What a difference a year makes

[Special-K]

September '09 in Atlanta


September '10 in Atlanta


Could we have a happy medium, please?

[Stamas]

Same thing here-feast or famine.

[wgrr]

It is a sign of global climate change. When it rains, sleets, hailstorms, snows there is going to be a lot more of it because warmer air holds more moisture. Temperature records are being busted left and right. The weather patterns are starting to change. Last winter Canada was warmer than usual and many parts of the US had colder than normal temps and more rain, sleet, and snow than in the last few years. Our summer here was brutal. Highs over 100f everyday with high humidity for 2.5 months. No rain at all. I could work out in it for 15 minutes before hitting the AC to cool down Then in mid September it broke and cooled off 30f in a matter of a few days.

We are also seeing tornadoes in areas not used to getting them. Don't know why but it is a change.

The worlds overall temperature has gone up 1 degree. Scientist expect a rise of 4 more degrees in 20 years. Look what one degree can do. Now imagine what 5 degrees can do.

[Special-K]

It is a sign of global climate change. When it rains, sleets, hailstorms, snows there is going to be a lot more of it because warmer air holds more moisture. Temperature records are being busted left and right. The weather patterns are starting to change. Last winter Canada was warmer than usual and many parts of the US had colder than normal temps and more rain, sleet, and snow than in the last few years. Our summer here was brutal. Highs over 100f everyday with high humidity for 2.5 months. No rain at all. I could work out in it for 15 minutes before hitting the AC to cool down Then in mid September it broke and cooled off 30f in a matter of a few days.

We are also seeing tornadoes in areas not used to getting them. Don't know why but it is a change.

The worlds overall temperature has gone up 1 degree. Scientist expect a rise of 4 more degrees in 20 years. Look what one degree can do. Now imagine what 5 degrees can do.

Puh-leeze! It's weather trends, not "climate change". Next year might be colder than normal.

[2hot2coolme]

It is a sign of global climate change. When it rains, sleets, hailstorms, snows there is going to be a lot more of it because warmer air holds more moisture. Temperature records are being busted left and right. The weather patterns are starting to change. Last winter Canada was warmer than usual and many parts of the US had colder than normal temps and more rain, sleet, and snow than in the last few years. Our summer here was brutal. Highs over 100f everyday with high humidity for 2.5 months. No rain at all. I could work out in it for 15 minutes before hitting the AC to cool down Then in mid September it broke and cooled off 30f in a matter of a few days.

We are also seeing tornadoes in areas not used to getting them. Don't know why but it is a change.

The worlds overall temperature has gone up 1 degree. Scientist expect a rise of 4 more degrees in 20 years. Look what one degree can do. Now imagine what 5 degrees can do.

Idunno about all that. I think it's just weather being weather. When I watch the news and they show record highs and lows, it's all over the place. Goes all the way back to early 19OO's. We had a really nasty blizzard in 67 then another in 79. My guess would be that it either comes in cycles or it's just plain ol Mother Nature being Mother Nature.

[wgrr]

Puh-leeze! It's weather trends, not "climate change". Next year might be colder than normal.

Keep on denying. It could be a trend but the trend is warming our atmosphere. Signs of global climate change are large swings in weather patterns and that can be hotter or cooler than normal for some areas. It is a fact. The Earth is warming up. Who knows what the reason is.

Millions of gallons of fresh water are pouring off Greenland into the Atlantic ocean due to an abnormal amount of rain (snow stays, rain does not) and in smaller part the melting of the glaciers. If the salinity of the ocean water drops below a certain point then it is possible for the Gulf Stream to shut down. The result would be a massive ice age in Europe and the upper Americas. It has happened before but we really don't know why. Maybe for some reason CO2 built up in the atmosphere and caused the same weather patterns we are beginning to see now.

The atmosphere needs CO2. Until about 200 years ago the level was around 250 ppm. Then England and other industrial revolution countries began to burn coal. Slowly the co2 levels began to rise. Today it has been determined that 350 ppm is the max to have a stable atmosphere. We are now at 392ppm.

One big regulator of co2 is the oceans. They absorb tons of CO2 to try to even out and balance the natural levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. The oceans have reached the breaking point. Ocean water has become too acidic and that makes it very hard for coral reefs, clam beds, and any hard shelled animal to make the hard shell they need to survive. That is one reason why reefs are dying off and the harvesting of shell fish is down.

Other factors play into the cooling and warming of the atmosphere. Volcano eruptions, ocean current changes and the activity of the Sun all can affect our climate. The mini ice age after the Medieval warm up may have been caused by a combination of all three.

Let's just clean up our air and start moving towards cleaner renewable energy and this will be a much cleaner planet to live on.

I bet big coal and big oil will do everything they can to thwart any efforts to move away from fossil fuels.

[Diceman]

Past year was the warmest year ever recorded.
temps have steadily increased since the industrial revolution.
Ya just can't take stuff that has taken billions of years to form deep down in the earth and burn it off in what amounts to seconds, and not expect something to happen.
Its gonna get worse, no doubt.

[amickracing]

I'm not one who believes a ton of the global warming scare. No doubt things are changing, I'm sure a good portion of it is just mother nature being mother nature (aka being an indecisive woman lol), but I'm sure humans have to play a role in it too.

My theory behind things getting warmer is probably too simple. Generally speaking it's warmer in the city vs out in the country due to a ton of factors. Well, there's more people, which makes cities bigger, and more cities too... so that makes things warmer too, and that's nothing related at all to clean air or pollution either.

I really don't think mother nature will allow us to run Earth into the ground so to speak with out a fight. But there's no harm either in living a lil cleaner and doing a few more "green" things when we can.

[itsiceman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Fhm...eature=related








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18Sua...eature=related

[Special-K]

I'm not one who believes a ton of the global warming scare. No doubt things are changing, I'm sure a good portion of it is just mother nature being mother nature (aka being an indecisive woman lol), but I'm sure humans have to play a role in it too.

My theory behind things getting warmer is probably too simple. Generally speaking it's warmer in the city vs out in the country due to a ton of factors. Well, there's more people, which makes cities bigger, and more cities too... so that makes things warmer too, and that's nothing related at all to clean air or pollution either.

I really don't think mother nature will allow us to run Earth into the ground so to speak with out a fight. But there's no harm either in living a lil cleaner and doing a few more "green" things when we can.

This is probably a reasonable way to look at it. I completely agree that we should be responsible with the planet, but at the same time I suspect our actual effect is minimal.

History tells us that the Earth has experienced temperature cycles. Since it was totally a result of natural occurring phenomenon then, it probably is now as well.

Short of a nuclear holocaust, I seriously doubt that man could have a significant effect on the planet if he tried. The Earth is incredibly resilient, it has a system of dealing with most anything we throw at it. The wackos said Mt Pinatubo (sp?) would be a disaster. It wasn't. They said the oil fires in Kuwait would cause lasting damage to the planet. It didn't. And the oceans have even handled the BP oil spill far better than we were led to believe.

The Earth would even recover from the aforementioned nuclear holocaust; though it would be a long and ugly ordeal.

So yeah...let's try and take care of her, but let's not get ridiculous about it either.

[fearlessfurnace]

Earth didn't seem to mind doing in the dinosaurs,the gorgons,and three or so other mass extintions. asnd it looks like the little buggers that first used sunlight to make sugar out of CO2 poisoned everything else with super-active O2.

[fearlessfurnace]

tThe again if the extra greenhouse effect is balancing an overdue glaciation going green will freeze us. you just can not win

[Stamas]

Past year was the warmest year ever recorded.
temps have steadily increased since the industrial revolution.
Ya just can't take stuff that has taken billions of years to form deep down in the earth and burn it off in what amounts to seconds, and not expect something to happen.
Its gonna get worse, no doubt.

Yeah, those volcanoes are something aren't they?