Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966. The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January "was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average." China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized cities went days and even weeks without electricity because once power lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them. There have been so many snow and ice storms in Ontario and Quebec in the past two months that the real estate market has felt the pinch as home buyers have stayed home rather than venturing out looking for new houses...
...And remember the Arctic Sea ice? The ice we were told so hysterically last fall had melted to its "lowest levels on record? Never mind that those records only date back as far as 1972 and that there is anthropological and geological evidence of much greater melts in the past. The ice is back. Gilles Langis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, says the Arctic winter has been so severe the ice has not only recovered, it is actually 10 to 20 cm thicker in many places than at this time last year....
...According to Robert Toggweiler of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University and Joellen Russell, assistant professor of biogeochemical dynamics at the University of Arizona -- two prominent climate modellers -- the computer models that show polar ice-melt cooling the oceans, stopping the circulation of warm equatorial water to northern latitudes and triggering another Ice Age (a la the movie The Day After Tomorrow) are all wrong....Last month, Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, shrugged off manmade climate change as "a drop in the bucket." Showing that solar activity has entered an inactive phase, Prof. Sorokhtin advised people to "stock up on fur coats." FULL STORY
So now we're seeing new evidence of climate change, but that change involves global COOLING. And the cause? A decrease in solar sunspot activity, the same thing that caused the little ice age in the 1300s. I think this story is well-timed given that all three leading Presidential candidates believe in man-made climate change and taking measures to curb this so-called crisis. I wonder how those beliefs will hold against this emerging evidence. If the global warming alarmists had their way, we would be bound to the Kyoto treaty and our economy would be in shambles as a result. Now what?
If these people still believe that human activity causes global warming, then would they support INCREASING our fossil fuel use in order to offset the looming cool spell that we face? Only if it means America signing a treaty that puts us at a disadvantage in the world market.
I've always said that the climate is a very complex and intricate thing and there is much we don't know. Human-induced climate change is more about international politics than science, and the evidence has always been lacking. Now we see that perhaps there are other factors at play. Thank goodness reasonable minds prevailed when it came time to decide on Kyoto.
Al Gore has not commented on this latest scientific data.
4 comments:
I wonder how those beliefs will hold against this emerging evidence...
And this is ONE report from ONE study that needs to be considered. As are the multiple reports from multiple studies that indicate that human activity may be affecting global climate.
These ALL need to be considered, evaluated and parsed as we consider policy. But, given that we KNOW that human activity negatively impacts our environment (from smog to water pollution to sprawl to runoff and on and on and on), the evidence is already in that we need to reconsider energy and transportation policy IF we are concerned about morality, justice and the environment.
The possibility of human impact on the environment is just ONE of multiple reasons to push for changing our policies.
Yes, Pollutants & Global Warming.
Someone should let our Weather Czar
Al Gore know that China & India are
the two major polluters of the 21st
Century, not the USA. reb
__________________________________
www.lazyonebenn.blogspot.com
There is no question that human activity has caused climate change for thousands of years. B/f the Bronze Age, Greece was a Garden of Eden. Then the Greeks cut down most of their forests to smelt bronze with dire results on the landscape and the local climate.
A few days ago a read an article about a study showing the American west is much dustier since about 1850 b/c of grazing, mostly by cattle.
Regards.
The Loop Garoo Kid
Al Gore has not commented on this latest scientific data.
Al Gore wouldn't comment on it, seeing how he already got his pat on the head from the Nobel Prize people, and seeing as how it doesn't fit in with his views. I watched his movie, and what Gore considers "research" conveniently ignores all scientific results to the contrary of his opinion.
Global Warming is a fad. Back in the early 1900s they blamed the Titanic wreck on Global Cooling for Christ's sake. Nice job tracking down these articles.
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