Global Cooling

[Jo-Bengt 0]

So, the world's supposed to be heating up, right?

So why the hell was I up to my knees in snow Monday in MISSISSIPPI?

And why has it snowed here like 2 times this year already, with a 70% chance of it snowing again Sunday?

I'm just sayin'.

[Arcane 12]

I think you guys stole our snow. Most winters we have tons of snow regularly, but this year was pretty dry.

Also, I think I heard that it snowed in Florida.

[Ops 2]

It snowed in Texas. A whole foot of it.

[Jo-Bengt 0]

@Arcane:

OWNED.

It feels as though it's getting colder, though. I want to know how this world is heating up if my environment is cooling down.

And the snow in Texas. TEXAS.

[Chef Nonsense 0]

Foot and half, but who's counting :/

Also a month ago there was a flash flood warning in Death Valley :/

[Ops 2]

Global warming doesn't exist. Volcanoes put out more crap in a day than we do in a decade, and volcanoes are part of the environment. It's just a cycle of global temperature.

[DocHobo 0]

You're confusing weather with climate.

Global Warning, in theory, should cause larger weather extremes.

Don't judge global climate change on the fact that we're having cold weather in our little blip of the world.

[Ops 2]

^Minus the fact that we can't really stop Global Warming, and it really only exists as part of a global cycle of ice ages, this is probably right.

EDIT: Oh wait, "In Theory."

[DocHobo 0]

^

This. Climate change has happened before and we think too highly of ourselves if we think we can change it or even affect it.

EDIT: Also, the fact that the sun is currently in the deepest solar minimum in a century might have to do with the fact that it's chilly.

[FreckleFart 0]

It's definitely warming up here. The temperature for the last couple of weeks was regularly around 38 degrees Celcius.

[Chase 390]

Global warming/cooling isn't horseshit, but there really isn't anything we can do to cause/change it. Our fuel emissions and hairsprays aren't helping anything, but they can't cause the massive change that people think they can. It's all part of a natural process.

[randomfan 0]

It's global climate change, not just global warming, and it's definitely not just a natural process. Take, for instance, the carbon dioxide levels in the Earth's atmosphere. In the past six hundred thousand years, it had never risen above 300 parts per million. Yet as soon as you hit the Industrial Revolution, when CO₂ began to be pumped into the atmosphere, levels skyrocket above that. Today they hover around 350. Fifty years from now, the CO₂ levels will be quite literally off the charts. The problem lies in the fact that Earth's temperature is very closely related to its CO₂ level. If you want to know exactly how evenly matched it is, look at this: http://www.elfrank.com/images/co2-temp.gif

So the more carbon dioxide we produce, the more temperatures will increase. Not over a period of days, but over years or centuries.

Then, of course, we get into the rapidly receding glaciers ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850 ), rising sea levels ( http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0323_060323_global_warming.html )....you get the idea. And as for changing it, there are a million little things to do - plant a tree, use bikes instead of cars (or just walk), recycle. They won't immediately stop the climate from changing but will slowly help it get back to normal.

And for an explanation of the current weather, look here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/science/earth/11climate.html

[Skippy 82]

Did anyone see where the Global Warming thing was held in Washington, D.C. to announce new information about how bad it's getting, then being cancelled due to blizzard?

[Aethix 129]

CO2 levels follow global temperature. Not the other way around. This is due to the fact that most of the CO2 in the atmosphere is released by the ocean. Higher temperatures cause the ocean to release more CO2. Man-made CO2 accounts for only an extremely small fraction of the CO2 in the atmosphere.

Also, there are many glaciers that are advancing, and many of the retreating glaciers are not melting, but simply calving. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_calving)

Also, keep in mind that we are still emerging from the Little Ice Age, which accounts for most of the warming. Hysteria has alternated between global cooling and global warming for the past half-century or so, which averages out to about... normal. These are natural cycles that have occurred throughout the history of the Earth. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Warm_Period) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_Earth)

Finally, a lot of the data that supports anthropogenic climate change theory has been proven to be false. Remember climategate? How about the infamous Hockey Stick Graph? The scientists who argue for the existence of anthropogenic climate change don't want to release their raw data. Why do you think that is?

[randomfan 0]

Heard of greenhouse gasses? Carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere and blocks heat from escaping into space, thus causing a rise in temperature. The oceans do release most of the CO₂ that enters into the atmosphere, but that only hurts matters, leading to further buildup and creating an awful Catch-22. Human activity accounts for 28,431,741,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions ), and that's only counting the emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Deforestation and drainage of lakes and oceans cause even more carbon to be released.

Secondly, why do you think the glaciers are calving? Yes, ice calving can be caused by completely natural events, but it has not been nearly as frequent or as extreme in the past. When an iceberg broke off of a shelf and floated by Australia a little while ago, it was called a "once-in-a-lifetime event." (The iceberg was also twice the size of Hong Kong, and could be seen from space.) All of the major ice calving incidents listed in the article you referenced have all happened within the past fifty years. And if there are glaciers still advancing, then where are they?

The Little Ice Age may have something to do with the warming, but it certainly doesn't account for the sharp temperature spike that has occurred in the past century and a half. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years ) And again, the natural cycles (which ones, by the way?) have nothing on the present. Really, two feet of snow on the East Coast? That's completely unnatural.

What data has been proven false? I haven't heard any instances of it, nor have I heard of any scientists refusing to release data. Their data can be found all over the Internet, not to mention in libraries or universities. However, I have noticed a startling lack of data proving that climate change isn't greatly affected by human activities.