RE: Global Warming
August 23, 2009 at 4:31 pm
(This post was last modified: August 23, 2009 at 4:34 pm by dry land fish.)
(August 22, 2009 at 4:47 pm)binny Wrote: Maybe eastern WA. I don't know. I live in Vancouver, WA so I only get Oregon news. I know Seattle broke a record for the hottest day ever, but their record was only 100. I think the record in Portland was 107 wasn't it? I'm just trying to forget how hot it was.
This summer ocean water all the way up to Maine was the warmest on record. I just got back from South West Florida and the water felt like a hot bath. We have an Il Nino this year too. In kentucky July was one of the coolest on record. Some nights we got down to around fifty. That's not normal for July. Right now it is around 78 and that's not normal for August.
With the global warming debate you have to do an average. You can't just take one day and say "oh well it was really hot today so global warming is happening." You have to take yearly averages and then keep averaging until you get to a couple hundred years worth of averages or so. Earth's processes take thousands and millions of years and sometimes even billions of years to progress. It's hard to take just ten or twenty years of research and make it really stick.
The facts are that CO2 helps trap heat and keep it at Earths surface. This increases surface temp and causes ice to melt more than if heat was allowed to escape into space. That's the human impact. Earth is in a warming trend according to averages. Whether it's natural or due to our CO2 is debatable. SO2 can also cause warming. That is naturally released by volcanoes in eruptions. In that case Earth does cause itsself to warm naturally. Ice is melting and it's melting at a fast rate. We need to figure out how that will affect our planet. It won't cause the "end of the world" but it's going to raise ocean levels. Many humans will be displaced. This will cause our natural resources to be taxed even more and will cause people to live in closer quarters and could cause more cases of communicable disease. It probably won't happen all at once so we'll have time to prepare but the time is upon us to start planning. I feel confident we are just coming out of an ice age and we are seeing Earth and all of it's wonderful changes right before our eyes. I think it's an exciting time and I'm not scared at all. I'm worried that people will not respond the way they should and some will go ape sh*t because they are afraid that it's God and will not prepare for this change. Earth changes and it's happening when we get to see it. There will be weather changes due to rising ocean levels. Our oceans dictate our weather for the most part. What changes that will cause is purely speculation but it more than likely will be dramatic. Not many humans have gotten to see such changes and we can document it for future generations!!
(August 23, 2009 at 9:06 am)Darwinian Wrote: Massive global reforestation is the answer. Let's all plant lots of trees
That is a very good idea. Planting trees won't save us because of the massive logging operations in rain forests. However, if you want to plant a tree in your yard then do so. It can't hurt.