Global warming reaches 'tipping point': report (Mega barf alert)

Yahoo (Reuters) ^ | Wed Mar 15, 4:38 PM ET | Deborah Zabarenko

[The_Victor]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Human-fueled global warming has reached a "tipping point," according to a new survey of scientific research that found warming would continue even if greenhouse gas emissions halted immediately.

"It would keep on warming even though we have stopped the cause, which is greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels," David Jhirad of the Washington-based World Resources Institute said on Wednesday.

The rate of warming would be slower, Jhirad said in a telephone interview, but a kind of thermal inertia would ensure that global temperatures continue their upward trend.

He referred to a report released by the nonprofit institute this week that analyzed research reports on climate change for 2005.

"Taken collectively, they suggest that the world may well have moved past a key physical tipping point," the institute wrote.

Jhirad said there were actually two tipping points. The first is that there is no doubt human activities cause global warming; a more physical tipping point is that the effects of global warming are evident now.

The report, based on research published in journals including Science and Nature, also found the effects of climate change were so severe they should spur urgent action to prevent more damage and to combat damage that has already occurred.

"We can't assume this change is so far in the future that we can afford to delay," Jhirad said.

The World Resources Institute, founded in 1982, is a nonpartisan environmental think tank that works with industry and other ecological groups around the world.

CARBON TRADING

New policies should encourage companies to make technological and commercial innovations that will cut air pollution, Jhirad said, adding U.S. companies were also clamoring for political leadership.

Jhirad said he was "underwhelmed" by U.S. political leadership on this issue. In 2001, President George W. Bush pulled the United States out of the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations' main plan to curb global warming. He denounced Kyoto as an economic straitjacket that would cost U.S. jobs and said it wrongly excluded developing nations.

The Kyoto agreement obliges some 40 industrial nations to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012.

Jhirad said the United States should adopt a system of carbon trading, like one in place in much of Europe, where companies that emit few greenhouse gases get credits that can be traded with companies that emit a lot.

"The market has expanded tremendously in terms of the volume of trading and the value of the carbon credits," he said. "That's what we would like to see (in the United States): a market-friendly approach that would set incentives for technological innovation, which is going to be needed."

Also on Wednesday, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Civil Society Institute released a survey that found 83 percent of Americans wanted more leadership from the federal government to reduce the pollution linked to global warming.

The survey contacted 1,029 adults in the United States from February 23 through 26 and had an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"The survey contacted 1,029 Moonbat EnviroWackos in the United States..."

There. All fixed. :)

[Puppage]

LOL!!!

[Cold Heat]

Wait till the global cooling starts!

Then we will really die.........:-)

[FlingWingFlyer]

This is excellent news. In other words, anything we do would be "too little, too late" so we no longer have to worry about "global warming." Now if we can get the enviroloonies and their toadies in the MSM to stop whining about it all the time.

[Big Digger]

If David Gergen is involved it has to be a fraud.

[Mike Darancette]

In 2001, President George W. Bush pulled the United States out of the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations' main plan to curb global warming.

Why did George Bush pull out of the Kyoto Protocols?

[tx_eggman]

Human-fueled global warming has reached a "tipping point," according to a new survey of scientific research that found warming would continue even if greenhouse gas emissions halted immediately.

Good, then can you just STFU about it now ... we're all doomed anyway.

[The_Victor]

Why did George Bush pull out of the Kyoto Protocols?

Because the Senate (during the Clintoon admin.) refused to ratify the treaty. Attempting to enforce it would have been illegal.

[capt. norm]

The carbon dioxide is only a bit player among the greenhouse gases.

The main greenhouse gas, by a very wide margin is water vapor. It has a high capacity to hold heat, and carbon dioxide's effects are minuscule by comparison.

But the computer models are not able to deal with atmospheric moisture and they can't blame it on industry, so carbon dioxide had to be made the "bad guy" even though green plants desperately need it for photosynthesis.

[DoughtyOne]

Hysteria at Time High

"Meds in short supply..."

[Mike Darancette]

Attempting to enforce it would have been illegal.

Isn't spying on Americans talking to each other and selling 21 ports to the Arabs illegal?

[The_Victor]

Isn't spying on Americans talking to each other and selling 21 ports to the Arabs illegal?

They might be, but since neither of those things is occuring then there's no problem. Lisenting in on Al-Queda (our enemy) communications is legal in a time of war regardless of where that are located, and no ports have been sold.

[pawdoggie]

I think it's about time to deep six the term "tipping point". In the first place, "tipping point" has been so grossly over-used as to fully qualify for the adjective "trite". Secondly, if history teaches us anything, it is that rarely, if ever, can one cite a single cause: process, event or condition that "tipped" or altered human history or the earth's climate and geology. In fact, later in the article we find this gem: Jhirad said there were actually two tipping points. The first is that there is no doubt human activities cause global warming; a more physical tipping point is that the effects of global warming are evident now. Kind of defies the whole concept of a "tipping point", as we have be led to understand it by the MSM.

[Mike Darancette]

but since neither of those things is occuring then there's no problem

I've heard people on this board swear that those very things were happening and provide support from article and broadcast transcripts. Were they wrong to believe what was printed? Why weren't they more discerning as to what they believed?

[The_Victor]

I think it's about time to deep six the term "tipping point".

The left hasn't gotten nearly enough mileage out of the cliche'. I would expect another six months or more of "tipping point" end-of-the-world articles before they realize that nobody is paying attention.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"Global warming reaches 'tipping point': report (Mega barf alert)"

Like the melting ice cap saga, I am still confused. If we stop global warming, won't that create global cooling and we still will die?

[finnman69]

We have been in a warming period for 16,000 years

GLOBAL WARMING PRIMER
http://www.clearlight.com/~mhieb/WVFossils/ice_ages.html
http://vathena.arc.nasa.gov/curric/land/global/climchng.html

These two figures show former temperatures with major periods of glaciation labeled. The dashed lines are the present global average temperature of about 15° C (59° F). Thus the solid curves show small changes from this average; note that the temperature drops only about 5° C during a glaciation. This has occurred about every 100,000 years, with smaller wiggles in between. That is, there has been a 100,000 year glaciation cycle for the past million years or so, and there may be shorter cycles as well.

The most recent glaciation, 20,000 years ago, is called the Laurentide, and Earth is still recovering from it. This map from the The Illinois State Museum exhibit on ice ages shows the extent of that ice.

The most recent small drop in average temperature caused the Little Ice Age of 1500-1700 AD, which history describes. Mountain glaciers advanced in Europe and rivers like the Thames in England froze solid, which doesn't happen now.

[The_Victor]

Why weren't they more discerning as to what they believed?

I haven't the foggiest idea why some people are gullible enough to believe the MSM lies. You're asking the wrong person.

[rock58seg]

In a nut shell. Man has allowed the sun to keep shining...ipso et ergo demonstratum nutso facto...Man's fault.

[plain talk]

cool chart bump