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Global warming: is it over so soon?

By | September 17, 2007, 5:26pm PDT

Summary: That white-fringed arrow-shaped land mass is Greenland. A research paper is about to be published, and it’s already causing an ice storm in the climate change world. Details of the paper are being combed over by science geeks, and the conclusion seems to be: this paper says global warming may not be as extreme as [...]

nwpass.jpg
That white-fringed arrow-shaped land mass is Greenland.
A research paper is about to be published, and it’s already causing an ice storm in the climate change world. Details of the paper are being combed over by science geeks, and the conclusion seems to be: this paper says global warming may not be as extreme as earlier models suggested. In fact, it could take a lot more CO2 to make further temperature increases. What we have is what we’re gonna get.

And that could mean: less severe temperature climbs, more of the same (worse and freakier storms), endangered alpine and arctic organisms, and the birth of the Northwest Passage. Those pics from the European Space Agency (see above) reveal the once-fabled Northwest Passage now exists around the northern edge of Canada, along with a parallel route across the northern edge of Russia. Of course, this is bitterly ironic because one of the great contributors to global warming has apparently been the oil industry. Well, here’s a quote from one Rutgers scientist about the warming waters of the Arctic region: “Fishing, shipping, oil exploration will all be easier to do in the Arctic if there is less ice around for a shorter time,”

So, of course, the oil industry will benefit. Don’t they always. war, economic crises, hurricanes. All help the oil guys. Oh, and all our cars don’t hurt much. And we’ve already blogged about the land grab to come as new territories emerge from the ice. For Russia to have access by ship to her own north coast, for Europe to ship directly across the polar region to Japan and China…these are geopolitical shifts and potential economic hurricanes without precedent in modern history.

The Rutgers quote came in their release today of research done on the Barents Sea. Guess what: hotter water, less ice. And I don’t suspect they meant that retreating ice is goof for both fishing industry and the fish. THere’ll be a race to deplete the fkish population for as much profit as possible. A little rare Arctic turbot with your hearts of palm and filet of lion, sir?

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Ice, Global Warming, Harry Fuller

Disclosure

Harry Fuller

http://blogs.zdnet.com/green/?page_id=2

Biography

Harry Fuller

Harry Fuller is a media veteran, having spent decades in TV news in the San Francisco Bay Area. As GeneralManager of KPIX-TV (CBS) he founded one of the nation's first TV station websites in early 1995. He was News Direcor at TechTV when it was founded in 1998. In 2001 he moved to London to become Executive Producer for CNBC Europe. Four years later he returned to San Francisco as Executive Editor for CNET's news.com.

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SO you admit
Linux User 147560 18th Sep 2007
that you are a shallow person with absolutely no self worth or love! "? No, because there's no money, power, or feeling special when things are going well."

That's really sad that you have to have these things to feel special or accepted! Really sad. devil
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We still need to
Linux User 147560 17th Sep 2007
curb our CO2 output, we still need to advance alternative renewable energy sources. To not pursue then and say "Oh well!" in an invitation to suicide of the human race. Personally seeing the damage done so far by the recent climate change I would venture the paper is BS.

it doesn't take a genius to see what is happening around the world, and if not around the world, look in your own back yard.

Rivers are drying up in central California, salmon runs are interrupted because of this. Watch, you will see a decline in various available food sources. Mainly staple fish. There is also the destruction of the oak groves in Monterey, Santa Cruz and other parts of central California. These are vital tress that are being wiped out.

Evergreens are drying up. Entire groves of them dying due to the lackluster rain fall these last 12 months. Sorry but I am not buying the tripe they are selling. There is just too much evidence to the contrary. devil

And you don't have to be a scientist to see it either.
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I don't argue...
itpro_z 17th Sep 2007
?that we need to begin to curb our CO2 output by shifting away from fossil fuels, but the data from ice cores suggests that the popular media (and Al Gore) have the CO2/Global Warming connection reversed. Global warming causes a rise in CO2 levels in the atmosphere, not the reverse. This makes sense, since the solubility of CO2 in water (the oceans) is reduced with temperature increases. Warming climate means warmer oceans, which means CO2 is released from the oceans, which increases atmospheric CO2. Detailed studies from ice cores from places such as Greenland show just such a correlation, with CO2 levels trailing climate warming.

Our climate is warming, the evidence is overwhelming. What isn?t obvious from the data is a connection between climate warming and Man?s influence. We are still warming from the last ice age, and that is a more scientifically sound explanation for what we have observed than Al Gore?s. We do pollute the atmosphere, with CO2 and a variety of other chemicals. Some of these can increase warming through the green house effect, while others actually reduce warming by reflecting sunlight. Earth has warmed, and cooled, in the past without Man?s influence. Remember, a single volcanic eruption can add more ?pollution? to the atmosphere than Mankind does in a year.

We have many valid reasons for reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, and CO2 emissions are just one. Whether or not our CO2 emissions are contributing to climate warming, we should at least strive to not make the situation any worse than it already is. Climate study is an important science, and should be pursued vigorously. We should all follow this subject closely, and pay attention to what the real experts are telling us, since at this time this is the only planet we have. What we don?t need is political grandstanding and doomsday scenarios.
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re: CO2 "lag"
johnay 18th Sep 2007
The lag in CO2 behind the start of warming in past events indicates that those warming periods were started by other triggers (solar forcing, increased volcanic activity, etc.) and then went into feedback loops as the initial warming caused increased release of CO2 into the atmosphere.

None of those other possible triggers are active enough now to be causing the warming we're seeing now. The CO2 and other emissions from human activity, however, are enough to put us over the top and possibly kick off the natural CO2 releases that will carry things from there. Hopefully we can ratchet back our greenhouse gas emissions enough and in time to avoid starting up the earth's natural warming feedback engine.

If this report proves true, its real significance is that we may have more time to make those changes than we thought, and they have more chance of succeeding. If we do nothing, or not enough, though, the triggering of the natural warming/CO2 feedback loop will be just as bad, sooner or later.
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Irrationality
frgough 18th Sep 2007
So, CO2 is shown to be pretty much irrelevant to climate change, but you don't care. We still need to curb our CO2 because, well, because you've seen a river dry up. And you've seen some trees dry, and rainfall in California this year has been low.

The truth is, you're just like the author. You hate capitalism, and you hate big oil. It's never been about global warming, it's always been about bringing down the evils of capitalism and the American way of life.
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Sigh... another lost one...
Linux User 147560 18th Sep 2007
No I don't hate capitalism, I disapprove of unregulated abuse by capitalism. It creates the same environment as the robber barrons of Europe's. past. As for big oil, yes I do despise them. The ecological damage their products have caused and the true lack of care or ethics when it comes the very environment we rely on to survive.

It's not just in California it's all over the world. But you are to wrapped up in profit at any cost to see that you are part of the overall problem on so many levels. You make blanket statements and never back them up, you make accusations and never support them.

I do believe in capitalism. But not in it current incarnation, Enron, Exxon, Mobile, Texaco, Microsoft and countless others will and have abused the true intent of capitalism and not only inflicted severe damage on the environment which in turn had a huge negative impact on economies, but many have abused their positions for the profit at any cost. Enron being the worst offender of the lot. They eventually were destroyed by their own greed and gluttony.

What was the price of the unbridled capitalism? What was to the total cost in not only money but lives. How many people perished because of the greed of on corporation? Now it's Haliburton, making massive amounts of money off of the misery of our troops. You and the current system and methods are twisted sick and just wrong.

Sorry but protecting the very environment we need to live. To provide us with food and shelter. You wish to allow it to be destroyed just so you can have a few more baubles to make you feel better when in fact you are a hollow person with no evident self worth or respect.

It is about global warming and the main source of the problem is big corporations abusing the environment all for profit. It's about the fact that we have been held back in the late 19th and early 20th century on technology for transportation. And now the rest of the world will and is passing us by with more efficient power trains, better battery technology and moving faster towards the real modern mag levs and other alternatives.

Meanwhile we are still reliant upon oil. Everyone else gets it but the US doesn't. Well most of us don't but those of us that do we have to bear the brunt of you and your kinds ignorance until the day comes when we can say, "We f***ing told you so!"

And that day may not be that far off... devil
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RE: Global warming: is it over so soon?
dobermanmacleod 17th Sep 2007
"We now have evidence from the Earth's history that a similar event happened fifty-five million years ago when a geological accident released into the air more than a terraton of gaseous carbon compounds. As a consequence the temperature in the arctic and temperate regions rose eight degree Celsius and in tropical regions about five degrees, and it took over one hundred thousand years before normality was restored. We have already put more than half this quantity of carbon gas into the air and now the Earth is weakened by the loss of land we took to feed and house ourselves. In addition, the sun is now warmer, and as a consequence the Earth is now returning to the hot state it was in before, millions of years ago, and as it warms, most living things will die." (The Revenge of Gaia)

Leemans and Eickhout (2004) found that ecosystem adaptive capacity decreases rapidly with an increasing rate of climate change.

If the rate should exceed 0.4 C/decade, all ecosystems will be quickly destroyed.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global average temperature today is increasing by 0.2 C/decade.

This increase is caused by greenhouse gases we put into the atmosphere decades ago, due to the lag time between emission and temperature rise.

We have emitted nearly double the greenhouse gas since then, and are increasing our emissions at a rate of over 3% per year.

Therefore, in the next couple of decades we are facing the quick destruction of all the world's ecosystems, which will result in abrupt climate change (I suggest reading the Pentagon's alarming report on this subject).

Reference: Leemans og Eickhout, 2004, Another reason for concern: regional and global impacts on ecosystems for different levels of climate change, Global Environmental Change 14, 219?228.

P.S. Any feasible planetary rescue strategy must include a method of removing some of the excess CO2 from the air.

I suggest the low cost, highly scalable, and technically feasible method of biosequestration.

I suggest engineering and extensively testing a GMO and seeding it into the ocean.
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Minority report
frgough 18th Sep 2007
Water vapor is hundreds of times more powerful a greenhouse gas yet NO climate model takes into consideration evaporation, cloud formation or precipitation on global climate. Why? Simple. Because no one knows what affect it has, so they just ignore it and go on to pronounce the world is ending scenarios.

By the way, did you know that we probably actually have too little CO2 in the atmosphere? There is a lot of evidence that plants are CO2 starved right now. Talk to professional greenhouse growers. You'll find that they routinely double or triple CO2 levels in their greenhouses to bump crop yields with less water and fertilizer.

Did you know that a 1% change in relative humidity is the equivalent of increasing CO2 levels by 10X?

Do you care? No, because there's no money, power, or feeling special when things are going well.
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SO you admit
Linux User 147560 18th Sep 2007
that you are a shallow person with absolutely no self worth or love! "? No, because there's no money, power, or feeling special when things are going well."

That's really sad that you have to have these things to feel special or accepted! Really sad. devil

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