Climate Change, Global Warming, Flash Floods, Droughts, And Crazy Weather

[eric1978]

Sorry, no PhD, just a Bachelors Degree in Biology, Minor in Physics, and Post Graduate level courses in Pathogenic Microbiology.

Cool. Did you attend Regent University by any chance? (Just ribbin' ya...I couldn't resist.) Given your background, I'm surprised you don't have more science-based opinions. Most people in your field of expertise don't share your views.

[jdmidwest]

The Global Warming thing was more a matter of politics than science. I am not against pollution control, that is a different matter all together but it has a link to the global environmental climate as far as acid rains, cloud cover, air quality, etc. But I tend to look at things on a little broader period of time. Theories like cows producing methane gas are causing glaciers to recede is not really based on science at all, its just a far fetched notion create by a bunch of vegetarians. Glaciers have receded since the last Ice Age. There was a time when there were no glaciers. The Earth has warmed and cooled many times and they have all been due to Natural Events.

Deforestation is a big problem, trees scrub CO2 out of the air, absorb sunlight, and control the runoff. The flash floods are worse because of bare hillsides, excessive gravel from erosion, loss of riparian tree lines along streams, and more paved area. Plant more trees to increase water quality, increase air quality, and manage forests properly is my thought.

On the other side, I think we are all a little closer to hell today as hot as it has been. Man, it has been a scorcher, heat index 105. We had to tuck the boat up against the shady side of the lake this morning by 8, if we hadn't, we would have had to run the bilge pump to get the sweat out of the boat....

[Gary Lange]

John Coleman is a well respected weatherman and founded the weather channel.

Here is his take on Global Warming.

http://www.kusi.com/home/78477082.html?video=pop&t=a

[Outside Bend]

I'm not going to get into arguments about global warming, supporting or otherwise. No matter what facts people bring out to support or reject the hypothesis, people will go on believing whatever makes their lives more comfortable. Suffice it to say, I wouldn't bet my future on a guy whose gets to keep his job even if he screws up half the time

I think everyone can agree that global temperature is rising- the sticking point is whether that's due to human impacts. To me it's a non-issue: regardless of whether people caused it, changes in the planet's climate are going to have severe impacts on the way we live- whether that's a shift in weather patterns, a rise in sea level, acidification of the world's oceans, loss in biodiversity, etc.

Carbon dioxide is a a greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide is emitted during the burning of fossil fuels. Even if the current temperature shift were a natural event, wouldn't it be wise to try and mitigate our impact as much as possible, even if our impact is relatively small? If using less fossil fuels means keeping a bad situation from getting worse, I'm all for it.

[Al Agnew]

About the cows farting...leaving aside the fact that methane is produced by many human activities, as well as "natural" ocurrences that as jd or somebody pointed out, have been sped up by warming climate, it isn't just the greater numbers of cows compared to the bison that once roamed America. Most of those cows are fed for part of their lives on grain, not grass, and their stomaches aren't evolved to handle grain...it fattens them but it isn't digested as well, hence more flatulation among other things. (either I've lost my spelling proficiency or my spell check is messed up, since it says I misspelled three different words above)

I'd like to point out once more, for those who keep talking about the natural causes of warming...yep, we know of several natural things that CAN cause a warming climate...but we can't find any of them happening right now in any significant fashion.

And yes, we know the climate has been plenty warm in the past. But evidence of vegetation in Antarctica isn't necessarily a sign of a vastly warmer climate in the past, because Antarctica, like all the continents, has been drifting around (plate tectonics, another of my favorite subjects) for eons, and Antarctica wasn't always at the southernmost point on earth.