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Science on climate change

By | December 22, 2008, 3:36pm PST

The American Geophysical Union annual conflab was held in San Francisco again this year. Here are just some of the hundreds of papers that pertain:

The U.S. Geological Survey summarized their best available data on what to expect in the United States. Some climate change effects may test the U.S. ability to adapt. “Rapid and sustained September arctic sea ice loss is likely in the 21st century.
The southwestern United States may be beginning an abrupt period of increased drought. It is very likely that the northward flow of warm water in the upper layers of the Atlantic Ocean, which has an important impact on the global climate system, will decrease by approximately 25–30 percent. However, it is very unlikely that this circulation will collapse or that the weakening will occur abruptly during the 21st century and beyond.”

“An abrupt change in sea level is possible, but predictions are highly uncertain due to shortcomings in existing climate models. There is unlikely to be an abrupt release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere from deposits in the earth. However, it is very likely that the pace of methane emissions will increase.”

THIS HEAT YOU FEEL ISN’T ALL THAT NEW

The Industrial Revolution has often been cited as a major cause of increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Current research shows the gradual warming began long before that. It is concentrated agriculture that started the warming. Producing larger than natural amounts of methane and carbon dioxide.

WARM OCEANS=MORE RAIN STORMS

Thos dramatic thunderstorms you can get in the tropics? Expect more of them as the oceans warm. How much warmer and how much wetter? The Earth’s average temperature is now rising about 0.13 degrees Celsius per decade. So the tropics should see strong storms 6 percent more often per decade.

CALIFORNIA, BEWARE!

Remember all those killer firestorms in California earlier this year? Well, say researchers, we’re just getting warmed up. Perhaps I should say we’re getting up to speed. Wind speed. It’s not the rising temperatures alone that pose the danger, it is the increased wind speeds along the California coast. The land is warming faster than the cooler ocean and that will mean stronger onnshofre winds along the California coast, say the scientists.

ANTARCTICA TROPICS?

Not tropical perhaps, but the Antarctic is getting warmer over larger areas thah previously believed says this AGU report.

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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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5% of CO2 from humans.
Anton Philidor 24th Dec 2008
Earth has been cooling for the past 10 years.

The correlation of weather to sunspots seems strong.

Snow is returning to the poles.

Every time Al Gore gives a speech it snows. Even when the last previous substantial snow was years before.

Hope these help.
0 Votes
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*yawn*
CobraA1 22nd Dec 2008
Well, at least we know the environmentalists are still in the gloom and doom business.

In the meantime, the real weather forecasters are still trying to predict next week.

"Current research" is constantly changing - these days I pay little notice. They have a pretty poor record in their predictions. I'm supposed to be underwater by now, and that was based on "the best available data."

*yawn* - been there, heard that, didn't happen. I think I'll wait for their so-called "predictions" to improve before I care to give them any credibility.

Sorry, but when "credible scientists" make incredible claims that don't come true - I start to question their credibility.

When the current data doesn't match the predictions created earlier, perhaps it's time to ask questions. No more following these so-called "scientists" blindly.
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Well .....
James Quinn 23rd Dec 2008
How about observation I'm 46 years old and I've known
weather. What I've found odd is that of late I've seen Cat 4
and yes even Cat 5 hurricanes. I've seen the hurricane
season end and yet still hurricanes form later and later in
the year. I've seen a lot of stuff happen that I've never
seen before both small and large across the globe. Now
science is by its nature flawed because well its "US"
searching for answers and we are flawed. What I like
about science is it is always moving and learning, and yes
changing. Am I full of fear about the future weather. No
but I'll not close my eyes to that which is around me either
nor block out voices just because they do not agree with
my personal ideology and or beliefs.

I'm always going to believe that Rome did not have too fall.
That if the people of Rome had not thought to themselves
Rome has always been and will always be then it Rome
could have been saved.

Pagan jim
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RE: Science on climate change
Monosdeja 23rd Dec 2008
THIS HEAT YOU FEEL ISN???T ALL THAT NEW
what?
then i guesss we quit producing food.

I would appreciate if you would not report BS
but you work for CBS
0 Votes
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Imagine that - Al Gore was Wrong
itguy08 23rd Dec 2008
Who would have thunk?
0 Votes
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1. What happened to the 'global cooling' harbingers of doom from the early 80's? If global cooling was the forerunner of global warming, why wouldn't global warming be the forerunner of more global cooling?
2. How many tons of greenhouse gas shoot out of an erupting volcano? How many tons trickle out from active volvanoes around the earth every day? How do these volumes compare with the estimated man-made volumes? Who will pay the carbon tax for this output?
3. If cattle emit too much methane so we should become vegetarians, how much will the cattle be offset by the amount created by humans from the new high-fiber diet? (yeah, think beans here)
Maybe the world is warming up, but can us paltry humans really be the cause? The earth has been warming and cooling for eons no thanks to us. Sunspots, planetary orbits, yeah, I think that's pretty causative.
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If I may add...
NotMSUser 23rd Dec 2008
I'm all for clean environment, for being fuel-efficient and conserving. I can't wait to see a battery or fuel-cell advance to make electric cars practical and common. I just think the whole carbon-tax based on the shaky and trendy theory of global warming is a crock. People love to talk about their tiny efforts, but heaven help us if they couldn't have the streets brightly lit up at night, decorative fires, cheap air travel, and all the electrical-powered frivolous stuff like huge home theaters and overpowered computers. I recycled a beer can, don't touch the substantial stuff!
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5% of CO2 from humans.
Anton Philidor 24th Dec 2008
Earth has been cooling for the past 10 years.

The correlation of weather to sunspots seems strong.

Snow is returning to the poles.

Every time Al Gore gives a speech it snows. Even when the last previous substantial snow was years before.

Hope these help.

Join the conversation!

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