Global Warming Fast Facts
Scape @ Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:14 pm
There is little doubt that the planet is warming
Arctic_Menace @ Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:43 pm
Good read scape. Keep up the good work. 
Constantinople @ Thu Jun 09, 2005 2:20 pm
$1:
There is little doubt that the planet is warming. Over the last century the average temperature has climbed about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 of a degree Celsius) around the world.
Whoop-dee-doo. Krakatoa erupted in the 1880's and decreased the world temperature by half a degree celsius over 5 years. Perhaps the Earth's temp is finally getting back to normal? Perhaps St. Helen's eruption debris is finally settling now?
Aanii @ Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:08 pm
I work weird, long hours and I'm ashamed to say I rarely get past the front page of the Globe and Mail lately. Basically I check out BBC World and CBC if it isn't too late and CNN for headlines (taken with a grain of salt).
I really appreciate your posts. The one yesterday about Jimmy Carter calling for an end to Guantanamo was great too.
About this particular article on global warming - I was reading something recently from the Utne Reader and if I could find the blessed thing, I would quote it. (Sorry).
People keep talking about what is going to happen if we don't do something---I think what is going to happen has already happened and is in motion. It won't stop me from recycling and watching my energy use and monitoring my water waste - but at this point, I think the best we can hope for is to Maintain. I wish I felt more optimistic. 
Aanii
Scape @ Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:08 pm
$1:
Since the 1860s, increased industrialization and shrinking forests have helped raise the atmosphere's CO2 level by almost 100 parts per million -- and Northern Hemisphere temperatures have followed suit. Increases in temperatures and greenhouse gasses have been even sharper since the 1950s.
Water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide also contain heat and help keep Earth's temperate climate balanced in the cold void of space. Human activities, burning fossil fuels and clearing forests, have greatly increased concentrations by producing these gases faster than plants and oceans can soak them up. The gases linger in the atmosphere for up to 100 years, meaning that even a complete halt in emissions would not immediately stop the warming trend they promote.
Water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide also contain heat and help keep Earth's temperate climate balanced in the cold void of space. Human activities, burning fossil fuels and clearing forests, have greatly increased concentrations by producing these gases faster than plants and oceans can soak them up. The gases linger in the atmosphere for up to 100 years, meaning that even a complete halt in emissions would not immediately stop the warming trend they promote.
So in comparison, without a volcano, we are doing far worse, faster over a much longer period of time with a profoundly deeper effect.
Greenland's ice sheet could melt, that would probably change the world as we know it on a permanent basis. Extreme weather could become common and at higher latitudes the warming will be far more profound. The rise is nearly twice the global average. In Barrow, Alaska (the U.S.'s northernmost city) average temperatures are up over 4 degrees Fahrenheit (2.5 to 3 degrees Celsius) in 30 years.
Constantinople @ Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:13 pm
Scape Scape:
$1:
Since the 1860s, increased industrialization and shrinking forests have helped raise the atmosphere's CO2 level by almost 100 parts per million -- and Northern Hemisphere temperatures have followed suit. Increases in temperatures and greenhouse gasses have been even sharper since the 1950s.
Water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide also contain heat and help keep Earth's temperate climate balanced in the cold void of space. Human activities, burning fossil fuels and clearing forests, have greatly increased concentrations by producing these gases faster than plants and oceans can soak them up. The gases linger in the atmosphere for up to 100 years, meaning that even a complete halt in emissions would not immediately stop the warming trend they promote.
Water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide also contain heat and help keep Earth's temperate climate balanced in the cold void of space. Human activities, burning fossil fuels and clearing forests, have greatly increased concentrations by producing these gases faster than plants and oceans can soak them up. The gases linger in the atmosphere for up to 100 years, meaning that even a complete halt in emissions would not immediately stop the warming trend they promote.
So in comparison, without a volcano, we are doing far worse, faster over a much longer period of time with a profoundly deeper effect.
Greenland's ice sheet could melt, that would probably change the world as we know it on a permanent basis. Extreme weather could become common and at higher latitudes the warming will be far more profound. The rise is nearly twice the global average. In Barrow, Alaska (the U.S.'s northernmost city) average temperatures are up over 4 degrees Fahrenheit (2.5 to 3 degrees Celsius) in 30 years.
Very interesting. Perhaps Krakatoa's child, Anak Krakatau, will erupt sometime soon and give us more time to ponder.
canucker @ Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:28 pm
$1:
The multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report recently concluded that in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia, average temperatures have increased as much as 4 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit (3 to 4 degrees Celsius) in the past 50 years.
I thought it would be alot higher than that. It definately feels like it sometimes.
$1:
When Montana's Glacier National Park was created in 1910 it held some 150 glaciers. Now fewer than 30, greatly shrunken glaciers, remain.
Wow.
$1:
Worldwide some 100 million people live within 3 feet (1 meter) of mean sea level. Rises of just 4 inches (10 centimeters) could promote flooding in many South Sea islands, while in the U.S. Florida and Louisiana are at risk.
I wonder if that will mean me as well living in Richmond. Time to move.
$1:
The gases linger in the atmosphere for up to 100 years, meaning that even a complete halt in emissions would not immediately stop the warming trend they promote.
Scary.
Scape @ Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:30 pm
More study isn't going to make the problem go away. We know why the problem is there and we know how we are contributing to it. It is suicide at this point to ignore it.
Aanii, I agree that we must become the change we want to see. One person may be the 1st step required to combat the problem, in concert the process can be arrested. A applaud your efforts and at this rate it looks that the only solution is a bottom up approach as world leadership seams woefully inadequate to the task. A responable assesment of the situation at hand is not likely and baby steps like Kyoto are doomed to be stuck in political quagmire while our planets health hangs in the balance.
Constantinople @ Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:36 pm
How do you know it's not just Earth's time of the eon?
Robair @ Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:22 pm
White House doctored climate change reports
shocked? Me niether.
Scape @ Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:30 pm
TheUSofA1776 TheUSofA1776:
How do you know it's not just Earth's time of the eon?
Because the eon baseline is shifting.
Constantinople @ Thu Jun 09, 2005 7:10 pm
Uh, Scape. No. Did you actually mean to use that link? 
Aanii @ Fri Jun 10, 2005 6:07 am
Turns out it wasn't in the Utne Reader - it was online. I belong to a Quaker Social Justice discussion group and one of its members, Karen Street, an engineer and teacher in California, has a blog on another site (are you still with me?) 
:
http://pathsoflight.us/musing/index.php
I admire this lady so much - she refuses to give up on our planet. I find her ardour inspirational. Be forewarned though, she flipping Breathes science. I once asked her about turn-around time in working to clean up a river and she passed my query on to some major scientific site---sooooo embarrassing. Almost went blind, using an online dictionary and a massive bibliography, trying to figure out the response.
Miigwetch.
Aanii.
ManifestDestiny @ Fri Jun 10, 2005 6:17 am
How do we know its our fault is that not a human trait to think it is out fault are we that egotistical WE have only been keeing records since the mid 1800's what the hell do we know and btw 10'000 years ago there was a glacier that covered all of the northeast US from cap cod to long island. How do you think it melted? Cause the Earths climate changed. Did we do that too?
Tman1 @ Fri Jun 10, 2005 6:40 am
NYCisHome NYCisHome:
How do we know its our fault is that not a human trait to think it is out fault are we that egotistical WE have only been keeing records since the mid 1800's what the hell do we know and btw 10'000 years ago there was a glacier that covered all of the northeast US from cap cod to long island. How do you think it melted? Cause the Earths climate changed. Did we do that too?
Can someone translate this into a complete coherent paragraph please?