Global Warming, Ice Age or does the Weather just change constantly?

[floydian slip]

http://iceagenow.com/Growing_Glaciers.htm

Glaciers Skating Away Fast!

That's what the headline says. But when you read the article you find that the Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier southeast of Greenland is advancing at the rate of more than seven miles (12 km) per year!

Advancing! The title would have you believe that it's shrinking, caused by "global warming."

What a masterful piece of deception.

http://www.etherzone.com/2005/bren101205.shtml

Yeah, I know, the world is in the grip of global warming, the Arctic summer sea ice melted at a greater rate than usual, glaciers are retreating and our air conditioning costs are going through the roof. What could make me believe that this warming planet could continue to produce weather increasingly frigid and increasingly violent?

http://www.pvbr.com/Issue_1/global.htm

Some scientists and a large number of leftist political figures have insisted that all of this is the result of an alleged warming of the planet. The evidence, however, points instead to global cooling on a massive scale.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/englund5.html

One reason for this uncertainty is that, as the report states, the climate is always changing; change is the norm. Two centuries ago, much of the Northern Hemisphere was emerging from a little ice age. A millennium ago, during the Middle Ages, the same region was in a warm period. Thirty years ago, we were concerned about global cooling.

?

[Ramona_A_Stone]

Short Circuit (Example: a man eating peas with the idea that they will improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap)
--The Oblique Strategies

Like I've said before, we should consider that there's a parallel to the 'conclusion' of Pascal's Wager, and I firmly believe we should heed it.

Of course the dim bulbs who find the left and right takes on such issues to be more pertinent and vital than the issues themselves will find endless arguing points, but in a world where the air supply of certain cities already makes going about your normal business equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, I can't find a single reason not to assume we ought to all be focused on cleaning up our act.

As to whether we're gonna freeze our meatballs off or cook our spaghetti, it's not particularly germane either. Things infinitely more subtle than a ga-zillion single passenger gasoline powered vehicles buzzing 24/7 have taken out plenty of species before us.

[albed]

So what happened to the ozone hole, rain forest destruction, genetically engineered crops, population explosion, farm land erosion, etc, etc?

Global warming's just the newest gimmick from the same commie pinko scum losers trying to convince people that if they're not running the world then it's going to hell. Unfortunately there's so many gullible idiots out there they'll always have them bawling about something.

[Ramona_A_Stone]

See what I mean?

[albed]

Everyone sees; you're too dumb to talk about climatology, psychology or politics so you blabber some crap about eating peas and 'Pascal's Wager' and then pat yourself on the back for being so clever.

[Ramona_A_Stone]

It's hysterical that someone who's posted for years daily his incessant paranoid bawling about the paramount importance of declaring a full-scale war on invisible terrorists across the planet to save his own worthless backwoods ass from a threat about as tangible as the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy can't get the simple ideas into his head that the ecosystem is fragile and things living in polluted environments tend to die.

Not sure how many degrees in climatology, psychology or politics you feel is needed to have common sense, but in your case I'd save the fucking tuition fees.

[albed]

I suppose you think your master's degree in blatant lying makes you superior to everyone. It really just highlights the fact that you're so ignorant and warped that you can't come up with honest facts or reasoning to support your opinions so you have to spout out endless bullshit that never really says anything except how your whole life revolves around glorifying yourself and demeaning everyone else.

[Ramona_A_Stone]

...does anyone else hear that high pitched whining sound?

[floydian slip]

Its cold here

they say it might warm up a bit

[Ramona_A_Stone]

LOL

[JackSpratts]

freezing here, bitchin. except yesterday - it was really hot. should i buy north or south? wish they'd make up their mind. commie corporate farkers.

- js.

[Mazer]

Originally Posted by Ramona_A_Stone

Like I've said before, we should consider that there's a parallel to the 'conclusion' of Pascal's Wager, and I firmly believe we should heed it.

So in other words, in the battle between you and the universe, bet on the universe.

Not that I think there really is a battle between humanity and mother nature, but I agree that we are the stewards of this planet and we should take care of it for future generations. That makes it our responsibility to understand the inner workings of the geological, meteorological, and ecological systems of the Earth while understanding that we are an inextricable part of all those systems. Until we fully understand those things the least we can do is try not to make things worse and leave this world at least as livable as we found it.

As of yet the scientific data we have doesn't really support or oppose the theory of global warming. Meterologists have been collecting local temperature data for a little more than a century now, and the earth has had an atmosphere for what, three billion years? One hundred years is not a large enough sample to understand what's really going on. We have some records of past weather cycles going back hundreds of thousands of years, depending on where the samples are taken (tree rings, peat bogs, ice sheets, etc.), and there's geologic evidence of major volcanic and asteroid impact events that have had worldwide effects. It's taking a long time to piece the data together to form a complete picture of historical weather patterns, and we've only been trying to do it for a few decades. More time is needed before solid conclusions can be drawn.

Most of the time the politicians who talk about science have jumped to conclusions, so most of what you hear in the national media is junk. The fact is that real science is usually very dull and, with the exceptions of Nova and the Discovery channel, it doesn't make very good television. And since your average citizen doesn't read Nature or Scientific American you shouldn't be surpirsed when some people think global warming is a major catastrophe that requires swift political action to be fixed. The truth, of course, is far too boring to get national attention.

In the March 2005 issue of Scientific American an article was published about the effects humans may have been having on the global climate for the past 8,000 years, long before we started buring fossil fuels for electricity and transportation. I found a PDF of the article here (1.5 MB). It's just a theory, but still very interesting.