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billvon

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For a long time now, the people denying global climate change have been gradually changing their approach. They have gone from "the climate isn't changing" to "well, maybe it is, but we have nothing to do with it" to "so what if it changes a little, it might be good." The people warning about catastrophic changes in ecosystems were regularly ridiculed as alarmist activists who had some sort of political agenda.



Are you generalizing 'those people' into one singular entity, Bill?

The problems with the reefs is a bit more complex than "global warming kill them." Bleachings have happened in the past - water temps do vary. See El Nino for examples. And then the reef recovers.

I do have a hard time beliving that global warming killed a majority of reef in one year. The temp didn't move that much. And why don't these monitoring stations have temperature data? Or more likely, why wasn't that information in this press, er news release?

Pollution is a serious problem in the Caribbean that destroys a lot of the reef. As bad as unskilled divers are with thrashing legs, they don't do nearly as much damage.

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>Are you generalizing 'those people' into one singular entity, Bill?

Nope. No more than people who believe that climate change is a big issue are a singular entity. They often hew to specific messages, though - witness RushMC's agreement with the message I stated as his.

>The problems with the reefs is a bit more complex than "global
> warming kill them." Bleachings have happened in the past - water
>temps do vary. See El Nino for examples. And then the reef recovers.

Of course. Increased water temperatures kill them; other things kill them too. It would be as big a mistake to kill them with TNT, or with nuclear waste, as it would be to kill them with warmer water.

>I do have a hard time beliving that global warming killed a
>majority of reef in one year.

It had to happen sometime. That's why I titled this "it's starting." Many ecosystems are pretty resilient; but push them past a certain point and they can fail catastrophically in a non-linear fashion. Mass extinctions throughout geologic history show a similar pattern. I hope that this particular die-off is an isolated event, but I very much suspect it is not. Look at what's happening to the permafrost in Siberia, for another example.

>The temp didn't move that much. And why don't these monitoring
>stations have temperature data? Or more likely, why wasn't that
>information in this press, er news release?

Cause it's deadly boring information. It's readily available on the web if you search for it.

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>what do you think would have been the effect? How much would it have helped?

If it had been implemented when first proposed, then CO2 levels would not be rising as quickly now, which would translate to a small change in the rate of rise of temperature. As time went on, that change would be magnified. In other words, it probably wouldn't have saved this reef, but it might have saved the Great Barrier Reef.

>If only the Kyoto treaty was able to control the variations in the sun
>and volcanic eruptions...

The earth can handle changes in solar output; it's been doing so for millions of years. It just can't handle our CO2 output as easily. (Volcanoes pose a similar problem; indeed, volcanic eruptions have caused mass extinctions in the past.)

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I agree, but we are sadly behind in that effort. We have consistently ignored, watered down or demonized solutions to our current problems. We are the most prosperous nation on earth, but are far from being a leader in any of the areas you list above. When someone with half the disposable income we have can do ten times more for the environment, something's wrong with our priorities.



It is the fat cats fault, the internal combustion engine is a hundred years old, new technologies have been invented and scrapped due to the oil companies making too much money with thier monopoly.

everybody wants a cleaner world, everybody wants the best for themselves and thier children. but if it effects thier income..... they're damned if they're changing thire ways!

the sad thing is the fact that the corporations hold more power than the govornments so the govornments now cannot impose costs onto the corporations that produce the CO2 because those corporations own those govornments.

we're fucked!

I put a poll on ayear or so ago asking how long people thought that civilisation, as we know it would last? most thought it would last at least anther 500 years.

at this rate?............. dreaming.


[:/]
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

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>what do you think would have been the effect? How much would it have helped?

If it had been implemented when first proposed, then CO2 levels would not be rising as quickly now, which would translate to a small change in the rate of rise of temperature. As time went on, that change would be magnified. In other words, it probably wouldn't have saved this reef, but it might have saved the Great Barrier Reef.

>If only the Kyoto treaty was able to control the variations in the sun
>and volcanic eruptions...

The earth can handle changes in solar output; it's been doing so for millions of years. It just can't handle our CO2 output as easily. (Volcanoes pose a similar problem; indeed, volcanic eruptions have caused mass extinctions in the past.)



Ya, the earth has been handling changes in solar output, with big changes in the climate of the earth!

Can anyone estimate the effect of the Kyoto agreement if it had been adopted? Just saying it would have helped has no meaning.
People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

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>Are you generalizing 'those people' into one singular entity, Bill?

Nope. No more than people who believe that climate change is a big issue are a singular entity. They often hew to specific messages, though - witness RushMC's agreement with the message I stated as his.



Well, you package them as gradually changing their message, so I'm interested if you've observed specific people doing this, or are they new sets of individuals with each change.

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>The temp didn't move that much. And why don't these monitoring
>stations have temperature data? Or more likely, why wasn't that
>information in this press, er news release?

Cause it's deadly boring information. It's readily available on the web if you search for it.



No, it's not. I want the temperature readings from these specific monitoring stations in the Virgin Islands. If one third of the stations showed bleachings and subsequent die-offs in the last year, and the cause is attributed to warming waters, it seems like an appropriate place to say 'this die off was accompanied by an average increase in temperature at depth of 1.5 degree Centigrate.'

Unless, of couse, the water temp didn't move in the last year. Then it would make you look stupid.

I'm not looking for ways to dismiss reality. I'm asking for basic science. And I know many of the other factors at work here. I put pollution at the top for these island nations. You can't dump everything out to sea and expect good things to happen.

The GBR is under siege by the crown of thorns. It's further away from pollution, but not from the overhavesting of the tritons.

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What scares me is the view that we understand the incredibly complex and dynamic system we live in and are thus able to make "changes" to it.

We know the environment is changing, but we don't know why. It may be a natural cycle and it may not.

For every expert that says one thing there are ten more that believe differently. I don't believe in tampering with a system we don't understand.

Throughout history, one thing has remained the same about science and advancement: every successive generation has believed they had all the information, better technology, and were well equipped to make an informed decision to avoid the mistakes of the past. Just like the generations before them, they are often wrong.
________________________________________

"One out of every four American's are suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you."

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Well, you package them as gradually changing their message, so I'm interested if you've observed specific people doing this, or are they new sets of individuals with each change.

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>The temp didn't move that much. And why don't these monitoring
>stations have temperature data? Or more likely, why wasn't that
>information in this press, er news release?

Cause it's deadly boring information. It's readily available on the web if you search for it.



No, it's not. I want the temperature readings from these specific monitoring stations in the Virgin Islands. If one third of the stations showed bleachings and subsequent die-offs in the last year, and the cause is attributed to warming waters, it seems like an appropriate place to say 'this die off was accompanied by an average increase in temperature at depth of 1.5 degree Centigrate.'

Unless, of couse, the water temp didn't move in the last year. Then it would make you look stupid.

I'm not looking for ways to dismiss reality. I'm asking for basic science. And I know many of the other factors at work here. I put pollution at the top for these island nations. You can't dump everything out to sea and expect good things to happen.

As I understand it this effect has not just been observed in the Caribbean. There are corals dying off at an alarming rate across the globe. Am I correct in thinking that local changes such as bleaching are unlikely to cause this effect on a global scale?

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Yep, just confirms my belief that the world isn't going to be around foreverB|. I can't wait for heaven! B|



Wow.

I need to cool off before responding to that because right now you're making my head 'splode.



I know. It's like....... yeah, um forget it.
----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

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having traveled outside this country I have seen we are much cleaner as a country than most outhers.
how can we make CHINA clean up or RUSSIA clean up.
there are areas of those 2 that are so toxic unprotected humand die from simple exposure to the air , water and soil.



In terms of visible pollution, this is true. China relies heavily on coal for power and it shows. Just showing up in some of the interior cities your eyes can burn.

CO2, otoh, is a different matter. And you can equate energy usage with heat, since nothing runs at 100% efficiency.

China was the first place I visited where the hotel rooms were only powered so long as your room key was in a slot near the door. If you weren't there, everything was off. Contrast that with here where so many lights are running 24/7, totally unnecessarily.

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As I understand it this effect has not just been observed in the Caribbean. There are corals dying off at an alarming rate across the globe. Am I correct in thinking that local changes such as bleaching are unlikely to cause this effect on a global scale?



Bleaching isn't a local effect - it's what coral does if the water temp is too high for too long a period of time. It happens more often in the South Pacific, often with the El Nino cycle.

Global warming would result in a higher normal water temp and a greater range of time where the algae can't survive. The longer the period, the less likely recovery is, and the more vunerable the reef is to anything else.

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>Mother Earth will take care if herself.

Of course. We just may not like the new Mother Earth. We rely on the old one a lot. Seems foolish to do our best to destroy it, eh?



Bill dont be so presumptuous.
Where did we get the power to destroy the Earth.
We will destroy US...the Earth will abide....and recover , maybe better.

bozo


bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

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Of course. We just may not like the new Mother Earth. We rely on the old one a lot. Seems foolish to do our best to destroy it, eh?



I think one of these days Mother Earth is going to get sick of the abuse and give humanity a very rude wake up call... [:/]
Shhh... you hear that sound? That's the sound of nobody caring!

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>Where did we get the power to destroy the Earth.

We can't destroy the planet, but we can destroy parts of the very thin film of life that covers it. A small part of the planet, but one that's quite important to us.

>We will destroy US...the Earth will abide....and recover , maybe better.

No argument there. The question is - do we really want to do that?

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I don't know anyone who disputes that global warming is not occuring -- it's the
how, why, and 'wuffo' that people argue about.

The concept of the sun being the primary cause is called "Solar Variation
Theory", which does allow that greenhouse gases are accelerating the warming
(like tossing on another blanket), but ALSO that the warming process as a whole
is beyond our control. That the Earth will eventually correct itself back to a
balance like it has so many times in the billions of years of history (cough).

I find it most humorous that scientists point to the global warming/cooling
cycles of the past, that it killed the dinosaurs due to climate change, etc blah
blah. Well, for one -- if it happened before humans came around, warming must
be a NATURAL cycle. And for another, well -- we're here, aren't we? Obviously
our primordal slime-ooze, legged-fish, or ape ancestor lived thru it all to
produce us, right? (cough)

By the way, the people who cry loudest about **humans** causing global warming
stand to gain money and power from the hysteria.

Follow the money
It's ALWAYS about the money

Here are a few links on the subject:

*******************************

Sun Is More Active Now Than Over Last 8000 Years (Max Planck Institute -- highly
prestigious)
http://www.mpg.de/english/illustrationsDocumentation/documentation/pressReleases
/2004/pressRelease20041028/index.html

Solar Activity Reaches New Heights in 20th Century
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/7/12/2

Greater Solar Activity May Bring More Gray Days
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20010712cloudcover.html

Scientists Clueless over Sun's Effect on Earth
http://www.livescience.com/environment/050930_sun_effect.html

Pinning Down the Sun-Climate Connection
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20010120/bob10.asp

Increased Solar Activity Raises Risk For Technology
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=2131

Solar Variation - Wikipedia (see charts for timings of increased solar
activity)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_activity

Increased Solar Activity And Atmospheric Optical Phenomena (written in 1915)
http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/043/mwr-043-11-0545.pdf

Study Links Solar Activity To Earth's Climate
http://www.cnn.com/NATURE/9904/13/solar.enn/

Increased Solar Activity Expanded Atmosphere & Crashed The SkyLab Station
http://library.thinkquest.org/10122/data/EHSSLIN.HTM

How Space Weather Affects Earth
http://www.magazine.noaa.gov/stories/mag93.htm
________________________________________

"One out of every four American's are suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you."

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>We will destroy US...the Earth will abide....and recover , maybe better.

No argument there. The question is - do we really want to do that?



The answer is, quite certainly, no.
If we cannot control governments...the future is certain.

bozo


bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

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>The concept of the sun being the primary cause is called "Solar
>Variation Theory", which does allow that greenhouse gases are
> accelerating the warming (like tossing on another blanket), but
> ALSO that the warming process as a whole is beyond our control.

Solar variation causes a 'radiative forcing' (i.e. imbalance in energy budget) of .3w/m^2 at worst. This is very easy to quantify; the solar panels on satellites measure this directly.

CO2 increases, at the current levels, cause a radiative forcing of ~2.4 watts per square meter, or 8 times what the solar variability does. So if CO2 is like adding a blanket, solar forcing is like adding one sock.

>That the Earth will eventually correct itself back to a
>balance like it has so many times in the billions of years of history.

Of course. One way to make that happen is to set up a condition that ends the CO2 imbalance; humans going extinct would solve that. Best hope that the earth's ecosystem is not _too_ good at correcting imbalances.

More likely we will simply kill a lot of people off, until a) there are fewer users of fossil fuels left or b) we finally figure out what they are doing to us and use something else. Again, it would be better if we figured it out before too many people die.

>Well, for one -- if it happened before humans came around, warming
> must be a NATURAL cycle.

It can be. A massive wave of vulcanism can cause a dramatic increase in CO2 and a resulting mass extinction. Again, is that really what you want to emulate? I mean, a meteor could kill us all in a massive fireball. Does that mean arson is natural, or that we shouldn't put out burning cities?

>And for another, well -- we're here, aren't we? Obviously
>our primordal slime-ooze, legged-fish, or ape ancestor lived thru it
>all to produce us, right?

Why yes! And why did we get our chance to _become_ us? Because a massive extinction about 65 million years ago killed off the previous dominant top predators. Another good reason to not have another massive extinction (unless you want us to get out of the way for the next dominant life on the planet, that is.)

>By the way, the people who cry loudest about **humans** causing
>global warming stand to gain money and power from the hysteria.

I will be most interested to hear you tell me how I will gain power and money through my belief that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are the primary driving force behind climate change. (It's a nice sound bite, but effectively meaningless.)

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Of course. One way to make that happen is to set up a condition that ends the CO2 imbalance; humans going extinct would solve that.



What if the last person alive leaves all the lights on?:S
----------------------------------------
....so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

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Ok Bill as for actuall questions...

one of the sites someone posted (at the moment I'm too lazy to go back and find which one) showed a graph of the average temp for the last 1000 years. How acurate were our thermometers back then?

Someone mentioned the other day remembering back in the 70's there was a scare over global cooling. I googled it and found a few things, why the sudden change from "GLOBAL FUCKING COOLING IS GOING TO KILL US!!!" to "GLOBAL FUCKING WARMING IS GOING TO KILL US!!!".

my favorite quote from one of the sites: "A recent Washington Post article gave this scientist's quote from 1972. "We simply cannot afford to gamble. We cannot risk inaction. The scientists who disagree are acting irresponsibly. The indications that our climate can soon change for the worse are too strong to be reasonably ignored." The warning was not about global warming (which was not happening): it was about global cooling!"
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1034077.cms

My opinion, yes global warming is occuring, as to the cause I find it a little hard to believe that humans are playing as big a part as many people are saying. But I do admit that I don't know a whole lot about the topic.

Enlighten me
----------------------------------------
....so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

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"as to the cause I find it a little hard to believe that humans are playing as big a part as many people are saying"

All we need to do is 'tip the balance', human effects may not be entirely to blame, but we are contributing. In cases like this, its the little things that can make a huge difference.
--------------------

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

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>If we saw woodland dying and rotting people would probably be more concerned.

---------------------
However, one of the largest outbreaks of insect-caused (spruce bark beetle) tree mortality in the history of North America has left most trees dead over ~3 million acres of forest land. Spruce bark beetle populations have historically been limited or kept in check by cool summers and cold winters, so rising temperatures (the most likely cause of the beetle outbreak) have not been beneficial in this case. Commercial forest value and many of the non-market values (e.g., recreational value) have been dramatically reduced over most of the region.

The sitka spruce/western hemlock rainforest of southeast Alaska is highly valued for timber, wildlife and fisheries habitat, and as the setting for rapidly expanding tourism and wilderness recreation. In southeast Alaska, the number of days with gale-force winds have more than doubled since 1950, increasing the risk of extensive tree blowdown. Warmer summer weather and extended rainless intervals have triggered outbreaks of the defoliating western black-headed budworm, and apparently have increased the number and duration of low stream flow episodes; it is these conditions that block the return of spawning salmon and generally limit municipal and industrial water supplies.
---------------------------

Most people in Alaska have little doubt that climate change is occurring - they can look out their windows and see it change. Whole towns have had to be relocated. Barrow, Alaska's days are numbered; the ice no longer protects their shores from storms, and the town is eroding away rapidly.

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>one of the sites someone posted (at the moment I'm too lazy to go
> back and find which one) showed a graph of the average temp for
> the last 1000 years. How acurate were our thermometers back then?

They didn't use thermometers. They used growth rings from trees, snow thicknesses from ice cores, underground thermal profiles, and coral growth to determine past temperatures, as well as historical observations of climate (i.e. days of snow, where grapes grew.) Accurate thermometers came into usage in about 1850.

>My opinion, yes global warming is occuring, as to the cause I find it
>a little hard to believe that humans are playing as big a part as
> many people are saying.

Well, the science that shows how CO2 increases average temperatures is well supported, and we can show easily that we are the ones driving the increase in CO2. And the increase in temperature fits those predictions. To think that we are NOT causing it, you'd have to postulate that some as-yet-undiscovered carbon sink is absorbing all the CO2 we are producing, and some other as-yet-undiscovered carbon source is putting exactly the same amount of CO2 back into the atmosphere. Which is more likely? Occam's Razor would seem to apply.

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