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To: HamiltonJay
More evaporation means sooner or later more condensation.

In general (because models vary), a trend in climate models with warmer ocean temperatures is increased coastal precipitation and decreased inner-continental precipitation.

163 posted on 05/25/2006 12:56:40 PM PDT by cogitator
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To: cogitator

Again, resources may shift, but overall availbility increases... and lets not also forget MODELS are not real life... Models are only as good as the assumptions they are based on... often Scientists find out in practice their assumptions when speculating things they have never seen before are wrong.

Deserts expand and recede, forests expand and recede, its been going on long before Humans were here, and will continue...

The "sky is falling" fearmongering is crazy.

How many humans do we have living in LA and the Southwest? Most with no naturally supplied water at all anymore? Colorado barely if ever makes it to the Pacific and the Rio Grande rarely reaches the Atlantic.. yet not a whole lot of folks dying of thirst.

And these are the "WORST CASE SCENARIOS"...

There are only 3 constants in the universe... Hydrogen, change and stupidity... The earth is going to change, always has changed and always will change... to try to fearmonger that the next conjectured change is going to be worldwide disaster is silly.

Every way I look at it, assuming we actually do get a 1-2% worldwide surface level temp change it comes out a good thing in the general sense.. more fresh water, more food, more land... yes resources may shift if this happens some, but that's always been the case.. its not some reason to be running scared screaming the sky is falling.


165 posted on 05/25/2006 1:10:06 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: cogitator
Another excerpt from realclimate.com that I think is... illuminating:

"Much of the footage in Inconvenient Truth is of Al Gore giving a slideshow on the science of global warming. Sound boring? Well, yes, a little. But it is a very good slide show, in the vein of Carl Sagan (lots of beautiful imagery, and some very slick graphics and digital animation). And it is interspersed with personal reflections from Gore that add a very nice human element. Gore in the classroom in 1968, listening to the great geochemist Roger Revelle describe the first few years of data on carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere. Gore on the family farm, talking about his father's tobacco business, and how he shut it down when his daughter (Al Gore's sister) got lung cancer. Gore on the campaign trail, and his disappointment at the Supreme Court decision. This isn't the "wooden" Gore of the 2000 campgain; he is clearly in his element here, talking about something he has cared deeply about for over 30 years. How well does the film handle the science? Admirably, I thought."

Yup, its all about the science and the environment, isn't it? </sarcasm>

174 posted on 05/25/2006 1:35:50 PM PDT by Sicon
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To: cogitator
The effects of solar irradiance on climate is just recently being investigated. We know that sun spots vary week to week and also follow an eleven year cycle. It is now accepted that sun spot activity is connected to solar output (irradiance).

The changes in solar irradiance over the long term is not known yet, because irradiance data has only been available for the last 20 years. Even the method of measuring the changes in irradiance have only recently been agreed upon. What is beginning to be understood is the huge effect of these relatively small changes in solar output on precipitation and ultimately, climate.

We do have long term historical data about sun spot activity. If the correlation with sunspots is true, then by using the historical information about sun spots, we can look at climate changes. For example, between 1945 and 1715 there is record showing low sun spot activity. During this period, there was record low temperatures on the earth. Since that mini ice age, the earth has been on a 300 year warming trend. Sun spot activity has gone through a similar increase with the peak in 1960.

Solar irradiance levels go through relatively small fluctuations. How can such small changes affect climate in such big ways? Absorption of solar energy by the tropical oceans create ocean-temperature anomalies that are transported by ocean currents over a period of time to locations where the ocean temperature can modify the North American jetstream in position and strength. Such action in turn determines precipitation patterns. This influence on the jetstream is the key to the climate change. Only recently is the jetstream being understood in its role in climate change and global warming. When it is fully understood all the influences affecting the behavior of the jetstream we may then find that the human impact is not really the culprit. So far we are finding that the primary influence on the jetstream points more and more to the natural fluctuations of the sun's output; something that man has little control.
232 posted on 05/26/2006 12:20:14 AM PDT by jonrick46
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