More on Climate
A week or so ago, I tried my best to lay out what I thought was a reasonable position on man-made global warming, while at the same time criticizing some of the Al Gore-type over-hype that's out there as climate change evangelists, to put it charitably, get out ahead of the current science.
In a similar manner, I thought this article by Ron Bailey does a pretty good job at trying to find some stable ground in the climate change debate.
markm:
One thing Ron Bailey missed: "All of the various data sets, surface thermometers, satellites and weather balloons, now show global average warming of about +0.16 degrees Celsius per decade since 1979."
That's cherrypicking a startpoint with an especially low temperature to make the increase look bigger. IIRC, temperatures in the 1970's were lower in the 1920's. The alarmists were yammering about an impending ice age. Instead, the cycle bottomed out and the temperatures started rising overall. While it is clear that temperatures have been rising for more than a century, 1976-2006 is no more representative of an overall trend than February-August would be (10 degrees temperature rise per month where I live).
August 7, 2006, 5:54 amfuturegeek:
Something interesting to consider. Quote:
"Gore points out that temperatures and carbon dioxide go up in tandem over the last four ice ages. But wait—Gore fails to mention something interesting. Temperatures go up first and then the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases some 800 or more years later. The one interpretation is that orbital changes start periods of warming which then affect ocean circulation such that the oceans begin to release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which leads to further warming. In any case, current carbon dioxide levels are 27 percent higher than they have been in the last 650,000 years."
Basically, ice cores show that warming starts, then CO2 increases. This is the first case in which CO2 has increased first and kicked off warming. It seems quite likely that various feedbacks will intensify natural CO2 emissions as the earth warms further, and CO2 levels will skyrocket - no matter what we do to reduce our emissions.
That's what's scary about global warming.
August 7, 2006, 5:16 pm