issues like we do here, im sure you all know that but seem to forget it from time to time. Look up China's water pollution too.
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I went back to my source and looked for corroboration and I can't get it done. I embraced a statistic too early.
You were correct and I was wrong, last year (2009) China took over the United States as the worlds largest polluter thanks in main part to the aggressive expansion in burning coal for fuel. My stats if they were ever real have to be 10 years old at least.
So you win this part of the debate.
I will have to reshape my argument as to why pointing at China doesn't exonerate the United States of their responsibility. It will start with how per capita we still produce much much more than China does. The United States produces 19 tons of Carbon Dioxide per person. China creates between 5 and 6 tons of Carbon Dioxide per person. That I can back up.
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Bigfoot, a friend of mine went to China. Hes the kind of guy that likes to go off the beaten path when traveling as do I. Anyway, he wasnt planning on taking pollution pictures, but thats what it ended up being. The pictures he sent me were shocking.
What was that river in Ohio they said you could catch on fire because of the pollution? That whole rust belt in the U.S. just dumped toxic waste into clean waterways like it was nothing. We dont do that anymore, but China sure does.
All you have to do is remember the Olympics in Beijing, and what the government had to do to such as banning cars from running and shutting down local factories because the air was so awful.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.
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do we lower our standards to theirs, so that we can compete "economically"?
that would be the short-termer solution... that's what i hear the so-called conservatives on TV asking for. I just heard Senator Elect Toomey R PA say we have to cut the EPA...
there is only one solution to our current situation with China. Put a 100% value added tax on Chinese Goods. Do you like how much better VAT sounds than import duty? It's all the same. We can use that money to directly pay off the Chinese debt and that will give China enough moeny to go clean up theri mess...
they are literally destroying their country and it is reminiscnet of the scene in Bored of the Rings where the Ents see Sarumans keep (Isengard) and are enraged by the utter depravity of the situation.... The Orcs and Goblins are even more distorted than the "normal" (for them, which is obscenity pile upon obscenity) by his activities... that is where we were headed, and we stopped and looked and decided to go a differnt way... the EPA is the main representaiton of our diesire to do that. China? They are not "where we were" they are nothing like US, they have no real political discourse at all. It is illegal to oppose the party in power there....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: to compete for jobs? if you heard the complaining i hear from some of the GOP's in Congress? you'd be concerned that is their plan too...
Right now the economy should be the NUMBER ONE FOCUS. Obama before pres said it was all about jobs, and every year he always says something about it but health care was his biggest project...not jobs. The stimulus was a bunch of temporary construction job projects bundled up nicely in a megabill with tons of pet projects that we were told would not be found.
I just dont think we need to put new environmental laws on business right now. People going nuts in California over a river smelt and farms and jobs are going away. Sad. The state with the strictest environmental standards has the worst air of any state. The state with strong anti gun laws has terrible crime.
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"I just dont think we need to put new environmental laws on business right now. People going nuts in California over a river smelt and farms and jobs are going away. Sad. The state with the strictest environmental standards has the worst air of any state. The state with strong anti gun laws has terrible crime."
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I assume you are talking about Ca. when you talk about the worst air.
If you grew up here in Ca. in the 50's and 60's you would really understand how bad it was and since then industry has grown in hugh numbers.
If Ca. air standards were left the way they were in the 60's or 70's, or even the same as other smaller states in later years with less restictions and a lot less industry compared to Ca, it would have been a hugh diaster.
Although beach properties would be worth a lot more than they are now, as long as strong off shore winds keep blowing the smog inland several miles.
I would love to see industry grow even more in Ca, i just wish they would allow industry to use more alternative fuels that burn cleaner.
The oil companies make sure we don't to any sizeable amount!
i was recently looking for some of my older work to put in a show? couldn't find any.....
i sold everything i made in CA as soon as it was made...
i sold most of it right out of my home too...
you cannot imagine the CA economy without living it. i realy get sick of hearing the "conservatives" point at Cali and say we don't want to be "like them"
the WHOLE midwest of the US has to work for several years to match the annual economic output of Cali even with all of it's rules and regs....
as to the guns? yeah i carried a bunch of guns with me and the few people that knew i had them and knew exactly what they were? they wanted to buy them for obscene amounts of money, of course i did not sell and kept them locked up tight cuz i knew i was only a visitor to Cali and wanted them when i left...
the people that make millions in Cali often leave, taking their moeny with them, but i garantee you they'da never made that moeny in MS or Ark or Missourri...
Cali is unique place to learn from. In fact? I never took a glas blowing class til i got there..
i had been working glass art all of my adult life in many different forms, but glassblowing classes are 1500$ per week in most places, and when i got to Cali? I had four different places that i could take them for 1/4 or less than that cost...
private glassblowing classes are 50$/hr at absolute minimum, and i was able to gain access to state funded studios there for 5$ per hour and that was all i needed, since i am mostly a selfteacher anyway...
be very careful how you judge Cali.... when this economy turns around? they will return to the highest of highs much faster than everybody else...
the one thing i really miss about Cali is the "people energy" the "people energy here in the midwest and south is depressing compared to what i found out there, and even(where i grew up) the East Coast which is an economic powerhouse in it's own right doesnot come close...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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"We have no national infrastructure grid for this, it is going to take time just like it took time to build gas stations all over the country."
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When i talk about air standards and business in Ca. as related to fuel it is a tough subject.
It is never easy as a business to fight the air polution people in Ca.
My dad started a business 70+ years ago and had to deal with these people over the years and it is not an easy task.
The business still goes on and the battle never stops.
Part of the reason they have a little more problem than other businesses in some parts of Ca. is that they have houses that wre built right on the backside of where they manufacture.
I am not involved in the business but i still hear the complaints from time to time.
Get a tick off employee and next thing you know the air polution people visit you.
It always costs you money even though they very seldom find any thing wrong, they chew the time up because they get paid to do so.
But all and all it not the air polution people that have caused profits to go down hill in the business.
There are many reasons.
One is the high costs of fuel and related products, labor, and if the property was not paid for, property value which would cause high rent.
They probably could not run if they did not own their property.
But if there is one major thing that has killed many companies in their industry it's the Chinese imports of the same product.
The only thing that has allowed them to survive so far after 70+ years is that a very few of their products have to be made in the USA because of Gov. regulations.
Of course the companies that have survived here are all buying for this same made in the USA business.
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Here is the problem, when its warmer than average its global warming, when its colder than average its global warming, when there are no violent hurricanes after the alarmists predicted the worst season since Katrina....its global warming. it was global warming until it was used to apply to anything so often that now they are trying to get people to call it climate change. just like liberals are trying to call themselves progressives to get away from the angry nasty liberal stigma. its global warming when anything happens in weather now. you know, they had extreme heat, cold, and violent storms before industry, cars, factories, etc.
I think we need to clean up the environment, air, and especially water. When I see Al Gore becoming a future billionaire off hysteria, living in mansions, flying around in jets, and making a killing off fear......I mean cmon.
just stop it with the hysteria of doom and just do the right thing and stop dumping trash in oceans, stop raping the amazon, and start *****ing at china for building 365 new coal plants every year...thats crazy pollution!
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.
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when there are no violent hurricanes after the alarmists predicted the worst season since Katrina....
cash, puullease open up your perspective... that's the only reason i still post here, to open up perspectives, my own and other peoples...
Katrina was not even a violent storm when it made landfall... it had dropped to Cat 3 and the damage was mostly from a broken levee which should not have broken. There is still plenty of bad weather (as opposed to climate) going on all over th world, i read about the weather in Australia when we are feezing and they are broiling. This US weather patern we are in leaves hot spots in Russia cuz we are getting thier wether.. That's not what gloabl warming is about. The changes are in the upper atmosphere (troposphere to be exact) and they are tiny, but they are constant.
That Katina levee issue was not much different from the emergency valve that did not activate properly on the oil spill right? it's a systemic pattern of hubrus... people beleiving they are more competent or smart than they really are... it is rampant thru out all of time... it's just human nature, and must be accounted for or we'll lose all we have. In fact? It appears to me that we are (environmentally) losing allot of what we have right now, even tho we are "better" than China. The bird and fish kills are not uncommon, they are becoming more and more common...
face it. we cannot burn a couple hundred million years of stored energy (the oil) in a couple of centuries and not pay a huge price for simple wickedness. i do not know how else to be more blunt and simplistic. you can argue all the politics you want. but until you (and everybody else) get that simple point settled in your conscience? the answers will not become obvious.
i don't subscribe to a simple "the earth has a temperature" (ill)logic, and neither do the scientists. That argument is so simplistic and stupid that the only people that would say it are retarded or being paid to act retarded as in window licker on the short bus retarded.
I don't care how much data is collected and computed rightly or wrongly, i don't need anybody to tel me how wrong it is to use up all that oil to go to watch football and baseball and NASCAR. I know that we have to come up with better plan, and we needed to do that a decade ago, and we still have not. It's just common sense. The rest of the arguing belongs in the sandbox. Where the cats have been.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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