If you haven't heard, tonight for one hour around the world it's lights out. Why? The World Wildlife Fund thinks it will some how be a step the world takes to help stop climate change. They obviously haven't been reading all the peer-reviewed articles coming out lately regarding climate change...that in fact it appears our current warming cycle has slowed or even stopped. A book I have just finished...UNSTOPPABLE GLOBAL WARMING every 1500 years by Singer & Avery will explain why 1) man doesn't cause climate change and 2) man cannot stop climate change. Watching The Weather Channel & NBC Nightly News proclaim how turning out your lights tonight will help slow the energy usage and slow the warming of the planet...utterly ridiculous propaganda. All it will do is increase the number of births 9 months from now. If you really want to know the truth about climate change, start reading as I have done and stop listening to the media controlled information. As an example...last week all the network news reported a collapse in part of the Anarctic ice shelf...because of global warming. The facts are 1) it was still summer down there and ice melts every summer and 2) 97% of Anarctica is experiencing below normal temperatures this past summer.
Thank you for all of your kind comments regarding my 30th anniversary with Ch. 8. Sunday's Times-Picayune has a very nice story written by Dave Walker about my 30 years in New Orleans. It's in the Living section.
10 comments:
The trouble with the global warming debate is that it has become a moral crusade when it's really an engineering problem. The inconvenient truth is that if we don't solve the engineering problem, we're helpless.
In an effort to achieve consensus in one of the most contentious debates in modern science, a panel of 11 climate experts from diverse fields released a report Thursday stating that global warming is in fact a real phenomenon, at least near the surface of the planet
Caveman...have you been in a cave? The debate is not whether the planet is in a warming cycle, the debate is what is causing it. 11 climate experts out of thousands certainly is not a "consensus."
Scientists have concluded that human activities are contributing to global warming by adding large amounts of heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere. Our fossil fuel use is the main source of these gases. Every time we drive a car, use electricity from coal-fired power plants, or heat our homes with oil or natural gas, we release carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the air. The second most important source of greenhouse gases is deforestation, mainly in the tropics, and other land-use changes.
Since pre-industrial times, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by 31 percent. Over the same period, atmospheric methane has risen by 151 percent, mostly from agricultural activities like growing rice and raising cattle.
As the concentration of these gases grows, more heat is trapped by the atmosphere and less escapes back into space. This increase in trapped heat changes the climate, causing altered weather patterns that can bring unusually intense precipitation or dry spells and more severe storms.
Examples of observed climatic changes
Increase in global average surface temperature of about 1°F in the 20th century
Decrease of snow cover and sea ice extent and the retreat of mountain glaciers in the latter half of the 20th century
Rise in global average sea level and the increase in ocean water temperatures
Likely increase in average precipitation over the middle and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, and over tropical land areas
Increase in the frequency of extreme precipitation events in some regions of the world
Examples of observed physical and ecological changes
Thawing of permafrost
Lengthening of the growing season in middle and high latitudes
Poleward and upward shift of plant and animal ranges
Decline of some plant and animal species
Earlier flowering of trees
Earlier emergence of insects
Earlier egg-laying in birds
Scientists predict that continued global warming on the order of 2.5°-10.4°F over the next 100 years (as projected in the IPCC's Third Assessment Report) is likely to result in:
a rise in sea level between 3.5 and 34.6 in. (9-88 cm), leading to more coastal erosion, flooding during storms, and permanent inundation
severe stress on many forests, wetlands, alpine regions, and other natural ecosystems
greater threats to human health as mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects and rodents spread diseases over larger geographical regions
disruption of agriculture in some parts of the world due to increased temperature, water stress, and sea-level rise in low-lying areas such as Bangladesh or the Mississippi River delta.
I remember when I was a small kid growing up the 1970's, scientists were warning about an impending Ice Age, which was supposed to hit us by the year 2000. So, what happened to that argument?
I think Mr. Breck is being a little too vitriolic in his dismissal of the global warming "thing", (i.e., saying it's a scam by the Democrats to raise taxes sounds like something Rush Limbaugh would say), but I do strongly agree with Bob that not too many are considering the regular, long-term warming and cooling cycles on Earth. (The Vikings got to Iceland because the ice shelf melted -- no one said it was global warming, just the regular cycle.)
I do think the media loves to run with global warming stories because they are just cheap high drama -- doomsday stories everyone likes to hear, and if people are scared, they'll keep buying things and watching TV.
Mr. Breck is a very sensible voice on this topic. I just think his opinions would be considered in a larger forum if he tones down the "just-plain- stupid" comments a little bit. Come on Bob; we trust you for making the call on hurricanes -- now you can keep us all on an even keel with the global warming hype by being your sensible self.
"Come on Bob; we trust you for making the call on hurricanes" Bob was way off and wrong on every hurricane last season, up til a day or two before they made landfall which anyone could have forecasted that. He just sits backs and waits until they are about to make landfall to give his official forecast on ground zero, my gold fish can do that.
Bob makes one comment about a (stupid) idea being stupid and some here act as though he stepped over some line. He states his stance quite plainly: "...the debate is what is causing it." Most sensible people agree with this and require a little proof of the cause and effect of CO2 and other "greenhouse gases" before we destroy the US economy.
Caveman claims CO2 and methane to be "heat trapping" gases. Can you produce any facts supporting this in the percentages of atmosphere? Or is it just theory and conjecture?
Caveman goes on to list a litany of "observed climate changes" that Al Gore would be proud of. I disagree with many of your listed statements as real facts but will only ask one question: When in history have any of the things listed ever been static and unchanging?
As far as a political issue, I recently heard John McCain -Republican spewing the man-made GW mantra. The problem is most republicans disagree with him and most democrats agree. It becomes a political issue when they propose limiting your right to life and pursuit of happiness based upon unproven consensus.
Finally as is typical of global warming doomsayers, Caveman then rants that Bob can't predict a hurricane any better than his goldfish. So I suppose it's possible to predict what will happen in 50-100 years? You have no facts to support your statements just conjecture and then you insult someone who disagrees. Way to really hammer your point home. Maybe you have been in a cave.
Fact? It is a fact about Bob's way off hurricane forecasts! 50-100 yrs? those forcasting climate change are just a tad bit smarter than Bob.. why? does anyone care? Because that is ALL he ever talks about... post it and be done with it gee whizz.
Shame on you Caveman. Bob is the most accurate. The difference is he doesn't start sending people in a panic before it is necessary. That's why he calmly waits before advising us. My vote is with Bob but you can kiss your goldfish hello for me!!!
??? Why in the world would the whole WORLD turn off their lights for one hour? Like Bob said, it is simply unnecessary. Now for the second matter: Bob Breck is one of the most accurate meterologists I've ever heard of, and shame on anybody who thinks other than that.
If you have lived long enough you know that the weather runs in cycles. We will have warm periods and cool periods.
The brain dead public has bought into Al Gore and his scare tactics. Please explain to me how buying carbon credits is anything but bad. If factory "A" is poluting to its maximum it is allowed to purchase carbon credits from factory "B". Now you have factory "A" poluting more than ever. So them we will have maximum polution. It's a brilliant plan devised by Mr. Gore. Of course he has already laid out the plan for buying and selling these credits and you will have to pay him for the right to do so.
Thank you Bob for going againest the popular opinion. Maybe we can create some free thinkers and stop the media and their scare tactics
Mike
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