“In the '70s the same people were telling us to prepare for another ice age!”
That’s what put them on to global warming. Climate cycles predicted a drop in average temperatures, but they kept climbing. It’s a very small amount, but if nothing changes, most of the Earth’s population will be under water unless they move or a lot of dikes are built. It’s certainly worth looking at.
It's a very small amount, but if nothing changes, most of the Earth's population will be under water unless they move or a lot of dikes are built. It's certainly worth looking at.
MAYBE…that’s the point. Predicting it has become a major problem. According to predictions just 10 years ago…less then 5% have become true. That’s why many scientists are now saying…predicting is a problem.
I agree with MB that it’s become too politicized. Neither side wants to sit down and discuss it rationally. It’s like that political earth group that has held up the I-93 project here in NH. Costing taxpayers MILLIONS in the process. They want ALL cars to be banned from the roads…NOT some…but ALL cars. Remember that idiot CarsCauseCancer???
Well, since we’re on that subject now, here in Beantown the mayor’s office is looking at the range of projections for rising sea levels in this area (anywhere from 2 to 6 feet in the next 100 years, depending on how fast Greenland and Antarctic ice melts) and seeing the potential for historic portions of Boston (Quincy Market, Faneuil Hall, etc) to be flooded by so-called “100 year” storms. Meaning that, if the sea does rise 6 feet, a storm of the severity that can be expected every 100 years or so would flood a significant portion of Boston.
It also means that coastal areas in Massachusetts that currently can be expected to flood every 100 years or so could flood as often as every 2-3 years.
This is not from a regulatory agency or an industry, but from a mayor’s office trying to think ahead about how to deal with the likely consequences of climate change as it affects Boston’s people, buildings, and property.
Mayor Menino is preparing for possibilities in the future, as he should be, but the problem is that nobody rally knows how much of the projected difference is contained in the normal earth climate cycles amd how much is man made. Remember too that solar activity has a great and huge impact on the Eath’s climate, and eath’s climate has been changing and cycling for its entire existance of…what…4.5 billion years?
As I said earlier, decades ago the air and waterways were clearly being polluted. The Clean Air and Water Act and its regulatory body, the EPA were clearly needed. But IMHO now they’ve spun way out of control and become a growing federal beaurocracy, an out of control bully monster. And the predicers of gloom & doom have such a poor record of predicting climate change and have become such a political/big business group, that I lack confidence in their predictions. As do many scientists.
From National Georaphic:
"After just a few days of intense melting this month, nearly the entire of the surface of Greenland’s massive ice sheet had turned to slush, NASA images show—the fastest thaw rate since satellites began keeping score 30 years ago.
It may be tempting to link the event to global warming, but scientists say such melts might occur every 150 years. If such rapid thaws become common, though, they could add to already rising seas, experts say."
They go on to say that 50% of Greenland’s ice melts in July, but this year it was all of it. Yes, the may or Boston should be concerned. It’s lot less expensive to take steps in the next 20 years than start when the issue becomes urgent.
There’s nothing wrong with preparing for any probably scenarios. I agree that the rising of sea levels is a distinct possibility…But many scientists are still unwilling to make such predictions.
Mumbles Menino is just preparing for possibilities. And remember that the shore line in Boston use to be at the Old North Church. All that is fill from North Church to where the shore line is now.
Yes, and that’s a problem many coastal cities have…low-lying areas that were reclaimed with fill that will be more flood-prone when sea levels rise.
My oldest son is a climatologist working in the field and he has stated that he’s never been polled about the global warming theory and hasn’t run across any others in the field who has. He’s also stated that if there’s a poll or survey then hew would like to see it and know the details behind it.
Provide a link to that survey.
Scientific work should also use the double-blind method and that’s not being done, pure and simple. The science is being corrupted by the politics and as the leading hurricane scientist Dr. William Gray stated a few years ago, the scientists who lean in favor of the issue garner much better research grants than those who don’t.
MikeinNH, you state your daughter has done work at MIT with professors but you did not state in what field. Is MIT the end all to the discussion?
Speaking of fading glaciers and rising sea levels, I might add that the Great Lakes and Yosemite National Park in CA were carved out by glaciers and the area where I live in OK used to be an ocean. Currently my area is in the process of becoming mountains but it’s fairly unlikely that I’m going to be around to see it.
MikeinNH, you state your daughter has done work at MIT with professors but you did not state in what field. Is MIT the end all to the discussion?
Of course not…never said it was. The point I was making…was that these professors are on the forefront of much of the theories and research. They are considered some of the leaders in this field.
As for a survey…UMM…that’s not the way it actually works…As with most scientific research…when the research is done papers are written and peer-reviewed. Based on the papers being published…very very few are arguing that Global Warming isn’t happening…And very few are arguing that Humans don’t have a hand in it. The papers that are being published now are now mainly debating the predictions and how much influence man is making. There are many papers on both sides of the debate on human influence and predictions.
The research paper I linked to in my earlier post I thought was one of the BEST arguments that Global Warming does exist. It was funded by a Scientist who’s been saying Global Warming was NOT occurring AND funded by the Koch brothers who were trying to prove that Global Warming was a hoax. And he came to the OPPOSITE conclusions that he was trying to prove and what the MONEY was intended to prove.
As for skeptics…it’s the nature of GOOD science. Anyone who’s worked in the scientific field knows that. Look at the history of scientific discovery. When Einstein came out with his theory of relativity almost all scientists around the world were extremely skeptic of it. Scientists everywhere tried to disprove his theory. His theory has stood 70+ years of scientific tests after tests…If you look at Global warming theory…it was considered hogwash when first published…but after some 50 years of test after test after test…most scientists have started to accept it as fact. How do you know this…because no papers are being written debating it anymore.
Again…MOST scientists are NOT making any predictions. And many don’t know how long it will last…or will the Earth make adjustments to compensate. There are already signs that it’s happening right now. Global Dimming is an example of this.
One of the arguments against global warming has been that the scientists are being paid to say that Global Warming is happening. Well as I stated earlier…MOST money that’s been spent on this research in the past 50 years has been by companies like Exxon to actually disprove it. They have outspent NASA and other entities by a factor of 10 or more. And then there’s research done in other countries like Chile and India. Both economically emerging countries who’s best interest is to disprove that global warming is not happening…yet most of the research out of those countries shows that global warming IS happening. My daughter spent 3 months in South America doing research. While her research isn’t directly related to global warming…she met several in Chile and Argentina who said it’s pretty much a given fact for them that Global warming is happening.
I understand human activity is contributing to global warming, but this is not an unprecedented occurrence. Global warming is a threat, is it reversible, or just postpone-able. Actually my 2 big concerns today are solar activity and shifting of the magnetic north pole,
Global warming is a threat, is it reversible, or just postpone-able. Actually my 2 big concerns today are solar activity and shifting of the magnetic north pole,
I’ll agree with that. As I stated…most scientists are just not making predictions because there’s just too many other factors that make predicting too uncertain.
We’re currently in a magnetic shift right now. But no one knows how long it’ll take. Some say up to a thousand years…others day less then a decade. Every 50,000 years or so the poles have done a shift…not too sure how that effects us. Humans were around the last time of the shift.
Speaking of getting free energy from water, unfortunately this answers half of my rhetorical question as to the whereabouts of Drs. Pons and Fleischmann: