global warning part 1 (about climate change)

black white gray

So.

 

While this is about climate change this is more about showcasing a case study for what happens when influencers are not aligned … but are instead a discombobulated mess of experts spouting random expertology.

 

 

This suggest that this post isn’t about explaining Global Warming, this is more about Global Warning.

 

The warning?

 

We, everyone, experts and everyday people need to start talking about the right things.

 

 

Personally.

 

 

I don’t care if global warming is a function of nature (like an ice age).

 

I don’t care if global warming is a function of the fact we now have too many people and industry occupying the space we have (and I am fairly sure eliminating population is not an option).

 

 

I don’t care if global warming is actually a function of the sun gaining 25% more strength over the past 1000 years (rounding).

 

 

I don’t care if global warming is actually water warming (which it is).

 

I don’t care that in the last decade the earth has actually cooled (according to data), however because in the mid-1970s there was such a big uproar about global cooling that in the ensuing 30 years we switched to global warming (which seems very odd to me).

 

 

It really doesn’t matter.

 

But.

 

The Influencers (all those experts jabbering away) words do matter.

 

blah_Daniel_Pagan_1

Unfortunately it seems all the things I listed above really matter to all the ‘experts’ and they keep jabbering away about all of it.

 

 

There was a great editorial from Stewart brand in the NY Times where he points out that while it may seem the debate among the “experts” is between alarmists and skeptics there are actually four groups involved:

–          Denialists: view is this is a conspiracy to panic the public

–          Skeptics: like to examine contradictions in climate data and models

–          Warners: climatologists who look at trends and point finger at the human factor

–          Calamatists: they quote Warners … but in apocalyptic terms

Interesting stuff.

 

 

The whole climate thing seems complex. It is the Super Bowl <cage match ??> of denial versus skepticism versus calamity harbingers versus scientific pontificators.

 

<oops … super bowl …  that’s four teams and only two can take the football field  … maybe one can be the ball and can get kicked around>

globalwarmingmap

 

 

 

Ok.

 

Anyway.

 

Listen up experts.

 

 

It’s not as complex as you are making it sound.

 

And all your nonsensical debating is bamboozling us into ignoring the issue.

 

 

Oh.

 

And even worse.

 

 

All this constant expert finger pointing and bamboozling and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious reasoning is confusing the people that matter <uhm … that would be us … the people who can actually do something>.

 

 

So.

 

Experts please …

 

 

Accept the fact the globe is facing a climate change – natural or manmade. Doesn’t matter.

 

reality i accept

Accept the fact glaciers are melting (for whatever reason).

 

 

Accept the fact that there are a boatload more people now than whatever ice age or heat crisis the globe has faced before (so sheer numbers of people could be affecting what’s happening).

 

 

Accept the facts that even if we are not creating the climate change people’s actions contribute to the climate change.

(shit. I am a skeptic on all the climate studies and I believe this.)

 

 

Hence (I just wanted to use that word).

What really matters is we actually step up and do something.

 

 

This includes Industry and individuals.

(I leave experts out because all I really believe they need to do is shut up)

 

 

But.

 

People are confused about this whole climate change topic.

 

A recent Rasmussen poll suggests that an alarming number of Americans believe scientists have falsified their data to sell global warming to the public. Add this to some embarrassing comments made in the e-mails stolen from the Climatic Research Unit at East Anglia University in England and the ‘experts’ are just not having a good game.

 

 

I admit.

 

Even as a skeptic I am a little unclear why there is so much confusion about whether the planet is warming.

 

 

Oh.

 

That’s right. We (the experts) believe a big part of the problem centers on the use of earth surface temperature data as a direct measure of warming.

 

Huh?

 

So.

Where do you stick the thermometer? What matters most? The daytime highs, nighttime lows, summer or winter temperatures, etc?

 

 

Trying to determine whether the planet is warming this way seems like a discussion better had in high school freshman science class, heck, you may have a smarter point of view.

 

(maybe we stick a thermometer where the sun don’t shine so to speak)

 

 

Anyway.

 

Let’s call this “Observational Evidence.” No stinkin’ climatologists or scientists or politicians. In this case we may be seeking photographers (who don’t use photoshop).

 

 

One doesn’t need to measure thousands of temperatures to find conclusive evidence simply by observing that things are warming up.

 

Ok.

 

I am not a scientist (got kicked out of that club years ago) but in terms of ‘cause and affect’ in my pea like brain there appears to be fairly clear evidence if the experts would get out of the way and keep it simple:

Glaciers melting/disappearing

global_warning_iceberg

  1. Studies from both hemispheres indicate that 95% of the world’s alpine glaciers, excluding Antarctica, are retreating. Glacier National Park in Montana is down to 26 named glaciers from 150 in 1850 ( I just included this little statistic because I wanted to highlight “named” glaciers .. versus the hundreds of anonymous glaciers out there seeking a PR agency for their ten minutes of fame).  Assuming this trend continues, the park is expected to be ice-free by 2020.
  2. Glaciers in the Himalayas are shrinking so rapidly that the summer flow of the major rivers (Indus, Ganges, Mekong, Yellow, Yangtze) is expected to be affected.
  3. Permafrost regions are thawing in high northern latitudes, causing buildings to sink and roads to crumble. Melting permafrost is the reason Arctic shorelines are retreating, forcing the relocation of Inupiat Eskimo villages along the shore.
  4. The great ice sheets are all retreating. The Greenland ice sheet melting began to accelerate in the 1990s, and the margin of the entire ice mass is melting even in its northernmost reaches.
  5. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet has begun extensive melting, mostly since 2000. More recently, the first indication that the larger East Antarctic Ice Sheet was melting and contributing to the sea level rise was reported last month in Nature Geoscience.

Sea level rising

 

The rate of rise in sea level has sped up over the past century. A tide gauge on a pier in Duck, N.C., says the sea level is rising at 1.5 feet a century.

So.

 

One can argue for hours whether this year was warmer or colder than last.

WTF.

 

 

I don’t need science and pundits rambling on and debating nano details.

 

Just read the earth.

 

I don’t really care why because it is happening.

 

 

The earth is clearly warming, and sea level is clearly rising.

 

In order to convince a skeptical public that global change is real, scientists and funding agencies DO NOT need to invest more in field measurements and monitoring rather than computer modeled predictions.

 

 

And as for the skeptics (me included), it’s time to get off the atmospheric temperature mumbo jumbo and read the earth.

 

 

Is it also possible to begin believing that science clearly indicates that humans are playing a new and critical role in driving global environment shifts (shit, don’t call it warming .. simply agree we impact the environment which has a larger affect).

 

But even if you don’t see the scientific numbers wouldn’t
common sense kinda suggest that there are a lot of people living around the world (and more are coming) and that we impact the environment? (sorry. sometimes common sense isn’t common)

 

 

We cannot allow lack of clarity in the exact degree that humans are causing global warming to be used as an excuse to ignore the monumental changes that rising sea level and changing climate will bring to the planet and societies/communities.

 

 

So.

 

Back to why I wrote this in the first place (because I don’t want a bunch of people emailing me haggling over some specific things I wrote).

confusion

 

Here is the problem (created by all the haggling and bamboozling).

 

 

When Influencers cannot agree the people get confused.

 

 

And confused people  … well  … end up not doing anything. (or start paying attention to other things).

What I mean:

 

 

–          Among 21 social and economic issues, global warming ranks last as a top priority to Americans, who view it as increasingly less urgent, according to a survey released Monday by the Pew Research Center for People & the Press.

 

 

–          Just 28% of the adults surveyed consider “dealing with global warming” a top priority, down from 38% three years ago.

 

 

–          “Protecting the environment” fared somewhat better, ranking 16th among issues.  Some 44% say it should be a top priority (but even that was down from 57% in 2007).

 

 

So.

 

While all the experts have been engaged in their own cage match the rest of the world has moved on with disinterest (or maybe lack of activity due to unclear direction on what to do).

 

 

Finishing up.

 

Ok.

 

I just wrote something in USA Today because I finally got fed up with all the ignorant people writing in every time there is a big snowstorm about “so, where are all the global warming people now!”

I have kept my mouth shut for a very long time reading all the global warming “quips” every time it snows but I had it. What I said (approximately):

 

First.

I am a skeptic. The data is confusing, the experts are confusing, and the issues are confusing.


Second.

It’s too bad the entire issue got stuck with global warming. Its water warming. (see glaciers melting as proof – ignore climate data)


Third (and most important to what I keep reading about the snow).

Global warming is not about every place becoming warmer it is about changing weather patterns. Larger swings in weather activity (colder and warmer). It is foolish to link the phrase ‘warming’ to “more snow today.” it is quite possible your weather pattern translates into a stronger drought somewhere in Africa or torrential downpours in South America or whatever.

Anyway.

We need to get over the words “global warming” and move on to trying to help resolve the issue in whatever little way you can.

So.

If I could … I would send every one of these comment emails on USA Today every single day to the experts.

The experts are confusing people.confuxed

 

And confused people do nothing.

 

We shouldn’t be confused.

 

 

The global environment is changing and if 6,800,000,000 people (uh. That’s world population not counting the unregistered unemployed but counting babies) decided to start doing one or two little things that would make a pretty darn big difference.

 

 

That’s my global warning rant.

 

OK. At least part 1.

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Written by Bruce