well, it seems almost certain that the globe is warming



I think the main thing up for debate at this point should be what the cause is.. and what the outcomes might be.



I find it pretty mind-boggling that people actually argue over whether or not it is occurring.

That volcano bit cracks me up. I don't know where he heard that volcanoes create more CO2 than man, but most of the stuff I 've read fluctuates between Volcanoes 7%/Man 93% and Volcanoes 15%/Man 85%. In any case, it's there. The "natural cycle" argument could plausibly be true, but there is some evidence to the contrary.

Margolove... I strongly disagree with you. The globe is most certainly not warming. It's freezing. I can't take the bitter cold anymore!



I thought global warming was suppost to make artic climates like mine heat up. :)



I agree with being responsible for out planet. It is all we have. We need to do every thing in our power to protect this fine blue planet and it's lesser inhabitants.



What I don't agree with is the panic. While global warming would cause many places to become unihabitable... It would make others much more (inhabitable... I mean). I also heard this thing that says that sun spots are responsible for much of our weather and climate. Which is why I don't like that many (not all) scientists point the finger directly at us.



The plain and simple fact is that we should be "turning green" because we need to considerate users of this planet... not because if we don't life as we know it will end.



Thank you for your patience.

"Global warming doesn't exist - it's cold today!"



Ahahaha..

I just did some extra credit about what causes global warming.



Did you know 137 species of plant and animal become extinct every day because of loggers in the rain forest?

Wow...I honestly didn't expect to get this much response...

I am glad that people are recognizing the need to go green, and yes, there is evidence that the global temperature is increasing, I merely meant that there is debate as to why.

I blame Al Gore, he's a witch.

He invented the internets, only a witch could think of such an amazing device.



would you like to date on me?

Obviously a witch. It only makes sense ;)

The problem is that so many of the arguments against the best theory we have right now on climate change start with "I heard this thing once" and then go on to talk about sunspots or volcanoes or something else that is just not supported by evidence. We don't know exactly how much of the climate change is caused by us, but the best evidence points to a significant amount. Right now, because its such a complex system, that's the best answer we have.

You tell 'em, Ian!

But global warming is a good thing! The beach will be closer!

ahaha



But doesn't isn't the weather cyclical? So, we should have been expecting this right?



Personally, I think we're all doomed, but that might just be the inner drama queen inside me.

The weather is cyclical, but the cycles work around a baseline that is generally fairly stable - its like a slinky laying on the ground. God that's a stupid simile, but I'm sticking with it. When its laying on flat ground, the one side of the slinky is high and the other end is low, which is still true about the slinky if you put it on an angled surface, its just that the high end is higher and the low end is also higher.



I apologize again for the lameness of the sideways slinky simile (hereafter referred to the 3S). Hi Khol - long time no write.

Oh! That makes sense and I loved the simile. I find that it's hard not to come up with cheesy sounding similes when you need to explain something.

Where have you been? Too busy killing zoops?

http://www.dontpaniconline.com/designaposter/entry/?id=1047



vote for me plwease

Taking a break from microgenocide actually. Real tiring. I have a lot of writing and editing to do - working on getting a paper published on some zoops that the birds I used to work with eat, and the changes (*cough* unprecedented climate-based changes *cough*) that we've seen in the birds' diets. Mostly going blind on computer screens. How are you?

ianrose -- good simile! I think I might steal that one.



I had some dumb kid tell me that global warming doesn't exist/isn't made by humans/isn't serious, partly cause any warming is caused by bacteria and fungi.

The thing to keep in mind is that we DONT KNOW that we are causing climate change. We're pretty sure that we are, and all the best evidence says that we are, but science doesn't PROVE things. We have to allow for the 2% possibility that we're totally misinterpreting the data - I just feel more comfortable going with the 98% chance we're not.

ahahahahahaha "microgenocide" that is the best thing I have heard all day, and it's been a pretty shitty day.

You're writing a paper? And you're gonna have your name in PRINT!? That is so awesome, you must tell me where I can get a copy.



They need to figure out a way for the computer screen to not hurt your eyes after you've been working on it for so long. I've already learned braille and added braille letters to my keyboard.

It's really not that big of a deal - you pretty much have to go to your college library to find this kind of thing - not exactly selling at Borders, but yeah, if you wanted to check it out, I'd totally send you a link to it.



Why's it been a shitty day? Let's compare shitty day notes.

i think that everyone should listen to the following:



if it is so easy to fix, why hasn't it already been fixed?

everyone keeps acting like this won't be a big deal to get rid of, even though it is going to cost billions and seems literally impossible to stop.

I don't agree that it's impossible to stop. If we've learned one major new thing in the last ten years, its that climate is WAY more sensitive than we thought it was. Which means its sensitive to decreasing carbon as well as sensitive to increasing it. When we call it impossible, we give up and then its impossible. We're pretty fucking clever monkeys - we just need the will to do it.

Is it in a journal?

Gimmie the link!



Here are my notes:

-I work up late (45 minutes to be exact)

-I had an exam (Which I did not prepare for as I should have)

-I got stuck in traffic (Because I work up late)

-I was late for my class (The class in which I had the exam)

-For my next class my prof was 14 minutes late (The policy is that if he is 15 minutes late the class gets cancelled. We just needed one more minute!)

-In the parking lot, a tow truck had parked behind my car, (to jump-start someone elses car) and he refused to move it!



I can't think anymore. Ugh.



Your turn.

I blame global warming entirely on cow farts.

Sorry kholla. All of those things suck.



I also got up late, but its because I've been so completely snowed over with work this past week that I've been getting like three hours of sleep a night. My main breaks have been to go to soccer practice, which is like my 2 hours of joy a week, it seems. Or to go to therapy, which is less like joy and more like a chore. Don't want to go into that, so won't.



I had a date this past week, which I stopped work to go to and went back to work after. It was okay, just not great, which caps a long run of sort of blah personal life stuff.



That's about it, I guess. Today is like a half-day, just out of necessity. I got a little work done this morning, but I was just staring at it without doing anything so I stopped, watched Lost, ate chicken and now I'm here.

I'm just happy that I have tomorrow off. Thank God.



I'm sorry about your crappy day.

Working out bring me joy too, I love running. I always sucked at soccer, I don't have the eye-foot coordination for it.



I want some chicken. I think I might make some tonight. Oh! and cake, I must bake my cakes.

You should totally bake your cakes.

I'm doing the Threadless cake decorating competition!

I'm probably gonna lose, but I'd rather bake/decorate cakes than do my work.

There are only a few scientists who are debating it, and they are funded by industry lobbyists. Scientists are in near universal agreement, but you couldn't tell by the way the media plays up the so-called debate.

Agreed, J-Ray, kind of. There is the closest thing to consensus that can exist in a healthy scientific community. It's good to have other theories out there - disproving them makes the dominant theory that much more attractive and solid, but yes, the media is always going to want debate.

Kholla's cakes FTW.

I keep reading stuff that says last year was the hottest year on record since some year in the 1600s.



...what the heck made it so hot that year?

Well the scientific community is not known for jumping to conclusions.. they've been studying and debating global warming for decades.



Denial is often a convenient escape from responsibility.

The stuff about individual years is really hard to take anything from. Some years are hot. But the fact that the seven hottest years on record are all in the last twelve or so, that's a bit more convincing.

Antarctic ice core measurements relate that before industrial emissions began the atmospheric CO2 levels were about 280 parts per million (ppm) by volume.



The same ice cores show that CO2 concentrations shifted within the range of 260 and 280 ppm during the 7,000 years before industrial emissions.



This is the evidence that points people to believe that the increase is solely due to human activity.



HOWEVER!



Studies looking further back as well as using evidence from stomata of fossilized leaves suggest greater variability, with CO2 levels being above 300 ppm 7,000-10,000 years ago which discounts the likelihood that this current increase into 280ppm is unnatural.



Though others have argued that these findings more likely reflect calibration/contamination problems rather than actual CO2 variability.



Which is complete bullshit since you're not allowed to discredit the data showing that it may be a naturally cyclic fluctuation but still retain use of the data showing it may be human caused when all the data came from the same anylization



Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the concentrations of many of the greenhouse gases have increased. The concentration of CO2 has increased by about 100 ppm (i.e., from 280 ppm to 380 ppm). The first 50 ppm increase took place in about 200 years, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to around 1973; the next 50 ppm increase took place in about 33 years, from 1973 to 2006. [2]. Many observations are available on line in a variety of Atmospheric Chemistry Observational Databases. The greenhouse gases with the largest radiative forcing are:

oops I meant to clarify... that last paragraph was a direct quote from something else to show that from 1973 on we've had a decrease in severity of ppm increase indicating that we're moving in the right direction if it happens to be our fault.

Frankly, I'm a little concerned about all of the ice core, pollen sort of data. Indirect measures, especially when you're dealing with tens of thousands of years, just don't have the fidelity that we sometimes like to pretend they do. I'd prefer to concentrate on the direct measurements, and use the indirect long-term stuff as a footnote at best.

Oh I'm with you. I was only pointing out the above specifically for the sake of lighting the contradiction that they want to use the data that makes us look bad while discounting the data from the same testing process that makes us looks less guilty. :-)

The direct data is pretty damning on its own though. Even if you decrease the rate at which CO2 concentrations are rising, they're still rising, and that decrease in increase (aWhaaaaa?) is not nearly leveling off.

It was so beautiful this morning (after a bit of rain), then we had a sun shower and now I it looks like we are getting hit by a monsoon.

It looks so freaky outside!



THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END! SAVE YOURSELVES!

Nice knowing you, kholla. I'll miss you when your state gets blown away.

When you look at the history of the Earth as a whole the last few thousand years have really been a short, comfortable "vacation" from the cataclysmic weather the Earth is used to. Heck, it's only been about 10,000 years since the last ice age ended.



So since the Earth is apparently heating up again -- whether or not we are to completely or even partially to blame -- it would be stupid for us to not take it seriously and try everything within our power to stop or slow the process down.

I'll still come to the blogs while I'm floating in the Atlantic.

hxcassandra was right...it is a big issue and generally it is made to sound simple, but we all know how hard habits are to break, and there's a lot more to things than just not driving as much.



However...if everyone says "it's too big, I won't make a difference" then no difference will ever be made. 5 million people saying they don't make a difference makes a BIG difference.

you should do some reading on the hysteria surrounding eugenics that existed from the late 1800's to the mid 1940's



Now you will ask "what does eugenics have to do with global warming"

Well it was a issue of many prominent scientists and thinkers and politicians getting all worked up and claiming doomsday because of the imminent deterioration of human genes.



Now the science was eventually debunked but not before the intellectual community, education institutions, media and ultimately the public at large were sure that the end was around the corner. - They took drastic measures to try and stop it from happening, unfortunately those measures ended up in the unlawful imprisonment, sterilization, and castration of many innocent people. Eugenics was considered good science and social policy in America and europe until Hitlers great eugenics plan was revealed at the end of the war and eugenics went out of fashion.





So when you are ready to "buy" what the majority of intellectuals say and prepare for imminent doom, remember that most everyone (especially those who think highly of their opinion) is full of shit.

^ sorry, i forgot no one reads long winded posts

yeah Im pretty sure there is no global warming Because its snowing here in michigan in fricken April!

Superpope and Isaboa should be listened too.

I agree, Isaboa, you make a good point. Scientific urgencies seem to come and go. Fact is, regardless of whether or not Global Warming is valid, the harm we are doing to our plant through extracting the oil (destruction of natural habitats, oil spills, so on...) is a big issue in itself.