Global warming

[Drunken Monkey]

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http://www.nasca.org.uk/Strange_reli...ternative.html

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http://www.nasca.org.uk/Strange_reli...ced_world.html

Skyryder

hahahahahahahaha those Nasca guys are funny. Have you seen some of those other articles! I haven't had such a good laugh for...well since Tennis on Wednesday night, but you get the drift...

[thehollowmen]

The world has dealt with huge changes in tempreture before.

Think about if we increase the sealevel, we get a huge mass more of photoplankton due to the increased surface exposed to the sun which acts as a massive carbon sink.

Now, lets think about this nicely. Does anybody remember what happened in 1739? (Come on, some of the cruiser rides must be this old )

The Thames froze over in summer.
Nothing grew until 1742.

And it is believed that the "global conveyer" the gulf stream was changed forever by the cold tempretures.

If the world can survive that and bounce back without any ill effects (asside from the mass graves) I'm not too worried about it.

[Skyryder]

Polarity Reversal has been measured through archaeological evidence at up to 6 degree's in a day...this will cause...problems!
Have not previously heard of 'tilt'

Never heard of tilt untill I came across a site on it. Sure is scary if that happens. Has it happened? What evidence is there.

The general consensus in scientific community is that polarity reversal takes a few thousand years. I'ts not something that happens overnight. There is some speculation that the evolutionary cycle of both plant and animal life occurs at a time when the magnetic poles are paralell with the equater. At this point the van Allen belts dissapasitae allowing radiation to reach the earth and altering genetic material. I don't have an opinion on this one way or the other but it may explain the abrubt changes in plant and animal life from one epoch to another.

Skyryder

[MisterD]

The general consensus in scientific community is that polarity reversal takes a few thousand years.

Actually it can happen really quickly, there's lava flows where they can see that the polarity has changed within the days/weeks it has taken for the molten rock to cool.

[Skyryder]

For those of you who don't believe in gloabal warming how come all the ice is melting or is that just cock and bull too.

Skyryder

[Jantar]

Where is all this ice that's melting? Some facts rather than just repeating emotive hysteria would be appreciated.

There has been a significant ice melt in the Antartic Peninsula, however this only accounts for 5% of the Antartic ice mass, and the remainder of the antartic continent is cooling and the ice is thickening.

Globally, surface temperature records are showing a significnant rise in average temperature, but this rise is not duplicated by radio-sonde balloon and MSU atmospheric temperature records.

Sea levels are forever changing on a local level, but on average are remaining constant. Have a look at http://www.john-daly.com/deadisle/index.htm for an analysis of sea level changes at Tasmania.

Or have a look at http://www.john-daly.com/ for another side to the global warming story.

[Winston001]

For those of you who don't believe in gloabal warming how come all the ice is melting or is that just cock and bull too.

Skyryder

I don't think most posters are saying exactly that. There is evidence of some sort of global warming. What does need to be debated is whether it is a trend, a blip, manmade, or part of the Earths cycle. Or the suns cycle. Afterall, the sun has a far greater effect every minute in terms of energy pushed into the biosphere.

The time scale we operate on is infintesimal compared to geologic time. As above, I well remember scientists predicting an iceage, back in the 1960-70s. So a 180 degree change in 30 years merely points to how little we really know.

There is no conspiracy of scientists. In fact the idea is laughable. If you know scientists, they can't even agree on tea or coffee for afternoon tea. The whole ethos of science is to challenge and test data - and then disagree with each others theories.

The one thing which can be good about the global warming issue is that we will be scared into cleaning up our environmental destruction. No more dumping chemicals carelessly into water and the atmosphere. That has got to good for our kids.

[Jantar]

I should have mentioned the main reason for the surface temperatures to be rising like they are when the atmospheric temperature is changing very slowly.

Most surface temperature records are taken in large towns and cities. As these urban areas grow, so does the amount of concrete, tar, steel and other heat absorbing materials. Vehicles burn most of their fuel in cities, and electricity generated in rural areas is consumed in cities. So city temperatures rise. This is called the Urban Heat Island effect or UHI.

Then some cities councills want to show their area in a more favourable light to attract tourists, and they will move their temperature guages from cooler areas to warmer areas to show higher temperatures. eg Dunedin moved their recording thermometer from Mussleborough where it is between the ocean to the south and the Otago harbour to the north (always cold) to Momona airport on the Taieri where it is almost always 3 degrees warmer.

Wanganui is trying to do something similar, but wants to move the thermometer away from the airport. See http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11964-5323968,00.html

[Winston001]

Or have a look at http://www.john-daly.com/ for another side to the global warming story.

Which brings us to another point on the issue. The media seem to seize onto dramatic stories and drive them by competing for the worst case. Global warming has grabbed the medias attention and there are articulate environmentalists whom they can turn to for quotes.

Reporting the other side of the story isn't on the agenda. "Steady as she goes" or "we just don't know" doesn't make very good copy - so the astonished opponents of global warming don't get a mention in the popular press.

There was a study done last year that showed warming stories totally dominated news and conferences. And yet there were copious scientific publications and articles arguing other points of view which were never picked up by politicians or the media. Basically all these other guys were ignored because they didn't conform to the "disease of the decade".

[oldrider]

The sky is falling, the sky is falling! I know because chicken little said so.
In 30yrs they will be concerned with global cooling. What next? Cheers John.

[Pixie]

The problem isn't really 'global warming' as such, its that some scientists are being paid off the scare-monger us into thinking humans are the cause.

We live in a particularly unusual state of the Earth in geological time, an inter-glacial, which is partway between a total ice-age and a 'global' tropical environment. Throughout most of the the Earth's 4,600,000,000 years in this solar system the Earth was 'quite' warm and didn't have frozen polar caps - as far as the Earth is concerned, that is the 'normal' state. The melting of the polar ice-caps are inevitable (unless we really stuff around with the Earth's weather systems).

On top of this, don't you think it seems odd that the same people who tell us our cow's farts, cars and hairspray are causing these effects, yet simultaneously tell us Mt Pinatubo pumped out more 'greenhouse' gasses in 91/92 than man's entire history since the start of the industrial revolution. This much greenhouse gas was only able to make global weather changes that balanced back to 'normal' in less than 3 years. This is only a 'blip' in the grand scheme of weather patterns, hardly doom impending stuff.

Also, did you see the article a couple of weeks ago about the satellite imagery and study that showed trees produced methane - the largest methane concentrations were over the South American and African rainforests. They conveniently skimmed over the fact the chart indicated there was less concentration over industrial Europe and USA.

Heresy!
How dare you speak lies against the Green Religion?

News Flash- Euro greens force legal requirements that diesel be blended with Biodiesel.
The price of canola and palm oil rises and becomes very attractive cash crops.
Farmers in S.E. Asia and Sth America increase destruction of rain forests to plant palm and rape.
-New Scientist.

[terbang]

Whew safe by about 100M..

[Drunken Monkey]

Heresy!
How dare you speak lies against the Green Religion?

...because I formed my opinions after studying marine and environmental sciences at University and a general interest in all scientific research; I don't base it on media hype and agenda-funded rot.