Global OMG Warming!
.
According to Al Gore and his movie, Inconvenient Truth, because we're in danger and he's in doubt, we should run in circles, scream and shout.
Global warming is melting everything!
Check out the one million year temperature cycles in the chart below, please. In the past 1,000,000 years or so, there have been at least seven or eight glacial periods, when things froze up. There were eight or more hot times, interglacial periods, when glaciers and snow packs melted. Right now, we're heating up from the last glacial period and, as usual, things are melting. Check it out here.
Now, here's a closeup of the last 140,000 years. Notice the two coldest times - 130,000 years ago, and 20,000 years ago. The glaciers we have left now were frozen up about 20,000 years ago. And now, it's warming up again. As usual.
Please stop telling me that Big Ride (my truck) is melting the glaciers in Alaska.
But please don't tell Al Gore. It would just confuse him.
According to Al Gore and his movie, Inconvenient Truth, because we're in danger and he's in doubt, we should run in circles, scream and shout.
Global warming is melting everything!
Check out the one million year temperature cycles in the chart below, please. In the past 1,000,000 years or so, there have been at least seven or eight glacial periods, when things froze up. There were eight or more hot times, interglacial periods, when glaciers and snow packs melted. Right now, we're heating up from the last glacial period and, as usual, things are melting. Check it out here.
Now, here's a closeup of the last 140,000 years. Notice the two coldest times - 130,000 years ago, and 20,000 years ago. The glaciers we have left now were frozen up about 20,000 years ago. And now, it's warming up again. As usual.
Please stop telling me that Big Ride (my truck) is melting the glaciers in Alaska.
But please don't tell Al Gore. It would just confuse him.
posted by Greg Finnegan @ 5:06 PM
5 Comments:
At 5:10 PM,
kenju said…
My women's intuition tells me taht Al is right - but I have nothing on which to base that opinion. You make a good case.
At 1:20 AM,
Anonymous said…
This rumination is a little too hasty. 'Warm' is relative - not 'warmer than today', by the way, but cooler. If you realise what it means to DOUBLE the levels/percent/concentration of an atmospheric gas that traps heat - CO2 - you'd realise that it's the industrial barons that are pulling the shroud over your eyes.
You face absolute disaster and won't listen to those who tell you there's an iceberg ahead. What a pity (for you and yours).
At 7:06 AM,
brendalove@gmail.com said…
YEAH GREG!!! LOL!
Actually there is an author named James Michener, dead now unfortunately, who held the opinion that global warming goes in cycles just as your charts here demonstrate. When we study the landscapes of our earth and realize that glaciers once existed where they now exist no more.....it really does kind of make sense.
I don't think the Big Rides help things out....but no, I don't believe they are ultimately totally responsible, either.
At 11:00 AM,
Greg Finnegan said…
Thanks, Brenda. As you say, understanding the science isn't difficult, it takes a little work, and it helps us to see things in perspective.
New Illuminati didn't work hard enough at it. Think for a minute about mixing watercolors. Blue and red do not make violet, but rather gray. Adjusting the red/blue ratio makes a warmer or a cooler gray. Doubling the red doesn't get one to purple. It is wise to be cautious of phrases like "DOUBLE the concentration", because that doesn't mean DOUBLING global warming, though that is what some want us to swallow.
In 2006, CO2 constitutes 0.038% of the atmosphere by volume (0.057% by weight). Most of the CO2 in the atmosphere comes from animal respiration, volcanoes, forest fires, fermentation and cellular respiration. Humans contribute by burning fossil fuels, for example. The vast majority of CO2 added to the atmosphere from all sources is absorbed by the oceans and becomes bicarbonate ion. That's been going on for eons. It's like a Cycle of Life. That, the orbital vagaries of the earth around the sun over centuries, including changes in the tilt of the axis (there's more land in the northern hemisphere, more ocean in the southern) and other factors have contributed to the glacial / interglacial cycle for millions of years.
Maybe doubling our concentration on the facts will illuminate our ruminations beyond the Mr. Wizard level of political diatribe.
Sure, we should regulate emissions of greenhouse gases and develop new technologies. I'm an engineer, and I know both will work. If we want to return the discussion to the superficial, Al Gore level, let's start by reviewing the South Park episodes on his search for Man-Bear-Pig.
At 12:27 AM,
Stew Magoo said…
There's a proven correlation to bunny farts and global warming.
That's why Brenda is trying to rid the world of bunnies.
It's true.*
I'm super serial.
Stew
* It's not true
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