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P.S.: Some scapegoats for wierd weather: 1. Global Warming 2. El nino 3. La Nina 4. Sunspots 5. Volcanoes
It seems as though 99% of the strange weather over here is blamed on those (well, not so much 4 and 5). I'm beginning to think those folks who predict the weather are developing a lack of imagination
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Am I the only one worried that Monty is looking between his legs?
And am I the only one that wants to slap Daryus for being a cocky Aussie?
Here in SEPA(SouthEast Pennsylvania for all you unfamiliar with that term I just made up) we've got wonderful Smarch weather. No one looks at me funny for wearing my shorts(which gets really bad in February when people shout stuff at me) and yet... we have snow on the ground. Oy vey...
------------------ Please don't put your life in the hands of a Rock n Roll band Who'll throw it all away So I start the revolution from my bed Cos you said the brains I have went to my head -
Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
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Just saw a billboard today for The Weather Network, our weather news channel.
/ \ | | | |
TOLD YOU SO!!
Yep, that's what it said.
Speaking of the weather, I've heard reports that this winter was to be the meanest, snowiest, coldest winter in 20 years. And right now, all the snow has melted away. So much for that.
------------------ I can resist anything....... Except Temptation
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Don't put all your eggs in one theoretical basket.
When I was in high school, the finest minds in science were predicting another ice age. Global warming is based upon the greenhouse effect, and the jury's still out on whether all that extra CO2 will warm things up or spark additional algae growth in the oceans, which will remove even more CO2 from the atmosphere and create an ice age.
Global warming's the "hip" theory today, but remember we're talking about weather prediction. No scientist is ever willing to be definite about that unless his prediction can't be proven (or disproven) until after he's dead (that way, he has a 50-50 chance of becoming a posthumous "genius").
--Baloo
------------------ Carpe Canem!
[This message was edited by Baloo on March 21, 1999.]
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Actually there is a large (and growing) amount of evidence that global warming is not only possible, but is already underway. Of course, global weather is far too complicated to predict accurately, but records from the past several centuries indicate a noticeable warming trend in the past century, especially in the past few decades. Arctic ice is melting and the ocean is rising (all of these have been well documented). Average temperatures continue to rise.
As for CO2, for every algae bloom in the ocean, a few thousand hectares of forest are cut and burned. As a matter of fact, there is an observatory in Hawaii that measures global CO2 in the atmosphere, and it has been steadily rising for as long as the measurements have been taken, and are far above those before the industrial revolution. So get out there and buy those air conditioners.
------------------ "Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you." -Commander Riker, USS Enterprise
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Well, since I've done several reports on the subject, I feel I know quite a bit about it.
There was a global study a couple of years ago. There were several things that I gathered from it.
1. The Greenhouse Effect causes Global Warming, which, does not make an all over general warmer conditions. What it does is make the weather become more extreme. In an area where one would get snowstorms, those storms will get worse as time goes on. Or, in an area where its dry, it'll be dryer as the years go by.
2. Greenhouse effect is essentially correct. Greenhouse gases, CO2, water vapor, and methane, absorb heat that's been reradiated from the earth, which is then sent back down to the earth. More CO2 to heat up the earth(and oceans), the more water vapor, which heats up the earth, which creates more vapor, etc. So once it starts, it'll be tough stopping.
3. As to whether or not humans are perpetuating this "Global Warming", well, we are. but its so insignifigant, we might as well not worry about it. The amount of CO2 produced by one Volcano eruption is so huge compared to what humans put out, there's really nothing we can do. We are all still dependent on this earth, and its direction.
PS: That huge hole in the Ozone layer above Antarctica? That's natural too. Humans didn't do it, and we certainly can't fix it right away, either.
------------------ "That is the exploration that awaits you: Not mapping the stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possiblities of existence." - Q, All Good Things...
[This message was edited by Jeff Raven on March 21, 1999.]
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Hmmm..... That's interesting. I'd like to know where (and when) that study came from, Raven, because according to all the data I've seen (and I'm in environmental engineering, so I've come across it a few times) some of what you found out is, well, wrong.
Global warming does raise the overall temperature (by 0.5 C so far), and is due to human activity. People around the world pump out around 10 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere every year, while volcanoes account for CO2 emmissions of only 100 million tonnes annually. From the research I've seen, there is little doubt left that humans are indeed responsible for global warming, and that it is already underway. Ditto for the ozone hole, the link to man made CFC's has been proven rather conclusively, with high altitude measurements and so on. A nobel prize was awarded a while ago to the scientist (whose name escapes me) who discovered the reaction whereby ozone is destroyed by CFC's.
There are, of course, a few scientists who doubt global warming, but as far as I can tell they're being drowned out by a lot of the data that's being collected.
------------------ "Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you." -Commander Riker, USS Enterprise
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That humanity affects its environment cannot be doubted. That we are currently producing effects on a global level is also undoubtable. What is up for debate is the ultimate effect such alterations will have.
------------------ "I'll turn everything around and confuse you. I'll fix it so you can't remember what was true." -- They Might Be Giants
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