Dumb Question RE: Global Warming

[romantico]

I could be wrong, so I want to run this by DU first. I thought the term "Global Warming" is the earth's atmosphere warming causing irregular weather paterns. These people who talk about how cold it is and global warming are actually taking the term "Global Warmng" too literal. That it is in fact the extreme cold winters and extreme hot summers that are global warming.

Now, if thats true these people who roll their eyes about how cold it is and global warming are just idiots who need to be corrected.However, if I am incorrect, than its I who needs to be corrected. Thnaks everyone!!!

[Eugene]

1. Climate is about averages and totals, not a single event.

Average temperatures are up worldwide and the the cumulative effects are starting
to show in the environment, like disappearing glaciers and thawing permafrost.
We still get some cold days, just not as many as we used to.

[romantico]

2. So am I correct?

I don't want to counter an argument in the future if I am way off here.

[Hav]

5. .

I think you are not wrong. Also, for the reasons you mentioned, many prefer the term global climate change.

[Czolgosz]

20. The phrase "global climate change" is Frank Luntz created Repub speak selected because it is less

threatening than "global warming" according to focus group research.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Frank+Luntz%22+%22global+climate+change%22&btnG=Google+Search

[Odin2005]

21. I thought scientists prefered "climate change" becaus it sounded less simplistic.

GW isn't "just" an increase in global temperatures, it is changes in rainfall patterns, biome distribution, etc.

[Czolgosz]

25. Frank Luntz would be very pleased that you believe that. Here's some information about the shift in

terminology:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1185292,00.html

George W. Bush's campaign workers have hit on an age-old political tactic to deal with the tricky subject of global warming - deny, and deny aggressively.

The Observer has obtained a remarkable email sent to the press secretaries of all Republican congressmen advising them what to say when questioned on the environment in the run-up to November's election. The advice: tell them everything's rosy.... The email - sent on 4 February - warns that Democrats will 'hit us hard' on the environment. 'In an effort to help your members fight back, as well as be aggressive on the issue, we have prepared the following set of talking points on where the environment really stands today,' it states.

...

But probably the most influential voice behind the memo is Frank Luntz, a Republican Party strategist. In a leaked 2002 memo, Luntz said: 'The scientific debate is closing but not yet closed. There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science.'

http://www.ewg.org:16080/briefings/luntzmemo/

Luntz advises that, “’Climate change’ is less frightening than ’global warming.’ ... While global warming has catastrophic connotations attached to it, climate change suggests a more controllable and less emotional challenge” (p. 142).

And, despite years of intensive study by and near-universal scientific agreement that global warming is happening and that human beings are at least contributing to it, Luntz urges his readers to assert that the country needs more accurate, “up-to-date” information before deciding to take action. By coaching his clients and allies to portray the scientific community as divided on the issue when it is not, they can block action on the problem while appearing well intentioned.

I'm not suggesting that Luntz was the first person to utter the two words "climate" and "change" in succession, but he is the one who focus tested all of the different terms occasionally used to describe global warming and who, based on those focus group results, impelled the Repub party to use the phrase "global climate change" instead of "global warming" because people were catching on that global warming was a bad thing.

[Eugene]

8. You are right to a point.

Global warming will change weather patterns. Some extreme events like hurricanes and
droughts will be more numerous and more severe.

However, a link between global warming and to specific events, like Hurrican Katrina
is much harder to prove.

Overall climate and weather patterns are changing. The key words here are "global"
and "overall."

[porphyrian]

3. You need to watch An Inconvenient Truth.

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

[Homer12]

4. Your Correct

Also, the earth has been warming since the last ice age.

They'll counter with this (if they are smart enough), but the argument is is that the human release of greenhouse gasses is speeding up the process of global warming and is not a natural buildup of CO2 from teh global carbon sink.

Basically, people are adding more Carbon gas into the atmosphere than would normaly be released by non-human actions.

[Australian]

6. RE: Global Warming

As Eugene says, Average temperatures are up worldwide and the the cumulative effects are showing. However, commonsense suggests because there is more heat in the system there are new dynamics being created; warm waters where they didn't use to exist, or maybe hotter air being driven towards the poles forcing the cold air out. A thousand new things happening which it'll probably take the experts a few years to figure out. So you may get a few cold blasts or the rain may be at an unusual time of year as a side effect of the earth warming.

One thing is for certain, irrespective of who is to blame, the planet is warming unusually fast and the already damaged environment is going to lose a lot of its bio-diversity.

[idealistMO]

7. benchmarks needed

There are sceptics that need convincing....ever since the headlines in the 1970s pushed the "Second Iceage Coming" and "Global Cooling" scare.

It would be a great service to the world if these scientist could give us predictions of what the temps would be in the next few years, so that we could point to the datat....and also --MAKE PREDICTED CLAIMS ABOUT RISING SEA LEVELS -- so that there wil no longer be any doubt about this horrific threat.

If they could predict that the Sea Levels would rise like 10 inches over the next 10 years - then there would be no place for the sceptics to hide. It's time the scientist play hardball and place their chips on the table

[yardwork]

12. So far, the actual events are exceeding the established benchmarks

The melting of glaciers, for instance, is proceeding much faster than predicted.

The benchmarks and warnings have been made, and are continuing to be made. You won't find the stories reported on Fox News, though.

[idealistMO]

14. I'd realy like to see this data

Do you have links for this info? I have tried to find some cold - hard numbers about predictions, but I cannot seem to find anything on GOOGLE about average Planet Temps and rising sea levels.

When I try to use glacial melt data - I get people saying that some ice packs are increasing -

Where can I get sea levels and average global temp data??? That would be the best argument for me to use.

Thanks in advance

[Odin2005]

22. Very few scientists subscribed to the "global cooling" BS.

That was mostly the result of bad science writing and the rantings of kooks.

Anthropogenic Global Warming, on the other hand, is accepted by nearly every climatologist.

[PhilipShore]

9. I know virtually nothing about the science of Global warming...

but I think Global warming is the correct way to describe the way pollution, is destroying our planet. Global warming is generally -- slowly -- warming up the planet and causing our weather patterns to go out of cycle; which mother nature wants, thus causing Katrina's, and diseases such as AIDS, and the Bird Flu, etc., and the infection of Repukes, whom like vultures profit off of death and destruction, and the wars that will develop when countries fight over control of water rights, etc.

[pitohui]

10. i'm going to suggest you take the meta approach of not discussing the matter w. stupid people

no real scientist is in doubt about global climate change, and you do not need to engage in arguments with people who don't know what they are talking about

what difference does it make if billy bob still thinks there is no global climate change? billy bob's opinion is an irrelevance, just as his opinion that the world is flat was an irrelevance in the days of cristobal colon

in other ways, don't waste your breath arguing with fucktards, as a scientific matter it has already been decided and non-scientists don't get to vote on matters of fact

"it still moves" whether or not billy bob thinks so, global climate change is a fact whether or not your neighbor is an idiot

i've learned you can save a lot of time if you don't worry about what stupid people think

what they think doesn't matter, the earth is a globe spinning about the sun in outer space regardless of what stupid or religiously insane people read in a 6,000 year old book

you can't argue with the delusional so don't bother with it

you wouldn't try to teach a moron calculus, don't try to teach him meteorology (which uses calculus and lots of other math too)

[Cetacea]

17. thank you for that post

I feel saner as a result of your words of wisdom. I get too upset with these types and it doesn't do my health much good.

[BoneDaddy]

11. Overall the last

12 years have yielding the warmest 10 years overall of world temps on record.

We need to harken back to our freshman year earth science classes where we learned about ecosystems. The world is one massive ecosystem made up of incredibly complex processes.

Global warming is not some simple process. The earth seeks homeostasis and balance. As it warms it offsets climates throughout the world, that is why we have had such a drastic climate events in the past couple of decades.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. Yes & No

The term is literal. The overall mean temperature of the earth is seen as rising over the last couple of centuries. So, the earth is getting warmer, and that means it's not about irregular weather patterns, it's about GLOBAL WARMING.

That being said, the manifestation of the phenomenon, in a more granular, year to year, month to month view, is less predictable weather patterns. In fact, the change in climate tends toward total chaos, so in fact, NOBODY really knows exactly what's going to happen. And most reputable climate scientists admit that. They simply cannot project future climatic events because of the chaotic state of the atmosphere, exacerbated by temperature shifts.

So, a single cold winter is apropos of nothing, because the averages have to be taken over EVERY SPOT ON THE PLANET and averages over years and decades, not based upon one cold week in February 2007.

This is, however, typical of conservative thinking. Everything is based upon one convenient data point and then the entire conclusion is extrapolated from there. Never mind that it takes millions of data points to draw a conclusion, "it was cold in Miami in February, therefore global warming is a myth." The only answer i have to that is, duh!

You can try to correct them, if you want. I don't think you'll succeed.
The Professor

[idealistMO]

15. But what happens when temps across North Am.

.....reach record lows? Shouldn't a planet experiencing Global Warming .... at the least .... trend away from record low temps. We are experiencing one of the coldest winters in quite a long time I had one of my stupid co-workers ask me when the Global Warming was going to start. I told him it already has started, and that we were most likely beyond the point of any corrective measures.... He laughed, and that realy pissed me off!! What could be more important than this issue. He doesn't think it's going to hurt him....I guess evolution will sort him out.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Too Little Data

North america is about 1/14th of the surface of the earth. And mid-December to mid-January was was not terribly cold. I played golf three times in December, for goodness sake. And i live 50 miles south of Chicago.

The temps have to include the oceans, the layers of atmosphere, etc. And, if we have 10 days in a row of mean North American temps in the 90's, then that quickly erases this period.

And, we had the hottest summer in years in the midwest 2 years ago. So, for people like your co-worker, the memory is apparently far too short.
The Professor

[Odin2005]

23. Weather is not Climate

[TZ]

18. and did you see the quote

I think it was last week from some dude who said that because that there has been evidence of climate change in the past (which he tossed out as probably due to "dinosaur flatulence") that the change now can't possibly be man made. BTW the single most indicator of the right wing absolute ignorance of the importance of the subject is that the period he was referring to is the period of the greatest mass extinction of species in history. So even if you think its not man made wouldn't that teensy little fact worry you?!??! Talk about flatulence.:eyes: :mad: :dunce:

[Orsino]

19. Not just the atmosphere, though.

Air, water and even land are affected. The Earth's carbon cycle is an enormous heat engine, and funny things happen when you suddenly begin trapping more heat in it. A lot of extra energy gets pumped into winds and ocean currents, and air masses (hot and cold) become more mobile. Though the average effect is a rise in temperatures, temperature extremes increase, too. Most models include some sort of ice age in Europe, as the Gulf Stream is no longer pushed in that direction by the Arctic polar cap.

As Stephen Colbert said the other night, "climate" is just liberal weather. Look beyond the daily weather reports at climate patterns, and changes are already apparent.

[Czolgosz]

24. Warmer atmospheric air during the winter generally allows for more snow because warmer air has a

greater ability to hold water vapor and therefore more snow. Global warming will not necessarily mean less snow or even milder winters in any given spot on the globe (for example, the global warming will likely affect the flow of the warming Gulf Stream and result in significantly colder winters for Ireland and Britain which are warmed by the Gulf Stream).