A taste of what the future may hold
2007 anticipated to be the warmest year on record.
The big question everyone has been asking recently: is this incredibly mild weather a result of global warming/climate change? To an extent I believe it most definitely is. But El Nino is mostly to blame. However, no one knows for sure if there is a link between the two as the number of El Nino events has increased in the past decade or two alongside GHGs.
"British climate scientists predict that a resurgent El Niño climate trend combined with higher levels of greenhouse gases could touch off a fresh round of ecological disasters — and make 2007 the world's hottest year on record."
"The El Ninos have become increasingly severe and frequent through the 1980s and 1990, leading to suggestions that they are being affected by global warming, caused by an increase in heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the upper atmosphere. Global warming could make the El Nino a permanent feature of the world's weather system, warn some scientists. El Nino events occur on average every five years, and last up to 18 months. However research now suggests that they are now occurring every three years. In the last decade alone there have been five. "
The thing about El Nino and climate change is that it's not always about warm temperatures, it's more about random and extreme events - like the ice storm of '98. We've been lucky so far this winter to have had such pleasant weather but I can't see that lasting for too much longer. The weather network, one of my favorite channels, just gave their long range forecast and next Sunday is supposed to be 9 degrees with rain, the following day to be -10 with snow and the day after that back up to 4 degrees with more rain. That's an unusual temperature shift; mind you I'm sure that forecast will change five times between now and then.
It's nice that at least more and more people (especially the media and gov't) seem to be paying more attention, it's just too bad it had to get to this point before they bothered dealing with it. It's one thing to talk about taking action, but we desperately need to act now. As much as I despise John Baird, I really hope he gets something done. Of course, when the Conservatives came to power just last year, they cut most of the funding for climate change programs then came out with a "Made-in-Canada" plan with a Clean Air Act that was nothing more than a joke. Now all of a sudden it's their biggest priority. And what do you know... there is talk of a Spring election. Big surprise.
I feel sometimes like I'm looking in from the outside at a world stumbling carelessly toward the edge of a cliff, soon to plunge straight into the depths of hell. It's amazing to me how we've allowed ourselves to get this way. It's an absolute disgrace. We've come SO far in the past few hundred years and especially in the last century, and we're throwing all that away because we're too focused on trivial things when we should be extremely grateful for and enjoying every single moment of our frivolous way of life, not to mention the incredibly beautiful planet with which we live and entirely depend on for survival. It's so illogical to me and I just can't understand this stupidity.
There are lots of great people out there doing incredibly good things for humanity and the planet, but unfortunately all their effort is not nearly enough to fix all our problems. There are so many people that would rather ignore these horrible things and go on living in the fantasy world, pretending like everything is ok and relying on the government to take care of these problems (while most of the people I know that go on this way, don't even vote!). Our survival requires millions -- billions of people to collectively change the way they think and live. But soon enough we won't have that option.
We live in a society where more and more things are disposable. I think what people don't tend to think about is that there is no 'away' to throw things to. Unless these items are biodegradable, which the majority aren't and most contain harmful chemicals, these items get shipped off to the landfills where they will sit and rot for decades. It's really horrible and people just don't think about those things. They would rather have the convenience of buying a Swiffer and be able to just toss the dirty cloth in the garbage and that's it - you're all done. It's disgusting to me and absolutely unnecessary.
Obviously, I care very strongly about these issues even though some days I wonder what's the point, and really just wish everyone else was on the same page as me. I know that will never happen which is very sad and discouraging, but I must go on trying to convince people to change their habits, even if it means I annoy the hell outta my friends. Some people laugh at me for some of my comments, and that's fine, I laugh along with them, but I don't think they completely understand exactly how serious I am when I say certain things like "could you please turn off your car" or "you better recycle that bottle!". Every single action we take needs to be taken with much greater responsibility. People absolutely must consider the result of their actions.
"Over the next two or three decades, we will see a trend of just more frequent warm spells and less frequent cold snaps," said Jerry Meehl, a climatologist.
But these changes are not limited to just warm weather. Colorado's third big snowfall in a month also fits a pattern long predicted for global warming.
The warmer the air, the more moisture it can hold, which leads to heavier precipitation of rain or snow.
Scientists say there are always immediate causes contributing to warm spells, such as the current warm El Nino patch that's appeared again in the Pacific.
But El Nino, like everything in earth's climate, is influenced one way or another by manmade global warming.
Climate scientists in the United Kingdom calculate that the current El Nino, combined with the additional warming effect of the increasing manmade greenhouse gases mean a better-than-even chance that 2007 will be the hottest year on earth since records have been kept.
The 10 hottest years on record have been in the past 11 years.
The big question everyone has been asking recently: is this incredibly mild weather a result of global warming/climate change? To an extent I believe it most definitely is. But El Nino is mostly to blame. However, no one knows for sure if there is a link between the two as the number of El Nino events has increased in the past decade or two alongside GHGs.
"British climate scientists predict that a resurgent El Niño climate trend combined with higher levels of greenhouse gases could touch off a fresh round of ecological disasters — and make 2007 the world's hottest year on record."
"The El Ninos have become increasingly severe and frequent through the 1980s and 1990, leading to suggestions that they are being affected by global warming, caused by an increase in heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the upper atmosphere. Global warming could make the El Nino a permanent feature of the world's weather system, warn some scientists. El Nino events occur on average every five years, and last up to 18 months. However research now suggests that they are now occurring every three years. In the last decade alone there have been five. "
The thing about El Nino and climate change is that it's not always about warm temperatures, it's more about random and extreme events - like the ice storm of '98. We've been lucky so far this winter to have had such pleasant weather but I can't see that lasting for too much longer. The weather network, one of my favorite channels, just gave their long range forecast and next Sunday is supposed to be 9 degrees with rain, the following day to be -10 with snow and the day after that back up to 4 degrees with more rain. That's an unusual temperature shift; mind you I'm sure that forecast will change five times between now and then.
It's nice that at least more and more people (especially the media and gov't) seem to be paying more attention, it's just too bad it had to get to this point before they bothered dealing with it. It's one thing to talk about taking action, but we desperately need to act now. As much as I despise John Baird, I really hope he gets something done. Of course, when the Conservatives came to power just last year, they cut most of the funding for climate change programs then came out with a "Made-in-Canada" plan with a Clean Air Act that was nothing more than a joke. Now all of a sudden it's their biggest priority. And what do you know... there is talk of a Spring election. Big surprise.
I feel sometimes like I'm looking in from the outside at a world stumbling carelessly toward the edge of a cliff, soon to plunge straight into the depths of hell. It's amazing to me how we've allowed ourselves to get this way. It's an absolute disgrace. We've come SO far in the past few hundred years and especially in the last century, and we're throwing all that away because we're too focused on trivial things when we should be extremely grateful for and enjoying every single moment of our frivolous way of life, not to mention the incredibly beautiful planet with which we live and entirely depend on for survival. It's so illogical to me and I just can't understand this stupidity.
There are lots of great people out there doing incredibly good things for humanity and the planet, but unfortunately all their effort is not nearly enough to fix all our problems. There are so many people that would rather ignore these horrible things and go on living in the fantasy world, pretending like everything is ok and relying on the government to take care of these problems (while most of the people I know that go on this way, don't even vote!). Our survival requires millions -- billions of people to collectively change the way they think and live. But soon enough we won't have that option.
We live in a society where more and more things are disposable. I think what people don't tend to think about is that there is no 'away' to throw things to. Unless these items are biodegradable, which the majority aren't and most contain harmful chemicals, these items get shipped off to the landfills where they will sit and rot for decades. It's really horrible and people just don't think about those things. They would rather have the convenience of buying a Swiffer and be able to just toss the dirty cloth in the garbage and that's it - you're all done. It's disgusting to me and absolutely unnecessary.
Obviously, I care very strongly about these issues even though some days I wonder what's the point, and really just wish everyone else was on the same page as me. I know that will never happen which is very sad and discouraging, but I must go on trying to convince people to change their habits, even if it means I annoy the hell outta my friends. Some people laugh at me for some of my comments, and that's fine, I laugh along with them, but I don't think they completely understand exactly how serious I am when I say certain things like "could you please turn off your car" or "you better recycle that bottle!". Every single action we take needs to be taken with much greater responsibility. People absolutely must consider the result of their actions.
"Over the next two or three decades, we will see a trend of just more frequent warm spells and less frequent cold snaps," said Jerry Meehl, a climatologist.
But these changes are not limited to just warm weather. Colorado's third big snowfall in a month also fits a pattern long predicted for global warming.
The warmer the air, the more moisture it can hold, which leads to heavier precipitation of rain or snow.
Scientists say there are always immediate causes contributing to warm spells, such as the current warm El Nino patch that's appeared again in the Pacific.
But El Nino, like everything in earth's climate, is influenced one way or another by manmade global warming.
Climate scientists in the United Kingdom calculate that the current El Nino, combined with the additional warming effect of the increasing manmade greenhouse gases mean a better-than-even chance that 2007 will be the hottest year on earth since records have been kept.
The 10 hottest years on record have been in the past 11 years.
posted by erinvironment @ 5:00 PM
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