In the link above is perhaps the best of those I have seen, giving a comprehensive view of what is considered in climate change and greenhouse gas.
Nothing can be considered, unless we look at 30 year cycles, over-all world and specific land and ocean variables.
This is truly a tremendous amount of information. The complexity of the climate system is no small matter, and though a lot has gone into this, we have really not had the needed ability until very recently. This has frustrated the goal of comprehending the affect of the various green house gases, natural and man made.
This article is written in language most can understand. Is "snowmageddon" really outstanding? If you are 50 or older, no. If you are 30 or younger, it is perhaps the most snow you have ever seen. Is this event just out my own window?, no. It has affected Europe, China, the US and much more. Has this ever happened before? most definitely yes. The Media has also directly increased our own knowledge of world wide events of weather. This is a perception that drives a fear, which is frankly not there. Weather has always been active, it is just now we see it all in our own living room.
To gain a good perspective, most scientists agree, there is a lot of work to do. What changes we have seen could be driven by green house gases, however they also create a self starting "cooling" affect like an air conditioner in the atmosphere. It is quite possible that, frequent weather events caused by green house gases may well produce a reverse affect, and evidently this is happening, cooling. The most evident affect is more concentrated events.
The over-all climate changes cannot yet be specifically attributed to CO2, however the concentrated affects can be.
This is the more aggressive climate, stabilizing itself. We should consider that, CO2 is perhaps the most prominent pollution, but not the most damaging.
Other factors such as natural climate changes in ocean currents will often override any changes we may predict.
In essence what we want to know is what to be prepared for.
The misconceptions have been wrong. One example was the prediction of continuous rise in temperature.
This is a false prediction. Greenhouse gases can and have caused a severe drop in temperature in the US for example, and caught an entire country off-guard.
Another false prediction was, increased hurricanes in the gulf. This prediction also failed. The normal change in ocean currents had a far more direct affect on hurricane activity, and the predicted, never-ending hurricane activity in the gulf, never happened.
We are now looking at predictions with respect to the glaciers, and in this came more knowledge with respect to a much larger earth climate cycle and the assumption that greenhouse gas was responsible for glacial ice melt. The expedition teams found a very different answer from those who simply flew over the glaciers and made assumptions. The gathering soot from burning is a more direct cause, and the fact the CO2 is colorless gas became apparent.
Soot has been found to be from coal burning and rain forest burning, and this however is now going to have caused a very real possibility the glaciers will totally melt from the normal change in ocean currents, coupled with warmer surface temperature of the oceans.
This very complex relationship of natural and man made changes is what we truly need to know.
The false predictions by politicians has in fact left us in serious trouble. The needed forestation to keep wildfires manageable, the preparations for cold and extreme winters, and needed flood prevention measures have all been cast to the wayside over false claims on national and international scale.
In the coming years we may find that reaping uranium from Africa will impact the area severely all to no gain. We already have enough uranium for the next 100 years.
For our own sake, we need to know. The false understanding of climate change has led to disaster, not the other way around.
For us older folks, a snowy winter and white Christmas is normal now and then. It does not mean the Vikings are coming with a new ice age, nor does it indicate that the coming summers will be drastically hot. These are cyclic and no real science points to any apocalypse or snow-apocalypse.
The over reactive state of our media will however scare the pants off of us, with shock and awe. Next we may hear, earthquakes are a result of "global warming". Or that the moon is affected and will fly away.
The real important thing is to know that we really do not know enough yet to make predictions as much as we wish we could.
So far the most damming predictions have just not been true, What has been true is the exaggerated affects, of green house gas.
And we also have a lot of conflicting data, value added data, and even fudged and tricked data. This isn't a deliberate act of weather terror.
What it is, is the result of not having enough data to be truthful.
The core of the earth is just as hot as it was 100 years ago, and the bottom of the ocean is still close to 32 degrees F
These extremes far out weigh anything we are ever going to do to the earth.
Our real problem is to stop overpopulation, reaping and thinking our earth can deal with our consistent growth.
Perhaps we all should turn off the TV and take a deep breath.
Our real problems are our responsibility, in world community, care, and being green.
Merlyn
