| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
18 Feb 2005 08:38:13 AM |
| Object: |
New proof that man has caused global warming |
From The Times OnLine, 2/18/05:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1489955,00.html
New proof that man has caused global warming
From Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent, in Washington
The strongest evidence yet that global warming has been triggered by
human activity has emerged from a major study of rising temperatures
in the world’s oceans.
The present trend of warmer sea temperatures, which have risen by an
average of half a degree Celsius (0.9F) over the past 40 years, can be
explained only if greenhouse gas emissions are responsible, new
research has revealed.
The results are so compelling that they should end controversy about
the causes of climate change, one of the scientists who led the study
said yesterday.
"The debate about whether there is a global warming signal now is
over, at least for rational people," said Tim Barnett, of the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.
"The models got it right. If a politician stands up and says the
uncertainty is too great to believe these models, that is no longer
tenable."
In the study, Dr Barnett’s team examined more than seven million
observations of temperature, salinity and other variables in the
world’s oceans, collected by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, and compared the patterns with those that are
predicted by computer models of various potential causes of climate
change.
It found that natural variation in the Earth’s climate, or changes in
solar activity or volcanic eruptions, which have been suggested as
alternative explanations for rising temperatures, could not explain
the data collected in the real world.
Models based on man-made emissions of greenhouse gases, however,
matched the observations almost precisely.
"What absolutely nailed it was the greenhouse model," Dr Barnett told
the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in
Washington.
"Two models, one designed in Britain and one here in the US, got it
almost exactly. We were stunned. They did it so well it was almost
unbelieveable."
Climate change has affected the seas in different ways in different
parts of the world: in the Atlantic, for example, rising temperatures
can be observed up to 700 metres below the surface, while in the
Pacific the warming is seen only up to 100m down.
Only the greenhouse models replicated the changes that have been
observed in practice.
"The fact that this has gone on in different ways gives us the chance
to figure out who did it," Dr Barnett said.
"All the potential culprits have been ruled out except one.
"This is perhaps the most compelling evidence yet that global warming
is happening right now, and it shows that we can successfully simulate
its past and its likely future evolution. The statistical significance
of these results is far too strong to be merely dismissed and should
wipe out much of the uncertainty about the reality of global warming."
Dr Barnett said the results, which are about to be submitted for
publication in a major peer-reviewed journal, should put further
pressure on the Bush Administration to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol,
which came into force on Wednesday.
"It is now time for nations that are not part of Kyoto to reevaluate
and see if it would be to their advantage to join," he said.
"We have got a serious problem ahead of us. The debate is not have we
got a clear global warming signal, the debate is what we are going to
do about it."
In a separate study, also presented to the conference, a team led by
Ruth Curry of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Connecticut has
established that 20,000 square kilometres of freshwater ice melted in
the Arctic between 1965 and 1995.
Further melting on this scale could be sufficient to turn off the
ocean currents that drive the Gulf Stream, which keeps Britain up to
6C warmer than it would otherwise be.
"It is taking the first steps, the system is moving in that
direction," Dr Curry said.
"The new ocean study, taken together with the numberous validations of
the same models in the atmosphere, portends far broader changes. Other
parts of the world will face similar problems to those expected, and
being observed now, in the western US.
"The skill demonstrated by the climate models in handling the changing
planetary heat budget suggests that these scenarios have a high enough
probability of actually happening that they need to be taken seriously
by decision-makers."
___________________________________________________________
We'll have to live with the impending disaster, folks, the energy
companies and auto makers can't afford to give up their obscene
profits. So get over it.
Harry
.
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| User: "Rincewind" |
|
| Title: Re: New proof that man has caused global warming |
18 Feb 2005 09:13:55 AM |
|
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On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 14:38:13 +0000, Harry Hope mumbled something like
this:
We'll have to live with the impending disaster, folks, the energy
companies and auto makers can't afford to give up their obscene profits.
So get over it.
Harry
You are correct, but it's probably too late anyway. Even if *all* man made
greenhouse gas emissions were stopped completely today, the GGs currently
existing in the atmosphere would probably be sufficient to continue to
cause warming for many years before being absorbed by the natural cycles.
Also, the new evidence about the ocean temperatures should be sounding
alarm bells about the huge methane hydrate deposits worldwide. If the
warming releases them, it's serious trouble.
I suspect that the only possible way to avert disaster is one or the
other of the schemes to leech GGs from the atmosphere into a solid form
and bury them. This should be started sooner rather than later and it
should be a world wide effort.
Expensive in the here and now, but the benefits include a world fit for
our descendants to inhabit.
--
Rinso
/\
/ \
/wizz\
~~~~~~~~~~~~
.
|
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| User: "Alex Smith" |
|
| Title: Re: New proof that man has caused global warming |
18 Feb 2005 11:43:08 AM |
|
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I have an SUV that I worked hard for and I am NOT going to stop using it. We
live in a world where people are free and I celebrate that freedom. If it
gets too hot I'll turn up the Ac, if it gets too cold I'll turn up the
heating, if the sky darkens I'll turn on the lights, and if the sea rises
I'll move uphill. That's freedom, and we should ensure that our children
have that same freedom.
"Rincewind" <rinso@unseen.edu> wrote in message
news:pan.2005.02.18.15.11.50.358060@unseen.edu...
On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 14:38:13 +0000, Harry Hope mumbled something like
this:
We'll have to live with the impending disaster, folks, the energy
companies and auto makers can't afford to give up their obscene profits.
So get over it.
Harry
You are correct, but it's probably too late anyway. Even if *all* man made
greenhouse gas emissions were stopped completely today, the GGs currently
existing in the atmosphere would probably be sufficient to continue to
cause warming for many years before being absorbed by the natural cycles.
Also, the new evidence about the ocean temperatures should be sounding
alarm bells about the huge methane hydrate deposits worldwide. If the
warming releases them, it's serious trouble.
I suspect that the only possible way to avert disaster is one or the
other of the schemes to leech GGs from the atmosphere into a solid form
and bury them. This should be started sooner rather than later and it
should be a world wide effort.
Expensive in the here and now, but the benefits include a world fit for
our descendants to inhabit.
--
Rinso
/\
/ \
/wizz\
~~~~~~~~~~~~
.
|
|
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| User: "ouroboros rex" |
|
| Title: Re: New proof that man has caused global warming |
18 Feb 2005 01:59:52 PM |
|
|
"Alex Smith" <alastair.clare@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:cv59fc$56e$1@hercules.btinternet.com...
I have an SUV that I worked hard for and I am NOT going to stop using it.
Yes, I guarantee you, you most certainly will. lol
We live in a world where people are free and I celebrate that freedom.
By using it to steal. lol
If it gets too hot I'll turn up the Ac, if it gets too cold I'll turn up
the heating, if the sky darkens I'll turn on the lights, and if the sea
rises I'll move uphill. That's freedom, and we should ensure that our
children have that same freedom.
For a thousand bucks a month, right? lol
What's going to happen to your children in *your* version of the world is,
they or their loved ones'll be killed in food riots and oil wars because you
and your pals were idiots for fun, and the whole planet had to gang up to
stop you. But if no one knocks you in the head until you believe it, it
can't happen, right? lol
It's pigs like this that will be the death of America.
"Rincewind" <rinso@unseen.edu> wrote in message
news:pan.2005.02.18.15.11.50.358060@unseen.edu...
On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 14:38:13 +0000, Harry Hope mumbled something like
this:
We'll have to live with the impending disaster, folks, the energy
companies and auto makers can't afford to give up their obscene profits.
So get over it.
Harry
You are correct, but it's probably too late anyway. Even if *all* man
made
greenhouse gas emissions were stopped completely today, the GGs currently
existing in the atmosphere would probably be sufficient to continue to
cause warming for many years before being absorbed by the natural cycles.
Also, the new evidence about the ocean temperatures should be sounding
alarm bells about the huge methane hydrate deposits worldwide. If the
warming releases them, it's serious trouble.
I suspect that the only possible way to avert disaster is one or the
other of the schemes to leech GGs from the atmosphere into a solid form
and bury them. This should be started sooner rather than later and it
should be a world wide effort.
Expensive in the here and now, but the benefits include a world fit for
our descendants to inhabit.
--
Rinso
/\
/ \
/wizz\
~~~~~~~~~~~~
.
|
|
|
|
| User: "Swiss Observer" |
|
| Title: Re: New proof that man has caused global warming |
18 Feb 2005 02:21:29 PM |
|
|
On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 17:43:08 +0000 (UTC), "Alex Smith"
<alastair.clare@btopenworld.com> wrote:
I have an SUV that I worked hard for and I am NOT going to stop using it. We
live in a world where people are free and I celebrate that freedom. If it
gets too hot I'll turn up the Ac, if it gets too cold I'll turn up the
heating, if the sky darkens I'll turn on the lights, and if the sea rises
I'll move uphill. That's freedom, and we should ensure that our children
have that same freedom.
I hope this person enjoys his "freedom" while he can. As Rincewind
implies (and all reputable climatologists agree), the last chance is
now (I work for an environmental IGO, and even I suspect that it's
actually too late). I only wish I could be there to see this poor
person's face when he finally realizes how blusteringly, swaggeringly
stupid he has been.
He's going to solve the problems of global warming by turning up his
air-conditioning!
"Rincewind" <rinso@unseen.edu> wrote in message
news:pan.2005.02.18.15.11.50.358060@unseen.edu...
On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 14:38:13 +0000, Harry Hope mumbled something like
this:
We'll have to live with the impending disaster, folks, the energy
companies and auto makers can't afford to give up their obscene profits.
So get over it.
Harry
You are correct, but it's probably too late anyway. Even if *all* man made
greenhouse gas emissions were stopped completely today, the GGs currently
existing in the atmosphere would probably be sufficient to continue to
cause warming for many years before being absorbed by the natural cycles.
Also, the new evidence about the ocean temperatures should be sounding
alarm bells about the huge methane hydrate deposits worldwide. If the
warming releases them, it's serious trouble.
I suspect that the only possible way to avert disaster is one or the
other of the schemes to leech GGs from the atmosphere into a solid form
and bury them. This should be started sooner rather than later and it
should be a world wide effort.
Expensive in the here and now, but the benefits include a world fit for
our descendants to inhabit.
--
Rinso
/\
/ \
/wizz\
~~~~~~~~~~~~
.
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